Recently, during a job interview, the interviewer paused, looked at me, and asked, “Why don’t you just retire?” I know – it’s an illegal question, but check out my picture at the top of the blog. Trust me. It happened.
It made me think about this magic age of 65. Who came up with that? Why not 66, or 64, or 102, or the day that you finally become so senile, that you can’t get to work by yourself, anymore?
Well, it turns out we have Otto Von Bismark to thank for the original concept. The good old “Iron Chancellor”, himself, came up with the idea to secure the socialist vote in the 1889 German national election. He knew it wouldn’t cost the government much, because he figured in 1889, the average German didn’t live all that long. And in 1889, he was right. In 1935, the American Congress copied the German idea for much the same motivation and used the same age, because in 1935, the average American lived to the ripe old age of 61.7 years. Our esteemed public servants never thought they would have to pay out much money. By the mid-60′s, mandatory retirement at age 65 had become part of the law of the land.
But time marches on and so does technology and Americans began to outlive the original idea. Studies have been done that indicate that in the mid-60′s, when mandatory retirement at 65 became law, the average American at 62 was physiologically equal to the average 55-year-old American in 1935, when Social Security was introduced. Today, the average life-span number is closing in on the mid-seventies and nonagenarians aren’t that uncommon, in most neighborhoods. By 1986, changes in the law made it illegal for a company to use a mandatory retirement age, in most industries. Specific industries, such as police, pilots and firemen, were exempt.
Unfortunately, perceptions are hard to change, and it seems most people still think 65 is the magic number. I don’t begrudge those of you who want to retire early, have lunch with friends every day and work on your golf game. I just happen to think that there are a lot of us who enjoy working and don’t want to slip on the gold watch, just yet.
There actually is a case to be made for taking us older members of the work force more seriously than most people seem to. For one thing, it would appear that Social Security is technically bankrupt. I remember as a young man, hearing our Congressmen saying, “It’s in a lock-box. Can’t be touched. Very secure. Just waiting for you.” Well, along the way, it got touched and when they decided to touch it, they put it into the general fund, spent it, and now the federal government is trillions of dollars in dept, which means that money is gone. If I am lucky enough to begin receiving my benefits in two years, when I am 66, it will be because some poor, young dude will be working his butt off to pay his taxes, so they can give it to me, or they will be borrowing it – probably from the Chinese, who don’t actually like us, very much. Can I count on those benefits? I hope so, but I’m definitely a little nervous.
For another thing, the Cato Institute tells us that technological advances in most jobs are blurring the age division line and sharpening the skill division line. Jobs that used to be pretty tough for an old guy like me to do, are easier now, because instead of pushing brooms, we are likely to be pushing buttons. When I was a kid, my dad had an Allis Chalmers tractor with four speeds, four tires a motor and a place to sit – not too tough to learn and it cost him $800. Today, if you want to be serious about farming, you buy a tractor with four-wheel drive, an enclosed, air conditioned cab, a bank of dials and controls for a host of computerized functions, and it will run you over $100,000. When the old Allis Chalmers broke, dad and I used to fix it. When a modern tractor breaks, a technician comes to the farm in a van and runs tests to figure out what components went bad and bills you $1,000.
Our friends at Cato also tell us that many large companies are worried about Baby Boomers beginning to retire, because it will create a “brain-drain” that cannot be adequately filled by younger, relatively inexperienced workers. Additionally, they have done studies that show no loss of effectiveness with advancing age, in most business settings, because even though we admittedly do slow down physically, as we age, we also increase in knowledge and sophistication. Cato has found that the net effect is actually an increase in bottom line productivity for the older worker, compared to the young Turks.
When you couple that with improved general health and overall longevity, it becomes clear that there is a role in American business for the older worker.