Facebook

<p><b>Retirement</b> is the point where a person stops <a href="/pages/w/109531472406481">employment</a> completely. A person may also semi-retire by reducing work hours.</p><p>An increasing number of individuals are choosing to put off this point of total retirement, by selecting to exist in the emerging state of <a href="/pages/w/921236741254046">Pre-tirement</a>.</p><p>Many people choose to retire when they are eligible for private or public <a href="/pages/w/104034509632363">pension</a> benefits, although some are forced to retire when physical conditions no longer allow the person to work any longer (by illness or accident) or as a result of legislation concerning their position. In most countries, the idea of retirement is of recent origin, being introduced during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Previously, low <a href="/pages/w/103139563059831">life expectancy</a> and the absence of pension arrangements meant that most workers continued to work until death. Germany was the first country to introduce retirement, in 1889.</p><p>Nowadays, most developed countries have systems to provide pensions on retirement in <a href="/pages/w/107998779228564">old age</a>, which may be sponsored by employers and/or the state. In many poorer countries, support for the old is still mainly provided through the family. Today, retirement with a pension is considered a right of the worker in many societies, and hard ideological, social, cultural and political battles have been fought over whether this is a right. In many western countries this right is mentioned in national <a href="/pages/w/111807472170885">constitutions</a>.</p><h2>History</h2><p>Retirement, or the practice of leaving one's job or ceasing to work after reaching a certain age, has been around since around the <a href="/pages/w/107836679244303">18th century</a>. Prior to the 18th century, the average life expectancy of people was between 26 and 40 years. Due to this, only a small percentage of the population were reaching an age where physical impairments began to be obstacles to working. Retirement as a government policy began to be adopted by countries during the late <a href="/pages/w/111712758846270">19th century</a> and the <a href="/pages/w/105664682799443">20th century</a>, beginning in <a href="/pages/w/112385435445154">Germany</a> under <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Otto_Von_Bismarck" class="wikipedia">Otto Von Bismarck</a>.</p>