Hi RAZD
LOL. Being told to get out and enjoy yourself is cruel?
Yes, it is. There's a barrel of psychological research that shows that performing useful work is vital to well-being. People have a deep seated need to be useful. Pissing about is all very well, but it gets old fast; especially if you're low on funds - which people certainly will with only a few years to save for retirement and relying on your citizens income for all their needs.
Moreover, 50 is damn young. 50-year olds are not in their dotage; without the over 50s, science has just lost all its professors, for example. And heaven help you if you've ever thought to change careers; there's just no time. I'll be just shy of 40 when I finish my PhD, forced retirement at 50 would mean just ten years in which to actually work in science. Forcing people out at 50 means taking a whole load of people at the peak of their careers and telling them, no, you can't carry on doing what you love, what gives you meaning in life and what you want to do.
There are also lots of advice websites on how to retire at 50 ... so how is that bonkers?
There are doubtless many people who would be happy to retire at 50; that doesn't mean that forcing the rest to do so is okay.
So? To me this is just more evidence that libertarian policies are bonkers ... .
Heh
I meant libertarian in the old fashioned sense of freedom; not the howling crazies of the American right.
Remember that we have more job seekers than we have jobs, thus getting people to retire earlier is one way to allow everyone in the work force to benefit.
Sure, but it also places the burden of paying for everyone who has been forced out of work onto the young.
One way to initiate a debate is to take an extreme position ...
One way to mock a particular argument is to take it to an extreme position ...
Indeed.