End of an era

[unforgiven]

34 minutes ago, Armed Eye Doc said:

You are awe-inspiring.  I bitch when my new shoes cause a blister.

I in no way shape or form compare myself to someone that sacrificed so much in selfless performance of duty.

I had/have zero tolerance for lazy people when I was working.

[shepp]

1 hour ago, unforgiven said:

You didn't see many polio survivors in the building trades

A close friend of mine’s dad worked in this very same plant 50 years as a polio survivor. 

Took him falling off a roof and breaking his pelvis to get a hip replacement. Doctors were putting him back together and said you have hip issue? He said yea my whole life! Dr said we’re gonna do a hip replacement too. He lost his limp, 72 years old he went zip lining and cliff jumping with us in Mexico 2 years ago

[jtallen83]

1 hour ago, Sisco said:

Nice rationalization if you are a corporate CEO who has raided the company retirement system to increase shareholder value and establish golden parachutes for himself and his upper management team. Which happens to be an even newer trend then that of “retirement”. I assume then you will be rejecting your retirement plan? Of course not.  The point is that the concept of retirement gave impetus to people putting up with the drudgery and physical damage of a job, particularly a tough one like the trades. I would rather see forty million or whatever put into employee pension plans, then as a bonus for a short term CEO for “increasing shareholder value” often by eliminating the company pension plan. Corporate and upper management greed is a large part why pension plans have disappeared. The triad of industry used to be workers, management, and shareholders. Now the system is skewed towards benefiting management and shareholders at the expense of workers. It needs to get back to an equal balance benefitting all three.

Gather I didn’t express myself clearly, I have no issue with people using the system they have been given. I hold  no grudges against anyone it works for except of course the establishment that put it in place partly so they could raid it. I am simply trying to express how new the concept is for the history of civilization. This system was locked in before any of us could have had a say but is in its infancy comparatively.

  I ran across some interesting reading while researching early American saw makers. Henry Disston had a type of retirement for his workers. People were given less demanding jobs as their health required but maintained the same wage. Workers who were disabled received stipends as did widows. He built a community for his workers, made sure they had schools and healthcare. Consequently he had very little problem finding and keeping help. This worked great for Disston and his workers from 1840 when he had one employee till the depression era when the company had grown to many thousands of Workers. 

As usual the establishment created a problem and a solution that benefited them and continue to exploit that solution to this day. When the current system is unbearable their political cronies will have another solution to sell us that will give them even more control over the working class. 

I do not intend on retiring from work but most assuredly I will take whatever benefits I can from the money removed from my check all these years knowing that if I were allowed to keep that money I would have had a good deal more but if I had not contributed the money I would be a felon.

Your thoughts on “getting back to a balance “ suggest there was a balance at one point, this supposed balance was based on estimates of future earnings and the perpetual growth of the system, all smoke and mirrors like any good Ponzi scheme and like Ponzi schemes those that get in early do fine, the perpetrators need this to keep people believing and bring in the rubes. They make it sound great,  don’t worry just give us your money and we will take care of everything, just look how well it works for Grandpa they say., that and if you don’t pay we put you in jail, there’s balance and liberty  for you, maybe the whole thing is more like extortion than a Ponzi scheme?  Like most everything in life the further one gets from being personally responsible the better the chance those responsibilities will not be met. 

Again, I am not disparaging any retiree for simply doing what he was brought up to believe was right. I speak on topic in more of a macro level than an individual level. Previous generations traded away liberty for the promise of security, the deal was done before any of us had a say. We should not expect a Ponzi scheme to last forever and we should most certainly not look for solutions to the problem from the same establishment that ran the scheme in the first place. We should instead look to ourselves to be responsible for our own future.

I have a hard time believing anyone in the establishment would care for my rationale,  sorry if this rationalization caused any discomfort, along with being dangerous true Liberty can be uncomfortable at times.

[98Z5V]

8 minutes ago, jtallen83 said:

maybe the whole thing is more like extortion...

You mean, JUST LIKE ObamaCare?...

Yes, it's .gov-sanctioned extortion, brother.  It only makes Pelosi, with a salary of $193.4k a year, ...  - earning more than 1million a year.  That's what it does.

[392heminut]

I got to watch these come down  at the old Kennicott Mine smelter in Hurley NM several years ago! They were an Icon in the area for decades.