Old Waitress says, "Don't Raise Medicare Eligibility Age!"

[FourScore]

Wed Sep 14, 2011 at 04:24 PM PDT
Old Waitress says, "Don't Raise Medicare Eligibility Age!"
by madame damnable

As further cuts to the budget are being proposed, the idea of raising the age of eligibility for Medicare from 65 to 67 is being discussed in such a way as to seem inevitable, despite studies that show it would not save any money. People are so sick by the time they get Medicare that more money must be spent on advanced disease care. Jump below the squiggle for more discussion. Actually, since I can't jump, please climb down carefully, checking for safe hand and foot holds.

I worked in restaurants for years as a cook and a waitress. My legs are shot. I've got varicose veins, knee and hip issues and a bad grip from carrying plates and using tongs. My husband was a carpenter, construction worker and worked for the Forest Service building trails by hand in wilderness areas. Many of our friends work at wage jobs in factories, hospitals, trim trees for a living or have other blue collar jobs.

My father was an entrepreneur and never worked for an hourly wage. He sat behind a desk and made phone calls, took meetings, went in early and worked late. He kept working past 65 because he still felt great and his mind was sharp. His friends were men just like him that resented the whole idea of retiring at 65.

Unfortunately, the people in Washington making decisions about Medicare eligibility have more in common with my father than they have with me. Do they even KNOW anybody who showers after work instead of before? Do they realize that most workers are barely making it to 65 as it is? Those of us that used our bodies for our working life almost all have health problems by the time we are in our late 50's. We are hanging on, praying that our health insurance doesn't get too expensive and we can get to 65 before anything really bad happens. Are we going to have to work two more years? People who are in pain cut corners when they can. People who are worn out are not as careful, as diligent or as safe as someone healthier. Don't make us wait two more years. Even if I make it, I actually care about the people coming after me. When the Republicans crow that anybody close to retirement age is safe, don't they know we have friends younger than we are and we care about our kids and grandkids? They have the "I've got mine, screw you" attitude. I prefer the "We're all in this together" attitude myself.

Well, we need to tell our representatives that we can't wait two more years to get Medicare and we don't want today's 40 year old waitresses to have to carry those heavy plates for two more years either. All the blue collar workers, the home health care folks, the factory guys, the roofers and loggers, start yelling. Start calling. The old waitresses are watching and you don't wanna make us mad.

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/09/14/1016977/-Old-Waitress-says,-Dont-Raise-Medicare-Eligibility-Age!?via=siderec

[xchrom]

1. recommend

[Warpy]

2. Upper middle class desk jockeys are living a lot longer

but people like this waitress who have to get out and hustle for a living are not.

Longevity is class based, in other words. That class now wants everyone else to be neglected to death so there's more for them.

[xchrom]

3. Gen X Stymied by Baby Boomers in Jobs

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-09-15/generation-x-stymied-by-baby-boomers-refusing-to-give-up-jobs.html

In Tiffany Spaulding’s 12 years in the pharmaceutical industry, she’s worked for three companies, two of which no longer exist, and relocated to four states.

Now 39 and living in Brookfield, Connecticut, she hasn’t had a promotion in five years and says she sees no chance to advance, stuck behind a wall of baby boomers. She would quit and turn her hobby of jewelry design into a business, she says, if not for the home and school loans that eat up half her salary.

Spaulding, according to a new report, is a typical member of the relatively small group called Generation X, 46 million Americans born between 1965 and 1978: They’re ambitious, squeezed by debt and frustrated by people who aren’t retiring on schedule. More than a third hope to leave their jobs in three years, a survey of more than 1,100 members of Generation X by the Center for Work-Life Policy found.

Twenty-eight percent say they are working longer hours, an average of 10 more a week than three years ago, and credit card debt helps dictate career choices for 74 percent, according to the center’s report, based on research including interviews with Spaulding and 200 others.

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

11. Stuck behind a wall of baby boomers?

A lot of people would love to be "stuck" like Ms Spaulding, stuck in a steady job, maybe in a chair in an air-conditioned office or lab.

Not to worry, boomers are retiring or being laid off at a pretty good rate. Maybe Ms Spaulding would like to take my job. No, wait, that job went overseas.

