Why don’t most politicians resign? A medical anthropologist explains how the US could benefit from a mandatory retirement age

President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump are not the only examples of politicians doing well in their golden years. Members of the baby boom generation – Americans born between 1946 and 1964 – are the largest in the House, and in the Senate they outnumber lawmakers of all generations combined.

In total, two-thirds of US senators and nearly half of House lawmakers are eligible for full retirement benefits through the Federal Employees’ Retirement System. However they are still working. The same is true of the four judges of the Supreme Court who are over 65 years of age.

They are not alone. Given the choice, most Americans seem to prefer working more to less. This is true for their weekly and annual work hours as well as the lifetime they spend working. About one in five Americans over the age of 65 is working, even though they are past the point of eligibility for full retirement benefits and Social Security payments.

The share of older people in the workforce is increasing, although it’s unclear how many are punching the clock because they want to and how many can’t stop because of holes in the safety net in the US.

As a historian and medical anthropologist in the US, I have spent many years researching the ways in which older Americans have chosen to earn higher wages rather than reduce their work hours.

I believe that Biden’s decision to retire after many years of public service provides an opportunity to reflect on what is at stake as a nation when so many people over 65 are working, especially in prominent roles.

Retirement conferences in other countries

Maybe not for politicians, but in many jobs now it takes fewer hours of work to achieve the same job as it did a hundred years ago, thanks to advances in manufacturing and computers.

However, no one is reducing their work despite this increase in success. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, a government agency, most full-time workers in the United States work about 40 hours each week.

More Europeans work shorter hours, take longer vacations and receive more retirement benefits from their governments than their US counterparts. Not surprisingly, support for retirement at age 65 or earlier has broad support in the European Union.

In the US, later retirement is due to policy changes. For Americans born in 1960 or later, the federal retirement age has risen to 67 from 65. That includes the baby boomers, who will turn 65 between 2025 and 2028. Retirees who qualify for Social Security benefits can collect their minimum level at 62 and be rewarded with higher levels of Social Security benefits if they work until age 70.

As economist Dora Costa recounts in her book “The Evolution of Retirement,” the convention of fixed retirement ages emerged in the early 20th century as a result of actuarial data on life expectancy and the establishment while pension and social security systems.

Aging and health

Of course, everyone ages differently, and there are benefits for society when older people stay in the workforce after their 65th birthday, including institution concept and work experience.

There are frequent debates about the benefits of working in later life. In some cases, research supports the benefits that some people get from working after age 65. But research also supports the importance of leisure and its health effects. Clearly, staying active later in life is the most important factor in staying healthy in old age.

But there are several obstacles, too, related to health issues related to aging.

For example, common diseases can take a toll on the aging body, and recovery from injuries and illnesses can take longer when you’re over 65 than in younger adults. . That can mean a long period of time where the employee is unable to do his job.

Cognitive abilities may decrease in some people, while others experience significant changes related to “dementia” related to age.

Unfortunately, determining who really should retire if they don’t volunteer to do so is difficult because psychological tests aren’t always reliable. They often assess the skills needed to take the exam rather than basic skills.

For example, listening tests assess auditory comprehension in an informal way by trying to measure the ability to remember word sequences. Most tests test someone’s personality rather than their mental abilities. People with certain personality types can hide their mental changes. In addition, the bias in evaluating psychological variables is often based on the evaluator’s experience of their interactions with the evaluator.

Except in cases where there are clear changes in one’s mental capacity and ability to interact with others, the argument that one should retire is often based on the assumptions of a competent person.

Social Security Issues

Establishing a requirement for someone to leave a job in their capacity to do the job brings an unnecessary bias to this decision. In my opinion, setting a mandatory retirement age will provide a more neutral way to ensure that public retirement is better than it was with Biden.

Many older Americans who continue to work past age 65 do so because they cannot afford to retire. The cost of living, including costs related to longevity, has exceeded the support provided by Social Security benefits. The poverty rate among adults over 65 is much higher than in Europe.

But almost all US politicians and public servants are free to retire at age 65 or sooner. They have the benefits of the Federal Employees’ Retirement System and the Thrift Savings Plan for federal employees, which some economists argue could serve as a model for the rest of the world. Although they have the ability to resign from their jobs with little financial difficulty, many of these leaders and employees stay on the job long after they retire.

If the U.S. were to adopt a mandatory retirement age for all government workers, it would at least spare those Americans the difficult debates about mental health that many of us face as we age. .

In the meantime, Biden’s decision to retire offers an opportunity to think collectively about when Americans should retire.