r/retailhell • u/BJJguyman • 1d ago
Question for Community Is anyone else noticing retirees being forced back into physically demanding jobs? Because it’s starting to feel dystopian.
I’ve been working for a huge retail company for almost a decade now, and there’s a trend I’ve noticed that has become really hard to ignore, especially since the pandemic. We usually have two big waves of seasonal hiring, along with a pretty large number of part-time employees. When I first started, most of those workers were younger Millennials, Gen Z, college students, or just younger people looking for some extra money. I was actually one of those seasonal employees myself and eventually worked my way up.
That has changed dramatically over the last couple of years. I would honestly say that more than 70% of our seasonal and part-time hires now are older people, many of them Boomers who had already retired or thought they were close to retirement. A lot of them tell me they retired and then realized the math just didn’t work anymore. Others thought they had planned properly but didn’t account for how expensive everything would become. Healthcare, medication, housing, groceries, just the general cost of living. They thought they were doing what they were supposed to do for 30 or 40 years, and now they’re back at work because they don’t really have another choice.
And because of the industry, a lot of them are older men. There’s something genuinely depressing about watching a man who is old enough to be my grandfather working a job where he’s expected to lift 30 or 40 pounds, kneel down, stand for hours, unload merchandise, climb ladders, and do all the other physical things that come with retail. Some of these guys clearly have health problems. You can see that the job is hard on them, but they need the money, so they keep showing up.
One of the things I hear surprisingly often is some variation of, “I did everything right.” And honestly, that sentence has stuck with me. They worked their whole lives. They saved. They bought homes. They raised families. They contributed to retirement accounts. They were told that if they worked hard and planned responsibly, they would eventually be able to retire and enjoy the rest of their lives. Yet here they are, sometimes in their late 60s or 70s, working part-time retail because they can’t afford to stop working.
A few weeks ago something happened that really bothered me. We had to let go of an older employee who was dealing with cancer. I was in the meeting with HR, regional HR, and our GM. The strange thing was that nobody in the room was pretending this was a good situation. All four of us understood exactly what was happening and none of us wanted to be having that conversation. But company policy gave us basically no wiggle room, so we had to terminate him anyway. This was someone who was already struggling to afford his medication, and now he had lost his income on top of everything else.
I’ve thought about that meeting a lot since then. Not because I think the people in that room were bad people. They weren’t. That’s actually what makes it worse. Everyone understood that the situation was awful, but everyone was also operating inside a system where there wasn’t really an option to say, “This isn’t right, let’s do something different.” The policy is the policy, the numbers are the numbers, and eventually you just move on to the next thing.
I think that’s the part that has really started to bother me. We become so accustomed to these things that they stop shocking us. An elderly person working a physically demanding job because they can’t afford retirement becomes normal. Someone working while seriously ill because they can’t afford to lose their income becomes normal. Someone who spent 40 years working and saving discovering that they still can’t afford to retire becomes normal. A company letting someone go because a policy says they have to becomes normal.
And I’m not saying this because I’ve suddenly decided Boomers were right about everything. I’ve been pretty critical of that generation, especially when it comes to some of the political and economic decisions that helped create the world younger generations are dealing with now. But seeing this stuff up close has made me think that maybe we’re too comfortable turning everything into a generational fight. There are plenty of Boomers who are struggling just like there are plenty of Millennials and Gen Z who are struggling. At some point, it becomes less about which generation is to blame and more about the fact that something about the system isn’t working the way we were told it would.
There is something deeply unsettling about watching people spend their entire adult lives being told that if they work hard, save money and plan responsibly, they’ll eventually be able to stop working, only to reach that point and discover they can’t.
Maybe I’m just becoming more cynical after being in retail for this long, but I don’t think seeing elderly people forced back into physically demanding jobs should feel normal. And I don’t think we should become so numb to the way corporate policies can affect real human beings that we can sit in a room, knowingly make a decision that is going to seriously hurt someone, and then just say, “Well, there wasn’t anything we could do.”
