Shockingly, I heard a Hollywood celebrity, who was born with a silver spoon in her mouth, say she would never retire as she didn’t see any pleasure of just going to the golf course everyday. Having had the privilege from the time she was a child to get all her needs met, while doing whatever she wanted with her time, she never had the stress of wondering how to keep a roof over her head especially if she couldn’t trade her time and energy for dollars in order to do that. Obviously, this celebrity didn’t see clearly how most of us look forward to retirement. Most of us don’t want to play golf everyday, we just look forward to finally having at least some of the freedom that she enjoyed all of her life…… to do what we want, with our time, and according to our energy level and not to the dictates of another.
Retirement, to most Americans, represents a time to stop being a slave, no matter how well paid of a slave they may be; and finally having complete control over their time and lives. This celebrity didn’t need to retire from a nine to five job, plus overtime, to take charge of her time and do her heart’s desire. Most of us have to trade our time for money to put food on the table, and to keep a roof over our heads and that of our family. If this Hollywood actress got sick, she could afford to hire people to run her household, and take care of her. She would just have to concentrate on healing. She didn’t need to trade her time for dollars. But what happens to the rest of Americans who get sick and cannot work nine to five, even for a short while? Where does the money come from to run their household, to put food on their table, to keep a roof over their head, pay the bills, buy medicine and hire the medical assistance they need, and help to care for them? So was this Hollywood actress just blinded to the realities of how life is, or was she just accepting that it was okay that the majority of people didn’t have, or were not given a strong opportunity to acquire the most basic security of having a roof over their heads should one not be able to work nine to five? Most people work hard, often too hard, at making someone else rich or comfortable. Most people have no safety nets, and so they over work. Is that the American way? I once heard George Bush Jr. laughing as he told of someone he came across who was working three jobs. He thought that was amazing that anyone would do that. But he didn’t question why, in America, anyone would have to do that.
Some people can manage to find work that they enjoy, but even if they enjoy the work, and it is financially rewarding, they still, usually, can not control the stress and time schedule that the job demands. So most people, those who were not born with a silver spoon in their mouth, and never obtained a silver spoon, look forward to retirement….. not to become idle and play on the golf course everyday…. but to have the freedom to do with their time what they wish for the first time in their lives without an outside force structuring and dictating their time for them. Some people want retirement so they can have the time to learn a new skill, or open up a new business adventure that they could not risk before retirement. Some want the time to write the great American novel. Some want start a news publication. Some want to develop their artistic side and paint. Some want to travel. Some want to work with the poor and or the young. There is not one person I know who wants to be idle in retirement. They want to be free to direct their life without someone else dictating how their time and daily schedule should look like.
There is a lot of work to living, besides the major part of earning currency. People born with a silver spoon in their mouth have no idea that raising a family and running a household is more than a full time job leaving little time for one’s self, or their dreams without also trading their hours to work full time so they can feed their family and keep their home. So people retire for freedom to do with their time what they wish. They luxuriate in the thought of having full control over what they do with their time, and the control over the pace they live so they can protect their health: physical, mental and spiritual.
Some people are forced into medical retirement because their body can no longer keep up with the pace, stress, politics and wear and tear on the body from doing the work they do. To live, they must retire, so they can live life to their unique pace that they need without their body failing them. But has their lives been set up and supported by society to have that choice to retire so that they can physically live? Or, does society drain us of our choices while we are working hard contributing to the needs of society while getting our own needs limitly met…… because of how society is set up? Why is it that the rich get richer and the poor get poorer, and at whose expense is that happening? Remembering who has most of the power of educating, or perhaps a better word would be indoctrinating our young, how can we best educate the young so that this unjust and controlling cycle that has been promoted for so long gets broken?
I laugh when I read they want the retirement age to be seventy. Athletes retire at thirty. Should a carpenter, or roofer, or anyone in manual labor work till seventy… can their bodies take the stress? What about the sixty-eight-year-old school teacher, or librarian, should they really be shoveling their driveways, and driving on icy roads to get to work in order to keep their jobs? Can they fight off germs of the flu and other illnesses as well as a younger person? How much mental, and physical stress, compared to a younger person can the average sixty-five-year old, let alone seventy-year-old take?
Older people can work and continue to contribute to society, but few can work at the pace of a fifty-eight year- old, and not have dire consequences that they might not recover from. Or, is it part of the plan by the powers-that- be, to push retirement later to keep the many in the rat race, beyond what many of them can keep up such a pace, so they will die early and never experience the time and freedom to control their own life?
Many young people put retirement on the back burner, as do many mid-lifers because the majority of them are living paycheck to paycheck.
Why are Americans not encouraged and supported in striving towards being as independent as they can be? Why is society set up to enslave the average American by setting up their life style so they can’t have the time and money to do what they desire to do, and instead are being forced to work to age seventy before they can retire, if they live that long?
Why is it that people are not encouraged and supported by society to plan out how to own things outright instead of financing necessities like a roof over one’s head?
When one doesn’t have to pay rent or a mortgage their overhead of living a decent and comfortable life becomes much more affordable and secured. Even if one loses their job, or has a medical, or personal issue forcing them out of their primary job, at least they will still have a roof over their head and not be homeless. Owning one’s own home, in a safe neighborhood, makes people more secure and independent and freer to do what they want to do or need to do. Why isn't that made possible? Is is simply because of the greed of the now corrupt financial system that transfers the wealth of most hard working Americans to the rich?
How did if become acceptable to pay a bank several time over in interest the value of the house? Why is this system of enslaving our young accepted instead of finding a way to free them with more security by helping them own their home outright earlier so they can have more control of where they direct their money to?
The retirement issue is similar. What are we as a society doing so older people, who have contributed so much to society by having the majority of their time and energy controlled by an outside force, finally be able to have the time they need to control their own time and pace of life while their bodies are becoming lower in energy and strength? Why is society set up to control everyone’s life from cradle to grave instead of helping people get the freedom and strength they need to direct their own lives?
Why is it suddenly okay to retire at seventy? Do you think your parents, your grandparents, your spouse, your siblings and you will have a better chance of having an old age if forced to work in the rat race to age seventy? Perhaps if one is like President Donald Trump where all the everyday tasks of living life is taken care for him, then maybe they will. But most of us have to first take care of all the many task demanded by of our own living needs before we get started at our working hours. There is a lot of work to living before one gets to the office, and it takes us longer to do the older we get. Does the average seventy-year-old have their own chauffeur to get to and from work, or chef to shop and cook their food, a housekeeper to make their bed, wash their clothes and floors, a handy man to shovel the snow, mow the lawn, and paint the kitchen, a personal assistant to take care of all research and correspondences acting as a gate keeper, lawyers on hand to deal with legal matter that eat up time and emotional energy, and the demand goes on. Does the average sixty-eight-old have all the living support that Donald Trump has in order to be able to get to the office everyday? In France retirement age use to at sixty.... but now they want to slowly increase it to sixty-seven. Why is that? So in this high tech society we are living in, is the average human being getting more or less control over their own life?