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In a policy unchanged since 1950's women in China retire at age 50 and men at age 60 years. China is aging faster than the US and it's population that is over 60 years is 20% of the population. Over the 5 years to 2025 about 40 million people will retire, about the size of the population of Canada. There will be 36 million fewer people in the working age population ages 16-59 to support them. Chinese migrant workers and families work longer hours than white collar workers making it difficult to raise the retirement age to European levels in a short time. The government's approach is to get public support by creating awareness about the problem and change the retirement age gradually over a longer period. The first step will be bringing the retirement age of women to the level of men. The 10 year gap in retirement age of men and women is not found in any advanced economy.

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British establishment Labour's Mandelson and Conservative's Prince Andrew -the Epstein connections in the Epstein files and the political fallout for Labour and the Conservatives. This happens as they approach local elections with the Greens, Liberals, and Reform UK already taking 50% of Labour's 2024 general election voters with disillusionment over results in the first 2 years of Labour. Labour assumed it had the immigration issue under control with some headline grabbing  stories of it taking tough action when it won in 2024. That has not deterred illegal migrant trafficking. Labour soon lost sight of the ball, and did not realize that the cultural issues around excessive tolerance of such migration itself had not been resolved such as ECHR rights which were completely misinformed when written to approve of such illegal migrants rights and ignore the citizens and women of the neighborhoods in which people had lived for generations. After decade and half of Conservative Cameron austerity Labour needed time to wrestle with the issues of levelling facing Britain's north and the Midlands. Instead Labour found itself on the backfoot and Farage was brought out of retirement after issues in towns like Epping and all across England, where migrants were put in hotels as women and locals loudly disapproved. Labour thought under Conservatives  that over 50,000 were in asylum hotels in 2023 and this has come down to 35,000 in 2025 under Labour, as a kind of improvement not realizing that the public mood questioned the whole idea of the migrants in hotels itself, of little tolerance for any illegal migrants in neighborhoods itself. It shows the political processes have great importance and a series of mediocre leaders from Blair, Brown, Cameron, Johnson, Sunak, Starmer and Farage over a period of 4 decades can change the trajectory for nations and region. A similar period for India in 1720-1760 with warring factions and regions inviting British East India Company troops to opposing sides fractured the country and led to losing its grip on itself. Gandhiji describes this for introspection in Hind Swaraj (1905) not taking the easy road most now discredited anticolonial writers after 1950 took in Asia, Africa and Latin America. Where does this leave Britain in 2026? It can only come to grips with it knowing that the quality of education, quality of leadership, honesty and introspection of the kind suggested by Teddy Roosevelt in Applied Idealism in his Autobiography, chapter 5, and in Gandhiji's Hind Swaraj are essential.  ...

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Danielle Collins takes a new look at reversing retirement as she gets a lot of support from young women fighting endometriosis, following her own battle with it and how it has affected her playing tennis.

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What is the right retirement age for health is an important question. Dana Smith points out that the number 65 that started with the system of social security started in US  by Bismarck in Germany in 1889 and Social Security in the US in 1935 by president Franklin Roosevelt has no basis on the grounds of health of the population and longevity. Since that time people live much longer to about 74 years and for 45% of the people in the US who are in the knowledge based work the ability to work continues past 65 or 67 years.  For the remaining people who are in professions involving physical work such as construction or in the restaurant industry the situation is quite different, requiring a category based retirement age that takes this into account. For these people health outcomes would deteriorate if they continued to work in stressful work for longer. Another factor to be considered is to ask what this means as a national goal. Would a nation aspire to give its citizens an opportunity to travel, broaden their minds and engage in other activities they would like to do which they could not do while working full time. In this situation these years after retirement could give people a chance to live happier lives. It is not to be taken lightly as the current protests in France show. Age discrimination in France also plays a part as there may be fewer years of work opportunity if employers stay away from people over 50 years or discriminate against women. With childcare and care for elderly, part time jobs, women work longer for smaller pensions than men, leading to a sense of unfairness. French protests show that the outcomes need to be weighed carefully from a health and national goal standpoint and the retirement age set accordingly with flexibility for harder work.  Following the pandemic years and the cost of living crisis the protests in France show the need to develop a national consensus on the issue of retirement age, and rules plus culture change in industry that ban age discrimination for workers. Special provisions for women and people in construction so that the system is seen as fair to all parts of the workforce. ...