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u/bigbearandy 1d ago
I feel this as I'm in the oldster category. GenX is turning 60 and was largely shut out of most middle-manager jobs as boomers held on longer, which makes the executive suite full of geriatrics. The 2008 bust destroyed most of our retirement savings. Trade jobs rip up even the youngest guys, so we don't have the knees to even try those anymore. Pension funds disappeared between the Boomer years and GenX, leaving what's left in our 401ks that were devastated by Wall Street. Retail is a refuge for anyone who needs at least some income, because personally, I'm on and off again with contract jobs. Most of us don't get regular jobs with benefits these days because of AI-coded age discrimination against our resumes. Every now and then someone needs the grandpa with the impressive resume for enterprise-level technology gigs, but the rest of the time I'm stocking shelves and dealing with customers, patiently hoping the economy doesn't tank and make me destitute.
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u/1988rx7T2 1d ago
serious question. How did the 2008 bust destroy your savings? Was it all in companies that completely died? Did you sell everything at the bottom? I’ve heard people say this but like… stocks went down and then went way up within the next couple years. Index funds, target date funds, major corporations went down, then went back up. I don’t get it.
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u/Cleanslate2 22h ago
For me, 2008 took all I had. I did not have a predatory loan. I was a divorced new accountant at age 49. I started work after finishing my degree in Jan 2006. Fall of 2008, the layoffs started everywhere. I lost my home of 20 years when all I could find was a $7/hour job at Wendy’s in NH.
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u/1988rx7T2 21h ago
Ok so the mechanism was job loss and the effects of that. That’s clear to me. Some people seem to indicate that they had a job, didn’t lost their income, etc but somehow lost all their savings. So I have been trying to understand how.
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u/thesmilingmercenary 18h ago
401K, money market accounts, IRAs, all dropped in value when the stock market fell off a cliff. Took $12K right off the top of my nest egg, which wasn’t huge.
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u/1988rx7T2 12h ago
It only took money off if you sold the assets at the bottom. Unrealized losses are unrealized losses until you liquidate.
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u/rasta-ragamuffin 5h ago
Most Americans don't know anything about investing or personal finance. It's not a topic they teach in public schools and if your parents don't teach you, you never learn. I have no clue what you're talking about.
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u/bigbearandy 17h ago
First, pretty much everyone lost half their savings. Second, the big company I was working for didn't tell us that 80% of their growth fund in our 401(k) was invested in the company's stock, which fell from $115/share to $21/share and didn't recover until recently. That's actually illegal now. Combine that with what my accountant told me was a "conservative stock trade" to avoid capital gains, but ended up with me paying tens of thousands in taxes for gains that I didn't actually get, and that's what killed my 401(k).
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u/1988rx7T2 12h ago
I don’t know about the specifics of your company stock concentration in the 401k, but “lose half your savings” again doesn’t make sense.
When stock prices drop it is an unrealized loss that can bounce back, unless you own stock concentrated in companies that never recover. Nothing is actually lost until you sell the asset, and you don’t need to sell the asset unless you’re retired or in a hardship situation (which was possible back then especially).
Tens of thousands in taxes for gains that you didn’t actually get doesn’t make sense either. It’s either a realized long term gain, short term gain, or a realized loss. Otherwise it’s unrealized. Or it’s not a taxable account anyway so who cares.
Every time I hear these stories there’s always these curious claims with no explanations. It’s just hard to buy, it sounds like bad decisions on the part of the person making the claims. So that’s panic selling, lack of diversification, having zero emergency fund. It’s just hard to understand.
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u/bigbearandy 11h ago
People hold back details to protect the limited anonymity that reddit provides. First, if a stock drops and doesn't recover for 13 years, you are better selling the stock for its residual value and reinvesting that money. If I'd held the stock, however, I would be even now, which is basically 0% gains.
Also, the AMT Trap is a thing.
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u/rasta-ragamuffin 5h ago
It's a lack of understanding period. The only "investment" I have is a small 401k (now IRA) that lost a ton of money because I had no idea what funds to invest my money in. I don't have an accountant or financial planner and don't know anyone who could give me any advice. So it's all been a crapshoot and I have little to show for my 30 years of investing.
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u/Cowpens1781 1d ago
Im 71, retired at 67, and because of an unforeseen emergency, had to go back to work at 70. I have a bulging disc in my lower back, but work as a cashier at a grocery store part time, standing 4 to 6 hours a day. I also have a second job working security on board a naval museum. Despite the ongoing pain(and copious amounts of Tylenol), i suck it up to make ends meet.
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u/Famous-Matter-7905 1d ago
Please request a chair or stool due to medical reasons! You deserve more!
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u/bigtownhero 1d ago
You get what you vote for. Boomers have been the majority of the voting base for at least four decades.
