I am getting old. At this writing, I am 54 years of age, middle-aged, and in good health, but very much at a point where I need to worry—a great deal, in fact—about my old age, about that not insignificant possibility that there will be a day when I can no longer work in a society that has eviscerated its social safety net.[1] I am also at a point where I have exhausted some sources of funding and no longer have enough income to reasonably get by.
- [1]Kristina Cooke, David Rohde, and Ryan McNeill, “The Undeserving Poor,” Atlantic, December 20, 2012, http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2012/12/the-undeserving-poor/266507/; Bryce Covert, “Clinton Touts Welfare Reform. Here’s How It Failed,” Nation, September 6, 2012, http://www.thenation.com/blog/169788/clinton-touts-welfare-reform-heres-how-it-failed; Bryce Covert, “This Is What Happens When You Rip a Hole in the Safety Net,” Nation, March 28, 2013, http://www.thenation.com/blog/173567/heres-what-happens-when-you-rip-hole-safety-net; Democracy Now!, “As Lawmakers Target Food Stamp Funding, New Report Finds 1 in 6 in U.S. Are Going Hungry,” May 30, 2013, http://www.democracynow.org/2013/5/30/as_lawmakers_target_food_stamp_funding; Peter Edelman, “The Worst Thing Bill Clinton Has Done,” Atlantic, March, 1997, http://www.theatlantic.com/past/docs/issues/97mar/edelman/edelman.htm; Dennis Loo, Globalization and the Demolition of Society (Glendale, CA: Larkmead, 2011).↩