The Importance of Caring for Seniors in the USA
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| Also listed in: Save Our Planet | 2008 Presidential Blog | Citizens Concerned for the Welfare of the Elderly in the USA | Election Reform | Organized Labor |
One of the most important issues facing citizens in the United States pertains to a demographic trend: the population in the United States is aging. In the near future, many members of the "Baby Boom" generation will enter their retirement years. The care accorded to senior citizens will become an increasingly significant issue!
Unfortunately, one of the most serious failures of recent administrations in my opinion has been the shabby treatment afforded to many retiring workers with respect to the security of their pensions. While we read news accounts of corporate "golden parachutes" providing significant income for departing CEOs, less fortunate retirees have sometimes discovered that their employers have not met their responsibilities to contribute to employee pension funds. Many of these retirees worked for decades under the impression that they would be well taken care of financially during their old age because pension assurances had been made to them. Now some of them face a bleak future.
This situation is tragic. It will impact our society in the United States for years.
Many working people in retirement must exist on substantially reduced incomes as a result of the failure of our bankruptcy court system and the leaders in Washington D.C. to require employing companies to honor pension fund promises owed to an aging work force. This financial situation is NOT the fault of the retiring workers or their unions.
Recent pension fund issues pertaining to company bankruptcies deserves attention as an election year issue. I hope Democratic voters will consider this subject and that Congress will take steps to insure that retiring blue collar and lower and middle eschelon executives are treated fairly with respect to the pensions they earned. Why should these people be forced to retire with incomes that are literally a fraction of what they were initially promised while corporate board members and CEOs retire with generous bonuses and the employing entities simply file for bankruptcy? The situation is scandalous.
The Democratic Party for many years respected the welfare of workers and their families. A more compassionate focus needs to return to this issue in my view.
(Please feel free to post comments after this post if the pension fund situation strikes you also as an important issue! I also urge you to consider joining the group "Citizens Concerned for the Welfare of the Elderly in the USA)
Unfortunately, one of the most serious failures of recent administrations in my opinion has been the shabby treatment afforded to many retiring workers with respect to the security of their pensions. While we read news accounts of corporate "golden parachutes" providing significant income for departing CEOs, less fortunate retirees have sometimes discovered that their employers have not met their responsibilities to contribute to employee pension funds. Many of these retirees worked for decades under the impression that they would be well taken care of financially during their old age because pension assurances had been made to them. Now some of them face a bleak future.
This situation is tragic. It will impact our society in the United States for years.
Many working people in retirement must exist on substantially reduced incomes as a result of the failure of our bankruptcy court system and the leaders in Washington D.C. to require employing companies to honor pension fund promises owed to an aging work force. This financial situation is NOT the fault of the retiring workers or their unions.
Recent pension fund issues pertaining to company bankruptcies deserves attention as an election year issue. I hope Democratic voters will consider this subject and that Congress will take steps to insure that retiring blue collar and lower and middle eschelon executives are treated fairly with respect to the pensions they earned. Why should these people be forced to retire with incomes that are literally a fraction of what they were initially promised while corporate board members and CEOs retire with generous bonuses and the employing entities simply file for bankruptcy? The situation is scandalous.
The Democratic Party for many years respected the welfare of workers and their families. A more compassionate focus needs to return to this issue in my view.
(Please feel free to post comments after this post if the pension fund situation strikes you also as an important issue! I also urge you to consider joining the group "Citizens Concerned for the Welfare of the Elderly in the USA)
A disproportionate number of the primary jobs currently held by retiring baby-boomers will either be illiminated, off-shored or downgraded. American commerce and industry is not being led by manufacturing or any other primary industry, but by cut-rate, low-wage, no-benefits, destroyers of small-business outfits like Wal-Mart.
We need to pay attention to the plight of reitrees. There just won't be the number and size of incomes in the coming decades to keep Social Security and medicare out of the red.
A few years ago I took at trip to Japan and I was fascinated by the way they accommodated this cultural change (which was also affecting them, BTW): they built senior homes and elementary schools & daycare centers together. This way the elderly were constantly interacting with the kids and they were also helping to do a job that was needed. All this ended up having a very positive effect on the senior's quality of life, health, and longevity.
Danielle Clarke
Link
The first step of making it your own is defining what "it" is. (required)
Eldercare by students seeking credits and free housing as seniors get free companion help.
I am a homeless vietnam veteran. I found places to live by using craiglists online. I have been volunteering as a caregiver / companion to the elderly. I know i am unlike many my age. I know many youth have clean records and are in school and seek to get ahead. I know that if i could work with a local college to get teachers to support a program where college students were matched with seniors needing simple help it could save millions of seniors from having to resort to hiring people at high cost or hiring people with unkown responsibility backgrounds where the senior gets robbed or abused. Students to me to seem to be the best to get this sharing partnership going.
Getting together with those in your community (whether it's a few blocks, a city or town, a group or an online network) and discussing the issues you care about as a group are essential to making it your own. (required)
In my community like many communities across america there are many students needing cheap or free housing due to the high price of college education. Also there are many seniors all across the usa who need simple help. These students could get credits for helping, while at the same time be able to reduce their overhead. The seniors will learn from the youth about many new energy saving techniques. They both will learn and share in utilizing a building that would normally be heated by only one senior can now be heated and cooled to help one of more students. This will save our country lots of energy.
It really all comes down to having a plan. What's yours? (required)
I want to be able to go to colleges and senior groups and bring about this simple proposal. I just need help and guidance in doing so. I need legal help and professional help.
I have a simple mental disability and i know most people won't listen to me. However, i have been able to survive myself for many years by offering my own services for free in exchange for food and housing.
We want to know about you. (required)
As i said earlier i am a disabled vietnam veteran who is homeless. I receive a small VA pension. Most of it goes to my two children for their college educations. I have to help them over myself. This leaves me with no way but to live free at anothers home for helping and getting food and a place to lay my head at night. I also know many are unlike me. many homeless veterans have drug and alcohol problems. I feel students are best suited, as a larger group, who have a good history and have no negatives yet need help themselves.
Summary
Project Name (required)
Student Senior Share
Sentence (required)
Students matched with seniors to care and share food shelter and transportation.
Paragraph (required)
Students matched to a local senior in need who will share time, food, shopping, housing and transportation to be able to reduce waste of energy and valuable basic needs, while at the same time offering simple companionship and safety for one another.
Etc
Gender (required)
Female
Age Range (required)
45-54