Let me clarify my purpose, not necessarily for you but for all who are reading, I wasn't relating my story for sympathy nor am I in search of personal solutions for our individual situation.
My anecdotes were, as were yours, intended to illustrate a typical situation that is undoubtedly shared by millions of others. Some are in better shape and many are in far worse shape. While everyone has a story for each of us our lives are not merely a story but our face-to-face experience with reality.
Again I thank you for your well wishes though. I am not dismissing them as unimportant or unwelcome at all.
Thank you and I wish you the best.
The point that I was trying to make from our discussion buried in this thread was simply that we need to examine alternatives to the current system in order to avoid the generational theft that our government is practicing.
One of those alternatives is certainly to live with family, friends, or even roommates or other people who are struggling. I know that my grandmother paid into social security during her 30+ years as a nurse. I also know that she has already far exceeded her contributions on paper and the government had already spent her contributions paying for her parents generation. My great grandmother got a huge social security check and lived to be about 100 despite never working. It’s a flawed system that meets every definition of a legalized ponzi scheme.
I have never, nor would I, propose that we do not care for disabled persons or people who are incapable of caring for themselves. However, just like my dear Grandmother, I question the wisdom of paying money (we don’t have - we borrow it) to people so they can live alone in 3 bedroom homes and watch television all day when reality dictates that my children and future generations will pay for it. I would cut many things out of the budget far beyond social security but it must be reduced as well.