Posted on 04/23/2006 7:49:45 AM PDT by SmithL
One of my readers is an underemployed 59-year-old man from among us here in the South Suburbs. Call him Harry. He works in information technology. Slowly and wearily, he says: "Once you get past 50, I swear, it gets tough, it gets really tough."
For instance, Harry applied for a job with a city of Chicago department that operates 24 hours a day, seven days a week. He got an offer for some contract work. There were no benefits, but it was a paying job.
A woman from the city called him one Monday morning and wanted to know if he could start at midnight. Harry said he'd like to give his current employer a week's notice. That wasn't good enough. The job was gone. The caller told him: "This is a brave new world. Learn to live with it."
(Excerpt) Read more at starnewspapers.com ...
That is irrelevant, and does not really matter. But for the sake of argument, they really were pretty stupid when they had me because they could barely support themselves and were in no position to be raising children. I managed to survive unscathed in most important ways and I'm happy to be here, but that does not reflect on the foolishness that brought me into this world. Stupid choices are not justified by good luck that mitigates some of the consequences. You are avoiding substance and trying to make an emotional argument.
In the case of my parents, they had a lot of "accidents" before eventually wising up, so it was more irresponsibility than anything. I survived the experience, so I can hardly complain, but they certainly managed to make a mess of their own lives in my opinion, an assertion that my siblings would agree with. On the upside, I think most of my siblings actually learned about what not to do since the choices of my parents were far from consequence free. In that sense, it was an excellent lesson on how to NOT live one's life. People with a different psychological profile would have fared much worse in the environment I grew up in, so in that sense I was lucky.
How sad. You still shouldn't be calling your parents fools and stupid though.
Thanks for the ping
Heh, who's to say I did not get smacked. :-)
I tend to be frank and blunt (though diplomatic when I need to be), and do not treat my parents any different than others in that regard. If they make a decision that seems particularly stupid (and their lives are a long string of poor choices IMO), I give them my opinion in an effort to help them make better choices. I'm not a jerk about it and their choices have not affected me for a long time in any case, so it is really just a public service pointing out what should have been obvious to them.
It is alright though, they practically expect it from me because I've been like this for a very long time. :-)
That takes a very high income, along with thrift, or selling a successful business. I can bag it all now, but choose not to, but it took about 25 years of working to get there, with what I am comfortable with as critical mass. These days, I don't see how folks without very high incomes, will ever get there in some parts of California.
Are you the youngest?
Become a lawyer is my best advice. It seems to work.
Well, of course! Why didn't I think of that?
:) It helps if daddy pays full freight. He did that, and then I was on my own. But his "investment" in me was considerable, and these days, would be horrific. The cost of 4-10 years of higher education, for three sons (that is what daddy financed), all paid for, these days, gives me a headache. When I went to the University of Michigan Law School in the 1970's, the tuition was around $2,200 per year, plus room and board.
I know many people who have had these things happen to them, and who really hit the bottom, sometimes more than once and late in life more often than not. The difference is that most of these people did not whine about or think for a minute that they were victims of poor luck or The Man. Instead, they dusted themselves off and started over, applying lessons learned from prior bad experiences, and doing their best to work smarter and harder.
No one ever promised that life would be easy, or that serious challenges and very difficult choices would not occur. It makes ill when people just breakdown and abdicate life at the first sign of true hardship -- it betrays a weakness of basic character. I would go as far as to say that if you have not had at least one or two of these "rock bottom" experiences in your life, you have not really lived.
If it is an "investment", then it would probably be a good idea to encourage people to "invest" who actually have the money to invest. Capital investment requires, you know, "capital". Otherwise, do not be surprised when you get a shoddy product.
Getting laid off in your late 50's can be traumatic; however, it is also a time to hitch up the britches and find something to do. At that age, there is still time for the start of another career.
I'm 50 and have seven children. The youngest is 4. I can relate.
I know of young people who chose to pay as they went and finished up with owing very little. It still is possible, but it takes dedication on the part of the young person who does it. (it is also important to take advantage and get an AA degree while attending hs, that takes care of alot of generals cutting the costs)
I got my own education. I worked long and hard. When Microcomputers came along I learned about them. I started in 1977. My wife and I retired very comfortably in 1995. Nobodoy but me was responsible for those choices. Suck it up.
I will be 57 in two weeks, have five children, the youngest is 14 and the oldest is 31 (married). I am currently facing BRAC at Ft Knox. My job is being moved to Ft Bliss, TX. My choice is move or retire. I cannot live on the retirement pay, so what is the alternative? Hope the new folks moving to Ft Knox have a slot of some type that I can fill.
I would like to be compassionate, but at the same time it is painfully obvious to me that most people do not do anything near what they could in support of future security. The vast majority of people have a surprising range of things they absolutely refuse to sacrifice for their long term benefit, and yet act as though it was beyond their control when hardship happens. People do not have savings because they spend vast quantities of money on frivolous things, and they stay in poverty because they are unable to sacrifice all those frivolous things even when they cannot afford them. I've lived maybe half my adult life in poverty, and have seen this pattern over and over again. And I do not exclude myself from this criticism; I could have been in a much less marginal financial position in times past if I had been wiser with my money and recognized unjustified luxuries when I saw them.
Most people experience severe hardship at least once in their life, it is normal. It is a transient state for many people, and for most of the rest, it is because they are unwilling to sacrifice whatever lifestyle they are accustomed to, no matter how meager, or to make hard life changes that would benefit them. Yes, some people just get really unlucky, but the vast majority of the cases you cite could have been largely or entirely mitigated by a little sacrifice and sane financial management. Refusing to make hard sacrifices is not the same as being unable to make hard sacrifices, and make no mistake in most cases it is a history of refusal rather than inability.
The excuses are flowing far too easily here. If people were smarter about their finances many of these issues would have their impact mitigated, turning them into just another one of life's bumps.
Two of my seven kids have paid their own way through college. Two more are currently doing it. The other three are too young yet......
If you want to know how it's done, let me know.
No employee wants to be liable for benefits to an older person unless it is voluntary.
Oldest of the lot.
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