Retirement blues

Is the 401(k) beginning to look like a pipe dream? (via Reddit)

The 401(k) was the scheme of the century. Corporations offloaded their "burdensome" pensions and used the combined forces of the media and politicians to sell the ruse to the public, to the great benefit of Wall Street. Workers were told that the boom-slump cycle was over, and that stocks were a sure thing. There were additional factors to invest in stocks: interest rates were so low that investing in bonds and other less-risky instruments offered only tiny returns; and since employers stopped contributing to retirement funds, a bigger return was required. More importantly, corporations have been driving down real wages since the seventies, allowing less money to be saved for retirement, creating a mood of desperation. Every “safe bet” for investing has been proven unsafe; the recession has left nothing untouched. After the dotcom bubble burst — taking with it millions of people's 401(k) savings — the housing market became the place to invest. Now the safest possible investment, too, has turned sour. For millions of people, the home they lived in was their nest egg, which they had planned to sell and move into a smaller place. No more.

Poetry

Female genital mutilation - man's controlling hand, again... by Patrick Jones

eyelids down
drenched in righteousness
spitting venom upon innocent skin

sworn
to secrecy
steeped in indignity
parading as,
cultural identity,

stapled sexuality
an egotist's litany
controlling lives
with rusted knives

stitched virginity
with thorns of masculinity

the mouth clings to memory
as blood in dirt
an indelible history
drowned in theocracy

even diamonds slip to insignificance
as the price of purity
rises as does
the perpetual misery

be it religion or cultural
that shape the fear of the clitoral
all are evil and genocidal

eyelids open
drenched in morality
spit reason
upon decrepid ritual

Note: Patrick Jones was recently forced to launch his new collection of poems in the street after a bookstore cancelled the event because of a campaign by Christian activists. Christian Voice said the book was "obscene and blasphemous" and called on the chain to remove copies from stores.(via Bookslut )

Sign of the times

I read this quote today from a young lady from Colorado who quit her job voluntarily to nurse her husband full time. The situation is sad but commendable. It turns out that the husband was an Iraq war veteran who was shot in battle and is now rendered a quadriplegic.

"I am here and I take wonderful care of Matt and I enjoy it, but he would be institutionalized without me. He is my full-time job now. I just feel like I should be compensated for that. They should value what I do."

From when did spouses who take voluntary decisions to look after their families have to be compensated by the Federal government for the work done?

Of course, one might say that my statements are not in good taste considering that her spouse gave up his freedoms for our country and is entitled to adequate compensation. I might have gone with a ‘not in good taste’ mode until I found that the family in question already has access to the following amenities:

• This war veteran gets a full disability pension of $6,800 a month.
• This family was given a well landscaped split level home with two car garages - donated to them free of cost.
• The family also has the ability to hire a person of ones choice to look after the affairs at home - a service that is paid for by the government in cases such as these.

At this rate, we need to start keeping tabs and asking the Feds compensation for looking after our children. That is also a full time job over and above ones regular job. Maybe we are all getting too caught up in the free money for everyone bailout scheme in vogue. Of course in the endgame, going to Iraq in the first place was the biggest mistake.