Hi Everyone:

It’s obviously been a very strange world since early 2020, and I’m still not feeling entirely secure about where things are heading. While there’s plenty of positive things happening due primarily to people getting vaccinated, there are plenty of folks out there who are still living in 45’s inexplicably absurd world and the Fox News bamboozle land, stubbornly insisting that it’s not absolutely necessary to get vaccinated, denying climate change, trying to suppress voters, and still saying the election was fraudulent.

And shame on the GOP for not supporting a bipartisan investigation into the Jan. 6 insurrection. The party has turned into a hugely disturbing bad joke.

As I try (sometimes unsuccessfully) to tune out the aforementioned noise, I’ve been working diligently in two worlds, Workforce Monitor (WFM) and Old Anima. It’s been quite the trip, and I don’t see myself slowing down anytime soon. I continue to build out the Old Anima website but still haven’t found a way to monetize it. Any good Buddhist will say that having too many expectations is a sure way to live an unhappy life, so I try to tamper down my expectations for Old Anima, although that too becomes difficult at times. WFM, however, which is all about education and workforce development, is making great strides. I have added a new section to the WFM site simply titled “Older Adults.” There are three posts inside that category thus far, with plans to write much more on a more consistent basis.

Overall, I’m trying to get to the heart of some key issues related to aging, finances, and work. The new Old Anima Lifelong Working section addresses these key issues in more depth with more resources for older adults than the WFM site.  

Older adults are pretty much being confronted by the same labor and self-sufficiency issues and challenges  on a global scale. Here in the U.S., for instance, 40% of older adults rely solely on social security for their financial well-being, when social security was not meant to be one’s sole income for adequate survival. The same kind of self-support challenges are being faced by older adults in Europe and Canada, but at least they have socialized medicine, so the prospect of a serious health issue taking them to the financial cleaners – as it does to older adults in the U.S. – does not exist. (We still need you Bernie Sanders, and hopefully the obstructionist-in-chief Mitch McConnel will fade off into the sunset.) Combine the social security statistic with older adults living longer, declining birth rates, difficult times for older adult entrepreneurs, and changing labor demands, and a new picture comes into view that I explain in more depth in an article headlined “Mixed Bag of Demographics and Labor Market Shifts Paint Confusing Picture of What’s In Store for Working Older Adults.”

Meanwhile, see my recent Editor’s Picks below for interesting articles about aging.

Have a great holiday,

George

P.S. I will resume “Conversations with Saul” when the urge strikes. 😊