A recent debate about retirement gained popularity on Reddit when one person posted the question, “Do Boomers Think They’re Going to Sit Back and Retire While We Become Indentured Servants?
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Backstory
The poster opened the thread by discussing how the ideal is that the “social contract with capitalism, at least post a new deal, is the prospect of a comfortable retirement.” Feeling frustrated by the emergence of corporate greed, stocks, bankers’ profits, substantial pension funds, etc., the original poster (OP) made the point that it would be difficult for younger generations to experience retirement.
Explaining how they are run ragged, the OP was exasperated at “fueling a machine that destroys our environments and societal fabric. They say that we are all doomed, and that boomers don’t understand how difficult the situation is for young people and how unsustainable living conditions are.”
The OP discreetly thinks that if boomers understood that their children and grandchildren couldn’t have the same future as them, they would not be happy in their retirement. The OP asked what can be done about changing boomers’ attitudes and getting them to help free everyone from the “shackles of capitalism.”
There was a lot of reaction from people who felt just as tired of the situation as the OP, with one commentator saying, “I doubt my body will take this more than another ten years, and then what? I never get to see my family, never get vacations, and every day is more and more like Groundhog Day.”
Others stressed the unfairness of it all, saying, “This. My husband and I make $120k a year and cannot afford a mortgage on one bedroom home in our area. We’re almost 40. My parents owned their 2nd home by our age. I can’t imagine being able to retire.”
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Many responded with examples of how boomers need to learn how young people live. One person said, “My mom just gleefully told me her social security check was increased. She didn’t think on it long enough to realize that money was coming from people currently paying in, and not some magical pile of funds she paid in that SS forgot about.”
Others shared the existential fear of the future, with one Reddit fan commenting, “When I’ll be able to retire, it’ll be the year 2061 at the very earliest. Even that would be ambitiously early. What kind of planet and economic system will exist in 2061?”
Some people commented that many older people understand the reality of what is happening with their children’s futures. Still, they cannot find a way out, saying, “Same, I’ve accepted that the boomers are incapable of thinking critically and in touch have already accepted this reality.”
Reassuring for some, one boomer was brave enough to comment on the post when they said, “Boomer here. What our generation has done to the earth and younger generations is, frankly, atrocious.’ While it is clear that this post is very depressing, it is difficult not to empathize with some of the thoughts and feelings this young person is experiencing.
We don’t want our retirement to look like this vision that one person posted, “My retirement plan is to be the village crone who looks out for all the children while the menfolk go off to scavenge for food in the apocalyptic wastes.”
HIS STONE COLD GREED. WIFE TRAGICALLY LOSES HER PARENTS BUT HER HUSBAND DEMANDS INHERITANCE
Source; Reddit
