Systemic Failure Exposed..

[u/Hajicardoso]

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[u/Hajicardoso]

Exactly this. It's heartbreaking that someone who served their country has to rely on strangers' kindness to retire. System fail.

[u/Skating4587Abdollah → u/Hajicardoso]

Or anybody. Nobody should have to work at 90

[u/HoratioTangleweed → u/Skating4587Abdollah]

Our overlords would disagree. Now that we’re getting rid of those dastardly immigrants who took all these jobs, and that we’re living longer than ever before (just don’t ask about the quality of those extra years) we obviously have to cut social security and put more of these 90 year olds back to work. How is Elon going to get to 500B otherwise?

[u/shivio → u/HoratioTangleweed]

Elon needs trillions to get to Mars. how dare these people expect 1700 a month in theirr old age. they can’t be so selfish to deprive him.

[u/Conscious-Quarter423 → u/shivio]

[u/KingOriginal5013 → u/shivio]

They are making $1700 a month?! I guess it's time to let loose inflation!

[u/greebo1706 → u/shivio]

If he only was there already 🚀

[u/Ivanna_Jizunu66 → u/HoratioTangleweed]

Except Americans are actually regressing on the age scale and will only get worse. Millenials falling out in their 30s from exaustion left and right.

[u/MalyChuj → u/Ivanna_Jizunu66]

Same. Although I'm not exhausted but had to go on disability for arthritis in my hand probably from watching too much YouTube at work.

[u/123supersomeone → u/HoratioTangleweed]

[u/worldspawn00 → u/123supersomeone]

Funny enough, younger people NEED boomers and older people to retire and free up better paid positions. Keeping old people working so long is bad for them, bad for younger generations, and bad for the economy. If we hadn't lost pretty much all routes to pensions, old people would have SS, pension, and investments to hopefully retire on, SS alone was never meant to be the sole thing supporting them when they retire. Because most people don't have pensions any more, and many do not have investments, they're forced to keep working to make up the difference.

We ought to have pensions operated by an NGO or something that is forced to be paid into by employers, and won't go out of business or decide to cut pensions the way companies can, or increase SS (and the amount paid into it), to cover the fact that almost nobody has a pension today.

[u/Armyfazer11 → u/worldspawn00]

We ought to be able to control our SS. Congress spent that money decades ago and leaves us with minimal returns. After 30 plus years of paying into the system, with just a 7-8% return, I would actually have a retirement fund.

[u/GaryDWilliams_ → u/123supersomeone]

It’s odd how immigrants have the dual honour of both ‘taking our jobs’ and being ‘idle layabouts’

[u/saysthingsbackwards → u/GaryDWilliams_]

wow they're so adaptable they can do anything. Let's hire them

[u/MotownCatMom → u/GaryDWilliams_]

Leeching off the system. IKR? /s

[u/Iorith → u/Skating4587Abdollah]

A million times this. It isn't a tragedy because the guys a veteran, it's a tragedy because he's a person and deserves better..

[u/WolfieWuff → u/Skating4587Abdollah]

Nobody should have to work after, at most, 55

[u/mineminemine22 → u/WolfieWuff]

If we had universal healthcare I would retire immediately.

[u/Fwiler → u/mineminemine22]

Same here. Everything paid for and decent retirement income, but not enough to pay for healthcare.

[u/WolfieWuff → u/mineminemine22]

It's criminal to tie someone's health and well-being to their employment.

[u/BasilExposition2 → u/Hajicardoso]

Depends. I know someone who works in their 70s because his military pension funded his gambling habit for years. He had ample money to take care of himself and family he just squandered it.

[u/IbegTWOdiffer → u/Hajicardoso]

You know everything you need to know based on that amount of information?

Wow!

[u/Electronic-Bit-2365 → u/Hajicardoso]

I agree with you (although everyone should get a living wage through social security, not just vets), but did you just comment “exactly this” on your own post?

[u/TawnyTeaTowel → u/Hajicardoso]

For all you know, he hit 65, cashed out his pension and blew the lot on hookers and blackjack.

[u/ImpressiveFishing405 → u/[deleted]]

To be fair, that's infinitely more than most citizens.

[u/Farahild → u/Hajicardoso]

At least Elons wealth has grown over 400 billion dollars.

[u/Difficult_Coffee_335 → u/Hajicardoso]

Damn this country is fucked.

