Tom Petty Quotes
When you get on the back side of your 60s, most people aren't working.
Petty, Tom. Interview by Randy Lewis. Los Angeles Times, 2017.
There was no welfare and no Social Security then. Sinclair’s idea and another by a Physician by the name of Townsend (see {36007} ) were the only two ideas in the table about old age pensions. Franklin Delano Roosevelt, noting the appeal of Sinclair and the Townsend plan pushed Social Security shortly thereafter and it became law in 1936. This quotation illustrates that losing candidates and their programs can have a very profound effect on public policy.
The cost of health care had become so great that many people—especially those on fixed incomes were not able to afford the costs. The majority of all bankruptcies in America are caused by a family medical problem.
This is one of the earliest political recognitions in the 20th century that the significantly longer lifespan would extend the working life of many people and cause them to retire later. The left wing Labour Party at the time saw this as a positive happening. However, 60 years later, extending the age of retirement in England and the United States was very controversial even though the lifespan and health improved even more. Many people wanted to keep it at age 65 where it had been since the 1930s.
Thomas Earl Petty was an American singer, songwriter, musician, record producer, and actor. He was the lead vocalist and guitarist of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, formed in 1976. He previously led the band Mudcrutch, and was also a member of the late 1980s supergroup the Traveling Wilburys.
