Recently a newspaper comic strip took on a hot button political issue in a provocative stand in a week-long series which ignited controversy and outrage:

I kid. Zack Hill is a minor comic and this series of strips went practically unnoticed. The story line for the comic seems to be based on this real news story about a preschooler who had her lunch confiscated because it was not well-balanced enough for the person checking lunches, whoever that may have been. For a week or so this became a cause celebre with all sorts of people decrying rampant Nanny State-ism. The primary complaint seemed to be over-reach into the personal decisions of a parent to determine what is an adequate meal.

This week the more high-profile comics and/or editorial page stalwart Doonesbury also took on a topical issue with this strip summing up the tone:

(click image for a more legible version)

This topic is very familiar to ATiM readers. It also tackles the issue as one of government over-reach and excessive Nanny State-ism. Feel free to draw your own additional parallels.

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So I came across the article 6 reasons why you should not retire and, as someone that really looks forward to retiring,  it got me thinking.  Here are the 6 reasons:

1. There is no physical reason to retire.

2. Continued work can support healthy aging, including better physical and mental health.

3. Well-being and happiness are boosted when people are engaged in challenging and meaningful activities. Work is a major place to find such activities in our society.

4. Older people have rich experience and mentoring skills to help enrich the workplace experiences of younger colleagues.

5. Declining numbers of younger workers, courtesy of lower fertility rates, will raise the need to retain older employees in the workforce.

6. We need and like the money, and shorter retirements sharply cut the risk we will outlive our assets.

Well I read through these and…I still want to retire.  Quite badly.  Here is my response to these 6.

1)  So what…  Just because I am not forced into retirement by age or some other reason is not a good reason to keep working.  Just because I can?  I don’t think so. 
2)  If their idea of retirement is sitting out on the porch all day (with the exception of hitting the early bird specials), then yeah, I get it.  But I don’t plan to do that.  I plan to devote time to my hobbies, interests, family, friends and self…do the things I WANT to do, not NEED to do.  I think I am creative  enough to do things that will provide the same mental and physical benefits as what I do at work.
3)  Much the same as 2.  Work is A great place to find meaningful and challenging activities…it is by no means the ONLY place.
4)  Mentoring the younger…really?  Does anyone think that a 40 or 50 year old is going to be any less able to mentor a younger worker than a 70 or 80 year old?  There are plenty of people with the experience and maturity and age to be able to provide this great knowledge transfer.  Besides which, they say we are going to have a shortage of younger workers….meaning there should be a plethora of good mentors available.
5)  So this was the first that actually made me think…for a second.  First off, I will be off doing my own thing and, quite frankly, don’t care.  It will mean that salaries should rise for those workers and/or we will need to be that much more productive.  In any case, a higher salary could lure me back perhaps part time but I don’t think this in and of itself is a reason for me not to retire.
6)  With healthcare taken care of by Obama 🙂 what  is there to worry about if I have saved diligently during my working life?  Could I run out of money?  Certainly.  I can do that at any time during my life – there is always that risk.  I work hard to mitigate it and I will during retirement also. Quite frankly, that is a risk I am willing to accept.

So this article did not even begin to persuede me not to retire.  How about you? 

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