Retirement,
Ah, the golden years now you can rest,take a long vacation, dust off that old rocking chair,spend some quality time with the family, take up a hobby {something you always wanted to do} or write a novel.
Sounds good don't it?
There is however a dark side to this "retirement",and that is hardly anybody's doing it anymore.
First let me say up front this not based on any survey,nor is it based on documented reserch.
However, I do see a lot of old peole in the work place from resturants to retail stores,truck drivers,factories {those that are left}, and gas station {I work at one.
Some of these "retire"s" {I don't if you can refer to these people as old anymore} just need something to do, but in some cases they are going back to work to catch up with the cost of living.
It seems to have passed some of their "fixed" income or perhaps that retirement pention wasn't as much as one had hoped or perhaps it was just not there.
In any case, move over junior you just got more compition in the workforce.
And if you say it's unfair to hire old people while I'm young and strong and just starting out YOU ARE CORRECT it is, but since when did corporations play fair.
I realise some of you youger people may read this and shake your head and say "the ramblings of an old man".
Maybe? but to the younger generation I will leave you with one fact.
THERE IS NO CURE FOR OLD AGE.

Having worked with "junior" I have observed that despite the young being stronger, the older work is more productive and responsible than an equal paid junior. The employer is getting the best of this situation.
It is however, extremal unfortunate that the older people have to return to work out of necessity...the system is failing them.

Hum, seems I've heard that phrase before.
Perhaps when I was a junior?

The American man is self-dependent. (From memory) I've read in studies that Americans are actually retiring at younger ages, but there will always be the unfortunate that made mistakes, wasted their lives, were screwed over by fate, we unlucky, or for whatever reason still have to work when they are old. I'm just a kid, seventeen, but when I see these old people at work I can see that they are really trying hard to work and I try to tip them extra if the situation allows it. I have sympathy for them, I know that they need it in many cases, and I know that they are working harder and deserve it.

But the American worker is being able to retire at a younger age, and this comes as little surprise to me. The average male American worker works 60 hours a week, and unemployment in America is relatively low. Compare this to France where the maximum work week is 35 hours, i.e. it's against the law to work over 35 hours, and the average work week is 28 hours. Americans work twice as much and are renowned for hard work, so it is no surprise that as a whole Americans are able to retire much earlier and sustain themselves quite well without government intervention.

However there will always be the poor man. Even if every man had what we today consider to be luxury there will still be the poor man because it is a relative term.

The uh, unfornunate like the stockholders of Enron, or perhaps the pension of 30 yrs at an atuo plant in Michigan,dropped to 15 yrs.
Or perhaps that v8 they bought just before gasoline prices hit $3+ a gallon.
Or perhaps the dependable Social;Security fund I mean after all the American worker paid into and still in many cases after their retirement still are.
You are correct it sure is a BITCH to be unfortunate in America,
It's not like any corporations is cheating like say Hlliburtian I'm sure they would never make anyone unfornunate on purpose??

You can cite little examples, but in reality they are nothing in the bigger picture. Enron screwed over what, 30,000 people at most? There are 300,000,000 people in this nation. There will always be examples, I can cite many examples of Americans getting scewed over, but these little examples are as valid as citing lottery winners as examples to the oppisite.

If you want to talk about Americans getting screwed over get real stats, not a couple examples.

Of these 300,000,000 people which is the greater majority the fornunate or the unfonunate? I guess that's just the luck of the draw no?
And hears another "little example" for you, actually since you don't like my "little example"a Qustion.
What is the percentage of the most wealth in this contry and who controls it ? Is this too the luck of the draw?

OK, you think I don't like your little examples? OK, fine. If your examples prove the evil of this country's system and how everyone is getting screwed over, then the guy who won the lottery proves the opposite.

Now, perhaps we can pull some common sense into this.



You see, that is exactly the problem. You have no documents to back yourself up, you can only cite a few examples that affect a minute amount of people, about only one hundredth of one percent of Americans, or about 1 in 300,000.

The fact is that the average retirement age for males is 62, 61 for women. You may wish to know that the number of people retiring was steadily declining in the 90s, then spiked in 2003 and has been growing since. Those are the facts, which I prefer to argue on facts when they are as relevant as they are in this topic.

http://www.opm.gov/feddata/retire/rs2004_highlights.pdf

I'm 23 right now and don't see myself retiring until age 70 or so. Some people simply choose to work longer. Factor that in as well.

__________________
"The saddest aspect of life right now is that science gathers knowledge faster than society gathers wisdom."
Isaac Asimov

You are correct I don't have the documented proof you speak of, but just out of curosity who made this documented proof?
After all there has been some "bad intelligence" to reach the American people before that was not confirmed.
I do however know what I see and hear, and sorry but I do not agree with your documented proof.
There are more elderly that can retire working today than I've seen in a long while.
Oh, and by the way isn't there someone that has "documented proof" that gobal warming doesn't exist; of course if an oil comany were paying people to find this "documented proof" WELL? ONE MIGHT QUESTION THIS "PROOF"