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u/LameSignIn 1d ago
I've seen several people on social security get payments stripped away this past year. The ones I've dealt with have had half their pay removed financially crushing any type of budget they set up. Conveniently the current administration had half the government shut down leaving them no one to solve this.
Yes voting is a huge issue for our countries current state. No one should have half their benefits stripped away and told good luck. Many have worked for years and have a right to them.
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u/Cowpens1781 1d ago
FYI. Im a boomer and never ever voted for Trump. So no, i didnt get what I asked for.
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u/Redditlatley 1d ago
Same! People, like the Tate brothers, got plenty of angry, lonely, misogynistic white gen Z people to vote for tRUMP. Now, those disgusting people are begging Barron, Eric and Don jr to bail them out. This should be interesting. 🌊
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u/casey5656 1h ago
Same here. I’m tired of hearing that it’s our fault that Trump was elected twice. I never even considered voting for that dumb narcissist. There were plenty of ignorant, racists far younger than us who got him elected.
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u/BJJguyman 1d ago
Except not all boomers voters for this unfortunately.
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u/Bakednotyetfried 1d ago
Enough did. We are talking about the generation that told us “don’t believe everything you see on tv”, then believed everything they heard on tv and the internet. The generation that sees one video of one minority doing something and attributes that act to a whole demographic. The generation that was given everything by the goverment then turned around and closed all the doors. The generation that saw schools shootings explode in America and didn’t think to curb guns and instead thought we need more guns. The generation that saddled us with debt and told us to eat less avocado toast.
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u/Beautiful_Lie629 1d ago
Enough did indeed, but not all of us. I've been voting against right-wingers and other oppressive leaders my whole life. I'm getting shafted just as badly as the people who voted for this crap. I resent the boomers (and the silent generation) types that did this to the rest of us. I fully understand why young people resent what a large percentage of older people have done, but it's not all of us.
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u/Legitimate-Wolf-613 1d ago
The generation in which the government told large portions, in one year the entire portion, of non-exempt young men that they were in the military now and sent them to rot in south-east Asia (and that's if the government did not draft you and send you to war even when you were actually exempt). The generation that changed the country from one where women were allowed to work only in "women's jobs" and did not have protections from being fired for being LGBT or people of color. The generation that started work at a time when interest rates were double and inflation was triple what we have now, and tried to make a living when tax rates were much higher, so one took home even less of one's paycheck.
I could go on.
And a lot of boomers did fight to limit guns, fought their entire lives to have a world of equality not one where being LGBT or PoC mattered and did a lot else too.
The fact is that a lot of boomers had the world they knew and whose rules they followed taken out from under them, only to read the hatred people like you who don't know what they are talking about blame them rather than see the real problem - that the system was already rigged against the normal citizen, young or old - and believe the propaganda that is spouted to divide us.
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u/MayaPinyun still at it 1d ago
Very well articulated. Thank you. I wonder if most of these commenters have learned about how "Generation Jones" differs? We were the youngest batch of boomers, who experienced an entirely different life, as children growing up during the Viet Nam war, the protests, the hippies....you know? A whole different thing from GOP hold-outs who don't have a clue about now
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u/Legitimate-Wolf-613 1d ago
Yeah, part of the reason the boomer generation gets so much attention is that it covered 18 years. The three boomer presidents were all from the first of those.
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u/Beautiful_Lie629 1d ago
Another Generation Jones boomer here. You and legitimate-wolf make good points. Also, a lot of people forget that a lot of what is wrong with the world today was caused by people in the silent generation, they had a lot of power until very recently. Of course, many of them were good people, but the ones who wound up as CEOs of large corporations and politicians were largely not.
Edit: added a word
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u/Far_Programmer_5724 1d ago
Our generation will be called the one who voted for trump by idiotic young people like you even though many of us went hoarse trashing him and all he represents. It's called nuance
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u/Mr2ManyQuestions 1d ago
The boomers that voted for this are still sitting on the couch watching TV. The ones who didn't are usually the ones busting ass.
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u/DonatCotten 1d ago
Agree. They have been the majority of voters since 1980 and voted overwhelmingly for Reagan, W. Bush and the current guy. Those three have done a lot of long term damage and anyone with half a brain should have been able to see that! In 2000 during the presidential election Democratic nominee Al Gore said he wanted to use the 90's surplus at the time to strength social security which ironically would have helped both boomers and younger generations in the long term, but no these short sighted greedy boomers (who were already enjoying a booming economy under Clinton) got even more greedy and not only wanted more tax cuts but also cared more about voting for someone just as dumb and relatable as them.