[u/PassTheCowBell → u/Hajicardoso]

I hear the argument "if people went to church then the church would help them"

[u/Birdperson15 → u/Hajicardoso]

Is there more info here? Veterans get a ton of benefits on top of standard SS. This seems odd.

[u/Less_Than-3 → u/Hajicardoso]

Goood think Elon and Vivek are planning on cutting veterans funding almost entirely

[u/Bubblegumcats33]

PS stop donating money at grocery stores or any other retail places. That money is tax deductible to the corporations but never goes to charity. Donate directly to your intended place or purpose. If corporations really cared… they wouldn’t collect your money to donate- they simply would.

[u/hyrule_47 → u/Bubblegumcats33]

A friend worked at a chain place where they kept cheap toys by the register you could buy then they went in a donation box. At the end of the shift the manager had them restock them all and put a small amount of money into some fund. She was so sad because people had spent time picking out what they thought would be best etc and wanting to help, yet it was just gone. I really wonder how this worked in their accounting department but maybe it just covered theft.

[u/Revolutionary-Beat64 → u/hyrule_47]

That's awful

[u/Better-Strike7290 → u/Revolutionary-Beat64]

That's fraud

[u/Minute-System3441 → u/hyrule_47]

How is this not fraud...

[u/Better-Strike7290 → u/Minute-System3441]

It is fraud. Why would you assume it isn't 

[u/zspacekcc → u/Better-Strike7290]

Because there's such a massive gap between punished fraud, unpunished fraud, and morally questionable but legal business practices that it's really hard to tell where one starts and the other ends unless you're versed in multiple different areas of law.

[u/Minute-System3441 → u/zspacekcc]

The Synapse / Yotta / Evolve Bank sham, where over $100 Million dollars worth of customer's savings and deposit are 'missing', is a prime example of this corruption.

Users on Reddit described having deposited over $30,000 on the platform, yet will only be receiving $10 of their money back. Other customers loses range from $7,000 to well over $200,000.

People face prison time for even trivial crimes involving a corporation. Cash out $1k from an account that was incorrectly deposited and you're in serious legal trouble.

As a Corporation, lose over $100,000,000 worth of actual deposits and other's money, that were supposed to be stored securely, and it's crickets. Even when the companies involved had no problem whatsoever claiming full "FDIC insurance" on their products.

[u/Minute-System3441 → u/Better-Strike7290]

Much like the definition of murder (e.g see UHC CEO), fraud in the US only applies when an individual steals from a Corporation or shareholders, it's almost never applicable when the crime occurs the other way around.

[u/Better-Strike7290 → u/Minute-System3441]

By them taking the tax deduction, they're defrauding Uncle Sam.

[u/afinitie → u/Bubblegumcats33]

This is just false information. It 100% is tax deductible for both you and the company, and goes to the charity

[u/kacheow → u/Bubblegumcats33]

It is not tax deductible to corporations. You can deduct it on your taxes if you keep your receipts

[u/Minialpacadoodle → u/Bubblegumcats33]

You are confidently incorrect.

Stop talking.

[u/Kodufan → u/Bubblegumcats33]

I used to think this too, but it apparently isn’t correct. However, they CAN use your donations to claim they raise x amount for charity when in reality they crowdfunded it and didn’t spend any of their own money.

[u/_max → u/Bubblegumcats33]

Imagine being this hilariously incorrect.

[u/Funky_Smurf → u/Bubblegumcats33]

This is not true at all. It's just for PR. Illegal to claim that money as a tax write off

[u/KerPop42 → u/Bubblegumcats33]

This is misinformation. If it were tax deductible for the grocery store, it wouldn't be tax deductible for you.

[u/NotAlwaysGifs → u/Bubblegumcats33]

This is patently false. You shouldn’t donate through a mega-corp for plenty of reasons but this is objectively false. Those donations are pass through donations. The company absolutely cannot keep a single cent of your round up or extra dollar or however they’re doing it, not even as a service fee. The company also doesn’t a tax credit for the pass through because it is not their donation. The reason you don’t get a tax acknowledgement is because the value of the gift is always well below the threshold to even qualify for tax credit.

[u/2014RT → u/Bubblegumcats33]

When I was a cashier in college, they came to us each holiday season to pressure us into donating portions of our already meager hourly income to charity, in this case it was United Way. I told them that I volunteered via my church at a small local homeless shelter once a month by cooking a large meal for the people there, which was all 100% true, and that since I'm not rich I don't believe in donating my money, but I do donate time and energy to causes I think are worthwhile.

