Richard A. Posner

In the following viewpoint, Richard A. Posner asserts that employers often have valid reasons for discrimination toward employees on the basis of age. According to Posner, employers are not likely to be wrong about the skills of their employees because they have financial stakes in those evaluations. In addition, Posner contends that certain skills do decline with age and posits that mandatory retirement—such as requiring certain workers, like pilots, to retire at a certain age—has several advantages and is not discrimination. Posner is chief judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit and the author of a variety of books, including Aging and Old Age, from which this viewpoint is excerpted.

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