Retiring Early, Unpatriotic?

Well, now I've heard everything. An article appeared today on MSN.com stating the following:

Want to do something truly patriotic to help preserve the American way of life? Don't retire. At least not yet. That's the advice of Andrew Yarrow, a vice president of the nonprofit, nonpartisan research organization Public Agenda and the director of its Washington, D.C., office. Yarrow urges the nation's 78 million baby boomers to forgo traditional or early retirement and work for a few more years, for their own sake and the good of the country.

The article goes on to say:

If boomers all turn in their keys at age 55, 62 or 65 and head for the Tuscan hills, that great sucking sound you'll hear is untold amounts of taxpayer dollars being leached from the economy. That is money heirs will have to replace or do without.

Finally, Yarrow is quoted as saying that early retirement is, "profoundly selfish and unpatriotic."

Sorry Dr. Yarrow. I have one heir, and he will begin work in a year or two making more money than I made at retirement. He will able to fend for himself and the way things are going, he will pay his share of taxes. I retired at age 55, and at this juncture, I do not intend to go back to work. and I don't feel the least bit "profoundly selfish and unpatriotic."

I did my time in the workplace, and I sacrificed many long hours over the course of 30 plus years. In case Dr. Yarrow doesn't know it, I still pay taxes in large amounts, so the sucking sound I hear is money still being "leached" from my back pocket. I don't quite understand his logic. I guess he is under the mistaken impression that we, the early retired, do not pay taxes or that our taxes are lower for some reason.

Tell that to the IRS, Dr. Yarrow.