Retirement unlikely for some blue-collar Americans

[Omaha Steve]

http://apnews.excite.com/article/20140101/DAB1MS200.html

By EMILY WAGSTER PETTUS

Tom Edwards grew up in a family that's been cutting trees and hauling timber in the Pacific Northwest for more than a century. The Spanaway, Wash., resident says he has worked as a logger since he was a kid - it's just what an able-bodied youngster was expected to do.

Now, at 53, with business in a slump and little money in savings, he's pessimistic about his chances of retiring.


Tom Edwards poses for a portrait with his chain saw and logging clothes, Thursday, Dec. 19, 2013 in the woods near Spanaway, Wash. Edwards was not cutting trees the day the photo was taken, and work has been slow this season for him. Despite working as a logger all his life, he is pessimistic about his chances of ever retiring, an opinion common among blue-collar baby boomers in the U.S. (AP Photo/Ted S. Warren)


"It's never going to happen. By the time I reach retirement age, there won't be Social Security. There's not going to be any money," Edwards said. "I'll do like my father did: I'll work 'til I die."

Across the U.S., such concerns are common among blue-collar baby boomers - the 78 million Americans born between 1946 and 1964. Many have jobs that provide paltry pensions or none at all, as many companies have been moving toward less generous retirement packages in the past decade.

FULL story at link.

[NBachers]

1. Drop dead at work, that's what I say. Then there's someone around to deal with it.

[Sherman A1]

4. That happened to a co-worker

many years ago when he dropped dead at work as a grocery store checker. It wasn't exactly the most pleasant day at work for any of us.

[cap]

2. Not everyone drops dead at the job

Many people just get too sick or frail.
These folks are at the mercy of their children.
Or they are on the streets.

[kickysnana]

3. These labels have no meaning in America's economic and social structure...

They are instead:

1% the vampires
People who cater to the 1% including politicians, handlers, media etc. Endless job security due to no laws regulating all this wasted money. Insurance companies, bankers, stock and commodities brokers.Where it comes from or where it goes.
Health Care, some job security interference and wage shift to Insurance Companies.
Government workers, some job security
Middle management no job security
Academia, no job security

The ones below have a great chance of never having retirement, home ownership, children that will be anything but debt slaves after financing training and our still life crushing, asset robbing, health care system.

Small business owners no job security
Mom and pop stuff, no job security
Technical no job security
Farmers never really had job security
Drug dealer more job security than some
Labor no job security
Other Criminal incarcerated off and on (maybe better than dead)
Dead.