But the picture has nothing to do with this post. In fact, it's the happiest thing about this sermon, which you can feel free to skip but I feel the need to rant. (And it's my blog so I'll rant if I want to, rant if I want to!)
I read a very depressing article on Yahoo news today. It was about how 40% of people 55 and over have no money at all saved for retirement. And they had interviews with perfectly nice people (not drug addicts or (gasp!) artists or anything) who had lost jobs or taken early retirements due to buyouts etc etc and how these people were working well into their 60's- and beyond. Let's be real: I know very few people (like I can count on one stubby hand) who will ever actually retire.
Take me for example (That's St. Rita to all you nonbelievers). I wish to dissuade anyone in my audience who thinks I didn't try and save money for something as distant and unlikely as the concept of "retirement". I pretty much realized early in my career as a brilliant- if underutilized- artist, that retirement was for others. And I don't mean retirement from making art, but retirement from so-called gainful employment, which frequently turns out to be less than gainful. And unfortunately, many poor suckers and fools who bought into the system and worked every motherfucking day of their adults lives are in no better a position than myself. The American system is broken, the Middle Class is gone and everyone is now forced to live like an artist. Might as well get drunk and enjoy it! (And hell: go ahead and piss in the fireplace afterwards for good measure.)
And even more pathetic was that this article went on to give helpful advice on how it's not too late to try and save now. These tips included things like not indulging in luxuries quite so often. Heavens! I knew I should never have had all those costly spa treatments! I should have never have bought imported Egyptian cotton sheets sets or taken all those trips to exotic far flung places! Bob and I live very well, but we have always gone without things that I suppose others deem essential- like giant screen plasma tvs that need replacement every year because they're just not big or plasmic enough, or even socks without holes in them. And that's fine as I don't particularly miss most of this stuff anyway. But really? Don't tell me where to economize and where not to. Pay check to paycheck and beyond offers many people- artists and not- no room for any savings, let alone disasters. I just laugh or cringe or moan (or do all three in an ironically spasmodic fashion) when I detect this tone of surprise that our system is failing most of us.
We can surely thank the 1% for that. Tax the fuckers and don't allow little weasels like Paul Ryan to start in on "reforms" and cutting "entitlements". I don't know what year most people in America are living in, but it's 2014 and most of us are screwed.
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