Pension

Project Sophistia: Retirement in a New World 

 

Retirement plans enable individuals that reach the age of retirement to cease occupational employment and continue to finance the rest of their adult life with funds set aside over the course of many years, preserving their standard of living and enabling them to age comfortably and securely. Retirement is an abrupt change as the retiring individual transitions from full-time employment to no employment instantaneously, a process that can affect their mental and physical state. 

 

Our project reevaluates the retirement process by exploring the potential in life on Mars.

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Currently, funds set aside and invested in retirement plans are overseen by the government and managed through a number of different channels, some of which incorporate certain financial risks and are based on actuarial calculations (such as life expectancy). Regulation is extremely complex, frequently altered, and generally lacks foresight. Moreover, individual changes in employment status that may occur throughout an individual’s career may result in a number of separate retirement plans, making it even harder to keep track of the funds.

 

Many are therefore deterred by the concept of a “retirement plan,” finding this financial area to be generally inaccessible. In addition, the uniform age of retirement as determined by the regulator does not take into account an individual’s situation or ability to further contribute to society by voluntarily continuing their employment.

 

We developed the model called “The Sophistia” that investigates this universal domain and offers a more logical and optimized solution. We developed a gradual process of retirement in which individuals would transition from the initial “Stage of Necessity” to the “Stage of Productivity” eventually reaching “the Scholarly Stage”, wherein employment is minimal and the consumption of leisure and culture is maximal. This new model provides sustainable and significant social value to a new society and economy.

 

Living conditions on Mars are significantly harsher than on Earth, diminishing an individual’s physiological condition at a faster rate and decreasing the average life expectancy. By framing an extreme environment inhabiting a relatively small population as our test case, we are able to refine the following proposed process of retirement and implement some of its concepts. 

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Our model proposes a three-level approach to retirement.

 

The first element is maintaining people’s health and nutrition (for example, by applying personal monitoring devices).

 

Second, an individual’s level of social engagement would be checked regularly, based on the assumption that the fewer social connections individuals create (i.e., the frequency and duration of human interaction), the lower their function within the community is, which would then require more resources to prevent them from becoming a burden on society during the scholarly stage.

 

The third vector would be an individual’s cognitive level since the continued acquisition of knowledge increases an individual’s contribution to society which might include providing guidance and managing the community.

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This model would enable the development of a healthier, more informed society. 

Each individual’s age of retirement and the manner of their transition between the different stages will be determined based on the three factors, customizing their roles according to the needs of the community.

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This gradual process of retirement would help individuals to function as contributing members of society farther into their lives, avoiding a sudden or forced retirement, while cosidering their skills, knowledge, and experience.