Ed,
There was Special on this on BBC Newsnight last night. During a discussion
of the 1930s Depression what I found particularly interesting were comments
by a couple of historians that in the US the Depression had enormous
political effects (against the bankers and the right-wing) but that this
took 18 months even before it began to express itself fully. What has
surprised me greatly about the present one (at least over here -- and,
similar to the US, we're in a much worse condition than Canada) is that
public criticism of the bankers has been relatively mild so far. It's
understandable therefore that the politicians have done almost nothing so
far about bringing new legislation about and imposing their will on them
(as Roosevelt did in the 1930s against fierce opposition of Congress). But
if the past is any guide, then social and political explosions will follow
shortly! One straw in the wind is that the British National Party over here
(about two-thirds of the way towards the German Nazis of the 1930s) is
already beginning to take off with 20% public support according to a
opinion poll of yesterday.
Keith
At 09:25 24/10/2009 -0400, you wrote:
Thanks for posting, Arthur. Gives a new meaning to the term
"depression". It's not only about the economy but also about how people
struggling to cope feel about things.
Ed
----- Original Message -----
From: <mailto:[email protected]>Arthur Cordell
To: <mailto:[email protected]>[email protected]
Sent: Friday, October 23, 2009 11:01 PM
Subject: [Futurework] 65 and Up and Looking for Work
NY Times
October 24, 2009
65 and Up and Looking for Work
By
<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/g/steven_greenhouse/index.html?inline=nyt-per>STEVEN
GREENHOUSE
It is well known that during the nations gale-force recession, many
older Americans who dreamed of
<http://topics.nytimes.com/your-money/retirement/index.html?inline=nyt-classifier>retirement
continued to work, often because their
<http://topics.nytimes.com/your-money/retirement/401ks-and-similar-plans/index.html?inline=nyt-classifier>401(k)s
had plunged in value.
In fact, there are more Americans 65 and older in the job market today
than at any time in history, 6.6 million, compared with 4.1 million in 2001.
Less well known, though, is that nearly half a million workers 65 and
older want to work but cannot find a job more than five times the level
early this decade and this groups highest unemployment level since
<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/subjects/g/great_depression_1930s/index.html?inline=nyt-classifier>the
Great Depression.
The situation is made more dire because of numerous recent trends: many
people over 65 have lost their jobs as seniority protections have
weakened, and like most other Americans, a higher percentage of them took
on debt than in previous generations.
The expectation once was to pay off your 30-year
<http://topics.nytimes.com/your-money/loans/mortgages/index.html?inline=nyt-classifier>mortgage
before you retired, or come close. Instead, the level of indebtedness
among older Americans has risen faster than in any other age group,
partly because so many obtained second mortgages to take money out of
their homes.
This financial squeeze is one reason
<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/o/barack_obama/index.html?inline=nyt-per>President
Obama has proposed giving a special $250 one-time payment to all
<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/subjects/s/social_security_us/index.html?inline=nyt-classifier>Social
Security recipients.
Many out-of-work older Americans complain that they face foreclosure or
have had to give up their car.
Its a big deal for a lot of these people not to find a job, said David
Certner, legislative policy director for
<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/a/aarp/index.html?inline=nyt-org>AARP.
That so many of them are still trying to find work shows how bad the
economic situation is. A lot of people normally give up at that age.
The unemployment rate for older Americans is still much better than for
others 6.7 percent compared with 9.8 percent in the general population.
But 6.7 percent is more than double the level of two years ago and far
higher than the minuscule 1.9 percent rate early this decade.
And unemployed older workers stay out of work longer 36.5 weeks on
average, 40 percent longer than for the unemployed in general.
Patricia Warmhold, who has worked as a translator and telemarketer, would
love to retire, but at age 67, she says that is out of the question.
Her mortgage payment is nearly $1,500 a month, and her car payments and
<http://topics.nytimes.com/your-money/insurance/auto-insurance/index.html?inline=nyt-classifier>auto
insurance are another $350. She receives $1,071 a month in Social
Security and $918 in pension.
I have very little after the mortgage, she said.
Ms. Warmhold, who speaks German, French and Creole, was laid off a year
ago from her job as an interpreter for a law firm. Ive been looking for
jobs ever since, she said. I applied to Nassau County and Suffolk
County, and they dont call back.
A divorce worsened her financial situation, although her mother, who is
in her 90s, helps by sometimes sending her $100.
In a months time, I sent out 101 job applications, she said, including
more than 50 to school districts, to no avail.
The recession has battered young, middle-aged and old, although several
modern trends have left older workers more vulnerable than in the past
for instance, the shift toward 401(k)s and away from traditional
pensions that give retirees a monthly stipend for life has pressured many
Americans to continue working well past 60.
