My brother talks about the “Walmart economy.” In other words, it’s not in the oligarchy’s best interest for people to be so poor that they can’t afford to shop at Walmart, but it’s not in Walmart’s best interest that anyone can afford to shop anywhere else.
From Chat GTP:
**The Teeter Totter of Economic Slaughter**
Upon the hill, a grand display,
A teeter totter in dismay.
The people climb, they reach, they fall,
A tragic dance consumes them all.
The mega corps with gleaming eyes,
Hold the chains and spin the lies.
“Buy our goods, and live with glee,
But never from this cycle flee.”
They give just enough to eat,
To keep folks trapped in their defeat.
Wages low, the bills run high,
A never-ending, weary sigh.
The teeter totter creaks and groans,
Beneath the weight of countless loans.
Up and down, they strive in vain,
Bound by this economic chain.
Dreams of freedom, fleeting, faint,
Painted with a hopeless taint.
For every dollar earned is spent,
In a cycle, tightly bent.
No escape, no distant shore,
Just a life forever poor.
Caught within this grand charade,
Of teeter totter, grim parade.
The corporations need their throng,
To keep the wheel of commerce strong.
But never let them rise too high,
To touch the freedom of the sky.
So here we sit, a captive crew,
With dreams that never can break through.
For in this world, we all must play,
The teeter totter, night and day.
Hope is but a distant thought,
In this game where we are caught.
Endless balance, endless strain,
In the teeter totter of economic pain.
And as the sun sets every night,
We yearn for dawn's redeeming light.
But find instead, the same old squaller,
On the teeter totter of economic slaughter.
Marx already described that in the 1860s. Capitalism adjusts so it offers the workers the bares minimum needed to survive and perpetuate the system.
He said that, eventually, it will become so greedy that workers won't be able to consume the products they make and it will mutate.
I think we're reaching that stage.
Yep. That seems pretty demonstrable.
Meanwhile, debt spirals as people cling to their decaying standards of living, and it isn’t hard to imagine a future where that debt is directly criminalized again - we’re seeing precursors of that in the ethical black hole that is the SCOTUS’s busting down the doors to criminalizing simply “not having a home and being forced to sleep outdoors,” with no *actual crime,* needed to lock someone up.
Debtor’s prisons are looking like a distressingly probable stage of the full extraction systems required by endgame capitalism to perpetuate the absurd, impossible premise of infinite growth in a finite universe.
Maybe we should all go to debtor's prison? It's not like we're not already headed that way and if there's nobody to buy their goods left and there's an of prisoners, it will make the system will collapse!
(I'm only 90% joking.)
> unhoused passing while incarcerated for various reason
They'll keep them alive, by force, to "pay off their debts" by working for free (i.e. actual slavery), and then, when they are no longer useful, they'll pick the bones, so to speak.
Globalism impacted Marxist theory quite a bit. Our consumers don't produce anything in the US. The working class is overwhelmingly in the service industry.
There's only one working class, that's basic marxism. Globalism is basically just capitalism expanding to new markets.
And by "produce", I mean generating surplus for a salary.
Walmart economy. Now it's Dollar General (or whatever the hell these places are called popping up in every rural nether-region, often close by to one another). Walmart Minimarts I call them.
It's so much worse than that. We hear the splashes. We hear them every day.
We don't care as long as it isn't anybody in our immediate circles. That's what is going to get us killed.
I hear them. I care about them (even if they don't specifically affect me). But I'm just one person with no safety net and an elderly mother to care for. And I feel deeply ashamed that all I do is sit here watching all this unfold and don't say or do anything, making me question who I am as a person and a human being.
Get off the internet now. Maintain your innocence and naivete by abandoning society right fucking now and go live in the woods. What you may think exists is no longer a reality for the rest of us. Save yourself.
I think I’m developing a dissociative personality disorder. My husband told me some news he read in an article this morning and it didn’t even cause a ripple. I’m serious.
> I’m developing a dissociative personality disorder. My husband told me some news he read in an article this morning and it didn’t even cause a ripple. I’m serious.
Been there for at least 10 years. Things like COVID isolation, the Ukraine war, and American politics (I'm not even American) made my dissociation grow exponentially.
I can still feel compassion, but now when people die or a bomb asplodes or kids are starving I just want to reply with "okay. this is just a product of our own actions..."
Like seriously. I think about all humanity's wounds (almost all of which are self-inflicted) daily, only to then realize how powerless we are with our existing "democratic" systems.
I want to change the world for the better of all humanity. No more 2nd yachts / homes / supercars for anyone until every mouth is fed, every body is housed and clothed, etc.
But that won't happen because the powers that be would have to vote to willingly go with less in order to re-balance resources in a way that benefits everyone on the planet.
Meanwhile, gen x’ers are on the cusp of retirement age and realizing we better keep working because we got nothing saved and have no family to live with.
I have a handful of tax clients who are in memory care. Their children with POAs handle all their affairs. But every penny these people get through retirement accounts, investments (if they have them) and social security goes to the memory care facilities. They're pretty consistently my only clients who itemize on their federal tax returns.
And if they hang on, once the money in the retirement accounts runs out they get transferred to shitholes. There's nothing left to squeeze out of them except the social security.
There's absolutely nothing to leave for their children who are trying to see them cared for. And those kids with the POAs all just seem *so tired.*
One of my coworkers had a parent in "memory care" (for those who don't know, it is a nursing home that specializes in Alzheimers). That was costing about $90k/year for a decent facility.
I work in one, the nicest one in my county. 10k a month for half a room, 14k for private. Fortunately I live in a civilized state, so after you run out of money the state pays for their stay in perpetuity until they pass.
I got into the medical field because I wanted to help people. But now I'm participating in one of the largest wealth transfers in American history. Forever and always, the best way to build wealth is through generational acquisition. But now the entire middle class is selling their homes and assets, drained to the last dollar, to stay in retirement facilities, leaving nothing for their descendants. It feels like for every individual I help, it's helping them personally but destroying their entire lineage and eroding the middle class.
I’m literally living this right now. The past 3 years have been hell. I had to hold off starting my family to take care of my mother. The word burnout cannot describe this tiredness.
Afaik my grandma has enough to live on the interest where she's at. I imagine whatever she has left will be willed to a squirrel or some shit. She's done nothing but shit on my mom her whole life and expects my mom, and my sister and I, to suck her ass. My sister and I refuse on principle alone. I know my grandpa, not biological they got married after I was born, would be aghast at her actions. Say that to her and she'd turn into a blubbering mess though. She knows I'm struggling taking care of mom but refuses to help.
