Samuel Moyn

Samuel Moyn is the Yale history and law professor interviewed in Older workers aren’t retiring. Should they be forced to? about Gerontocracy in America and older Americans’ hold on jobs, wealth, housing, and authority. In the Planet Money source, Moyn argues that some older workers in powerful or high-paying roles can create unfairness for younger workers when they stay indefinitely.

Moyn’s argument is narrower than a universal demand that older people stop working. The episode presents him as focused on people who can afford to retire but remain in elite or scarce positions such as politics, law, academia, journalism, executive leadership, and engineering.

Connections

• Gerontocracy in America - book and argument discussed in the source.
• Mandatory Retirement Policy - policy proposal Moyn defends in a domain-specific form.
• Career Mobility Bottleneck - opportunity problem his argument tries to address.
• Phased Retirement Succession - softer role-redesign compromise Moyn accepts as compatible with continued meaningful work.
• Olivia S. Mitchell - economist whose counterargument narrows the debate around total jobs versus scarce senior slots.