Longer lives, bigger deficits?

Some experts are predicting life spans dramatically higher than those projected by Social Security. If people do live longer, how will that affect Social Security's finances? Check it out over at the Enterprise blog.

One factoid I probably should have included in my post: SSA's projections for life expectancy in 2050 are lower than those for Japan today. I'm not saying we'll necessarily exceed expectations, but if any area of the Trustees projections seems pessimistic this could be it.

That said, this shouldn't have any effect on the personal accounts debate (or what's left of it). Increased life spans affect personal accounts in exactly the same they affect the traditional DB program. The real issue here is how large the problem could get if we don't start working on it early.