Do They Know Any Older People?

[phantom power]

I'm in my early 40s, and I know I can't sustain the kind of endless-16-hour-day lifestyle I used to live more or less constantly when I was in my early 20s. For now, my experience makes up for that, but you don't have to be a fucking genius to see where this trend leads. As Atrios says, just talk to some older people. Back in the Boomin' 90s(tm), there was quite a trend toward 'early retirement', which was partly driven by people getting rich on stock options and other equities, but also there's a reason people start to want to retire in their 50s. You don't have as much energy.

All this "make people work until they're 70" stuff is just weird to me. I think Ezekiel's "make higher income people retire later!!!" program is designed in part to address concerns that people working jobs that require any degree of manual labor get a bit harder once you get older. But some of those jobs are actually pretty lucrative, they just are impossible to do once they knees start going. So you have a good run until you're 60 and then you're out of luck. But, well, hey, only 10 more years until the bennies kick in...


Even leaving the manual labor issue out of it, in my experience lots of people, even ones with cushy desk jobs requiring little more than cranking out screeds about Burkean humility or bipartisanship twice a week, start to fade after a certain age. I don't mean they all become physical wrecks or exhibit severe dementia, but add together a bit of hearing loss, eyesight loss, joint problems, diminishing stamina, etc... and lots of people just aren't quite up to putting in a full day of work. Not without a good nap, anyway.

More than that, your odds of having a nontrivial - even if cured - extended illness which pulls you out of the workforce are reasonably high by that age. Jobs prospects for such people aren't exactly great even in a good economy.

67 - the age of retirement which is being phased in and will be operative once I get there - is already really old. You have to be insane or a sociopath to want to raise it even higher.

http://www.eschatonblog.com/2012/05/do-they-know-any-older-people.html

[elleng]

1. I don't appreciate being called 'really old.'

I'm 67, and retired semi-voluntarily a few years ago. I'd be happy to still be working.
My Dad just passed on, at 98. THAT's old.

[enough]

6. I agree about the 'really old' label, elleng, but I think the OP has a point.

My husband and I are 68, very happy to still be working, self-employed, running our own office, setting our own schedules, etc. Still, we notice a difference in our energy level from earlier decades. I think if we were working for somebody else, doing work that wasn't especially interesting, it would be very hard to keep going at a full-time productive level.

It's very lucky people who are still able and happy to be working full time in their late 60's.

[dana_b]

8. you're not

that blog is ignorant of the capabilities of many older (NOT "really old&quot workers. Evidently they think that once someone hits retirement age they become deaf, blind and ready for the nursing home.

[sinkingfeeling]

2. I'm 64 and get up every morning at 5AM. I'm at work at 7AM.

I'm fortunate enough to be fine with working outside my home 40 hours a week. I see no reason to stop since I enjoy my work.

[southernyankeebelle]

3. They need to leave the age alone. My health isn't the best and I finally retired early 62. I know

people in their late 70s and in their 80s working at WalMart because they have to not because they want to. They aren't just greeters either. I know some who work in the deli, in the paint area and registers. Many of those people are tired but they have to work. This isn't the america I was hoping the elderly had to retire to. Some work because they have to pay for medicines or a to provide extra health insurance on top of medicare. Some work to help others in their family or some work because their spouse die and are lonely. This country is doing well for the rich. The middle class and working poor need the help.

[gratuitous]

5. That's it

There is a BIG difference between working because you want to and working because you have to. And having to compete for a job when you're over 65? Yeah, there's a hot commodity that employers are totally looking for! Especially someone trying to hold it together in the face of declining health and diminished capacity, desperate to maintain an income, any income, to avoid being on the streets.

[southernyankeebelle]

7. And this is what america has come to. So sad. I bet the generations before us would be

disappointed in congress today.

[shraby]

4. Not only the problems you mention, but the bowels tend to demand one can get to a bathroom

post haste. When working at a job where it's just not possible to do because of distance, clothing, etc., a person is always in trouble if they have to go.

There are a myriad of reasons that 60-65 is the proper age to retire, and should not be messed with. Most of our body is made to live to around the mid 40s to mid 50s...evolution hasn't made the body to hold up good after that even though we are living longer.

We outlast our teeth, our minds, our knees, our hips and other parts vital to our comfort.

[RebelOne]

9. I was working full time until I was 71.

I was laid off in 2010. I would still be working now, but know that there is no chance in hell of finding another job at my age unless I want to be a WalMart greeter. So I just decided to retire.