Medical advances keep guys in their 70s and 80s on the ski slopes, the basketballs courts, the tennis courts - and at work. The concept of retirement is already obsolete. Obsolete to the point that, in America, men only reluctantly admit that they are retired today.
Our senior partner is 84, and at work every day. He is the Socrates of our firm and he lifts at the gym before work. Last year we voted him 6 wks paid vacation per year, in gratitude. But if he is on a big case, of course he can't and would not go anywhere. We have no retirement age, and offer no retirement benefits. However, we can, and do, vote partners out unless we love them.
Most guys over 65 are working at something, and want to be. Second careers, and third careers, are common today. Defined benefit pensions have disappeared outside of government employees and even there, for many, these are being replaced by IRAs. The short historical period of those 30-40 year retirements is gone outside of government union jobs. Unions still idealize not-working as if that were a wonderful thing. It seems not to be for most people.
It's not just about money, and it's not just men. Women too need to feel productive, contributive, active in the world. The alternative is to feel either dependent or useless.
Overall, it's a good thing. The wise old owls have much to offer the arrogant young bucks and buckettes. The late 1800s Bismarckian notion of a few years of leisurely rest before death is as obsolete as most of the Progressive ideas of the 1920s in the US (mostly borrowed from Bismarck if not from Marx). Mind you, neither Bismarck nor Marx ever held a real job, or could even hammer a nail.
For the "common good," I would set Social Security at 75, and means test it too based on assets and income.
