Old Age is an Institution

Corporations institutionalize managerial and professional positions in a hierarchical pyramid in which many young professionals begin work at a lower and wider level of the pyramid where positions are numerous. However, as the professionals start climbing up the pyramid in their careers, the number of positions rapidly declines at higher levels. The pyramid gets narrower as the professionals climb up into fewer and fewer positions. Since they usually either move up or out in their career climb, as the young professionals begin aging, more and more of them are forced out to look for jobs elsewhere or eventually, to retire. This article develops a simple model that shows how this particular way of organizing work results in premature retirement and aging for many workers. Alternative ways of organizing work are discussed in which premature aging and retirement do not take place. Furthermore, a number of implications are explored and various projections made all of which show that the so-called future crisis in the Social Security and Medicare Systems in the United States is exaggerated. If reform is really needed, what is called for is adjustment in the way work is organized, not abandonment of security for the elderly.