A very interesting and innovative article of older people putting off retirement and carving out a small business niche for themselves.

       I came across an article in the newspaper (Wednesday December 20, 2006) that I find most interesting. The article was discussing how many older people today have chosen to continue being productive. Many of them are starting businesses of their own or being innovative with a flood of ideas to continue working without being an employee. 
     Wow, what a breadth of fresh air to hear this! Could it be the tides are turning and people are becoming less selfish and self centered? What a wonderful concept! Many of the people that I have come across are of the mind set that "they paid their dues" and are now entitled to everything and anything. They have very little regard to what is happening to their own children and grandchildren.
     In Chapter two, page 22 - 24  I make mention of this attitude. 

    "Let me try to give you a few examples of what I am talking about. We have our older generation, excuse me I mean our Senior Citizens who whether rightly or wrongly honestly believe that they should have everything they want simply because they deserve it.
     Has anyone asked any of them why they believe that they deserve to have anything they want, especially when it is at the expense of others that just happen to share the same society? They are all referred to as the greatest generation that ever lived and I am sure that some of them acutally believe this." I know, my parents fall into this category.
     "It is only my opinion, but what I see and hear are a generation of people who have become very self indulgent, jealous and greedy. Is it because we all have a better quality of life today?"
     "Why can they not see what they are doing to this generation, which in most cases are their own children? I am sure that they see how their children are struggling just to make ends meet. It just seems that they just do not care."
     "Over the years it has been worked out for them so that they are guaranteed to receive all the medical care they need in their golden years. Well, that in and of itself is a wonderful idea, but when you start to look a little bit closer you just have to ask at what cost?
     Okay, so our older generation is, here we go again, entitled to receive the best medical care and to receive it whenever they need it. Who is paying for this?? At what cost to the next generation, which are their children, is this happening?"
     "Now I will admit that there are many older adults who legitimately need assisted living, but by the same token there are many who do not and those are the ones that I am really referring to.
     I met a woman a few years ago that was receiving everything that you could imagine. I was very happy for her because I do not like to see people living in the streets and I have seen that too. However, over time I got to know this woman and I began to find out little things that just did not sit well with me.
     She had it all and would brag about it too. She would tell me all the time how now she could go traveling whenever she wanted to because she had plenty of money. She was collecting for everything, including the apartment she was living in and with the money she was receiving she could take trips, go shopping, buy herself a car and just about anything else that she wanted to do. Oh, life was just wonderful according to her.
     Then she began to tell me how after her husband died, she took all the money that she inherited from his insurance policies and put it all in her daughter and her daughters husbands name and kept all of her jewelry hidden so that she could keep it.
     I was able to see some of her jewelry that she had kept hidden from sight and just to see it made my jaw drop. When she let me touch and hold some of her gold chains I actually found it very difficult to understand why she was getting assistance.
     Those gold chains by themselves were worth quite a few thousand dollars all by themselves. Never mind the other pieces of jewelry that she had.
     I do not know for myself just exactly how much money she had in all. She would only tell me that she had thousands hidden away for when she wanted to use it. In the mean time all of her expenses were being paid for, compliments of the working people of today."

     I say kuddos to all who are making the attempt to engage in other worth while endeavors! In the article it has a passage that I will recite for all of you.

     "Workers 55 and older represent one of the fastest growing groups of the self-employed, says consulting firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas. The number of 55-plus Americans working for themselves has increased twenty eight percent since 2000, compared with stagnant or declining self-employment for most other age groups, according to a Challenger analysis of government data.
Today, baby boomers and seniors account for fifty six percent of the nation's self-employed workers, the firm says.
     Boomers will use self-employment as a bridge to retirement," said Lynn Karoly, a senior economist with the RAND Corp.
     Many boomers intend to work longer than previous generations, but they want to work on their own terms, she said.
     They are creating jobs that give them more control over their lives and more self-fulfillment," said Ms. Karoly, who co-wrote a report on Americans fifty and older who have become their own boss."