Elizabeth White (11)

I have no idea how this came to be one of my holds at the library. But it was. Perhaps it was some kind of reading group book, and I wanted to follow along, even though I'm not in any reading groups. Oh well....

So, anyway, Elizabeth White is dealing with a problem that many aging baby boomers are facing. Through out the 1980s and 1990s they were establishing themselves in what seemed to be good paying and stable jobs. But then they found themselves in the 21st century having been laid off some 10 to 15 years from retirement age, and not being able to find a job similar to the one they'd lost. Age discrimination, beginning in one's 50s, if not late 40s, is a real problem, but no one is doing much about it.

Then too, the nature of retirement support has changed. In olden days, people had careers that involved a decent pension when one retired. The pension would also be supplemented by Social Security. Pensions are all but a thing of the past, and many jobs don't contribute much to Social Security, if at all. One is supposed to do all the saving oneself. Well, there's the 401K, which is supposed to solve the lack-of-pension problem. But, it turns out that 401Ks only worked for a small minority of workers. One problem being that the workers didn't know how to manage them properly, or else the companies had hooked up with sketchy outfits to manage their workers' 401Ks.

I know 401Ks and their ilk from both sides. The one at the company where I worked for 32 years was pretty good and the powers that be had partnered with companies who were decent stewards of our funds. So, I came out ok with that one. After I stopped working, I took up being an adjunct professor at a local community college for two years. They required that some fraction of my meager earnings (my pay was equivalent to that of the school crossing guards in my town) be set aside for my "retirement". The problem with that was that the crooks who were "investing" my retirement savings charged such high fees that I was actually earning negative interest on my "nest egg". I'd have been better off had the college provided mattresses under which the adjuncts could deposit their retirement set asides.

Anyway, the point of the book is that there's a whole host of mature people who can't find jobs to pay their bills or fund their eventual retirement. So what to do?

This book is set up for a group discussion. Each chapter covers a topic of some sorts. Then at the end, there are a set of discussion questions or points. The idea is to read this book in concert with a group of other, similarly situated people. They make up what the author calls one's resilience circle.

This book didn't do a whole lot for me, in part because I don't fit the demographic. Yes, I did observe the reality of age discrimination by the time I hit 50 or 55. But, no, when my job ended I wasn't left without means to put food on my table and pay the utility bills. Also, this book appears to be aimed much more toward women than men. I don't fit that demographic either.

Then too, I kept having the problem that all those baby boomers, who suddenly found themselves in trouble, were somewhat responsible for their own problems. The generation that shut down the Vietnam War and preached peace and love, shifted to a self-centered generation that voted to support the fraudulent "trickle down" economics and Ayn Randian disdain for those less well off than themselves. And now those votes have come back to bite them in the butt.

Even so, I suppose this book might be of some use to those who did find themselves rather screwed at age 55 or so. It offers lots of ideas in an number of areas, housing, income supplementation, and so forth.

… (més)

Elizabeth White found herself where many of are or will be. That is ageing in a society where we are essentially put out to pasture starting in our fifties with very few options and paths to get by. This book deals with these issues that are or will be confronting many of us.

A large portion of the book is a rehashing of the difficulties many face and there situations and commentary regarding it. So a redundancy of the horror stories tends to dominate and lead to endless commiserating. To be sure the picture in reality is pretty grim and should frighten anyone facing the same scenarios.

White provides numerous resources and websites to explore that should help in taking on this challenge yet the conclusion really is there are no easy solutions just some alternatives and a lot of adjustment.… (més)