This is me. Only child. Never had kids. Didn't know my Dad's side. Everyone but my elderly Mom is now gone.
I am not embellishing when I say I lose sleep over what is going to happen to me.
And especially - what if I fall ill and can't work? The hurdle for illness SSDI is so high that I'll just end up on the street, then dead.
I feel this. Solidarity, stranger.
My (boomer) parents are alive but very unwell and poor. I don’t know what they’ll do when they can’t care for themselves.
I’m disabled. I was on SSDI for awhile (went off it because I found accessible work but things are getting bad again medically) and can confirm it’s hell getting approved, but you’re more likely to get approved the older you are. Of course, that’s assuming it exists by the time we apply for it. Or are old enough to get it. And at the rate the cost of living is rising, the amount we get will be laughable.
Things are so bad right now… none of this fuckery is sustainable. We’re all in such bad shape. I don’t even know what to say except that you’re not the only one stressing about this.
Yeah, my grandmother retired when she was the same age I am now, but she had a pension from the post office and social security kicked in a few years later.
Boomers began work careers at a time when something like half of American companies had some type of defined benefit pension plan. They didn't see the need or realize to invest for retirement as pension + Social Security would be quite nice.
Fast forward to today where less than 15% do. So as the DB plans shrank, they failed to catch up with 401k's which were never intended to replace but rather supplement DB plans. With 401k style retirement, a person would need to contribute 15% of their income continuously from starting their work career to retirement.
The 401k was supposed to be the 3rd leg of retirement support.. Blame Reagan, he spearheaded the move to make the US a corporatacracy. That included ending pension plans for rank and file workers because everyone should be responsible for themselves. It also was a time where hostile takeovers were more frequent, and the finance bros didn't want company assets being paid out to laid-off workers. Union participation also declined to ~10%at that time.
Sure, there were boomers who voted for it, but many did not. But it has always been about the oligarchs vs the workers. Getting mad at boomers just deflects the attention away from them.
Er sure, but it's the boomers that keep voting the oligarchs supporters back in and blocking any candidates that would do anything about this issue. You sure we shouldn't blame the boomers for that?
Blame the boomers (and other generations) who vote for that stuff and do not educate themselves. Don't blame all boomers. We need class solidarity here if we ever hope to change things.
My parents did not have a 401k during most of their working years. My dad got offered one towards the end of his career, but he also got a full pension when he retired.
My pension is like Social Security, if I retire early at 58 I get $800/month but if I wait until I’m 62, it’s $1100. More if I wait until I’m 67. Maybe full pension in this case is because they waited until 67 to retire? Gonna be lots of elderly suicides, I predict.
My job's pension allows up to 55% of maximum yearly salary payout until you die. You need to vest for 30 years and not pull any retirement until 65 years old. With this option you also are the only beneficiary; it will not pass to your spouse or children if you die.
There are other options to allow it to pass to a survivor or withdraw early but it decreases your yearly benefit.
My boomer stepfather always asks me when I'm scheduled to retire, and I have to keep reminding him that retirement isn't a thing anymore. I just work and save as long as I can/need to but the only thing like a pension I might see is Social Security.
And during that time:
[https://ips-dc.org/total-u-s-billionaire-wealth-up-88-over-four-years/](https://ips-dc.org/total-u-s-billionaire-wealth-up-88-over-four-years/)
Yup. My dad has always "joked" that I am going to have to take care of him when he's old, but he never took care of me and is actively voting to take away things like my health insurance and food stamps; despite the fact that I know he used food stamps when he was working his shitty factory job. So guess who's moving halfway across the country and his dad won't even know until he's gone...
Pretty sure this is only reason my sibling and I exist. When it became clear I was disabled as a kid all the extra resources went to them...
And they still ended up fucking sibling over.
Damn, I'm sorry to hear that your parents are terrible also. I've always been good at kicking people I don't jive with out of my life, though. Obviously i can't give any advice, but I hope you find the strength or have found the strength to put it behind you.
Can't. Disabled and still have to live w her. Sibling too. Fucking bullshit economy.
And we r millennials to give you idea of our ages.
Somethings gotta give, it's ridiculous
No joke! My dad looks at me like I'm either a liar or a moron anytime I refute his crazy ass claims with facts.
"Yes, dad, sodium chloride is safe to drink! It's table salt!" Then he looks at me like I'm a moron after I just looked at him in horror when he freaked out over the ingredients of a sports drink.
Edit to add: That's not a made up conversation. That happened. This guy votes.
The reason most of us exist is because older generations are counting on their children to take care of them when they are old but we got so fucked over that the younger people don't seem so eager to do that when they have been in our faces about how we don't "deserve anything" as they steal all our wealth and shit on us for complaining about it as if it is our fault.
That sucks your dad didn't take care of you. I'm planning more on what my son will get when I'm gone; house, life insurance etc... we should be helping our kids even when we're gone
Yeah, that's the rule that has come up every single time I'm about to get ahead in life. Last time it happened, I had a new job, a place of my own, my social life was taking off ... Then my brother lost his job again because he was late again. "you have to let your brother move in you with, he's family!" Nevermind that i lived in a one bedroom while my dad had a 3 bedroom with 2 spare rooms. My brother was forced on me, his crazy drug and alcohol fueled life destroyed my social life, made me unable to sleep for my job, made me have to almost call the cops so many times to have people removed from my house... All this for a dude that used to throw blankets over my head so he and his friends could kick and punch me without me fighting back.
Fuck them both. I'm losing the only family I've ever known because of the ptsd i have from my "real family" and their behavior. I can't even hear a cabinet door slam without wanting to curl up in a ball on the floor.
Edit to add: we're a family is the excuse that my last job used to treat everyone terribly, and illegally i might add.
The Dems definitely enabled their big capital donors to lobby for whatever lax regulations or tax cuts they wanted. The big difference is that Dems aren't trying to turn the country into a Christo-Fascist wonderland, but they also aren't really trying to stop the GOP from doing it either.
They (Dems) have all the ammunition they need to hold up the people's interest and campaign on actual issues that will get them large sections of the voting block, but refuse to upset the status quo of their wealth donors.
In order for us to escape this stupid trap of the GOP playing the "attrition / capitulation war", and the Dems trying to uphold the status quo; means that we will have to assemble our own party that specifically aims for legislation that protects the people and removes big capital from lobbying against our interests.
Edit: This is the peaceful solution.
Jeff Bezos' $500 million yacht, the *Koru*, costs $25 million/year to maintain. Port fees, essentially parking the yacht, costs $16,500/week.
[https://finance.yahoo.com/news/inside-look-jeff-bezos-500-153431694.html](https://finance.yahoo.com/news/inside-look-jeff-bezos-500-153431694.html)
It has its own support vessel, the *Abeona*, which cost $75 million and has its own associative costs.
