21 SIGNS THAT THE NEW REALITY FOR MANY BABY BOOMERS

WILL BE TO WORK AS WAGE SLAVES 

UNTIL THEY DROP DEAD

“A standing military force, with an overgrown Executive will not long be safe companions to liberty. The means of defence against foreign danger have been always the instruments of tyranny at home.

Among the Romans it was a standing maxim to excite a war, whenever a revolt was apprehended. Throughout all Europe, the armies kept up under the pretext of defending, have enslaved the people.

Of all the enemies to public liberty war is, perhaps, the most to be dreaded, because it comprises and develops the germ of every other. War is the parent of armies; from these proceed debts and taxes; and armies, and debts, and taxes are the known instruments for bringing the many under the domination of the few.

In war, too, the discretionary power of the Executive is extended; its influence in dealing out offices, honors, and emoluments is multiplied; and all the means of seducing the minds, are added to those of subduing the force, of the people…. [There is also an] inequality of fortunes, and the opportunities of fraud, growing out of a state of war, and … degeneracy of manners and of morals…. No nation could preserve its freedom in the midst of continual warfare. ~ James Madison:

THE ECONOMIC COLLAPSE

August 22, 2011

All over America tonight, millions of elderly Americans are wondering if their money is going to run out before it is time for them to die.  Those that are now past retirement age are not going to be rioting in the streets, but that doesn't mean that large numbers of them are not deeply suffering. 

There are millions of elderly Americans that are leading lives of "quiet desperation" as they try to get by on meager fixed incomes.  Many are surviving on Ramen noodles, oatmeal, peanut butter or whatever other cheap food they can find in the stores. 

There are some that are so short on cash that they will not turn on the heat in their homes until things get really desperate.  As health care costs soar, millions of elderly Americans find themselves deep in debt and facing huge medical bills that they cannot possibly pay. 

A lot of older Americans would go back to work if they could, but jobs are scarce and very few companies seem to even want to consider hiring them.  Right now caring for all of the Americans that have already retired is turning out to be an overwhelming challenge, and things are about to get a whole lot worse. 

On January 1st, 2011 the very first Baby Boomers turned 65.  A massive tsunami of retirees is coming, and America is not ready for it.

Sadly, most retirees have not adequately prepared for retirement.  For many, the recent economic downturn absolutely devastated their retirement plans.  Many were counting on the equity in their homes, but the recent housing crash crushed those dreams.  Others had their 401ks shredded by the stock market.

Meanwhile, corporate pension plans all across America are vastly underfunded.  Many state and local government pension programs are absolute disasters.  The federal government has already begun to pay out significantly more in Social Security benefits than they are taking in, and the years ahead are projected to be downright apocalyptic for the Social Security program.

So needless to say, things do not look good for the Baby Boomers that are now approaching retirement age. 

The following are 21 signs that the new reality for many Baby Boomers will be to work as wage slaves until they drop dead....

#1 According to a shocking AARP survey of Baby Boomers that are still in the workforce, 40 percent of them plan to work "until they drop".

#2 A recent survey of American workers that included all age groups found that 54 percent of them planned to keep working when they retire and 39 percent of them plan to either work past age 70 or never retire at all.

#3 A poll conducted by CESI Debt Solutions found that 56 percent of American retirees still had outstanding debts when they retired.

#4 A recent study by a law professor from the University of Michigan found that Americans that are 55 years of age or older now account for 20 percent of all bankruptcies in the United States.  Back in 2001, they only accounted for 12 percent of all bankruptcies.

#5 Between 1991 and 2007 the number of Americans between the ages of 65 and 74 that filed for bankruptcy rose by a staggering 178 percent.

#6 Most of the bankruptcies among the elderly are caused by our deeply corrupt health care system.  According to a report published in The American Journal of Medicine, medical bills are a major factor in more than 60 percent of the personal bankruptcies in the United States.  Of those bankruptcies that were caused by medical bills, approximately 75 percent of them involved individuals that actually did have health insurance.

#7 The U.S. government now says that the Medicare trust fund will run dry five years faster than they were projecting just last year.

#8 Starting on January 1st, 2011 the Baby Boomers began to hit retirement age.  From now on, every single day more than 10,000 Baby Boomers will reach the age of 65.  That is going to keep happening every single day for the next 19 years.

