Retirement and Its Discontents

Retirement and Its Discontents PDF Author: Michelle Pannor Silver
Publisher: Columbia University Press
ISBN: 0231547927
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 336

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Book Description
In the popular imagination, retirement promises a well-deserved rest—idle days spent traveling, volunteering, pursuing hobbies, or just puttering around the house. But as the nature of work has changed, becoming not just a means of income but a major source of personal identity, many accomplished professionals struggle with discontentment in their retirement. What are we to do—individually and as a culture—when work and life experience make conventional retirement a burden rather than a reprieve? In Retirement and Its Discontents, Michelle Pannor Silver considers how we confront the mismatch between idealized and actual retirement. She follows doctors, CEOs, elite athletes, professors, and homemakers during their transition to retirement as they struggle to recalibrate their sense of purpose and self-worth. The work ethic and passion that helped these retirees succeed can make giving in to retirement more difficult, as they confront newfound leisure time with uncertainty and guilt. Drawing on in-depth interviews that capture a range of perceptions and common concerns about what it means to be retired, Silver emphasizes the significance of creating new retirement strategies that support social connectedness and personal fulfillment while countering ageist stereotypes about productivity and employment. A richly detailed and deeply personal exploration of the challenges faced by accomplished retirees, Retirement and Its Discontents demonstrates the importance of personal identity in forging sustainable social norms around retirement and helps us to rethink some of the new challenges for aging societies.

Retirement and Its Discontents

Retirement and Its Discontents PDF Author: Michelle Pannor Silver
Publisher: Columbia University Press
ISBN: 0231547927
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 336

Get Book

Book Description
In the popular imagination, retirement promises a well-deserved rest—idle days spent traveling, volunteering, pursuing hobbies, or just puttering around the house. But as the nature of work has changed, becoming not just a means of income but a major source of personal identity, many accomplished professionals struggle with discontentment in their retirement. What are we to do—individually and as a culture—when work and life experience make conventional retirement a burden rather than a reprieve? In Retirement and Its Discontents, Michelle Pannor Silver considers how we confront the mismatch between idealized and actual retirement. She follows doctors, CEOs, elite athletes, professors, and homemakers during their transition to retirement as they struggle to recalibrate their sense of purpose and self-worth. The work ethic and passion that helped these retirees succeed can make giving in to retirement more difficult, as they confront newfound leisure time with uncertainty and guilt. Drawing on in-depth interviews that capture a range of perceptions and common concerns about what it means to be retired, Silver emphasizes the significance of creating new retirement strategies that support social connectedness and personal fulfillment while countering ageist stereotypes about productivity and employment. A richly detailed and deeply personal exploration of the challenges faced by accomplished retirees, Retirement and Its Discontents demonstrates the importance of personal identity in forging sustainable social norms around retirement and helps us to rethink some of the new challenges for aging societies.

Beyond Mahathir

Beyond Mahathir PDF Author: Khoo Boo Teik
Publisher: Zed Books
ISBN: 9781842774656
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 240

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Book Description
The planned retirement in October 2003 of Dr Mahathir Mohamad, Prime Minister of Malaysia since July 1981, has occasioned many instant assessments of the Mahathir legacy. In contrast, this book takes a hard look at the long-term social transformation behind the dramatic politics of the Mahathir era. It ranges over issues of political economy, ideology, interethnic relations, the challenge of Islam and the complexities of leadership transition. Khoo Boo Teik explains how the Mahathir regimes's mid-1990's Asian values triumphalism was replaced by the turn-of-the-millenium pessimism and the spectre of a second Malay dilemma. He aims to bring to life Mahathir's predicaments, the contradictions in Anwar Ibrahim's chequered career, and the cultural imperatives behind the historic rise of the Alternative Front's rainbow coalition. The result is an informed lay reader's guide to the momentous, disturbing and even inspiring events which overturned easy assumptions about ethnic politics in Malaysia, tested the regime's economic management, revealed the vitality of cultural revolt, and raised fundamental questions about the directions of the country post-Mahathir.