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Why are the French  protesting so strongly against extending the retirement age from 62 to 64. It is a question of French identity, of hard won rights to work and leisure that are seen as defining France. It also affects women differently who have a harder time working longer so that their benefits would be affected. Age discrimination is large in France so that it works against extending the age till the culture changes. Worse it comes at a time of stress for working families, and a cost of living crisis.

NYT says that when this retirement system was introduced after World War II it helped bring a fractured country together. A hard won social and labor right not easily forfeited, says NYT.

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Heather O'Reilly 37 year returns to Club soccer playing for Shelbourne in Ireland. She hopes to compete in the Champions League for women and is the same age as Ronaldo who plays for Manchester United. She was three years into retirement before she decided to give it a go in Ireland.

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Retirement covers a full one third of life after a career in today's better health and life expectancy. Yet people thinking of life in retirement have either trite or vague ideas of life in retirement a study at MIT Agelab shows. Men use responses such a "hobbies,"travel," and "relax." Women in contrast after child rearing efforts as primary caregivers for children and elderly parents use terms as "peace" calm" and "time." The advantages of staying active, working part time that are shown to aid cognitive function during today's longer lives are not fully grasped.

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A vocal advocate for women in tennis, Andy Murray of Britain, plans to retire in 2019 after chronic hip pain. Murray was a strong supporter of women in the game and an ally for the WTA Tour where women feel underappreciated compared to men in tennis.

Naomi Osaka, the U.S. Open champion found a new hitting partner in Andy Murray in Bribane, Australia recently. Murrray was taught tennis by his mother Judy. He was the first to hire a women's coach Amelie Mauresmo to his team in 2014. Among those who admire Murray is Billie Jean King, who helped establish women's tennis in the seventies. A first round loss at the Australian Open to Bautista Agut has led to Murray considering retirement.

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Over 1 million people turn out across France in protests against pension reform that takes the retirement age from 62 to 64 years. Women feel more discriminated against in this reform. The prevalent age discrimination bias in France makes it harder to find jobs after 50 years, even harder after 60 years. There is a perception that the reform is not the first priority so soon after a pandemic with its after effects, and that other changes including age discrimination and the way it affects women need to be tackled before pension reform. The government lacks an overall majority, the eight unions are united in protests and possible strikes, creating a situation in which French president Macron needs to rethink his whole approach on addressing pension reform- when tacking the cost of living crisis and climate change, energy transition, are other priorities that need more attention at this time.

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China's population is aging quickly as a result of the one child policy and better medical care. The population of people 15-59 years will decline by 65 million or 5.5% by 2030, according to UN projections. China's retirement age is surprisingly low 60 for men and 55 for women for civil servants and white collar workers. The population will age faster and at lower income levels than in South Korea or Taiwan.

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UN projections show median age of Chinese citizens will overtake that of Americans in 2020. Yet China's median income is only a quarter of that in the U.S. Life expectancy in China today is 76, very close to that in America. In 1960 a Chinese person born that year had life expectancy of 44 years.  China is aging at the pace of Japan, and a bit slower than South Korea, but wealth per capita was three times higher in South Korea and Japan than China when the aging accelerated. A Chinese woman fertility rate today is 1.6 compared to 4.6 in 1973. A prominent Chinese economist says in a recent report that median age in China in 2050 will be nearly 50 compared to 42 in America and 38 in India. WSJ cites figures showing China will have gone from 9 working age adults per retired person in 2000 to just two by 2050. So how to pay for retirement of all these workers today? Government spending on retirement is a tenth of GDP, about half the level in older wealthier countries, and increase in spending will impact growth. Today this is about 6.2% potential growth rate. It also pushes wages up with a shortage of workers in cities such as Shenzen and X'ian even with the use of new technology and robots in factories.  Solutions are to raise retirement age currently set at 60 years, increasing labor force participation of women as Japan has done, and increasing productivity. China has transferred 10% equity stakes in four state owned financial firms to the national pension fund to shore up its finances as estimates from the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences show it running out of money in 2035. Traditionally children supported families in old age but the one child policy leads to situations where the child is working or in another city. In Suzhou near Shanghai, a retirement business sends 1800 helpers to private homes and 130,000 retired people, in a new trend. The city administration of Shanghai plans 400 neighborhood care centres for elderly by 2022, with health clinics, drop in facilities, and homes. 12,000 elderly people use one centrre in central Shanghai area of Changning. ...

