Anecdotal alert. All people I know who went 'on pension' either started working again or died (at least 5 cases of high profile managers getting heart attacks or commit suicide within a year after their pension). Most people, including my father and grandfather, really did not like pressureless sitting at home. You do the vacations and the reading and hobbies but then, unless you are very dedicated (like a job), there is a hole. I believe this to become a society wide thing quite soon. Actually dedicating yourself to do something (be it painting, coding, building, whatever) as a discipline is very hard and very underestimated for people who never needed it.
I know plenty of people who retired and lived well into their 80s and even 90s.
The trick is to find something else to dedicate oneself to. One old man I know is an avid gardener, and gets up in the morning to tend to every single plant in his garden. Another one dedicated himself to Olympic sports and probably learned the name of every single athlete who competes in the games. I also know an older lady who joined a volunteer organization and found meaning in helping those in need.
While I respect people who continue to work after they retire, in my opinion they do that simply because work is their "safe zone" and they're afraid of letting go and branching out into other things. This tends to be more likely for people who own a business or practice: they feel they need to be at the helm at all times to prevent it from falling apart.
There are also people who have been workhaholics throughout their career and haven't developed any meaningful hobbies. For them, life is work, and work is life. So they chug along until they die. I have less respect for those people, because for every old person who refuses to retire, there's a younger person who isn't getting promoted to their spot, or hired.
Don't think old people retiring and making place for younger is going to help much with the diminishing job market anyway though. However, wether that is true or not, it is very important for anyone to develop some kind of passion / hobby / interest next to / instead of work.
Yes, but the point of pension, for average people, is getting the freedom to decide what you want to work on without economic pressure, as a reward for a life of contributing to society.
Which, to me, makes the article state what should be normal but is not. For people getting older and doing less or no manual labour, pension is not needed. Or even dangerous.