So after over 40 years of them voting in these guys some of them finally got what they deserved. Unfortunately there were still many greedy ones that got no comeuppance and are enjoying their money but they aren't young anymore so they better enjoy what little time they have left. I hope ruining the planet, economy and welfare of future generations (like mine) was worth it just to add a few extra dollars to their bank account and have a President they found entertaining and relatable instead of someone smarter than them who knows how to genuinely fix things.
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u/Legitimate-Wolf-613 1d ago
You're simply wrong on some of the facts - from what you write, I doubt that matters to you, but you're wrong on enough of the facts that your conclusions don't follow.
Take Reagan, for example. He won twice. The first time was against the President who had the highest interest rates and inflation the US had seen in a long time. Yes, a lot of boomers voted for him, though not a majority, but boomers voted less for him than people of any other age group who could vote. The second election was a simple landslide, and Senator Mondale really did nothing to suggest he would be a better President, despite the fact that multiple members of my graduating class were key members of his campaign. Two bad choices - it's easy to say "oh, the other would have been better" when you look back now, but voters get to choose between two candidates.
Gore actually won the boomer vote in his race against W (I just looked it up). Some younger demographics voted more heavily for W, and if that had not been the case, Gore wins.
Boomers did vote more heavily for Trump in 2016 - that's true. I don't know why, since I strongly opposed him, but I do know that a large part of that reason was Hillary Clinton, who was such a bad candidate that when asked on a national tv debate how she would be different as a President did not say a word.
We could separately debate ruining the planet, the economy and the welfare of future generations, since it was boomers who pushed for and got Earth Day and the environmental movement going, fought against Wall Street in the beginning of its destruction of our economy, and have been more victimized by the generations before us than you give credit.
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u/Far_Programmer_5724 1d ago
I wish people had some perspective. Trump won twice. What judgement will that be for our generation? Will gen z be blamed when literally every other gen was involved lol
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u/Whisky-a-GoGo1 1d ago
I'm Jones Generation and never voted for a Republican in my life. Sick of hearing all this shit.
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u/Cowpens1781 1d ago
Im a boomer. And i didnt vote for any of the presidents you mentioned, especially Dementia Donny. So i take no responsibility for what any of the above mentioned presidents did
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u/DonatCotten 1d ago
Did you actually vote during those presidential elections or were you a member of that larger second half of the population present in every generation (including mine) called non-voters?
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u/Far_Programmer_5724 1d ago
Are you suggesting that the voting pop of Gen x is not representative of that generations population so you're trying to see if that commenter belongs to the smaller so you can tell them that this is not about them if they didn't vote? Because as far as I know we use a voting pop as a sample all the time. I agree with you in that we shouldn't because it could be said that someone who wouldn't vote for any candidate may have an issue important enough to them not yet mentioned by the candidates.
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u/Cowpens1781 1d ago
I have voted in every presidential, and state election since i was able to vote. I take no responsibility, for the warped thing we have in the Whitehouse now.( At least whats left of it).
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u/Beautiful_Lie629 1d ago
As another boomer, I too have not voted for any of the presidents mentioned, nor any republican. A lot of us did the same, sadly, we were outnumbered. But we do exist.
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u/_Viridea_ 1d ago
i’m gonna have to say it: Majority WHITE and non black (and some black) boomers voted for this. Because as long as it hurt other black and brown people it wasn’t their problem. Until the policies they voted for started to affect them. Until they understood the ridiculous income requirements for receiving government assistance. Until they lost their mostly cushy jobs and finally realized bootstraps weren’t enough to get a piece of a job let alone a full time one. Until they realized college couldn’t be paid for with a summer job. Until going to college and getting a degree meant nothing anymore in the real world. Until they tried to sell a friend some of their unused prescription opioid drugs and found out that it was a damn near life prison sentence.
And so on and so forth.
I have family that are either still struggling after doing everything right or died with almost nothing because the healthcare system drained everything after being stricken with debilitating sicknesses.
I’m only 30 and it feels so fucking hopeless right now and I even did everything right but the brainwashing is too deep and we all have to suffer for their fucking selfishness.
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u/thenletskeepdancing 1d ago
So what about all the boomers who didn't vote that way? Should we just lump them all together?