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It may come as a surprise that changing retirement age in France faced huge opposition yet was enacted into law for moving it from 62 years to 64  years in 2023,  but was never acted upon in China where it is 60 years. China raises its retirement age for men to 63 years from 60, to be done incrementally a few months at a time till 2040. For women it goes from 50 to 58 years, 55 years for blue collar workers. Why the hesitation. It appears that there is much age related discrimination in China so that many workers feared they would be laid off in their fifties and not get pensions till 60-64 years. This could have created much unrest as it did even in France where there is more discrimination for age than other parts of the EU.  When countries have aging populations do they have an alternative? How could they support pensions at 60 or 62 years as in France and in China? In China the social safety net is weak which leads to more resistance and caution by the government fearing unrest. Yet it is not the best time to tackle this problem as the economy slows, resources are constrained, and there is higher unemployment. ...

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With surplus talent, lower longevity rates and a small industrial base economy China could work for decades with a 1950's policy of men's retirement age set at 60 years and women at 50 years. This is changing as society ages rapidly, people living longer and a large industrial base economy.

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Russia's economic growth is estimated by the Finance Ministry at 2.1% for 2017, the first year of growth after the recession of 2014. Putin is up for re-election in March 2018, after the elections in 2012 were marred by protests. Consumer demand is up and the main reason for sustained growth that is expected. This is a favorable environment for the election. Though incomes are hit, Putin remains a favored candidate by two thirds of voters, according to polling by Levada Center. The changes needed include moving up the retirement age from today's 55 years for women,and 60 for men.

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People at street protests in France are increasingly asking whether the pension reform from 62 to 64 years is that much of a priority in 2023 when people are just recovering from the pandemic and a cost of living crisis with high inflation and high energy costs stemming from the Ukraine conflict. The independent Pension Advisory Council stated "pension spending is not out of control, it is relatively contained." More people turned out than before in a second round of street protests by over half a million people in Paris. The reforms come down harder on women who worked part time to raise children. Age discrimination for jobs in France is widespread. The pandemic has created additional stress and burnout at work leading to early retirement in the US and other countries. Some of the pension changes are being used to finance an expansion of the military budget. Social justice is seen as at risk in France in a society that is socially fragmented.

