Are there ethical considerations to early retirement?

[Eclectic12]

... One thing I do have trouble with are those collecting very generous pensions being favored for work over new recruits. There seems to be an old boy's or old girl's network in the teaching profession where substitute work is given to such retirees. Meanwhile there are young recently graduated teachers who are unable to gain experience. (My wife worked with such a young lady in government.)

I believe this depends on the powers that be at each board.

Though the individual's decisions can have a huge impact. My brother-in-law ignored the advice from friends and relatives for the first part of his career then was upset that only the Catholic board was calling him for substitute teaching. When he applied the advice, then became a known quantity - he was working steadily.

If I remember, I'll have to ask if he knows what the retiree to starting out teachers in his school board, now that he is full time.


Interesting about the retirees - I guess my relatives who have retired from teaching are of a different mindset. The only one I can think of who was willing to work as a substitute after retirement was in a farming community, where she might have worked five days of the school year.


Of course I found the provincial gov't employees who retired on Friday, were back at their desk as an independent consultant on Monday and bluntly said "management needs to hire someone from June through to the end of Sept as I don't work those months anymore" irritating as well.


Cheers

[peterk]

I intend to be retired by 35. If things go poorly, 40.
What a ridiculous notion that I wouldn't be contributing fully. To counter, I would make the following points.

1) If I make 80k a year and you make 30k I am paying 5x more tax than you (just income tax). If you work 40 years and I work 8 I don't have to feel bad, right?

2) If you're a stay at home parent.... You stop working at 25-35. pay no tax, get huge tax break for your spouse, spend massive amounts of other people's tax money on your child's health and education That sounds like you're really pulling your weight, doesn't it? and almost half the population is doing it...

3) What exactly am I paying for in taxes anyways? If 20% goes to actual services, 20% to infrastructure, and 60% to bureaucracy, taxes are a pretty darn inefficient way of me spending my money.

4) Going along with number 3, if the average 30k worker who's paying $3800/year in taxes, and 60% of that goes to waste. All I would need to do is volunteer or donate directly into society about $1500 of my time/money and I'll be doing my part. Sounds pretty easy for a retired person...

5) You assume your job is actually doing something beneficial. All you need is a desk job filling in spread sheets and you're off the hook for contributing to society? I would guess 90% of the jobs that people do (including mine) are either a detriment to or a drain on the well being of society. And that the only net beneficiaries those are wealth accumulators or glutenous consumers, neither of which have the ethical high ground.

[Square Root]

I think the original question must have been rhetorical? It did generate some good posts but anybody who really thinks it is unethical to retire early ( on their own assets) has other major issues, IMHO.
Edit. I went back and read tne original post and the OP was referring to people who retire "on a shoesting" and thus " not contributing enough to society" This makes for a more reasonable question, so I temper my comment somewhat.

[Jon_Snow]

Yeah this thread, and it's very premise, always gives me a bit of a chuckle.