That retirement is mostly claimed to bring the utmost level of contentment in every person’s life is the idea that seems to be refuted on account of the likelihood of physical disorders emerging for the retired in addition to their inadequate income.
One major drive of the impracticality of such a notion would be that being aged, those who are retired are of high chance to be riddled with a number of inefficiencies in the mechanism of their bodies. Examples of such physical malfunctions could be seen in cardiovascular diseases, arthritis, and Parkinson which would appear to deter this population from accomplishing their daily tasks and even pursuing their personal interests. This can make the retired highly dependent upon others ranging from their own families to nurses. This could thwart their self-confidence, gradually making them detach from their surroundings. The lack of communal contact, thus, in the long run, would give rise to the possibility of their depression.
A second rationale behind the failure of the theory of the retired being the most contented could be that the pension that this elderly population receive from government would not be sufficient for the pensioners to cope with their day-to-day sheer costs such as health, accommodation, and family expenditures. These prohibitive expenses, albeit to some extent possible to be ameliorated through having part-time jobs, seem to be not fully met. This unaffordability could act as a stumbling block on the retired’s mental tranquility, inundating them with long-term repercussions of high levels of stress. This tension, accordingly, could minimize their happiness.
In the light of the above-mentioned analysis, concerning the question of whether retirement can maximize a person’s satisfaction or not, this argument appears to be debunked due to the feasibility of health-related issues as well as monetary concerns for the elderly.