Retirement Nomads: Too poor to retire and too young to die
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Retirement Nomads: Too poor to retire and too young to die
1–10 of 198 posts
Re: Retirement Nomads: Too poor to retire and too young to die
#2I feel so sad when I read stories like these ones... a 300$ ticket is the difference between being broke and having food on the table for her.
To me it says a lot about our society if we can't take care of our elderly.
Re: Retirement Nomads: Too poor to retire and too young to die
#3Its tricky to feel sympathy w/ the lady in this article. She's part of the most benefitted generation, the "hardships" shown are induced by her own choices (expensive dinner, speeding ticket) and by world standards she's won the lottery to even be alive and living comfortably at her age.
Alas, thats the trick with other people's stories-- difficult to project how it would feel if I were in their shoes.
Re: Retirement Nomads: Too poor to retire and too young to die
#4Just shows that the US government can't afford to launch any wars or flex its muscles, when it does so it does it at the cost of all these people who have paid a life's worth of taxes, and have nothing show for it. The corporate interests and the government has eaten all that work and not given them enough to live off in their old age.
Re: Retirement Nomads: Too poor to retire and too young to die
#5Poverty begets poverty. I think this is going to become increasingly common. Her generation had all the benefits of a 66 year economic boom, and still there are many who will live out a good portion of their lives in poverty. What about subsequent generations that have been saddled with their debts, who can't afford housing, and who must pay their entitlements?
Re: Retirement Nomads: Too poor to retire and too young to die
#6Westfall — 5 feet 1 tall, with a graceful dancer’s body she honed as a tap-dancing teenager — is as stubborn as she is high-spirited. But she finds herself these days in a precarious place: Her savings long gone, and having never done much long-term financial planning, Westfall left her home in California to live in an aging RV she calls Big Foot, driving from one temporary job to the next.
This is just shameful.
You can debate all you want about implementing basic income for the general population. But there should be no hesitation at all about applying it to seniors. As in, right now.
And the trickle-down effects of the basic message: "If you can take care of your self until age 65, you've got it made" -- will be enormous.
Re: Retirement Nomads: Too poor to retire and too young to die
#7Its tricky to feel sympathy w/ the lady in this article. She's part of the most benefitted generation, the "hardships" shown are induced by her own choices (expensive dinner, speeding ticket) and by world standards she's won the lottery to even be alive and living comfortably at her age. Alas, thats the trick with other people's stories-- difficult to project how it would feel if I were in their shoes.
It's not tricky at all. The government eats that $300 dollars for nothing, you could easily index those fines depending on how much money people actually have. But then you can't overtax the underclass with policing. I live in Canada, you know how much the police harasses me? Not at all. The expensive dinner is three meals, which comes out to around $7/meal; not really that expensive. America has a huge underclass made by shitty government policies that favor corporate interest and complexes like the military industrial complex or the prison industrial complex at the price of its people. It's as simple as that.
And they individualize all of those bad policies and make individuals pay for it, as if it's their fault. It's not.
Re: Retirement Nomads: Too poor to retire and too young to die
#8Before Social Security, over 70% of seniors died in poverty. Today, that number is less than 10%.
The amount of transfer payments to the elderly is so much larger than to any other age group, but unless you're willing to let those below the median income die in abject poverty, it's necessary.
Re: Retirement Nomads: Too poor to retire and too young to die
#9Its tricky to feel sympathy w/ the lady in this article. She's part of the most benefitted generation, the "hardships" shown are induced by her own choices (expensive dinner, speeding ticket) and by world standards she's won the lottery to even be alive and living comfortably at her age. Alas, thats the trick with other people's stories-- difficult to project how it would feel if I were in their shoes.
It sounds like you have never been poor. Poverty and misfortune wears you down. A moment of weakness is inevitable. Moreover financial stress has shown to significantly reduce effective IQ.
Re: Retirement Nomads: Too poor to retire and too young to die
#10Hopefully at some point in the future we look back at situations like this with a sense of perplexion.
I worry though, that if we do roll out some form guaranteed minimum income, the moral highground of those against welfare and social assistance will be replaced by the moral highground of those who work to supplement their income.