An elderly veteran delivering pizza? The system has failed us ...

[kpete]

SUN JAN 05, 2014 AT 07:40 AM PST
An elderly veteran delivering pizza? The system has failed us ...
by Mark E Andersen

If we can find the money to piss away away on two wars, then we can find the money ensure that every American can have a comfortable retirement.

..................

I place the order and the pizza was supposed to be there an hour later. The pizza did not arrive at the appointed time, it did not arrive at 15 minutes past the appointed time. It arrived 90 minutes after the time I ordered it. I was going to take it out on the delivery guy's tip. Then he appeared on my doorstep. He had to be in his late 70s or early 80s. He wore a "Korean War Veteran" ball cap—instead of cutting his tip, I tipped more than I normally do.

I do not know why a Korean War veteran is out delivering pizzas on a cold Wisconsin winter night. I do know that he looked tired. As he walked down my front steps I saw my late father in that man's stooped over walk. I saw my future in his walk. Jobs that used to fall to college kids trying to make a few bucks are now being taken by senior citizens trying to supplement meager retirement funds.

Pensions are going the way of the carrier pigeon and the bill of goods we were sold with the 401K turned out to be nothing more than a pack of lies. The future for many of us does not include a comfortable retirement. We will work as long as we can and if we lose our corporate jobs we will take what ever work we can—be it delivering pizzas or working weekends at Home Depot stocking shelves. The golden years that our parents had in retirement are not for us. My generation will have to work until we die.

..............

It does not have to be this way. It has become obvious that corporate America cannot be trusted with retirement benefits. Hell, any entity entrusted with retirement benefits cannot be trusted (see the city of Detroit). We need our leadership to look at this looming retirement crisis and fix it. If I cannot get out of my student loans via bankruptcy then I do not want to see any entity getting out of paying pension benefits that were promised by declaring bankruptcy.

.........

MORE:http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/01/05/1265470/-An-elderly-veteran-delivering-pizza-The-system-has-failed-us#comments

[Brigid]

1. Yes. Here is our future, boys and girls.

Unless we do something. Now what that "something" should be, I do not know. But I do have a few ideas involving torches and pitchforks.

[Egalitarian Thug]

2. There are a nearly infinite number of solutions available. Just none that won't piss off

the people that matter by making them pay a portion of their share. I don't know any way to make millionaires vote for a bill that makes millionaires pay for the society that made them millionaires.

[malthaussen]

4. And there it is.

What I can't understand is how anyone with half a brain could think that unregulated capitalism could ever lead to any other outcome.

In a system that equates status with money, how can anyone be expected to voluntarily surrender money?

-- Mal

[Drew2510]

10. Very interesting point. Thank you.

"In a system that equates status with money, how can anyone be expected to voluntarily surrender money? "

[Brigid]

5. Hence the torches and pitchforks.

At some point, enough people have got to get sick and tired of this stuff.

[Broward]

3. And to think that some Democrats, including Obama, proposed the Chained CPI

[pipi_k]

6. Why don't people just ASK

instead of assuming?

this...

I do not know why a Korean War veteran is out delivering pizzas on a cold Wisconsin winter night.

People say "I do not know why..." and then create their own storylines.

OK, it's possible that the guy really needed to be out on a cold night delivering pizzas.

Or maybe not. Maybe he does it because it gives him something to do. The guy looked tired? Well he's in his 70s or 80s.

I'm 61 and I look tired.


People speculate without asking and getting a real answer to their questions.


Anyway, if it's true that this guy has no other choice, then it's pretty damned sad.

But if someone wants to know the truth, why not ASK before getting outraged?

[Brickbat]

8. Agreed.

[Fumesucker]

9. Not everyone is comfortable intruding on what might be very painful territory

In America if your job went away and left you and your pension was stolen it's a sign of personal weakness that a lot of people don't wish to advertise.

