The True Threat to American Retirement
A recurring theme, for example, in Chappel’s story is of seniors not wanting to retire. People being pressured to retire solely because of age is a problem, and ageism is a good label for it (although it’s worth noting that age-specific restrictions are far more common for young people than old ones, and minimum ages for voting, drinking alcohol, or hiring a rental car, say, mostly hold up in court). People not wanting to retire, however, because they cannot imagine who they are or how they can justify their existence to others without gainful employment? That’s just as big of a problem.
There are some signs of change on this front, although from wildly different corners: on the collective action side, young socialists’ and climate activists’ embrace of policies like the four-day workweek; and on the individual side, the surprising traction in recent years of the Financial Independence, Retire Early, or FIRE, movement. This subculture, which once seemed populated exclusively by thirtysomething techbros eating ramen in a shack to achieve a 70 percent savings rate and retire by 40, has now broadened to include more than a few women, people of color, single parents, teachers, and others outside the stereotypical demographic. For these people, cutting consumption drastically is worth it if they can ditch their boss a decade or more ahead of schedule and fill the time with family, friends, and passion projects instead. These surprising moments of resonance between the Green New Deal, the TradCath homesteaders, and the FIRE movement make you wonder whether Gen Xers and millennials across the political spectrum might be ready to rethink work-as-identity, as well as the consumerism that keeps the affluent wedded to work-as-identity.
The real problem with aging in the United States, for Chappel, isn’t ageism, but ableism. “A great deal of the anxiety about retirement income,” he writes, “is really an anxiety about retirement health: what will happen to me and my family if I need long-term care?” Medicare doesn’t address this: You have to run through your savings first and then get funding from Medicaid instead. Twentieth-century old-age pop culture didn’t address this: “the discussion of aging in the 1980s was about individualism and entrepreneurialism,” and many old people feared being lumped in with the “old-old,” i.e., the disabled. Not retiring isn’t an option either: You can only work as long as you are able.