The Illness of Idleness

The vast majority of private employers require their workers to retire no later than age 65, supposedly to enjoy the sunset years of life in carefree leisure. Many firms now offer optional retirement at 62 or 60 (some demand it), or even as early as 50. Is this good? "No," said Manhattan's Dr. Irving S. Wright at last week's Houston meeting of the American Medical Association. Relatively few retired men are able to turn a former hobby or avocation into a new vocation and, in effect, start a new career to fill their lives. For the majority, early retirement is cruel. It may cover up to 30 years, or one-third of a man's whole life span. It is also, Dr. Wright argued, economically and socially unsound.

"Not for Lunch." Dr. Wright, 66, counts himself one of the fortunate exceptions to the general retirement practice: professional men, such as physicians and lawyers, and the self-employed, such as small businessmen and farmers, can go on working as long as they want. Far different is the situation of countless men at all levels in business and industry. On an arbitrary date, the executive who yesterday was worth $200,000 a year is worth nothing but his pension. The blue-collar worker may begin to draw social security, but it is not enough to live on; if he works part time and earns from $1,500 to $2,700 a year, he is docked 500 of social security for every dollar he earns. Above $2,700 he is "taxed" 100%. The result, said Dr. Wright, is either idleness or fraud, and at any level in the social or economic scale, "the illness of idleness" is deadly.

For many a man, enforced retirement is a trying ordeal; he loses contact with colleagues who have been the mainstay of his social group, and so feels excluded and rejected. In some cases he develops a state of depression marked by listlessness, poor appetite, and an increasing number of real but unnecessary ailments that drive him to the doctor. Wives, too, can become upset by having a man underfoot all day. Dr. Wright quoted one: "I married George for life, but not for lunch." This new discord, he warned, can lead to the breakup of a long marriage.

Sevens from 100. Aside from the economic and social waste involved, Dr. Wright is concerned about what he considers unfair discrimination. Biological aging is far from uniform. Some older men remain capable into their 80s of original thinking and cogent decision making. On the other hand, some men as early as 40 show the rigidity of mind and unwillingness to accept new ideas commonly charged against the aged.

It is time, Dr. Wright concludes, to approach the situation freshly and begin to test men at age 40 for changes that may interfere with their ability to do their jobs. There are, he suggests, several uncomplicated psychological and mental tests for this purpose. As a sample he noted one of the simplest: ask a man to subtract seven from 100, then seven from the remainder, and so on. "It's amazing," said Dr. Wright, "how many people can't do it."

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