The End of Retirement

People with privileged jobs are always writing crap like this. Why shouldn't people retire?<p>Journalists, programmers, scientists, executives...we have jobs that can be interesting and fulfilling and are not physically demanding. There's no reason to stop unless you want to.<p>News flash: not everyone has an interesting job that they want to keep doing until they drop dead. A lot of people work manual labor, or mind-numbing service jobs. 45 years of that and you'd be ready to retire too.<p>In the Western world at least, our societies are rich enough to support this. I think we should. And almost everyone agrees with me. Check the polls on raising the retirement age.

If you are an industrious person you'll get bored an wind up working on another project anyway. better to save money so that you can take mini-retirements in between major career/project shifts. either that or plan on retiring in a country with a cheap standard of living.

My uncle worked for Walmart for many years in his 80s. He credits being on his feet for helping keep his diabetes at bay.<p>Personally, I don't ever expect to "retire". I have a list of projects that is quite long.

i have to admit - i don't think i would ever want to retire if i could help it. it would be much too boring, i feel. even if it means being a part-time cashier somewhere, as long as i'm able.

Everybody saying they're going to work forever must be planning to start their own companies. Today, and I imagine tomorrow, it's rather more difficult to get work when you're past 30-35-40. $GOD forbid if you have a spouse, kids or an outside interest, as you're expensive and tend to work fewer hours. I'm a little past 50 and in my second country chasing work...

Bah, you all think too small. Robot Labor and Fabricators my friends! They will revolutionize labor and commerce!<p>Retirement will vanish as work BECOMES leisure!<p>I mean, heck, if we're talking about living until 100 anyway, we ought to think about the technologies of 50 years in the future.

Misleading. The life expectancy numbers cited by OP are grossly skewed because of one critical issue: infant mortality. Sure, people are living longer, but not <i>that much</i> longer.

Estimated receipts for fiscal year 2007 were $2.4 trillion.<p><pre><code> * $1.1 trillion - Individual income tax * $884.1 billion - Social Security and other payroll taxes * $260.6 billion - Corporate income tax * $74.6 billion - Excise taxes * $28.1 billion - Customs duties * $23.7 billion - Estate and gift taxes * $48.4 billion - Other </code></pre> The IRS estimated that there were about $345 billion in uncollected taxes.<p>TOTAL SPENDING<p>The President's budget for 2007 totals $2.8 trillion. Percentages in parentheses indicate percentage change compared to 2006. This budget request is broken down by the following expenditures:<p><pre><code> * $699.0 billion (+4.0%) - Defense * $586.1 billion (+7.0%) - Social Security * $394.5 billion (+12.4%) - Medicare * $367.0 billion (+2.0%) - Unemployment and welfare * $276.4 billion (+2.9%) - Medicaid and other health related * $243.7 billion (+13.4%) - Interest on debt * $89.9 billion (+1.3%) - Education and training * $76.9 billion (+8.1%) - Transportation * $72.6 billion (+5.8%) - Veterans' benefits * $43.5 billion (+9.2%) - Administration of justice * $33.1 billion (+5.7%) - Natural resources and environment * $32.5 billion (+15.4%) - Foreign affairs * $27.0 billion (+3.7%) - Agriculture * $26.8 billion (+28.7%) - Community and regional development * $25.0 billion (+4.0%) - Science and technology * $23.5 billion (+0.0%) - Energy * $20.1 billion (+11.4%) - General government</code></pre>

The article works from the assumption that government funding defines retirement. This seems silly to me. Even if governments stopped paying old people entirely (unlikely), many would still retire. You're supposed to save for it. I'm certainly not planning to depend on a pension or government handout; they'd be nice if I could depend on them to exist, but why would I want to allow others to control the timing of my retirement or my livelihood?<p>The article also seems to draw the silly conlusion that since people are living longer and having fewer children, retirement will disappear entirely. Really? That might change the cost. Fewer folks might do it, or folks in general might have to do it later in life, but in a world as wealthy as this one, I doubt anything short of Armageddon could eliminate the practice entirely.

Will life expectancy keep on increasing as it is now, I dont think so, because the life expectancy now is dependant on the people who were born a generation before, but considering this generation is getting fatter and fatter, maybe the life expectancy will drop in the future, maybe !

when i get old i just hope my mind stays sharp and i meet the (low) physical requirements for typing at a computer, or am able to learn those new-fangled mind-typers.