Another fine example of how the Ruling Class divides and conquers.
Turn the young against the elderly. Turn the elderly against the
young. Turn the elderly against the underpaid care givers. Foster
indifference among care givers, toward their elderly charges. You
know, being on the top of the heap does have its rewards. Like, who
needs an underpaid care giver, or a hard bed in a crowded and smelly
nursing home, when you can simply have your staff hire you the very
best. Money does rule. People don't count.
And stop and think about this. We spend our efforts in teaching our
young to be civilized young ladies and gentlemen....at least we do
try.
But why? Wouldn't you agree that our 1% Ruling Class act just like
our 2 year old's? "Mine! Mine! Mine!"
Carl Jarvis
On 2/12/15, Miriam Vieni <miriamvieni@optonline.net> wrote:
>
>
>
> Our Attitude Toward the Elderly Is Getting Old
> http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/our_attitude_toward_the_elderly_is_getti
> ng_old_20150212/
> Posted on Feb 12, 2015
> By Sonali Kolhatkar
>
> Shutterstock
> While disembarking from a long flight recently, I was dismayed to watch a
> couple who seemed to be in their 50s openly roll their eyes and criticize
> another couple in their 60s or 70s who were holding up the line. The two
> elders were painstakingly removing their hand luggage from the overhead
> bins
> and making their way down the cramped aisles. Apparently they weren't spry
> enough for folks who were just a decade or so younger. "Look at how much
> time they're taking!" complained the relatively younger man.
> We have a serious social disconnect over aging in the United States. While
> it was shocking for me to overhear such callous disregard for seniors
> expressed out loud, it was particularly egregious to hear it coming from
> people who in 10 to 20 years will likely be in a similar situation. We
> imagine aging is something that happens to everyone else but us.
> Such cultural norms are consistent with the lack of public programs
> supporting the elderly. Certainly we have Social Security, providing the
> most modest of pensions, and Medicare offering a base level of medical
> insurance. But those programs are constantly in danger of being weakened by
> political opponents. And currently, no real nationwide program exists for
> the long-term care required in the last years of our lives.
> In an interview on "Uprising," I spoke with Eric Kingson, coauthor of
> "Social Security Works! Why Social Security Isn't Going Broke and How
> Expanding It Will Help Us All." Kingson explained that it has been a
> Republican strategy for decades to divide young from old with the express
> goal of weakening Social Security while claiming that by the time young
> folks are old enough to draw from the fund that they have paid into, the
> money will have run out because today's elderly are simply living too long
> and drawing too much money. He said that in the 1980s, "we were told that
> people like me, baby boomers, were being cheated by the old of the day.
> Today, we're told that younger people are being cheated by baby boomers."
> People are living much longer than they used to, and we are facing a coming
> elder boom. By 2050 the population of seniors in the United States will
> have
> nearly doubled in number compared to today, and those 65 and older will
> consist of almost 84 million people. While this fact is used to scare us,
> it
> is actually incredibly good news. If longevity is a popular personal goal,
> why then is such a statistic a source of collective fear? We ought to
> celebrate the fact that people are living longer and able to enjoy
> retirement, grandchildren and more in the golden years of their lives.
> Elders who can count themselves among the top 1 percent of American earners
> have little to worry about financially. They simply have the best care
> money
> can buy-end of story. But for seniors who identify with the 99% of
> Americans, aging and retirement can mean a subsistence level of income,
> isolation and poor care, or even lack of care.
> Ai-Jen Poo is director of the National Domestic Workers Alliance and author
> of the new book "The Age of Dignity: Preparing for the Elder Boom in a
> Changing America." She opened her book with an anecdote about her own
> grandfather, who near the end of his life needed more intensive care than
> his family was able to provide. He was moved into a nursing home-a place so
> depressing that he died within months. In an interview on "Uprising," Poo
> explained to me how the lack of options for eldercare today is the result
> of
> "a situation that has come into being because we've never actually
> accounted
> for the work that goes into supporting families and caring for families
> across generations." In fact, she cited how "the U.S. is one of the few
> countries that doesn't have any social programs in place for long-term
> care,
> comprehensively. ... We don't have a solution for the long-term care needs
> of the future; we don't have a plan."
> Our own social aversion to aging goes hand in hand with the political
> shortsightedness of our lack of eldercare programs. Yet fiscal
> conservatives
> raise the specter of financial inefficiency and the bureaucracy of "big
> government" in order to justify the "every man for himself" approach to
> aging. It is the same reasoning offered up as an excuse to weaken or
> eliminate Social Security and Medicare.
> Kingson explained that it is simply a matter of national priorities. If
> Social Security is in financial trouble in several decades, then adopting a
> fix, such as increasing the $118,000 taxable income cap, will easily
> address
> any shortfalls. "These are social choices; these are political choices,"
> said Kingson. He contextualized, "This is not about economic
> possibilities-we are the richest nation in the world, and we have a very
> modest Social Security system."
