‘Lucky’ workers face a gloomy retirement

We are in Portugal this week, thanks entirely to the kindness of relatives who have allowed us to use their apartment. I have always felt a deep sense of shame visiting a country where I don’t speak the language and, as a result, have managed to muster a smattering of basics in a few of the more widely spoken ones. Portuguese is not among them however, and I was more than a little concerned that my ignorance would brand me during our visit.
To my surprise, the part of southern Portugal where we are staying is populated by many people who speak English to a high standard. It is also home to many expatriates and tourists in their late fifties on through the decades to more elderly types.
They have fled the northern European winter to holiday or live in this part of the world where daytime temperatures at the moment are hovering around 20oC. It does start to feel a little chilly at night but this is relative and when considered against even this mild winter in northern Europe, Portugal at this time of year is positively balmy.
If I were to estimate the numbers, I would hazard that the population of the small town in which we are staying is 70% local to 30% visitors and expats.
Many brand-new apartment complexes have been built in recent years and although they stand empty now, their presence gives a good idea of just how many people must visit in the high tourist season.
The local economy is absolutely dependant on tourism of course but I have been unable to convince any of the local people to reveal how they actually feel about the town being essentially colonised by wealthy foreigners to the detriment of local property and commodity prices.
Perhaps they genuinely don’t mind but on Portuguese wages, I would not like to be a local man or woman attempting to secure a home in the town.
At this point, it is important to note I feel no malice against the people who flood here to see out their retirements away from the cold rain and dark days of the northern European winter. I think that having worked as hard as they did they deserve every ray of sunshine they soak up.
What bothers me is they are among the last generation who will be able to do it. Pensions, as these people experienced them, were a generous package that allowed their holders to enjoy a retirement worthy of a life spent working hard. To have spent a life working at all is, in my eyes, worthy of an autumn in life marked by rest, comfort and happiness, not by shortage, fear and worry.
The so-called ‘baby boomers’ are regularly criticised in these times we live in for having bled the system dry and taken flight with the profits and there is certainly some truth in this but it is not the whole truth. Even if it were entirely true it is no reason to disinherit the next generation and subsequent ones of a decent life after retirement.
The comfortable lives of the retired have been commandeered by the current crop of politicians and used as symbols of decadence and justification for the destruction of future comforts. Retirement ages themselves are currently under attack as being too low.
This is a point that warrants serious consideration. If people are living longer why is there an automatic assumption that they must work longer too and not simply enjoy more leisure time at the end of their lives? There is also significant devil in the detail here. These longer lives we read about are based on average ages. It gives us no insight into the state of people’s health in those final years.
Certainly, modern medicine can keep people alive in remarkable ways and against seemingly impossible odds but this may simply amount to a person lying in a hospital bed or at home on a massive cocktail of pharmaceuticals for 10 years before a ripe old age is recorded on their death certificate.
It is a very good thing to see, as I have this week, couples in their 50s and upwards enjoying the rewards of their life’s work.
By the beach a fleet of campervans from all over Europe, Ireland included, have parked up and their owners sit outside reading books, cooking or chatting happily. This is something that every person should have the option of enjoying at the end of their working life.
In the fog of economic meltdown, recession and cut-throat-budgets, it is easy to lose sight of the fact that we acquiesce in giving the best years of our lives working. We sell our time and our lives in order to feed ourselves and our families. Now in a time when unemployment is rising, it is difficult for many to even find a buyer for their life and time.
We are told pensions like those traditionally given out by the public sector would never exist in the private sector and that they must be slashed. There is truth here but the wrong set of facts is being cynically exploited by politicians to suit their ends.
The private sector pension must not be the yardstick. Just because the private sector is more willing to exploit the people who give their lives to it does not mean the public sector should follow. If the politicians were worth their salt they would address the issue of weak pensions but only a fool would hold their breath for that day.
Those “lucky” enough to be working now face a gloomy future. They will have to work longer for less. This must be seen for what it is – a giant step backwards in a so-called age of progress.