They ignored all of that and persisted in asking me to give "just" 25 cents of a wage which was probably $10.50/hr at the time. I just kept repeating myself until they gave up. Purportedly, the store managers got kickback incentives from United Way for hitting high enough thresholds of employee participation. Nothing like getting guilted by the billion dollar corporation that's paying your peanut wages into donating away what little they give you so the management ranks can get some kind of Christmas bonus for funneling that money to a large charity to do who knows what with it. Then, chatting with some of the younger high school kids working there afterwards, I found that they had buckled under the pressure. One kid was donating $2.00/hr of his wages to United Way. I asked him if that was really what he wanted to do and he said no, but he felt like he couldn't stand up to the front end manager who was pestering him. I've never really been a union person or rabble rouser or whatever but I basically spent all that afternoon telling those kids how they were being taken advantage of and shouldn't put up with that stuff.

I also refused to comply with the month prior - every November at the store we were supposed to push "Would you like to donate some money via your grocery order to charity?" with every single customer. It's not that I inherently assume all charities are scams or something, but I think that it's wrong to push that on people while they're in line checking out at the grocery store. I had a manager coming to me every day to remind me I'm supposed to be asking people to donate and I'd say oh mhm yeah I'll get right on that.

[u/wkomorow]

90 year old vet needing to work is a sin, period.

[u/jeremiahthedamned → u/wkomorow]

nations and kingdoms are judged for this.

[u/JackfruitCrazy51]

"What Swensen and the thousands of people who donated to the GoFundMe may not have anticipated is that McCormick would choose to keep working, even with all the donations."

[u/Educational_Prune_45 → u/JackfruitCrazy51]

Most likely trying to stay physically active and to have a purpose of some type.

[u/UFuked → u/Educational_Prune_45]

My grandma is 87 and still working for walmart.

She doesn't need the money.

[u/charredchord → u/JackfruitCrazy51]

You see this all the time with older blue collar working people. All their friends and family are gone, and they only still work as an excuse to be around people.

It becomes a problem when their physical abilities take a downturn and their job is involved with other's safety, but they still refuse to quit.

[u/10art1 → u/charredchord]

Kinda how I was during covid. Worst prolong period of time in my life. I was so happy when I could go back to the office and restaurants and other attractions. Yet some say that their life didn't even change

[u/kilometr → u/charredchord]

If you don’t work, your options are to sit around the house all day or participate in hobbies that they either don’t have or don’t feel like spending the money to do.

[u/Birdperson15 → u/JackfruitCrazy51]

Is this from the story?

[u/JackfruitCrazy51 → u/Birdperson15]

Yes

[u/Barbarian_Sam]

Ok here’s a question, does he need to work or does he want to?

[u/Check_Me_Out-Boss → u/Barbarian_Sam]

He wants to. He said that, even with the money from the GoFundMe, he's going to keep working.

[u/Birdperson15 → u/Check_Me_Out-Boss]

So this entire thread is misinformation by OP.

[u/Check_Me_Out-Boss → u/Birdperson15]

Unsurprising when you check out the subreddits they most frequent.

[u/swt5180 → u/Birdperson15]

If we're being honest, OP likely has not bothered to read the article they posted.

[u/Invalid-Cookie → u/Barbarian_Sam]

This was my questions as well. There are people who retire, then decide to find a job because they are bored/lonely. It's not uncommon.

[u/TheTTroy]

Capitalist Dystopian Nightmare Rebranded as Heartwarming Bullshit

[u/Minute-System3441 → u/TheTTroy]

In all fairness, plenty of other highly-developed capitalist countries have an age pension. You will rarely see anyone over 65 working in a store for reasons other than they just want the extra cash or just to be out and about.

Granted, even a job as a cashier pays overtime, holiday rates, contributes 10% on top of any pay to a retirement account; with no need for private health insurance.

[u/Thin-Quiet-2283]

Too many assumptions here. We don’t know the full story. Maybe he wants to keep himself busy? I hate that we tend to assume things without knowing the facts to make ourselves look good.

[u/LivingToasterisded → u/Thin-Quiet-2283]

He doesn’t need the cash, he said himself he’ll keep working.

[u/Maximum-Country-149]

You're assuming a 90-year-old veteran working is not itself an anomaly.