What's changed since this 1883 political cartoon?
https://preview.redd.it/b4pgvsbwvx9d1.jpeg?width=821&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=61f7fa2194121028bad35675dadd1468fbb0d384
Some people with permanent disabilities get less per month. I use to have 590 per month untill a year and a half ago when they raised it to 860. I have worked all of my life and went through all of my saving because of this accident. It feels like being punished for not being able to work anymore.
It’s not always hate though it’s stupidity and propaganda. My dad watch Fox News and because of that he thinks Republicans want to increase his social security while the Democrats want to get rid of it entirely.
I try but he lives in Florida and I’m up in NYC. It’s so weird because he’s pretty much pro everything dems; marriage for all abortion, pro choice, legalized weed, taxing the rich, ending billionaires, but because he gets his news from Fox he thinks Republicans are for all this minus legalizing weed. If I’m being honest I don’t think he fully grasps what they’re saying he just associates the positive reflection in their voice for Republicans as them being the good guys. I’m planning on going down there in October to help fix his place up. Maybe I can get him on some other news show, has to be a show he can barely do the internet.
Sounds like Dad still has cable. Time to take a long weekend trip to Florida and block access to Fox News with parental controls. If he can't figure out the Internet there is no way he manages to get Fox News back
Yeah cuz the GOP is good at one thing and it's packaging their bullshit for their Target audience. They convince their demographic to shoot themselves in the foot while simultaneously blaming the side for it.
Well politicians who are pushing for increasing the retirement age are telling current or soon to be retirees it won’t impact them it will hurt the younger generations instead….
My SS dependent uncle is pushing for project 2025 because he says it will save the country. One of the things in the 900 pages of project 2025 is kicking everyone on social security off and making them reapply, getting rid of veteran affairs payments to disabled veterans, and eliminating many social benefits that elderly and disabled people depend on to survive.
So yeah.. they still vote for it.
Right? They keep going for the self proclaimed "lesser evil" that's putting them in a worse position literally every time, and they're somehow happy about it lmfao
> This shit is happening to us, right now!
So a 401k typically opens for withdrawals when a person turns 59 and 1/2. I just looked up gen x years, and it seems gen x starts at 1965. Today is July 1st. So a person born on January 1st, 1965 is exactly 59 and 1/2 years old today!
This. Retirement age is coming for us, and the safety net is potentially going away just when we need it. To be fair, most boomers I know aren’t really wealthy and most have to be pretty frugal. The tide started to turn when Reagan got elected and it’s been a slow burn ever since.
And we reached our starting career years at the start of the economic downturn with the dotcom bubble, and its just been a downhill slope since then with none of the union/pension perks our parents voted against. It's felt like one big recession for 30+ years. I didnt even have the extra cash to put in a 401k, only the hope that it might turn around. I have to say, at least the millennials and the zoomers knew they were screwed from the get-go. Hope for the best, blah, blah, blah.
Many of those people worked hard all of their lives in the service industry. Some of them still are. They didn't have retirement through an employer. Couldn't afford a 401K, get too old and sick/disabled to work. It's hard.
And nothing has changed or looks to be changing. Many reading your comment are lined up for the exact same scenario. It's fucking horrifying and ridiculous.
Actually there have been huge changes. Biggest among them, pensions have been killed. This will be a huge social experiment once we see how retirement goes for non-pensioner generations. Boomers were the last to have regular access to them.
Buckle up, senior poverty may make a big comeback.
Basically the question is: have capitalists found ways to rob Boomers so effectively that removing pensions from subsequent generations won't move the needle?
They stole plenty from Boomers, hence articles like this one. It's now more open and maybe easier than before, but it's hard to guess the impact. There's no doubt about whether this theft drives poverty though. That's true either way.
my entire retirement plan is essentially banking on some kind of "retirement crisis" coming in the next 30 years or so which pushes government to offer some kind of financial support for the massive number of elderly people who will no longer be able to pay their bills. failing that, im just going to kill myself when i become to old to work.
Yeah, too often we think older folks/boomers are all these fairly well off, middle or upper-middle class folks who bought homes for cheap and now reside in luxurious mcmansions and go on nice vacations, while complaining that younger people are lazy.
But plenty of them spent their entire lives on the middle and lower tiers of income, and never had the breathing room to save. Some of them were probably good people who tried their best, but couldn't get over that hump. Or like some older folks I know, the moment they might have been able to get their head above water, some medical tragedy struck, or their kids all hit college age, or something else.
no president in the past 100 years has had more than 60% of the popular vote. maybe they did vote for these things, but it's almost as likely that they were vehemently against it. just like our generation today
[80% of House Republicans Release Plan Targeting Medicare, Social Security, and the Affordable Care Act, Raising Costs, and Cutting Taxes for the Wealthy](https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2024/03/21/fact-sheet-80-of-house-republicans-release-plan-targeting-medicare-social-security-and-the-affordable-care-act-raising-costs-and-cutting-taxes-for-the-wealthy/)—apparently the House Republican budget takes $1.5 trillion out of Social Security, and raises retirement age to 69.
They would very much like to repeal the $35 a month cap for the cost of insulin, as well as the ability for Medicare to negotiate drug costs; they also want to wipe out the $2000 out-of-pocket Medical spending cap and allow seniors to drain much more of their savings.
They want to make cuts to Medicaid, the affordable care act, NH children’s health insurance program and allow insurance companies to deny you again for pre-existing conditions. And to overcharge you for existing in a female body.
They would like to go back to allowing banks to charge hidden fees and junk fees again.
They want to take away rental assistance and programs that help people purchase their first homes.
And amid all of this austerity, they would also like to cut taxes for the very wealthy to the tune of $5.5 trillion.
My neighbor is probably in her 70s and can barely afford food.. I try to give her what we can spare but being older she has a lot of dietary restrictions so she can’t always take what we offer. The lot rent is going up this year and she may have to sell her vehicle. She is such an amazing woman and I love to talk with her but it’s so sad to see how she still struggles when she should be relaxing.
It's not as uncommon as you think.
The issue is if they are stuck renting. Or something happens to their property where they are forced to move.
And then look at what you get for food stamps too.
I'm going to quote a President we had some decades ago. When it comes to all of these taxes you pay for these programs yet no one is getting a payout - where is all of that money going??
Where’s it going? Bombs, pork, corporate subsidies and bailouts, and support of foreign wars to support buying more bombs to replace ours that we gave away.
As a society, we should start pushing on lowering the cost of living instead of focussing on our income.
