If they push retirement any higher, where are the seniors going to work who are poor?

[DainBramaged]

There is NO consideration for the other side of the coin. Who will hire them? How can they compete physically with kids for jobs in fast food or any kind of service? How do they stand up on their feet for 8 hours?


Fucking stinks.

[no_hypocrisy]

1. I'm over 50 and having a hard time trying to find work.

The next decade will only be worse.

[DainBramaged]

4. Do they do landscaping? Construction? OUR SENIORS SHOULD BE HONORED.

Not forced to end their lives early while being worked to death.

[no_hypocrisy]

13. Charles Dickens will have to be moved to the nonfiction section now.

[DainBramaged]

28. There is little seniors above 60 can physically do in the workforce

These fucking Congressholes and Senatrats need to understand this.

[Starry Messenger]

2. I suspect a return to workhouses.

They'll give it some "fun" hip new name and let the private sector go wild with it.

[myrna minx]

3. It's either Wallmart or, you know, jail.

:shrug: What's the alternative?

[Jackpine Radical]

7. I believe the preferred alternative is death.

Preferably at age 55 for manual laborers, before their physical ailments start costing the system too much.

[myrna minx]

10. Yes - and they're eating the food that's meant for the strong.

Yes, you have a point there. :-(

[msongs]

5. join the military for the next 4 or 5 wars? nt

[DainBramaged]

6. What is it 61 and out in the military? Why is it 61? Do they know something we don't?

[NightWatcher]

8. with no insurance and less money for groceries, they'll just die already

then they never claim their benefits. Win, win, right?

[Ilsa]

9. And people with careers are getting laid off in their fifties.

By then, they've reached a nice salary and they are likely to get canned vs a younger, lesser-paid employee. And people in their fifties are more likely to experience age discrimination because of perceived healthcare risks at that age.

My 51 yo husband was recently laid off. They also laid off a 59 yo. How shitty is that to can someone a few years before retirement?

[Larkspur]

21. More likely their job is outsourced to India or China

I was laid off when I was 48, which was in 2008. I had an IT job and it was given to a contractor from India.
I'm back doing my old job but for the business unit that uses the environment I once manged because the Indian subcontractor couldn't manage the environment, despite the fact I had left documentation for them.

[Yavin4]

24. Your Story Is Very Typical

A lot of the contractors from India are hyped to the max, but often they fail at their job, and the company is forced to re-hire American workers.

[Ilsa]

30. Our layoffs are not jobs getting outsourced.

It's lack of sales. No one is pulling the trigger on buying their products right now. (Financial services industry, POS transactions management, settlement, etc.)

6-8 years ago, this company tried outsourcing but learned within 12-18 months that it wasn't working so they stopped.

[spin]

33. Eventually life extension will be available for the rich ...

and they will live to 120 or more.

The poor will die much younger.

[Ilsa]

35. I was thinking about that the other day when a preview for

a movie about living to extreme old age previewed ahead of the Harry Potter movie. I think Al Gore is part of the documentary. I don't see how regular people in the US will ever have access under this type of healthcare system.

[spin]

36. The rich will probably have to go to Mexico and pay for it. (n/t)

[Uben]

11. Retirement is the American dream......

...it's a dream, it's not real, it's just something to keep you going till you become fertilizer. They'll raise the age to receive SS benefits to 80, and pass a law that states no one can live past 79. That solves the problem and gives government a wad of cash to spend on tax cuts for the rich! Yippie! You can judge a nation by how it treats it's rich, and we're the best!

[spin]

34. I retired just before I turned 60 ...

best move I every made.

[Uben]

40. Doesn't suck

I retired at 46. My wife got cancer and a large investment finally got paid off, so we both decided to retire and spend the rest of our time together. It's been great, but our health insurance has sure tightened things up! It's $25K/yr for premiums alone.
I bought a few rental homes, fixed em up and leased them out for 10 yrs, but I have given that up now and just concentrate on leisure and household tasks.

[Pigheaded]

12. My first K&R

This is a very good post.

Thanks

PH

[liberalhistorian]

14. Who cares? They should be grateful they're even

allowed to live past sixty and they need to show that gratitude by giving back to the communities they've worked hard for for forty years instead of lazily living off the dole in the retirement they worked to pay for. Let 'em bake cakes!

:sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm:

[NNN0LHI]

15. My plan is to get one of those good jobs at Walmart

Seriously.

Its going to be either that or lose my house to the tax man. Because I sure can't sell it.

Don

[Bake]

16. We should just die, already, and get the hell out of the way.

They can miss us once we're gone. Or not.

