On Nov 19, 8:13 am, Ken Fortenberry
wrote:

Working on an auto assembly line is real
work, physical work. Doing it for 40 years, roughly 18 to 58,
leaves you too old to safely do the work and seven years shy of
Medicare.

The idea that a society can toss these folks away like spent
machinery is untenable.

I agree with all that -- I said nothing about Medicare or tossing
people aside, only that societies can't afford to have 1/3 of the
productive populace not being productive. There's all sorts of ways to
be productive; as a worker ages I see nothing wrong with transitioning
them to a different job that is less physically hard than what they
did when they were young. But unless we're willing to go back to an
extended-family model of having grandma and grandpa come live with us
when they can no longer support themselves (which might be a good
thing) rather than this model of having government or corporations
attempt to keep up their separate house and separate costs and the
lifestyle to which they're accustomed, I see our country continuing
its slide towards bankruptcy.

Jon.
PS: Yes I realize that there are many many retirees who are out there
contributing countless hours to volunteer organizations, communities,
churches, and in general being productive for our society in many
different ways than working for a paycheck. I applaud all of you, and
hope I have the funds that allows me to do the same some day. I don't
consider those types of people "retired", they're just taking
advantage of a pension to contribute to society in different ways.