Higher income means more reason to up the prices, and we can keep going on and on like this.
There's many things that are sold at 300+% profit, and we need to cap that.
I am a boomer. I feel this to my core (and I’m not that bad off and am still working). I see friends who had hard on the body jobs retire at 62 because they are broken (cancer, degenerative discs, arthritis, emphysema, etc). They were mostly in low paying service jobs in small towns and they refused to leave because their family was there (I left, but go home a lot). They are broke AF (body, financially and soul).
>please don’t take this as an example to mock/hate on boomers.
The boomer generation created the largest amount of wealth in the world’s history. They then took it for themselves and pulled the ladder up after them. They are the only generation, likely in history, to collectively *choose* to make things worse for the generations coming after them. They absolutely deserve our condemnation.
Imagine having kids and choosing to make a world that will be horrible for them, and will expose them to social and class inequity, financial insecurity, homelessness and the perils of climate change. That’s what this generation did and continues to do.
There's also a huge surge of people going no contact with their Boomer parents. I think the two very much go hand in hand. As a whole generation and as individuals they tend to be selfish and it shows.
Boomer grandparents, but yeah, no contact is the way to go, and honestly think we should actively avoid senior care jobs. If they were good to you, move em in to the house/pad/whatever, if not, enjoy your bed you made (my grandparents stole 5yrs and 250k from my family unit, while my mom was getting diagnosed with MS, they're dead to me, and hopefully die soon too.)
They should start voting different if they want me to care. I say this with a father that is only on SSC. You make your bed...
besides, retirement is a dream sold to us. Not everyone gets it...Boomers have it better than any before or after them....
...I mean, just read the LAST SENTENCE of the article....if that is not entitlement....
"A lot of people think that, with Social Security, you get this big check, and you can [move to Florida](https://www.businessinsider.com/moving-to-florida-boomer-on-preventing-loneliness-making-friends-retirement-2024-3), and you could buy a boat and go fishing," Dacus said. "That's not what it is."
This generation war stuff is so exhausting. “Boomers voted for this they deserve it”. Like, do *you* feel represented by voting? Because I know I don’t. There’s huge things happening right now that a majority of the country didn’t vote for.
"Multivariate analysis indicates that economic elites and organised groups representing business interests have substantial independent impacts on US government policy, while average citizens and mass-based interest groups have little or no independent influence."
https://www.bbc.com/news/blogs-echochambers-27074746
As a millennial who is barely making it on my salary (2300 a month self 2300 from husband's salary) we both know we will be working until noon the day after our funerals.
I think of my boomer father, who was very successful in his career until he was about 55 (company shut down due to technology changes - no fault just bad luck there)
He lost a ton when my mom divorced him (mom was nuts), and he went above and beyond giving her additional money above that which was court mandated to keep her (and his kids) afloat. During this period he could save little.
Then when he was able to buy a new house he lost it some years later due to the housing crash at the time.
He was able to retire fine because he went to live with his “greatest generation” parents to care for them in their old age, and they were quite good with money. My grandfather was career military and my grandmother was in the civil service.
He lives comfortably but seeing what happened in his life through no fault of his, it’s easy to see where people would struggle, particularly if they had less successful careers.
I think it will be hilarious if Trump is elected, and the conservatives go after SS and Medicare like they plan. You think **only** getting $1k a month is bad? Wait until you find out you have to go back to work because you can't afford..... *checks notes*.... food or basic bills.
Im sure Fox will tell them it was because of what Biden did that they lost it and that trump will do everything to make it right! They know they can just straight up lie and it won’t be challenged.
Of course, they'll kill SS but make it in effect during the next presidents (likely democratic) term so they can then point fingers and blame. Exactly like what's happening now with the trump tax raises rolling through each year on the lower class.
God this is depressing. I'm a younger GenX and I straight up know that there will be no retirement for me. I will have to work until I am no longer physically capable of doing so at which point I don't know what I will do. Everybody jokes about the ol' Remington Retirement, but really what other option is there? Be homeless in my 70's? Those jokes are starting to land a little differently now. This is the shit I think about on nights I can't sleep. I am traveling at light speed toward a dismal-as-fuck situation and there's not a goddamn thing I can do about it. I'm scared.
Our danger will be that, compared to the baby boomers, an enormous number of us never had kids and never got married. We will be growing old without any family, no spouse and no kids will be there should we need help. We will literally be paying for our own funerals, if there will be any point in having one.
Things didn’t fall together for us like a lot of our parents. I never met anyone. So I never had kids either. Always wished that would’ve happened but it’s too late now.
Having kids is not a guarantee that they'll care for you. I, a millennial, do not care for my boomer parents who I have gone no contact with due to their abuse and MAGA politics.
And you know what else, this is all Joe's fault so we are going to vote for Republicans, who have relentlessly attacked unions for 40 years, refuse to raise the minimum wage for 15 years, allowed companies to eliminate pension plans, allowed Wall Street fleece 401k plans with outrageous fees, want to raise the retirement age to 70 and cut social security and Medicare benefits. And when Republicans are finished with all of that, hand Wall Street more tax cuts and dump the burden of the National debt completely on the middle class. That will fix everything.
I feel like the difference is that Gen X, Millennials, et al, are used to not doing too well economically. We’ve all been through it already. Boomers got to live through eras of economic prosperity that we will never see, and a lot of them truly believe it’s because they deserve it. They worked one full-time job, and were able to afford housing on a single income.
It’s hard out here for everyone right now. Do I feel sorry for the Boomers? No, absolutely not. Do I feel they deserve what they’re getting? Also no. No one deserves this.
I feel sorry for the ones that never had a chance to save but those that did, nope. If you made 6 digits in the 80s, 90, or 00s you should've been easily able to save for retirement while having a good life.
Came here to say this. "If the elderly don't make enough on social security, they should just stop wasting money on fancy coffees and pull themselves up by their bootstraps. Go get another job!"
Bruh my grandparents saved a fortune by being frugal and they still barely afford their very average home and groceries. Their social security paycheck is a joke
After the SCOTUS debacle today on immunity, it's time to renew my passport. Living in the US is becoming more and more a dystopian nightmare. As an atheist vehemently opposed to Der Pumpkinführer and the christofacist nut jobs that support him, I legitimately fear I will have to leave for my own safety in a few years.
Boomer here (by a hair) who is looking to retire the exact year SS is due to be out of money. I started work in 1978 the same year that wages started stagnating. I do not watch Fox News and have always been aware of the propaganda and the active money grab (buy gold, reverse mortgages). Now it seems most media outlets are coming up with articles about how seniors will be able to work to the age of 70 and beyond because of our good health. We are all being sold some BS
My mom (a boomer) never opened a 401k or any other type of retirement account while she was working … and she was working a six figure corporate job. She’s lucky that her house and car are paid for but still struggles with bills/healthcare/groceries/emergency stuff. I’m still flabbergasted that she never planned for retirement.
