Bøger af Don Pollock

In August 1964 Australia deployed six Caribou aircraft and 76 personnel to Vung Tau, South Vietnam, as the new unit, RAAF Transport Flight Vietnam (RTFV). In mid-1966 the unit was renamed No. 35 Squadron and remained in South Vietnam until February 1972. This small team of aircraft and support personnel marked the first deployment of an RAAF unit on operations since the Korean War and the first war in which Australians did not fight alongside British. With only six aircraft, Wallaby Airlines, as the unit's operation became known, notched up impressive statistics over its eight years of existence - 80,000 sorties flying 47,000 hours and carrying over 40 million kilograms of cargo. RTFV was led for the first nine months by Squadron Leader Chris Sugden, DFC and Bar, a veteran of both the Second World War and the Korean War. Suggy was a generation older than most of the members of his unit and so became a defacto father figure to most of them. There is also no doubt he was looked up to by all and that he enjoyed the highest respect of every member of his unit, aircrew ground crew and support personnel, as well as the many United States and South Vietnamese personnel who came into contact with him. This is the story, untold to date, of these first 76 members of RTFV, of Suggy and his men, how the unit came into being, and of the first nine months of its existence - a period of operations which in some ways was quite different to those of the remaining seven years the unit was deployed in South Vietnam.

Retirement is Changing- Are you Ready? In the United States, approximately 10,000 individuals reach the age of sixty-five every day. Although financial independence has provided options for many seniors, we will face a retirement crisis in upcoming decades. The massive demographic spike known as baby boomers will enter retirement in record numbers. As boomers move out of their homes and into one of the various retirement alternatives, they probably assume there will be somewhere for them to move. Unfortunately, that assumption may not be true. There are currently waiting lists to enter many retirement facilities and the situation will become much worse unless we start to make more beds available. In addition to beds, older patients will flood our health care system. Will we have the resources to meet the needs of our seniors or do we make hard decisions and ration medical services? The world has changed and the impact on our retirement will be enormous. The number of families that are members of a pension continues to decline. Employment in the manufacturing sector has shrunk and jobs have moved overseas. The number of men between the age of twenty-five and fifty-five having full-time employment is at record lows while the number of seniors in the workforce is at an all-time high. Disability insurance has become a primary source of income for many families. The concept of cradle to grave employment is either dead or dying. According to labor participation statistics, less than 70% of working age adults participate in the workforce and the number falls to under 60% for white working-class males. Combine this group with those who work but have no pension and minimal savings and we are facing a retirement crisis. Families must take every step possible to ensure they do not endure a thirty-year retirement with government pensions as their primary source of income. It is very challenging for many working families to save for retirement when their income is used to fund living expenses. Paying for a home, raising children and dealing with the ongoing expenses of having a life, often puts saving for retirement on the back burner. The level of poverty in retirement will become a humanitarian crisis, yet as a society, we are not addressing these challenges. To appreciate the magnitude of the problem, consider the 1/3 rule. Over 1/3 of families will be dependent upon government support to pay their bills and that period will approximate 1/3 of their life. When health care is added to the equation, our overextended government may lack the financial resources to eradicate or significantly mitigate poverty among seniors. This book will explore topics such as: -Women are facing a unique situation as they enter retirement. Longevity, lower pensions and delayed retirement will be a fact of life for many women, especially those who live alone. -Although many baby boomers have the financial resources to enjoy their retirement, they are concerned for their children's future. Fewer years in the workforce and a lack of pension benefits will inhibit younger workers ability to self-fund retirement. The book lays out strategies for parents to assist their children's journey through life and into retirement. -There are a number "off-ramps" for families that believe they have a viable plan to fund their retirement. Those with a company pension or a high income will face fewer obstacles, but the middle class may face a minefield of issues as they approach retirement. Potential disruptive forces that could impact a family's plans include job loss; employers may go bankrupt, divorce, catastrophic disease or the premature death of a partner. -How to avoid the five levels of retirement hell which are: 1) Insufficient money to pay for necessaries 2) Sad and lonely existence 3) Subjected to elder abuse 4) Living in a substandard retirement home 5) Painful end of life experience. Retirement, what could go wrong?

Retirement Hell - Byproduct of a Middle Class under Siege presents a bleak picture of retirement for many families. Baby boomers are retiring at a time when graduating students are entering the workforce with significantly fewer opportunities than their parents and grandparents. Factories will continue to close; while robotics and artificial intelligence will allow companies to produce more products with fewer, but highly skilled workers. As boomers move to retirement homes and into the great beyond, they have left two types of legacies. On an individual level, this generation has accumulated incredible wealth which will be transferred to their beneficiaries. However collectively, the most privileged generation in history has left behind a world that will cause future governments to spend too much time, effort and money attempting to clean up issues that were left unresolved. There is a sense of both anger and frustration in our community. Working families are angry that plants are closing and well-paying jobs are disappearing. They understand the impact on their family and believe our political leaders are unable or unwilling to address these issues with anything but rhetoric and unfulfilled promises. Those higher up the economic ladder with a better education and secure jobs may not share their anger, but they have a sense of frustration that their children may not have the opportunities that were afforded to their generation. A demographic spike known as the baby boomers is retiring and the mess they leave behind will handcuff attempts by future generations to define their destiny. Don shares a vision of the future that is not optimistic for a growing segment of the population and he fears his generation lacks the expertise to resolve the issues. Ideas Presented -How the boom in manufacturing after the Second World War created a middle class. Children born after in the two decades following the Second World War, which came to be known as baby boomers, had more opportunities than any generation in history. -For retired boomers that graduated from university and worked their entire career for a top tier employer, it would be more common than not to retire as millionaires. This assumes they purchased a home and were not subject to divorce, illness or some rare financial calamity. -The boomers had a wealth creation formula that many did not know existed, but it has become obsolete and has been replaced by a new formula that individuals can ignore at their peril -As the manufacturing sector shrinks, the growing parts of the economy, such as technology and health care, require skills that are not possessed by too many young men and women -Restoring the middle class may be the greatest challenge that we face in the next decade