#9 Over 30 percent of all U.S. investors currently in their sixties have more than 80 percent of their 401k retirement plans invested in equities.  So what happens if the stock market crashes again?

#10 All over the United States predatory lenders are coldly and cruelly foreclosing on elderly homeowners.  You can read what one lender is doing to a 70-year-old woman and her terminally ill husband right here.

#11 Medical bills are absolutely devastating large number of elderly Americans right now.  Many are going to great lengths to try to pay their bills.  An elderly woman that lives in the Salem, Oregon area that is fighting terminal bone cancer tried to raise some money for her medical bills by holding a few garage sales on the weekends.  However, a neighbor ratted her out, and so now the police are shutting her garage sales down.

#12 Social Security's disability program has already been pushed to the brink of insolvency and wave after wave of new applications continue to pour in.

#13 Approximately 3 out of every 4 Americans start claiming Social Security benefits the moment they are eligible at age 62.  Most are doing this out of necessity.  However, by claiming Social Security early they get locked in at a much lower amount than if they would have waited.

#14 According to the Congressional Budget Office, the Social Security system paid out more in benefits than it received in payroll taxes in 2010.  That was not supposed to happen until at least 2016.  Sadly, in the years ahead these "Social Security deficits" are scheduled to become absolutely nightmarish as hordes of Baby Boomers retire.

#15 In 1950, each retiree's Social Security benefit was paid for by 16 U.S. workers.  In 2010, each retiree's Social Security benefit was paid for by approximately 3.3 U.S. workers.  By 2025, it is projected that there will be approximately two U.S. workers for each retiree.  How in the world can the system possibly continue to function properly with numbers like that?

#16 According to a shocking U.S. government report, soaring interest costs on the U.S. national debt plus rapidly escalating spending on entitlement programs such as Social Security and Medicare will absorb approximately 92 cents of every single dollar of federal revenue by the year 2019.  That is before a single dollar is spent on anything else.

#17 Most states have huge pension liabilities that are woefully underfunded.  For example, pension consultant Girard Miller recently told California's Little Hoover Commission that state and local government bodies in the state of California have $325 billion in combined unfunded pension liabilities.  When you break that down, it comes to $22,000 for every single working adult in the state of California.

#18 Robert Novy-Marx of the University of Chicago and Joshua D. Rauh of Northwestern's Kellogg School of Management recently calculated the combined pension liability for all 50 U.S. states.  What they found was that the 50 states are collectively facing $5.17 trillion in pension obligations, but they only have $1.94 trillion set aside in state pension funds.  That is a difference of 3.2 trillion dollars.  So where in the world is all of that extra money going to come from?  Most of the states are already completely broke and on the verge of bankruptcy.

#19 According to one recent survey, 36 percent of Americans say that they don't contribute anything at all to retirement savings.

#20 According to another recent survey, 24 percent of all U.S. workers say that they have postponed their planned retirement age at least once during the past year.

#21 Even though prices for necessities such as food and gas have been exploding, those receiving Social Security benefits have not received a cost of living increase for two years in a row.  Many elderly Americans that are living on fixed incomes are being squeezed like they have never been squeezed before.

There are millions of Americans out there that have done everything "right" all of their lives, but that now find the system letting them down in their golden years.

So how badly are some people hurting?  Well, a reader identified as "Anna44" recently shared with us what some of her family members have been going through in this economy....

My B-I-L was a dealership owner/manager who worked long hours over 38 years and had to close his doors when Saturn was dissolved. When his dealership went under, 72 others lost their job. That’s 72 families who took a hit. He lost his home, everything. A few of his former employees lost their homes as well eventually. They were not lazy or WORTHLESS. It took him a year and a half to finally find something, but now he lives in a hotel unable to qualify for a house or apartment. This is an educated man who competed nationwide for top dog and got it more than once. His biggest fault? He’s almost 60, young enough to need the work, but too old to be hired.

As for my husband ~ 26 years AF officer, handling millions & billions on International & National levels has just entered his 7th month of unemployment. Two tours abroad- lazy he is NOT. He doesn’t qualify for unemployment, nor is he counted because he gets a retirement check. He wants and needs to work- yet there is little out there. If he doesn’t find something soon, we too will lose the home we sunk every cent into after 20 years of saving for it!

