I saw a sad sign at Dennys tonight

[SoCalDem]

We are boycotting the bowling alley food, since they raised the prices so high (hotdog, 4 or 5 fries & a large drink is now $7.94), so we ate at Denny's on the way home.

At the check out was a sign that read:

If you have any extra change, please donate for food for our seniors at the Senior Center

I asked the hostess if Dennys took food to them, and she said no, but we do display their collection jar & sign and deliver the money to them weekly.

[Buzz Clik]

1. Charity begins at home,but not at Denny's.

[Coyote_Bandit]

2. I know a woman who is about 80

who works a couple of days each week cleaning houses in order to buy food. She and her husband worked hard their whole lives. He worked at the farmers co-op amd she was a hair stylist. Sad.

As a nation we ought to be embarrassed. But even our leaders seem to have no conscience. We make some people expendable. Throwaways. We are neither humanitarian or compassionate.

[pipoman]

3. Many seniors work because they want to..

I employ 5 seniors ranging in age from 68 to 83. Two of them ages 81 and 83 are among my most productive workers...the 81 year old is my mentor. They neither one need to work, they do because they don't want to stop, they need to be needed, and they get great satisfaction from what they do.

[DemReadingDU]

4. years ago, on 60 minutes

a story was done on a company that hired elderly, didn't need health benefits because they received Medicare. It was a smallish company, and the work was detailed and tedious. But the owner was very pleased, his workers were very dependable, arriving on-time every morning. The older people liked the social interaction with people of their own age.

8/10/03 Morley Safer Talks To People Who Just Can't Retire
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2003/08/08/60minutes/main567331.shtml

edit for clarity

[eridani]

20. Nice hint about what Medicare for All will do for all employers, no? n/t

[CTyankee]

28. Nonprofits that are too small to even consider health insurance benefits

also hire people who are old enough for Medicare. Younger workers can't do it unless they have a spouse with benefits...

[DCKit]

5. The OP is about the difference between "want to" and "need to".

I'm really happy things are working out for you and your senior employees, but a lot of other people their age can't even make it to the food bank to pick up the "free" food.

We need to do better.

[Coyote_Bandit]

6. This woman has commented in writing

(in a sympathy card addressed to my parents) that she works because she needs the money to buy groceries. The work she does is physically demanding. I suspect she'd be working everyday if she were physically capable of such demanding labor.

Both she and her husband worked their whole lives. They lived frugally. Still do. They contributed to Social Security. And the benefits they receive are not adequate to provide basic needs - food, clothing, housing, transportation, healthcare.

[Chorophyll]

8. This is often the case, and as you said earlier

we ought to be ashamed. We are the bottom of the barrel of the "western" world when it comes to caring for the elderly, the ill, and the poor. We just can't get rid of that "every man for hisself on the frontier" attitude... and boy do the corporations LOVE that.

[BlancheSplanchnik]

9. yes, and with the disappearance of the extended family, that frontier mentality

is pretty destructive.

Extended family---that's collective care, or a form of socialism, actually.

Many of us are alone, and in a nuclear family, capitalistic society that has become ruthless....well, it scares me.

[Chorophyll]

15. Yup, that too. I agree.

I would venture to guess that things are scary for most of us, to varying degrees. Lives can change in an instant, and unless you're super-rich, you're vulnerable.

It just doesn't have to be this way!

[BlancheSplanchnik]

23. as you say---

It doesn't HAVE to be this way!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

:hug:

[ThomWV]

7. And many more of us slaved away at jobs we hated years after we desperately wanted to leave

[CTyankee]

10. I know so well. It started for me when I was in my early60s. I'd look out the window and

see the wide world and wish I could be free to go out and be in it.

It wasn't until I was much older that I could do that, but even now that is endangered. I don't know how long my luck or my money will last but I can't worry about it. I save lots of money in different ways But I can't save enough to make my budget work.

It's a constant worry...

