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And just exactly what hell-raising do you think retirees would do? Send an e-mail? Write a letter? Threaten to vote them out of office (as if we actually could)? March on Washington? Well, we all know how well all that has helped re other things.
[On Nov.1, food stamps are going to be cut. People are angry -- but how much 'hell-raising' have you seen? Certainly nothing that prevented that cut from taking place.]
Over the past 12 years, our civil rights and liberties have been taken away -- and now we know that we're also being spied on -- and what 'hell raising' have we done and are we doing -- anything that has really made a difference, I mean? We're still being spied on -- our phones, our computers, on the streets.
When the SS and Medicare cuts come, we'll do what we've always done: lie down and take it.
They'll do the absolute worst kind of hell-raising citizens can do. They'll vote. They'll also pull funding. Don't forget, 2014 is a key election year for the parties and 2016 won't be far behind it. They're not about to bite the hands that stuff their campaign funds as well as the ballot boxes.
Perhaps, Fran, it's your response to things to "lie down and take it" but it certainly has never been mine or that of many others I know. Maybe we're just delusional or perhaps we're simply made of sterner stuff than you and your ilk. Whichever is the case, we Boomers ARE a force to be reckoned with by dint of sheer numbers if nothing else.
Now back to the original discussion at hand, all donations gratefully accepted. The 1.5%, while certainly not munificent, is at least the cost of a tank of gas a month so we'll not complain.
Perhaps, Fran, it's your response to things to "lie down and take it" but it certainly has never been mine or that of many others I know. Maybe we're just delusional or perhaps we're simply made of sterner stuff than you and your ilk. Whichever is the case, we Boomers ARE a force to be reckoned with by dint of sheer numbers if nothing else.
Now back to the original discussion at hand, all donations gratefully accepted. The 1.5%, while certainly not munificent, is at least the cost of a tank of gas a month so we'll not complain.
With all due respect to your point of view, I have never seen, other than Occupy , any citizens rising up against anything since the Vietnam War and civil rights. What would "sterner" folks do if the COLA flattens completely over a long time, or SS sees actual cuts? Would you form in the streets and march on DC? The links I posted a few posts up clearly indicate it's not just the R's – the D's are starting to "cave." Last I knew, these were the only 2 viable parties. I don't mean to get into a political slant here (heaven forbid), but anything having to do with any interests of a group of people is inherently political. But, as you say, back to the subject at hand. I think we can all be grateful for any increase, and that it didn't stay zero or descend.
You know the answer. No one -- no one -- wants the old and elderly around. Not even their kids want them around. (They MAY take care of Mommy and Daddy because that's makes them look good and especially if Mommy and Daddy have money to leave them.)
For the most part, we have stopped producing (we pay little or no taxes) and we use up more than our fair share in medical costs.
I live in a high rise complex that used to be 55+. A lot of the tenants who moved in 10-30 years ago are still here. Five of six residents, who died in the last year, died in their apartments all alone. One body wasn't found for 2 days. One woman who has all her adult children and grandchildren and great-grandchildren living in the same city was stuck in her chair for 3 days before someone found her. One woman who was/is moderately cognitively impaired laid on her bathroom for 24 hours before an adult child called her and found out she was there. (She wasn't 'together' enough to make a call out.) One elderly resident (no relatives) lived in filth, didn't shower, and he called 911 and said he was suicidal before he got the help he needed. We have one elderly resident who is moderately cognitively impaired, and she has no one but an adult son who lives 2/3 of the way across the country. One elderly woman was on a church retreat when she had a mild stroke. Two of her church members brought her home and asked me to take her upstairs because they had to get back to the retreat. And these are middle-class and upper-middle-class retirees!
I just made my first Medicare appointment, and they gave me a date 8 weeks out.
Those of us who are under 75-80 years of age -- we really have no real idea what it is like to be elderly in this country.
Wow! You must live in an awful place if people don't want and shun the elderly, including their own families. I strongly recommend a move to a more humane environment sooner rather than later. You might wish to consider changing doctors as well. I've never had to wait to see mine more than a few days when I needed to and if urgent, a block of time is set aside in the office daily for those last minute appointments as well. Put it all together and it sounds like you live in some sort of a third world environment. They don't happen to abandon seniors on mountain tops or ice floes as well, do they?
