SOMETHING NEW – RETIREMENT
Frank E. Fain, PhD
“Understanding how retirement has evolved will help you understand why retirement is the way it is today” AIG Sun America website
Many people think retirement has been around forever yet in reality it is something quite new in human history. Prior to the beginning of the 20th century most people did not retire. They worked from childhood through senior adulthood and then they died.
Work was an integral part of a person’s entire life. It was assumed that everyone would work to provide for themselves until they were overwhelmed by sickness or old age. Often the “retirement stage” of life was measured in weeks or months not decades.
Our modern retirement concept is a product of the industrial revolution. As labor forces migrated from the farm to the factory workers with agility, adaptability, speed and strength were needed for maximum productivity. Older “craftsman” workers, once valued in the custom piece manufacturing, were not well suited for the demands of automated production. Around 1900 the concept of older worker retirement was first implemented in Germany as assembly-line work, with its emphasis on speed, created the need for stronger and quicker workers. German industrial leaders looked for a way to encourage older “craftsman” to leave the workforce to make room for workers more suited to the automated system.
Germany’s Kaiser suggested age 65 would be a good time for a worker to retire from the workforce. To encourage retirement the government decided to provide a pension for any worker age 65 or above who would retire from work. At this time a young American named Franklin Roosevelt was living in Germany and witnessed the development of this government sponsored retirement plan.
Retirement came to the United States during the Great Depression of the 1930s. With a national unemployment rate of over 25%, government and industrial leaders started looking for ways to get idle younger workers employed. Since poverty affected the young and old alike, leaders were looking for a financial program that would provide a financial incentive for older workers to leave the workforce to open up positions for younger workers. President Franklin Roosevelt proposed the Social Security program to provide a financial “safety net” for older workers so they could retire. The Social Security Act of 1935 officially instituted retirement for individuals age 65 and older in United States society.
In the 1940-50’s the U.S. Tax Code encouraged corporations to develop pension plans to help employees “save” for retirement. In 1965 the Medicare and Senior Citizen’s Act funded medical, nutritional and recreational services enabling more seniors to retire. The 1980-90’s Government Tax Codes encouraged individuals to personally save for retirement through IRS’s and 401K plans. In 2001 the first generation who lived their entire life with retirement as a reality retired from the workforce to enjoy this stage of life.
Facing perhaps decades of retirement today’s retires want this life stage to be a time of learning, growth, productivity, purpose and meaning. These desires provide the church with new ministry opportunities. The question is “Will we take advantage of this new ministry the Lord has provided to us?”
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