To the Editor:

I marvel at Mr. Spickard’s inference that retirement, as a new-fangled invention, is somehow bad and wasteful (“Why Retire When We Can Still Be Productive?” 8/31). After all, retirement takes able-bodied personnel out of the work force (who might otherwise pursue their personal enjoyment after 40 or 50 years of labor) rather than have them work until they drop dead at their work stations. There’s a Japanese word for that, too, karoshi: death by overwork.

Sure, professionals who spend their careers talking and pushing papers from comfortable chairs, interspersed with…

September 8, 2022