Would Be Funny If It Wouldn't Be Sad
What's happened today may look funny for many, but if you think of it, it's rather sad and shows what's the end goal here.
Yesterday someone rang my doorbell, I mean my number at the entrance of the apartment building, which we call interphone, but it's also called intercom. Turned out it was the representative of the gas company, doing checkups every two years, which is mandatory. There's a whole procedure you need to respect, among which you need to have your central heating checked by the specialist, which is also mandatory every two years. These are things you don't want to miss, if you want to be safe.
I told the guy I still have 2 months till the next deadline, so first I need to have my central heating checked, then the gas, which is his department. I got his card and we agreed I'd call, when the time comes.
Today someone rang my doorbell again. Can you guess who it was? It was the representative of the gas company. I recognized the voice right away, but what could I do? I opened the door and right in front of me was standing the same man as yesterday. He introduced himself again, told me the purpose of his visit. I was looking shocked and had to realize he's seriously doesn't remember what happened yesterday.
At that point I was forced to tell him we spoke yesterday and agreed I'd call when the time comes. The funny thing is, he did not remember and even asked me if I have his number. I told him he gave me his card and even showed it to him. At that point he started to smile, but it was more out of embarrassment. He said he could have saved himself from walking up and down the stairs, but at least he crossed my name off the list and made a note, that I'd call when it's time.
Most likely the story seems funny, but I honestly felt sorry for the man. He was in his early 60's I think and trust me, cases like this are not something anyone would want to experience.
I understand that he's speaking to a number of people every single day, but to not remember anything ... my face, the location of my apartment, the door, or any small detail, ... after just 24 hours, it's just sad.
This case made me think of the real reason this happened.
The retirement age for men in my country is 65 years, starting from last year I think and it was raised from 62, which was the previous threshold. This measure was taken last year out of necessity (they say), because the working community can't support the number of pensioners, but the real reason behind the decision is the disastrous economic management and kleptocracy. Over the years the retirement age has been raised several times and I bet this was not the last adjustment we see.
It's very easy for the government to raise the threshold. All they care about is collecting the taxes and contribution to social security funds and nothing more. At some point there were discussion to even raise the threshold to 70 years for men. Imagine the productivity and the efficiency of people this age can have, compared to people 20, 30 years younger. Imagine a bus driver of 65 or 70, responsible for the safety of passengers, driving 8 hours par day, 5 days a week. Can they focus and have the reflexes necessary for this type of job?
Instead of enjoying life (what's left of it or course), playing with grand kids, spending time with family and doing what they couldn't due to bus schedule, they still have to show up to work every day and struggle though work hours, because the government says so. Sometimes you see them doing jobs they are not qualified for, just to get to retirement age.
There has to be a limit to everything, including decent retirement age, but disastrous economic management and kleptocracy too. Working 35 years just to get a miserable pension which can hardly cover the expenses of a decent life is not what people want. Slavery had been abolished a long time ago, but modern age slavery is still a thing.
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The gas guy was probably running on autopilot. You go up all those stairs just to realize you already did the job yesterday. I'll collapse knowing how much unnecessary pain I just went through lol. A tough gig at his age
I bet he felt bad and I felt sorry for him honestly.
Not an easy experience man, well I'm sure he can walk it off 🤣🤣🤣🤣 sorry for my bad dark jokes 🙏🤣😁
What a blow to realize after working all of your life,the age to retire has been moved ahead by years! I really feel for him. It isn't funny, just a crazy twist to the story. You're absolutely correct...slavery is still alive and well in many, many forms.
Many had plans to retire at 62 or ladies at an earlier age and imagine the shock to find out you need to work 3 more years, to sponsor some people's lifestyle. Modern age slavery.
yep...I think the full retirement age here is 72! Slavery has always been around in one form or another, but slavery just the same.
72? Holy sh*t! I don't usually ask people where they are from, but which is this crazy country that you have to work till you die?
Crazy is right! I'm in the US. You can retire at 62, which is considered early retirement, but you will get a fraction of what you would recieve at full retirement age. That is assuming you worked your ass off the forty or fifty years. It is a grand ponzi scheme.
It really is sad to go into a store and see some old people standing around with walkers and canes. One lady I worked with had to use a shopping cart to get back and forth to the restroom. It is heartbreaking to see.
The US is failing it's citizens on so many levels. It prides itself for being the best country, or the greatest, but that's extremely far from the truth. It's just empty talk and looking down on other nations. No offense.
