However I feel like forward looking legislators could have passed gradual increases on future generations. If we know life expectancy is gradually going upwards, why not increase the retirement age incrementally based on cohort?
‘We’ actually did exactly that, over a 20 year period that just finished in 2020, under a law passed in 1983. (‘We’ also phased in increased incentive for delayed retirement past the nominal “full retirement age” at the same time, so that the actual maximum retirement age of 70 has substantially higher benefits—+24%-+32% depending on birth year—than the nominal “full retirement age” .)
Although I guess I should amend my lamentation to say that 'we' did but it wasn't nearly enough and it took them way too long to start.
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/32/Alterspy...
The bulk of people are at an age now, that they'll retire soon or are retiring. Even though we already import tons of young people (look at the amount of young males vs females - 50% of young people here have a migration background), I can't imagine we can import enough young laborers from other countries, and Germans don't reproduce nearly enough - which is understandable considering how things are going.
Also I do wonder if life expectancy increases are translating directly into the possibility of more "productive years". I wouldn't be surprised if some of the life expectancy increase is due to medical procedures that extend life at the expense of quality of life. People in these situations wouldn't be working anyway.