Whoever advocates to lower SocSec to 50 will win the nomination in 2016, but...

[TheKentuckian]

42. You may ask. I don't think 60 is ancient or anything, it seems right around the corner.

I'm 41. What I am saying is most of us will be on the scrap heap capable or not whether we want to contribute more or feel we have given all we have and no, I don't think I will be anywhere nearly as capable even in ten years much less twenty so seen from a pretty cold and ruthless point of view, deservedly so. No question someone will be cheaper and at least nearly as effective (if not more so) and I become a "business decision".

My mind is exhausted every day, the body follows the mind, the spirit wears down in the grind and stress. Pace and ever increasing demands and loftier goals are a factor that can't be ignored.

I can't identify anyone 60 or above in any position I can reasonably aspire to, all of those close to the edge express no expectation of long term viability, the whole game is to get out be it to full blown early retirement or doing something less demanding and being in position to get on with the lower pay that is to come with that.

No, I am not at my peak.

The days of 18 hour days rolling off my back are past. I'm not hunting for that start up to make a mark in. I'm not going to stand up to working a month straight very well.
My can do is more about I can do it than running through any walls.
I have been through too much and seen to much for much faith and the extra gear such hope allows for.
My focus wanders.
Too many times I just wanna go home.
I rankle under the 25 bosses (all but one younger up to and including my VP and the one older there for the love not the paycheck and only temporarily).

No, now I get by on a what is between my ears (when not smashed to mush from the grind) good work ethic (but only a shadow of 10-15 years ago), knowledge, and experience. Still, useful and plausibly advanceable but the scrap heap is coming at least in this organization and probably for the line of work, if it exists as is which is doubtful too.

I think your frame of reference is privileged on this dealing not labor nor high levels of moment to moment stress nor rapidly evolving demands nor jobs greatly impacted by productivity demands nor the lack of security in a position most folks have to live under or even just normal life expectancy (much less below average like say a black male like me).

Most folks don't have the opportunities or expectations your perspective generates and I don't begrudge it, I hope that I hit some of the "lottery" and get some pieces of that pie but I'm not going to sit here and conflate exception with reality in hopes of it.

My advise for you, your husband, and father in law continues to be to keep doing what makes you happy but to keep in mind most are not as blessed. Most don't have the opportunities even if health and desire are no issue.
Hell, most aren't going to be 94 to be bored for any decades and some can find meaning in their lives and be fruitful with out punching any body's clock.

All of that said, your challenge is to create demand for labor. You demonstrate that we need more or even a stable rate of labor participation and reality will cause me to reevaluate but right now the conversation is a joke or desperately whistling past the graveyard because for right now and as far as anyone can project the need for labor diminishes.

How do you want to divide the pie and how long do you anticipate you can hold on to the current paradigm are the questions and anecdotes about statistical outliers won't cut it. Hubby's pop is exceptional, easily at least in the top 20% of health maybe closer to the 1% and so is hubby it sounds like from a combination of his own efforts leveraged with pretty good genetics.
Hubby also is in a position that age is a benefit until hits some of the actual impairment kicks in unless one allows themselves to become old in the heart and mind and increasingly out of touch.

Even with that said, Hubby is holding up better than average not just in health but in spirit with much passion and enjoyment. He might even gravitate toward younger peers and it sounds like relates to his students above the average (probably nothing new there either, I'd bet).
No one questions he has more in the tank or that he is exactly where he wants to be. More power to him, we say in unison. What you have to accept is the ride is not the average experience.