The fresco of the Last Judgment in the Sistine Chapel of St. Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican is probably the most famous single picture in the world.But few people know Michelangelo completed the picture in 1641 when he was 66 years old.The great Florentine artist of the Renaissance was then compelled to undertake two more great frescoes – one of the Conversion of Paul and another of the Martyrdom of Peter – in a new chapel which Pope Paul III had caused to be built in the Vatican.Afterwards, he became chief architect of St. Peter’s church, for which he remodeled its central dome, one of his noblest monuments.As a matter of fact, Michelangelo continued to work almost until he died on the threshold of his ninetieth year in 1594.
Great French impressionist Claude Monet painted a number of his best pictures in the few years before his death in 1926 at the very ripe old age of 86.Konrad Adenauer, lovingly called Der Alte (The Old), continued to rule postwar Germany as its chancellor in his 90s, nursing the shambled economy back to an economic engine in Europe.Cigar-smoking George Burns of Hollywood starred in film after entertaining film before he died at almost 100.
Countless others, though not as famous as Michelangelo or Monet or Adenauer or Burns, have refused to retire and work on to make contributions in every field of human endeavor throughout the world.Millions upon millions of elderly people are ready to keep on working to let the young share their experiences or to make a self-sufficient living or to shun the gray monotony of the last years of their lives.Modern welfare states have forbidden them to do so.Retirement is made mandatory, and retirees are given pension or covered by welfare schemes.They want work but are denied.
That is being changed in many countries, but not in Taiwan.
In Japan, for instance, a new labor policy is in place to reduce the burden of old age care in a rapidly aging society.Employers are now required by law to extend the age limit for mandatory retirement, or abolish their retirement system, or keep it and rehire the retiring elderly employees who wish to continue to work.On an average, Japanese have to retire at the age of 60, and the government wants employers to let their elderly employees continue to work after that age.The government has also adopted an action plan to increase the working population of the elderly by at least 19 percent in ten years.At present, one out of every five retirees, or 21.8 percent of the people 65 years old or older, is employed.The plan aims at raising that ratio to 40 percent by 2017.
Like Japan, Taiwan is seeing its population graying fast.With the retirement age unchanged, fewer people have to work to provide for more retirees in Taiwan.The ratio will be four workers per one elderly person in 2017.Ten years later, by 2027, only two workers – 2.07, to be more exact – will have to take care of one retiree.The situation may be even worse, if the population stops growing (which is quite likely, as the birthrate continues to dip, while naturalization remains highly restrictive) and the life expectancy becomes longer (which is more likely, as better medical care is made available particularly to the aged.)
To cope with that dire situation, Taiwan has no alternative but to follow in the footsteps of Japan and other democracies in the world.The retirement age is 65 in the civil service in Taiwan.Most employers, however, retire their employees when they turn 60.That is much lower than most of the countries the world over.The retirement age in effect, according to an Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development survey, is far above 65 in Japan, South Korea, Iceland, Switzerland, Portugal, Denmark and Ireland.On the other hand, only 7.27 percent of the people above 65 years of age are employed in Taiwan, much lower than the 30.7 percent in South Korea.
By far the greater majority of retirees in Taiwan are capable of keeping their old jobs.Many of them, if not most, are more than willing to work to make the remaining years of their life fruitful.And they are facing almost two decades of life after retirement.There is no reason why they should be sent to pasture earlier than they wish.
Even for practical reasons, the government should extend the mandatory retirement age.Taiwan’s national health insurance program can hardly survive.The government has incurred at least NT$76 billion in debt to keep the program going.The interest paid for the loans has totaled NT$3.7 billion.More money has to be borrowed and more interest paid as more bread earners are forced to join the growing ranks of the elderly who need more medical care.The fact is that Taiwan cannot afford a costly government-sponsored health insurance program for all the people.As more people work, the medical care burden will be lightened.
One argument against the delay in retirement is that the job market will shrink.The market won’t shrink much, if retirees are made not on the job full time.They may shorten their working hours or work every other day.They will take a cut in pay accordingly.At any rate, something can be worked out to strike a balance between more retirees at work and job opportunities open to those who seek employment.
It is time to give more would-be retirees a chance to continue to work to remain productive members of society rather than its unwanted liability.
（本文刊載於96.04.30 China Post第4版，本文代表作者個人意見）