People often die shortly after retiring partially because of a lifetime where they could've been able to maintain their health and hobbies and lifestyle that allowed for workless living, except work demanded the majority if one's waking hours...

Um, the spike in deaths shortly after retirement is not explained by your theory.

Having your social life completely defined by and contained by work does though.

The shift to working from home, then, should provide a spike in deaths related to social isolation?

That would seem likely, as loneliness and social isolation have a much higher risk of mortality whether they have underlying conditions or not.

is it explained by the intuition that people who are about to die from various frailties first find that they are too frail to work and thus retire? (no part of which am moralizing about, just seems to make sense)

Their previous 40-50 years of working left little time to build passions and meaning to life besides working and sleeping.

Of course now that their value has been used up, they have no outlet and just sit around.

Can you explain what "their value has been used up" means beyond rhetorics?

There's a lot of ageism in professional white collar hiring. In addition, blue collar work literally wears down your body until chronic pain sets in and you can no longer provide a business owner value.

Everyone ages differently, and if you're not spry and productive as you age you'll be pushed out regardless of if you can retire.

The leisure class lived longer than average in the UK - and mostly didn't "work".

They may have been doing a different kind of work.

Yes, the kind of “work” that they were interested in. That they did because they enjoyed, not because they need a roof over their heads or progress in a rat race.

This kind of “work” wasn’t done with a primary goal of getting money. Dare I say, it was a “hobby”.

It is entirely possible to have a job that you enjoy and get paid for. Most of the jobs I've had I enjoyed very much and was paid well for them. And yeah, I needed the money to put a roof over my head, too.

If you hate your job, think about upgrading your job skills to get a job that you would like.

I'm glad that's the case for you. I also am aiming for that.

But we also have to acknowledge that simply is not true for a sizeable portion of the population.

It's also entirely possible to just do things you enjoy and not die, too.

I tried having jobs that I was interested in when I was young, but making it my job made me hate it. So I've spent the last 20 years working in IT because I dislike computers, and always have, except a few years when I was 13-15. There is no loss if working makes me hate something I already dislike--but if it was something I love, and work made me hate it, then it would be tragic.

The point (for me) is its the moment you make it a job, it becomes drudgery. so the "job" part is what I would need to avoid.

A) Have you ever read the E-Myth revisited. In it, deeeeeeeep inside the BS, there is a valuable point about not mistaking the fact of being good at doing a thing with being good at running a business that does that same thing.

B) My point was that it wasn't really work, hence the quotes. The leisure/aristocracy of the past did need to turn it into work. They simply did it because they liked it.

That's a lousy, stupid excuse for the fact that an "efficient" system based on universalizing toil in a social-Darwinian struggle for survival allowed for a leisure class.

> people often die shortly after retiring.

You know, that’s perhaps because they retired when they simply could not continue working. Perhaps they might have retired before dropping dead if that was an option.

> that’s perhaps because they retired when they simply could not continue working.

Odd how that magically coincides with turning 65.

Odd indeed, almost like they needed the money of a full retirement.

Age might be a confounding factor though, no?

I want to choose worthy efforts to struggle over. Being the corporate equivalent to a ditch digger is not my idea of a reason to live.

In America, you get to choose.

Sure, I can choose to starve any time I want.

People programmed from childhood to obey authority and do what other people ask have issues when those things go away. Big shocker.

Perhaps we can raise people to create their own paths.

> Leading a life of indolence and sloth is not healthy for the body or mind.

False dichotomy. Not working 60 hours a week != leading a life of indolence and sloth.

I bet the reason people die shortly after retiring is that mortality rates increase with age and people usually retire when they're old.