Successful Old People Should Stop Being Selfish And Retire

by NYC Memories   Old people with money and power should give others a chance at success. Please, just retire! In the past, transition of power in any industry has happened naturally: as one generation of youngsters enters the work force, another generation over 65 has gracefully exited into the sunset of Florida. The transition of power and opportunities has not only been important, but poignantly necessary for industries to shake things up, for equality to progress forward, for conventional methodologies to revolutionize and, perhaps most importantly, for young people to have opportunities to do something amazing. This natural transition has all but died. People are not retiring at the age of 65, partially because they can’t afford to anymore. But even those who have obtained success and have savings stacked up despite this recession are not retiring, either. Sixty-five is hardly old anymore. We have CEOs, editors, senators and professors who are 70 and 80 years old and still working. I have no problem with people keeping their lives busy, because a retirement of not doing anything can be cruel. But please, quit those posts you have been occupying for decades and do something else. Give that young person a chance to shine the way you had your chance back then. We now have youngsters who can’t find jobs not only because this recession sucks, but also because old people are choosing not to retire. They are not retiring because this new generation of “old people” think they will never die due to modern advances in medicine. They are ambitious workaholics who are also too selfish and egocentric to step aside and believe that a younger person could do just a good of a job, if not a better one. They are the first generation who have received so much: peace, prosperity and technology. And now, they don’t want to give it all up after squandering away our environment and screwing up our market. So next time when you can’t find a job, don’t blame the minority for filling some quota (that is extremely rarely the reason why you don’t get hired); just go ahead and blame the people at the top. This is why I love Anna Quindlen.  She is retiring from Newsweek. I first fell in love with her column "The Last Word" when I was 15 years old. She showed me a world of ideas and perspectives I didn’t know existed. Her writings on immigration are some of the most eloquently observant and intimately relevant I have ever read. For nine years, she has been at the forefront of discussion on subjects from oppression to fairness. She is a role model, an inspiration for young people and a woman I still aspire to become. But the time is right for her to leave, and she too agrees, because there are too many amazing journalists out there with too many stories to tell—and, after nine years, she’s had her time. I urge others to follow her choice, because there are too many young people with too many dreams who are too hungry to take this world into a whole new era. And they cannot wait.