A 75 year old woman working at Costco

[CountAllVotes]

Yep, that is what I saw today when I went to Costo. She seemed younger than 75 I thought. She was selling vitamins or something. She mentioned she had a lot of problems with her knees and had fallen on the job a few times and had been injured. She had a wrist band on her hand.

I asked her why the hell was she not retired! She told me that she had to work because she had these property taxes to pay. I could only wonder if perhaps this 75 year old woman is just one example; an example of what the tip of the iceberg for our society and our economy will soon be witnessing en mass.

I found this to be truly pathetic. This woman should be retired! She is falling at work and she even said to me, "I feel like I am 85 years old, not 75".

What in the world has this country come to?

Since when should a 75 year old arthritic woman have to work? It occurred to me that perhaps she got roped into *'s economical mantra and believed it and is trying to hang-on to that pricey McMansion perhaps with that dicey ARM. I don't know.

I wonder and I cannot help but suspect that this is indeed the case, I wonder how she now believes? I did not dare ask.

[RagingInMiami]

1. She is not alone

[CountAllVotes]

3. people like this should not be working

Falling, injuring themselves at work, etc.

It is so sad. I didn't know how to respond to it.

I am truly shocked. If it was Walmart I wouldn't be suprised, even KMART.

But the royal COSTCO too now? Sheesh!

[DiverDave]

6. The demonstrators at Costco

are not Costco employees.
they work for a promotional company.

[CountAllVotes]

12. oh I see

Thanks, I did not know that.

I was thinking that if she was employed by Costco they wouldn't have her working on the floor on her feet all day at her age. Those promo companies probably don't pay much either I bet. Probably $6 or $7 an hour around here.

Sad. Very.

She could make it on SSI here. She must have a lot of debt. Property taxes are low as long as you don't move.

Thank you Proposition 13! :D

:kick:

[AllNamesHaveBeenUsed]

22. Not entirely true...

Property taxes are low as long as you don't move.

That depends on where one resides. In areas where property values have skyrocketed (e.g., the northeast, Florida, California...), higher property taxes have ensued.

[lindisfarne]

58. In any case, I would have applauded CostCo for keeping on an

employee, regardless of her age. It goes without saying she couldn't have done as much as the average 50-60 year old woman.

Prop. 13 is a horrible solution to the problem of people on low/fixed incomes not being able to pay their property taxes. MN has a much better solution: you get a pro-rated refund of taxes based on your income (which also factors in your dependents); you file for the refund at the same time you file your state taxes. That way, those who CAN afford to pay their assessed taxes, do so, at the real value of their home (not the Prop.13 value) and pay their fair share. Those who CANNOT afford their assessed taxes get a pro-rated refund up to close to 100% of their assessed taxes.

Prop. 13 is causing all kinds of problems in CA. Young families who are just buying their homes are paying huge taxes, whereas people who have owned their homes for 15-25 years pay ridiculously little amounts, despite the fact that many of those households earn over 100,000 annually.

[Clark2008]

70. I'd rather she work for Costco!

While it's appalling that she has to work at all at 75, I'd rather see her employeed by a company who treats its employees fairly. We don't know how this promotional company treats their employees.

Sad.

[ret5hd]

7. so COSTCO shouldn't hire her?

[RagingInMiami]

15. But is it really Costco's fault?

Should they just not have hired her?

I agree, people at that age should not be working, but many have no choice.

[CountAllVotes]

18. No it is not Costco's fault

Seems she does not work for them anyway and even if she did, I'd hope to God they would not have her working on the floor on her feet all day. That is my point.

[HarukaTheTrophyWife]

61. People promoting a product are not almost never an employee...

of that company.

That woman has nothing to do with Costco, although the fact that she should be able to retire at this point is undisputed.

[wordpix2]

72. my dad worked in real estate up until the year he died at 82, although

he did a lot from his home office on computer.

This is what happens when we have tax, borrow and squander repukes in charge.

