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> 25% of men over 65 didn't toil in the workforce, so clearly retirement had already been "invented" But were they retired by choice or were they just too frai
by solveit 6y ago
> 25% of men over 65 didn't toil in the workforce, so clearly retirement had already been "invented"
But were they retired by choice or were they just too frail to work?
> And, of course, there is the entire other half of humanity -- women -- who also weren't in the workforce.
Kind of true, but not exactly retirement either, and most of them weren't not working, they were working inside the household.
- freddie_mercury 6y agoPeople who are "retired" today also work inside the household. They're still making food, doing laundry, and often looking after grandchildren. Even though retirement has been "invented", 60% of grandparents provide childcare in the US and 27% of people over 65 are still in the workforce. There's clearly been some change in the past ~100 years, would be pretty weird if there hadn't!, but I'm not convinced there's really a bright line of "retirement was invented, before and after".