I like the statement in the OP article that states Gen-Xers would like to be their own boss, to get the flexibility to devote time to outside pursuits and family. I know some people who are their own boss, and their boss works them hard, gives them very little time for outside interests.

This comes from a laid-off, possibly "retired" boomer.

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

18. Replying because it's too late to edit ...

I re-read my post, and it sounded like I was maybe a little bitter.

I'm "over" the insult and shock of being laid off. I'm starting to "get" that I can actually enjoy my time. Even the few job interviews are enjoyable, because the stress of "must find a job fast" is not there.

As an old Beatles song once noted: "oh, that magic feeling: nowhere to go" (apology if I butchered the lyric)

:hi:

[eridani]

29. I was forced out of paid labor, but am more than willing for a Gen X person to have my job

That is why raising retirement and Medicare ages is so fucking stupid.

[truedelphi]

23. We Baby Boomrs are also dying off, being decimated by cancer.

I have lost two of my closest friends, in the past twelve years.

Some twelve percent of all Baby Boomers are already dead.

If you work for corporate America, and have to sit in an airless environment, one where the midnight cleaning crew has relentlessly sprayed Febreeze and Glade, and other nasties, you have a good chance of helping cancer promote itself inside your cells. Once you are sick, you have even more motivation to hold on to your job - how else could you get insurance?

And yes, if we had retirement benefits as the European countries do, more older people would gladly retire.

Sometimes these older people holding down jobs are supporting their adult children. And helping their parents who need physical care and housekeeping and help with trips to the doctors.

[RaleighNCDUer]

47. While all that is true, it was not the boomers who killed the pension systems,

who created the flattening of wages over the past 40 years, making it virtually impossible for the boomers to save for retirement, and retire before the 65 benchmark.

If there is a wall of boomers, that wall is a trap for boomers as well - we are not retiring because we CAN'T retire. 401ks don't provide the security of defined pensions, exploding health care costs have not been addressed by anyone for 30 years and with the employer-based health insurance system we HAVE to work right up to the line where we are eligible for Medicare, for doing otherwise is a literal risk to our lives. THAT is why we are not retiring "on schedule".

What we need to do is REDUCE the eligibility age for both SS and Medicare, and get that burden off the employers, who could then hire younger, healthier people to exploit.

[still_one]

4. If obama signs on to increasing the medicare age to 67, he will NEVER get my vote /nt

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

6. Rick Perry welcomes your help.

It will be a bad blow if the medicare age gets raised. Or if any of the so-called senior entitlements get messed up.

But there are worse things. Like having Rick Perry as prez. Worse than GWB.

[jtown1123]

10. Lame. You are way off. A Repuke would never be able to pass these ideas. I

It would be safer with unified Democratic opposition.

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

12. "unified Democratic" opposition is a nice dream

The "Big Tent" democratic party is a hodge-podge of yellow dogs, blue dogs, and whatever other color is to the left of Attila the Hun.

"Unified" we ain't.

I just hope enough people get disgusted with the "Christian Coalition / Tea Party" Republican antics that we sweep those bums out.

And if you think a Repuke can't pass obnoxious ideas, see Wisconsin and Michigan governors. They're running the table with right-wing successes.

[Dragonfli]

32. That is true, they always conveniently forget that the president has no power

unless they have super majorities in both houses, they don't even get how their own talking point about Obama's impotence applies to the other side as well (if it applies at all).

I have seen the right wing making more progress under a third way Republican (must we really call them Democrats) due to a lack of a unified opposition than anything the Republicans could have done without Obama's help.

[still_one]

14. if any Democrat plays these games with social security or medicare, they are NOT Democrats. I will

support a 3rd party candidate

At this point it is moot because I haven't heard the administrations view on increasing the age

Perhaps they might view getting out of the multi-trillion dollar wars we are in as part of the solution, and letting the bush tax cuts expire

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

19. I'm starting to read some more hopeful articles

and maybe Obama is going to try to hold the line on Social Security and Medicare. So before going for a third party (perish the thought!), maybe we should let this simmer.

I can see some pretty obvious ways to lower Medicare costs and lower some other government costs, but I'll just wait for the SuperCommittee to ask for this Bozo's opinion.

:hi:

[eridani]

30. No, we DON'T just fucking let it simmer

We raise holy hell as loudly and frequently as possible until they all back the hell off.