[crimsonpsychonaut]

2. I know what you mean.

I feel terrible every time I see someone who deserves to be resting working their butts off just to get by. If this is what we have to look forward to, count me out.

[uppityperson]

39. welcome to DU crimsonpsychonaut!

:hi:

[Blasphemer]

57. I agree....

There is a man who must be around 75 who works as a cashier at a nearby supermarket and while I think it's great to work a meaningful job well into your 70's and 80's if health permits, it's a very different thing to have to work a low wage job just to make ends meet.

[newyawker99]

73. Hi crimsonpsychonaut!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[SoCalDem]

4. As a 75 yr old woman it's very likely that she is drawing very little

in social security, and as housing prices escalated, so did property taxes..

She may have waited tables or worked in retail during her working life..or maybe she did not work much at all..Perhaps her husband did not have a great job and his SS is not enough..(she has to choose..his or hers)

[Triana]

45. SoCalDem, I've stolen your .gif...

..I LOVE IT!

[SoCalDem]

46. Freely given..cannot be stolen

:)

[femmocrat]

5. Many seniors work because they cannot live on Social Security.

Don't forget, many do not have pensions anymore. My mom worked until she was 75 and had to retire due to serious health problems. What is going to be like for the next generations?

[CountAllVotes]

17. well my parents are both dead

They were bringing in about $3000 a month and had a house that was paid for. That is more than this household right here brings in right now and it is not getting any better either.

I'm fully retiring next month. I won't have anywhere near this amount to live on.

Many members of the "Greatest Generation" made out good is what I tend to thing.

I should not bitch too loud however. If it weren't for my union, I'd have NO health benefits. NONE.

UNION YES and now you know why.

:kick:

[TechBear_Seattle]

54. Social Security was never meant to be "lived on"

The original idea was that SS would be supplimental income, a way of helping out life savings and pension. Sadly, it is the sole source of income for far too many people.

[HysteryDiagnosis]

8. Apparrently this is not uncommon.... and there are some

organizations out there trying to help.... the best thing they could do is help rid the nation of the government employees who have contributed to the creation of this situation.


http://www.worldvision.org/worldvision/radio.nsf/stable/E0C671E0FAC99C44882570970060A0EC?OpenDocument

With slashed pensions, concerns about social security, and increasing poverty among America's elderly, retirement isn’t always an option. U.S. Department of Labor statistics show 70 percent of people over the age of 65 are still working. But getting back into the job market as a senior can be challenging. A federal program is helping seniors return to work with new skills and more hope. Judy Martin reports from Hampstead, New York.

[CountAllVotes]

19. It is difficult to find work after about age 50+

It can take a very long time to find any sort of job. Those AARP jobs stink. They pay minimum wage and are only temporary as are most of these sorts of job ... transitional they call them.

This is just another shameful aspect of our society. We should all be ashamed for allowing this to happen.

May God bless her, that is all I can say.

[HysteryDiagnosis]

21. A beacon unto the rest of the "civilized" world... yup, that's

us, but again, they hate us for our freedom.

[CountAllVotes]

25. yep that beacon of "freedom"

the thing "they" don't bother to tell you is that that beacon of freedom never becomes a reality because you must work yourself to death until you are dead I guess.

[blues90]

55. tell me about it

Once you are past 50 which I passed 7 years ago it has been very difficult to find work even at a low pay rate . They would rather have the youth who will be less likely to drain on energy or look out of place .

This women should not have to work and it's a crime she has too . No one gives a shit these days , it's like everyone for themselves and if you fail then so be it .

All i will have is SS to live off of and with no job now things don't look promising . all I have found is one for $8 per hour and it's something i will have to stuggle to learn and then some .

Bush's america has really bloomed into one hell on earth has'nt it ?