They'll do the absolute worst kind of hell-raising citizens can do. They'll vote. They'll also pull funding. Don't forget, 2014 is a key election year for the parties and 2016 won't be far behind it. They're not about to bite the hands that stuff their campaign funds as well as the ballot boxes.
Perhaps, Fran, it's your response to things to "lie down and take it" but it certainly has never been mine or that of many others I know. Maybe we're just delusional or perhaps we're simply made of sterner stuff than you and your ilk. Whichever is the case, we Boomers ARE a force to be reckoned with by dint of sheer numbers if nothing else.
Now back to the original discussion at hand, all donations gratefully accepted. The 1.5%, while certainly not munificent, is at least the cost of a tank of gas a month so we'll not complain.
Well, we've got a long history of lying down and taking it. I hope it's different this time with SS. I doubt it will be.
With all due respect to your point of view, I have never seen, other than Occupy , any citizens rising up against anything since the Vietnam War and civil rights. What would "sterner" folks do if the COLA flattens completely over a long time, or SS sees actual cuts? Would you form in the streets and march on DC? The links I posted a few posts up clearly indicate it's not just the R's – the D's are starting to "cave." Last I knew, these were the only 2 viable parties. I don't mean to get into a political slant here (heaven forbid), but anything having to do with any interests of a group of people is inherently political. But, as you say, back to the subject at hand. I think we can all be grateful for any increase, and that it didn't stay zero or descend.
Yeah, but you ain't seen the wrath of a load of scorned seniors yet either. Witness the comparative handful of WW II vets and their supporters pushing back the park police to gain access to their memorial recently. Now imagine the combined power of an angry generation not yet thinned out by old age.
Wow! You must live in an awful place if people don't want and shun the elderly, including their own families. I strongly recommend a move to a more humane environment sooner rather than later. You might wish to consider changing doctors as well. I've never had to wait to see mine more than a few days when I needed to and if urgent, a block of time is set aside in the office daily for those last minute appointments as well. Put it all together and it sounds like you live in some sort of a third world environment. Theydon't happen to abandon seniors on mountain tops or ice floes as well, do they?
Well, trying to be cute and/or to make fun of this isn't at all intelligent or classy.
And why would I want to move and leave these people? I'm learning a lot and doing what I can do to help, right where I am. I may do nothing more than take out their trash or help with laundry or the occasional chance to take a ride out of town -- I make sure everyone has food (not necessarily out of my own pocket because there are food banks, which are very good here, and also Meals on Wheels -- but I'm doing something.
You know -- I have this feeling that you don't know at all what it's like to be old and poor or old and middle class. Are you, by any chance, one of the 1%?
I haven't seen any ignorant ravings here. There are a wide range of opinions on cause and effect of COLA specifically and on SS generally.
!. I was not referring to you personally.
2. You don't think it's ignorant to claim that the chained CPI has already reduced our Social Security benefits when in fact the chained CPI has never yet been passed into law? Such a claim is not an "opinion"; it's just plain wrong, factually wrong.
I don't know who "we've" is but it certainly doesn't include me. I do not go quietly into the night.
What do we fun? Try campaigns.
Well, we don't 'fun' anything. And we really don't fund campaigns because Big Business, Oil Companies and Big Pharma pretty much do it all. Campaigns don't need us. But of course they'll take what little we give them.
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, any citizens rising up against anything since the Vietnam War and civil rights. What would "sterner" folks do if the COLA flattens completely over a long time, or SS sees actual cuts? Would you form in the streets and march on DC? The links I posted a few posts up clearly indicate it's not just the R's – the D's are starting to "cave." Last I knew, these were the only 2 viable parties. I don't mean to get into a political slant here (heaven forbid), but anything having to do with any interests of a group of people is inherently political. But, as you say, back to the subject at hand. I think we can all be grateful for any increase, and that it didn't stay zero or descend.
