Mar 26, 2008
ANDREW L. YARROW: Is early retirement selfish?
Andrew L. Yarrow has to bite his tongue when he hears able-bodied baby boomers talking about plans for endless relaxation.
Retiring when you’re still in good health isn’t just wrong, it’s “profoundly selfish and unpatriotic,” according to Andrew L. Yarrow in the March 26 edition of The Baltimore Sun.
He writes, “Dropping out of the workforce while still in one’s prime means ending one’s contributions to America’s strength, mortgaging our children’s and grandchildren’s future, and leeching trillions of taxpayer dollars from the economy.”
Yarrow points out that “seasoned citizens” could serve communities by filling the need for teachers, social service workers and public servants, an idea popularized by Marc Freedman of Civic Ventures, to whom he also gives a nod. (Encore.org is affiliated with Civic Ventures.)
If millions of Americans worked until age 67 instead of 62, he notes, they would provide about $800 billion in additional tax revenues, which would reduce government benefit costs by at least $100 billion in 2045 and cut the projected deficit by 159 percent. These workers would increase national output and personal wealth and keep the labor force at a healthy level.
Yarrow also voices support for legislation proposed by Senator Herb Kohl (D-Wisconsin) that would reduce lost public and private benefits for those who work until age 72, and a plan by Representative Rahm Emanuel (D-Illinois) that would create tax-deferred accounts with employer matches that would help middle-aged workers fund retraining and education.
Andrew L. Yarrow is the Washington director and vice president of Public Agenda and a professor of U.S. history at American University. He is the author of the forthcoming book, Forgive Us Our Debts.
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Excluded citizen going abroad
I have spent my first career (32 plus years) as a public servant to the people of the fifty United States, living in Washington, DC. As a result, I have been excluded for 32 plus years from voting and representation as a native citizen of this country, solely because I chose to live in Washington DC, which has no representation in either the US House or the US Senate (in spite of the fact that it has a larger population than Wyoming). Repeated pleas to change this situation have fallen on deaf ears for over thirty years, in fact for over two centuries (since 1801).
For my encore career(s), I think I’ll take my pension, my investments, and my other skills, wealth and resources abroad where they will be useful and appreciated.
Selfish Retirees
I saw a short article on Professor Yarrow’s notions about early retirement in a section of the Virginian-Pilot called "Punditry." Perhaps it would be more appropriate under a section titled "Ideology," or "Biased Opinions," or "Mean-Spirited Commentary, or perhaps simply "Asinine Points of View." It’s been a long time since I’ve been that offended by statements in the newspaper. I felt insulted, needless to say; but he also insulted at least the two generations before me and the one after me. I am 64, retired, and do not think of myself as selfish or unpatriotic. I worked, studied, or served my country for 45 years. No one gave me anything. I did not originally intend to retire early, but the attitude of mangers in their 30’s and the organizational atmosphere I worked in drove me out. Yes, the morale of "older" workers was very low, and age discrimination was, and is, alive and well in this country. My mental and physical health was being compromised. My physician agreed at the time. Presently, there only three of us left in my branch of the family. Besides me, my mother is 88 and declining, and my son is 41 and on disability with a very serious medical condition. If not for Social Security and Medicare I think it is probable that neither one of them would still be living. But perhaps Professor Yarrow would prefer to label them selfish and unpatriotic for getting ill or living too long. He is also forgetting that even retirees contribute to the nation by putting their incomes back into the economy. And, yes, we still have to pay taxes. By the way, there are no lavish vacations or resorts on my income, no lavish lifestyle for me. I have nothing to prove and nothing to be ashamed of. I have made my contribution; and perhaps, if shown some respect, I might still again.
Selfish and unpatriotic? B.S.
In all of my 56+ years I have been called many things, but unpatriotic is the worst one yet.
And to think I am being labeled as such not for acts of treason, not for desecrating the flag, or refusing to recite the Pledge of Allegiance (with “Under God” included). Not for disrespecting the President or other government official, or for not paying my taxes. No, I am being labeled “profoundly selfish and unpatriotic” for daring to be able to retire at the age of 55! Never mind that just a few short months after my retirement date my company decided to close down and move operations to Mexico (now that is what I call selfish and unpatriotic!) making my early out a moot point.
My feeling is that those of us who retire “early” (and I do not think of 62 or 65 as “early”) are freeing up jobs that could be filled by younger workers. Workers who need the jobs to provide for young families instead of being on some type of government assistance, which will in turn help with that nasty national debt the columnist wants us older workers to take care of.
I put in nearly 35 years at my last job and I have been working at one job or another since I was old enough to pick up props in my parent’s peach orchard. I don’t feel I need to apologize for being financially able to retire at age 55. And I take extreme offense at being labeled “unpatriotic” for it.
Early Retirement Selfish
Alan Greenspan also advocates that people stay in the workforce longer. So does my wife whose job was outsourced and would like to return to the workforce as soon as possible. Part of what the ivory tower crowd does not seem to understand is that for the average person staying in the workforce in your chosen profession or vocation is not always an option.