[givemebackmycountry]

9. My aunt is 78 and works at a Hallmark store in the mall...

In Tampa Bay area.
I don't know how she does it.
I took Friday off because I was tired of working and I'm only 51.
She's 78 and works almost 40 hours a week.

I know she can't do it for much longer, but for now she has to.

God, is this what's coming for all of us?

[kineneb]

10. I may be in the same boat

when I get to her age. We are now living on Hubby's SSDI, and will continue to do so, since he is on dialysis for the foreseeable future. I do not yet have enough credits to get my own SS when I reach 67, so I will be dependant on whatever I will get from him.

I imagine my old age will not be very comfortable...so I keep thinking about that Zen abby near Mt. Shasta...

[CountAllVotes]

13. I think about the same

but for different reasons. I'm about all that is left in my family. It is becoming a sad and lonely ending for many.

How screwed it is. ugh.

On edit: where is this place you mention near Mt. Shasta?

[kineneb]

31. info on the abbey

Shasta Abbey Buddhist Monestary

http://www.shastaabbey.org

I used to see the founding Abbess in Redding occasionally, when I lived there.

I, too, am nearly the last of my family. Neither my (half)brother or I have children, so when we are gone, that is it. However, I expect to live into my 90s, as did my grandmother and her father. But that means finding something to do with the ~30 years after "retirement".

[CountAllVotes]

33. thanks for the info.

I have a strong connection to Mt. Shasta myself but was unaware of the Monastery. Can you go and live there if you are a Buddhist?

[Fox Mulder]

11. I worked with a 65 year old man last month.

He was working for the same reason--property taxes. And he also had emphysema, on top of that.

It made me really sad and angry. :( :grr:

[JDPriestly]

14. Homeowners over 65 should not have to pay property taxes.

[AllNamesHaveBeenUsed]

30. Well...

at least they qualify (age wise) for a reverse mortgage (if they don't intend on leaving anything for their heirs).

[bridgit]

16. i see some pretty spry elder folks around, but you're right, if she...

has to work that doesn't seem right, i work with elderly gals in those costco's & elsewhere helping them setup demo's of this & that, most of the ones i deal with don't seem to mind it though as they say they enjoy getting out & interacting while making a little money

it is clearly a case by case template, i don't know what all she has experienced that has brought her to where she is...but i do wish her all the best

[Emit]

20. My grandma, who just turned 94, quit her job just a few months ago

for health reasons (Macular Degeneration --she was in accounting!). She worked because she had to -- (however, I must admit she loved to work, and since she left, she has deteriorated furhter and is now living in a nursing home.) Nevertheless, it always pained me to know she was working still 5 days a week to afford her daily living essentials at such an age.

[CountAllVotes]

23. wow

that is *cough* really really sad. I had an old aunt I found a record of working as a stenographer c. 1900 or so. She was 84 at the time. And that made me feel like shit when I found that out.

94 ... my god, how very sad. And now she is deteriorating. However, being she liked working, I guess that is ok but still ... *sigh*

I don't know what to say.

[Emit]

50. It blows my mind when I think of it sometimes

In January she worked her last shift at a small Casino in NV. Two weeks later, she was in intensive care from Congestive Heart Failure -- she's now in a nursing home. (The eye problem was gradual, and she used this magnifying glass thing at work that Voc Rehab/Blind Services gave her to accommodate her on the job.)

Late last year, just before she 'decided' to quit working, she had her gall bladder removed, which really was the beginning of her deteriorating health, IMO. While visiting her in the hospital, I met with the Occupational Therapist who was surveying her. He asked her about her daily activities -- she started to explain that she worked five hours and he interrupted and said, "A week." And, she said, "No, per day!" The guy about fell over!

Anyway, it was a struggle for her to live on her SS, as a single elderly lady - to make ends meet, so she worked, basically, 'til she couldn't work any more. The only saving grace is that she really enjoyed work, thank goodness -- had a great work ethic, but, her experience leads me to believe I could end up in the same boat.

edit-typo

[Midlodemocrat]

24. A lof of municipalities offer reduced property taxes for the

elderly, or a reduction in taxes based on income. If you see her again, you might tell her to look into that.

