Letters: Grandpa has to keep working

Re “Older workers crowd labor market,” Sept. 3

I am everything troublesome in this article.

I’m 68, working full time and I don’t buy much. I continue working for just one reason: I have to.

I paid off my house and made certain my 401(k) contained what I thought would be enough to retire. To get me to serve my nation by stepping aside and letting someone younger have my job, my nation needs to do one thing for me: get the Federal Reserve to stop suppressing interest rates so I can get enough return on that saved money to live on.

Sam Foster

Hermosa Beach

Our privatized IRAs and 401(k)s can tank because of Wall Street’s unfettered shenanigans. CEOs pocket record salaries, part of which could have been used to hire enough people to keep companies sufficiently staffed. (How many of us have either been laid off or have been admonished to work leaner and meaner while doing the job of two or three laid-off colleagues?)

Our houses are worth less than they used to be. And we’re probably going to have to watch our government dither and bicker while we approach the “fiscal cliff.” No wonder seniors are hanging on to their jobs.

Sorry kids, but you can bunk at grandpa’s until he leaves you his job at Wal-Mart in his will. Because he’s probably going to have to work until he drops dead.

Mary Edwards

Los Angeles

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