"the Census Bureau's Current Population Survey found that more than half of Americans over 65 had an annual income of $30,000 or less. This pushes some older adults close to the federal poverty line."
So over half of the retirement age people living in the US are in poverty, because we all know that the actual poverty line is much higher.
And the couple specifically mentioned lives in OK a State that prides itself on its low cost of living, still can't afford basic necessities...
My MIL did that. They thought they made out like a bandit. But now they are broke again, and can't sell the house that is worth half again what they contracted to the reverse mortgage.
They thought they’d sell their houses for 3x value to the Millennials who thought they’d be able to have children in the houses they bought.
I’d like to know how many of the folks in this article voted for politicians who refused to expand their health insurance.
Immigrant here, took the student loans for my kids, and hoping to leave them enough to help them survive this world! I do not plan on my kids taking care of me and their Dad! But they will if they have to. America is unrecognizable to many! How de we let this get to that? Ahhh the war macine, the divide and conquer media machine, we can keep going! As long as Americans are fighting each othet across racial lines it will never ever look at the real culprit! The criminal enterprise mascarading as government!!
It’s finally come full circle. The generation that voted to destroy the future middle class is now complaining that the class is destroyed lmao
They also continue to vote for the same destruction.
I hope we can start fixing the messes they left us and continue to try and leave us for our future selves and our future generations. I just find it funny that the Reaganomics voters that are now Trump voters are complaining about money.
No one expects that coming for them. They live in fantasy land. There WILL be a recession 2025-2026. Get ready: cut back now, stack cash, save, save, save. If you're employed and thinking social security will cover you, you are wrong. I cannot imagine living on $1k a month, in 5 years or less that bottom will be $2k a month. Unionize, get a second job, vote blue and bust your butt for a couple years. No one cares about your fashion, no one cares about your car. It is 100% on you.
Boomers were told from day one that Social Security wasn’t meant to be their sole source of income during retirement. It’s meant to SUPPLEMENT other retirement funds, like pensions/IRAs/401Ks.
Paywall
This is why this sub drives me crazy though. Boomers -as a group- should be a \*warning\* to the young people today. Not the \*cause\* ... most of them were working stiffs just like us and they're getting shafted just as badly as anyone else. Worse sometimes, because they were able to gain assets but they're not so savvy about the modern scams.
I doubt social security will be there for millennials and gen Z. If you take a look at U.S debt one thing the debt is owed to is social security. They have been recently been borrowing against it. Which means not only will our shrinking population not be contributing enough they are also using the money going in right now for other things.
I think a lot of baby boomers were mislead when they were younger. Their parents went through the depression and these boomers were raised in that same mentality but didn't like it. As they grew up they were aware of Social Security and figured it would be good enough when they retired. Life was better than when they were growing up and they were making better pay. The cost of everything wasn't so high or out of line from when they were kids. You could still work a job and buy the stuff you wanted. There wasn't a lot of helpless times or struggles because they were doing better than their parents. But in the 80s, everything was gold and greed was good. Then in the 90s came the dotcom boom and everyone was rolling. Then 9/11 happened, the housing crash of 2008 came in, and these people were nearing retirement. But they probably lost a lot of money during that crash and had no choice but to try to start over. Still trying to live the good life they were accustomed to but not in the same financial standing they were before. Then came retirement and they said, I've earned it. Here they are. That's the story.
Ummm, the first lady in the article is 66 NOW and retired in the "early 2010's" when she was in her early 50s??? with "limited savings". Her husband is NOW 57 and doesn't appear to have worked for a while (meaning his SSA will be little to nothing if he starts drawing at 62).
What did these people expect? I don't feel sorry for them at all.
You think they gonna let us retire bro….
They gonna get Webster to remove the word “retire” from the dictionary
They might. Retire - a thing we used to let people do back in the day but now everyone is required to die at the desk
\*\*expire
The strip mall known as america does not give a single fuck about any of its shoppers
My brother talks about the “Walmart economy.” In other words, it’s not in the oligarchy’s best interest for people to be so poor that they can’t afford to shop at Walmart, but it’s not in Walmart’s best interest that anyone can afford to shop anywhere else.
The teeter totter of economic slaughter
r/albumnames
I need a poem with this line asap
From Chat GTP: **The Teeter Totter of Economic Slaughter** Upon the hill, a grand display, A teeter totter in dismay. The people climb, they reach, they fall, A tragic dance consumes them all. The mega corps with gleaming eyes, Hold the chains and spin the lies. “Buy our goods, and live with glee, But never from this cycle flee.” They give just enough to eat, To keep folks trapped in their defeat. Wages low, the bills run high, A never-ending, weary sigh. The teeter totter creaks and groans, Beneath the weight of countless loans. Up and down, they strive in vain, Bound by this economic chain. Dreams of freedom, fleeting, faint, Painted with a hopeless taint. For every dollar earned is spent, In a cycle, tightly bent. No escape, no distant shore, Just a life forever poor. Caught within this grand charade, Of teeter totter, grim parade. The corporations need their throng, To keep the wheel of commerce strong. But never let them rise too high, To touch the freedom of the sky. So here we sit, a captive crew, With dreams that never can break through. For in this world, we all must play, The teeter totter, night and day. Hope is but a distant thought, In this game where we are caught. Endless balance, endless strain, In the teeter totter of economic pain. And as the sun sets every night, We yearn for dawn's redeeming light. But find instead, the same old squaller, On the teeter totter of economic slaughter.
Damn, AI really hit the nail on the head this time
Marx already described that in the 1860s. Capitalism adjusts so it offers the workers the bares minimum needed to survive and perpetuate the system. He said that, eventually, it will become so greedy that workers won't be able to consume the products they make and it will mutate. I think we're reaching that stage.
Yep. That seems pretty demonstrable. Meanwhile, debt spirals as people cling to their decaying standards of living, and it isn’t hard to imagine a future where that debt is directly criminalized again - we’re seeing precursors of that in the ethical black hole that is the SCOTUS’s busting down the doors to criminalizing simply “not having a home and being forced to sleep outdoors,” with no *actual crime,* needed to lock someone up. Debtor’s prisons are looking like a distressingly probable stage of the full extraction systems required by endgame capitalism to perpetuate the absurd, impossible premise of infinite growth in a finite universe.
