WTF UK: Early Retirement

２月から、週に１度、街の無料消費者・福祉相談所みたいなところでボランティアをしています。あえて言うと無料法律相談所みたいな感じ。弁護士が法律の相談をするわけではないんだけど、相談役が各種生活保護や離婚、子供の親権問題、保険、債務、移民問題など多岐にわたる生活上の問題について一緒に解決策をさぐるサービスです。私はイギリスにいる期間も限られているので、事務やPR活動のアシスタントをしています。

慈善団体なので、基本的にボランティアで活動を賄っているわけなんだけど、何がびっくりするって、ボランティアの人々が、若い（笑）若いと言っても２０代とかなわけではなく、完全に働き盛りな５０台。中年男性多し。最初は、一体こんな週日の昼間にこの人たちはなんで会社にも行かずボランティアしてるんだろうと思ったほどよ。

よく聞くと、どうもこの働き盛りな年代の方たち、皆いわゆる早期退職組。５０歳で会社を退職して隠居生活に入り、残った時間をボランティアして過ごしているらしい。

アメリカの、夫婦共働きで働き続けてやっと中流階級な暮らしができるのが普通な社会に慣れてしまうと、日本の「職業：主婦」人口の多さとか、こんなイギリスの早期退職組の多さにびっくりする。

大体、相談役のボランティアの人々は、ものすごく仕事熱心で、やってることの質から見たらお給料をもらえて当然の仕事。逆に慈善事業がボランティアにたよりきりでボランティアは搾取されてるぐらいなものよ。イギリスの個人収入はアメリカよりずっと低いのに、そんな早期退職して無償で働いてしまえる人が多いのはやっぱり社会主義制度が強いからなんだろうな。

やっと暖かくなって、庭の花も咲きだしました。

Since February, I have been going volunteering once a week at a charity organization where people can get free advice on wide variety of problems such as welfare, debt relief, divorce, child custody, immigration, etc. It is somewhat like a legal aid in the US, but instead of a license attorney giving legal advice, a trained lay person ("adviser") explain and explore the rights and options to resolve issues together with the clients. Since my time in the UK is limited, I do admin support and communication/PR support.

Because it is a charity organization, the funds are limited, and the daily operation is run mainly by the volunteers. What I was first surprised was seeing young people volunteering in a middle of the week day. When I say "young", I don't mean people in their 20s; rather, people in their 50s when they should be working at their regular job. Also, there were more men than typical volunteer force I'm used to seeing.

What I found out was that many of our volunteers are early retirees, who have retired from their regular job at age 50 so they spend their days volunteering.

In the US, we need 2 incomes in the household and need to keep putting money in the 401k and IRA and work way past age 60 to be able to maintain the middle class retirement. I have become so used to that life that now I get shocked by the number of stay-at-home wives in Japan and these people in England who can retire at 50 and have a middle class life.

I mean, these volunteer advisers do a pretty high level of work, for which they deserve to be paid. I sometimes even feel that the organization is exploiting the volunteers.

Individual income in the UK is much lower than that of the US, yet people here can retire that early and they are willing to work for free. While I respect capitalism, sometimes I envy the socialistic society.