[Dragonfli]

33. He welcomes O's help as well (actually Obama is the one clinging to right wing ideas not the poster)

[jtown1123]

9. Ditto.

[WorseBeforeBetter]

24. Nor mine, and folks can attack me all they want for saying so.

Social Security and Medicare are the end of the line for me.

[hedgehog]

5. Not to mention - a lot of white collar workers don't want to retire at age 65

even if they have the money to do so. At their jobs, they are important and busy. Once they retire, they have no idea what to do with their time.

[RebelOne]

26. When I reached 65, I started to collect social security,

but I did not want to retire then. I loved my job. But unfortunately, I was laid off at age 70, not because of my age, but because the company was downsizing. Three others were laid off at the same time. They were all a lot younger than me, and one of them was my boss. So, knowing that no one was going to hire me at that age, I decided to retire with what little savings I had. Fortunately, the company was very generous with severance pay. I received 6 months salary.

I do not know what to do with all this free time. Sitting home and watching TV is becoming a drag. I would like to travel, but cannot afford to.

[eridani]

31. You can afford to be a full time community activist

Write, call or fax at least once a week. Talk to your neighbors. Check out MoveOn and other organizations for meetings and demonstrations.

[barbtries]

42. i was going to say the same thing

many ways to be active and do good.

[DesertFlower]

28. my husband is 64. he could retire if

he wanted to with a nice pension, but he loves his job. as long as he's healthy and they need him. he will continue to work.

if for some reason he's forced to retire he's decided he'll go back to school and study physics.

[Pharaoh]

7. Yes

My dad was a professor and he thought I was too young to retire. But was happy I could.

But I did physical work and got worn out. Those that wear suits to work and don't need a shower after work don't have a clue what it's like to work into your late 50's and beyond doing physical labor.

[Kali]

8. "showers after work instead of before"

great metaphor

[Enthusiast]

17. An apt one.................nt

[JoePhilly]

21. an old one. nt

[CTyankee]

13. A good friend who is a plumber and was a welder before has now been

forced to retire at age 61 because his shoulder is shot. The surgeon could not restore his muscle strength in it, so he can no longer do the necessary lifting and carrying a plumber has to do. His knees are also shot and he just had surgery on his eyes, which were damaged due to his years as a welder. I can see how weathered and aged his face is. He looks older than his years.

This man is just worn out. Luckily, he has a union and good benefits, since he has worked at a state university. Otherwise, what would he do?

[Enthusiast]

15. Kicked and recommended!

This is so true.

[dembotoz]

16. people i know struggle to reach medicare--my father sure did.

You do certain jobs year after year and the body just starts to give out.
not designed for that type of stuff. just wasn't.

and now the hear that we should start buying private health insurance???

at my age??????

[truedelphi]

20. Twelve Perent of us Baby Boomers are already dead and in the grave

My mom lived to the ripe old age of ninety. And still had one close friend, her age, when she died.

I have lost two of my best friends in the last twelve years. To cancer. One at the age of 52, one at the age of 59. Both of these friends paid into the System.

So I think of them when the politicians are trying to destroy Social Security by saying it is not solvent. After all, one way that the Social Security system works and remains solvent is that those who die early have contributed but usually don't see any of their monies returned to them.

So the Baby Boomer age group is decimated by cancer, immune diseases, suicides. (Decimation - that word derives from the very old practice of a conquering nation lining up the troops of those they oppose and killing off every tenth soldier.)

We as a group have already saved the Social Security fund - by our dying!

What more do they want? Why are the Political Elite, and the Banking Class and Investors that control them, committing humanacide on people?

If it was only Jewish people who paid into Social Security Fund, we'd hear that this was another Holocaust.

And it is - it just is not ethnic-specific. It's about the older, sicker person being killed off.

My name for these policies is Humanacide!

[soryang]

27. We prepaid our Social Security benefits- the contributions are..

...being stolen to pay for the Bush tax cuts for the rich.

Michael Hudson does a brilliant discussion of this on Guns and Butter this week.

[truedelphi]

35. I'll see if I can find the Guns and Butter archives for

The Hudson topic. Thanks for mentioning it.