[CountAllVotes]

26. I will tell her if I see her again

I'm in California and there is Prop. 13 here. She must have moved or something or have moved here recently. My property taxes aren't that high but I don't live in a fancy house. There is a tax subsidy that is available once a year that pays up to 1/2 of the property taxes if you qualify financially for it.

:shrug:

[Retired AF Dem]

65. You don't have to live in a fancy house

It's all location. We have a small house with the typical 1/4 acre yard in Waukegan IL and the taxes are $3000 a year. We own another house in AL with two acres of land and pay $180 a year. Any guess where we live when we stop working?

[Midlodemocrat]

71. Which county?

If you want to, PM me and I will see what I can find. I do professional research and know most of the tax assessor websites pretty well.


Thank you for helping this person. Very kind of you.

[TexasLawyer]

27. WalMart--2004

I registered over 600 voters before the 2004 election, most of them at the Channelview, Texas WalMart. This is a lower middle class suburb near Houston, full of "crackers" (for lack of a better word).

There was a prim little blue-haired lady who was the greeter on several of the nights I was at the store, and she looked like she was from RNC-central casting.

But when she was registering with me, she said "I sure hope you register a lot of Democrats!" She said, "I voted for that George Bush once, but I'm not going to do that again." When I told her I was kind of surprised at how many Democrats and how few Repubicans I was coming across she just laughed.

She said, "oh we're all Democrats here. Look at how old I am. Look at how old some of the checkers and baggers are. We have to work because of George Bush's economy. None of us are happy about it"

She was really politicized and opinionated. I wasn't expecting that at all.

[Warpy]

28. I've worked with seniors in healthcare, too, retirees

who found their nursing pensions plus social security were just too stingy to survive on, especially with the past 10 years or so of inflation that doesn't exist.

Property taxes keep going up and so does the cost of medication and copays for health care, even when seniors have supplementary insurance. The worst of all this can be seen during school hours in fast food franchises and retail stores, low level jobs that are the difference between eating in one's own home and selling the place so one can afford to live a few more years.

The way this country treats working people is criminal. The way it treats working people who should be retired and concentrating on hobbies and grandchildren is pure, unadulterated evil.

[CountAllVotes]

36. yes prices have really gone up a lot on necessities

and you are right of course, Social Security payments never rise and the cost of Medicare goes up every year and eats up any increase at all.

[pitohui]

29. your question was completely inappropriate

property taxes are not a great issue at that age, in many areas they are frozen at age 65 anyway

if she owned a macmansion she could sell it and downsize to a condo where lots of other seniors live and have tons of money left over

if she had equity in any house at her age she could get a reverse mortgage

i think the truth is that she was flabbergasted that you asked her a personal financial question, as anyone would be -- being age 75 does not make her a public spectacle to be questioned by everyone -- and she just blurted out the first thing that came to mind that didn't sound absolutely pathetic

why she talk to a stranger abt troubles w. paying for things like food and pain medicine?

please

i'm sure you have a good heart, but my mom would say you were brought up in a barn, never ask a lady why she has to work, that is just beyond the boundaries

and to discuss a lady's age and her finances!!! oh. my. god.

[AllNamesHaveBeenUsed]

32. I mentioned a "reverse mortgage" to my father this week.

I discussed all the benefits and one of the negatives - screwing the beneficiaries. His response was, "Who cares about them"? :P

[CountAllVotes]

35. That is a very good idea

If you are alone and you have no one to leave anything to, why the hell not?

I agree with him 100%!

[AllNamesHaveBeenUsed]

38. I actually offered to do it for him...

I'm a loan officer.

[CountAllVotes]

34. I did not ask her

She bumped into me in the store and apologized and that is how the subject began. She was telling me she is too old to work and had injured herself and showed me the wrist bandgaed up.

