Donors raise $233,000 to give US cart pusher, 90, chance at retirement

MicroWave@lemmy.world to News@lemmy.world – 189 points – Donors raise $233,000 to give US cart pusher, 90, chance at retirement
theguardian.com

Thousands of people have donated about a quarter of a million dollars to a 90-year-old US air force veteran who has been financially supporting himself by pushing shopping carts at a grocery store in sweltering Louisiana – and now has the option of retiring if he wants thanks to the strangers’ generosity.

The story centers on Dillon McCormick, who is among a growing number of Americans to extend their working careers well past the average retirement age as the cost of living in the US has soared and most employees’ wages have stagnated over the years, preventing many from being able to save.

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While I applaud people for donating, each donation should come with calls to congress asking why on earth a 90 year old is forced to work to survive in our society. We should be ashamed

That's such a great idea! A site where we can pay a dollar to annoy a politician and that dollar goes to someone who needs it!! Can you make that?!

I remember a post showing how to contact your representative, immediately followed by instructions for hiring a stripper-gram. I feel like glitter would be a great option for annoying politicians. That and gummy-dicks.

Orphan crushing machine continues its implacable work

I was about to riot because I'm used to seeing a headline like this in r/upliftingnews. Absolutely shameful that this is where we are.

is there a c/OrphanCrushingMachine yet?

We shouldn't use charity to fix the system - we need to tax the rich into poverty.

I pushed carts at a big box store for a year in my 20's. Fucking sucked. In an 8 hour shift you could easily walk 20,000+ steps and walk over 10 miles (GPS verified). And you do it no matter the weather. Pouring rain? Out there. Sweltering heat? Out there. -5F and 6" of snow? Out there.
This work can be brutal, even for a young healthy person, let alone a 90 year old vet.
The worst part? I was paid the exact same wage as the cashiers who stayed inside the entire time. About $10/hr on average in 2017.

I had my first minor heart attack pushing carts in the snow for Toys R US at 16. That was a brutal job for $4.75 an hour in 97.

I worked at a grocery store in 2003 in California for a short time. I joined just after a major strike had ended. As always, the company was pushing for lower wages and benefits, the union wanted higher. They came to an agreement with a two tiered system, tenured employees got to stick with a pay scale and benefits slightly better than what they'd had before.

New employees got fucked.

A couple months in I was promoted to cashier from bagger and got to see the two tiers. I was starting at $18 per hour, the original tier started at more than double that and went up pretty high.

Not really related to your comment, but I'm a little drunk after a rough day and seeing those amounts just really fucking pisses me off. My numbers are not adjusted for inflation and wages have gone down for the job I did in the last 20 years. It's fucking maddening.

Enjoy your two weeks of retirement, I guess.

Yeah was trying to game out how long you could stretch that out if you're 90

I want to share this with some friends but i know that my 10 blue friends will say we need to make retirement available to everyone and my two red friends will make a comment about Biden and inflation.

We need to first dislodge retirement from Wall Street, and make a law that social security cannot ever be used as any funding for anything but what it was designed for.

Nobody should be working at that age. Heartbreaking.

America Americaaaa, from sea to shining sea - Where people have to work to 90 and beg for money to retire.