No Time for ’Tirement’

[marmar]

from truthdig:



No Time for ’Tirement’
Posted on Jan 2, 2011

By Ellen Goodman


When I retired from my tenure as a columnist last year, my daughter relayed the news to my grandson, who promptly picked up the phone and, in his most serious 7-year-old voice, said: “Grandma, I hear you’re tired.”

Well, not exactly.

My daughter and I struggled to hide our amusement from a misunderstanding that was not entirely linguistic. After all, retirement was once a matter of ’tirement. It was the formerly new idea that we didn’t have to work until we dropped in place.

But writing, after all, is not heavy lifting. I wasn’t leaving one career to swoon into the hammock. I was rather thinking about renewal—tweaking and trying new things with my mind and fingers.

....(snip)....

In this alternate story, the attitude of baby boomers themselves as they hit 65 is not renewal. It can be summed up by the word used to describe this cohort in a recent Pew study: “glum.” In this economic plot, the Wells Fargo ad about the joy of working after work meets a countermessage from Charles Schwab: “My wild retirement dream? Actually retiring.”

A cautionary tale shows elders hanging on, against the economic wind. After all, the much touted fix for Social Security suggests raising the age of full benefits to 69. But unemployment and age discrimination have already made a tough climate for those who need to work. .............(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/no_time_for_tirement_20110102/?ln

[fasttense]

1. She fails to mention the 3rd alternate story.

Where you live on the edge of poverty, because you had to work lower paying jobs all your life. You scrimp on food and medicine and are barely surviving.

Brick layers, box throwers, janitors and housekeepers they don't have the choice of a 2nd career or retirement full of R&R. They continue to pick up dead end jobs, receive Social Security that is barely adequate to live on and are constantly on the look out for a way to make ends meet.

She seems to be blind to those who don't have her choices.