I understand the economics and demographics in your Jan. 2 front-page article “Generation X’ers ponder pushing retirement to 70,” but I take issue with the young man who wonders “why he should be paying taxes to support healthy retirees who choose to play golf or watch television instead of working into their late 60s” and the gerontologist who says, “It doesn’t make sense for people to sit and do nothing for 20 or 30 years.”
Although each of those statements may have a kernel of truth, the implication is that only if one is earning money is one “doing something.” The truth that I have observed in friends and relatives who are healthy retirees in their 60s and 70s and even older is that they are very active in giving to their communities what they couldn’t always give when employed full time.
These retirees “do nothing” by volunteering in hospitals, schools, literacy programs, meals-on-wheels, homeless shelters, churches, boards of not-for-profit organizations and a multitude of other programs, including the Peace Corps. Retirees may play golf, watch TV, travel, study and enjoy a flexibility of scheduling at this time of their lives, but they also give much to all of us.
Our society may not be able to afford to pay Social Security as early as age 70, but our society also cannot afford to pay for the services that our retirees give through volunteer work.
