Thread: Raise Social Security retirement to 70, means-test benefits

"Older workers are discriminated against. I dont think raising the retirement age to 70 is a good idea. Some older workers will end up homeless or end up having to take a reduced SS check unfairly because they are forced to retire due to discrimination. "

Yes, all employees are expected to be able to do all jobs or they cannot have the job. Last year there was a 70 something woman who took a job at the local supermarket. They sent her out to collect shopping carts in the 115 degree heat. That was her first and last day. Of course it does not qualify as discrimination - it merely means that she is not capable of doing all the duties associated with the job so the employer cannot use her and is legal in their dismissal. Now if they permitted her to have the job only doing those tasks that she can perform well - then they would face a lawsuit for discrimination from some other party.

We are so screwed up. All our attempts to legislate fairness seem to backfire and be used against us even more.

Originally Posted by domack

"If you have substantial non-Social Security income while you're retired, why are we paying you at a time when we're broke?" he said.

Because people like me are paying $300 or $400 a week for 50 years that's why. Stop giving my money away and acting like getting some of it back is wrong. Funny how they can give out trillions of dollars to their bankster friends is ok, but people like me getting some of the money I payed in to ss is a crime. John Bonner is hack just like all the other asses who rule over us are.

True story. They had the use of that money for all those years. They have access to return on investment rations that average citizens could never see. I am seeing lots of people getting screwed out of their Social Security full amount. Who is in their corner and helping them?

"Furthermore, workplace protections have been eroded over the years. Jobs are much more exhausting than they use to be. Many times workers are expected to do two or three different jobs. If they want to up the retirement age, then they will have to do something about workplace stress and abuse. They will also have to do something about the discrimination that older workers face."

Yes, I cannot seem to find the suit but there was a female USPS letter carrier who had the same route for most if not all of her career. I do not remember details definitively but I believe that she was fired prior to retirement because she no longer could walk the route as quickly as she had as a young women. I am sure that her knowledge of the route made her faster in other ways despite her noncompliant aging body. I believe that her union won her position back for her - just shows that even a life-long career in the same place is of no consequence to the money counters. I am also sure many customers on that route spoke up on behalf of the letter carrier and were horrified that her employer would do that to her.

I know USPS is probably a poor example because everybody is against big government and especially against the postal service but I dread outsourcing. Can you imagine if letter delivery was contracted out to illegals who were not obligated to honor the laws that postal workers are required to honor regarding your personal information? Or who really do not care about possible prosecution because next week they will be back in Mexico and cousin Juan will be doing the route? NO thank you.

Seems as though the pyramid scheme is not working as planned, go figure.

When inflation is figured in, how can one conclude that SS is not a pyramid sheme. Is there any means available for your contribution to collect interest once the contribution is made? What will be left of it 30 or 40 yrs later after the erosive effects of inflation.

Then one could always look at it in another honest light. If you contribute you are actually paying for those who are now collecting and those, your children and grand children will in reality pay for your collecting in the future as your contributions have been spent upon deposit.

If you look closely at your Social Security account that we get once a year it actually shows if you waited to the age of 70 to retire you would get FULL AMOUNT OF BENEFITS. just one step closer to dying and not getting anything that you worked all your life for....It is truely a shame that man is looked on as a means of making someone else money.....and then discarded

What percentage of the payouts go to Social Security Disability which you can collect at any age?

Perhaps people are living longer, but are most people HEALTHY ENOUGH and just plain physically able to work full-time jobs at 70 years old!?! The human body wears out. 70 year old construction workers? 70 year old firefighters or policemen? 70 year old flight attendants? 70 year old nurses? 70 year old airline pilots? C'mon! Most of the 70 year olds I've met have some kind of ailment or are just too frail to work full-time jobs like these. The only reason they want to raise the retirement age is because they hope people will die before they can claim Social Security money.