Revitalizing Retirement

Revitalizing Retirement PDF Author: Nancy K. Schlossberg
Publisher: American Psychological Association (APA)
ISBN:
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 268

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Book Description
In preparation for retirement, we are often urged to build up our financial portfolio or perhaps downsize our home or move closer to family. Often neglected in this process, however, are the psychological ramifications that come with the transition into retirement. It is important for retirees to make a plan for their retirement financially, but also to take stock of their psychological portfolio at the same time. This means taking an honest look at how your sense of identity will change with retirement, how your relationships and support systems may change, and how your sense of purpose will be affected.""Revitalizing Retirement"" gives unique guidance on how to create a happy, fulfilling retirement. Nancy K. Schlossberg, a counseling psychologist and author of ""Retire Smart"", ""Retire Happy"", describes the secret to a happy retirement. She encourages readers to reshape their identity, relationships, and purpose. She discusses several coping skills that deal with accepting change and help retirees continue to feel that they are vital members of their community and that they matter.Each chapter contains stories from actual retirees that demonstrate the numerous ways of pursuing an enjoyable retirement. There are short quizzes and discussion questions at the end of each chapter so that readers can reflect on what they have read and see exactly how it relates to their own lives. This book is a must-read for anyone considering retirement in the near future as well as current retirees who may be struggling to find happiness in their daily lives.

People, Power, and Profits: Progressive Capitalism for an Age of Discontent

People, Power, and Profits: Progressive Capitalism for an Age of Discontent PDF Author: Joseph E. Stiglitz
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
ISBN: 1324004223
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 366

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Book Description
A Nobel prize winner challenges us to throw off the free market fundamentalists and reclaim our economy. We all have the sense that the American economy—and its government—tilts toward big business, but as Joseph E. Stiglitz explains in his new book, People, Power, and Profits, the situation is dire. A few corporations have come to dominate entire sectors of the economy, contributing to skyrocketing inequality and slow growth. This is how the financial industry has managed to write its own regulations, tech companies have accumulated reams of personal data with little oversight, and our government has negotiated trade deals that fail to represent the best interests of workers. Too many have made their wealth through exploitation of others rather than through wealth creation. If something isn’t done, new technologies may make matters worse, increasing inequality and unemployment. Stiglitz identifies the true sources of wealth and of increases in standards of living, based on learning, advances in science and technology, and the rule of law. He shows that the assault on the judiciary, universities, and the media undermines the very institutions that have long been the foundation of America’s economic might and its democracy. Helpless though we may feel today, we are far from powerless. In fact, the economic solutions are often quite clear. We need to exploit the benefits of markets while taming their excesses, making sure that markets work for us—the U.S. citizens—and not the other way around. If enough citizens rally behind the agenda for change outlined in this book, it may not be too late to create a progressive capitalism that will recreate a shared prosperity. Stiglitz shows how a middle-class life can once again be attainable by all. An authoritative account of the predictable dangers of free market fundamentalism and the foundations of progressive capitalism, People, Power, and Profits shows us an America in crisis, but also lights a path through this challenging time.

Democracy's Dangers & Discontents

Democracy's Dangers & Discontents PDF Author: Bruce S. Thornton
Publisher: Hoover Press
ISBN: 0817917969
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 162

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Book Description
By democracy we usually mean a government comprising popular rule, individual human rights and freedom, and a free-market economy. Yet the flaws in traditional Athenian democracy can instruct us on the weaknesses of that first element of modern democracies shared with Athens: rule by all citizens equally. In Democracy's Dangers & Discontents, Bruce Thornton discusses those criticisms first aired by ancient critics of Athenian democracy, then traces the historical process by which the Republic of the founders has evolved into something similar to ancient democracy, and finally argues for the relevance of those critiques to contemporary U.S. policy. He asserts that many of the problems we face today are the consequences of the increasing democratization of our government and that the flaws of democracy are unlikely to be corrected. He argues that these dangers and discontents do not have to end in soft despotism—that American democracy's aptitude and strength can be recovered by restoring the limited government of the founders.

Ill Fares the Land

Ill Fares the Land PDF Author: Tony Judt
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 1101223707
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 256

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Book Description
Something is profoundly wrong with the way we think about how we should live today. In Ill Fares The Land, Tony Judt, one of our leading historians and thinkers, reveals how we have arrived at our present dangerously confused moment. Judt masterfully crystallizes what we've all been feeling into a way to think our way into, and thus out of, our great collective dis-ease about the current state of things. As the economic collapse of 2008 made clear, the social contract that defined postwar life in Europe and America - the guarantee of a basal level of security, stability and fairness -- is no longer guaranteed; in fact, it's no longer part of the common discourse. Judt offers the language we need to address our common needs, rejecting the nihilistic individualism of the far right and the debunked socialism of the past. To find a way forward, we must look to our not so distant past and to social democracy in action: to re-enshrining fairness over mere efficiency. Distinctly absent from our national dialogue, social democrats believe that the state can play an enhanced role in our lives without threatening our liberties. Instead of placing blind faith in the market-as we have to our detriment for the past thirty years-social democrats entrust their fellow citizens and the state itself. Ill Fares the Land challenges us to confront our societal ills and to shoulder responsibility for the world we live in. For hope remains. In reintroducing alternatives to the status quo, Judt reinvigorates our political conversation, providing the tools necessary to imagine a new form of governance, a new way of life.

