Work 'til you're dead, people -- it's the American way!!

[theHandpuppet]

http://news.enquirer.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070916/NEWS01/709160442

Past 65, and still working
Older Americans find dream of taking it easy far from coming true as bills pile up at home
BY JOHN ECKBERG | [e-mail]

(excerpt)
Celente says median family income in America, after being adjusted for inflation, is below 1999 levels.

"People are stretched," he says. "And some folks think they're working to maintain their dignity? Nobody likes standing on their feet all day at a check-out line and packing grocery bags at some grocery unless they have to. People are very, very desperate."

<snipping>

One friend regularly eats dog food to make ends meet, she says.

"I saw her buy it - chunk beef with gravy. She says it tasted good," Johnson says. "And we're supposed to be one of the richest countries on Earth."

MORE

[PCIntern]

1. Funny you should post this:

I'm a dentist and yesterday, one of my "Financial Planner" patients asked me, in that condescending manner which we all know well, what my 'retirement bridge' was.

I told him, "48 hours at the Funeral home and then straight into the ground."

He started to lecture me about 'taking stock and planning for the future' and I went off on him...told him that when I'd started practice bastards (didn't use that word but he knew what I meant) like him were telling people that the best investment they could make was Whole Life Insurance. Yeah, right. Lying creeps.

[TomClash]

2. Funny how many "professionals" are now on the right side of the class struggle

Welcome to the fight.

[PCIntern]

4. Excuse me...

I have BEEN on this side since I was 12 years old involved in the Peace Fair Program which I would venture to say, most here never even heard of. I have been an active Progressive since BEFORE VIETNAM WAS ON PAGE 1 of the papers.

There ARE and HAVE BEEN many of us.

[TomClash]

20. Apologies

but from your handle I wrongly assumed you were young. Sorry, I really wasn't trying to be snarky.

Please notice I concentrated on the "class" aspect of it. And you don't have to get pissy about it.

[TreasonousBastard]

6. And he was so smug and condescending before...

or after you had the drill in his mouth?

[PCIntern]

7. Forget the drill...

it's the 2 1/2 inch 25 gauge needle that he should have worried about...that all heals..

just kidding...I treat a lot of RWers and am always extra careful if they know my politics. I don't want any of them running around telling people that I deliberately hurt them.

[Eagle_Eye]

3. Some people work hard all their lives and never get ahead

Other people find themselves in a circle of wealth and never have to work hard at all.
Isn't the world the republicans have given us since Newt Gingrich's "Contract With America" great?

[PCIntern]

5. Again, with all due respect...

where in Newt's proposal did it state that there would not be a permanent underclass or uneven distribution of wealth? This has been the way of the world since the caveman.

The Rethugs gave Americans what they wanted: Slogans. They've been doing it for a very long time and Americans are stupid enough to fall for it every time. That's where Charles Schulz's Lucy and the Football came from. It was a political statement. Fool me again and again and again...ad infinitum.

[Sancho]

17. only a dentist would appreciate this....

I sat quietly in the chair for years while my right-of-attilla-the-hun dentist bitched about the Clintons. I went for a checkup and the tech had lost the box of x-ray films. When the dentist fussed at the techs as to why they couldn't label and keep up with the box of films, I blurted out, "It must be another one of those great 'bite-wing conspiracies'." The whole office must have been tired of his story and they all broke up laughing. Thank God I didn't need a filling that day!

[PCIntern]

18. EXCELLENT!!!

Thanks for the quip...I'll annotate it each time I use it!!

:rofl:

:hi:

[HowHasItComeToThis]

15. IT ALL STARTED WITH RAY-GUN

[Frogger]

8. Well,

I plan to work till I'm 70-1/2. That way, my house will be paid off, and I'll have a place to live. Besides, I'm enjoying what I do for the first time since I started in the work force, so why not?

As long as I keep my health, I'm OK. Pity about those other poor bastards, of course, that don't have health insurance, and aren't healthy.:sarcasm:

[tabasco]

13. That's 1/2 year longer than my Dad lived.

Good luck.

[Frogger]

22. Thanks,

but if I have to die first, problem solved.

My philosophy is to enjoy life now, because I may be dead tomorrow. Espeially with all the crime and terrroism and new, devastating viruses that are always popping up.

And I do.

[hashibabba]

9. More elderly/disabled will be working this year, due to the probable

COLA increases of only 1.2 to 1.4% in 2008. The Medicare Part B premiums are going up another $15, to nearly $110 (they were under $50.00 in 2000). Prescriptions will go up again on Part D, heating will go up, groceries are rising by quite a bit. It never ends, and now they have to get LESS money in their monthly checks than this year!

What a country.

[Avalux]

10. Thank you Bushco for effectively destroying what Roosevelt put in place.

In case people aren't noticing, one of Bushco's little-discussed 'missions' is to completely destroy the middle class and take away any power it once had. If everyone's worried about eating and keeping a roof over their heads, they don't have time to worry about the government's actions.

[formercia]

11. Why do you think the boys tried to take over the Government in 1933?

Roosevelt was a traitor to them.

[Avalux]

12. Yes he was and he/the American people somehow managed to defeat them.

I still have hope we can do it again.

[formercia]

19. We're wise to them now.

It's going to be much more difficult to pass off their scam the next time.

I hope there never is a next time.

[onethatcares]

23. no, we are wise to them now, but

a great deal of America does not have internet access, they don't give a flying unicorn if george bush allows torture, if his administration is the worst ever. they have a vested interest in just keeping a roof over their head and their kids in some type of food/clothing. They have bought into the lie about the American dream and are getting screwed trying to keep their jobs, their homes, and some type of sanity. Sadly, they buy into the brown people are out there to take their jobs bullshit because that is all they hear, day in day out, from their friends that are in the same boat and their employers, their relatives and rw talk media.

Someday, the Democratic party will discover a voice that resonates with that group of people, in the mean time, the repukes have it all over them.

[Sancho]

14. Down here, we work for the insurance companies...

who have Jeb and Crist in their pockets. We'll work until we drop dead to 1.) make someone else rich, 2.) pay for basic health care, 3.) keep a roof overhead.

There is no security with the repubs in office...

[treestar]

16. Corporate America

has decimated the extended family and put people on their own - when the M$M praises "family" it's always just the nuclear family.

Or zoning laws that make it impossible for poor seniors to get together and combine living expenses.

[Alameda]

21. Extended Family

Exactly, and then that falls apart when the children reach 18. They are expected to move out on their own. I miss the extended family, it was a great thing. Divide and conquer.....:-( When family keeps committed to each other, they learn to listen to other ideas, they have more compassion. IOW you learn to get along with people you may not have picked.