Retirement - not for all

Check out what I read in The Standard (HK) today:

"A 68-year-old unemployed man who claimed he was the most "extreme victim" of police, government and judicial conspiracy has been convicted for an arson attack in Admiralty MTR station in 2004." (emphasis added)

What's wrong with this sentence? People are expected to work even when they're 68 years old?? Wow, Hong Kong can be a very very sad place.

In Hong Kong, I seem to see a lot of people who would be retired if they were living in Canada, but who occupy some of the least desirable jobs in this city. I've seen grannies who clear tables at McDonalds, gramps who deliver take-out, and elderly men and women alike who pick up garbage off the streets and clear garbage cans. No, they're not usually scavengers, but they are hired to collect garbage. They usually push long, narrow carts on which three large straw baskets sit. Most of them are so old that they hunch over these carts when they push them.

I know that Hong Kong is so successful partly because it's NOT a welfare state, but I sure hope people can retire, or at least have the choice not to work, when they're that old. I also hope that people can save so that they can save enough to stop working at some point, but property, food, energy, water, and transportation costs are so high in Hong Kong that it's impossible for quite a few people. I guess this is the ugly side of capitalism, just like never being able to become very rich is the ugly side of socialism in Canada.