The Mahablog: Soylent Green Is People, II

In today's New York Times, John Tierney argues that it's selfish for old folks to retire while they are still in their 60s.

I realize I'm being impolitic. In the Social Security debate, the notion of raising the retirement age is the elephant in the room, as Robin Toner and David Rosenbaum reported in The Times on Sunday. Both liberal and conservative economists favor the change, but politicians are terrified to even mention it to voters.

I'd like to know what "liberal" economists "favor" raising the retirement age. I'm sure there are some saying it may have to be raised if we as a nation don't change our evil economic ways, but that's not the same thing as "favoring."

Americans now feel entitled to spend nearly a third of their adult lives in retirement. Their jobs are less physically demanding than their parents' were, but they're retiring younger and typically start collecting Social Security by age 62. Most could keep working - fewer than 10 percent of people 65 to 75 are in poor health - but, like Bartleby the Scrivener, they prefer not to.

How dare people actually spend part of their lives enjoying some leisure time instead of running the 9-to-5 treadmill? In particular, how dare they stop working before infirmity and senility set in and rob them of the ability to enjoy anything?