I was scrolling through my library to see, I used to have a documentary about what's the difference between the US and Europe, regarding certain areas. A man came to Europe to see what Europe does better and it was shocking to see the difference, starting from education to healthcare and so on. I really need to find that video as it worth watching.
No offense taken. I have always been of the mind that real people, meaning the population of any country, is the same as any other country. We all just want to live... to raise our children in relative safety with enough food and medicine to live full lives. We want access to healthcare and education. We want freedom from wars and oppression, but sadly, it looks as though that is all just a pipe dream.
If you find the video, do let me know. I would love to see it.
Been scrolling through my posts as I has a post about this documentary once, but can't find it :(
You are right, people just want to live, live well, be safe, have healthcare and be happy.
I have to share a crazy story with you.
It was probably mid 2015- I had decided to give the guitar building a solid go. I had built up enough workload to quit my day job and dedicate myself fully to luthiery (so I thought).
As one of my daily activities, I would look in craigslist in an attempt to find good tools I could get my hands on. As your adventure into crafting gets better, tools tend to get "upgraded" to keep up.
Anyways, I see a luthier shop selling their tools. I'm thinking- LIFE IS GOOD!- at this point. Specialized tooling for my specialized line of work. What else could I ask for?
I call the number, get the address and drive over on a big van. I have 400 bucks in my pocket, and I'm ready to pull the trigger.
An older gentleman opens the door- The master Luthier himself. He introduces himself and offers me a tour of his now cob webby shop. I agreed, of course, so off we went.
It took about 40 minutes or so to finish "the tour". It was detailed to say the least. The luthier had spent his whole life building this mad scientist lab/shop, and anyone who loves the craft would be able to appreciate the effort, the love used to make it a reality.
We agree on two things. A big sander, for making guitar necks of course, and a really nice set of pipe clamps. The master luthier offers me a Soda. It's Florida, sunny day, I mean- the only right move here. So we exit the shop and walk back to his house (shop was built in the backyard).
He pours me a cup, he pours himself one too, and sits down in his comfortable lazy chair next to me. This whole time we had been chatting about clients and their ridiculous expectations (typical shop talk).
His eyes seem to get lost for a minute, he gets distracted with the TV. A news show, can't remember what is displaying one of those "BREAKING NEWS" banners in red.
He turns around not a minute later and looks at me and says.
"Hey there... did you come to see my shop? Are you interested in buying some tools? We can go look at the stuff... let me show you around"
I thought to myself- this must be in jest, he's joking, but no- he was serious. The man had forgotten the last hour of his life. I witnessed a reboot of a kind.
Excusing myself, pretending there was an important phone call coming in, I called a good friend of mine, and told him what just happened. He tells me "don't buy a thing... you could get in terrible trouble for taking advantage of an old man- his family could go after you".
I freaked out for a second, when his wife (way younger, suspiciously so btw) arrived and saw me standing in the driveway. Her face morphing into a wrinkly avocado.
"Who are you? Why are you here? Where is my husband?"
Forcing myself to put on the best smile I could muster I explained myself. Showed her my car was empty, and informed her I would be taking my leave.
She walked away slowly, looking back as if there was a possibility I would throw a bucket of water on her head.
Drove home, no tools, but with quite a story to tell.
Holy heaven! You could have written a post about this.
I don't envy you as the situation was quite uncomfortable, but good thing you got out of there unharmed and without a traumatic experience. However, this day you will never forget, I'm sure of it.
I know my dad went through a similar situation, when he was in a hotel room with a painter, who introduced himself at least four times during the day.
It's extremely sad to live like that, but the difficult part is for relatives, who have to take care of these people as they need 24/7 care and it's basically impossible for one person to provide that.
It's terrible here the retirement age it's increase too to much, people over 60 are forced to doing hard job even if they only need to stay at home, and the stress of course can cause a la k of memory and may difficulties.
I think that's the tendency everywhere, because the working population can't support the retired population. That's the fault of governments, but they don't care, so people suffer.
In the US the retirement age is already up to 67...
Terrible. I don't see why one has to be the slave of the state for their whole life honestly.
It is good that they care and perform these reviews. Here in Argentina whenever winter comes there are always problems with gas installations and sadly more people than I would like die from gas leaks.
Sadly, retirement in all countries is the biggest scam of all and the worst thing is that we accept it. My father is already 72 years old and he has to keep working to support himself and at that age he should be enjoying everything he has built brick by brick throughout his life.
These checkups are a must and you can have your gas cut off if you don't have it. It sounds brutal, but it's a must.
I'm really sorry to hear your dad still has to work at that age, it's brutal and not fair at all.