...in 1986,when McPherson was in the middle of a leave of absence,the Post asked him to either come back to work or take an early retirement. 'I was fifty-three at the time. I chose retirement because I was under the illusion -- perhaps delusion is the more accurate word 00 that I could make a living as a writer and the Post offered to keep me on their medical insurance program,which at the time was very good and very cheap," ...by the time his pension kicked in at age 65, the money he had saved on the Post's 401(k) plan was half it's worth... he still considers himself poor "by any rational standard". He is forced to live in subsidized housing... The District of Columbia is also subsidizing his medical insurance payments...Sounds like it hasn't worked out well for everyone else, but he's doing just fine. DC is not a cheap area in which to live; he was 53 when he retired, did he not figure out that the Compost wasn't employing him enough, and look for work somewhere else? What a loon.
I read that you can get some nice Section 8 housing in Las Vegas, since it was so over-built in the real estate bubble. But the writer couldn’t be a Beltway guy, with a Tolstoy descendant for a neighbor it he moved west. It’s not just that he’s broke, he is sad not to be as cool as he used to be.
Of course, if he had a loving wife and children, and a spiritual life and faith community, he’d be in better shape, but that’s not especially cool, either.