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Japan has accomplished a remarkable transformation of its workforce and its economy even as the working age population is declining. For years Japan was seen as a stagnant economy with a rapidly aging population. In recent years Japan has shown how a change in policy can work. Since 2012 working age population declined by 4.7 million, yet the number of people working increased by 4.4 million. The proportion of the population in the workforce rose sharply since 2012. To do this Japan turned to three underutilized parts of its workforce and population- the elderly, women and new immigrants. Japan has pursued an active policy of reviving the economy by bringing women into the workforce and breaking taboos on new immigrants. In 2004 Japan raised retirement age from 60 to 65, and then made it mandatory for companies to raise or abolish the retirement age, or introduce a system for re-employing workers who retire. This has changed Japan a lot with Japanese men working well into their 60's and 70's. In the west coast city of Kanagawa which now has a bullet train to Tokyo, out migration was a big problem that added to a declining workforce. The head of Ohara, a family owned company that makes desserts tried a novel method of advertising to seniors in apartment blocks and starting attracting seniors to fill worker shortages. It found that seniors came to work on time, performed even tedious tasks, and brought a great deal of experience. Since then the regional government has started programs to get more retirees and women into the workforce. The special programs teach small companies to adapt to the needs of retiree workers who can work in shorter shifts of few hours and do less physical jobs. Women need predictable hours to pickup children from school and shorter work weeks, for which the regional government program helps companies adapt by sending in specialists to guide the companies. As a result female participation in the workforce, for very long a big handicap is no longer so. Female participation has jumped to 63%, higher even than that in the OECD where the average is 62 years.  Japanese women had a M curve that meant they worked most in their 20's. less in the 30's with children, and more in the 50's. First the government tried to correct this with extended parental leave, increased childcare, and rewarding companies with good work-life balance. Then in 2009 the effort accelerated with employers required to offer 6 hour days if a worker asked for this. Under prime minister Abe's "womenomics" effort child care was significantly expanded- by 2015 Tokyo went from 28 to 38 spots open for every 100 two year olds. Alongside these efforts the Abe government tried to get companies to rethink their assumptions about quantity of work and overtime as productive effort. One could work shorter hours and be productive, and the old notions were seen as resulting in lower productivity. As fathers with parental leave took on more responsibility the changes transformed the attitudes for women at work. Most remarkable is the quiet change in immigration policy. The government allowed foreign construction workers to address shortages for work on the 2020 Olympics. It introduced a 3-5 year visas program for nursing care workers. Two new categories of visas will add 340,000 additional blue collar workers over next 5 years. The total foreign born workers in Japan doubled from 2012 to 2017 to 1.3 million. ...

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Of 161 million people employed in 2024 about 40-50 million in vulnerable groups living from paycheck to paycheck and without savings to support them in a medical emergency is a real problem in the US economy. It is why even as unemployment looks good at 4% and inflation down to 3% there is a lot of angst for Americans for cost of living. Fifteen million baby boomers who will turn 65 years for retirement between now 2024 and 2030 face a situation where they have less than 250,000 in savings. Many who were born between 1945 and 1962 called baby boomers are in this group with diminished savings. In the prime of their careers they were hit by the 2009 financial crisis caused by bank speculation risk taking. They also were hit by the pandemic in the peak years of income growth. Other such vulnerable groups are young people with high student who are being helped by president Biden. There are also the low income groups that have been hit by medical costs and a family emergency that were pushed into poverty. Other groups in the millions are the people at the low income levels who are working paycheck to paycheck because of housing costs. About one fourth or 25% of apartment renters are people whose households budget shows 50% or more going to housing costs which have increased 20% in the last 2-3 years, which includes the pandemic years 2022 and 2023. President Biden seeks to limit apartment rent price increases to 5% and Kamala Harris has proposed help for families for the portion above 30% of household income going to rent. The jump in cost of living from automobiles, automobile repair and housing, cost of groceries have affected other groups with large credit card debt. This is a result of the supply chain concentration in China which comes from American business overconcentrating production in China and previous administrations doing little about this. Biden's answer is to bring jobs and manufacturing knowhow and investment back to America. During the pandemic some people resisted getting vaccinated and lost their jobs, a million people lost their lives, others took early retirement seeing the stress ful lives during the pandemic, others including women quit to take care of children. This has reduced the labor supply to business leading to tight supply higher prices.The result is that there are about 5 such vulnerable groups each with about 5-10 million people for a total of about 40-50 million people at risk. For these people the cost of living presents huge challenges, including childcare. It includes young people and retirees, single women and families on low income hourly wages that have not kept up with inflation.  ...

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The point at which pensions begin and retirement begins is thought of normally as 65 years. This is changing. Experts on ageing at Britain's ONS, Office of National Statistics say 70 years is replacing 65 years as the age at which people can work and contribute to society, working later in their careers and doing voluntary work. This would help ease pressure on pension system financing and cost of social service to elders. Because of rising longevity and improvements in healthcare, diet and lifestyles people age 70 had characteristics of people age 65 in 1997, say ONS experts. ONS looks at a new way to measure ageing. Do not use chronological years from birth, work backwards from remaining life expectancy and operate on the basis of 15 years as the marker for old age. Under this method start of old age is 70 for men and 72 for women. As people over 65 years is approaching a fourth of the population this fresh thinking gives more room for pension system sustainability, and helping engage people at work for longer more productive lives. Both for the economy and personally for the individual. ...