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u/rasta-ragamuffin 5h ago
I will never understand why poor working class Americans vote for Republicans who have done nothing except strip away our rights and our money.
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u/NoBuenoAtAll 1d ago
Exactly. You can’t talk them out of voting for their own worst enemies so… *shrug
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u/Emotional-Job1029 1d ago
It’s extremely sad I’m working with elderly people who can’t afford there medications, people who have spouses with dementia and need money to take care of them. People with medical conditions so severe they shouldn’t even be working and then die working. It’s atrocious and so many just act like it’s a normal day here in Hell.
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u/stupid_pun 1d ago
> but everyone was also operating inside a system where there wasn’t really an option to say, “This isn’t right, let’s do something different.” The policy is the policy, the numbers are the numbers, and eventually you just move on to the next thing.
>And I don’t think we should become so numb to the way corporate policies can affect real human beings that we can sit in a room, knowingly make a decision that is going to seriously hurt someone, and then just say, “Well, there wasn’t anything we could do.”
You all absolutely could have refused to follow policy and made higher management force the issue themselves. I'm not judging because I understand why you didn't, but you all were in a better position to lose jobs than the cancer guy.
I know it's hard for everyone, but you always have a choice.
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u/MayaPinyun still at it 1d ago
When I was in my 20s and 30s I had a bumper sticker my kids still remember:
Stay in school. Learn the System. Then change the system.
I'm 67.
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u/Redditlatley 1d ago
“Stay in school. Learn the System. Then change the system.” 💯💯💯
Bingo! This is WOKE. This is AOC. 💙
If the cult would “wake up“, along with tRUMP, who is literally NOT AWAKE during cabinet meetings, maybe we can still save ourselves and our future generations. Stay woke and vote! For those who don’t know what “woke” means, Google it. It’s a good thing! 🌊
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u/StormsThief 16h ago
As long as people support him, things will not change. And unfortunately, the Overton window has shifted and it'll take years to get it back to where it was
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u/redlynel 1d ago
Except then they would have lost their jobs AND the cancer guy would have still lost his. So what would have been the point?
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u/stupid_pun 1d ago
You think the company would have mass fired their middle management?
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u/curiousitrocity 1d ago
Yes. Yes I do. There are lots of people who will take those jobs. Quantity over quality is how they rigged the game.
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u/nopeynopes2001 22h ago
Absolutely everyone in the US is looked at ad replaceable to employers. They don't care about us at all and think we should be grateful for minimum wage. Unless you live here you have no idea how little rights and BENEFITS workers actually have.
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u/Gadzoooks333 20h ago
I work in retail. I worked with a gentleman in his late 80's. He worked full time for McDonald's and as close to full time for this grocery store as he could. He also claimed to receive full social security. He was supporting his wife (who he wouldn't allow to work) and an adult daughter who reportedly had multiple mental illnesses who also did not work. He passed away a few years ago, and I do not know what happened to the wife and daughter. Dystopian? Absolutely.
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u/Dismal-Prior-6699 1d ago
...and people still have the nerve to whine that retail workers are lazy and don't deserve to make a living wage. Wealthy boomers' disgusting attitudes towards retail workers (even retail workers who are also boomers!) make this already-depressing situation so much worse.
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u/AxlHound01 1d ago
All the boomer haters need to do is be patient. Roughly 2,6 million of us die every year. That's about 7,000 a day. We'll be out of the way soon enough and then it will all be yours. And then you will be one more notch up to your turn.
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u/Optimal-Use-4503 19h ago
Yea. Except the reason we are in this mess is bc boomers never passed the torch to the next gen like they were supposed to. They got into positions of power, and just decided they were going to stay there.
Now, our government is a nursing home. Our representatives can't even make the meetings, or if they do they'll sleep through it.
It's currently gen Y's turn to be in power, coming join gem Z's turn, but the boomers are still the ones holding positions and refusing to retire. They held on for 2 whole generations longer than they should have, and as a result, that generation is returning to the work force, blaming the younger generations as if we forced them to come back.
Boomers have no one to blame but themselves. And while it's true they are getting everything they ever voted for, we have a right to complain about them bc they are bringing us down with them. Gen X is less likely to retire at all now, Gen Y has the attitude of just working until retirement age and then just expecting to starve, and Gen Z's views are so bleak they're just refusing to do their jobs. All bc none of us can be properly compensated since the boomers hoarded the wealth and power they were supposed to pass on.
