Firstly Pensions are almost a non-existent term now. Very few companies give out pensions. Only larger older companies have the capacity and resources. The reason being that so few people stick with their jobs longer than a few years. That is part of how our society is now. Companies realize that a pension fund is useless if no one stays with a job. I would love to have a pension fund, and I would enjoy sticking with one company that I really enjoy. Unfortunately I just can’t find something like that anymore.

And I don’t think it is as much government intervention that is needed as it is societal change. No one wants to stick with a job anymore. As soon as they become bored with a job they move on to the next.

I am sorry about my rant, unfortunately I also feel upset about the situation. As if my future wasn’t uncertain enough, I have one more worry to add to the steeping pile.

I work 12 to 18 hours a day, every day, seven days a week. Effectively I have two fulltime jobs: one at the Great Desert University and one on the side. The time I find to write this blog comes at two in the morning and in short breaks between paying projects.

“My father’s retirement” was hardly sumptuous. He worked until his health made it impossible for him to continue working, about eight years past his planned retirement age. He retired on $100,000, having pinched every penny that entered his hands; the double-digit inflation of the 1970s converted the buying power of his life savings to about the equivalent of $30,000 today. The union that muscled out the union he had belonged to most of his adult life stole his pension fund and threatened the families of those members who tried to protest, and so he had no pension from the many years he went to sea. He probably would have starved were it not for Social Security.

“Buck up”? “Get up and get moving”? Are you kidding? How much moving does one have to do? I’ve been writing and editing since two o’clock this morning; I went to bed at 10:00 p.m., having copyedited five chapters of the most ludicrous drivel you can imagine.

My point is that in spite of all the getting up and getting moving, in spite of above-average earning power (some years I have to work to keep my net taxable income BELOW the AMT level), a single earner with excellent savings skills, no significant debt, and a smart investment plan still is likely to hit old age without enough resources to support her or him all the way through to the grave. This is particularly so when we rely on income from equities investments in instruments such as 401(k)’s and 403(b)’s, by their nature a risky affair, to support us through old age.

The 85-plus age group is the fastest growing demographic for the United States: where a generation or two ago Americans could expect to live into their 60s or, if lucky, their 70s, most of us now can reasonably expect to live into our 80s, 90s, or even (heaven help us) our 100s.

Even a substantial savings fund — say, a million dollars — is unlikely to keep you out of poverty as you age. And if you’re in Betsey and her husband’s position, you could indeed be in deep trouble. God help you if one member of your partnership dies or is severely disabled.

It’s all well and good to say we’ll work until we drop in the traces, which is what I plan to do. But let’s bear in mind that old age is no picnic. Many of us — possibly most of us — will not be ABLE to work for the entirety of our lives. A time comes when, physically or mentally (or both), you’re simply no longer competent to do paying work. Then what? Should those folks who can no longer pull the plow be set adrift on icebergs and left to die?

And those of us who can no longer work and then find we can’t stay in our homes because the taxes outpace our incomes? Do we take up residence under the oleanders along the Arizona Canal?

What exactly are we going to do, as a civilized people, to see that the elderly are safely housed, fed, and cared for over the next 40 years or so?

My husband and I realized this before we were married two years ago. We had two choices then: a) moan about how unfair it all is — especially when we are confronted on a daily basis with seeing his parents on a fabulous pension and investment income — and still wind up broke; or b) figure out something of a money-maker aside from our day jobs that we enjoy doing together so that it won’t seem too much like work. We’re in our mid-fifties, with no 401k, no pension, nada. Our most recent social security statement, if it can be believed, predicts a household income at age 70 of about half of our current obligations.

We’re working on choice b, planning on staying as active and engaged as we are able. Productivity is the recipe for a happier, better life at any age, under any circumstances.

Why anyone would accept or promote as fact that the country “needs to take action to keep its elders out of dire poverty” is beyond me. You’re the one who needs the government. Why? You’re educated, smart, and capable. Buck up!

I do feel sorry for those who bought into the idea that they work for x number of years and then get to putter with a direct deposit every month. It’s disappointing as all get out to realize you wasted all that time. But it is what it is. Get up and get moving. Your copy editing business is a great step in the right direction.

How does gratitude or lack of it change the fact that this country needs to take action to keep its elders out of dire poverty?

I won’t even be able to afford to retire. So be grateful for what you have.