[soryang]

50. Here is the link which addresses SS after the EU discussion

Here is another brilliant interview of Michael Hudson (audio podcast):

http://www.kpfa.org/archive/id/73344

Quote:
Guns and Butter
"Debt Deflation in Europe and America" with Dr. Michael Hudson. European banking crisis causing a constitutional crisis of the European Central Bank; Germany; the myth of Social Security in the US.; bank balance sheet crisis; food, fuel and climate crisis; the super congress; debt deflation; FHA lawsuit against the banks; criminalization of the financial sector; Modern Monetary Theory; the coming lost decade; debt cancellation.



His analysis of Social Security "reform" as theft by ruling elites is a very insightful.

[Uncle Joe]

22. Kicked and recommended.

Thanks for the thread, FourScore.

[soryang]

25. Raising the age to 67 is a $35,000.00 plus hit to working couples

That is what private insurance costs for two years with bad coverage with large deductibles and copays for a couple in their sixties. Because it is unaffordable, they will be forced to try to work until 67. Good luck with that!

Thank social darwinist Joe Lieberman for this "reform." Useless eaters who don't contribute to the patrio-trick wars on behalf of the homeland don't need medicare. Work till you drop! (if you can)

[Bluebear]

34. Shut up and eat your peas, Granny

:(

[B Calm]

36. Kicked and Recommended

[The Flaming Red Head]

37. And Workman's Comp is a hideous nightmare now

Do not get injured on the job, ever and they are so cocky about it right now. They don't care about the safety of workers because they don't have to anymore. OMG how things have changed since I first started working 30 years ago. No breaks, not even for the bathroom. They’ll have you standing 9 to 10 hours straight and you actually have to hold it or wear depends. It's terrible. I fell and hurt my knee, accidentally in the kitchen with grease all over the floor, and no grease traps, any rugs and I fell and it sucks, because now my knee is fucked and they don't want to help. They want to make an example of you, if you get injured on the job, and make fun of you, it's like being put in the corner with a big dunce cap on your head while the bosses take turns harassing you , and the doctors are in on it, too. They don't give you time off if you get hurt. I’m now facing surgery, with no money, and maybe 6 weeks off and somehow I have to find another job and I'm on crutches. They fired me because I got sent back to work after the accident and I tried too hard and I was hurting and I asked to leave an hour early and they fired me. That means no unemployment and the surgery is covered, but no check. I think we'll all end up (working class) in refrigerator boxes on the streets begging. The US is rapidly becoming a third world country and it's only going to get worse. They brag about cutting down on workman’s comp cost in the state I now live in and all they’ve done is fuck over people. They don’t care anymore because they don’t have to and no one is going to make them. When we lost unions in this country we lost everything.

[Liberty Belle]

38. I had an accident that left me in pain. I'm self employed.

So I can't quit working even though everything hurts every minute of the day. I used to have a state job and am living for the day when I'll qualify for Social Security and can afford to cut back on the work hours. Now they're talking about raising the age limit for that, too -- if we even still have SSI at all after the damn Republicans get threw screwing us all over.

[The Flaming Red Head]

40. I was self employed for many years too

I just took this one (job) until one of my resumes came through and I could get going, again. I have been paying that self employment tax and did my own taxes, paid into SS, proudly. i don't understand how they can take away something that I have paid into for 30 years. I want my money back. dammit!

My father died a few months after he turned 65 worked his life away (18 hour shifts at plants, running turn arounds, killed himself working so hard) and he only got two SS checks before he passed.

How dare they try and take it away from us.

[EmeraldCityGrl]

51. +1000

[BlueMTexpat]

39. If anything, Medicare-eligible age should be LOWERED to 55

or, better yet, extended to ALL Americans.

[flamingdem]

43. +1 this is clear - we almost had it and Lieberman blocked it nt

[AverageJoe90]

44. Screw that prick Lieberman. n/t

:mad:

[flamingdem]

48. copy that x a thousand

:evilfrown:

There's a special place waiting for him down the line

[soryang]

49. The Lieberman Coburn Bill raises it to 67 nt

[obxhead]

41. Don't fuck with the people that cook and serve your food.

It's simply not wise.

[joanbarnes]

45. SO well said, sister!

[xxqqqzme]

46. Medicare for

ALL! Problem solved.

[G_j]

52. you don't think we would cut back on war profiteering just to help you?

in fact, you are paying for those wars so keep working!

:cry: