Western workers are remaining healthier for longer

The populations of almost all wealthy western liberal democracies are aging. Quite simply, individual citizens are living longer. Throughout the EU the number of individuals of working age is likely to drop from the 2010 figure of 305m to 286m in 2030. Concurrently, the number of EU citizens aged over 65 will rise to 142m[i]. Compelling retirement simply increases the economic burden that pensioners place on the state. An aging population increases the ratio of dependent individuals to working individuals within a state. A mandatory retirement age is an arbitrary and unnecessary measure which exacerbates this problem. The resolution also fails to take account of the fact that life expectancies throughout most of the western world are rising. The life expectancy of a 65 year old American male is now 17.52 years. The life expectancy of a 70 Japanese female has reached 19 years[ii]. Advances and health care and improvements in living standards have extended the average male life span in some areas of the world to 83. As citizens grow ever older, their dependence on their families and on the state for medical care and economic support grows too. Although this observation might seem to go against side opposition’s case, it should be pointed out that the same advances in medical care that extend our life spans also extend our productive lives.[iii] We may live longer, but improvements in diagnosis and treatment for diseases of aging mean that we stay can healthier for longer. This being the case, mandatory retirement would only serve to expropriate the labour of otherwise active, productive members of society. It would create a class of financial dependents (“young” retirees in their sixties), with no means of securing themselves against the physical and medical dependence that characterises senescence. Increasing the age at which retirement becomes mandatory will not adequately offset these dual phenomena. As has been seen in Greece, Spain and France, an attempt to alter an entrenched retirement age- even if it is not linked to mandatory retirement- can provoke substantial opposition among youth and labour movements[iv]. These groups are likely to see such a move as a direct political attack, and will respond accordingly. Secondly, demographers’ predictions about the future habits, health and behaviour of a population are infamously broad and inaccurate. In short, an upward trend in human life spans correlates strongly with a downward trend in the frequency and immediacy with which older people are affected by diseases of aging. Citizens of western liberal democracies are staying healthier for longer. Requiring these otherwise productive, engaged individuals to withdraw from the work force would burden the pension system with a disproportionate number of financial dependents. [i] “Special report: Pensions.” The Economist, 7 April 2011. http://www.economist.com/node/18474681 [ii] “Special report: Pensions.” The Economist, 7 April 2011. http://www.economist.com/node/18474681 [iii] “Active and Healthy Aging – A Long-term View up to 2050”, Miriam Leis, and Govert Gijsbers, European Foresight Platform, 31 January 2011, http://www.foresight-platform.eu/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/Paper_Active_Healthy_Ageing_FIN.pdf pp.11-12 [iv] “France burns as strike descends into violence.” The Independent, 20 October 2010. http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/france-burns-as-strike-descends-into-violence-2111270.html