These are Americans that should be getting ready to enjoy their golden years, but that are now fighting just to survive.

Today you will find a disturbingly large number of elderly Americans flipping burgers or welcoming people to Wal-Mart.  But most of them are not doing it because they are bored with retirement.  Rather, most of them are working as wage slaves because that is what they have to do in order to survive.

Sadly, there are a whole lot of companies out there that do not want to hire people that are past a certain age.  If you are older than 50, there are a lot of jobs that you should just basically forget about applying for.

Instead of valuing the experience and wisdom of our elders, our society openly makes fun of them and treats them as undesirables.

If you are afraid of getting old, you are not being irrational.  Getting old is indeed something to fear in this society.  We tend to treat elderly Americans like garbage.

Abuse of the elderly is rampant.  For example, a report from a couple of years ago found that 94 percent of all nursing homes in the United States had committed violations of federal health and safety standards.

As the U.S. economy continues to crumble, the way we treat the elderly is probably going to get even worse.

Right now there is tons of bad news about the economy, and another major economic downturn would put even more pressure on federal, state and local government budgets.

The truth is that there is simply no way that we can keep all of the financial promises that we have made to elderly Americans even if the most optimistic projections for our economy play out.

If the worst happens, we are going to see a lot more elderly Americans eating out of trash cans and freezing to death in their own homes.

The United States is facing a retirement crisis of unprecedented magnitude.  A comfortable, happy retirement is rapidly going to become a luxury that only the wealthy will enjoy.

For most of the rest of us, our golden years are going to mean a whole lot of pain and suffering.

That may not be pleasant to hear, but that is the truth.

CANADIANS: IS THIS WHAT A POLICE STATE LOOKS LIKE?

June 29, 2010

by murraydobbin
MURRAYDOBBINSBLOG

Police states don’t appear full blown, over night. They are, like any other social phenomenon, part of social and political process ~ the end result of long term corruption of the political culture and the incremental diminishing of democracy.

This is a process that has been taking place for at least twenty years in Canada and it should come as no surprise that the police in Canada are now willing to take actions ~ at the direction of the politicians ~ that escalate the threats to democratic expression and the intimidation of ordinary citizens.

The corporate security state is not static ~ it will keep filling more and more space to the extent that they are allowed to by civil society.

It is not a process that will suddenly arrest itself.

There is no “enough” in this plan.

But in that incremental process there are seminal moments ~ sort of qualitative leaps in the continuum of anti-democratic moves that momentarily reveal to everyone willing to look at what is actually happening.

The police actions in Toronto are one of those key moments, one that we will look back on as a time when the authoritarian governments we now endure tested our resolve.

They know exactly what they are doing.

There was no spontaneous “over-reaction.”

There were no cops “out of control” ~

the obvious fact is they were always in control.

This was a very strategic operation from beginning to end.

The decision to allow the Black Bloc to do its destructive work without any intervention at all was strategic as the police and their political masters knew the media would play their pre-assigned reactionary role and focus on the destruction of property.

The mass arrest of 900 people was a message to those willing to take a stand: you could be next, and a criminal record is no laughing matter.

Provocateurs in action

There is no question

that amongst the mob

of window-breakers and car-burners

were a significant number

of agents provocateurs.

How many we will likely never know as this time around; none were exposed as they were in Montebello at the SPP Summit.

The black clad activists have a lot to answer for ~ they provide the cover for the provocateurs and they are totally responsible for the media frenzy about the damage to a few shops.

Perhaps next time the real social activists should swarm these people and stop them if the police refuse. They are the enemies of social change ~ we should treat all of them as agents provocateurs and plan to deal with them accordingly.

In the process we might catch a few more cops in the act.

But in the bigger picture they are a side show. The crisis in democracy itself is developing quickly as the security state apparatus and its political committee ~ Harper and his handful of operatives obviously, but provincial governments as well ~ plan for the future.

It is a future that promises to be increasingly grim.

There is a clear connection here between the obscene amount of money spent on security, the completely unnecessary shut-down of Toronto, the nine foot fences, what the police did ~and what the “leaders” talked about.

We could call them the austerity summits: an agreement to make working people and the poor pay for the crisis.

Harper, the most dangerous PM
in the history of our nation, in full dictator mode.

