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America's Betrayed Baby Boomers
The American Worker ^ | 6/01/05 | Michael Westfall

Posted on 05/23/2005 4:49:56 AM PDT by conservative auto worker

Montrose Michigan was where I was raised. Our fathers came back from the war to raise their boomer children. After a life of work spent enriching employers, paying into social security, paying into pension plans and paying the taxes to support our nation the Boomers have delivered our great country to the threshold of being the undisputable strongest and most desired nation on earth. Boomers have left a tremendous legacy and now they are retiring. …How are our retiring Boomers being treated in their golden years? ...THEY ARE BEING BETRAYED! Boomers are arriving to the gates of retirement to find that their employers are attempting to go bankrupt so they can break pension promises and slicing Boomers health care at a point in their age when they most need it. On top of that our government wants to “cut and gut” Social Security. Our Boomers are being treated very badly and their “Twilight Retirement Years” are turning into the… “Twilight Zone”!.............

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(Excerpt) Read more at michaelwestfall.tripod.com ...


TOPICS:
KEYWORDS: 1boomerwhining; babyboomers; excellent; genx; illiteraterambling; importantpaper; montrose; montrosemichigan; pensions; socialsecurity; worthreading

1 posted on 05/23/2005 4:49:57 AM PDT by conservative auto worker
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To: conservative auto worker

I wonder what kind of health care plan our Fathers had?

Last I remember if my Father or any in my family needed health services, we'd get them any PAY for them out of our own pockets.


2 posted on 05/23/2005 4:53:42 AM PDT by funkywbr
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To: conservative auto worker

Yawn -- Another whining screed from an exemplar of the entitlement mentality.


3 posted on 05/23/2005 4:57:01 AM PDT by Cincinatus (Omnia relinquit servare Republicam)
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To: conservative auto worker

4 posted on 05/23/2005 4:57:09 AM PDT by rdb3 (One may smile and smile and still be a villain.)
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To: conservative auto worker

Even Uncle Sam attempts to chisel retirees ~ the USPS, for example, does not adhere to the law regarding TSP matching contributions for terminal annual leave.


5 posted on 05/23/2005 4:57:18 AM PDT by muawiyah
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To: funkywbr
I wonder what kind of health care plan our Fathers had?

Liberalism has fixed the problems of the inner city slums by replacing a wage earning father with a welfare check and has solved the problems with society by replacing the family wit an all caring, all knowing government.

To paraphrase Miss Ann; Conservatives believe in God, Liberals believe they are God.

6 posted on 05/23/2005 5:03:56 AM PDT by Cowman (Just when you hit the bottom of the stupid hole you notice the guy next to you is digging)
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To: conservative auto worker

I thought possession was a crime to the Children of the Sixties.


7 posted on 05/23/2005 5:05:23 AM PDT by InvisibleChurch (Look! Jimmy Carter! History's greatest monster!)
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To: conservative auto worker
I recall back about 1985 listening to an auto-work whine about being laid off. He had been making twice the starting wage of an engineer for twenty years, yet he was up to his ears in debt, living from paycheck to paycheck, with a lot of toys that had depreciated to 1/10th of what he had paid for them.

I didn't have any sympathy for him. Anyone who is a boomer who has counted on Socialist Insecurity for their "golden years" is a fool. They have been told over and over about the coming bust of the system. All anyone has to do to become well off in this country is to consistently save 20% of what they make, year after year, for 30 years, and invest it reasonably.

But a whole lot of people would rather live paycheck to paycheck, and rely on someone else to provide for them later.

8 posted on 05/23/2005 5:14:52 AM PDT by marktwain
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To: marktwain

Read the story of the "Three Little Pigs".


9 posted on 05/23/2005 8:04:57 AM PDT by CIDKauf (No man has a good enough memory to be a successful liar.)
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To: qam1; ItsOurTimeNow; PresbyRev; tortoise; Fraulein; StoneColdGOP; Clemenza; malakhi; m18436572; ...
Xer Ping

Ping list for the discussion of the politics and social (and sometimes nostalgic) aspects that directly effects Generation Reagan / Generation-X (Those born from 1965-1981) including all the spending previous generations (i.e. The Baby Boomers) are doing that Gen-X and Y will end up paying for.

