Work Reform

I work at a factory with unionized workers. There are 3 workers in their 80s who say they wouldn't be able to live if they didn't come into work. They're all given light duties so it's more like adult daycare than working.

When I first got hired I was shocked to learn that our union contract has no retirement benefits. I asked our rep and he told me that years ago the workers voted to remove retirement benefits in favour of a higher base pay. Now we have old people daycare because nobody used that higher base pay to save for retirement. They just spent it. People really don't think about retirement until they want to retire.

I'm reading Work, Retire, Repeat currently and many start claiming SS as soon as they can for extra money while they work...only they shoot themselves in the foot by not waiting longer to claim much higher (8%/year) benefits. Waiting until 70 nets you 96%(!) higher benefits. The rich who don't actually need the extra 8% largely benefit, and because they live longer, collect it for longer, and wait until their payout is maxed or nearer to it than poor folks so their benefits are relatively higher. The poor get screwed again, which of course aligns with minorities and women being the most affected.

This started in the 80s when corporations took advantage of Regan's policy to shed pensions and instead, ask financially illiterate Joe's and Janes to manage stock accounts and decide how much they should save. The results were predictable. There have been winners though, corporations (much cheaper 401ks), and financial service industry that sprang up to ~support~ pillage uninformed retirees trying to save money to find their retirement for the first time. Regan admin also raised the retirement age to 67 for Social Security in 1983. This represents a permanent 13% decrease in benefits for Americans as it's 13% less time on average they'll collect based on mortality rates

There has been a large media full-court press to try to make working longer because:

1. Government knows citizens aren't saving enough and without pensions can't manage retirement funds. They are put in power by lobbiests that prevent changes to the 401k structure and repairing social security.

2. Corporations love older workers; they have fewer options despite the magazine covers showing laughing, healthy retirees on their laptop overlooking their vineyard. In reality they are working physically and mentally taxing jobs no one else will, and this also suppresses wages for younger workers. This is another reason why corporations lobby like hell against national healthcare...TONS of folks would stop working or work much less if they could see a doctor without bankrupting themselves, but can't until they are eligible for Medicare.

3. Financial services want that money. Asset management, trade fees, expense ratios, "financial advisors" instead of fiduciaries so much easier to bully folks when they are on their own or in small groups. National programs have buying power and muscles in the marketplace, bad for worthless leeches.

Lol "retirement"

Millenials may have killed avocados or whatever.

Boomers killed retirement for anyone else not making 100k+.

There is no middle class. There is the ruling class who exploits the working class, the working class who produces value, and the criminal class who exploits the ruling class.

That's not a "plan" FFS, it's a necessity. Headlines like this make it sound like it's a choice people are making.

Nobody over 60 should be forced to work just to stay alive.

Likewise, nobody under 60 should have enough wealth hoarded to support 10,000 lifetimes without having to lift a finger.

Retirement is something the generations who directly benefitted from WW2 awarded themselves at the expense of future generations.

Stop pretending retirement is anything but boomer greed manifested. No one gets to retire. The fact that multiple generations brainwashed you into thinking it's normal or expected is the crime here.