There are many seniors who worked for over 40 years and they are still living in poverty. Many of them have no children, pension, or even savings to help out. I think this is a sad statement for America.
I live in a government funded senior home. Because I live in Memphis, a city populated with many poor people, there are quite a few people living here practically for free, with food subsidies, food stamps, free phones, free medical care, etc. The sad thing about this is that there other people here, like me, who live totally on social security (because of circumstances beyond their control) and ironically make too much to qualify for any of the free benefits that people who did not even work can get.
My social security is rather low because I taught school in the South for 16 years and quit to work in business. I gave up my pension when I began my new career. No teaching pension for me. My friends who worked up North earned quite a bit more social security because their salaries in the North were so much higher. I did not actually increase my social security until I moved to DC and began working for the government as a contractor. I did become a government employee but my husband retired before I became qualified for a pension and we both moved to the South. I did save for retirement with a 401K but that disappeared in my early 60’s due to illness. My income is considered poverty level in all the statistics I have seen. I created my own dilemma with perhaps poor decisions, but there are so many others who did not.
I see many people where I live who do not qualify for anything free, but even though they worked their whole lives, they do not have enough to live on for the rest of their lives. Many are now too old to work or even move to another more suitable place. They have no families and are too old for many friends to still be alive. There are several that I know that just sit in the lobby and stare outside. No one comes to see them; no one cares about them. And they ask for nothing.
I will survive somehow, but I am so concerned about those poor people I have seen who have nothing and qualify for nothing. Something is wrong here. To have worked a whole lifetime and have nothing to show for it is so sad to me. there should be a better way. This is a sad epitaph for America.
I live in a government funded senior home. Because I live in Memphis, a city populated with many poor people, there are quite a few people living here practically for free, with food subsidies, food stamps, free phones, free medical care, etc. The sad thing about this is that there other people here, like me, who live totally on social security (because of circumstances beyond their control) and ironically make too much to qualify for any of the free benefits that people who did not even work can get.
My social security is rather low because I taught school in the South for 16 years and quit to work in business. I gave up my pension when I began my new career. No teaching pension for me. My friends who worked up North earned quite a bit more social security because their salaries in the North were so much higher. I did not actually increase my social security until I moved to DC and began working for the government as a contractor. I did become a government employee but my husband retired before I became qualified for a pension and we both moved to the South. I did save for retirement with a 401K but that disappeared in my early 60’s due to illness. My income is considered poverty level in all the statistics I have seen. I created my own dilemma with perhaps poor decisions, but there are so many others who did not.
I see many people where I live who do not qualify for anything free, but even though they worked their whole lives, they do not have enough to live on for the rest of their lives. Many are now too old to work or even move to another more suitable place. They have no families and are too old for many friends to still be alive. There are several that I know that just sit in the lobby and stare outside. No one comes to see them; no one cares about them. And they ask for nothing.
I will survive somehow, but I am so concerned about those poor people I have seen who have nothing and qualify for nothing. Something is wrong here. To have worked a whole lifetime and have nothing to show for it is so sad to me. there should be a better way. This is a sad epitaph for America.
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