And here is the final nail in the coffin of my mother’s retirement independence: Social Security is in the red.
PBS reports that the Social Security surplus, once considered safe for a generation, now may disappear in two years, next year … or may already have vanished. According to Treasury’s website, we tipped over into deficit spending of SocSec in February of this year.
Unlike Sharon Jasper, who’s spent her entire life on the dole to one extent or another, and enjoys the time and good health to attend – or organize? – protests against any attempt to cut “her” government benefits, my mother has worked a full time job her entire adult life. And now has nothing to show for it. She had a heart attack and went back to work as soon as she was able. She had two hip replacements and slogged through those surgeries and recoveries, and went back to work as soon as she was able. And all that time, she was working to support herself and be independent, both now and in the future. When the time was right, she expected to enjoy a modest retirement, maybe travel a bit and see family, do some crafts… whatever she felt like. Hasn’t she earned it?
But the personal retirement fund she painstakingly put aside has been eaten up by the stock market decreases, and now – having paid into Social Security her whole life, as have my brother and I – she’s unlikely to redeem much of those payments either. After a lifetime of living responsibly, now she won’t even be able to afford independence.
So. Mom’s eventually going to have to move in, and it won’t be quite as cozy and wonderful as that sanctimonious idiot Jamie Lee Curtis proclaims it will be.
What this crisis is going to do is bring us into financial alignment. Families may have to live together again! What a concept. Grandparents will live with their grown children and help raise their grandchildren — even at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.
Jamie Lee’s house is probably at or near 10,000 square feet. She’s got plenty of room to pack in a few generations. If we’d gotten a McMansion and then weaseled out of having to pay for it, then we’d have as much room as we needed, but sadly, we chose to live within our means. My house is about 1100 square feet. On the other hand, maybe Jamie Lee will let us all move in with her. Or at least pitch in for a home remodel so my mother can have some living space of her own. After all, she thinks it’s the right thing to do. Doesn’t she?
As we head out of the darkness of the Bush and into the promise of a new day that Barack Obama has offered us, remember, “we” exist. “We” can help each other, ” we ” can lead our governments, businesses and institutions to change. ” We” can do it. ” We” can reach out, spare the dime, dollar, meal, roof.
Yeah. That’s going to happen.
I can rip out the counters and shelves and convert my office back to a bedroom. We’ll figure out how to deal with the fact that she’s a smoker and we’re not. I love my mother (and thankfully so does my husband) and we’ll do what it takes to make sure she has what she needs in a couple of years when it’s time to retire. I’m sure that my brother will do what he’s able to do as well.
But the fact that we’re going to be required to, after ALL of us have practiced personal responsibility and taken measures to prevent this, is infuriating.
And lest you think I just blame Obama for this – I don’t. This is 40 years of crap from both parties.