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The austerity plan that prime minister Belusconi of Italy set before parliament on August 29th was quite different to the plan he agreed to in negotiations with the European central bank. The negotiations led to support by the ECB with purchase of $30 billion of Italian bonds. Berlusconi left out a surtax on top incomes in the private sector. It also left out savings to be made at the local government level by mayors and governors. Berlusconi proposed a new pension calculation which would postpone the retirement of Italians by excluding military and university service. Also being prosposed by Berlusconi and opposed by unions is the extension of the retirement age for women. Unions say this will make it harder for Italian women to care for their grandchildren in a country without an adequate system of daycare. Slowly the whole package of austerity measures seems to be coming apart and this alarms ECB President Claude Trichet and his successor Mario Draghi.

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The 3 week old government in Italy, led by former EU commissioner, Mario Monti, announced a three year plan of 30 billion euros in tax increases, spending cuts, reform of pension plans, and efforts to boost growth. Monti said at a news conference that "Italians are to blame for our public debt, and we risk compormising everything we've accomplished in the past 60 years." Under the new plan retirement age for women in the private sector would be increased from 60 to 66 years by 2018, bringing it in line with retirement ages for men. Italy's Labor minister, Elsa Fornero, broke down in tears as she described the change, saying it was necessary to avoid "collective impoverishment." Italy faces the difficult task of refinancing $400 billion in short term debt coming up for renewal in 2012, just as bond yields for Italy have spiked to over 7%. Because Italy lacks an extensive day care system, women helped raise grandchildren after early retirement at age 60. Other changes were to impose a 1.5% one time tax on money repatriated back to Italy under a tax amnesty scheme setup by former premier Berlusconi. Action was taken against widespread tax evasion by banning cash payments above 1000 euros. Stimulus measures of 10 billion euros are designed to boost small business and reduce high youth unemployment running at 29%. Companies get tax breaks of 2 billion euros if they hire young people....

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Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg, the oldest person on the U.S. Supreme Court dies at 87. The U.S. Supreme Court is unique in that there is no retirement age as in India and other countries. She died of pancreatic cancer. She is one of the rare jurists in that she continued to work almost to the end. She was unique in other ways because she got along well with colleagues on the court of different persuasion. Justice Scalia who was the complete opposite in thinking and views than Ginsburg said that this did not matter much as Ginsburg was "fun to be with." Former president Clinton nominated Ginsburg in 1993. Recently Justices Gorsuch and Kavanaugh joined Roberts, Alito, and Thomas,  for a 5-4 majority on the court for conservatives. Ginsburg was a woman's rights advocate in the 1970's. She will be missed mostly for her vigorous personality and feisty attitude to life working and being active even with her health condition. The death of Ginsburg means that the court is now deadlocked with 4 to 4 and no majority for conservatives or liberals. The country has also changed. Both conservatives and liberals claim they uphold the constitution of the country. Ginsburg saw this as the inclusiveness the founders intended- for women, and minorities. The conservatives see this also from the vantage of inclusiveness as the country has splintered into those who are largely college educated and tech savy, and the high school educated and less tech savy more rural and in small town that lost jobs and social services from the shift of manufacturing to China. The conservatives  see the lack of inclusiveness for the rural communities and small towns left out in the tech booms of the last three decades and shift of manufacturing overseas. Cultural attitudes add another layer to basic economic issues and a sense of alienation on both sides. In this climate and with an approaching election in 41 days the Republicans want to nominate their conservative choice supported by their Senate majority, and the Democrats want to block this appointment till after the election.   ...

