১৮ এপ্রিল, ২০২৬

Herbert Hoover takes a strong position against retirement.


My son Chris sends that excerpt from "Hoover: An Extraordinary Life in Extraordinary Times" (commission earned).
এর দ্বারা পোস্ট করা Ann Althouse এই সময়ে ৪:৫৮ PM
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২১টি মন্তব্য:

mccullough বলেছেন...

Hoover outlived JFK. Perhaps he was on to something.

১৮/৪/২৬, ৫:০২ PM
RCOCEAN II বলেছেন...

Hoover was a great man. One of our greatest. He saved millions with his food relief efforts in Europe after WW 1. And he helped convince Truman to stop the insane semi-starvation and punishment of Germans after WW 2.

Sadly, he became POTUS at exactly the wrong time. Its too bad he didn't lose in 1928 and then run again in 1932, he'd probably be remember as one of our greatest Presidents.

১৮/৪/২৬, ৫:১৮ PM
RCOCEAN II বলেছেন...

I saw a youtube video of a Meet the Press show from 1963 or maybe even 1964. I was amazed at how healthy and sharp he was. Imagine being born in a world before airplanes, cars, radio or TV and living through WW1, WW2, and the seeing man orbit the earth.

১৮/৪/২৬, ৫:২১ PM
Justabill বলেছেন...

I agree that retirement requires a plan, but not that much of a plan.

১৮/৪/২৬, ৬:০২ PM
RCOCEAN II বলেছেন...

I think the key is doing "productive work" or "Something you enjoy". And I'd actually lean on the later. To Hoover doing things, learning things, improving the world, was enjoyable to him. And of course, with his skills and money he could make a difference.

I'd have a hard time telling some accountant or garbage man that they need to keep on the job past 65 because its "Productive work". But if they can find other work they enjoy - that's great. It certainly beats spending the end of your life on a cruise ship drinking 15 shots of tequila.

১৮/৪/২৬, ৬:০২ PM
Maynard বলেছেন...

Both Mrs. Maynard and I take a strong position in favor of retirement. It has been great!

১৮/৪/২৬, ৬:১০ PM
Saint Croix বলেছেন...
এই মন্তব্যটি লেখক দ্বারা সরানো হয়েছে।
১৮/৪/২৬, ৬:২১ PM
wildswan বলেছেন...

When you get older and your body starts to fail and you need support, support which might be too much for those around you to supply, then there is reason in "retiring." But it's only your body that fails. It's end of body, not end of life. Your spirit goes on, on its same journey. And so you have to go on with your spirit alone - not exactly alone yet but you can see what's coming. Your values shift somewhat, you finally truly see what it means to say "You can't take it with you." Yet some things you can. Hoover was a great philanthropist and he went on with that to the end. And no doubt it went on with him.

And this time is a similar to retirement in that a lot of routines and expectations are vanishing - the whole of the post-WW-II order is vanishing like a 19th century version of Shakespeare's Midsummer Night's Dream in the 20th century. It's tough to be middle-aged when the world changes like that. Imagine being a middle-aged mullah in Iran right now. Yet you know, there are people like Trump and his whole Cabinet, Elon Musk and his team, religious leaders in the Emirates, others, who grew up in the old order but who are now "making it new."

[I don't include socialists in this group because their entire position consists of asserting that the 1920's are still here and it's moral to do in 2020 what would have been right in 1920. Actually that is just being Don Quixote. At best.]

১৮/৪/২৬, ৬:৫১ PM
rehajm বলেছেন...

It isn’t so much the retirement as the age of the nuisances, which in Hoover’s are was 65 or so. Back then retirees had the decency to leave the stage about ten or eleven years later. Now we make those people President, or in Biden’s case people pretend to make him President…

১৮/৪/২৬, ৭:০৪ PM
Josephbleau বলেছেন...

Yes, retirement is mainly for people who work to support their families and don’t take any special enjoyment in it. In that case, there is nothing to gain, you are not going to benefit from work. But if you are doing something you like, working is no different than a hobby, so keep on going. it is really that simple.

১৮/৪/২৬, ৭:১২ PM
RCOCEAN II বলেছেন...

We once hired a woman for a position, she must have been in her mid 60s, and I asked her why she came back to work and she said "What am I supposed to do, sit around waiting to die?" And I said "Of course" while stifling a laugh.

Because it seems so absurd to me. Work or waiting to die. But some people are like that. They don't read or enjoy the arts. They have no hobbies. They make money - or have power - and they enjoy sex/eating/drinking etc. That's it.

LBJ was like that. Once he stopped being a powerful Politician he had no reason to live, and more or less smoked and ate himself to death at 65.

Retirement is really getting down to the real you. You don't have to work to live anymore. Your children (hopefully) are on their own. So you just be you. You're on summer vacation, only you have money. And hopefully some wisdom and an idea of what you want and who you are.

Hoover was a great man, so he wanted to keep on helping the world get better and enjoying life. LBJ was a small soul, without the external stimulation of power, he just withered and died.

১৮/৪/২৬, ৭:১৪ PM
Old and slow বলেছেন...

