In many countries, the increase in life expectancy means that people have to work until they are older to help pay for their retirement. An alternative is for people to start work at a younger age.   Do you think this alternative would be a positive or negative development?

With the improvement in health and promotion in general hygiene, longevity is on the rise;

consequently

, to pay the

retirement

expenses, either people should continue working for longer, or they should start working earlier. I personally consider the latter alternative a negative development since it hinders young people from continuing studying, and their wages cannot compensate for the

retirement

pensions. On the one hand, in my point of view, were people pushed to start working earlier, they would discontinue studying after finishing school.

Although

it is not expected that everyone has some university or college degrees, if people are obliged to start working at a younger age, they will not have the chance for tertiary education.

For instance

, in my country, Iran, almost 35% of men and 30% of the females will continue studying in university after being graduated from high school. Were they forced to work earlier, the percentage of people with tertiary education would

further

diminish, which would not be desirable for our developing country. So, I suggest youngsters should have an appropriate time span to study, without being pushed to work.

On the other hand

, young people who have neither higher education, nor working experience, will usually be hired in humble jobs.

As a result

, the total revenue of workers at a young age will not be so high;

thus

, it will not be fair compensation for

retirement

benefits.

For example

, most of the youngsters who began working promptly after high school are hired in temporary positions

such

as cashiers and are under-waged; ultimately, it leaves little investment for

retirement

. Conclusively, I believe that the salary of young people will most probably have little impact on their

retirement

pensions. In summary, in my perspective, it is better to extend the working years to older age, if seriously required, rather than beginning to work prematurely. I suggest that governments should take charge of compensating for the era of increasing people’s life span

instead

of urging young people to start working early in their life.