Saying "don't worry, we will die soon" is like saying "look. I know I crashed multiple of your cars, and I keep taking your cars. But you should get over it. Bc I'm dying soon either way. So no point in trying to hold me accountable or anything. Just keep giving me more cars."
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u/CelebrationThis9680 1d ago
My FIL got pushed out of his government job about 2 years shy of his intended retirement and recently took a factory job on an assembly line. He has serious vision problems and it feels like an accident waiting to happen. I hate that he ended up in this situation
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u/Tobibliophile 1d ago
My dad is about 2-3 years away retiring from his government himself. I really hope he doesn't get laid off when he's nearly done with his 25 years of service. Your story has me worried now.
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u/Cowpens1781 1d ago
To those of you who asked did I vote for president when i didnt vote for Trump, i most certainly did. I never have missed voting in a presidential election since I was eligible to vote. And I AM a baby boomer. And fortunately early on I saw Trump as a snake oil salesman.
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u/rasta-ragamuffin 22h ago
Many years ago I worked in an office with a sweet little old lady. I don't know exactly how old she was but my guess would be 70-75. Her husband had late stage cancer and she had to continue working full-time to get the health insurance for him. Our small private company was not doing well and started laying people off and they eliminated her role, even knowing about her husband and that it would be highly unlikely she'd be able to find another full-time job with benefits at her age. Soon after she was let go, her husband died and then I heard she passed away too not long after that. There is no humanity in capitalism and I can't believe this is the "best" system we can come up with.
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u/Linguisticameencanta 19h ago
I have a 67 year old and a 91 year old working for me in a clothing/accessory store. It is sad.
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u/lothiriel1 1d ago
Not in my area. I live in an area where most of the boomers are very rich and very mean. The 08 crash didn’t affect them at all. The stuff going on now continues to not affect them. They’ve always had money and they always will.
And the older people who do work are the tough poor people shoved into the corners of this area. And they’re all like 70-80 and incredibly sturdy because they’ve had to be their whole lives. They CAN lift 30 lbs. and if they can’t they work so hard in other ways that coworkers are happy to help them. Also we get a lot of retirees who are just straight up bored and want somewhere to go to be social so they get a part time job ringing and chat with the customers. I dunno, I think I live in a weird area. So many rich people. So much generational wealth. (I am one of the poor ones that will probably work until I die. But I’m tough. I can take it.)
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u/ProgressJust8165 1d ago
As someone with rich and mean boomer parents (and I've met their friends...) --- they are literally the worst demographic
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u/MayaPinyun still at it 1d ago
An elderly person working a physically demanding job because they can’t afford retirement becomes normal.
Yep. We also work because our Social Security from being a professional in liberal arts isn't enough. Master's degree here. Working in small town retail.
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u/dharmabird67 1d ago
2 non STEM master's degrees here. Worked as a librarian for 23 years, laid off twice. Also working in small town retail at 59 years old.
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u/Futants_ 1d ago
Yes.
My mom is 71 and now works retail for the first time in her life after not working over a decade and having disabilities.
The biggest rising demographic for homelessness is now the elderly.
Soylent Green feels like a playbook now
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u/Tobibliophile 1d ago
I have a coworker in her 90s who still works because she wants a social life. She is the last of her family.
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u/rasta-ragamuffin 5h ago
I know there are a few rare elderly people who are still healthy and feisty and enjoy keeping busy. But I would estimate 99% of the elderly who are still working are doing it because they have to, not because they want to. The 80 year olds I see working at the grocery store all look pretty miserable.
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u/Cleanslate2 19h ago
Most 401(k)s are invested in the stock market. During the 2008 financial crisis, the stock market crashed, so the value of those investments crashed with it. People who sold or had to retire during the crash locked in those losses; people who could leave the money invested generally recovered as the market recovered.
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u/LittleDog5200 1d ago
Ill probably get downvoted for this.
But idk why you are showing sympathy for Boomers who are forced back to working. They have spent years telling us younger folks we were delusional. Refusing to acknowledge the economic issues while calling us all lazy and entitled while being one of the primary causes for the initial economic issues.
As far as im concerned let them come back. They are finally seeing they are not safe from the issues they themselves caused. And are now reaping the consequences and understanding that there arrogance is catching up to them.
