General Discussion

If my age group is over-represented in the electoral process, it's because we've dragged ourselves out of our homes, walker or cane in hand, and made the trip to vote. I've voted Democratic all my life, and damned proud of it. But hea... I'm a (gasp!) woman! They're trying to take away my right to vote with every bill that gets through the process. The damned SAVE act is being tacked onto every single damned bill by the Repugs. THIS is what these people should be screaming about... not the damned fact we actually voted.

"Kids" feel under-represented? Hea... I got an idea! Get out there and vote in every election you can. Local, state, Fed... every single one of them... make your voice be heard until it becomes such an ingrained habit you'll be as enraged as I am that they want to keep me from voting!

Whoever said this is just the next point at which they try to divide us is right. But will kids see this? My grandson has been, for days, telling me trump is ruining the SS system so bad that there'll be no way he'll ever be able to retire. I can see the day when the rich demand that 1/4-1/2 of every paycheck is collected into a mandatory 401k account marked "for retirement only." We're already mostly there now.

I've paid into SS since I was younger than 16. I've worked all my entire life. But as a female, I've always had the lowest salary whatever I did... and remember the days when the "Want Ads" in the newspapers were divided into "Male" and "Female"? I do. It didn't take long to see the wage inequality between the sexes. Kids have a whole lot of ways to make sure they have more when they retire, they just have to look at the inequities of today and see that those change.

Frankly, my retirement sucks. The most I ever made in my life was around $70k/year. And that was in IT. Even *it* was lowballed because I was female. I nearly fell over when I discovered how much more my male coworker was making... and believe me, it was for nothing more than simply being male. This was just a few years ago. The mindset hasn't gone away... they're just passing it on down to the next generations.

But because I lived from paycheck to paycheck most of my life, there was no time or way to build "retirement savings." You can't save anything when you're trying to feed and educate your kids... not on the salary mothers were being paid. Kids today are mad because their salaries now match the ones I had to raise a family on. I don't have a lot of sympathy. I have some empathy for them; been there, done that; know the grief and frustration that comes with it. Even lived in my Horizon car with my kid the one and only time I was ever out of work for more than a week. Being on the bottom costs a LOT in all kinds of way, including monetarily. I honestly didn't think, after working all my life, that I'd be scratching by on $1200/month SS. And I know there are people who get a hell of a lot less than I do. I just finished paying on the last EMS bill. $335... again. With medicare, MA, and any other way you can be covered, it's still $335 that one of the other hospitals that didn't get paid will bitch about soon. And while I truly understand why and how SS became to be and has existed this long, remember YOUR parents got the full benefit of it. WE are getting less than they did. By the time it comes to my grandson, unless something changes, they won't have it anymore. People can't afford to have families now.

Kids also don't have our living costs. Every COLA is based on them and their cohorts. No one factors in what it costs the elders to live, how they have to spend their money. Even Obama turned back a change for the better. What he promoted was "if they can't afford to buy beef, they'll do the next best and buy chicken." Didn't fly then with us.. won't fly now, when even chicken costs what a steak *used* to cost (if I still had good enough teeth to eat it!)

My grandson and I have a lot of the "generational" talks. His eyes have been opened to what we seniors have to try to do with what little money we get each month. And I worry for him and his future. He's a good kid; but he's gotten jaded long before I did about it all.

Yeah, this "article" needs to flushed down the toilet where it belongs! Bah!