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When can we stop working?

Wednesday Sep 15 2010

By Jim Selman | Bio

Stephanie Chen, a writer for CNN, recently published "No Retirement for These Older Folks, Just Work" about older workers and the fact that more and more people have to keep working well beyond their 'retirement age'. For some, this is purely a function of economic necessity. For others, it is a choice. The piece included two examples, a 91-year-old postal worker and a 101-year-old legislative employee who are still going strong. If we're to believe the predictions from Washington DC, everyone is going to be working longer as a function of keeping Social Security solvent. The examples in Stephanie Chen's article are exceptions that prove the rule that states[Read More]

Written by eldering at Fearless Aging

Tagged with: baby_boomers cnn older_workers play post-retirement relationships retirement retirement_age stephanie_chen unemployment work

"Free Speech": Who's Listening?

Friday Apr 02 2010

http://www.flickr.com/photos/dlisbona/ / CC BY 2.0

By Jim Selman | Bio

One of the paradoxes of a free and democratic society is that it only takes a few committed and fanatical people to screw up the system for every one. Political entrepreneurs can appeal to people’s fears and concerns, get power by gathering together a group with common worries and beliefs, and then isolate ‘their’ followers from the larger population. The media can entrench this kind of political or social fragmentation. When people become addicted to their ‘own’ particular media channels—ones that support the messages of ‘their’ leaders or ‘their’ side—we end up with no one listening to anyone else’s point of view. While this can and does exist everywhere to some degree, it is particularly evident

[Read More]

Written by eldering at Wisdom in Action

Tagged with: cnbc cnn constitutional_democracy fox health_care left_wing media middle_east right_wing