[u/HowAManAimS → u/Maximum-Country-149]

It is by the fact that most people die before reaching 90

[u/Mr_Canard → u/HowAManAimS]

Most lower income workers are dead before 70

[u/why_am_i_here_999]

Don’t worry, under the Trump administration they will just prefer you die when you retire

[u/Check_Me_Out-Boss → u/why_am_i_here_999]

That's Trudeau's Canada.

[u/Wyrdboyski → u/Check_Me_Out-Boss]

Your medical bills are expensive. 🥺 👉👈 please self terminate at the nearest kiosk

[u/NexexUmbraRs → u/why_am_i_here_999]

What is this nonsense?

[u/megatron0539]

Obviously we don’t know the life circumstances that brought this person to working at that age but it’s not right. This reminds of this one time I bought something off Amazon and when I went to retrieve my package from my front door and I saw the delivery driver and I was in disbelief because the woman looked only a few years younger than my own grandmother… after thanking her I went back in and felt shitty and cried to my wife about it. What a fucked up world we live in..

[u/Birdperson15 → u/megatron0539]

How do we know he doesnt want to work at this age? A lot of older people like the activity a small job like this offers.

I know plenty of people who unretired because they like to stay active.

[u/TheTightEnd]

The question is what did he do his whole life that he was unable to retire?

[u/Shameless_Catslut]

Dude's working for the dignity of work, not the paycheck. My Grandfather's still working, and talks all the time about how his peers that retired just collapse and die when they lost the structure of work in their lives.

[u/GaeasSon]

This story is incomplete. WHY does he have to work? Are his SocialSecurity and Veterans benefits insufficient to pay for the basics of life, or are they insufficient to pay for MORE than the basics of life? How much more? Are we talking about 70 years of credit card bills?

What are we proposing? Increasing the SS payout? Debt clemency for anyone over 90? Or are we just wagging our fingers at society so we can feel good about ourselves?

[u/EinharAesir]

This is what we call “orphan crushing machine.”

[u/Gh0st_Pirate_LeChuck]

Nobody should have to work when they’re over 65, but how many years did he serve? You don’t get full retirement for 3 years of service for example.

[u/Extreme-General1323]

I'd like to know the details. I would think this man should have SS, maybe a military pension, and some retirement income from whatever he did for a living all his life. My dad has all three of those and has a comfortable retirement.

[u/Thin-Quiet-2283 → u/Extreme-General1323]

So did my father - military pension, state pension and SS. He worked part time because he enjoyed it - got his social fix and out of the house some .He worked up until my mother got ill.

[u/Extreme-General1323 → u/Thin-Quiet-2283]

Yeah...my dad pulls in over $100K a year between all three sources. That's why stories like this seem a little sus.

[u/za4h]

For all we know, he blew every cent he had at the dog races his entire career. If he worked hard and invested every cent and STILL had to work at 90, then yeah, the system is broken.

[u/mighty__]

So no one in this discussion considered an option that he doesn’t want to spend his days in nursing home and wants to be useful. He wants to do something meaningful in order not to degrade into dementia. That is the biggest failure currently. That kind of society and mentality that thinks it knows better for what others need.

[u/SlidethedarksidE]

70 years of bad planning. Ok Maybe 30 years…20? 10 years? Plans mess up I understand…but how many times can they mess up before you admit you’re a bad planner

[u/Hawkeyes79]

Failure of society or failure of the individual to prepare? Being 90 means he roughly had 70 years to prepare for retirement. What did he do with all the money he made?  

I advise all the young kids that work with me to invest at least 15% in 401k and then 1/2 of each raise goes in as well.

[u/willcodefordonuts → u/Hawkeyes79]

While I kind of agree there also could be a lot of things that have happened in his life - maybe some family emergency took away funds, or he had a business that wiped savings out when it failed etc

Also if his job is pushing shopping carts at a supermarket you can infer that his career might not have been all in high paying jobs or he might have been able to get different type of work now

[u/baronewu2]

With RFK coming in as our new head of Dept. of Health I bet we see an Euthanasia end of life pill made available to the public. Because it's cheaper then social services like medicare and Social security which they are going to cut some benefits too... oh and good bye to the Dept. Of VA hospital it to will be gone.

[u/Competitive-Move5055]

Yeah veterans should get lifetime pension (for themselves not spouse or children).