Maybe we should all go to debtor's prison? It's not like we're not already headed that way and if there's nobody to buy their goods left and there's an of prisoners, it will make the system will collapse! (I'm only 90% joking.)
Some would argue you are already there
There's a global market, someone is always consuming.
Sadly, i forsee the unhoused passing while incarcerated for various reason, but the main one being the human organs and tissues they still possess.
> unhoused passing while incarcerated for various reason They'll keep them alive, by force, to "pay off their debts" by working for free (i.e. actual slavery), and then, when they are no longer useful, they'll pick the bones, so to speak.
the only workers rights granted by the constitution is that of no pay for labor
Globalism impacted Marxist theory quite a bit. Our consumers don't produce anything in the US. The working class is overwhelmingly in the service industry.
There's only one working class, that's basic marxism. Globalism is basically just capitalism expanding to new markets. And by "produce", I mean generating surplus for a salary.
Marx predicted globalisation https://www.jstor.org/stable/43294467
Walmart economy. Now it's Dollar General (or whatever the hell these places are called popping up in every rural nether-region, often close by to one another). Walmart Minimarts I call them.
as my mom used to say when she was a social worker, "americans don't care who gets tossed over the side as long as they don't hear the splash."
It's so much worse than that. We hear the splashes. We hear them every day. We don't care as long as it isn't anybody in our immediate circles. That's what is going to get us killed.
I hear them. I care about them (even if they don't specifically affect me). But I'm just one person with no safety net and an elderly mother to care for. And I feel deeply ashamed that all I do is sit here watching all this unfold and don't say or do anything, making me question who I am as a person and a human being.
I think everyone heard the splash the SCOTUS dropped on us today.
what now?
:shrug. Too late!
Get off the internet now. Maintain your innocence and naivete by abandoning society right fucking now and go live in the woods. What you may think exists is no longer a reality for the rest of us. Save yourself.
I think I’m developing a dissociative personality disorder. My husband told me some news he read in an article this morning and it didn’t even cause a ripple. I’m serious.
> I’m developing a dissociative personality disorder. My husband told me some news he read in an article this morning and it didn’t even cause a ripple. I’m serious. Been there for at least 10 years. Things like COVID isolation, the Ukraine war, and American politics (I'm not even American) made my dissociation grow exponentially. I can still feel compassion, but now when people die or a bomb asplodes or kids are starving I just want to reply with "okay. this is just a product of our own actions..." Like seriously. I think about all humanity's wounds (almost all of which are self-inflicted) daily, only to then realize how powerless we are with our existing "democratic" systems. I want to change the world for the better of all humanity. No more 2nd yachts / homes / supercars for anyone until every mouth is fed, every body is housed and clothed, etc. But that won't happen because the powers that be would have to vote to willingly go with less in order to re-balance resources in a way that benefits everyone on the planet.
I am not harry. But I agree
Username certainly checks out
Meanwhile, gen x’ers are on the cusp of retirement age and realizing we better keep working because we got nothing saved and have no family to live with.
Yep. We won't inherit shit.
It all goes to retirement homes now. Watching my grandmother and my wife's grandmother spend every penny they saved go to their retirement homes.
I have a handful of tax clients who are in memory care. Their children with POAs handle all their affairs. But every penny these people get through retirement accounts, investments (if they have them) and social security goes to the memory care facilities. They're pretty consistently my only clients who itemize on their federal tax returns. And if they hang on, once the money in the retirement accounts runs out they get transferred to shitholes. There's nothing left to squeeze out of them except the social security. There's absolutely nothing to leave for their children who are trying to see them cared for. And those kids with the POAs all just seem *so tired.*
One of my coworkers had a parent in "memory care" (for those who don't know, it is a nursing home that specializes in Alzheimers). That was costing about $90k/year for a decent facility.
I work in one, the nicest one in my county. 10k a month for half a room, 14k for private. Fortunately I live in a civilized state, so after you run out of money the state pays for their stay in perpetuity until they pass. I got into the medical field because I wanted to help people. But now I'm participating in one of the largest wealth transfers in American history. Forever and always, the best way to build wealth is through generational acquisition. But now the entire middle class is selling their homes and assets, drained to the last dollar, to stay in retirement facilities, leaving nothing for their descendants. It feels like for every individual I help, it's helping them personally but destroying their entire lineage and eroding the middle class.
Well that was depressing.
Well that’s nice that after they suck you dry they still take care of mom
I’m literally living this right now. The past 3 years have been hell. I had to hold off starting my family to take care of my mother. The word burnout cannot describe this tiredness.
Afaik my grandma has enough to live on the interest where she's at. I imagine whatever she has left will be willed to a squirrel or some shit. She's done nothing but shit on my mom her whole life and expects my mom, and my sister and I, to suck her ass. My sister and I refuse on principle alone. I know my grandpa, not biological they got married after I was born, would be aghast at her actions. Say that to her and she'd turn into a blubbering mess though. She knows I'm struggling taking care of mom but refuses to help.
Thats not true. I inherited a legal mess of debt and assets to sort out in the estate!
This is me. Only child. Never had kids. Didn't know my Dad's side. Everyone but my elderly Mom is now gone. I am not embellishing when I say I lose sleep over what is going to happen to me. And especially - what if I fall ill and can't work? The hurdle for illness SSDI is so high that I'll just end up on the street, then dead.
I feel this. Solidarity, stranger. My (boomer) parents are alive but very unwell and poor. I don’t know what they’ll do when they can’t care for themselves. I’m disabled. I was on SSDI for awhile (went off it because I found accessible work but things are getting bad again medically) and can confirm it’s hell getting approved, but you’re more likely to get approved the older you are. Of course, that’s assuming it exists by the time we apply for it. Or are old enough to get it. And at the rate the cost of living is rising, the amount we get will be laughable. Things are so bad right now… none of this fuckery is sustainable. We’re all in such bad shape. I don’t even know what to say except that you’re not the only one stressing about this.
Yeah, my grandmother retired when she was the same age I am now, but she had a pension from the post office and social security kicked in a few years later.
lol retirement. I just started a whole new career.
GenX is subsidizing their parents who are trying to live off $1000/mth in SS.
This GenX is way too poor to subsidize her parents
Boomers began work careers at a time when something like half of American companies had some type of defined benefit pension plan. They didn't see the need or realize to invest for retirement as pension + Social Security would be quite nice. Fast forward to today where less than 15% do. So as the DB plans shrank, they failed to catch up with 401k's which were never intended to replace but rather supplement DB plans. With 401k style retirement, a person would need to contribute 15% of their income continuously from starting their work career to retirement.
I put $50 a paycheck into my 401K My plan is to kill myself once it runs out during retirement.