Some times the reason is physical as in the blue collar guys who can’t push their bodies forever. Most welders can’t see well enough to weld when they get in that 50 to 60 year range. Air conditioning technicians can’t crawl around on rafters in the attic easily or safely once they hit their fifties. Auto mechanic’s backs won’t tolerate leaning over a fender for eight to ten hours in the later years. That job that the guidance counselor talked about in glowing terms loses it shine as the realities of aging set in during the later years.
Sometimes it is just part of the quest for higher corporate profits. The tempary advantage the first outsourcer acquires over its competitors is lost when the herd follows his lead. But the jobs are gone permanently. In today’s world we now outsource engineering jobs, legal jobs and information technology jobs overseas. These folks may well want to stay in the workforce but the jobs are gone. They can’t all get teaching jobs in a university.
My wife’s job search is impacted by that subtle age discrimination that legally isn’t supposed to occur. She had one great interview going until a gentleman at the next interview level wanted to know when she intended to retire. That job disappeared in a flash. Barring outsourcing, corporate bankruptcy, downsizing, etc., she probably would have been there for at least eight to twelve years and given them their money’s worth every day. She would have undoubtedly been there longer than any hiree of our children’s age who seem to change jobs every few years. If it is important to our society to keep people in the workforce longer, then we as a society are going to have to find a way to end the bias against older people in the hiring process.
If, as a society, we are going to sanction corporate up or out policies we should not be surprised at the number of folks out there that plan to bail out of the rat race at the first opportunity. Mr. Yarrow seems to be out of touch with the realities of the world that most people live in today. I understand how that can happen. Once you have tenure at a university you don’t have the same concerns as most of the population.
Rather than focusing on why people should stay in the workforce longer maybe he should expend some effort in finding out why people are abandoning the workplace and why they look forward to that abandonment even when it may mean a substantial decline in their standard of living. That endeavor might do more good than just providing a vehicle for stimulating discussion.
Is early retirement selfish? Look at the workplace first -
Steve, you are absolutely right when you say that this Yarrow guy is going about this in the wrong manner. If he took your suggestion and expended the effort to find out why people are abandoning the workplace, he might be shocked to find out how bad working conditions have gotten in this country.
Just as I was when I read some articles concerning workplace bullying two weeks ago. The message boards for both of these articles had hundreds of responses, of which 95% were from people who had been in horrendous situations and 5% were obviously from trolls wanting to start peeing contests (like everyplace else on the Internet). I have been bullied at the workplace myself, so I felt for everyone who was dealing with it. Especially one poor guy who worked in a law firm, and was also in the Army Reserves. Working conditions at that law firm were so bad that he actually volunteered to go to Iraq! That firm had to be horrible if he was willing to go to a war zone to get away from it.
And people wonder why so many of us would like to retire early?
The Workplace
I really … really agree! I left my last job over five years ago. I was the Information Systems Director for a city-county consortium. The turnover rate was 56% !! I didn’t know that before I accepted the job. There was a lot of bullying by the second in charge ( a political insider, impossible to get rid of). Six of us directors left over a short period of time, 90 days. The marketing director was being forced to travel with the exec director, who was pushing for sexual favors. Another was being harrased because she injured her leg while jogging, and had to be in a wheel chair for awhile. The HR director’s position was eliminated because she wouldn’t ignore the abuses. There’s more, but that should suffice. I quit because I couldn’t play the staff role of "going along to get along". I think the whole workplace leadership has to be purged before any meaningful change in the country can occur. It’s odd how local leaders reflect the national leadership’s behavior. I guess it’s because they can get away with it. Cheney’s response to a reporter’s comment about the majority being against the Iraq war …. his response .."SO". I think that says it all. The country seems to have been taken over by ignorant incompetent bullies.
Maybe if more people start commenting about their experiences, we may be able to change things. So, thanks for sharing your experience, it inspired me to share mine.
Thank you, John!
I appreciate your kind words, and I’m glad that you shared your experience with us. At first, I was hesitant to bring up the subject of workplace bullying, for fear that it would be considered off topic. But it does relate to early retirement for far too many people. There are numerous valid reasons why workers choose to retire, and all of them need to be taken seriously. Contrary to what Yarrow may think, we are NOT leaving our jobs for the hell of it!
Is early retirement selfish? NO!
Is early retirement selfish?
No!!
First thing, this is written by someone who is not age 62 or 65.
So they do not know.
I am age 65 and would enjoy working and earning a great living, but here where I
live there are no great jobs or opportunities.
Second to say that age 65 social security wages should have a higher tax are crazy.
We pay way too many taxes now.
If we were making millions, thenwe could afford taxes.
We help our kids and grandkids now as we can
If anyone wants to offer us great jobs now, we will take them.
Just e-mail us back.