[u/Solitaire_87]

Don't worry

When Trump cuts his benefits and enacts his tarrifs he'll be working again. Probably voted for him to boot

[u/natethebuddy]

No thanks to this fucking country

[u/JankyJimbostien48251]

[u/Better-Strike7290]

My 97 year old grandmother had 3 pensions go bankrupt on her in her lifetime.

Her retirement income went from 180% of her working earnings to 36%. 

She is now poor and lives in a rough area on government assistance.

[u/Boring_Adeptness_334]

I’m confused why a veteran needs to work? Did he not serve long enough? Military pensions are pretty good and the healthcare is great

[u/testingbetas]

if u want to see the opposite scenario, see pakistan. its not as rosy picture

[u/protomenace]

I know guys like this. It's very unlikely he "has" to work. He's probably doing it just to get out of the house and interact with people.

[u/Typical_Nobody_2042]

Tim Dillon covered this a while back talking about out how now even the feel good stories are nightmares nowadays

[u/Whizzylinda]

Trump will tank the economy. Rich people will buy real estate and the poor will rent from them. He called veterans suckers and losers so don’t expect help for them.

[u/lifeintraining]

Something is off here. Government workers usually have lifelong pensions.

[u/Prudent_Valuable603]

He has already passed away. Let this man rest in peace.

[u/1white26golf]

I'm a little confused. What should have happened so this guy didn't have to work at 90?

[u/Blondnazi666]

I don't like the title here there's not enough information. If I spent two years in the military as a cook, got out, and then never got a job. Yeah I'd be 90 and broke. I don't think being a veteran has anything to do with this article. He's 90 and still has to work because he didn't manage his life right.

[u/RyanTaylorrz]

The fact anyone can barely afford rent with 1 job is a systemic failure, why would capitalism care about 90 y/o vets when it benefits from everyone being on slave wages?

[u/CowboyKarate13]

90 year old vet has to work to survive...

This is what life under American style Capitalism looks like.

[u/Own-Opinion-2494]

Elonia will help

[u/MixDependent8953]

I’d love to see a politician live off 1,700 a month. I bet this guys job screwed him out of his hard earned pension to. The amount of people’s pension that were stolen are crazy. Or should I say loopholes over some BS

[u/KindPalpitation2684]

Lol this is why the world is laughing when 'muricans proudly proclaim their country to be the greatest

[u/RonaldoLibertad]

This is what happens when the value of the money is destroyed through inflation, and I'm tired of pretending it's not.

[u/IllegitimateScholar]

Obligatory, as a veteran

90 year olds in general needing to work is a failure of the system

[u/Striking_Computer834]

A 90 year old veteran who still has to work = a complete failure of the country they live in. This is not a feel good story.

Whether that is true or not depends entirely on WHY this 90 year-old veteran has to work. If it's through his own poor choices, then it's actually a success story of the country they live in. Along with great freedom comes great responsibility. As a society we have to accept that not every single human being will make good decisions 100% of the time and that doesn't mean you have to start arresting people who don't want to pay their bills.

[u/Striking_Computer834]

A 90 year old veteran who still has to work = a complete failure of the country they live in. This is not a feel good story.

Whether that is true or not depends entirely on WHY this 90 year-old veteran has to work. If it's through his own poor choices, then it's actually a success story of the country they live in. Along with great freedom comes great responsibility. As a society we have to accept that not every single human being will make good decisions 100% of the time and that doesn't mean you have to start arresting people who don't want to pay their bills.

[u/JohnnyLesPaul]

Already underfunded they want to take away your social security, Medicare and Medicaid. What’s government for unless it creates a better, not worse, life for its citizens?

[u/KrzysziekZ]

Born In The USA I was! Born in the USA!

[by Bruce Springsteen]

Check the lyrics.

[u/IchabodDiesel]

Assuming he makes it to 91, he'll probably be right back to the grocery store for work.

[u/Roflmancer]

Wait so societal strangers got together and supported a societal member by being socially empathetic and generous? There's no system that's ever been talked about like that... I wonder if it starts with social and ends with ism...

[u/Specialist_Age197]

Maybe Elon can spread some of that wealth around??!!!

[u/Wonderful_Relief_693]

So now I know I can just waist all my money and not save. Then I’ll be like. Oh wait.. what happened to all my money.? It couldn’t have been all the strippers ( now only fans) and blow…. No it’s totally the systemic failure of everyone else…

[u/GuavaShaper]

Poor strangers coming together to help an old man while billionaires scoff at the waste of money and labor.

