Why don't more politicians retire? President Joe Biden's decision to step down offers a chance to collectively consider when Americans should retire. File Photo by Yuri Gripas/UPI
All told, two-thirds of U.S. senators and nearly half of House lawmakers are eligible for full retirement benefits through the Federal Employees' Retirement System. And yet they keep working. So do the four Supreme Court justices who are over 65 .
Maybe not for politicians, but in many occupations it now takes fewer hours of work to achieve the same labor output as a century ago, thanks to advances in manufacturing and computing .
As economist Dora Costa recounts in her book The Evolution of Retirement , the convention of a set retirement age arose in the early 20th century as a result of actuarial data on life expectancy and the establishment of pensions and social security systems.
But there are several drawbacks, too, related to the health issues associated with aging.
For example, routine illnesses can have outsized effects on aging bodies , and recovery from injuries and sickness can take longer when you're over 65 than it does for younger adults. That can mean long stretches where an employee can't do their job.
Unfortunately, figuring out who really should retire if they don't volunteer to do so is tough because cognitive tests are not always reliable . They often assess the capacities needed to take the test rather than underlying capacities.
Except in cases where someone is obviously experiencing clear-cut changes in their cognitive capacity and ability to interact with others, arguing that somebody must retire is often rooted in ableist assumptions .
Social Security concerns
Basing the need for someone to retire on their perceived capacity to do the job brings unnecessary bias to this decision. In my view, setting a mandatory retirement age would provide a neutral mechanism to ensure that retirement from public service happens more smoothly than has been the case with Biden.
Many older Americans who keep working past 65 do so because they can't afford to retire. The cost of living, including the costs associated with longevity, have outstripped the support provided by Social Security benefits. The poverty rate among adults over 65 is much higher than it is in Europe .
But nearly all U.S. politicians and civil servants are free to stop working when they turn 65 or soon after. They have the benefit of the Federal Employees' Retirement System and the federal employees' Thrift Savings Plan , which some economist argue could serve as a model for everyone else. Despite their ability to step back from their careers with few financial concerns, many of these leaders and workers remain on the job long after they could step down.
If the United States were to adopt a mandatory retirement age for all federal employees, it would spare at least those Americans from the difficult conversations about mental capacity many of us eventually face as we age.
In the meantime, Biden's decision to retire offers a chance to collectively consider when Americans should retire.
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article . The views and opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of the author.
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