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Frank Guinta's Plan to Help the Older Jobless

by: Dean Barker

Tue Sep 21, 2010 at 06:22:14 AM EDT
NYT:
Patricia Reid is not in her 70s, an age when many Americans continue to work. She is not even in her 60s. She is just 57.

But four years after losing her job she cannot, in her darkest moments, escape a nagging thought: she may never work again.

...After other recent downturns, older people who lost jobs fretted about how long it would take to return to the work force and worried that they might never recover their former incomes. But today, because it will take years to absorb the giant pool of unemployed at the economy's recent pace, many of these older people may simply age out of the labor force before their luck changes.

Don't worry.  Frank Guinta has a plan:
When it comes to reforming Social Security and other programs, he would consider creating personal accounts and increasing the retirement age.

"Everything has to be on the table," said Guinta.

For Carol Shea-Porter, the "rest of us" is on the table.  She will not raise the Social Security retirement age.
Dean Barker :: Frank Guinta's Plan to Help the Older Jobless
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Frank Guinta's Plan to Help the Older Jobless | 11 comments
The data on living longer (0.00 / 0)
Here's the relevant data.

Uh-oh. The expected lifespan for a newborn male in 1935 was 59.42 years, and in 2010 it is 75.4 years! We live 15.8 years longer, we must dramatically change Social Security!

Now look again.

The 65-year-old male in 1935 had an expected 11.93 years left: he would live to 76.93 years, on average. In 2010 a 65-year-old male has 16.55 years left: he will live to 81.55.

Once you reach 65, your lifespan is about 4.5 years longer today that in 1935. The change in lifespan at birth numbers is more dramatic because deaths in infancy have fallen. (That doesn't much affect Social Security income and outgo.)

Of those 4.5 extra years, we have already taken two of them in extended working years: up from 65 to 67.

(The story is similar for female rates, also shown on the link.)


When you do manual labor (0.00 / 0)
65 is the time your body says "Enough!"  67 gets old.  I liked that Paul Hodes job shadowed someone who works in healthcare who is not a doctor.  I've worked as a home health aide, among other jobs.  Couldn't do that anymore, my back would give out in a couple of days of helping move someone who is disabled.  
We should send Frank out on a construction job, or into a garage, or a nursing home, or let him do housekeeping in a hotel for a while.  He looks pretty soft anyway, it would be good for him.
[ Parent ]
Exactly (0.00 / 0)
The people you hear talking about raising the retirement age don't do manual labor, or other labor that entails a great deal of physical activity or stress, like Frank Guinta.  Or, they have magical sources of cash to tap into, like Frank Guinta.  



"When you get to the end of your rope, tie a knot and hang on."  Franklin D. Roosevelt    
[ Parent ]
they say we don't have enough workers... (0.00 / 0)
Supposedly we need to cut back social security because we don't have enough workers paying into the fund.  But, currently, about 25% of the work force is unemployed or underemployed.  And, a large percentage of the  other 75% are underpaid and/or working below their skill level.  You would think we should be looking into fully utilizing the work force we already have, but no!  The Republicans are even trying to reduce wages.  
[ Parent ]
and then we have all those "illegals" (0.00 / 0)
As you may have heard, several million individuals have entered our country (from Mexico and other places) without bothering to get official permission first.  They are (for the most part) relatively young people coming here looking for work.  (As bad as the labor market is here in the USA, it is much worse in Mexico--- and Mexico is actually better off than many other countries.)  Instead of welcoming this influx of ambitious young workers, who could be paying into the social security trust fund, we are going to great lengths trying (not very successfully) to keep them out.
[ Parent ]
Well, actually, those that just make up social security (4.00 / 1)
numbers pay into the system, but will never be able to collect.  Besides, most of these people aren't immigrants in the sense of wanting to be here permanently.  They're migrants.  But, migration is a nuisance all over the globe, even though human are naturally inclined to move.   People who move around are hard to control.  So, the managers of the nation states try to develop all kinds of strategies to keep people in place.
Herding cultures are migratory.  What makes herding cultures in mountainous regions (Middle Europe, Central Asia) seem more stationary is that their migration is vertical, rather than horizontal--it's like the native American populations in the Rocky Mountain region who moved up and down with the changing seasons.  When it's hot at sea-level, it's cooler in the mountains.
[ Parent ]
The choice is crystal clear - (0.00 / 0)
Republicans want to privatize Social Security, allowing Goldman Sachs to manage the retirement funds of the most vulnerable in our society.  They want to address the deficit by giving the wealthiest 1% $700 billion in tax cuts over the next decade.  We have a State Senate candidate in District 4 who wants to give homeschoolers a tax credit, which will have the impact of seriously undermining public education in rural towns in NH.

We need a legion of letter writers.

"Physical concepts are free creations of the human mind, and are not, however it may seem, uniquely determined by the external world." A. Einstein

Citizens have obligations. The idea that citizenship is some sort (0.00 / 0)
of privilege defining a higher status than that of mere residents needs to be dispelled.  Citizenship is a bundle of obligations (to vote, to serve on juries, to hold office, to draft legislation, to provide material support, to enforce the laws).  People who choose not to participate, which they are able to do because this is a free country, are freeloaders.  People who don't vote, people who don't pay taxes, people who avoid jury duty, people who don't obey the laws and don't try to change those they don't agree with -- are freeloaders.  Just saying 'no' is not a sign of virtue.
[ Parent ]
Look (0.00 / 0)
at this.

Lucy

Sent from my iPhone

I'm hoping that (0.00 / 0)
we'll start to see ads that reflect the potential consequences of radical Republicans being elected.

"Physical concepts are free creations of the human mind, and are not, however it may seem, uniquely determined by the external world." A. Einstein
[ Parent ]
"personal accounts" is only the beginning for Frank Guinta on Social Security (4.00 / 1)
Here's what he said at the Rochester 912 meeting last Spring:

Let's not forget that Social Security is something the government created.  And now we're trying to have a government solution to  a  problem government created.  Government's the problem here ladies and gentlemen.   When Social Security was created, we didn't have the wealth of private sector solution for lifetime savings that you do today.  We have to honor the obligations that have been made to those who are reliant on the federal government - older generations.  But future generations should seek different private sector solutions and have personal responsibility start to lead the way.  My kids are 6 and 5.  They shouldn't know what Social Security is!

Frank Guinta's Plan to Help the Older Jobless | 11 comments

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