In the next year ~

unless Harper can actually be forced from office ~

Canada will witness the second wave

of huge cutbacks to the social democratic state.

The set up is in place:

the enormous tax cuts implemented by Flaherty in 2007 (and still being implemented) and the resulting huge deficits (party due to the “stimulus”) is the perfect useful crisis to justify massive cuts to social spending and the radical downsizing of the federal state (with the military intact and growing).

In effect, Harper wants to download everything onto the provinces and distribute the political responsibility for downsizing to all senior governments.

These cuts will have a severe impact on hundreds of thousands of Canadians ~ individuals and families already facing an economic crisis of unsustainable personal debt, and over-work at mostly low wages.

High unemployment is the other useful crisis ~ a key part of the strategy of “labour flexibility” aimed at lowering the share of the economy achieved by workers, and thus decreasing their political power at the same time.

Will this increasing pressure on Canadians’ quality of life and economic security be the trigger that creates the conditions for social unrest?

Dangerous contraband removed from the clutches of anarchists:

water bottle and water, ping pong balls,

golf balls, rubber ball, medical supplies.

There is no way of knowing that ahead of time but it will certainly present the conditions for a rejuvenation of social movement efforts to mobilize against the corporate state. Labour will be forced from its self-imposed slumber and have to take a real stand ~ and not just show up a single demonstration.

When resistance does increase,

that corporate state hopes to have created

a new a normal where demonstrating

is seen as vaguely threatening,

the demand for civil liberties

is the recourse of scoundrels,

and criticism of governments

naïve at best

and dangerous at worst.

Economic insecurity does not necessarily lead to greater resistance. It can also lead to passivity out of fear that things could get even worse. That passive part of the population is the classic ground for fascist politics and the desire for a “strong” leader, in the mode of a father figure.

Harper, of course, has always played that role. For the moment at least it has had limited appeal as his party’s 30% in the polls shows. But he always polls higher than his party and leads the leadership stakes in part because of this strong leader image.

We have a decidedly different political culture in Canada than they do in the US but what is happening there can also happen here ~ not in exactly the same way and not as quickly.

But in the absence of a vigorous mass movement, based on hope for the future, there is only one other possibility: things will inevitably get worse as the capitalist crisis deepens.

Now what?

What will the 25,000 people who participated in the demonstrations do in the face the assault on their fellow-citizens?

Will they become active in organizations fighting for a better world?

Will they donate $100 each to those organizations critical to defending democracy? ($2.5 million would make a difference.)

Will the labour movement ~ still the sector of civil society best equipped to put resources into the struggle – finally take the situation seriously?

Will they come together, call for a coalition to rid the country of the most dangerous prime minister in its history?

Will enough people demand of the NDP that it actually defend democracy ~ instead of denouncing the violence as its only statement on the events did?

Is the NDP even capable under its current leadership of understanding where we are and how to address the crisis?

I can’t think of a better wake-up call for all of us than the wanton violation of civil liberties and democracy that happened on the weekend.

Calling for an independent investigation, demanding civil liberties be respected, denouncing the governments involved, raising money to defend those falsely charged ~ all of this is necessary.

BUT IT IS NOT NEARLY ENOUGH.

Stephen Harper’s national security state
STEPHEN HARPER'S HIT LIST PART 1 ~ POWER, PROCESS AND ASSAULT ON DEMOCRACY

THE DAY TORONTO DIED

By Ellie Kirzner

I’m staring out my living room window Sunday, catching my breath between visits to the detention centre, and suddenly a police van rolls up and nabs three people right in front of my house.

We’re 2 miles from the fence.

So this is plainly illegal.

Problem is, I’m actually getting used to all this.

So here’s the deal: the storyline has changed. The city’s worst nightmare isn’t the shattered glass, though that’s a drag. It’s the possible effect all this menacing display will have on our future tolerance for arbitrary authority. Will we recover the sense of boundaries and prerogatives we had on June 20? Or has something shifted?

Saturday’s spectacle ~ its sometimes humour-strafed standoffs with riot police, endless impromptu street takeovers and marches, emergency tweeting and the grabbing of quiet moments for quick analysis ~ was a socially complex affair.

But not for police tacticians.

They practised a paranoid

one-size-fits-all style of crowd control,

decades out of date

and destined to alienate

an entire generation of young activists

for their entire adult lives.