[haele]

11. Well, I do know there's a WWII vet bagging and pushing carts at the Commissary. Or was.

I met him four months ago, but haven't seen him since. He's 87. He bagged my groceries and I let him push my cart (slowly) so I could pay him an additional tip instead of having him collect from the bagger's tip pool.
See, at the Commissary, baggers work for tips only. It's considered "volunteer" work, and for every tip they get, they have to put a dollar in the bagger shift pool that gets split at the end of the four hour shift for those times the customer doesn't tip, and the lead bagger (who doesn't bag or cart, but is responsible for the baggers, the shopping carts and assigns the baggers to the registers) gets fifty cents off every tip.
A shift is four hours worth of work. Baggers usually spend 30 minutes each hour at a register (5 - 10 minutes per ring-up) and run three to four carts an hour to the parking lot. Most customers know this, and will usually tip a minimum of three dollars for just bagging and five dollars for the additional carting (per cart). One does get the occasional $10 or $20 tip though, so bagging at the Commissary is a coveted position for dependents or people who are able to get jobs on base who also need to be able to control their own schedule. Other baggers have told me that they can make up to $200 a week in tips working 20 hours on their schedule.

So, back to the 87 year old - I asked this gentleman why he was doing this (he walked slower than I did with my cane, so it was a pleasant 5 minute or so sunset amble the 75 yards or so to my car...).

Simply, not only did he enjoy being out and getting some light exercise and meeting people, he needed the money. He gets his "supplemental money" - bus pass, maintenance spending (physical comfort and repair purchases), and the occasional treat or savings money off his tips - and he gets an employees discount at the Commissary for food. See, he retired after 35 years (sub service mechanic), and I know he doesn't get Social Security because the military didn't start paying into SS until the late 1970's- after he retired. He told me he did part-time work at a friend's engine repair shop through the 1990's that didn't do much but pay for itself and a few monthly bills, because his pension at the time was enough to live comfortably on and he wanted to spend time with his sick wife.

But since 2000, TriCare was no longer "free" (he had to start paying a premium and co-pays instead of just pharmacy), and his pension only goes far enough to barely pay his basic living expenses - he had to sell his car when he was 80 because he could no longer afford to drive.
And unlike working at AutoZone or WalMart - which he had tried to do to supplement his pension, if he didn't feel capable of working shifts over an entire week or started to get weak during his shift, the Commissary was not going to write him up or punish him for not being physically capable.
Their approach for scheduling the baggers was either "hey, great to see you - yeah, we're a bit short, so can you grab register 7?" or "Can you come in between noon and four or four and eight? No? Okay, but if you change your mind, come on over." He had been working there fairly regularly for three years.

Also, customers seemed to feel sorry for him, so they would tend to give him more of a tip when he did push the carts than they would a younger bagger - which was a good thing for him, because he would cart only half the amount the average bagger could an hour.

Yes, he got $10 from me. Even after I handled all the heavy bags and put them in my car myself...

But damn, an 87 year old who worked all his life shouldn't continue to need to work to be able to be comfortable. The pension he worked for all his active life should be able to pay for his needs when he is at the point that he would have to significantly push himself physically to work if he wanted or needed to.

I spoke a month later to one of the baggers I normally get when I shop - a kid getting his AS in computers at the same CC I had gone to two years ago - he said the other baggers were really worried about him, and they've had to call the base ambulance for him three times already that year. But he was still working...

Haele

[JNelson6563]

7. Some answers, for starters...

Single-payer health care. We are on the path now at least. The ACA will enable us to achieve this but not as soon as we'd like. The less money health care is sucking out of people's wallets the better off for them at any age. Helps to build a strong foundation in life for the young (helping to prevent hard times both immediately and later in life) and a safety net of sorts for the older.

Take the cap off of income that has Social Security deducted from it. At the very least raise it substantially. Lower the age of retirement to 60.

Publicly funded elections. This is the key really to achieving everything. Only by taking money out of elections can elected officials be convinced they need to do the peoples' business, as in for all of us~~not just them and their rich donors.

Julie

[blkmusclmachine]

12. GOP's new motto: If you get old, die quickly.

[gtar100]

13. If anything should be nondischargeable in a bankruptcy, it should be retirement benefits.

Sadly ironic that student loans are picked as nondischargeable. Trap us when we're young and full of energy but expendable when old age sets in.

This could be paradise... but it's not. All in how the rules are set up.

[Wilms]

14. ^

[bluestate10]

15. Sadder still, that veteran likely only votes for republicans. And republicans do nothing for

him but fill his head up with nonsense.

[KansDem]

16. K&R

This needs more exposure...