Day: June 14, 2012

The Crux Of The Matter: Barack Obama’s Speech In Cleveland Sets The Standard!

President Obama today gave a rousing speech in Cleveland, making clear that he was not willing to give Mitt Romney a massive tax cut, along with other millionaires and billionaires, and that much more important was to give basic security to the elderly, the sick, and those seeking work and suffering from the Great Recession for the past four and a half years!

In a nation in which the average family has suffered a drop in assets of 39 percent in the past few years, including on retirement savings, housing, jobs, and ability to provide college education to one’s children, Obama said the only way to grow the economy was the creation of a strong middle class, based on education, investment in infrastructure projects, and the utilization of technology to find new methods of economic expansion, including energy projects that plan for a world less dependent on oil and coal.

Instead of returning to deregulation and massive tax cuts for the rich, Obama said government can be good and productive and helpful in bringing back the American economy, and that if we are all to be only thinking about ourselves, that will not revive the American economy.

The election is a clear cut choice between two philosophies, and Obama declared that it was a crucial, turning point election that will determine the long term direction of the country.

If one uses common sense, and realizes that the way to move forward is to think of ourselves as “WE”, instead of “ME”, then Obama will win the election in November!

The Problem Of Claiming Social Security At An Early Age: Long Term Disadvantage

Due to the Great Recession since December 2007, many workers in their late 50s and early 60s, who have little chance of obtaining a living wage job once they are unemployed, are now faced with accepting early Social Security at age 62, lowering their payments permanently, and pushing many of them into poverty.

The longer one waits until starting Social Security, the higher the payment made monthly to the recipient. A cut of 20-30 percent in payments adds up to a lot over a life span on Social Security estimated at 23 years if one retires at 62.

This group just short of normal retirement age is one of the many forgotten groups that add to the suffering and poverty rate in this country as a result of the long term effects of the Great Recession, which supposedly is over, but really is not in reality!

The economic decline that has occurred in the past four and a half years is obvious in so many ways, but the “near elderly” group is one of those hardly noticed, a true tragedy!