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Improvements in birth rate and more immigrants in Germany are making the demographic picture look better in Germany. About 13 million people are expected to reach retirement age in just a few years, according to Prof Enzo Weber, Institute of Employment Research. This means 13 million new pensioners. Birthrate today is about 1.4 children per woman. At this level of birthrate and even a low rate of immigration of 100,000 per year Germany's population of 83 million today would decline over time. Between 1990 and 2008 more people left Germany than came in with a net outflow. Some level of immigration would be the only way to keep the level of people in the workforce of 43 million today to become stable in the future. This would be needed to support the increasing number of pensioners. Yet the general aging of the population is expected to continue. And a high level of immigration in too short a time such as from the Syrian refugee crisis creates other tensions in the social fabric of society. Germany's very homogenous society faces a challenge that goes beyond the politics of the refugee crisis of today. Too many immigrants in too short a time is not the solution, immigration has become too politicized in today's context, good and early integration of immigrants through language and culture training needs to be established. Prof. Weber points out that the influx of immigrants from Southern and Eastern Europe has helped the labor market, and there is no reason that the labor market could not dry up with the number of people retiring soon. Tackling that will involve making family and career life choices easier and enabling flexible work-life choices, increasing retirement age, and some level of healthy immigration. A demographic summit will be held on March 16th in Berlin to look at the problem. ...

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Joe Biden was about 78 when he entered the presidency. Reagan ended his presidency at age 79 in 1989. It is about 35 years since Reagan, and advances of medicine are making it possible for people to work longer with retirement ages extended to age 65 in many countries. Mr. Biden looks healthy and brings much experience from his decades in the Senate of the US. His 36 years in the Senate are the longest for any president. Turning 80 should not be a hurdle in that sense if one is healthy and the country needs this experience. During a foreign affairs crisis with China and Russia this experience of 12 years as ranking member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee is invaluable. More so as Biden reflects America's values. During his 36 years in the Senate he put forward the Violence Against Women's legislation in Congress. As Vice President he continued to advocate for working class and middle class and for families. One has to go back to Harry Truman to sense this kind of fervent and resolute action for workers and families, and for the American people. As president he passed the $1 trillion legislation for Workers and Families and to fight Climate Change. Building America Back Better is one of its goals and further investment in America and its people is being pushed forward.  Mr. Biden is living at a time when there is a struggle for the soul of the nation and he believes in his role in this struggle which gives him the energy he needs for his role in 2024 for continuing the work he has begun. ...

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Getting savy employers to pay attention and getting employees to have a better sense of who they are, provides the topic of this article in the WSJ. It shows that different types of employee behaviour can be seen after two years of the pandemic, and employers need to pay attention to their needs.  There are ambitious employees and work to live types. Work to live advocates have put lifestyle and health as priorities learning from the pandemic. The great resignation and employers facing worker shortages have given them an opportunity to look for more flexibility in work life situations. Related to work to live type are double duty professionals of which women form the larger part. During the pandemic women took on more responsibilities for children with lockdowns and school closures. This also meant a more stressful life. All of these types of employees are now in the workplace. Employers can get better results by paying careful attention to worker needs. The types are not exclusive as double duty professionals also have the drive and the resilience to match ambitious employees in tackling new positions and responsibilities. The double duty professionals also share the aspirations of work to live advocates for a better work life balance that gives rest and relaxation, home and family, the importance it deserves for a full and complete life. There is one more type which is also part of the workplace that is entirely different. It is the disoriented new employee who has been left alone to find out about new responsibilities at work virtually without the necessary human contact. Related to this type is the desperate to connect type which is the type that has lived in relative isolation during the pandemic and is now hungering for human contact. There is also one more type closer to retirement that is the zest for life type that can be very productive in the workplace because of its experience and talent if given the chance. This type is not just there for the paycheck or career progress. Here the zest for life means the desire to connect with others and learn new things. Companies and management can accomplish more and be more responsive to needs of their employees by understanding these types and their different needs. Dorie Clark ,who teaches executive education at Duke and Columbia University ,says this is important for companies to retain talented employees and get the most out of them by understanding early on what motivates them. ...