Which age category do you fall in? [2]

poorguy said:

Hell I'm in my middle sixties and have some health issues due to my poor lifestyle choices in my younger days and now I'm trying to make better choices and it ain't easy.
I'm thank the Lord for giving another day to enjoy life and try to be a better person to myself and others.

Life is good. :)

Yep I know what you mean mate now 70 and gave away the smokes a long time ago about 45 years but still get problems from it and jumped on the wagon about 8 years ago and like you say it is hard to adjust but it does get easier - not that means it gives you back what you have damaged just makes the most of what you have left. Every day is a plus though they go so quickly now eh??

Keep breathing
John

I wish in Australia a lot
of our young people who cannot get jobs could be on the other end of the endless phone calls from India etc. My name is Jason "yeah right" and your Telstra Account charges will be dropped from next month,
when I am not even with Telstra.

Absolutely Ethel and thanks for the kind thoughts - though I do intend retiring this year sometime and the current hospitalisation for my fractured leg has helped me make that decision.

I have to say though that the health system as it now stands is very distant from the one I started in back in the UK (1971) and even from when I emigrated out here (1978). But I had better not get into that because I don't want to take over the thread and get too OT.

Suffice to say I think our health system has got way too money conscious not that I am saying that financial issues are not important but I do feel that sometimes they make things very unfair for certain groups of our society as the gap between the have and have nots gets ever worse.

The overseas call centres well as you rightly point out are a joke in my mind and when they start commenting that there are things that can be done to create employment for those out of work they should step back and take a good look at what is actually happening.

But as I said I don't want to rant on OT
John:)

US unemployment - 4.9%
UK unemployment - 4.8%
Au unemployment - 5.7%

It varies by region/state and I think it is hard to pull out part time workers who desire full time employment.
Then you need to look at what is your labour worth in terms of living standard. Some of the Scandinavian countries have relatively high unemployment yet they seem to provide good social services and a high standard of living. Well, I can't work it out.

Hi,
I doubt anyone can actually come up with a accurate # for unemployed
Self employed are excluded
Plus people that have stopped looking are excluded
Otherwise the #'s would be much higher

Unemployment commission only counts people that qualify for unemployment insurance and a lot of people are not actual employees and pay taxes through 1099's as independent contractors... and are not included in those #'s

Then you get into "making the #'s more palatable" for the message being delivered = no doom and gloom :)

On another note, I have decided I am not happy with what I previously voted in poll in this thread.

I have now changed my vote and instead of my earlier vote "51 to 60" I from now on belong to group "21 to 30".

Kari

Yes MJF and Mike agree and I wonder if those other countries actually have a good standard of living and also what is their national debt? One only has to look at Greece and the appalling state of affairs it got into. Now unless I am terribly mistaken their retirement age was as low a 55 and when the government raised that age level there was a right royal outcry and I thought at the time what are they whinging about - I mean 55 retirement?? No wonder their economy went down the gurgler.

The other issue I raised before I find quite incredulous - that even if a person is employed for one hour per month it is included in the government "employed" figures now I don't know about anyone else but that is going past just fudging the figures it is a downright falsehood. So I think that any figure that is posted as unemployed could easily be doubled or even tripled.

ICIT2LOL, I can remember when a retirement age of 55 was a common expectation in Australia (~1980s). Everyone thought working hours and the retirement age would decrease further. How wrong was that. If you are born on or after 1957 in Australia the retirement age for the pension is 67. Imagine applying for a new job when you're 60. Age discrimination kicks in very early which makes a long working life difficult for many.
Of course you can retire at any age if you have the money to self fund your retirement but you will pay tax on your hard earned savings to support all the others.