Freep mail me to be added or dropped. See my home page for details and previous articles.  

10 posted on 05/23/2005 7:46:47 PM PDT by qam1 (There's been a huge party. All plates and the bottles are empty, all that's left is the bill to pay)
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To: funkywbr

Yet, now-a-days if you try to pay out of pocket doctors look at you like you have two heads.


11 posted on 05/23/2005 7:51:59 PM PDT by HungarianGypsy (Walk Softly, For a Dream is Born)
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To: conservative auto worker
How are our retiring Boomers being treated in their golden years?

They are getting a nice new Prescription drug benefit including free Viagra courtesy of Gen X,Y & Z

What now we have to pay for your pensions too? So I have to have more of my money taken from me so you can go RVing around the country?

12 posted on 05/23/2005 8:03:05 PM PDT by qam1 (There's been a huge party. All plates and the bottles are empty, all that's left is the bill to pay)
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To: qam1
Our government in allowing these companies who are worth billions of dollars to shirk their pension responsibilities and go bankrupt after openly stating that they are making these legal moves exclusively to get out of paying. This is the worst kind of betrayal for our devastated Boomers.

Yep, it's the government's fault. Nothing to do with the companies own decision.

13 posted on 05/23/2005 8:15:34 PM PDT by Victoria Delsoul
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To: Victoria Delsoul
Yep, All Bush's & Arnold's fault.

But from the link..

Unions have been able to use these large defined pension funds in a beneficial way for workers over the years to exert political pressure and when these pension funds dry up so will the unions clout. The corporate leaders and their sympathetic political friends know this. Unions and bargaining power could instantly become redundant relative to the past.

It seems their real concern is not for their boomer members well being but the loss of their ability to skim off their members pensions.

14 posted on 05/23/2005 8:53:51 PM PDT by qam1 (There's been a huge party. All plates and the bottles are empty, all that's left is the bill to pay)
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To: qam1

Looks that way, isn't it?


15 posted on 05/23/2005 8:58:48 PM PDT by Victoria Delsoul
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To: conservative auto worker; qam1

"Boomers are arriving to the gates of retirement to find that their employers are attempting to go bankrupt so they can break pension promises and slicing Boomers health care at a point in their age when they most need it. On top of that our government wants to “cut and gut” Social Security."

Maybe the government could cut corporate income taxes so the companies could afford their pension obligations AND sell their products at a low enough price to compete outside the U.S...oh, wait, the BABY BOOMERS would never go for THAT.

"I would like it known by all politicians reading this paper that Social Security unlike some other governmental programs is very popular with all Americans and not just retirees. Younger workers care about their parents and grandparents and realize that they will retiree some day and also need a viable social security base for their own retirements."

Yes, which is why I want social security ENDED. Redistributionism is only viable as long as you're leeching from the wealthy. Gen X is already BROKE thanks to whiny lib policies that move wealth to seniors and take it out of the newest workers' pockets at a pace almost as fast as Boomers first bought Minoxidil.


16 posted on 05/23/2005 9:13:38 PM PDT by LibertarianInExile (<-- sick of faux-conservatives who want federal government intervention for 'conservative things.')
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To: conservative auto worker

While the baby boomers were doing all those things they shouldn't also created welfare state that exists today through entitlement programs that directly drained Social Security funding. The boomers may have worked hard, but they also tried to destroy the system in the process.


17 posted on 05/24/2005 4:25:13 AM PDT by leepbutler
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To: conservative auto worker

"After a life of work spent enriching employers,..."

No need to read any further. The big evil corporations making their bucks off the backs of the little guy mind set is nothing but a proletariat vs. bourgeois argument!


18 posted on 05/24/2005 4:31:50 AM PDT by CSM ( If the government has taken your money, it has fulfilled its Social Security promises. (dufekin))
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To: HungarianGypsy

That's because they're trying to figure out how to fill out the paperwork for a cash deal.

Healthcare is *that* far gone over to socialism these days.


19 posted on 05/24/2005 4:44:00 AM PDT by Maelstrom (To prevent misinterpretation or abuse of the Constitution:The Bill of Rights limits government power)
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To: marktwain

If we didn't have the government stealing 15% off the top we all could invest 20% and have good retirements.


20 posted on 05/24/2005 1:41:21 PM PDT by riverrunner
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