My wife’s uncles and aunts all lived very comfortable lives. They had nice homes on quiet streets and did the usual modest things, visiting locally and not traveling much, during their retirement years. The uncles had all been World War II vets. They came home from the war and went back to work in the same jobs they’d had in their teens prior to leaving. For all of them it was working at the “shop,” except for one who was employed by the railroad as a freight conductor.
The “shop” was the Lamson and Goodnow cutlery. That business still exists but only as a factory outlet in part of its former mill complex in Shelburne Falls. The uncles all went to work, not needing to carry lunch pails, since they lived close and the company gave them an hour off at midday, and put in a full paycheck’s worth of work running the stamping, grinding, tooling, engraving, and other machines the company used to produce a range of knives and professional kitchen utensils. It had a good market and did plenty of business because of a rock solid reputation for producing quality products and laying a claim to being the oldest operating cutlery in the U.S. The uncles were never part of any union but they received competitive wages and none of them ever left the company during their entire working lives.
The operation moved to Westfield where it continues to make its products in a more automated, high-tech fashion than it had before the move. What prompts these reflections is the fact that all of these couples lived very traditional, one-breadwinner lives and yet accumulated enough savings to still have something left in their bank accounts even after going into nursing homes in their final years. How was that even possible? None of their descendants could pull that off these days.
They weren’t shrewd investors. They used only the standard savings vehicles for their money. There was no retirement package from the factory. They lived off their savings and Social Security once they stopped working. I’m not an economist and the specific factors that made this possible, and now no longer seem to, are beyond my ability to pinpoint. I am interested enough in the answer that I will continue asking others with more knowledge to help me understand it.
What I do know is that the world they lived in was much different than the one we have now. Robert Reich did a short take on the current economy saying that the stock market is a poor indicator of the average person’s well-being. He pointed out that “the richest 10 percent own over 90 percent of the value of all shares of stock. The richest 1 percent own over half of the value of all shares of stock.” He continued, contrasting those numbers with the fact that “only around a third of working-age individuals have any savings at all in 401(k) accounts. About 40 percent of all Americans having no retirement savings whatsoever.”
I have teacher’s retirement which is generous as such things go, but it’s not generous enough to live very comfortably without supplementing it with the earnings from, what usually hovers at around four, part-time jobs. I like the extra stimulation they provide and doing them is not a chore. I also keep myself occupied in other ways as well. Regardless of that, at some point I will be unable to do it and will have to rely on savings and the retirement incomes that my wife and I have accumulated through both of our working lives. The double incomes we’ve accumulated will not likely prevent us from ending up with zero dollars as a bank balance if either, or especially both, of us come to need full-time nursing care.
I don’t want to make that sound like ingratitude. If the state is to be my caretaker in my old age, it can’t be expected to do so while leaving me a hoard of untouchable cash. But, why should I be forced to live out my closing days impoverished and dependent upon the charity of society? I worked a full life as a productive member of it. So did my wife. And yet neither of us will see the same fruits of our labors carried on through old age in the manner that was possible for the generation that came before us. And none of them, if they were here to repeat their lives, could do it again, either.
Philip Lussier is a retired educator who lives in Ashfield.