Born to Retire: The Foreshortened Life Course

Abstract

Retirement is no longer a concern solely for the second half of life. Rather, the idea that we will someday retire is increasingly present to all adults and it is even urged on adolescents. The earliest reaches of adulthood are being colonized by frequent reminders that it takes individual effort to achieve retirement. The changing nature of pensions, the identification of retirement saving with financial markets, the politics of Social Security, the aging baby boom generation, and the interests of a powerful industry and of government are daily compelling people's attention to retirement as a lifelong goal. With retirement as adulthood's great project of deferred gratification, the result could be greater personal readiness to retire but also some ironic outcomes, such as a stronger retirement norm, reluctance to spend on children, and outsized expectations for later life.

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