I am just describing the situation as bleak, I am not saying they should retire and put even more pressure than they are going to on social security. In an ideal world these people would slip down a rung (just one, not to the bottom) and into part-time jobs and let fresh leadership take over and push innovation. But there is a more ideal world where they could retire now if they'd saved for it and hadn't run up so much debt. People don't just step down a rung though, it's not some ideal efficient labor market, they just use seniority to stay where they are. While it's obvious that a decade or two of experience can trump the 20-something hotshot more often than not - IQ peaks in the 20s and then declines but it's not as useful as people think versus experience - I am not so certain that the experience of someone in their late 60s or mid 70s can outweigh the cognitive decline they will experience (new medical research might hold some promise there I suppose).