What a lot of responders on this thread conveniently ignore is your premise is that 70 year olds shouldn't HAVE TO work in order to survive. "HAVE TO" is the operative term.
If a senior happens to enjoy great health and just wants an excuse to get out of the house, that's entirely different. Although if they're not working because they need the money, their communities would be better off, and they would get plenty of enjoyable social interaction, if they put their time into volunteer work. My AAUW chapter (all our members are at least 60) does some great work with junior high and high school girls for STEM programs and women's shelters. Other friends volunteer at the nature study center, community library and food banks. With the number of families with both parents working, or young adults working 2 jobs to pay off student loans or just survive, there are very few people below retirement age available to volunteer. The same goes for citizens volunteering for unpaid appointments to local government boards re zoning, building codes, school boards, etc.
I'm in my 70's and have many, many neighbors, friends and relatives in that same age bracket. My retirement was comfortable and enjoyable until my stock market investments/savings were "disappeared" to the upper one percent in the 2008 crash. For 4 years following that, I took temp/seasonal jobs working for the U. S. Census and night shifts at a Post Office sorting facility. Both jobs involved lengthy commuting time (2 hours) added to my shifts. Those were very physically demanding jobs. And of course working night shifts really messes up one's sleep patterns. At the USPS, my fellow seniors and I commented that we relied on lots of caffeine and pain meds to get through our shifts. My situation drastically improved when my ex-husband (a highly-paid corporate type) died and I was able to base my SS claims on his lifetime earnings, not mine - that jumped my monthly income by $1,100 additional dollars a month. Ah, the trickle-down theory in real life!
I can recognize people who are exhausted or dealing with chronic pain - there is a drained, pinched, somewhat hunched over look to them. Many of the checkout people/baggers/shopping cart retrievers at my local grocery store are seniors in their late 60's through 70's. I know that the mere fact of having to stand for hours at a time is painful. I've gotten to know some of them well enough to know who has bad knees, whose back is killing them, who has to wait at the nearest bus top in the hot summer sun or icy winter weather. I challenge anyone to tell me that anyone, let alone seniors, working these jobs are in it for the companionship! and fun! When's the last time anyone heard a checkout person laugh, or even saw one smile? When's the last time any of the indignant posters above even acknowledged them with direct eye contact, a friendly greeting and/or sincere thank you?
Another point - all the concern and finger-wagging that you let the guy know you considered him old - oh, wait while I clutch my pearls.
We friggin' know how old we are.
We get a reminder every morning when we wake up and instead of jumping up, raring to go, we have to regain our balance, slowly work through the morning stiffness, put in our hearing aids, put on our glasses, take our various daily medications for blood pressure, diabetes, high cholesterol, slip on our orthopedic shoes and grab our cane. And there is NOTHING I consider more patronizing and insulting to my intelligence and sense of self-worth than someone a generation or 2 younger than me referring to me as "young lady". I tell such people, hey, we both know I'm old enough to be your mother/grandmother, so show some respect for my age by acknowledging it.
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