[Cleita]

11. And many work because we have to.

I would rather be free to be retired, but I can't make ends meet otherwise. I worry daily about what I'm going to do when I really can't work anymore and sure my boss likes the fact that I have Medicare and don't need full time.

[RebelOne]

16. I an 72 years old and was laid off my job

in January 2010. I wanted to work and could never consider not working for the rest of my life. I loved my job, but had often considered retiring when I just didn't feel like getting out of bed, getting dressed and driving to work. But I was forced into retirement when the company downsized and laid me and 3 others off. Right now, I am OK financially for the next few years before I have to eat cat food.

[Liberal_in_LA]

18. glad you are ok for now

:hug:

[graywarrior]

12. If I didn't have my National Senior Network job, I'd be screwed

Going to school full time and working part time is keeping my head above water. Other than that, I have no one to rely on.

[cabot]

13. i remember a scene from "sicko"

this elderly man was working as a janitor at a grocery store. he only did it so he and his wife could receive medication. horrible. my heart broke for the man.

[vmpolesov]

17. it's messed up

Insurance tied to employment is messed up.

It should be something you can purchase on an open market, an open market that is not manipulated by powerful interests in their favor.

Try purchasing an individual plan. I know some well-to-do self-employed people (nice house, nice cars) who do without health insurance and rationalize it by saying they are unlikely to get acute injuries like broken arms because they don't bicycle for fun, etc.

[Terra Alta]

14. It's really sad that we aren't taking care enough for our seniors

so that they can stay home and enjoy their remaining years, without having to get an exhausting job just to pay the bills. And now Repukes want to take what little they get in Medicare, and give it to the rich. Greedy bastards.

[ZombieHorde]

19. K&R nt

[Incitatus]

21. What does "hotdog, 4 or 5 fries & a large drink is now $7.94"), mean?

A hot dog, fries and a drink for 7.94 sounds like a high price.

What is the 4 or 5 fries thing? I don't get it.

[dems_rightnow]

22. I read it as a "tiny serving of fries"

I guess I could be wrong.

[Incitatus]

25. ok. that makes sense. That's a crappy little serving.

[SoCalDem]

27. Our bowling alley snack bar..

At the first of the league season (last september) you could grab a hot dog combo for about $5, which was still high, but not too outrageous, and they have raised their prices twice since then, to what it is now...$7.94.. The "combo" includes fries, which now means about 4 or 5 french fires..not kidding.. I KNOW that in a way, that's a good thing too , but for the price, it's not that great, so we have started sharing the large iced tea ($3.24) and then wait for dinner until after bowling. The problem we have is that when we are finished (nearly 10PM), there is not a lot open..hence Denny's..... Hope that explains it more for you :P

[JohnyCanuck]

24. Maybe the next Pentagon general or admiral

that stops by for lunch could stuff a billion or two in the collection jar. It's not like they would miss it.

[Zorra]

26. I taught my kids how to dumpster dive, even though we had plenty

of food.

[Curmudgeoness]

29. This sounds like a great idea for raising awareness

for the plight of seniors---teach them to dumpster dive. Have groups of seniors who are well-dressed, common, ordinary people dumpster diving. Call the media.

[SoCalDem]

30. More and more dumpsters are locked around here

or are kept in locked enclosures. Businesses/restaurants/stores do not want people "diving"..

[Curmudgeoness]

31. We have not seen this yet here in PA/OH. I am amazed.

I guess it is embarrassing for a business to have people digging in their dumpsters. You know, THAT doesn't happen in this area.

But I also wonder, is this to keep divers out, or to keep people from filling the dumpsters with their own trash so that they don't have room for their own. This is an issue here, ever since they forced people to contract their trash collection with private companies instead of having it be a service included in the taxes.

[SoCalDem]

32. It's both..

Grocery stores physically OPEN & dump the food into dumpsters, so that people won;t eat it & get sick from it.. People could show a package of something to media, claim they were ill & start a whole ruckus..all from food that was intentionally thrown out because it was expired.. Many stores use markers to put an X on the packages and then additionally dump the contents into the dumpster.. pretty smelly in summer..