When a government panel's proposal that companies set their "retirement" age at 40 was released in early July, it made headlines and triggered hot debate on the Internet.
Many opinions posted were against the proposal, which effectively means initial-career employers would be able to jettison workers who hit that age, casting them off under a euphemism of retirement, and those people would have to find other work, undoubtedly mostly at much lower pay, until that day comes decades down the road when they start to receive actual retirement benefits.
The opponents argued that the unemployment rate would surge in a society where vestiges of lifetime employment remain and where company employees in their 40s have a hard time changing jobs.