You’re Only As Old As You Feel
The Biden Administration this week, through the Transportation Secretary, said that raising the airline pilot retirement age to 67 from the current 65 is not a good idea. Secretary Pete Buttigieg said those mandatory retirement ages were there for a reason, and said he was not going to be on board with anything that compromises safety.
Some on the right, including media outlets, asked the Administration why 66 was too old to fly a commercial plane, but 80 was just fine if the job was president of the U.S. Wisely, the Administration has ignored the questions.
Yes, a mandatory retirement age may catch some folks who have no need to retire. Having a case-by-case analysis would probably be best…but we simply don’t have the resources for that, and it’s simplest way to have a rule in place for a large category of people—namely, the country’s airline pilots, who by definition operate heavy machinery. We’re not supposed to do that after taking certain cold medicine.
The idea of some raising the issue is that the incumbent is the oldest to ever hold the office, and there are clearly some issues already present with that.
Here’s the main difference—we get a chance to vote for or against the president continuing in the job, and since he’s the only one in the category, other provisions like the 25th Amendment are there for a one-time, specific forced retirement.
With a potentially large number of pilots reaching a certain age, hard to go case-by-case…and public safety is definitely an issue; admittedly, a president has the nuclear codes, but you get the idea.
So while it’s tempting to try to draw Joe Biden’s age and condition into the conversation about pilots…it’s not a valid comparison. And changing a blanket retirement rule just because we have a current shortage also seems short-sighted. Perhaps allow for case-by-case consideration. But the worst reason for changing a rule is because you feel you have to.