Retirement age has already been raised from 65 to 67, but you can still take early retirement at 62 with reduced payments.

Nation's oldest postal worker retires at age 95

By Nardine Saad, The Associated Press
Posted: 06/30/2010 05:33:56 PM PDT

REDLANDS - It wasn't snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night that stopped Chester Arthur Reed from his appointed round. The mail handler just felt it was time to call it quits at age 95.

The fork lift operator retired Wednesday as the nation's oldest postal worker, ending a career without taking a single sick day. It's a feat he attributes to a healthy diet of watermelon, alkaline water and an onion sandwich with mayo every day.

"If everyone in the nation ate watermelons, they'd get rid of all the doctors," Reed said.

Despite being partially deaf and walking with a stoop, Reed has worked for more years than many of his co-workers have been alive and has accrued 3,856 hours - nearly two years - of sick leave for not missing a shift in 37 years.

Reed has been a U.S. Postal Service mail handler and forklift operator since he was hired in 1973, making $4 an hour. He hit the $25-an-hour ceiling about 10 years ago.

Reed said he likes his job because "one, it's a steady income and, two, they don't hassle you." But he also knows when to leave, reasoning: "The Bible says there's a time for everything. Well, it's time to retire, and that's it."

Reed works the 2:30 p.m. to 11 p.m. shift regularly and logs in more than 12 hours some days, his 55-year-old manager Mary Brunkhorst said. "We'd have to force him to go home, and he'd say there's still work to do. It takes a special person to work to age 95. Our generation would not do that."

Reed was hired to the postal service after serving in the Air Force, which he joined at age 33. Among the places where he served were Wiesbaden in Germany, Okinawa in Japan, and three Texas bases before ending up in March Field in Riverside where he currently lives.

Despite his travel during military service, Reed still has wanderlust. He and his 59-year-old son Richard visit a continent each year, recently marking their fifth. He is planning another trip that will include Moscow, Helsinki and Dublin, and a second parasailing adventure in Rio de Janeiro.

He last parasailed two years ago, at age 93.

Reed was born in 1914 and grew up in St. Clairsville, Ohio, as the son of an auto mechanic and a housewife. After high school, he worked on Ford Model Ts in his dad's auto shop. In 1944, Reed met his wife Iva Katherine, a dance instructor, on the dance floor and enlisted in the Air Force three years later.

He retired from active service as a sergeant in 1972. He said he heard the post office was hiring, so he went in for an interview and was hired on the spot.

His military service, which included physical conditioning with pilots, is evident in the rigid discipline surrounding his health. It's his favorite topic of conversation, said Reed's co-worker Verna Ortiz, 50.

He believes in drinking alkaline water, to minimize acids that can damage the digestive system, and eating sandwiches made "with a lot of mayonnaise and get a big slice of onion" because the vegetable is closely related to garlic, one of the healthiest foods you can eat, he said.

"He taught me to stay away from the two S's: salt and sugar," Ortiz said, adding she lost 10 pounds in six months by taking his advice.

Reed also likes to point out that his personal hero, the the fitness guru Jack LaLanne whom Reed calls "a fine physical specimen," is only one month his senior.

Reed is one of seven siblings, but has outlived all but the youngest - a 65-year-old who lives near San Diego. Reed's other son died of cancer at age 58 a few years ago, and Reed's wife died soon after.

Regardless of his longevity, Reed doesn't think he's leaving a legacy. "Put your hand in a bucket of water, put it in all the way to your wrist. Take it out and the hole that you leave will be how much you'll be missed," he said.

And while he may not be going to a job anymore, he's still working hard.

"Hey, if Adam and Eve hadn't messed up, they'd be living yet," he said. "So I'm going to try to reach 100."

http://www.presstelegram.com/ci_15413381?source=rv

Originally Posted by JohnDoe2

Nation's oldest postal worker retires at age 95

This is notable because it is UNUSUAL, not because everyone that old can still work.