Another friend over 60 has lost her job.

[leftyladyfrommo]

I think that's all of us now.

She has worked for FEMA as a contract employee doing disaster relief. She hasn't been called out in months because FEMA has reorganized their offices. She has been trying to find another job for over 2 years and has not gotten one interview.

So now she is forced to take early SS so she can survive.

There just has to be a whole army of people over 50 who have now been forced out of their jobs. They are having to spend all of their retirement savings just to survive until their SS kicks in.

All those people can no longer buy anything. This has just got to be affecting the economy in ways that no one ever expected.

[reformist2]

1. Logan's Run is becoming reality.

[raven mad]

15. Logan's Run was reality in 1984.

[LiberalEsto]

2. I wonder how many of us are applying for early Social Security

It would be interesting to see the statistics, if they have any.

I turn 62 later this week and applied for Social Security in January after being out of work for five and a half years. Luckily my husband still has a job, knock on wood.

[Uben]

6. If I remember correctly.....

...over 60% already are filing for early SSI benefits.

[Demo_Chris]

3. As soon as Obama gets his TPP deal and chained CPI he'll start working on stuff like jobs. nt

[LiberalEsto]

8. And that chained CPI will screw those who are now signing up for Soc Sec

even more.

It's bad enough that we can't afford to wait and retire at 65 or 67 in order to collect full Social security benefits.

Now the chained CPI will lower our future earned benefits.

[Demo_Chris]

14. What a brave new world we leave our children. nt

[loudsue]

4. I'm 64, and I'm back in school hoping that some more training,

besides 37 years in the professional work force, and 20 years as a small business owner, would make it easier to find work. I don't know what we're going to do if I can't find work!

[Warpy]

5. You just summed it up in a nutshell

about people who worked and saved and did everything they were supposed to getting the big shaft when they're over 50, losing everything even if they find McJobs here and there because unemployment runs out too soon and social security kicks in too late.

About the only older Boomer I know with job security has her own business, started on a shoestring when she was 20 and which kept her in poverty until her early 30s.

Everybody else is struggling on full time jobs which suddenly become part time, on jobs that magically disappear until they're out the door and some cute, perky 20 something gets hired, and on unemployment insurance they paid into all their lives that evaporates when they need it most.

What a country.

All I hope is that this army of people kicked in the teeth realize who's done the kicking and throw them out on their fat asses. I'm not optimistic, though. The preachers are still Republicans.

[2pooped2pop]

7. retirement savings?

The poor has none and the middle class has lost any they might of had.

Hey but I hear the rich are doing really well.

[SheilaT]

9. If there is a hospital in her area, chances are reasonable they are hiring.

Nurses are especially in short supply, but I do not expect someone over the age of 60 to get a nursing degree. But taking a coding class at the local junior college (hoping there is one of those near her also) can open up jobs.

Granted, the kinds of jobs she's going to get probably don't pay as well as her FEMA job, when she's working, but it's better than nothing.

I'm speaking as someone who has gotten work over the age of 60. Okay, so it's not career-type employment, but it's better than taking Social Security early.

[KauaiK]

10. I'm so sorry for your friend.

Her situation is mine as well.

[Ino]

11. self-UNemployed here

Income cut in half in the financial meltdown of 2008, and slowly declined after that. I'm living at below poverty level income, supplemented with a little savings. I'll turn 62 in Sept, and hope the savings will hold out until then, when I can get SS.

My sister, an assistant dean at a prestigious university, had her position eliminated at age 65. The unemployment person just shook her head and said, "Oh honey, you're not going to find another job."

I'm looking for another home for my dog.

[sibelian]

12. It's awfully sad.

To think that all those decades of accumulated effort and experience are treated so shoddily.

I sometimes wish we could return to the days when families stuck together. Not sure I could put up with it, now, though...

[Lizzie Poppet]

16. I've a good friend who's 56.

He's partially employed (he does online marketing stuff, and has one regular client plus lands the occasional "one-off" contract). He gets by...sort of. He's been trying for many, many months to find something permanent and genuinely supportive of his quite modest lifestyle. No luck...it's considered a young person's field and despite his considerable experience and ability, no one is interested. He's talked about having to take the earliest Social Security retirement, despite that costing him a LOT of money...because he has no choice. He's also considering relocating if an opening he's applied for comes through, despite it breaking his heart to leave the city he loves dearly. If he didn't have his cat (who he dotes on), I'd be very, very worried about him harming himself...no joke.

This sort of thing is happening to untold numbers of us...while a tiny handful of people eat up virtually ALL of the so-called "recovery." I get angrier and angrier every day...

[reformist2]

17. I heard a story of a workplace lunch.... one woman asked, how come there's nobody over 50 here?

People are starting to realize what's happening... the free market doesn't need "old" people anymore. And nobody in power says anything.

[leftyladyfrommo]

18. So far I haven't found anyone who cares one bit.

I've written to Claire McCaskill a couple of times and have just gotten a bunch of generic verbage back. It's all about contacting government agencies. Like that's going to do us any good.

The old guys in Congress don't give a shit. They are all millionaires.

I hope young people are seeing what is happening and adjusting to this new world reality. They need to make sure they have enough saved by the time they are 50 to retire. Since they don't seem to be able to find work before they are 30 that isn't going to give them much of a window for saving enough to make it.

I managed to make it to 65 and then take SS just 1 year early. That helped a lot. But having to take SS at 62 has really got to hurt.

[reformist2]

19. It's not going to work. The system is about to break. As in, total collapse.

[leftyladyfrommo]

20. Yea. So what happens when there isn't work for 3/4 of the population?

I'm afraid that is what is really going to happen. So many jobs are being lost to technology and computers.

I saw something not too long ago where 70% of all the jobs that are out there right now will be gone in really not too many years.

Then what happens?