The difference is, that being a worker already implies being at the mercy of the employment market. We are contingent, at-will, vulnerable. If [expletive] happens, we promptly react, sometimes acceding to degradation, austerity, humiliation, just to keep bread on the table. The laid-off executive becomes a cab driver, a street-sweeper, a peddler of vegetables from a shopping cart, parked next to the skyscraper that formerly sported his name.
Being a retiree implies insulation from the vagaries of markets or societal forces. It means an aristocratic detachment from the bread-riots and barricades. Retirees might complain that the vegetables aren't as fresh, or the streets aren't as cleanly swept, or the cabs are tardy. But they would never stoop to such degradation as going back to work, let alone in a menial capacity.
