#15 - Journalist: Many people object to mandatory retirement

[pandapaws]

I originally chose A because I thought it was related to the part of the argument about how it's not fair for people working 40+ years to to continue working. I see why A is incorrect, but had it said "anyone who is 65 years old and over who has worked and is still working has worked for 40 or more years," would it be correct? I thought that the argument was making the assumption, based off of the premises, that those who work past 65 years old have worked 40+ years, thus depriving others of opportunities.

[Dana D]

Hey Panda,

Answer choice (A) would still not be correct, because we don't need this to be true for the argument to make sense. Whether or not someone who has worked 40+ years is 65 or not, the author's argument only holds up if it's true that people would work past 65 if they were permitted to do so. Otherwise, none of the bad outcomes the author describes will ever come to fruition! For example, what if there's no mandatory retirement age but everyone who worked 40+ years is 65 (as answer choice (A) suggests) and those people all voluntarily retire. Now, the bad outcomes the author fears haven't happened, even without mandatory retirement, so their argument that we need mandatory retirement falls apart.

Hope that helps!