> Similarly, the extremely low pay of home health-care workers who make up
> the
> nation's fastest-growing job sector, is a result of skewed national
> priorities. In her book, Poo details how despite the growing demand, many
> home-care workers struggle to secure a living wage, being exempt from
> minimum wage laws in the U.S. The exemption goes back to New Deal-era
> political negotiations that attempted to appease Southern lawmakers by
> leaving out a largely black domestic workforce from minimum wage
> protections.
> Today, people of color are still disproportionately represented among home
> health-care workers, in particular women and undocumented immigrants.
> Worker
> advocates had been hopeful that the U.S. Labor Department would pave the
> way
> for better wages and protections, but last month, Federal District Court
> Judge Richard Leon struck down a rule change that would have extended U.S.
> minimum wage and overtime pay laws to the nearly 2 million home health-care
> workers in the country.
> But, as with Social Security, it is simply a matter of national and social
> priorities. Well-paid workers who are content in their jobs have dignity,
> and in turn they treat their wards with the dignity and respect that ought
> to always accompany old age. Poo paraphrased a prescient quote by Rosalyn
> Carter: "There are only four kinds of people in the world: people who are
> caregivers, or will be caregivers, people who need care, or will need
> care."
>
> There is a fifth kind: people who can afford to have the best care money
> can
> buy and who relentlessly lobby to strip the rest of us of the right to age
> with dignity. Among them is former Wyoming Sen. Alan Simpson, who famously
> said Social Security was "a milk cow with 310 million tits." Simpson, who
> has also referred to seniors as a "wretched group" and "greedy geezers," is
> known for his "hefty speaking fees and expensive lifestyle."
> The fabulously wealthy among us hardly miss the minuscule taxes they pay,
> and they will likely not have to rely on Social Security checks, poorly
> paid
> home health-care workers or depressing nursing homes. The 1 percent can
> remain exceedingly comfortable until the end of their lives, hiring all the
> help they need. It is the rest of us who ought to prioritize the needs of
> the elderly, for ultimately it is our own future that we otherwise imperil.
> We have to stop separating ourselves from seniors. If we are lucky enough
> to
> survive into our golden years, we had better hope that our public support
> systems have caught up with our needs, or else we need to work hard now to
> create such systems.
>
>
>
> http://www.truthdig.com/ http://www.truthdig.com/
>
> Our Attitude Toward the Elderly Is Getting Old
> http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/our_attitude_toward_the_elderly_is_getti
> ng_old_20150212/
> Posted on Feb 12, 2015
> By Sonali Kolhatkar
>
> Shutterstock
> While disembarking from a long flight recently, I was dismayed to watch a
> couple who seemed to be in their 50s openly roll their eyes and criticize
> another couple in their 60s or 70s who were holding up the line. The two
> elders were painstakingly removing their hand luggage from the overhead
> bins
> and making their way down the cramped aisles. Apparently they weren't spry
> enough for folks who were just a decade or so younger. "Look at how much
> time they're taking!" complained the relatively younger man.
> We have a serious social disconnect over aging in the United States. While
> it was shocking for me to overhear such callous disregard for seniors
> expressed out loud, it was particularly egregious to hear it coming from
> people who in 10 to 20 years will likely be in a similar situation. We
> imagine aging is something that happens to everyone else but us.
> Such cultural norms are consistent with the lack of public programs
> supporting the elderly. Certainly we have Social Security, providing the
> most modest of pensions, and Medicare offering a base level of medical
> insurance. But those programs are constantly in danger of being weakened by
> political opponents. And currently, no real nationwide program exists for
> the long-term care required in the last years of our lives.
> In an interview on "Uprising," I spoke with Eric Kingson, coauthor of
> "Social Security Works! Why Social Security Isn't Going Broke and How
> Expanding It Will Help Us All." Kingson explained that it has been a
> Republican strategy for decades to divide young from old with the express
> goal of weakening Social Security while claiming that by the time young
> folks are old enough to draw from the fund that they have paid into, the
> money will have run out because today's elderly are simply living too long
> and drawing too much money. He said that in the 1980s, "we were told that
> people like me, baby boomers, were being cheated by the old of the day.
> Today, we're told that younger people are being cheated by baby boomers."
> People are living much longer than they used to, and we are facing a coming
> elder boom. By 2050 the population of seniors in the United States will
> have
> nearly doubled in number compared to today, and those 65 and older will
> consist of almost 84 million people. While this fact is used to scare us,
> it
> is actually incredibly good news. If longevity is a popular personal goal,
> why then is such a statistic a source of collective fear? We ought to
> celebrate the fact that people are living longer and able to enjoy
> retirement, grandchildren and more in the golden years of their lives.
> Elders who can count themselves among the top 1 percent of American earners
> have little to worry about financially. They simply have the best care
> money
> can buy-end of story. But for seniors who identify with the 99% of
> Americans, aging and retirement can mean a subsistence level of income,
> isolation and poor care, or even lack of care.