Retirement
I had to laugh after reading Andy Yarrow’s plea to keep the shoulders to the wheel until age 65 or longer. He’s got a cushy University job while the rest of us blue collar types work in physically punishng jobs. He is the classic case of an egghead who doesn’t even know where eggs come from. The reason the right wing in this country are worried about the impending retirement tsunami of Baby Boomers is the drying up of extra funds for the military industrial complex and the vast US empire of bases around the world(147). The sustainablity of this destructive corporate entity isn’t viable. There ain’t no "guns and butter." The peace dividend is the prosperity of the future and an older person who wants to get the hell out of the rat-race should be able to do so when they want to.
Retirement
I have to wholeheartily agree with your sentiment. First off though, according to Chalmers Johnson (you can google his name for info) there are 750 US military bases officially recognized by the DOD, far more than you referenced.
I recently (Fall of 2007) got a Master of Science Degree in Gerontology at age 65. So, I have recent experience in academia, and I could likely write a book ( a short one) on my experiences. Fortunately, there were others in some of my classes that were my age or older, otherwise, most of the younger students didn’t have a clue as to a larger reality. The profs, no matter how well intended, fell short of my expectations as to the world of work outside of academia.I have more than twenty five years of experience working with Department of Labor funded programs, and many unemployed workers from custodians to rocket scientist with multiple phds. The underlying story is the same. Simply, the labor market responds to the needs of corporate America (yes the military industrial banking complex) not the needs of people. Our institutions support the needs of the market place. It is, after all, supply and demand, not supply and need that is being addressed. In order to have a market demand, you have to have money, people with needs don’t have or often don’t value money over other needs, so how can the marketplace help them?
We definetly need a paradigm shift in this country, but I am not holding my breadth. Given the past 30 or so years, the political climate has nurtured the most selfish of human values by discarding human development for profit maximization. Our educational institutions are simply factories for producing the gears that support ignoring peoples needs for the greater good of corporate America (yes there are some good corporations .. I think). Early retirment offers a way to drop-out of the craziness.
I am not a linear human being, and resent the societal expectation that my life is pre-programmed to be "educated", join the workforce, raise a diminishing number of children ( at the same time increase the square footage of my home to meet unsustainable market demands), exit the workforce, do nothing worthwhile until I am placed into an assisted living facility … moved to acute care, then die and likley not realize it because of the drugs I’ve been given. That’s only if I can afford that final rip-off from the health care establishment.
I think life is far more interesting than that. I think a good societal construct would support human development in all its diversity. If life is to be used to develop the human potential, the social constructs should support it. I think the ancient Greeks had the right idea about "excellence in all things". If we are allowed to develop as individuals, there should be enough flexibilty in our society to learn and develop at any point in our lives. And in response to those who think that this kind of thinking is idealistic, my response is that our current societal framework began with ideas, and seems to have been hijacked along the way. We have to start somewhere!
Well, I’m trying to cover too much ground in a limited space, but I think you understand my gest. I was very pleased to read your comment, and wanted to offer my supporting comments.
re: retirement
John, you write a an erudite, compassionate epistle for human progress and peace. Yes, a students education should be tailored to fit the need of the student, not the needs of Wal-Mart or GM. I’m 48 years old and have completed most of my junior college credits for a four-year state college. Kudos to you for finishing your degree. I’m aiming to do the same. Peace, brother.
Thank you!
Peace and good luck to you too!
Early retirement as "selfish"
Joe Wasylyk Seniorpreneur
I believe early retirement is a personal choice to be able to pursue individual interests for the social good of society. Seniors can become extremely productive without having to associate with the corporate lifestyle. We need to see a paridigm shift for seniors from basically consumption efforts to more creative and productive projects. This new direction can always be combined with family, leisure or any ‘other’ pleasurable retirement activities.
"Patriotic" is a loaded world -- intentionally so
I love the controversy that I knew would happen with the use of “patriotic.” It’s one of those words — ask Obama about the flag pin.
The whole point of the piece was to make it clear that the retirement of so many people at once has consequences that may not be clear…consequences not just to the individual but to a larger issue. It focuses the brain on Retirement (and how one is going to “live” it) which is a good thing for Encore in my opinion.
—Ruth Wooden
(Editor’s note: Ruth Wooden, president of Public Agenda, chairs Civic Ventures’ board of directors.)
Early retirement as "selfish"
How times change! It used to be that people were encouraged to retire as soon as they reached the statutory age so as to "get out of the way" of younger workers. (My sister is retiring from teaching at age 60, not because she wants to, but because her district’s contract offers substantial incentives for her to retire now rather than later.) Now we’re "unpatriotic" if, after slogging away in the work force for 40 or 50 years, we want to devote our remaining years of good health to traveling or pursuing our hobbies … give me a break!!
Mr. Yarrow's View of Early Retirement
I agree that it can be a drain on resources for people to prematurely retire if they do not then turn around a do other useful work in their next phase of life. Some people do volunteer work that is of great value to society.
The word "unpatriotic" does not seem to fit in this conversation. What constitutes being "unpatriotic"? It conjures up images of Nixon and HUAC or the unbelievably Orwellian USA Patriot Act in my mind. Since the US is run by corporations, anyone who pays homage to them by being good consumers would be the true patriots.
Maybe retiring early means that one no longer can be as great a consumer as one once was??