We were just talking. Do you not ever do that? She said she'd rather not have to work but she had to in order to pay property taxes. I didn't ask for specifics, believe me.

[KAZ]

41. What the hell reality do you live in?

Seniors shoved out of their houses due to taxes is common in my area. If they don't pay, they'll be "eminent domained" out of it anyway. Nice 'tude dude. Just go to the banks to make it ok. Whatever.

[Lars39]

47. Link to those areas, please.

[Ezra the Prankster]

37. When retirement age was set at 65...

What were most people living to, maybe 70? Retirement started out as a way to give elderly people a few years of well deserved R&R at the end of their lives. Now a lot of people treat it like it's supposed to be a 30 year paid vaction. It's mathematically impossible for our economy to support the same number of elderly people at the same standard of living for six times as long as it used to for the same amount of money (adjusted for population growth, inflation, etc. etc.).

If our economy is going to continue to function at all, we're going to have to adapt it to the changing times. We're going to have to recognize that elderly people are going to have to pull their own share of the weight, but that there are certain jobs they simply won't be able to do. If we're ever going to solve the Social Security crisis, we're going to do it by finding something useful that elderly people are capable of contributing to the world.

I read an interesting section about this in The Cultural Creatives, by Dr. Paul Ray and Dr. Sherry Anderson. They were talking about meeting a guy who'd immigrated from Africa, and this guy said that he figured the best way to learn how to fit in in America would be by talking to old people, because that's what people would do where he was from. So every time he met an old person, he would ask them, "If your grandchildren asked you what the most important thing you've learned in life is, what would you tell them?" He said that old people in America always told him the same two things. First, "Oh, my grandchildren would never ask me something like that," and second, something incredibly profound.

Old people in America are not excluded from our economy because they have nothing to offer, they're excluded from our economy because middle aged people have a lot more energy. Middle aged people are able to make themselves seem more important to everyone than old people, make themselves the cultural leaders that everyone else looks up to, and cut elderly people out of the deal. But as the saying goes, "Those who don't learn from history are doomed to repeat it." And now right on cue, a bunch of middle aged people who didn't live through the Great Depression and World War II are reinventing Fascism...

[SoCalDem]

40. "...30 year paid vacation..."

The "Greatest Generation" lucked out.. They were in the right place at the right time.. They unfortunately had to fight a nasty war, but the ones who survived, cashed in quite nicely..their ascendency into adulthood meshed with free college, cheap houses, cheap gas, union jobs, pensions, social security flush with their children's money, just as they retired...and at the very time lots of them started getting sick, modern medicine "managed" their aliments to insure a cushy old age.. Most of them are gone now, but they had a good long run of it,..and the "blame" for their good fortune will be spun as "greed" by their children when it's our turn :grr:

[KAZ]

43. Sorry Ezra, not the America I want to live in.

You'll like it until you're old.

[SheilaT]

52. When the retirement age was set at 65

most people were dead by then. Which is an important reason that age was chosen. Today, it would have to be set at 75 or maybe 80 to ensure that most potential beneficiaries would die first.

Reading the responses here is very interesting. On one hand there truly are a lot of people who are over 65 who are out there working because they get little or no income from SS or any kind of pension. On the other hand, you also read or hear about those who are genuinely happy in their jobs and keep on working until they are more or less dragged off kicking and screaming. Of course, jobs that involve physical labor are rarely ones people want or can do well into their senior years.

In some cases, a different series of financial decisions can help a lot, such as selling a large home with high property taxes and moving to a smaller, less expensive place. In some cases taking in borders, or making some other kind of group living arrangements can work.

But no matter what, it's genuinely criminal that there are elderly people out there going hungry, doing without necessary medication, working at jobs that wear them out. Maybe the vast numbers of the baby boom generation will force us all to look at this collectively, and come up with a better and more humane solution to the kind of situation the OP described.

