Working Stiff - Countdown to Retirement

Cash. I don't got enough. If it were just myself, I would go for it, but I got a wife and two dogs to think about.

Ah, okay. It sounds like the private pension plan that I have with the companies I worked for.

It enabled me to retire at 55. Included is a "bridge pension" as well that takes me to 65, whereaupon our Canada Pension and O.A.S takes over from the bridge thing.

We don't got no bridges, reyn. Just severe shortage of cash flow.

Thanks, by the way, for sponsoring me into Dys poopity head club. It's going to be a riot.

We have to come up with a secret handshake though.

Secret handshake? How do you know I'm not like Howie Mandel? So germophobic he doesn't touch other people's hands.

Well, if not a handshake, a decoder ring then.

I was kidding. We can shake. I like to high five my grandson. He has to get a step ladder to reach.

SS Shell Game

The last time I got a statement from the Social Security Administration, they were going to issue me monthly checks for X amount if I take my retirement at age 65 yrs., 10 mos. I expected it to rise slightly as they get more of my money. The statement I got yesterday cuts that figure by $200. This despite the fact I am paying in at a higher rate than ever. If I could get my hands on the politicians' pensions, they would be cut off without a nickle.

Well, that sucks big time! You figure you can count on something, and then find that you can't!

"...Shell Game ..."

that seems to be a 'universal' game . in canada the 'federal' sales tax was cut by 1% while the income tax was raised at the same time !
i guess that the net effect will be about a great big fat ZERO , but businesses have to have their their cash-registers reprogrammed - want to guess who'll have to pay for it in the end ?
hbg

Yeah, I noticed that at the low end. Very disappointing, to say the least! :wink:

I'm glad I didn't vote Conservative.

"...I'm glad I didn't vote Conservative. ..."

sorry , reyn !
even if you did not vote conservative , you'll still have to be the higher tax !
no exceptions permitted !
hbg

perhaps you'll want to put a note on your income tax form :
"i did not vote for higher taxes ! " . maybe it'll help .

I could post a very bitter rant, about how the government wastes trillions of dollars, but whines it can't afford something like Social Security. What good would it do? I don't see politicians of either party willing to take a stand for the poor working folk.

Hear, hear!

In Canada, I've always voted NDP, as I see this as the least objectionable alternative.

I have to vote on other issues. Nobody champions the working poor these days.

Ah, it's not a vote winner any place, from what I can see, edgar! Our government has even changed the definition of "employment". Apparently if you work only something like one day a fortnight (& casual work at that) you are categorized as employed! Hey, we've never had it so good according to official statistics! I do get very bitter & angry about it, but whose listening & who cares? It's everyone for themselves in this brave, new century, it seems!

any of you still remember the french revolution ?
we sure knew how to have fun in those days !
if someone said : "let them it cake !" , we did .
or was it : "wine , women and song " ? - can't remember .
hbg

hamburger


Up the workers!

Four years after the Revolution
And the old King's execution
Four years after remember how
Those courtiers made their final vow
String up every aristocrat
Out with the priests let them live on their fat

Four years after we started fighting
Marat keeps on with his writing
Four years after the Bastille fell
He still recalls thold battle yell
Down with all of the ruling class
Throw all the generals out on their ass

Why do they have the gold
Why do they have the power
Why why why
Do they have the friends at the top
Why do they have the jobs at the top

We've got nothing
Always had nothing
Nothing but holes and millions of them
Living in holes dying in holes
Holes in our bellies holes in our clothes

Marat we're poor
And the poor stay poor
Marat don't make
Us wait anymore
We want our rights and we don't care how
We want our Revolution
Now

Four years he fought and he fought unafraid
Sniffing down traitors by traitors betrayed
Marat in the courtroom
Marat underground
Sometimes the otter and sometimes the hound

Fighting all the gentry and fighting every priest
The business man the bourgeois the military beast
Marat aleays ready to stifle every scheme
Of the sons of the ars licking dying regime

We've got new generals our leaders are new
They sit and they argue and all that they do
Is sell their own colleagues and ride on their backs
Or jail them or kill them or give them all the axe

Screaming in language that no man understands
Of rights that we grabbed with our own bleeding hands
When we wiped out the bosses and stormed through the wall
Of the prison they told us would outlast us all

Marat we're poor
And the poor stay poor
Marat don't make us wait anymore
We want our rights and we don't care how
We want our Revolution now

Poor old Marat they hunt you down
The bloodhounds are sniffing all over the town
Just yesterday your printing press
Was smashed now thy're asking your home address

Poor old Marat in you we trust
You work til your eyes turn as red as rust
Poor old Marat we trust in you

Marat we're poor
And the poor stay poor
Marat don't make us wait anymore
We want our rights and we don't care how
We want our Revolution NOW

Just got back from a quarterly meeting with the owners. One of them surprised me by going up on the roof with me and examining the condition of the chimneys. My respect for him grew quite a bit.

They suggested I ought to work for them another five years. I told them it all depends on my health. At that age anything could happen. It makes me feel good that they consider me energetic and good enough to meet their expectations, when there are so many young men who want a job like mine.