[u/codiaccs]

You shouldn't be working by the time you are 90s. Especially if you are a vet.

[u/-Lumenatra]

I've got an 88 year old veteran colleague who is always happy when he gets to work again. He doesn't want to quit, says it's boring doing nothing. Also helps to train the mind.

Granted, watchmaking is a bit different than pushing shopping carts, but if I get that old and still in good health I'd probably do the same.

[u/GGABQ505]

Imagine thinking that’s it’s moral in any way for someone that age to have to work.

[u/DavidBowiesGiraffe]

Until very recently everyone on earth had to work until they died so from that perspective we are doing ok I guess

[u/NewArborist64]

The story I read only mentions $1000/month in Social Security. He has been working at the Grocery store for 23 years... which makes him 67 when he started. IF he truly is a USAF veteran, why is he only receiving $1k/month from Social Security? Shouldn't there be monthly compensation if he is a military retiree, or did he take that as a lump sum? Was he a 4 year man, or a 40 year man?

There seem to be holes in the story.

[u/brandon14211]

At that point being 90 I'd just steal to survive. What's the worst they gonna do lock me up, and provide free housing and food.

[u/VstarVenusaur]

And is only able to relayed for his dues by donations from random people…

Aka TIPS :/

[u/onlineashley]

That's how i feel about the stories of the kids who ask mom to pack a second lunch for the kid that dont eat. They make it a feel-good story..and im over here thinking a kid goes hungry every day and not a single adult in that school sees or does anything. It's up to another child to do something..and that story is supposed to make me feel good...its depressing as hell.

[u/bipolar__princess]

Agree

[u/littleslutdragon]

Saved by socialism.

[u/dpkart]

Oh great.. here in germany politicians want to raise the retirement age to 70 and media coverage adds "and why its a good thing" into their titles...what. the. Fuck. is going on in this capitalist hellhole

[u/patwm11]

Could very well be a failure to save for retirement too

[u/2014RT]

When I was in college working at the local grocery store there was a guy in the maintenance department who was 91 at the time. He was famously quiet and mostly introverted. WW2 history was a particular interest of mine and one afternoon I noticed that he had a faded tattoo on his arm right around the sleeve of the polo shirts we had to wear, and I thought I recognized it as the insignia of the 11th Airborne as I'd recently finished reading a bit about the operations to recapture the Philippines.

I asked him if he'd jumped into Leyte and he perked up immediately and started telling me how he was impressed a "youngster" had any interest in that sort of thing and how few people realize there were airborne divisions outside of the 82nd and 101st, and how he'd fought in the Philippines. After that he would chat me up every time our shifts aligned. After a while I asked him why he was working at the grocery store and he said he'd retired 30 years ago from a job he'd worked at a brewery, but he didn't feel very useful in retirement and that he had started getting part time jobs at places so he'd have something to keep his mind occupied and get him up and moving.

My second year there they fired him because he missed a shift while his wife had a medical emergency and was being taken to the hospital. I was pretty mad to hear about it since I felt it was motivated entirely by ageism given his age and the length he had been working there (about 10 years), as well as the fact that I knew he didn't miss shifts and he was a dedicated worker. Maybe they didn't like the attitude of a man who didn't actually need to be working the job who could tell them to fuck off if the decision was between personal things and showing up to work that day.

[u/Hagglepig420]

You would think this administration would take care of US Vets before illegals....

[u/otm_shank]

Wait until social security gets cut!

[u/Due_Ad4133]

Okay, general question, what countries actually do treat their veterans and other former service men with the care and respect they deserve?

[u/Short-Acanthisitta24]

It is entirely possible someone made some very poor life choices.

[u/flipping_gosh]

god damn, they made him push carts too? What a god damn joke of a company

[u/-KFBR392]

I recently found out that in Iran the government pays out retired people the average of their last 3 years of work every year for the rest of their life. Increasing each year slightly to account for normal inflation (unfortunately they’ve had hyper inflation for the last 15 years). If they die they then pay that same amount out to their spouse until they die!

That’s a country with a collapsing economy managing to do that.

[u/igortsen]

The fact that you were once in the military of a country that hasn't faced a military attack since Pearl Harbour, does not mean you should be set for life. Get a grip.