My dear writer, that is EXACTLY what was intended! Scare the hell out of them, instill complete and utter fear for the coming authoritarian state. How great is our power that they must behave so at the bequest of their masters!

Despite their undercover officers, their over-cover ones, intelligence networks and on-line monitors, police showed their ignorance of protesting crowds and a preoccupation with collective punishment.

Seized contraband ~ masks, loudspeaker, spray paint

I spent almost 12 hours on the street Saturday, minus a 45-minute sushi break, and several hours Sunday, and I saw every variety of participant, from steelworkers to students, indigenous activists, radical cheerleaders, people with psychological problems, white-haired justice people, tattooed folk and an endless array of those ready to sit down in front of police lines and hold hands.

There were 200 Black Blocers and thousands of the rest of us ~

and that’s supposedly the reason police blocked us,

threatened us with tear gas,

marched with batons into crowds of us,

drove horses into our midst so we fled in panic,

and questioned, detained and sometimes hurt us on the street.

Police acted as if all the protesters were villagers

protecting a guerrilla army,

treating everyone with the same suspicion,

presumption of guilt and sense of impunity.

What we have here is the type of teaching our enforcers have been studying in Israel. This is exactly the Israeli / Noahyde approach to those who do not toe the party line. Exactly! Heavy handed. Assumptive. Collective Punishment. Presumption of guilt. Impunity. BINGO! All the right words are there.

Nothing they did made sense to the civilians to whom they are accountable.

Riot police suddenly appeared, forming deep lines in front of marchers in strategically senseless areas, exhibited huge operational inconsistencies, issued warnings to vacate in quiet voices and seemed to be governed by mysterious reasoning no one in the street could fathom or respect.

And despite Chief Bill Blair’s promise that Queen’s Park would be a “safe’’ zone, by 6 pm Saturday it was the most dangerous place in the city.

I was shocked when I interviewed two detainees from the mass arrest at Novotel and found they had been detained for 12 hours with no access to a lawyer. But later, well, it seemed banal. Everyone reported that they weren’t allowed legal counsel.

Despite all the provocations,

demonstrators didn’t go mob;

they vented their anger in long tirades against tyranny

in front of impassive police and then danced

and sang to entertain their tormentors.

Confiscated as "dangerous" helmet

This sorry "contraband" collection reminds me of the pathetic pile of "weapons" the Israelis used to justify their attacks and executions on the Mavri Marmara? And, just as with that first set of images released to the media, this set included bogus images of goods seized in the past! Gosh are we becoming a Zionist state or what?

And contrary to all those theories you learned in undergrad psychology about “contagion” in mass situations, street marchers kept their cool and their generosity.

As I fled, my heart racing, from charging mounted police in Queen’s Park Saturday, voices rang out all around me: “Walk, walk, don’t run.”

And soon, despite the proximity of the horses, hundreds of people slowed their steps to prevent trampling each other.

At one point, on University, I had a sudden Quebec City flashback and a flare of worry about tear gas. I must have said something out loud, because the heavily tattooed woman beside me in black offered me her only bottle of water to keep in case I had to flush out my eyes.

As for the Black Bloc, ostensibly the reason our rights drained away as the hours went on, don’t get me started. It’s easy to say they’re pumped by the cop overkill and the testosterone in the air, but they’re a symptom of a real problem, and I don’t just mean capitalism.

The Bloc has taken the noble tradition of civil disobedience and dragged it through the muck.

When you decide to break the rules in the name of something grander, you have to own up.

The Berrigan brothers didn’t destroy U.S. government draft documents and then put on disguises. They condemned the Vietnam War, and then they did the revolutionary thing: they went to jail.

I laugh to think of Blocers taking responsibility, and I’m tired of three days’ worth of people telling me we have to respect their rights as activists. Sure, I can see a situation where someone might decry oil’s fouling of the earth by defacing a gas station. But then you have to phone the police, contact the media, issue the manifesto, get arrested, reimburse the franchisee and explain oneself in court. It’s called being an adult.

Instead, Blocers slipped in and out of their personas. I stood next to one as he was taking off his black duds during a standoff. Coward. The broader movement likes to say, “There’s no Black Bloc, only black bloc tactics.’’ Don’t soak me in sophistry.

