Posted on 02/23/2018 6:58:53 AM PST by daniel1212
CORONA, Calif.—Roberta Gordon never thought she’d still be alive at age 76. She definitely didn’t think she’d still be working. But every Saturday, she goes down to the local grocery store and hands out samples, earning $50 a day, because she needs the money.
“I’m a working woman again,” she told me, in the common room of the senior apartment complex where she now lives, here in California’s Inland Empire. Gordon has worked dozens of odd jobs throughout her life—as a house cleaner, a home health aide, a telemarketer, a librarian, a fundraiser—but at many times in her life, she didn’t have a steady job that paid into Social Security. She didn’t receive a pension. And she definitely wasn’t making enough to put aside money for retirement.
So now, at 76, she earns $915 a month through Social Security and through Supplemental Security Income, or SSI, a program for low-income seniors. Her rent, which she has had to cover solo since her roommate died in August, is $1,040 a month. She’s been taking on credit-card debt to cover the gap, and to pay for utilities, food, and other essentials. She often goes to a church food bank for supplies...
Today, about 12.4 percent of the population aged 65 or older is still in the workforce, up from 3 percent in 2000,... In 2014, older women received on average $4,500 less annually in Social Security benefits than men did....
In America in 2016, nearly half of all single homeless adults were aged 50 and older, compared to 11 percent in 1990....
Roberta Gordon, in Corona, was barely scraping by when I talked to her. A few months later, she was much more stable. Why? She’d gotten off a wait list and been accepted into the housing-voucher program known as Section 8
(Excerpt) Read more at theatlantic.com ...
Good job.
Good for you-——I didn’t know there were refunds that long ago but there probably were in some states.
Why leave money sitting on the street?
I read once about a retiree here in MA who was comfortable but far from rich.
He collected cans and bottles year round and took himself every year to Florida for Red Sox spring training-——just from the redemption money.
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My younger sister in Minnesota gets $805 SSI every month. She has not worked since 2005 when she lost her job. She prefers drinking and smoking then saving money for retirement.
She lives in a rundown home owned by a hoarder.
I have enough that in a few years I could get her a nice place to live.
Collecting the bottles will likely add years to her life in any case. Those who are not disabled and with no kids and little SS and or husband's pensions, yet legal citizens, seems to be most vulnerable. Years ago Southern community often used to take care of such, before society was seduced into reliance solely upon impersonal government checks. A older black man from Alabama who comes by here once in a while tells me about how he was raised. Says they had everything they needed, except money, since everywhere shared what they grew etc. They were poor but did not know it. And the kids did not sass back to the elders, or if they did the like, then the neighbors could spank your kids and as was expected of them. It was his job to teach his siblings about church.
Pretty awesome.
I see a lot of people at risk of just having a pretty crappy retirement. In their 40s with no pension to speak of - or own savings for that matter. I want my early years of retirement to be about travel. But having 4 kids put a bit of a monkey wrench into my original retirement plans. And other crap that life throws your way.
One of those ordained ministers, eh?
Don’t worry, I have fallen far short in th eGood Lord’s eyes. He has been far better to me than I could ever merit.
I am the Publican to your Pharisee.
I would advise you to wait until she needs medical care. Drinking, smoking and living for today is clearly how she wants to live her life or she would have been motivated to do something about it.
I’m reminded of the story where some city in Colorado banded together and gave a homeless person absolutely everything - house, job, some cash to get started, etc. Within a couple of weeks, he’d packed up and was back on the streets begging. Despite our best intentions, some people don’t want to live a life where they have to be accountable. Many of them turn out to be addicts.
Thank you for your desire to serve the Lord. I live near a city often considered one of the best places to live in the U.S. Unemployment is currently under 3 percent and help wanted signs are plentiful.
At every major intersection, you will see people standing with signs begging for handouts. If I offer them work to do for money, they will turn it down. If I bring them food from the store, I might get a “thank you” but they are not thankful. What they want is money to feed their addictions and that’s the one thing I will not give them.
If 30 years ago, the homeless population of seniors had been under 15% and today is over 50%, what changed? The change is that the survivors who dropped out, tuned out and turned on as the love children of the 60s and 70s have now reached retirement age and have none of the work ethic previous generations had. They will give you a song and dance about how life did them wrong but, behind the excuse, many are simply addicts who are trying to get their next fix.
As for God’s attitude, he might not be as sympathetic as you expect:
II Thessalonians 3:10
For even when we were with you, we gave you this rule: “The one who is unwilling to work shall not eat.”
I was just getting ready to post that same verse “Let Him who can Wok, Eat”
I am not all mushy and I agree completely there is a segment of the population that has become used to being firmly attached to the Government provided Teat and they will squeal the loudest when that is shrunk and removed as a way of life
I am a Christian but like you I take a dim view of all who think they are entitled to all the assistance and looking at jobs growth there is really no reason to not draw it back and have them rejoin the workforce.
If not, they as you know must CHOOSE!
And going backwards is not an option
God Bless
Bkmk
They were POP bottles; not Green Earth extortion fees.
Bookmark.
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