My name is Harold Bennett, and for most of my life I was the kind of man who paid bills early and kept promises. After thirty-five years working municipal maintenance in a small Midwestern town, I retired with a pension that should’ve meant peace—about $10,000 a month. Instead, it became the number people used against me. That afternoon, I stood outside a grocery store with my head down and my palm out, asking strangers for a few dollars. I was hungry, my coat was too thin for the season, and my ribs…
Read MoreI’m an old man with a $10,000-a-month pension… yet I still ended up begging