The destruction cult has the grassroots over a barrel ~ thus the “diversity of tactics” truce. If there isn’t an accord with the masked marauders, its members won’t respect the integrity of the peaceful protest zones. This pact entails not dissing others’ actions, which is why Toronto Mobilization Network reps were so careful with their words when interviewed.

Folks, liberate yourselves.

The native march banned face masks

and the Bike Bloc made a no-trashing policy.

It’s time for movement indignation and shunning

to send the Bloc back into civilian clothes permanently.

Last weekend, thousands of peaceful souls stood up to the scary sight of lines and lines of cops, and you’d better believe that all that cat-and-mouse scrambling over public space had a larger purpose.

Society owes a debt to those

who spent hour after hour

holding their ground as free citizens.

This wasn’t the mission protest organizers sought,

but when it was handed to them,

they did what had to be done.

ellie@nowtoronto.com

There are many excellent articles to be found at this link: NOW TORONTO G20 SPECIAL

THE BIGGEST HEIST IN U.S. HISTORY:FLASH STOCK MARKET CRASH

As someone completely impoverished, I pay little attention to the actual doings on the stock market other than past events. I stumbled on this little piece a few moments ago and, dammit, if this does not make perfect sense considering what we know about the greed and insatiable hunger of the beast of Wall Street, not to mention thieving nature and complete lack of conscience and ethics when there is a penny to be taken off your dead grandmother's eyes.

Totally diabolical this little scheme, and guess who lost their shirts? Not the Feds!

From THE MARKET ORACLE

May 17, 2010

Stock-Markets

Market Manipulation

VernontheGerman writes:

I wanted to bring to your attention the events that transpired Thursday 6th May between 2:41pm and 2:57pm.

In those 16 min one of the largest heists in American history occurred. It was said that up to one trillion dollars was lost and regained in that time.

What took place was a transferring of wealth from the people to the organizations that conspired this.

So what really happened during those 16 min on Thursday.

The Dow dropped to over 1000 points down.

Some stocks fell over 99%.
Stocks that were $65 a share fell to .01!

At the end of the "16 min heist"
these stocks were back to their previous levels or more.

Most newspapers are reporting an "error" occurred but no harm no foul as the market quickly resumed back to their "pre crash" levels

But here is what transpired which no one seems to be talking about.

Say you own 1000 shares of ABC in your portfolio and ABC is $65. 1000 x $65 = $65,000

Now say you want to protect yourself in case of a "terrorist act" or if a company issue comes out.

Most prudent investors will place a protective stop as "insurance".

There are several types of stop loss orders but the most common are Stop loss limit or Stop loss market.

The difference is that one will be sold at whatever price the market is when it is triggered (Stop loss market) and the other is a fixed price when it is triggered.

An example would be on the $65 ABC stock, say you placed a protective stop 20% below or $52. As the market fell on Thursday your stop was triggered at $52 and placed a market order. Because the market was falling so fast the order could not find a bid, it could have been $52, $42, $32 or .01 whatever the bid was at. Let's say it hit at $26.75 for a 59% loss.

After the so called 16 min "glitch" ABC was back at $65. No harm no foul right?

Wrong! You lost your shares and "somebody" bought them at $26.75.

It was not available for the average person to buy these shares as most brokerage platforms were frozen during this time including mine. It was like being "handcuffed" during the heist!

So 16 minutes (or less) later the one who purchased these ABC shares made about 145%!

The reason I used the 59% loss example is that the exchanges decided that anything over a 60% loss was too much and reversed trades greater than 60% loss.

This was an orchestrated event
as they knew that no circuit breakers
were in place after 2:30pm.

Also no news or other events took place during this typically slow time in the market.

NEW YORK STOCK EXCHANGE CIRCUIT BREAKERS

http://www.nyse.com/press/circuit_breakers.html

Thank you for reading this.

This heist works only once and probably scared off most anyone left with any skin in the market.

What remains at this point are only the machines and real 'investors' are going to dump into treasuries en masse.

And who does that benefit?

Exactly ~ the FEDs who needs to raise hundreds of Billions a week at this point.

Finally, there is this 'audit the Fed clause that's getting kicked around and gaining momentum in Congress right now.

I believe this was not only a profitable move but also a warning shot.

I think it's pretty easy to see who might have instigated this little maneuver.

God Bless

"The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing" .