Reply #7: We're going to need a new employment model [View All]

Our life expectency is going up. We are about at an inversion point where retiring at 65 will mean that we spend almost as much time "retired" as we did working. Conversely, as you suggest, although we'll be in a lot better shape in our 60's, anyone who qualifies as "manual labor" and that actually includes any job requiring physical "skill" from surgery an nursing to delivering beer kegs, will be having a hard time continuing to work into their 60s. Pilots right now "age out" in their early to mid '60s.

We're going to need an employment model (and that means there have to be actual JOBS to be had) where we don't "retire" in the classic sense at 60 or 65. We'll shift into secondary employment that doesn't require 40 hours a week, nor the full pay we have. We'll begin to access retirement funds (pensions, 401K's, etc) and also be drawing a salary that is roughly "beer money", i.e. around subsistence level income. Of course, this should be for about 15 - 20 hours of work a week. That level of employment then will take us into our 70's, when we'll begin to fully retire.

Benefits will have to be worked out for this level of activity, single payer would solve alot of this. But we can't expect people to continue to have to produce well into their 70s just to keep living. Conversely, we can't expect that we can work for 30 years, and be retired for 40.