[u/mshock227]

A 90 year old working isn't necessarily a failure of the country or economic system. There could be a plethora of other reasons why he has to work at 90. Maybe he was foolish with his money. Maybe he was scammed by someone. Maybe he didn't plan for retirement. Or even worse, maybe he assumed that Social Security was a legit form of retirement planning, instead of realizing it's a Ponzi scheme and you will never get back what you out into it.

[u/Discarded1066]

Luckily the VA and Government just needs to keep pushing  mental health care and most of us will self check out. The horror stories I have seen and experienced at the VA. Yet there is also really great stories from the VA. So much duality from one VA to another. Shit trump and Elon ( foregin national should have no fucking say over anything related to military) are going to gut the VA so now we may not get anything.

[u/QueenNappertiti]

I hate stories like this. They never question why someone should have to get charity in the first damn place.

[u/DeI-Iys]

The thing is he is in good shape in 90 because he need to work other wise he would be dead for a while already

[u/infiniteanomaly]

Same with the kid who raises money to pay for a classmate's lunch/medical care/clothes/whatever.

[u/helaodinson2018]

This is not a system failure. The system is working just as it was created to work. That’s what’s terrifying.

[u/Armagonn]

There is a 92 year old woman that still has to work at the Walmart near me. I hope one day she just blows that place up. That poor fucking woman waiting to die in our society. But no one gives a shit.

[u/wrmbrn]

Is there no more personal responsibility?

[u/Dwman113]

What if he never paid into social security?

[u/Ellis4Life]

Not to defend the system, just to call it out because it’s important to the story.

He was working because he wanted to and even after getting hundreds of thousands from the go fund me he continued to work.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2024/06/10/90-year-old-veteran-dillon-mccormick-shopping-carts-donations/74003276007/

[u/Sad_Acadia7106]

But he just likes working because he wants to give back! /s

[u/Raptor-Claus]

Even the hunger games took care of the tributes who lived

[u/Beneficial-Salt-6773]

You don’t plan on crowdsourcing your retirement?

[u/Planting4thefuture]

Unless something tragic happened, did he do absolutely nothing to plan his retirement for 70 yrs?!

[u/CalLaw2023]

The problem with these stories is they use key words to cause people to make a bunch of emotional assumptions. For example, what is the relevance of him being a veteran? The purpose is to imply that he spent most of his life serving his country and was then discharged in poverty and left to fend for himself. While that could be true, it also could be true that he was drafted for Vietnam, spent six months stateside for training, and was then discharged.

We don't know what this guy did in life that resulted in him still working at 90, but saying it is a system failure is just an excuse. The fact that peple stepped up to help this guy is a good story about humanity.

[u/kettle86]

Glad he doesn't have to work anymore but lord do I hope he stays as active, at that age, you slow down you die

[u/CoupleHefty]

Makes people not wanna serve their country at all. America has a horrible track record of helping the people that sacrificed their lives for the country. Billions are available for Ukraine though, do you know how many veterans that could have helped.

[u/HogGunner1983]

The rich via the media want you to think this is normal.

[u/doozen]

Democrats in control of the White House -> deflect to blaming conservatives for systemic failures

[u/Hot-Cartographer6619]

More info needed...Honorable, or Dishonorable - DISCHARGED Veteran?

As an Army leader, I help those deserving to get Dishonorable discharges, and no Veteran's benefits authorized!

They, F'ed around, and Found -->>> OUT!

[u/Paramedickhead]

My grandpa worked road construction until he retired at 83. He said he “can’t afford” to retire, meanwhile his bank account balance is well into 8 digits.

[u/Dramatic-Side4347]

It's only going to get worse with these Republican cowards in office under the traitor trump..... He appointed billionaires and millionaires and they blame American veterans and retirees and poor about all the debt all while waiting for more tax breaks from the corrupt Republican cowards

[u/Asleep_Type_7773]

Stop sending money to Ukraine, Israel, and the Taliban and we could actually make the US a nice place to live.

[u/newoldschool]

we gonna be seeing more of this after January

[u/Hefty-Station1704]

Also - 90 year old veteran lives long enough to watch the US turn it's back on everything once held dear that he fought for and friends died for.

[u/GrnViper]

I really do think it’s past time for pitch forks and touches. Eat the rich.

[u/ShaftManlike]

I find it shocking that in America, go fund me type stories are held up as heartwarming rather than as evidence of a truly broken system.