People are being booted out of their jobs at 50

I can relate to what you are talking about, Percy. I have a union job at Safeway. I am 45 years old now and started in Grocery stores when I was 27--at Cub Foods. I worked my way "up" into a fulltime job with good benefits only to see the company face competition from Wal-Mart and cheaper labor (so they claim). If I were to work 40+ hours a week at Wal-Mart, I would barely earn what I now earn in 27 hours a week at Safeway.I am facing health issues in my life and I simply cannot put in 40+ hours consistantly. The younger workers will happily do it and will accept the $8.00 an hour vs the $15.66 that I am earning.I can understand the need to cut labor costs in order to compete. What I cannot understand is the fact that no CEOs ever take cuts in money. This needs to change. CEOs do not have a more important job than anyone else. Limit them to a max of ten million!Were it not for the union, my job security would not exist.

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"How we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives."-- Anne DillardEvery tool carries with it the spirit by which it had been created.
-- Werner Karl Heisenberg: (1901-1976) German physicistI read the newspaper avidly. It is my one form of continuous fiction.
-- Aneurin Bevan: (1897-1960) Welsh politician

This is why Unions are still a good thing. At Safeway, they have hired as many of us older workers as they have younger ones AND they gave us prior experience wages based on our worth....only because of the union. I will say that I cannot work as many hours as I used to...chiefly because of my diabetes. I would be adamant against ever having to work for less, either. Based on that picture of yours, I would say that you are 35-45. Except when you get cranky..then you are 65! This message has been edited by Phatboy, 05-09-2005 01:17 AM

Immigration is a fact of life in America, and it is a way for Social Security to get paid for later Americans IF we tax the money of these people as we tax our own workers.As to the issue directly, True enough, but the downside of this "market in action" is that blue collar labor gets pushed aside while white collar CEO's keep their jobs! America needs to look out for its citizens or we will become like Britain with a wider class disparity. Which is why I support seniority as a mandated workplace rule. (Unions are the only source of clout able to enforce this) I absolutely agree. There should be some perks earned with age.
The bottem line should not be the arbitrator...or else society will have to tax the heck out of those greedy CEO's in order to support retirement programs. One way or another, it must get done.

Methinks it all has to do with the rising costs of healthcare. When I was younger, I abused myself daily and woke refreshed the next day. Now I take care of myself and get plenty of sleep yet my Doctor bills are quite extravagent.This message has been edited by Phatboy, 05-11-2005 11:01 AM

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"It is as impossible for man to demonstrate the existence of God as it would be for even Sherlock Holmes to demonstrate the existence of Arthur Conan Doyle."
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"Religion points to that area of human experience where in one way or another man comes upon mystery as a summons to pilgrimage."
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"People are prepared for everything except for the fact that beyond the darkness of their blindness there is a great light. They are prepared to go on breaking their backs plowing the same old field until the cows come home without seeing, until they stub their toes on it, that there is a treasure buried in that field rich enough to buy Texas. They are prepared for a God who strikes hard bargains but not for a God who gives as much for an hour's work as for a day's. They are prepared for a mustard-seed kingdom of God no bigger than the eye of a newt but not for the great banyan it becomes with birds in its branches singing Mozart. They are prepared for the potluck supper at First Presbyterian but not for the marriage supper of the lamb".Frederick Buechner