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Drop Kicking Us Into The Grave

Dear BuzzFlash:

Your headline article “Republican Senator proposes raising retirement age” made me so angry the hair on the back of my neck stood on end.

As I write this letter to you our country is losing manufacturing and tech jobs hand over fist to overseas outsourcing. New high wage jobs are no longer being created in this country and our once robust skilled job market has turned into an unseemly conglomeration of hamburger flipping, oil changing, table waiting service jobs that pay poorly, provide no security and offer little opportunity for advancement.

Now Senator Chuck Hagel, along with many of his Republican counterparts, wants to raise the retirement age to 68 in order to save Social Security. What a stupid idea!

What is wrong with this country’s politicians? Don’t they understand that by forcing seniors to stay in the workforce that they reduce the number of jobs available to younger citizens? And don’t they understand that many older workers are already being forced out of jobs or forced into low paying jobs to make way for the influx of younger workers because there aren’t enough jobs? And don’t they understand that if you’re a middle or low income worker, that putting a couple of percentage points of your pathetic paycheck into a private stock market account won’t provide you with financial security at any age? Hasn’t anyone told the Republicans that 2%, 3% or even 4% of nothing is nothing? And have they forgotten that it was the collapse of the Stock Market that drove the creation of Social Security in the first place? Hell, why don’t they just raise the retirement age to 98, that way they can kick us in the ass and drop us in the grave all at the same time.

It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that you can’t save Social Security when the good jobs that provide the financial resources to the Social Security trust fund are being replaced by service jobs, when the lion's share of this nation's wealth is in the hands of less than 10% of the people and when those in charge of fixing the problem don’t even know what the problem is.

The challenge isn’t about saving Social Security, the challenge is about whether or not Republicans can develop the sense of social conscience required to do it. After hearing Hagel’s solution I’m inclined to think, NOT!

Carolyn in Tennessee

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