So… What is Retirement?

I’m going to be in retirement in less than a year, so I thought I’d begin this year reflecting on what “retirement” is.  When I asked google, “What is the history of retirement?”   I found some interesting articles.

The first essay I read was published in the New York Times in 1999.  The author, Mary-Lou Weisman, has a great sense of humor.  Her pithy look at retirement begins with a look at the Stone Age in which everyone was employed until 20 at which time most had died of unnatural causes.  She notes “Any early man who lived long enough to develop crow's-feet was either worshiped or eaten as a sign of respect.”

In the Middle Ages people did live longer; she writes rather negatively about old people at that time:

Plus they tended to hang on to their wealth and property. This made them very unpopular with their middle-aged sons, who were driven to earn their inheritances the old-fashioned way, by committing patricide.

The next article I read (A Brief History of Retirement in America Part 1, by MELP on October 18, 2009) begins with this warning:  “This unbearably long article, broken into five parts, tries to put our notions of retirement in an historical perspective.”   Early in Part 1 Mel writes

Retirement is a new idea, and for most of its history, it wasn’t popular with older people. Most of our great-grandparents probably hated the very idea of it. Apparently they had more common sense than we do. Retirement was never designed to help older people; it was designed to get rid of them.

Hmmm.  It appears I really do need to spend some time thinking about this.  I did some speed reading of Mel’s history and learned that with the industrial revolution came the need to get rid of less efficient older workers to make way for younger ones supporting families.  But what to do?  Many of the corporations apparently still had consciences (they are people, you know) and they didn’t want to just turn their loyal workers on the streets.  So small pensions were created and in some cases they built houses for the workers.  By the 1920s the norm was leaning towards retirement with a small pension (small meaning it wasn’t quite enough to live on).

The depression however, pushed the question as both young and old were out of jobs.  There’s a longer story (which you can read on  Mel’s blog), but the depression led to the passage of the Social Security Act in which all workers would receive a payment in retirement and the workers contributions would fund the program.

I think I’ll stop here and give thanks for Social Security.  The Conference’s annual Pre-Retirement Seminar has long emphasized that we should not depend on Social Security alone.  But that doesn’t mean I'm not very grateful for those who designed and implemented this program that has given the elders of our country a basic source of funds for their later years. 

Tomorrow I leave for California to begin visiting some of the New England Conference’s retired clergy living on the West Coast.  A long plane ride should give me more time for reflection as I begin the Road to Retirement!

Notes:

“The History of Retirement, From Early Man to A.A.R.P.” by Mary-Lou Weisman

http://www.nytimes.com/1999/03/21/jobs/the-history-of-retirement-from-early-man-to-aarp.html

“A Brief History of Retirement in America” by MELP:

http://www.thenexthill.com/a-brief-history-of-retirement-in-america-part-1.htm