Another force pushing Americans to delay retirement is that the
percentage of companies that provide health coverage to retirees is half
what it was two decades ago. Moreover, the
<http://www.ssa.gov/retire2/retirechart.htm#chart>age to obtain full
Social Security benefits has increased to at least 66 for people born
after 1942, from its traditional 65.
The median income for those 65 and over was just $18,208 in 2008 a
quarter of them had incomes under $11,139, according to Patrick Purcell,
an expert on older workers and pensions with the Congressional Research
Service.
The average Social Security recipient age 65 and over receives just
$12,437 in annual benefits, he said, and among individuals 65 and older
who received income from financial assets, half received less than $1,542
last year.
While Social Security keeps most seniors above the poverty line, there
are a substantial number near poverty who are just getting by, said
Richard W. Johnson, a senior fellow at the Urban Institute. Many
economists say it is good that Americans are working later in life many
are living longer and able to contribute longer.
Still, many older job seekers insist they are losing out because of age
discrimination. Last year, nearly 25,000 workers filed age discrimination
complaints, a 29 percent jump over 2007, according to the
<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/e/equal_employment_opportunity_commission/index.html?inline=nyt-org>Equal
Employment Opportunity Commission.
I often get told that Im overqualified, said Barbara Brooks, 71, who
retired in 2003 after 30 years as an administrative assistant at the
<http://topics.nytimes.com/topics/reference/timestopics/organizations/u/university_of_california/index.html?inline=nyt-org>University
of California, Los Angeles. She said being told that is code language for
youre too old. But Ms. Brooks said she wanted to work and needed to
citing her monthly mortgage of $1,500, which eats up half her monthly
pension.
I would like to be able to treat myself to a couple of dinners, maybe a
movie, Ms. Brooks said. I think as long as people have excellent
skills, and they can get around like a 40-year-old Ive been told I
look 40 or 50 why shouldnt I work?
For years, unemployment among older Americans was largely ignored because
so few of them were jobless. But now more than a million Americans over
age 60 are unemployed, two-and-a-half times the level two years ago.
And at least jobless workers 65 and over are guaranteed health coverage
through
<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/health/diseasesconditionsandhealthtopics/medicare/index.html?inline=nyt-classifier>Medicare.
Workers laid off before that age often have to fend for themselves to
obtain
<http://topics.nytimes.com/your-money/insurance/health-insurance/index.html?inline=nyt-classifier>health
insurance, which is often prohibitively expensive for those over 60.
One such worker is Michael Husar, 62, a former engineering manager who
spent 38 years with
<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/business/companies/general_motors_corporation/index.html?inline=nyt-org>General
Motors and then its Delphi auto parts spinoff. Mr. Husar, a resident of
Scottsdale, Ariz., retired in 2003 at age 56, but as a result of Delphis
bankruptcy, he now has to purchase his own health insurance. He pays
$1,600 a month, which translates to $19,200 a year.
Despite two engineering degrees, his search for consulting work has come
up empty in recent months.
There are two reasons I feel a need to continue working, he said. One,
I still have a lot to offer, and two, I need the money.
Alicia H. Munnell, director of the Center for Retirement Research at
<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/b/boston_college/index.html?inline=nyt-org>Boston
College, says older workers have fared better by and large than younger
workers in this recession. The percentage of workers ages 25 to 54 with
jobs has fallen to 75 percent, from nearly 80 percent two years ago,
while the percentage of older Americans with jobs has risen slightly, to
16.3 percent.
But that is fewer than the number who want to work.
Patricia Piazza, 66, who worked for
<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/business/companies/chrysler_llc/index.html?inline=nyt-org>Chrysler
for 30 years as an analyst, knows that all too well.
She and her 72-year-old husband, a longtime employee at General Motors
Acceptance Corporation, had planned to retire by now, but she is hunting
for job, and he recently landed one with the local transit system.
Their home in Warren, Mich., has dropped $100,000 in value, Ms. Piazza
said, while their pensions, as former nonunion employees, will be far
less than anticipated because of the auto company bankruptcies.
Chrysler recently took away her
<http://topics.nytimes.com/your-money/insurance/life-and-disability-insurance/index.html?inline=nyt-classifier>life
insurance policy and optical coverage, she said.
Its like the bottom fell out of everything she said. This isnt the
way we planned retirement.
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Keith Hudson, Bath, England, <www.evolutionary-economics.org>,
<<http://www.amazon.com/dp/1906557020/>www.amazon.com/dp/1906557020<http://www.amazon.com/dp/1906557020/>/>,
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