Bake

[oldlib]

17. I retired in 1995

at the age of 62. I was essentially pushed into early retirement because I was making to much money, and they could hire younger and more aggressive engineers, to replace me for less money. I made numerous attempts to find work and it proved impossible because of my age. Raising the SS retirement age will only create more problems in the employment market.

[area51]

26. +1

"Raising the SS retirement age will only create more problems in the employment market."

Exactly. This is why it's absolutely insane to raise the age of SS eligibility and Medicare eligibility (leaving aside for the moment that Medicare should be available to all ages). SS eligibility should be lowered to age 50 or 55. This would help for people getting kicked to the curb and will encourage some to quit and free up jobs for others.

[oldlib]

27. As you get older,

in the working environment you tend to burn out and you are ready to move on. This should help, rather then hinder, the employment market and, the earlier age for SS benefits would be more effective.

[Autumn]

18. They don't care, in fact they don't give a flying

fuck what happens to seniors, and I include Obama and most of the Dem's right in there with the gop on their lack of consideration for the seniors.

[tsuki]

19. It is a return to the Pre-Depression Era when exposure and mal-nutrition

were the chief cause of death among America's senior population.

[dynasaw]

20. Fund Soylent Green Centers

Government will fund walk in centers where the elderly walk in and get put away to the strains of Beethoven's 5th Symphony as in the old movie. :sarcasm:

[kenny blankenship]

22. They will go to work in the glue factories...

and now I've said too much.

[Lorien]

29. Oh, we're shipping them to China?

I'm not close to retirement but this stuff really depresses the hell out of me. Our seniors deserve so much better!

I heard David Brookes on NPR this morning. He was saying that the our "problems" are due to the fact that we are unlike "the Greatest Generation" (the WWII generation) because "we're an entitled society; the Greatest Generation knew that you had to work hard to earn a middle class income. They pulled themselves up by their bootstraps (yes, he really said this) and didn't ask for handouts. Now everyone thinks they are entitled to a middle class lifestyle. That's what has brought us to this point today (talking about the deficit)" I wish that I could have reached through the radio and strangled him!

[bahrbearian]

23. Repubilican Big Deal, 'hurry up and die'

[Hangingon]

25. Not so long ago, we heard a lot about the aging of govt.

Civil servants were getting older and we needed to bring younger, more technologically adept people. Old folks were homesteading jobs and new graduates were unemployed. How long before the trend of working longer brings this back?

[Fearless]

31. And where will our youth work or our recent grads if people stay at work...

And the economy doesn't grow?

[Still Waters]

32. Our betters have decided it's time to cull the herd...useless eaters

and water drinkers and oil consumers have to be eliminated so there will be enough to go around for our piggy overlords. A vibrant middle class no longer is desirable, in fact, it is a detriment to their bottom lines. Why pay us $20/hr with benefits when they can see a desperate person will accept $8/hr with no benefits?

The jobs are simply not there as things stand now. They are not there for 20 year olds and they are definitely there for 60somethings. Our economy needs a sea change to focus on green energy and construction, infrastructure repair, improving education, care for the elderly, and medical research. If private industry cannot or will not employ their fellow Americans, then government should step in with a WPA jobs program open to all who are willing to give their best effort. Call it a national emergency (which it is!) and tax the rich. Tax rates and tax cuts are not cemented in stone--set them back to Reagan rates and start a jobs program. Talk about a stimulus--there it is right there. Unemployed people who are hired will immediately start spending.

Oh, and back to where are the seniors going to work? How come our politicians aren't forced to answer that question the minute they start in with raising the eligibility age crap? Don't any of our cracker jack reporters ask that kind of question?

[Lugnut]

37. My b-i-l is 63 years and 5 months old.

He is counting down the days until he can qualify for Medicare and stop working. He's a union steamfitter/pipefitter and works sporadically depending on how many jobs are underway. His knees are shot and the 10 to 12 hour shifts 6 days a week with a 50 mile one-way commute are wearing him out. He's grateful to even have work right now because it's been slim pickings in construction the past few years.

If the Medicate elegibility age was reduced to 60 he would've already retired. That alone would provide a job opening for a younger person who needs a job.

[FLAprogressive]

38. It's already happening, I've seen WAY more older people working @ fast food joints than there were

say, 5 years ago.

[Capitalocracy]

39. And what will the younger unemployed people who can't find jobs do

while people who are 65 and still have jobs are waiting for their chance to retire?

This works out for nobody. It's good for nobody and saves nothing. That is to say, it's not good for anyone who isn't already a billionaire.