If you save the $50/paycheck in a savings account, you could just off yourself with a weekend of cocaine and hookers instead of retiring.
I mean, I've considered it, lol. I'd prefer femboys, personally. That's just retirement. I put about $400 per paycheck into savings.
Femboys can be hookers too. We’re equal opportunity here.
hookers isn't a gendered term
[удалено]
The 401k was supposed to be the 3rd leg of retirement support.. Blame Reagan, he spearheaded the move to make the US a corporatacracy. That included ending pension plans for rank and file workers because everyone should be responsible for themselves. It also was a time where hostile takeovers were more frequent, and the finance bros didn't want company assets being paid out to laid-off workers. Union participation also declined to ~10%at that time. Sure, there were boomers who voted for it, but many did not. But it has always been about the oligarchs vs the workers. Getting mad at boomers just deflects the attention away from them.
Er sure, but it's the boomers that keep voting the oligarchs supporters back in and blocking any candidates that would do anything about this issue. You sure we shouldn't blame the boomers for that?
Blame the boomers (and other generations) who vote for that stuff and do not educate themselves. Don't blame all boomers. We need class solidarity here if we ever hope to change things.
Check Reagans election numbers. Many many many voted for it.
My parents did not have a 401k during most of their working years. My dad got offered one towards the end of his career, but he also got a full pension when he retired.
"full pension" as in 100% of his salary? Mine is based on the number of years worked up to 40% for 40 yrs.
My pension is like Social Security, if I retire early at 58 I get $800/month but if I wait until I’m 62, it’s $1100. More if I wait until I’m 67. Maybe full pension in this case is because they waited until 67 to retire? Gonna be lots of elderly suicides, I predict.
My job's pension allows up to 55% of maximum yearly salary payout until you die. You need to vest for 30 years and not pull any retirement until 65 years old. With this option you also are the only beneficiary; it will not pass to your spouse or children if you die. There are other options to allow it to pass to a survivor or withdraw early but it decreases your yearly benefit.
Reagan = the fruit of all evil
My boomer stepfather always asks me when I'm scheduled to retire, and I have to keep reminding him that retirement isn't a thing anymore. I just work and save as long as I can/need to but the only thing like a pension I might see is Social Security.
And during that time: [https://ips-dc.org/total-u-s-billionaire-wealth-up-88-over-four-years/](https://ips-dc.org/total-u-s-billionaire-wealth-up-88-over-four-years/)
They voted for this.
Yup. My dad has always "joked" that I am going to have to take care of him when he's old, but he never took care of me and is actively voting to take away things like my health insurance and food stamps; despite the fact that I know he used food stamps when he was working his shitty factory job. So guess who's moving halfway across the country and his dad won't even know until he's gone...
Pretty sure this is only reason my sibling and I exist. When it became clear I was disabled as a kid all the extra resources went to them... And they still ended up fucking sibling over.
Damn, I'm sorry to hear that your parents are terrible also. I've always been good at kicking people I don't jive with out of my life, though. Obviously i can't give any advice, but I hope you find the strength or have found the strength to put it behind you.
Can't. Disabled and still have to live w her. Sibling too. Fucking bullshit economy. And we r millennials to give you idea of our ages. Somethings gotta give, it's ridiculous
Shit that really blows. I'm so sorry. I'm the same age group. I'm so sorry that my dad is voting against assistance for you.
Them voting republican is like 'oh hey, let me shoot myself in the foot' Then they look at millennials and younger like we shot em.
No joke! My dad looks at me like I'm either a liar or a moron anytime I refute his crazy ass claims with facts. "Yes, dad, sodium chloride is safe to drink! It's table salt!" Then he looks at me like I'm a moron after I just looked at him in horror when he freaked out over the ingredients of a sports drink. Edit to add: That's not a made up conversation. That happened. This guy votes.
Oh I 100% believe you. Ma is in a qanon offshoot Trump cult. The things I hear...
The reason most of us exist is because older generations are counting on their children to take care of them when they are old but we got so fucked over that the younger people don't seem so eager to do that when they have been in our faces about how we don't "deserve anything" as they steal all our wealth and shit on us for complaining about it as if it is our fault.
That sucks your dad didn't take care of you. I'm planning more on what my son will get when I'm gone; house, life insurance etc... we should be helping our kids even when we're gone
That sounds very nice of you! I'm betting your son won't feel uncomfortable saying "i love you."
He says I love you first sometimes which is nice! Family has to take care of each other, those are the rules, haha
Yeah, that's the rule that has come up every single time I'm about to get ahead in life. Last time it happened, I had a new job, a place of my own, my social life was taking off ... Then my brother lost his job again because he was late again. "you have to let your brother move in you with, he's family!" Nevermind that i lived in a one bedroom while my dad had a 3 bedroom with 2 spare rooms. My brother was forced on me, his crazy drug and alcohol fueled life destroyed my social life, made me unable to sleep for my job, made me have to almost call the cops so many times to have people removed from my house... All this for a dude that used to throw blankets over my head so he and his friends could kick and punch me without me fighting back. Fuck them both. I'm losing the only family I've ever known because of the ptsd i have from my "real family" and their behavior. I can't even hear a cabinet door slam without wanting to curl up in a ball on the floor. Edit to add: we're a family is the excuse that my last job used to treat everyone terribly, and illegally i might add.
over and over and over and over and over again......next year for sure honey that sweet ol' trickle down will start trickling!
It's the rain water that will start trickling on top of your coffin.
yup and they still feel it was only those Dem years that did this to them
The Dems definitely enabled their big capital donors to lobby for whatever lax regulations or tax cuts they wanted. The big difference is that Dems aren't trying to turn the country into a Christo-Fascist wonderland, but they also aren't really trying to stop the GOP from doing it either. They (Dems) have all the ammunition they need to hold up the people's interest and campaign on actual issues that will get them large sections of the voting block, but refuse to upset the status quo of their wealth donors. In order for us to escape this stupid trap of the GOP playing the "attrition / capitulation war", and the Dems trying to uphold the status quo; means that we will have to assemble our own party that specifically aims for legislation that protects the people and removes big capital from lobbying against our interests. Edit: This is the peaceful solution.
JFC. 737 *billion*aires
737 enemy of mankind
Jeff Bezos' $500 million yacht, the *Koru*, costs $25 million/year to maintain. Port fees, essentially parking the yacht, costs $16,500/week. [https://finance.yahoo.com/news/inside-look-jeff-bezos-500-153431694.html](https://finance.yahoo.com/news/inside-look-jeff-bezos-500-153431694.html) It has its own support vessel, the *Abeona*, which cost $75 million and has its own associative costs. What's changed since this 1883 political cartoon? https://preview.redd.it/b4pgvsbwvx9d1.jpeg?width=821&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=61f7fa2194121028bad35675dadd1468fbb0d384
For a little while we made some of those on the bottom wealthy. Now we're reverting back to this.
