Early retirement is selfish and unpatriotic?

Writing in the Baltimore Sun, Andrew L. Yarrow made this controversial statement:

...there's just something - make that lots of things - wrong, in general, with retiring at 55, 62 or even 65. I would go so far as to call it profoundly selfish and unpatriotic.

He went on to bash baby boomers for dreams of early retirement and a quest for "self-actualization" (his term).

According to Mr. Yarrow, the question is economic--although his caustic comments appear to include a fair amount of the philosophical. He claims that dropping out of the workforce while still in your "prime" means you are draining the nation's tax coffers and exacerbating the country's stagnant labor force growth. Mr. Yarrow does allow "excused absences" from the grindstone for people whose health doesn't allow continued work, or perhaps even for those who are in terrible job situations.

You can read the complete text of Mr. Yarrow's musings on the Baltimore Sun website.