2 weeks Ago By Tom Nicholson
Well, all I can say is thanks, global lender of last resort. Thanks a BUNCH. The International Monetary Fund has just declared that, as far as working lives go, 70 is the new 50 and we should all start preparing to be in gainful employment as septuagenarians.
Apparently, new data drawn from 41 different countries shows remarkable progress in the number of years of good health we can expect to enjoy these days. And so the next logical step is, clearly, that we should not get to enjoy them.I have many questions.
Mainly: which are these 41 countries and why are they all full of liars? The data supposedly shows that someone aged 70 in 2022 had the same level of cognitive ability as a 53-year-old did in 2000.if(window.adverts) { window.
adverts.addToArray({"pos": "inread-hb-ros-inews"}); }From the example of a) me, b) everyone I have ever known, and c) a highly formal WhatsApp poll of all those I know now: no. No way.
Not even a little bit do we recognise an existence in which our 70-year-old bodies and brains will be in any fit state to do any job at all. “Think of yourself at 20 and 40; 30 and 50,” writes one correspondent. “You’re a pathetic, creaking shadow of a thing.
You think shadows can’t creak? I’m 55. Mine does.”It’s true.
Maybe not literally – though he does insist – but certainly metaphorically for us all. I love my job. It remains the joy and bafflement of my life that I have managed to make a living out of writing and – God, editors, and the decimation of the industry by imminent AI incursions willing – I will go on being able to do so for many years yet.
#color-context-related-article-3578474 {--inews-color-primary: #3759B7;--inews-color-secondary: #EFF2FA;--inews-color-tertiary: #3759B7;} Read Next square LUCY PORTER I'm famous and I'll never be able to afford to retireRead MoreBut as midlife creeps on, the appeal of retirement is beginning to make itself felt. Far away still, over several hills, a faint glow from a resting place – possibly a campfire, though I hope it is one with proper padded seating round about – is gradually strengthening. if(window.
adverts) { window.adverts.addToArray({"pos": "mpu_mobile_l1"}); }if(window.
adverts) { window.adverts.addToArray({"pos": "mpu_tablet_l1"}); }As my days get busier, the cumulative exhaustion of fitting in the day’s professional, personal and domestic responsibilities erodes my core resources.
The idea of being able simply to end at least a third of those responsibilities becomes deeply attractive. And this is despite the fact that I am hardly in a physically demanding job. If you are, the idea of retiring at 70 or later is risible.
The unavoidable wear and tear on your body will have made it a necessity long before then. Of course there are exceptions to every rule. I have an 80-year-old friend who still cares for a 95-year-old and 101-year-old in their respective homes, but I honestly think they are bound by some sort of wartime spell and if she leaves me the relevant piece of tattered utility paper in her will, I will share it with you all.
By and large, though, you will long have needed a proper sit down in the knowledge that the weary toil is done. Yet of course the fact is that however exhausted you might be, most people will not be able to retire because they need to, let alone because they simply would prefer to. When I dream of retirement, it is just that – a dream of the retirement of Boomers and previous generations, of the hazy golden figures on a final salary pension scheme, of savings not swallowed up by children’s university fees, parental care homes, extortionate mortgages and bills necessitated by an economy hellbent on channelling all its money into the pockets of 12 multibillionaires (and their robots).
And then there’s the additional Woman Problem (I know, I know – isn’t there always? Almost like a disadvantaged group is always vulnerable to further disadvantage. So annoying), whereby women already generally find themselves having to work longer than men because their pension pots – thanks to time out taken for childrearing and habitually being paid less than their male counterparts – are smaller. Is this going to be ironed out by everyone working longer? Or will it just, as common sense and rudimentary arithmetic would suggest, entrench the disparity?if(window.
adverts) { window.adverts.addToArray({"pos": "mpu_mobile_l2"}); }if(window.
adverts) { window.adverts.addToArray({"pos": "mpu_tablet_l2"}); }It will also be interesting, if this idea of working until within a statistically likely decade of your death takes hold, to see what psychosocial effects this effective breaking of the social contract at both ends of life has.
Amongst the young, the growing knowledge that they will never easily (or sometimes ever) be able to afford a home or have a family is already causing unrest and withdrawal of investments of all kinds in the future, with all the collective destabilisation that comes with that. Take away the hope and the implied promise that you will at least be rewarded at the other end with some years of funded peace and relaxation, and the fallout is hardly going to be prettier.In fact, when I think of it, we should already be rioting.
And we must do it now – we’re only going to get more knackered from here..
