Want to be 70 & still doing these jobs?

[SoCalDem]

[damntexdem]

1. I'd love to be 70 and be ABLE to do those jobs.

But I sure wouldn't want to HAVE to do them at 70.

Raise or eliminate the FICA tax cap!

[TheCowsCameHome]

3. +1000

[Subdivisions]

7. My initial thoughts, almost to the letter. n/t

[BrklynLiberal]

19. ELIMINATE the FICA cap!! That would enable SS to be viable forever!!!!

[texastoast]

26. So simple. So cost-effective to put in place.

Think anything like that will come out of Washington?

No, the fuckers are going to make us fight, and I'm ready.

[HysteryDiagnosis]

28. I see myself there.... oh swell. n/t

[BrklynLiberal]

2. you forgot one that I have seen all too often

[SoCalDem]

5. I added one.. an 88 yr old waitress

:(

[BrklynLiberal]

18. I am so saddened whenever I see that...and I see it MUCH TOO OFTEN!

While I believe that there may be those who truly love their jobs, I cannot believe that a woman who is well past her 60th birthday ENJOYS being up and on her feet all day, running around, taking orders and having to put up with the crap that most customers in a restaurant/diner hand out.

[joeybee12]

4. Come on, be realistic, with our shitty healthcare system...

...none of these people will live to be 70.

See, there's always an upside!

[Yavin4]

6. I Recall Some Conservative Pundit Bitching About Early Retirement for CA Prison Guards At 55

I yelled at my screen, "Hey asshole! Do you want 60 year old men guarding 18 to 30 year old gang bangers who do nothing all day but lift weights?"

[pscot]

8. I'm 70

and I can barely make it from here to the garage.

[peace frog]

9. OK, this is a bit OT as it occurred in my adolescence, however..

in my junior high school lunchroom, there was this old, OLD woman who worked bussing tables and generally cleaning up after a whole school full of slobby teenagers. Some of the kids would say mean things to her, which was painful to witness because she worked really, REALLY hard at a physically taxing job and she was older than my grandmother! I'm sorry now that I didn't say something nice to her to counter the meanness of the other kids. I just remember wondering, "Why isn't this poor woman retired? SHE'S OLD!" Well, that poor old woman will be me in a decade or so. Karma's a bitch.

[SoCalDem]

10. She was probably a widow.

My mother in law only got $232.00 a month SS

[peace frog]

12. True

and I hope she forgives this former selfish teenager who should have said something kind and sympathetic at a time when it might have meant something.

[SPedigrees]

11. The older I get, the more I wish I'd been kinder to old people long ago.

Unfortunately age is hard to fathom when we're young.

[BrklynLiberal]

21. Yep. A great insight...and one that we need to realize. EVERYONE will be there one day..

one would hope so, anyway.

[peace frog]

29. Funny the things that stay with you, years after they happened

I've often thought about that hard-working woman, and wondered if the circumstances of her life improved and if she was able to finally achieve the rest and security that she unquestionably deserved. It pleased me to think so, when I was young and impressionable, but in reality who knows? Some folks never know peace and contentment, and that's just frigging sad.

[tridim]

13. When I'm 70 I want to paint and play blues on the weekend for a little extra spending money.

But I'm not sure the American Dream allows that any more.

[Uben]

14. Hell, I'll dig ditches!

You hiring? I'm 55, still got some teeth left, a couple of good vertebrae, and some hair! What the hell else do I need?

[Vinca]

15. A walker?

:rofl: I'm kidding.

[Uben]

22. LOL!

I do have a cane from when I broke my leg 5 yrs ago. Heck, I can glue a shovel head on the end of it and we're good to go!

[Warpy]

16. Fucking desk jockeys seem completely oblivious

to the rest of us who make the things they use, the roads the travel on, the roofs that keep the rain off, and take care of them when they get sick.

I've long thought that everybody under 40 needs to do the physical jobs of the world, graduate to desk work at 40 when their bodies are just starting to feel the strain. My guess is that we'd have far fewer elitists in government trying to kill us off by raising the retirement age beyond all reason for those of us who did physically demanding work.

I'd love to be able to wait tables at my age, let alone years from now when I hit 70. My body won't let me because 25 years as an RN wrecked it.

[BrklynLiberal]

23. Just as they do not realize why they need to pay taxes to pave the roads, keep the water and air

clean, provide police and fire departments, have the garbage collected, keep street lights on, etc etc.

so many of these moronic "Teabaggers" seem to think all that happens by magic.

[TheKentuckian]

17. I don't even get the desire too increase the job pool with an ever shrinking market anyway

When you are down at least 12 million jobs and wages are declining what inspires anyone too say we need everyone in the market longer?

That is before the lack of morality is accounted for at all. Think about most of the jobs in a service economy, most of this crap is for kids not seniors.

What about this dynamic fails to lead to the conclusion that a different answer is required? Raising the age is not a beneficial response to this "problem".

[lunatica]

20. What job is the first photo?

And no. I'm 62 and I don't want to do those jobs. Does anybody?

[Uben]

25. Oh, that's a professional egg layer!

Can't you tell by the eyes?

[onethatcares]

24. want to be 70 and doing these jobs

for $2.50 per day?? How about $4.65 american an hour?


Why not?

[billh58]

27. I'm 69, and

holding down three jobs. Do I like it? No, but I would dislike being homeless even more.

My problem is that I have lived way beyond my planned financial expiration date...;-)

[elocs]

30. If a person is 70 and chooses to do a job they love or enjoy, that's great.

Nobody says on their deathbed, "I wish I spent more time at work" unless they really loved their job and in that case it wasn't a job. Many people who are retirement age choose to work jobs for the fulfillment it gives them but that is different than having to work.

I am 58, poor as a church mouse, and choose not to work any more than I need to work. I have enough to take care of my needs and pay my bills and I am content with that. When I retire I will only work when I choose to work. I am fortunate in that respect.

[customerserviceguy]

31. Here's an idea

Why not advocate that jobs be rated on a ten point scale of physical difficulty, and then have the retirement age for full benefits correspond to that scale? Right now, the age is set at 67 for most people in the US, between that and 70 years of age lie 36 months.

You got a zero point job, sitting your ass at a desk like I do? You get full benefits at 70. You got a ten point job (like food server) You get them at 67.

Hell, drop it back to 65 for the ten point jobs, and keep 67 for the modestly physical jobs. Such a scale wouldn't be perfect, but it would be an attempt at fairness.

[EC]

32. You can add administrative assistant too

even though we get to sit down all day...How do you type and file when your fingers will not move? Or how about answering phones all day when you can't hear clearly even with a hearing aid? Or get messages correct when your memory is short? I'm only 60 and already am running into some of these problems...

[pipi_k]

33. The 73 year old Dunkin' Donuts lady

that was my mom before she gave up working a few years ago. She's 76 now, living with a guy who apparently takes care of her (she doesn't get enough Social Security to survive on her own, which was why she was working like a dog at DD).


Anyway, she would get up at 2 AM to make it in for 4 AM, and often work a full 8 hours alongside the little 18, 19, 20 -year old chickie babes who would bitch and moan all day about how TIRED they were all the time.

If someone didn't show up, the manager would call her and she'd go in.


It's about time she had some fun, dammit. She was 18 when she had me, and almost 40 when she had the last of her five kids. When she and my father divorced in 1965 or so, she started working and worked all that time until she was 73 PLUS she did all the housework AND yardwork, too, when she was married to her second husband, who died in 1990.

She still takes care of my youngest sister's two daughters sometimes, but at least she doesn't have to work, and is going on trips and started ballroom dancing and is just living it up. I'm glad for her. :)