SS was set up with rules based on actuarial tables, used by all insurance companies.
The rules for 65 as the start of collection were because the actuarial tables at the time showed that only about 25% of the population would reach that age. And since white women live the longest, black men were paying for a benefit it was unlikely they would ever receive.
SS did not originally have survivor benefits and disability either, those were added by FDR in the years after SS originally passed.
Unlike either term or whole life insurance, SS pays nothing if you die before your time for payments to start. With term, you would get paid, with whole life, there would be other investment benefits involved, like the ability to borrow against a certain amount of the policy while still alive.
SS was set up with rules based on actuarial tables, used by all insurance companies.
The rules for 65 as the start of collection were because the actuarial tables at the time showed that only about 25% of the population would reach that age. And since white women live the longest, black men were paying for a benefit it was unlikely they would ever receive.
SS did not originally have survivor benefits and disability either, those were added by FDR in the years after SS originally passed.
Unlike either term or whole life insurance, SS pays nothing if you die before your time for payments to start. With term, you would get paid, with whole life, there would be other investment benefits involved, like the ability to borrow against a certain amount of the policy while still alive.