[Union Thug]

53. No. The economy works for the people, NOT the other way around.

I'm sick of this kind of bullshit. We are human beings. We've put satellites into space, men on the moon, split the atom, and we are incapable of freeing ourselves of this outdated, barely beyond feudalism economic system? We are incapable of creating a fair economy? Rubbish. The only reason this situation exists is because someone is getting rich off the cheap labor of others.

Workers should be trying to create a labor shortage in this country, and part of this is getting the eldery retired early, out of the job market, and allowing them time to live with some degree of freedom from economic thralldom.

Free market apologists be damned.

[windbreeze]

56. Uh HUH....yep...just wait

you are getting older by the day, you know...when you are 65 or 75 or 85 and still having to work...we'll hear what you have to say about it then...
Expect to have a 30 year vacation???? You gotta be kiddin me...I don't know of anyone retired who hopes to have 30 years to live the high life as though they are on permanent vacation....mostly what I hear is how they just hope they can hang on, without having to be a burden to their kids...that they will be able to stay in the homes that they worked for and paid for...that they will have enough money for medical costs, food, (not prime rib, by any means)and to bury one another when the time comes..but mostly how they don't want to burden their kids...

Funny how this country cannot take care of it's elderly properly...or it's young and needy either...but by god, we can spend billions and billions waging an illegal war and killing hundreds of thousands of people from other nations....funny, what and where our priorities seem to be...the SS "crisis" could be solved by not allowing the gov't to rob the SS fund blind every time they can't find the money to pay for what they want elsewhere...and by eliminating the ceiling, because there are those that don't pay into the fund....

oh, and if my g.children were to ask me what the most important thing I had learned in my life....my answer would be...that a person should always take the time to look at a situation from every angle before making any decision on how to handle it...and that youth truly is wasted on the young...
windbreeze

[BlackVelvet04]

68. How true.....

"Now a lot of people treat it like it's supposed to be a 30 year paid vaction. "

I'm not sure early retirement is actually good for people who are capable of continuing to work.

My dad took an early retirement after working for the same place for 42 years (he started young) but it was no time before he was out looking for a part-time job. He's now 79 and going strong. He worked part-time because he wanted to. He has a sister who just closed her business which she worked 6 days a week....she's 86.

I work with a woman who is 78 and one who is 70. The 78 year old works part-time because she wants to.

I agree that people shouldn't HAVE to work past the point of when they are able, though.

[stevedeshazer]

42. You must be young.

Welcome to the real world.

I plan to work until 85, when I tip over in a Mal-Wart!

[kestrel91316]

44. When I am old I guess I will go retire in MO where little pieces of good

land are still cheap. Put a mobile home on it and grow my own food and raise chickens. Live humbly. It's all I'll be able to afford.

It's a good thing humble living and I get along already.

[LaPera]

48. Well, we have to continue to "Buy Blue"... http://www.buyblue.org/

http://www.buyblue.org/directory/alpha

It does make difference....

[Erika]

49. W's New America

This is so shameful.

[Union Thug]

51. Repukes and libertarians love this...

This is their ideal world - where people work for shit wages until the day they die.

This is what the RayGun revolution kicked into high gear, and the class war has since lost battle after battle. And so here we are.

There is a reason scabs and strikebreakers were sometimes brutally beaten. Personally, I think that's what it will take to get this sick fucking economy back into order, so that we don't have situations where the elderly are forced to work until the moment of death or hospitalization.

[lamp_shade]

59. Sad

I knew a man whose wife was 10 years younger than him. He had a lot of health issues but had to continue working until he was 75 just to provide health coverage for his wife who had many health issues too. Sad. Really sad. He died of a heart attack at about age 70. He never got to enjoy retirement.

