The 99'ers

Like millions of other formerly employed Americans, I am among those who have exhausted their 99 weeks of unemployment insurance. As working Americans make plans for Thanksgiving and Christmas, we are wondering how will we put food on the table and keep a roof over our heads.
Times are tough for millions of us, but probably none have been harder hit than the greying members of my generation. These aging Baby Boomers are unwanted surplus labor in a job market shrunken by outsourcing, Wall Street profiteers, improved technology and ineffective government Thirty years ago, we would have taken to the streets and demanded that government step in and create jobs much as was done during the last Great Depression. But these days, the generation that marched against the war in Vietnam are too tired and beaten down to stand against injustice. We've been beaten down for a long time now, as evidenced by the fact that few of us stood up and opposed the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Those Baby Boomers who opposed the wars left it to the younger generation to stand up against war. The younger generation, our sons and daughters, did not fear involuntary conscription. The war wasn't fought with draftees, only young men and women who volunteered to fight and die for their country. Unthreatened by the draft, the younger generation shrugged and said it "wasn't our problem."
It seems many Americans take the same view of unemployment. It's a recession when your neighbor loses his job. It's a depression when unemployment hits home.
I suggest it's time we faced facts. Unless we somehow find the resolve to restore our once-powerful manufacturing sector, millions of middle-aged Americans will no longer be needed in the work force. These former workers, many college educated, are simply surplus in a changing economy.
We should lower the age at which workers can collect Social Security and allow these middle-aged 99'ers to retire early with a measure of dignity and security. Lowering the retirement age for those 55 to 61 would immediately reduce unemployment levels by removing these millions of unwanted workers from the unemployment rolls and create new opportunities for younger workers. This was one of the benefits of the original Social Security Act approved in the 30's. While it provided a much-needed benefit to millions of older workers, it also provided a powerful incentive that convinced many older Americans to retire and provided jobs for younger workers.
This won't happen, of course. Republicans will condemn any move to provide relief to the suffering working class. They'll rail against "big government" even as they expand its reach into Americans' private lives. The same politicians who fought against providing extended benefits to the jobless would oppose any effort to provide a security net to people deemed surplus by corporate America.