Transnational Struggles for Recognition

Transnational Struggles for Recognition PDF Author: Dieter Gosewinkel
Publisher: Berghahn Books
ISBN: 1785333127
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 314

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Book Description
Now more than ever, “recognition” represents a critical concept for social movements, both as a strategic tool and an important policy aim. While the subject’s theoretical and empirical dimensions have usually been studied separately, this interdisciplinary collection focuses on both to examine the pursuit of recognition against a transnational backdrop. With a special emphasis on the efforts of women’s and Jewish organizations in 20th-century Europe, the studies collected here show how recognition can be meaningfully understood in historical-analytical terms, while demonstrating the extent to which transnationalization determines a movement’s reach and effectiveness.

So You Want to Lose Weight But You Can't Stop Eating

So You Want to Lose Weight But You Can't Stop Eating PDF Author: Lacy Enderson
Publisher: Lulu.com
ISBN: 0615137911
Category : Health & Fitness
Languages : en
Pages : 58

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Book Description
So you want to lose weight but you can't stop eating is a serious dilemma for many people today. Food addiction is just as serious to the overeater as cigarettes are to the smoker and alcohol is to the alcoholic. Recovery from food addiction is possible with the power and help of God. I suffered for many years from bulimia and then binge eating. By the grace of God I have been set free. God gave me peace and freedom from the insanity of overeating. This book is short and sweet. It is my intentions that you learn as much as possible in the shortest amount of time so you can be on your way to a life of serenity you've only ever dreamed of. Begin today by taking the first step to recovery. Learn how you too can escape the mental torment and driving force of food addiction.

One Nation under AARP

One Nation under AARP PDF Author: Frederick Lynch
Publisher: Univ of California Press
ISBN: 0520948904
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 287

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Book Description
This book provides a fresh and even-handed account of the newly modernized AARP (formerly the American Association of Retired Persons)—the 40-million member insurance giant and political lobby that continues to set the national agenda for Medicare and Social Security. Frederick R. Lynch addresses AARP’s courtship of 78 million aging baby boomers and the possibility of harnessing what may be the largest ever senior voting bloc to defend threatened cutbacks to Social Security, Medicare, and under-funded pension systems. Based on years of research, interviews with key strategists, and analyses of hundreds documents, One Nation under AARP profiles a largely white generation, raised in the relatively tranquil 1950s and growing old in a twenty-first century nation buffeted by rapid economic, cultural, and demographic change. Lynch argues that an ideologically divided boomer generation must decide whether to resist entitlement reductions through its own political mobilization or, by default, to empower AARP as it tries to shed its "greedy geezer" stereotype with an increasingly post-boomer agenda for multigenerational equity.

Leviathan on the Right

Leviathan on the Right PDF Author: Michael D. Tanner
Publisher: Cato Institute
ISBN: 1933995289
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 339

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Book Description
For conservatives generally and the Republican Party in particular, 2006 was a time of intense soul-searching. For the first time in a dozen years, Republicans lost control of Congress. As a result, they are being forced to reexamine who they are and what they stand for. It’s about time. After all, more than a decade has passed since President Bill Clinton announced in his State of the Union address that “the era of big government is over.” Yet, since then, government has grown far bigger and far more intrusive. It spends more, regulates us more, and reaches far more into our daily lives than it did before the Republican Revolution. Behind this alarming trend stands the rise of a new brand of conservatism—one that believes big government can be used for conservative ends. It is a conservatism that ridicules F. A. Hayek and Barry Goldwater while embracing Teddy and even Franklin Roosevelt. It has more in common with Ted Kennedy than with Ronald Reagan. Leviathan on the Right provides an incisive analysis of the roots and core beliefs of big-government conservatism and the major currents that fueled its growth—neoconservatism, the Religious Right, supply-side economics, national greatness conservatism, and Newt Gingrich–style technophilia—and offers a detailed critique of its policies on a wide range of issues. The book contains a clear warning that, unless conservatives return to their small-government roots, the electoral defeat of 2006 is just the beginning.