> Ai-Jen Poo is director of the National Domestic Workers Alliance and author
> of the new book "The Age of Dignity: Preparing for the Elder Boom in a
> Changing America." She opened her book with an anecdote about her own
> grandfather, who near the end of his life needed more intensive care than
> his family was able to provide. He was moved into a nursing home-a place so
> depressing that he died within months. In an interview on "Uprising," Poo
> explained to me how the lack of options for eldercare today is the result
> of
> "a situation that has come into being because we've never actually
> accounted
> for the work that goes into supporting families and caring for families
> across generations." In fact, she cited how "the U.S. is one of the few
> countries that doesn't have any social programs in place for long-term
> care,
> comprehensively. ... We don't have a solution for the long-term care needs
> of the future; we don't have a plan."
> Our own social aversion to aging goes hand in hand with the political
> shortsightedness of our lack of eldercare programs. Yet fiscal
> conservatives
> raise the specter of financial inefficiency and the bureaucracy of "big
> government" in order to justify the "every man for himself" approach to
> aging. It is the same reasoning offered up as an excuse to weaken or
> eliminate Social Security and Medicare.
> Kingson explained that it is simply a matter of national priorities. If
> Social Security is in financial trouble in several decades, then adopting a
> fix, such as increasing the $118,000 taxable income cap, will easily
> address
> any shortfalls. "These are social choices; these are political choices,"
> said Kingson. He contextualized, "This is not about economic
> possibilities-we are the richest nation in the world, and we have a very
> modest Social Security system."
> Similarly, the extremely low pay of home health-care workers who make up
> the
> nation's fastest-growing job sector, is a result of skewed national
> priorities. In her book, Poo details how despite the growing demand, many
> home-care workers struggle to secure a living wage, being exempt from
> minimum wage laws in the U.S. The exemption goes back to New Deal-era
> political negotiations that attempted to appease Southern lawmakers by
> leaving out a largely black domestic workforce from minimum wage
> protections.
> Today, people of color are still disproportionately represented among home
> health-care workers, in particular women and undocumented immigrants.
> Worker
> advocates had been hopeful that the U.S. Labor Department would pave the
> way
> for better wages and protections, but last month, Federal District Court
> Judge Richard Leon struck down a rule change that would have extended U.S.
> minimum wage and overtime pay laws to the nearly 2 million home health-care
> workers in the country.
> But, as with Social Security, it is simply a matter of national and social
> priorities. Well-paid workers who are content in their jobs have dignity,
> and in turn they treat their wards with the dignity and respect that ought
> to always accompany old age. Poo paraphrased a prescient quote by Rosalyn
> Carter: "There are only four kinds of people in the world: people who are
> caregivers, or will be caregivers, people who need care, or will need
> care."
>
> There is a fifth kind: people who can afford to have the best care money
> can
> buy and who relentlessly lobby to strip the rest of us of the right to age
> with dignity. Among them is former Wyoming Sen. Alan Simpson, who famously
> said Social Security was "a milk cow with 310 million tits." Simpson, who
> has also referred to seniors as a "wretched group" and "greedy geezers," is
> known for his "hefty speaking fees and expensive lifestyle."
> The fabulously wealthy among us hardly miss the minuscule taxes they pay,
> and they will likely not have to rely on Social Security checks, poorly
> paid
> home health-care workers or depressing nursing homes. The 1 percent can
> remain exceedingly comfortable until the end of their lives, hiring all the
> help they need. It is the rest of us who ought to prioritize the needs of
> the elderly, for ultimately it is our own future that we otherwise imperil.
> We have to stop separating ourselves from seniors. If we are lucky enough
> to
> survive into our golden years, we had better hope that our public support
> systems have caught up with our needs, or else we need to work hard now to
> create such systems.
> http://www.truthdig.com/eartotheground/item/ashton_carter_succeeds_chuck_hag
> el_as_us_defense_secretary_20150212/
> http://www.truthdig.com/eartotheground/item/ashton_carter_succeeds_chuck_hag
> el_as_us_defense_secretary_20150212/
> http://www.truthdig.com/eartotheground/item/ashton_carter_succeeds_chuck_hag
> el_as_us_defense_secretary_20150212/
> http://www.truthdig.com/eartotheground/item/13-year-old_yemeni_boy_killed_by
> _us_death_machines_20150212/
> http://www.truthdig.com/eartotheground/item/13-year-old_yemeni_boy_killed_by
> _us_death_machines_20150212/
> http://www.truthdig.com/eartotheground/item/13-year-old_yemeni_boy_killed_by
> _us_death_machines_20150212/
> http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/our_attitude_toward_the_elderly_is_getti
> ng_old_20150212/
> http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/our_attitude_toward_the_elderly_is_getti
> ng_old_20150212/
> http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/our_attitude_toward_the_elderly_is_getti
> ng_old_20150212/
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> http://www.truthdig.com/eartotheground/item/north_carolina_murderer_was_chro
> nically_upset_confrontational_20150212/ http://www.truthdig.com/
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