My father worked until his early 90s, and kept attending meetings of the family business until he was 99, so I guess you could say that he never retired, even if he did hand off responsibility. When he was 99 we would still take him out for drives (in his car) to look at real estate.

১৮/৪/২৬, ৭:২৬ PM
MadTownGuy বলেছেন...

Retired since 2015 (technically) except for a short stint working for an in-home senior care provider. Busy ever since, with travel, writing, genealogy research, and staying connected with cousins on my wife's side and my own. Actively providing care for our Down Syndrome daughter who is involved in Special Olympics. Busiest I've ever been, catching up on all the stuff I wished I had time for when I was working full time.

১৮/৪/২৬, ৭:৫৭ PM
The Cracker Emcee Refulgent বলেছেন...

Herbie and I seem to have this in common. I could have retired any time in the last several years. But my wife is younger and still wants to work a few more years. And I enjoy mentoring, problem-solving, and interacting with a variety of co-workers everyday. Two or three are champion riffers and I’m often struck by the thought, “If I retire, I’ll never have a conversation like this again in my life.”

১৮/৪/২৬, ৮:১৮ PM
hawkeyedjb বলেছেন...

I grew up just down the road from West Branch, the home of Herbert Hoover and his presidential library. I highly recommend it. You get a vastly different view than the stereotype of the man; he was great American, self-made and a highly accomplished humanitarian. FDR didn’t appreciate him but Harry Truman certainly did.

১৮/৪/২৬, ৮:৪৫ PM
John henry বলেছেন...

I am currently reading Volume 1 of Hoover's memoirs. I had read all 3 volumes about 15 years ago and thought him worth a reread. What a life he lived. Orphaned, school droipout, student #1 at Stanford, got a degree from Stanford in mining, could not get a job other than as a cart pusher in a mine for $2/day.

Where I am in the book, he is now 27, had established major gold mines in Kalgoorlie AU, was in charge of all mines and natural resources in China for a few years, was in the seige of Tientsin with his wife during the Boxer rebellion and has just been made a junior partner in one of the world's major mining and mine management firms.

Kindle informs me that I am at 15% of the book which only goes to 2020.

He has accomplished more by 27 that any 10 other men might accomplish in their entire lives.

And he is still just getting started.

One hell of a book and I highly recommend it. All 3 volumes are available free at https://hoover.archives.gov/research/ebooks

Email them to your Kindle with subject "convert" and they format almost perfectly.

Not only interesting but very readable. Hoover wrote them himself, no ghost writer. Easily the best writer of all our presidents, though TR comes a close second (Read his 4 volume history "The Winning of the American West" or his book about the River of Doubt expedition that we have discussed here "Through the Brazilian Wilderness")

John Henry

১৮/৪/২৬, ১০:০৭ PM
John henry বলেছেন...

RCO

Yup, not just millions, officially he is credited with saving 20 million European civilians from starvation. At first, 1914-17 personally, after the US entered the war as head of the USG relief program. In the early days neither the Brits nor the Germans wanted anyone feeding the Belgians. Hoover organized private funding, private shipping. He negotiated, at considerable physical hardship and serious risk, with both Brits and Germans and managed to get food in.

Much of Vol 1 is dedicated to this though he still has 14 years of mining accomplishments before I get to that part.

John Henry

১৮/৪/২৬, ১০:১৩ PM
John henry বলেছেন...

Im 78 and can't imagine ever retiring. I can't think of anything else that I could do that would be half as much fun as what I do for work. Of course I am in an unusual position doing a number of different things, able to work more or less as hard or as little as I want.

On my way tomorrow for a few days in a metal making plant in Minnesota. I'll get to learn some new technology, meet some new people, I've been getting interested in AI in recent months, may have a chance to apply some of that.

It is so much fun that I'd pay to do it. But the best part is that they pay me! I still find that hard to believe.

In 2 weeks I'll be going to Waukegan to program some equipment in a pharma plant. More fun! More money!

My wife is a couple years older and she still teaches full time at the high school. She says she is going to retire this year. But she has said that for the past 10 or 15 and keeps "forgetting" to put in her papers. She would be lost without it. Her sister retired 10 years ago and my wife is scared of winding up like her, sitting around watching TV all day.

I always thought of Hoover as the consummate retiree. He never held a real job after he left the white house. He kept plenty busy and made himself useful, but it always seemed to me like he was "retired" from 32 til his death.

He really retired in August 1914. He left his mining consultancy and never "worked" again.

John Henry

১৮/৪/২৬, ১০:২৬ PM
JZ বলেছেন...

Hawkeyedjb — Calvin Coolidge found Hoobert Heever annoying.

১৯/৪/২৬, ৬:৪১ AM
gspencer বলেছেন...

Hoover: Three or four secretaries busy for 12-hour days?

Cut the shiitte. Who believes that?

১৯/৪/২৬, ৭:২৮ AM
gspencer বলেছেন...

"LBJ was a small soul, without the external stimulation of power, he just withered and died."

Murder gave him his life's goal.

১৯/৪/২৬, ৭:৩৯ AM

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