I think it's mostly ego. You're a powerful and successful person, the kind of type-A personality who can get all the way to the top of a fairly exclusive profession, and you wind up thinking you're irreplaceable. "I could retire... but I don't trust that the person who replaces me will be as good as I am."

They're not even entirely wrong in the short term -- the Democrats in particular seem to have been doing a really awful job of nurturing younger leadership candidates over the last decade or so. Possibly because of the geriatrics who run the party feeling (subconsciously?) threatened by the push they'd then face to retire...?

Also dollars. Don’t forget about the dollars.

It's there, but I suspect it applies more earlier in their careers. Once we're at the "I only have a few years left to live anyway" point, it's probably less of a motivation.

What dollars?

I think with Ginsberg, maybe she wanted to hang on until there was a Democrat President to fill her spot.

What are they going to do, subject themselves to the cruel joke that is medicare and social security? Return to the workforce? Greet people at wal-mart? Flip burgers? Why would they give up power and money and privilege to be turned out onto the street like a common dog?

We’re talking about people who worked long past the typical retirement age, and who had (at least in Feinstein‘s case) no need to fear running out of money.

I don't know about RBG and judges in general but congressmen in their time in office make a lot of things happen, they start a lot of projects, some of which are long running, and many of them have a personal interest in seeing things that they started through, whether that's for corrupt reasons or not. Think of the changes America has undergone due to legislation since the 70s, some of the people that spearheaded those changes are still around and want to make sure their visions persist and they can't count on someone else to do it. In some cases I'm usre that vision is lining their pockets, in others clandestine shit, and I'm sure in some they're perfectly noble pursuits.