Sorry, I misread your comment. I had understood it as "work more as you get closer to 80", and not the inverse, which is the premise of his suggestion.
Maybe wanting to stop working at 65 and step into full retirement is particular to the American system. Most 70 year olds I know would like some kind of job/retirement hybrid: work 30 hours a week, have longer vacation times, more flexible hours, not losing the job when you have to take a leave for medical reasons, etc.
Ah right, I see that reading now. I didn't mean that working hours is proportional to age; just that you work "proportionally less" pre-65 in the sense that you work more post-65 than the current norm of "none", and then reallocate those extra person-years of productivity to reduce the pre-65 work week.
Re:“People simply empty out”
by sliverstorm on Thursday August 15, 2013 @10:22PM
(#6221872)
I think the drop-off is more precipitous than you believe, at least for the jobs that require physical ability & mobility.
Note that this proposal is also in the context of a system that provides full support for job retraining and unemployment pay in the gaps (and a good disability and mental-health system), so if you run into serious problems you have options.