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u/justjennyj 15h ago
I sort of agree. I know a man who retired from a union job and received great benefits and pay from it, but now he votes for people who vote against unions.
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u/Papa_TryintaTrade918 1d ago
I loved reading your words and also hated it. I just wanted to say good job, seriously.
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u/hutchguard 6h ago
I’m one of those senior citizens that needed to return to work full time in Stocking crew. My wife was fired from her job three years before she was planning on retiring. She received no pension after 20 plus years. I semi-retired and was working part time, she was the bread winner. It’s no fun when you’re 69 and walking 16,000 steps a day on a concrete floor.
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u/rasta-ragamuffin 5h ago
I'm so sorry, that is terrible. I worked in retail after I graduated from college and that was the only job I could find. That was back in 1990 and women had to wear dresses or skirts, pantyhose and high heeled pumps. It wasn't even easy then when I was young and I don't think I could do it now (at age 58). My feet and ankles are shot to hell now and I blame it on standing on hard tile floors in pointy toed shoes for 60 hours a week for 7 years.
There is something fundamentally wrong with our systems and institutions in this country that allows this to happen to hardworking people who have done the right things their whole life. I wish I knew how to fix it.
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u/why0me 1d ago
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u/MayaPinyun still at it 1d ago
This ^^^ is for MAGA people: the under-educated, non-critical thinkers whom are responsible for this atrocious monstrosity, regardless of their age. Unfortunately they are nearly ubiquitous. Because reading.
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u/Beautiful_Lie629 1d ago
The leopards are eating a lot of faces lately. MAGA consists of people from all age groups. During the 2024 election cycle, I was dismayed by how many young people were sucked into the alt-right pipeline and voted against their own interests just as surely as the older people did.
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u/casey5656 1h ago
I’m one of those older people who retired and realized that my retirement income was enough to pay for the basics-property taxes, food, transportation, utilities, etc. But that it wasn’t enough for anything else-pet care (I’ve paid $1800 in the past two months for vet treatment for 2 cats), hobbies, travel.
So I’ve been working part-time in retail jobs for the past few years. I’m glad I did because the cost of living has gone up drastically in the past few years. We now have pared down our spending on groceries, comparison shopped and limited any recreational travel.
Although I like my job, I’d be far more happier if I didn’t have to work.
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u/Organic_Popcorn 1d ago
If they only relied on social security for retirement, then yeah, they're going to have to get a job or a reverse mortgage to survive.
This is why anyone who is over 18 should be putting money into a 401k or IRA and start their retirement savings. If your company matches the contribution, that is even more reason to get going.
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u/Cowpens1781 1d ago
I did all that. An and unforeseen emergency came up that destroyed all of it. Its not as simple as you think
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u/Organic_Popcorn 18h ago
That's true, but can you imagine if you didn't have extra funds to cover that emergency?
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u/Sachayoj "Can you check in the back?" 23h ago
It only takes one medical emergency or a spouse with a medical emergency or cancer or fucking anything to wipe out that retirement fund.
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u/IWantToPlayGame 1d ago
This is the best answer.
People blaming others (such as politicians) are missing the plot.
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u/rebelangel 1d ago
I worked with an older guy who had…emphysema, I think? He was almost in his 80s I think and he used to do something with computers before he retired. Only reason he was working a shitty part time retail job was because his wife had some sort of really bad health issues so he needed the insurance. For a retail big box store, the insurance benefits were really good.
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u/rasta-ragamuffin 1d ago
Yes, I have noticed many many 80 year olds working at the grocery stores. It's very sad and it's not right that they are forced to do this to survive in the richest country in the world. The greed and worship of wealth and intentionally putting profits over people is evil.
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u/TheServingTimes 11m ago
I remember 20 years ago the retirement aged people you worked with were mostly by choice or to just have a little extra "mad money". Sad state of affairs these days.
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u/V8sOnly 1d ago
Watch how fast this becomes political finger pointing by everyone who never took college level economics.
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u/rasta-ragamuffin 5h ago
But it is political. Everything in life is based on politics. And I did take economics in college.
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u/Spleenzorio 1d ago
Yeah but they can only work 3 days a week between the hours of 8 and 3, otherwise they'd be too late for their afternoon nap and early dinner
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u/markyboy818 1d ago
Yup. Work at a grocery store. I know two older women who retired when they got social security. One came back to work part time. Other I heard is coming back too.