I’m 58 years old, and the blame for America’s massive unemployment problem can be laid right at my doorstep. Sorry.
I’ve got a great job, and I’ve had a wonderful career for the past 37 years. I’ve been fortunate to be able to earn a good living in a fascinating field that has provided challenges and rewards. I’ve gotten to travel, work with colleagues around the world, make a difference in improving the environment, and mentored many bright young people who have gone on to have great careers themselves. I really couldn’t have asked for more.
Work has been “very very good to me”, but it’s time that it was “very very good” for our intelligent, creative, and motivated younger citizens. I’d retire in a heartbeat if I could go on Medicare. Instead, I’ve got four options:
Keep working another 7 years until I can take Medicare at 65
Retire now and quickly deplete my life savings by paying for incredibly expensive private insurance
Work a couple more years and split the difference
Die before I reach retirement age.
Maybe there’s an option 5, winning the lottery, but I’d have to buy tickets.
So here I remain, plugging away on the job. I’m good at what I do, but there’s absolutely no reason that a younger person couldn’t do the same or better. I’m part of an enormous logjam of aging baby boomers who are staying put, clogging the system, and freezing out younger generations. Until we move out, nobody’s moving up.
When I hear our politicians threatening to raise the age for Medicare eligibility to 67, I find myself screaming aloud “NO! What you morons need to do is LOWER the age of eligibility!! Do that, and I am OUTTA HERE!!”
Trust me, if you dropped the eligibility age to 60, you’d risk getting trampled in the mass exodus of baby boomers racing out the office door. Millions of great jobs would open up immediately. Companies could promote from within and bring in new talent at all levels, encouraging fresh thinking and innovation, and enhanced competitiveness for their products and services. If for some reason our employers find they can’t live without our vast knowledge and insight, they can keep us under a consulting agreement so that we can transfer knowledge and mentor our replacements.
Sounds like a pretty good plan, and a probably the fastest way to make an appreciable dent in our heartbreaking levels of unemployment.
So what am I missing?