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In reply to the discussion: For people talking about having a 50 year old retirement age [View all]Coyote_Bandit
(6,783 posts)38. How many 50 year olds
have enough retirement savings to support themselves - and their health care needs - for their remaining 25 to 30 years of life expectancy?
Very few. Even when their resources are supplemented with a few crumbs from Social Security.
The issue here isn't when folks should have the opportunity to retire. The issue is why the hell our economy cannot employ the people who are willing and able to work. If we'd address those issues then maybe we wouldn't have to encourage kids to take on debt and stay in school until their mid to late 20's while simultaneously trying to discourage workers and remove them from the labor force beginning somewhere around age 40.
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Back when my husband retired, during the Clinton years, many of the retirees we met
Cleita
May 2012
#10
Please make a thread about this so I can rec it. It deserves to be discussed AT LENGTH.
Zalatix
May 2012
#33
I think what you said is probably the worst indictment of western civilization I've read here.
Selatius
May 2012
#68
The wealth isn't being hoarded by baby boomers, it's being hoarded by the Plutocracy.
Zalatix
May 2012
#34
i was with you until "it's all hogged by the baby boomers in their late 50s".
HiPointDem
May 2012
#71
I don't have a job to have self worth. I trade my labor to pay for things.
OmahaBlueDog
May 2012
#21
If it were distributed properly (to everyone according to need).........
socialist_n_TN
May 2012
#24
the entire concept of "self-worth" comes from without. it's a concept given to us by our society
HiPointDem
May 2012
#75
I retired at 62 and I am not bored. I don't know how I ever found the time to work.
doc03
May 2012
#23
When I used to see stories on the late news about little old ladies found dead in their
Booster
May 2012
#26
Yes. There is plenty of time between age 50 and dying amongst cat food cans
Luminous Animal
May 2012
#62
People don't need to feel like they have worth if they can have fun and sit on their asses.
dkf
May 2012
#27
yep. rich people don't have to worry about their self-worth. their money makes it irrelevant.
HiPointDem
May 2012
#76
A person's self-worth is not determined by how much money they make for the capitalists...
Comrade_McKenzie
May 2012
#30
Why would being retired make one feel worthless, unless their self worth was derived from work?
TheKentuckian
May 2012
#58
a prolonged period of unemployment has actually led me to believe that most jobs are worthless,
HiPointDem
May 2012
#74
Let me explain. When one can retire at 50, one has more worth than those who must continue to labor
Bluenorthwest
May 2012
#86