Good for you. I'm guessing based on his pension and Social Security, this guy didn't make enough to live on half his income. I'm guessing he did well to live from paycheck to paycheck. When you are not the sharpest knife in the drawer, sometimes just not being on the public dole is a good thing. That being said he earned his pension and that is being taken away from him. To think that times could never be hard enough for everything to be taken away from you except cable and a few other things.......well I hope you are right....cause sometimes when it comes to compassion what goes around comes around.
He was promised his pension. It wasn't earned by anyone. If it had been, he would perhaps still have it.
There are certainly people with troubles not of their own making. That could even include me if some really bad thing happens. Even my level of preparation and sacrifice is no guarantee that all will not be lost.
My preps for a complete breakdown are insufficient for more than a year. Could that happen? Yes. And one of the reasons is that so many won't hold people responsible for their own success.
I'm prepared to take care of myself, but I will be relatively helpless during an onslaught of hungry, disappointed, and desparate city dwellers who have mortgaged their future and the future of our grandchildren. They have consistently supported profligate policies involving broken windmills, trains to nowhere, and saving snaildarters in preference to letting farmers raise food.
My wife's parents lived through the depression. They understood that you have to live frugally and work hard. They lived into their nineties and took care of themselves.