An analysis by the nonpartisan Employee Benefit Research Center ("Study: Many workers' retirement savings will run out too soon," USA Today, July 14, 2010) found that 64 percent of workers earning less than $30,000 a year will run out of money within 10 years of retiring, and that "early" baby boomers, meaning people ages 56 to 62, have a 47 percent likelihood of not having enough money to cover basic retirement costs (i.e., housing, food, and clothing) and will be unable to meet uninsured medical expenses.
If anyone doubts the conclusions of these estimates, the consequences are already becoming apparent in the latest U.S. Department of Labor report ("Workers Over 65 Vie With Teens in Labor Market for First Time Since Truman," Bloomberg.com, July 13, 2010) that announced that for the first time since at least 1948, people over age 65 now outnumber young workers 16-19 by a significant margin. There are currently 6.6 million seniors working or actively seeking work versus only 5.9 million 16-19 year olds. Moreover, the rate of growth in this disparity is increasing rapidly. The two reports when taken together spell a major change in the labor market that will be particularly problematic for places like New York City, which has such a large number of young people, seniors, and people living at or near poverty.
Why should we be alarmed by more and more seniors coming back into the labor market? For at least two reasons. First, many are not coming back voluntarily, but because they cannot afford basic necessities on their fixed incomes; second, because they're often taking low-wage jobs that used to be the first steps into the labor market for young people, particularly those without credentials and who come from poor communities.
This kind of future - where people work right up until death at shitty jobs - is EXACTLY the one the education deformers, the anti-union people and the corporate whore politicians like Bloomberg and Obama want to bring for all but the top 1%.
That's what the ed deform movement is all about - firing as many teachers as you can so you turn over your ENTIRE teaching corps every five years and never have to pay any retirement costs.
Satan Jr. is doing this in D.C. already and Satan himself is licking his lips and twirling his pitchfork getting ready to do this in NYC in the next couple of years with the new teacher evaluations tied to test scores.
And they know they can do this because the Obama administration is now saying unemployment will stay at or above 9% all the way to the end of 2012. And of course those numbers don't count the people who have already dropped out of the job market and stopped looking because there is nothing to be had or the people working fewer hours and crappier jobs just to have some money coming in.
There will be PLENTY of applicants to take the place of fired veteran teachers.
As Rahm Emanuel is fond of saving, never let a crisis go by without using it to your advantage.
The corporate whores in the administration and their corporate overlords in the ed deform world sure are using the current crisis to remake public education into the fast food industry with high turnover rates and disposable employees
As for retirement, watch out for the Catfood Commission Obama put together to look at Social Security "fixes."
It's full of corporate whores like himself who want to privatize Social Security, raise the age to 72 and eventually starve the program out of existence.
Given the loss of pensions for many workers and 401(k) plans that are essentially worthless in a market climate whereby only Whitney Tilson and a few other corporate criminals make money, Social Security will become increasingly important to seniors.
I guess that's why Obama wants to cut your benefits and raise the age.
Nothing better for the corporate overlords than to have an economy where everybody over the age of 40 gets laid off from good paying jobs and is forced to work at Walmart until they die.
It's good for quarterly profits, bonuses and CEO pay.
And what could be more American than paying bonuses to corporate criminals?
Well, I guess firing teachers.
As far as our bogus "union" goes, figure it out.
ReplyDeleteThe UFT gets paid the same rate of dues if the teacher is brand new and making 40K or if the teacher is making 100K. So they don't care what happens overall at all. They just care that there ARE teachers. So the UFT doesn't have to protect anyone's job here. They will get paid no matter what. They don't care if there is a revolving door of new teachers, and if , de facto, there is no longer any tenure . . . cause they are going to get paid anyway, AND they will also reap the benefits of playing ball with the corporatocracy (Mayor Scumberg, Dumbama the screen reader, and the rest)They are taking the easy, corrupt way out because they can. It doesn't make a difference to them.
Anon, I fear you are absolutely right.
ReplyDeleteI agree with every word you said--although saying this brings me no joy. What a lot of people fail to realize is that the corporate whores and criminals are making war on the entire middle class. Vanquish the formerly powerful teachers' unions and it will be a cakewalk with the other unions. Dangerous precedents are being set. A seniority layoff system has historically been basic to most union contracts and to the Civil Service system--which also has it's own version of tenure. We need to make people see that what they're doing to teachers could eventually happen to anyone. Remember Reagan and the air traffic controllers strike. His actions against a relatively small union had ramifications that we are still feeling today.
ReplyDeleteWe ALL really do need to fight back. Admittedly about all we have is our vote and our voice, but we need to do it. I still believe that there is strength in numbers and we all need to go ALL OUT because we are at a crucial, pivotal time. Write or phone your representatives at all government levels. Write to the newspapers and magazines when you see something that pisses you off. Contact other entities that influence decisions--for example, the Democratic National Committee. Sign online petitions from left-leaning groups.I'm sure there are even more possibilities.
Unfortunately, I am. Even if you want to leave the union , you STILL have to pay them! They have a nice racket going. And since this is the racket, they additionally make extra perks and privileges by screwing us as much as the corporatocracy requests of them. And for the elite UFTers like Randi and Mulgrew, who knows how much they get paid off in real dollars and perks?
ReplyDeleteMulgrew must be pinching himself how lucky he is now . . . He must be thinking: "Hmmm, ain't this a great country? Just a few years ago, I was a stupid shop teacher from Brooklyn. NOW, I'm still stupid, but I'm a stupid bald headed pimp who will be in the elite political/union class for a long time! All I have to do is talk with a Brooklyn accent to these other loser working class teachers from the boroughs, keep selling them a complete line of BS, and the years roll by. They will continue to get peeled off, but MY situation just will get better, 'cause now I'm in with Scumberg, Slime, and I can even hang out with Arne and maybe even get autographed pictures with President Dumbama and visit the White House!
And why? Cause they owe me for delivering these expensive teacher jobs w/pensions to them on a silver platter.
As long as I don't lose the TOTAL amount of teachers in the city, as long as Scumberg doesn't start completely AUTOMATING teaching, like teaching the kids through online and distance learning, and video classes, I get to keep this cool job. We get paid the same no matter WHO the fuck is teaching. WE are really gangsta. Isn't that cool?
And by the way, this is an EASY job, 'cause when I lie to them, they are an easy mark, 'cause they don't yell and shout at me, they just stand there and hope against hope, that I'm actuually on their side. They are complete shmucks. Never once have we had to drag any of them out of any of the meetings. They just stand there, and nod, then kvetch to their colleagues after it's over. But that's it. They never give me a hard time."
Sad but true . . . everyone better start to figure out now what they will be doing for a living in 2-3 years, unless something drastically changes here.
If we don't figure out a way to fight these bastards, we will not be working in a coupple of years.
You're right about the war on the middle class, anon. I am thinking about doing a post about that directly. Here is a story from Huffingtonpost about that that is terrifying:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/07/23/disappearing-middle-class_n_656941.html
More change we can believe in, eh?