Comment: there are people 'in between'--

the welfare recipient/impoverished and those who have been successful enough to 'retire' without SS at a decent age.

Some of *us* were stupid enough to:

--do work that wasn't tied to the military industrial complex and didn't pay very well, in spite of college degrees and excellent skills/working habits

--pay into SS

--get ourselves downsized

We worked our fingers to the bone, quite literally (both of us are underweight now in our 60s)--

and at one point our hours were cut so deeply that the employer said, "why don't you just 'retire' and collect SS?"--

It was our only option. There were no other jobs in the area or in our area(s) of expertise--

We will have to work 'forever'--

part-time or as long as the work lasts.

Even for those of *us* who have fed ourselves (gardening, cooking from scratch, gleaning, foraging, preserving, buying in bulk and locally)--

and put by for a 'rainy day'--

get old.

We refuse to use government health care programs; we are not enrolled in any of them, but we can't afford insurance.

We live day to day and watch those who invested in the military or medical industrial complex take cruises--

but we feel good about how we lived and what we did with our time, our health, our strength and our lives--

but the fact is that you can get to where you wear out. Some people wear out in their 50s (thank heavens we didn't), some in their 60s, some not until their 70s.

The truth is that genetics plays a big role and a person's childhood plays a large role, dietary practices do matter, though we've always eaten MUCH better than the standard American diet.

There are people still working in their 80s, and there are people who are worn out in their 50s.

Sometimes hard work CAN wear a person out--

we've both worked since we were very young; we both had to; one of us had an impoverished family and had to put food on the table, the other of us had no family and had to work, because at 18 there would be no more foster home--

We watched our friends have more 'carefree' childhoods. Most of our friends and peers didn't have to work as hard to get through college--

but we didn't break down 'til our 60s--

and we're still working. There are days when we wonder how much longer we can keep going, but there really isn't an option. Until God decides it's your time to go, you have to keep moving. (*partly tongue in cheek, but lots of truth there*)--

the idea of 'golden' years is a big laugh--

but then we had special needs kids (some of them)--

and our children who aren't special needs have also struggled financially--

we had no parents to help us or be grandparents for our children. There was so safety net for us, and our children will not take care of us--

We count on God to do that, after we've put in a hard day's work.

But at hard day's work in the 60s can't be as much as a hard day's work in the 30s--