god dam, that sounds downright utopian. to be done with work at 54 is to have the opportunity for an entire 3rd act in life.
Old people in China do all kinds of stuff, they’re usually out and about chilling with friends and family. Public parks are full of them dancing and exercising. There is a social life available to most they is missing in Western countries.
my parents sort of retired around 65, and that was because they were boomers who saved and were fortunate. and even with that, though they have traveled a lot–not what i would do with my retirement, but whatever–a lot of their time is spent managing the symptoms of physical decline.
the retiring genXers at my work are retiring far later than they’d like, because the retirement options are shit, they are broke, and they need the bumped up healthcare because they all seem to be in far worse shape now than the boomers were at their age. one guy is like wiped out, mid 60s and gonna have to work another 10 years, because his wife has health problems and she’s 10 years younger than him, so he’ll be 75 by the time she can get medicare.
the job lock aspect of private health insurance is brutal. even if you have worked your whole life at a decent job, paid off your little house and vehicle, have a really solid amount of savings, and don’t have kids to support you still gotta work because getting a new hip or a stent without insurance is like game-fucking-over in bills.
Yes and that is the one-two punch of American private healthcare. The industry itself is parasitic, sucking up massive profits for doing nothing except prevent care and haggle down treatments. And for the wider bourgeoisie, by tying healthcare to employment, it disciplines labor better than any Pinkerton ever could.
The toll it takes on human life is incredible given how completely unnecessarily all of it is.
we should all aspire to become chinese-level aunties and uncles before we’re 60. just hanging out doing taiji in the park in our pajamas, loudly playing chess with our buddies, evening guangchangwu in ugly tights with a suitcase speaker blasting old people bass, then hanging out at the night market before going home for 9hrs of solid sleep
And best of all, China makes sure to build enough stuff so everyone can enjoy life. One thing boomers in the US do that I don’t necessarily fault them for is that they love life and keep participating in society, where it irks me is their nimbyism so they refuse to let more stuff be built so everyone, young and old, can participate in society. Of course, when there’s scarcity, people with deeper pockets (like older people who’s homes have seen some of the fastest value appreciation in world history) will always win.
Sure, sometimes I can envy that boomers got “lucky”, but seeing those videos of people young and old coexisting helps establish its largely a non-antagonistic contradiction.
I see that Economist finally got honest about their own motto
nope! that is an accurate depiction lmao
https://www.economist.com/china/2021/06/22/chinas-average-retirement-age-is-ridiculously-low-54
Assuming they start working at 18, this is 36 years of work. Multiplied by average annual working hours in 2017 (not great, but it’ll do for this comparison) - 2,174 hours, that’s 78,264 hours worked in a life.
The German retirement age will be 67. Assuming they work at 18, this is 49 years of work. Multiplied by average working hours in 2017 of 1,354, that’s 66,346 hours worked in a German life.
So, Chinese people are actually being overworked, you might say. Perhaps their retirement should be lower…
Americans have the same retirement age as Germans, and annual working times of 1,765 hours, so they work 86,485 hours per life.
I will remind you all that China is the only one with an actually growing economy where the quality of life is improving. American workers are getting absolutely shafted.
Actually, it’s even worse.
The healthy life expectancy for men in China (in 2019) is 67, so that would mean 13 healthy retirement years. Although yes, preferably I’d just be looking at older workers to get a more accurate number, so let me remind you that this is only a cursory comparison between countries - nothing definitive. The healthy life expectancy in Germany is 70. Yikes, only 3 healthy retirement years. And in the United States it is… 65. So American men need to work while disabled for two years, and then “enjoy” their unhealthy retirement…
In actuality men and women have different retirement ages in China. Not everyone is retiring at these exact years. I am generalizing some of this data a bit much. Women live a little longer, but are also generally forced into domestic labor… maybe they work more in total, maybe less, idk, not figuring that out right now.
“China’s retirement age is too low.”
The government’s efforts to raise it face stiff opposition
Functioning democracy safeguarding the people’s interests against bureaucratic rule
Chinese people are living longer, happier lives, but at what cost?
