Younger generations, such as Millennials and Gen Z, often talk about how retirement is a pipe dream. But that’s increasingly not the case for older adults, including those who retire and find they can’t get by on Social Security, Medicare, or retirement benefits alone.
A woman was left ‘fed up’ after an elderly colleague was forced to come out of retirement and return to work.
We’ve been hearing for decades how deep the fiscal crisis Social Security and Medicare are in, but it’s easy to dismiss it as mere political hyperbole.
But in recent years, the problem of America’s woefully underfunded retirement safety net has become very real and difficult for seniors who realize that the benefits they’ve paid their entire working lives don’t provide enough income. This is a very shocking reality.
A woman on Reddit saw firsthand how this shortage manifests itself in some older people when a colleague she hadn’t seen in two years suddenly returned to work.
This elderly woman left her job and came back two years later because she couldn’t survive on Social Security, Medicare, and her pension alone.
“I met a co-worker I hadn’t seen in a while since he retired,” the woman wrote. Her post on the r/antiwork subreddit. “When she asked why she came back, she said she and her husband couldn’t afford to live on Social Security,” she said.
What was even more shocking was that the woman was receiving a pension. This pension has all but disappeared for the majority of workers. “Our company provides a pension, so she received social security on top of that, but she still couldn’t make ends meet.” Even though she had waited until now, this woman lamented.
“It makes me sick to think of people living in wealthy countries working until they drop,” the woman continued. She went so far as to say that she was “disgusted” to learn that the main reason this woman and her husband were unable to survive was because of medical expenses that Medicare did not fully cover.
Unfortunately, this woman’s situation is not unique, and it is a problem that could get worse. Approximately 66% of American workers nearing retirement age are in an even worse situation than this older woman. They have no retirement savings or benefits other than Social Security and Medicare.
Social Security and Medicare have been in financial crisis for decades, and recent political and economic changes have made them more at risk than ever.
There are many reasons why most seniors today are struggling to retire or, as in this case, are unable to retire at all.
The biggest factor is that increases in Social Security have not kept pace with inflation, meaning that even the large increases in benefits in recent years have been swallowed up by rising prices.
If you are of the younger generation, you probably lived in a time when Social Security and Medicare were not said to be in constant financial crisis, especially when there were significant cuts and reforms to these so-called “entitlements.” Probably not. It is one of conservative politicians’ main proposals for dealing with issues such as the national debt.
The word “rights” is a clever way to talk about these benefits. Because it suggests that those of us who insist on protecting those benefits are simply lazy and greedy.
These politicians and their supporters seem to have no idea that we all pay into Social Security and Medicare the entire time we work. Therefore, we are qualified To the benefits we gained by sacrificing part of our paychecks.
It would also shift the blame for the Social Security and Medicare crisis onto workers rather than the politicians who actually run the country and the programs.
There is some causes of the crisisThese include steady reductions in corporate tax rates over the past 50 to 60 years and parts of the tax code that place the burden of funding these programs almost exclusively on low- and moderate-income workers. . This country’s Jeff Bezoses and Bill Gates also have the right to withdraw Social Security checks.
Therefore, some politicians want to change various tax laws so that corporations, who are taxed at the same rate as you and me, and the wealthy, who pay relatively little in taxes, pay their fair share on these programs. I am proposing that. But conservatives, of course, think otherwise.
New House Speaker Mike Johnson, a far-right evangelical Christian conservative, proposed: drastically reduce Social Security and Medicare They will basically cease to exist and, along with other Republicans, have made it clear that there will be little to no transparency about how the programs that Americans fund with their paychecks are being treated. The government is requesting the establishment of a closed committee to manage them.
Even more boldly, Prime Minister Johnson proposed introducing further restrictions on reproductive freedom to ensure that women have enough labor to fully fund the program through payroll taxes. ing.
Apart from the clearly dystopian nature of this proposal, it would shift the burden once again onto ordinary workers. They already pay a significant portion of every paycheck to fund the program – for many of us there is no real hope of accessing benefits. Because it is widely believed that the program will fail by 2035.
Long story short? Please call your representative and request improvement. And let’s not forget that we have state and local elections next week, and a national election exactly one year later. Choose wisely.
In the richest country on earth, it is absurd and barbaric that older people are forced to retire because the benefits they have paid over a lifetime are inadequate. Do whatever you want.
John Sundholm is a news and entertainment writer covering topics related to pop culture, social justice, and the good of humanity.
