Read this, then ask yourself: Isn't it amazing the riots haven't started yet?

[IrishAyes]

152. First of all, kudos for a great OP.

If anyone can make it through this mess, it will be you, I'd wager.

As for where the riots are, speaking as an historian and not a provocateur, I see where the youth are massing for a Keystone sit-in somewhere this week. Those things have a way of getting out of hand at times. A cop overreacts, or ....

I encountered difficulties similar to yours shortly before retirement, when your income has more impact on Social Security checks than the same amount of earnings much earlier. I slid into forced early retirement on a wing and a prayer. W/O years of preparation, a super-thrifty nature, and the hallowed LUCK OF THE IRISH, I'd be 'living' in a cardboard box under a freeway somewhere.

When things went south for me at age 59, I was fortunate to sell my remote little horse ranch for enough to scrape by on until age 62. Bought a classic fixer in the cheapest cost of living place I could find, even though it's overrun with Republicans. But with just 3 1/2 years to go, I didn't think it would profit me to move to a city, absolutely requiring work to stay and forced to move eventually anyway. So I came here and froze and damned near starved before 62, then held my breath for the next 3 years until Medicare kicked in. The state didn't want to let me on Medicaid because I had slight assets until they ran out too.

Anyway, I can sympathize with people who've undergone such a trial by fire from personal experience. To this day I get the vapors at the sight of a cardboard box, because I've seen people trying to shelter in them. If the tiny house movement had been in full swing back then, I think I would've put my money into one of those. Might yet, if I ever get this barn of a place renovated enough to see a good return.

Anyway, best of luck to you and everyone else out there. No doubt, it's a hard world.