AARP Hearing Center
In the US are many new retirees who are stuck at minimum Social Security benefits forever, due to having to start their payments early at 62 in order to have ANY income at all. These decisions are not made of freedom but of necessity - decisions made under duress.
With no other income, the arithmetic does not work out at all for living. This is existence, not living! If one is forced to do file early and receive minimum benefits, due to bad economics, the benefits need to increase each year according to what the rate is for that year, as if one is just entering the system, until the maximum is reached at 65 or 66, for those who have no other income at all! Lest we forget - This is America! Where are the organizations who "say" they support the well being of seniors?
The availability of actual assistance is near nil, with none of that offering anything more than emergency or band aid "help". (Don't be a single male with no children!) All the government hype about ending homelessness, helping those who have the least, is just hype, as the "Tale of the Tape" reveals the actual story - Homelessness and need have increased drastically among have-nots. (An exhaustive and continuing, study is done of Connect-To-Care, the Dallas government's excuse for a help mechanism, which showed their listed "resources" to be the same overworked, underfunded, organizations that have always been there.) There has been repackaging of the same "resources" lists in other websites and organizations, while the resources themselves remain unchanged or less funded, leaving those who actually need help the most, in the same or worse overall shape. If there are little to no actual resources available, which is the case in reality, what do these organizations actually do? Jobs for those who have! Notice how many low income people are employed in any of these.
With the baby-boomer generation coming into retirement age, there is a large number of retirees just entering the social security system, who spent their working lives at relatively unskilled jobs that offered no retirement plan, no insurance, no 401s, and the like, that paid so little that saving was out of the question. This was influenced by the full scale and unregulated "outsourcing" of jobs, and the demise of unions. Life after 50 meant jobs and job offers, lessened or ceased altogether. This economic forced many into accepting less than livable Social Security, made and is making, a large group of retirement age have-nots who are out of work and in need of available assistance.
(Of sour note is the many who are plagued by student loans whose collection arms are more than willing to accept and/or forcably take, from those who who have no other income than Social Security and/or who are below the poverty level, leaving that individual with nothing at all, below where rent can be paid, food purchased - a loose cannon. If you are living on the edge, not making enough for basics, this particular organization will still try and take from you, oblivious to the fact they can be rendering a person homeless!)
And no, retraining doesn't get you a job or help with age discrimination. The fact that a senior has to ask someone for a job in the first place instead of having them call you, is the real issue. To say there is no age discrimination is denying reality in many, if not, most, cases. Experience is relatively meaningless after a certain age.
The question is Not how anyone got to retirement without having, but how to remediate it starting, Now, without looking at how and/or, especially, why, that individual got to retirement age in this shape in the first place.
I think that's called - Non Judgemental. Remember that one. Takin a real beatin since the internet! So has honesty.
And especially, of question, why this subject is one that so many don't want to address, see others address, have commentary/dialogue about, and why the refusal to offer explanation to back up this "reasoning"/stance for not wanting such discussion. If a stance is solid, it stands on its own merit, and there is no fear, no reasoning for not putting it up for scrutiny! Of question is the unwillingness-refusal to help anyone who doesn't have, without knowing their pedigree, or more.
What happened to helping someone who doesn't have, without knowing, or even trying to find out, how they came not to have? Not just band-aid motion but sufficient to help fellow humans get themselves out of the cycle of poverty itself.
Dear 78736061,
The employment process is unfriendly to those who go thru the process legally. Employers use any excuse not to hire someone...age, race, religion, etc. They claim they are non-discriminatory, but we all know that's not true.
I put a lot of different but related subjects in this post to elicit your responses::D.
Thank you.
It is true that workers have more rights now than ever but those rights are in many, if not most, cases, insufficient, and/or virtually nonexistent, where there are no unions, which is where most jobs are, especially low paying jobs. Unions have been on the decline, not only by their own doing, but with systematic help. They wielded too much power for the big companies. There was massive corruption from base level to top management. The history and effects of this demise has been well documented. Weak, to no, workers rights is a natural and direct outcome of diminished union strength. What about the question of why the government didn't actively oversee the cleanup of unions and help them flourish, like they did the big companies, when they got in trouble, instead of actively aiding their demise? For what constituency does a representative work toward making conditions worse for workers? This is where voting and unions are valuable.
Screening "these people" out is endemic of the problem. 
A police record places anyone with one in more need of job than those, who don't, as they have that extra hurdle that in reality, does need extra help. A person can't be assumed to be a "criminal" solely because they have a "police record".
I want to take the one about illiteracy and not graduating from high school with enough skills. Look back among these posts and you will see some of the examples where high schools didn't prepare a lot of people. Look at the post by mickstuder about his school. They took out Economics. Huh? In my school as a freshman, General Business was being eliminated. As I said, this is not something anyone purposely did. It's nobody's FAULT! The educational system needed updating then but instead we were left with "Shakespeare". There's nothing "wrong" and the people who came out of this system are not "these people" but US!
And no I don't demonize Wally World. They save money to make money. I shop at Wal-Mart but I stay away from their cheap stuff for the most part. The fact that they sell a lot of foreign made products is that most of it can't be made as cheaply in the US. The products Americans can make the most money from are high end, high dollar products, to be sold to these burgeoning, foreign, economies. They are looking for "Made in the US" and are willing to pay top dollar for it. They want it made here by Americans, with American materials and savvy, too, and are willing to pay even more for that.
- We mostly have an issue with the skills gap --- there are many jobs going unfilled because there is no one with enough background to go into them. Some companies are addressing this and have some type of variation on the old idea of apprentiship. More community colleges are working with local businesses.
This is major and America, we need to look at this and take full advantage of it. Just because you're 60 doesn't mean you can't learn. Opposite! Y'wanna stack that knowledge. Exercise that gray matter! Another factor is that jobs are where they are AT. You have to go to them. America has always been made of that. There's an oil boom in North Dakota right now. Housing can't keep up.
And c'mon, isn't DOING fun. Waddya think about being alive and kickin at 60+?! This generation of retirees is more mobile, more able.
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