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 ...
Not everyone is as fortunate and perfect as you seem to be.
....so, how does that make him different than 95% of the rest of the IT workforce? He has a job, with benefits, no less, what's he complaining about?
The article fails to mention that the IT job market is pretty good right now. It ain't 1999, but that type of a roaring job market likely won't happen again in my lifetime.
Sometimes things happen in life to deplete those savings, sometimes things happen that make savings impossible. An illness in the family that far exceeds insurance coverage, a family tragedy that sees you taking on the children of another family member. Not everyone can live well planned lives.
I'm 51 and even though I have job security (if there is such a thing) I want to teach too but I've always wanted my own business. In July I'm opening a career school. I plan to continue working at my job for two more years, at least part time but I'm not ready to slow down or retire. I just want more freedom to set my schedule to do more stuff I want. It's as an opportunity . The kids are grown. My bills are minimal. The time is right. The only draw back is not losing my health insurance.
There are a number of doctors who have tried to be sensitive to the situation. They simply won't let you in the door if you have insurance.
But if you walk in and pay cash they will treat you and do it for a very reasonable price.
The reason being that the cost of them processing and submitting insurance claims is probably their second highest expense, passed only by medical malpractice insurance.
lol
What, it's not an Ozzie & Harriet world anymore?
Why aren't I told about these things?
Just wondering if Immigration has job openings? Seems they sure could need assistance.
By 59 he should have saved enough so that he could retire.
Or
By 59 he should have developed a useful skill that employers would want and be willing to pay for.
Too bad, so sad.
Thank you Hillary.
Why do you say that? I meant it. (in a good way)
LOL.
And by law you can't move to this country illegally and work.
A while back, I heard Howard Ruff on one of the radio call-ins. A fellow called in to ask a question, his basic position was that he wanted to know what to do to be able to retire.
The guy was 46 years old, and had been able to save 3 or 4 thousand dollars.
He night be able to retire if he like goes to India and sells his kidney!
He might have to sell 'em both!
If you read **and** understood what you read you would see that I was talking about people in general - where a "vacuum of fact" doesn't apply. There are no FR rules that say one can only post regarding the exact person, exact facts in the article, and article itself and NOT post in regard to the general concept. It is possible to discuss general issues.
Nobody said that Harry wanting to continue working was not laudable. You are simply going through contortions to try to make what I said apply to Harry when I was talking in general - as my post obviously shows ("they").
This story is just another in a long line of stories written to elicit sympathy, empathy and identification from the reader, where the writer begins his story with a character, real or composite and then builds his case around that character's circumstance; I have been looking for a fitting term for such style and am about ready to settle on, "exemplar exploitation."
To my way of thinking, such writing is lazy, demeaning both to the writer and his hapless reader and good only as filler for unsold ad space.
Thank you for the compliment but you don't know me, nor do you know my financial circumstances.
Read up on Japanese gardening, hire a few legals and go to it.
Stop crying.
Try being 38 and returning to work after a prolonged mental illness (not related to psychosis or anything that would cause one to go on a Post Office-like rampage). I couldn't get my foot back in the door, despite a Master's Degree and 20 years of experience in my field.
Had to start my own business in order to get back to work.
CHICAGOLAND PING
You could always take to your bed with your bowls and peas as the antihero outlined in Camus' "The Plague."
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.