[NMMNG]

60. It's not uncommon

And I fear it will only increase over the years as Rethugs continue to hack away at Social Security and corporatists kill the last of the pensions. As it is I doubt SS will be there, at least in any meaningful way, when I retire. Something I've already been contributing to for 22 years will likely be gone. I'll be working until the day I die or am physically incapable and get tossed into whatever hovel of a retirement home my pitiful retirement account can afford. :scared:

[DiverDave]

62. Heck, I'm retireing to Costa Rica

IF they allow us to live there by then that is...


http://www.costarica.net/./features/relocate.htm

[RebelOne]

63. I'm 67 and working full time.

I also receive social security, but there is no way I could live on it. I'm trying to build up my 401K and IRA so that I can retire before I reach 70.

[NewJeffCT]

64. My grandfather worked two jobs until he was in his 80s

He didn't really need to do it... he just loved to work. He was not rich in any way - he lived with my grandmother in the same 3 bedroom ranch home for 40 years. He was born in 1910, so was 19 when the Great Depression hit, so I'm sure grew up with the notion that you can never save too much money.

He passed away less than a year after he was finally convinced to quit his jobs.

That said, it is a shame that many seniors are forced to work to make ends meet.

[bklyncowgirl]

66. I have three septagenarians working with me.

One could retire, she has over 30 years on the job and multiple health problems, the family is well off but she doesn't want to retire. The other is very lively and active--you'd never guess her age if you saw her--but she doesn't have the time she needs to retire with full benefits and her husband, who was self-employed, has health problems. The third retired when her husband became ill and after his death came back on a part time basis.

People work for all sorts of reasons that may not be readily apparent to us. You can't mandate when they retire.

[Vinca]

67. Most of the baggers at a local grocery store are grannies.

I imagine the numbers will increase as the boomers age.

[im10ashus]

69. My mother is almost 70 and still working.

She'd be retired if she hadn't lost everything in her 401k when her company's CEO bilked them for millions. It breaks my heart.

[wordpix2]

74. repuke shell game: we cut your taxes but you pay more in property tax

:puke:
That's right, the repigs cut our federal tax or so they say (actually, I paid $800 more this year than last, with the same amount of income) and we then have no trickle down to cities and towns for education, the environment, road and bridge repair, programs for the elderly and poor. So our property tax goes up to cover these costs. In my town, we get about 5% from the state to run our schools and the rest, 95%, is paid through property tax. Same with roads and everything else. The only funds we get from the feds are for occasional grants for specific, mostly small, projects. :(

[Duppers]

75. my own 81 yr. old mother...

is still working a 40 hr. week because of lost retirement investments, but she's in very good health.

Costco is a blue company and they treat their employees much better than their competitor, Sam's Club.

[anarch]

76. Personally, I fully expect to toil away until death,

which will most likely come while I'm on the job. Or one of several jobs, as I've decided one job just isn't cutting it any more and I am probably going to have to work another one just to pay the bills, so I will have no days off. My American Dream: to one day be able to afford food for the entire month, and maybe someday buy some new socks.

Also: http://www.theonion.com/content/node/44679

[Name removed]

77. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[BrotherBuzz]

78. Like maybe she got suckered into holding Enron stocks?

:shrug:

[anarch]

79. no doubt...I've made some poor choices myself,

which is why I'm in the predicament I'm in. For instance, I finished school. That was just stupid, as all it's gotten me is a huge debt that I'll never pay off. Also, I have tried to support a household on one salary...well, that wasn't really by choice, it's just that the other potential breadwinner has been unable to find work for a while. And I've tried to pay my bills, tried to be responsible, worked a straight job...in general, played by the rules all my life. Stupid, stupid, stupid. What a poor choice all the way around! I should have started selling drugs, or robbing people, or something like that a long time ago. Or, shit, I dunno, maybe I was just born into the wrong set of people to begin with. You don't see any of the Bush scions, for instance, worrying about this crap.

I guess some people are just fucked over. Oh well, that's life. To hell with the poor!

[zonkers]

80. Visit her again. Take her to lunch. Bet she would like that.