to your next life, if they had their way.

I've been aware of this issue for a long time and done various online searches. There have been numerous studies about "quality of life" for older folks but couldn't find anything about health and mental status that would relate to job performance.

Of course, it does depend in part on the nature of work. It is my observation that those who've held jobs involving physical labor are the least able to continue working.

You learn a lot about occupations as an employment specialist. There is an entire field about work and labor analysis and compensation. Since Reagan all the methodologies have been scrapped and we have NO national labor policy anymore.

There used to be a Dictionary Of Occupational Titles that was scrapped. It was a job classification system that worked for over 40 years. It was used to help define training and compensation for every job in the economy. Now it is anarchy.

Careers in the Industrial and Service fields which are over 90% of the jobs in any economy are short lived by most standards. By 50 or 55 in most fields you are finished physically. In some cases it is shorter than that. Professional fields are less than 10% of the work force.

The general public does not understand that everyone will come to the time they cannot work even in professional fields. I worked in workman's compensation for 5 months and you would be surprised how many job injuries there are.

To be honest in some construction trades you cannot make it past 45. Firemen and policemen should be off the job by 55 for sure in most cases.

Finally, from where I sit the GOP has totally screwed up the entire job market and it may be now totally unrepairable.