In an era to which more and more people are working for government agencies, it is important to recognize that in some of those government jobs, mandatory retirement is a fact of life. Not only will good and experienced individuals lose their employment, solely based on their numerical age, but the overall age for mandatory retirement, in an epoch to which people are living longer and longer quality lives, is ridiculously low. For instance, state and federal police, firefighters, air traffic controllers, and airline pilots are all subject to mandatory retirement between the ages of 55-60, even though the continued life expectancy at that age is approximately another twenty-five additional years.
While it is true that the Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA) does not permit mandatory retirement of workers in the private field, except under very specific conditions, that does not mean that in function as well as in action, that these workers too aren't subject to discrimination and/or pressure to retire at an age earlier than they so desire. The problem that older workers have when they are laid off, replaced, or encouraged into early retirement, is twofold; one is that they will normally continue to live for a considerable period of time and if they do not have the savings, and/or affordable healthcare, and/or enough social security or pension benefits, they will not have the necessary income to sustain their lifestyle; also the additional issue with older workers is despite all the laws on the books about the illegality of discrimination against elder workers, the fact of the matter is, most older workers after losing employment, will not be able to find a suitable or replacement job at or near their previous employment salary, despite their years of experience, reliability, and wealth of knowledge.
All people do not age at the same rate, nor do all people have the same maturity, work ethics, vision, health, wisdom and other attributes, so that to arbitrarily take a certain age, and to declare to that person, that they are no longer of worth to a particular company or agency is hypocrisy. In general, there should not be a mandatory retirement age in any job or any sector, although it is reasonable to assume in some jobs that involve the maintaining of safety for others, that a periodic testing of the applicable skills of a given employee in order to sustain their current employment would be reasonable. Additionally, just because an employee fails a test, should not terminate that employee, as there should be reasonable access available for another position within that governmental agency, that could still utilize that particular person's experience and skill but without negatively impacting the quality of the service provided by the overall government agency as a whole.
While it is true that most people want to reach a time or an age when they can walk away from their employment so as to enjoy their sunset years, most of those employees do not want to be compelled to do so before their time, especially considering that they have the experience, the knowhow, and the mindset to provide good and competent service to their agency on behalf of the people.