It seems like every one of those info shows on TV talk about what makes you healthy and live a long time. Of course they are endorsing a product or method. Some of them really make sense. If one had the time and money they could get a lot done. Unfortunately the vast majority do not have the time or money.
The only thing that we can do is work and exercise. For most of us work is not an option. Exercise is generally out of the question. For the most part you can get exercise performing normal household tasks. Why pay someone to clean your home and mow your yard and go to the gym? That is lifestyle and vanity. Nothing else.
You used to read stories about how long someone was working for a company or that they are still working at a certain age. You do not see too many stories about that anymore. Why? Because companies do not want to pay benefits. Their corporations make so much more money without all the liabilities of insurance and retirement. We are just hired soldiers. Mercenaries. But you have to do it to get paid.
I have mixed feelings about how the nation is going to retire. Some people will of course just die. Some have worked for one company for their entire life. Although this is becoming rare. Others have worked for many places. Some not at all. Very few companies have taken on the responsibility of providing in house retirement anymore. Although my company still does. The 401K programs are prevalent now. My company also provides that. With rising costs my Social Security may pay my rent when I reach seventy years old.
In that spirit I should plan on having to work in some fashion until I die. Unless I run into some kind of major windfall I will have to work. It work be nice if I could still take my Social Security at 62, but then you have to come up with your own health insurance. So if you get $1100 a month for Social Security and have to pay $1000 a month for health insurance, the numbers just don't add up.
I feel that there should just be a universal Medicaid. Everybody has the same insurance. Doctors deserve to be paid well. Nurses deserve to be paid well. Take out the malpractice insurance that they have to pay their net income should remain the same. That would take out the $1000 a month I would be forced to pay for health insurance. So I could somewhat "retire" from full time work at 62 years old. Granted that the amount that I would receive from Social Security would not get the job done.
If I could "retire" at 62 my cash out lay from the government is greatly reduced. I would have to work somewhere doing something. Nothing back breaking or disgusting. Just something. I am no longer in dire straits about health care. Bonus round. I free up the opportunity for a younger person to take a full time job.
So many people get along doing nothing. Why not expand that to the people that do something. Are you fat because you are disabled or are you disabled because you are fat?
There is a chef on Public TV that is from Vietnam.He said he looked for seven hours to find a fat person in Vietnam. He never found one. All you have to do in the United States is look out your window. You will find more overweight and lazy people than anywhere I suppose. When I watch those travel shows on PBS you do not see a bunch of fat people in other parts of the world.
In almost every culture you see people doing something. How many old movie stars endorsing some kind of product? They are in fact still working. So for the most part retirement is illusive. You can retire from your previous vocation hopefully with some pension. If you could figure out health insurance your retirement, Social Security and a pleasant part time job or skill could leave with a pretty good life.
Exercise is a big key. i have a buddy that is 73 years old. He still smokes. No longer drinks. An ex Marine. He is small. Rides a bicycle to work about ten miles round trip every day. Does physical work. In all the time I have known him I have never seen him drive a car. He lives in a nice subdivision and his wife has a car. He freaked out the first time he seen me in an automobile. My Old 1989 Blazer. As I was using it to take a bicycle to him. At his age he can get Medicare. As a fall back go to the VA. But besides a cold I have never seen him sick. Or at least never complain.
On PBS they have some of the Yoga shows. A lot of stretching etc. Ever notice that the first thing that your dog or cat does when they wake up is stretch. So I do see a lot of benefit in this action. Warming up if you would.
So here is my cure for the world. Make Medicade and/or VA type health care benefits universal. The big obstacle is the insurance company infrastructure. Insurance companies own most of the banks. So this would result in a major tightening up of consumer credit. As the pool of money to gamble with would decrease vastly. This would effect the store credit cards first. Then the major credit cards would have to take a closer look at their prospectives. So that $50,000 credit line good till 2050 may have to be reduced to $2000 in 2017. That car loan may not go through. No payment on that new furniture for five years. Forget it.
My plan would of course create havoc on the economy as we know it. But our economy right now is a facade. Not too much cash out there. Lots of credit. But why is the Federal Reserve Bank printing up so much cash? I will tell you why. Cash is a medium used for illicit trade. Plus flooding the economy with cash that is not backed up by a gold standard cheapens its value. Eventually resulting in a dollar being worth a penny.
When you have a bunch of people doing the wrong thing is becomes fashionable. So if you are not fashionable, you are not is the groove. And if you are not fashionable or in the groove you are a flake. And a flake isn't cool.
I know that it is not politically correct to say or face the facts. But it is what it is.
I think that I will run for the President of the United States. As a registered Democrat I will run on the Republican Ticket. Make Donald Trump my Vice President. I will not be able to rectify all our problems. But it will give me access to a lot of great golf courses. And before my arthritis completely stops me from moving about.
That old house is probably musty and full of bugs anyway. So I do not think I will.
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