Promises made are promises to keep. When you get a mortgage, can you change the terms 20 years into it? Is it unrealistic to bargain for healthcare and retirement benefits? Since the US government provides NO medical or real retirement benefits, it is up to the unions to negotiate benefits that are best for the workers. Perhaps the US government with its lack of such benefits that other industrial nations provide that is a major contribution to the failure of the American automakers.

Prior to WWII the only 'retirement' plan that existed was your savings plan. During the depression the government saw the need, both politically and socially, to provide assistance to the elderly poor.

During WWII, the government saw the need to hold down wages so competition for the massive number of jobs would not substantially increase inflation during the war. Because of this, companies created pension plans in an effort to attract workers.

The cycle now returns to self retirement plans. The primary difference is that banks are allowed to compete with 401ks and money market accounts, increasing the risk of your savings but allowing those with money to spare to dabble on the fringes of stable markets.

So the rich still have great retirement plans, we in the middle will do ok unless there's a crash, and those at the lower levels of the pay scale will be hoping that China puts less poisoned product in the animal food they'll have to eat.

I think some of you would benefit from reading Bastiat. It's not that we don't all see the same problems... It's what you would do that separates most of us.

I agree. Feed the old to the dogs or what about Soilent Green?

You are correct, sir; but I should have explained that I'm not looking to blame, rather I'm looking to try to solve or fix a problem.
On May 1st of this year; I was at my local pharmacy and was behind an elderly woman at the checkout. This woman's total was over $400.00! (and that was including her Medicare prescription discount! Needless to say; she didn't have enough money to purchase her medicine. As I waited, I began to notice that other elderly people around us were starting to comment about this. One comment I overheard was " It's a hell of a life we're living now. We have to choose between buying food, paying rent, or buying medicine. The statement didn't so much bother me until I saw the woman who didn't have enough money turn away from the cashier and brush away tears from her eyes. That did it for me.
I live decently for a crippled man in his 40's. I've saved money and invested smartly since working as a teenager. A divorce a few years back barely dented my assets. I am not claiming to be a Warren Buffet or a Bill Gates; but suffice it to say that I have good financial independence.
Call me a sucker or whatever, but I refused to witness that scene any longer. I spoke to the pharmacy manager when it was my turn and asked if I might pay for that woman's medicine. All I asked was that he not release my name.
People, we must acknowledge the fact that our parents and other elderly people grew up in an America where $1,000.00 was a lot of money. It's not. The elderly were working and raising us. Rather than blame them; I think it more productive to start a "transition process" to prepare one for retirement. My own mother passed awa two years ago from pancreatic cancer, with a life insurance policy of $15,000.00. To my parents; that was like a lottery! I wasn't able to convince them years ago to switch to term life insurance- I'm sure many of you are in the same position with your parents.As we enter the downhill parts of our own working careers; how many of us are really planning or have planned for retirement?

Many of those people would qualify for prescription assistance provided by the drug manufacturers themselves. Several ads on regular TV tell people this. Why isn't the pharmacist telling them that? Also, besides Medicare there is also assistance for the poor from Medicaid.... One of the biggest problems is that people aren't aware of what benefits they can receive..... They don't know where to go, or how to get help with things like this. Especially the elderly.... and many of them are victimized by their own families talked into many iffy schemes and their funds wiped out...

I too have paid for groceries and things behind little old ladies with empty pocketbooks.

I just don't believe government will do a good job of anything like what the aged and infirm need.....thinking about it, what do they do right? Education? I don't think so.....the VA and veterans benefits? I don't think so... the EPA is mired down in internal wrangling forever, Agriculture causes more trouble than it solves, DOT and Homeland Security...CIA? Think about it. The IRS isn't even doing a good job...and indeed, they collect money illegally, and cannot even show the law under which authority they collect taxes from individuals for income. Let's see..... FBI? Well run? I don't think so!

Families and charities used to handle this type of thing. Governments come up with programs that do a crappy job, and relieve families and discourage charities from doing it.

Some problems have no immediate solution. Culture and family do deal with things like this in varying ways, some well, some not so well. We have to be careful about looking for government to take over any more personal responsibility, because there are always those ugly "unintended consequences."

AMENDMENT XVI Passed by Congress July 2, 1909. Ratified February 3, 1913.
Note: Article I, section 9, of the Constitution was modified by amendment 16.
The Congress shall have power to lay and collect taxes on incomes, from whatever source derived, without apportionment among the several States, and without regard to any census or enumeration.



Or did I completely misunderstand the relationship questioned?

Show where it was ratified.....go ahead.

Uh ... top of the post - ratified February 3, 1913

I'm glad somebody else has noticed this problem the way you have, Vharlow. You are correct, America can no longer wait for the government to take care of its citizens. We must take this responsibility upon ourselves.Our parents took care of us; now we must take care of them.I agree with you totally.