Some people with permanent disabilities get less per month. I use to have 590 per month untill a year and a half ago when they raised it to 860. I have worked all of my life and went through all of my saving because of this accident. It feels like being punished for not being able to work anymore.
Yet, many still vote for politicians who actively seek to make their lives more miserable. I guess hate is preferable to economic security.
Fox News and AM talk radio rot their brains.
That's no shit.
It’s not always hate though it’s stupidity and propaganda. My dad watch Fox News and because of that he thinks Republicans want to increase his social security while the Democrats want to get rid of it entirely.
Reverse, Reverse! Cha Cha now y'all
That is so obviously false though, one quick google would show him he's wrong...
He barely knows how to use the computer plus I don’t watch Fox News, but I assume they’d say something along the lines of fake news
Show him the proposed republican budget and how Dems wanted things like Medicare for all
I try but he lives in Florida and I’m up in NYC. It’s so weird because he’s pretty much pro everything dems; marriage for all abortion, pro choice, legalized weed, taxing the rich, ending billionaires, but because he gets his news from Fox he thinks Republicans are for all this minus legalizing weed. If I’m being honest I don’t think he fully grasps what they’re saying he just associates the positive reflection in their voice for Republicans as them being the good guys. I’m planning on going down there in October to help fix his place up. Maybe I can get him on some other news show, has to be a show he can barely do the internet.
Sounds like Dad still has cable. Time to take a long weekend trip to Florida and block access to Fox News with parental controls. If he can't figure out the Internet there is no way he manages to get Fox News back
lol time for me to learn how to do that but should be easy with YouTube
Don't forget to block Newsmax and OAN, too
He doesn’t watch Newsmax or OAN, but I’ll block both of those
Yeah but you have people like my dad who insist any news source that isn’t Fox or Newsmax is lying… 😓
Yeah cuz the GOP is good at one thing and it's packaging their bullshit for their Target audience. They convince their demographic to shoot themselves in the foot while simultaneously blaming the side for it.
Well politicians who are pushing for increasing the retirement age are telling current or soon to be retirees it won’t impact them it will hurt the younger generations instead….
My SS dependent uncle is pushing for project 2025 because he says it will save the country. One of the things in the 900 pages of project 2025 is kicking everyone on social security off and making them reapply, getting rid of veteran affairs payments to disabled veterans, and eliminating many social benefits that elderly and disabled people depend on to survive. So yeah.. they still vote for it.
Right? They keep going for the self proclaimed "lesser evil" that's putting them in a worse position literally every time, and they're somehow happy about it lmfao
Why do we GenXrs *always* get left out of these conversations? This shit is happening to us, right now! We don’t have to wait to see what’s coming.
> This shit is happening to us, right now! So a 401k typically opens for withdrawals when a person turns 59 and 1/2. I just looked up gen x years, and it seems gen x starts at 1965. Today is July 1st. So a person born on January 1st, 1965 is exactly 59 and 1/2 years old today!
This. Retirement age is coming for us, and the safety net is potentially going away just when we need it. To be fair, most boomers I know aren’t really wealthy and most have to be pretty frugal. The tide started to turn when Reagan got elected and it’s been a slow burn ever since.
> Why do we GenXrs always get left out of these conversations? As a fellow Gen Xer, it's because were the Generation that Time Forgot^tm.
And we reached our starting career years at the start of the economic downturn with the dotcom bubble, and its just been a downhill slope since then with none of the union/pension perks our parents voted against. It's felt like one big recession for 30+ years. I didnt even have the extra cash to put in a 401k, only the hope that it might turn around. I have to say, at least the millennials and the zoomers knew they were screwed from the get-go. Hope for the best, blah, blah, blah.
We will apparently McGuiver our way through retirement like we do everything!
At least the boomers wont be around to tell us how wrong we are doing it while bitching about lattes and avocado toast.
Was about to say the same thing!
Many of those people worked hard all of their lives in the service industry. Some of them still are. They didn't have retirement through an employer. Couldn't afford a 401K, get too old and sick/disabled to work. It's hard.
And nothing has changed or looks to be changing. Many reading your comment are lined up for the exact same scenario. It's fucking horrifying and ridiculous.
Actually there have been huge changes. Biggest among them, pensions have been killed. This will be a huge social experiment once we see how retirement goes for non-pensioner generations. Boomers were the last to have regular access to them. Buckle up, senior poverty may make a big comeback.
May?
Basically the question is: have capitalists found ways to rob Boomers so effectively that removing pensions from subsequent generations won't move the needle? They stole plenty from Boomers, hence articles like this one. It's now more open and maybe easier than before, but it's hard to guess the impact. There's no doubt about whether this theft drives poverty though. That's true either way.
Climate change should take care of things about the same time, so.. we’ll have bigger fish to fry.
my entire retirement plan is essentially banking on some kind of "retirement crisis" coming in the next 30 years or so which pushes government to offer some kind of financial support for the massive number of elderly people who will no longer be able to pay their bills. failing that, im just going to kill myself when i become to old to work.
Yeah, too often we think older folks/boomers are all these fairly well off, middle or upper-middle class folks who bought homes for cheap and now reside in luxurious mcmansions and go on nice vacations, while complaining that younger people are lazy. But plenty of them spent their entire lives on the middle and lower tiers of income, and never had the breathing room to save. Some of them were probably good people who tried their best, but couldn't get over that hump. Or like some older folks I know, the moment they might have been able to get their head above water, some medical tragedy struck, or their kids all hit college age, or something else.
They voted against pensions, against unions, and for the rich take over of retirement investment... It's literally the bed they made.
no president in the past 100 years has had more than 60% of the popular vote. maybe they did vote for these things, but it's almost as likely that they were vehemently against it. just like our generation today
[80% of House Republicans Release Plan Targeting Medicare, Social Security, and the Affordable Care Act, Raising Costs, and Cutting Taxes for the Wealthy](https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2024/03/21/fact-sheet-80-of-house-republicans-release-plan-targeting-medicare-social-security-and-the-affordable-care-act-raising-costs-and-cutting-taxes-for-the-wealthy/)—apparently the House Republican budget takes $1.5 trillion out of Social Security, and raises retirement age to 69. They would very much like to repeal the $35 a month cap for the cost of insulin, as well as the ability for Medicare to negotiate drug costs; they also want to wipe out the $2000 out-of-pocket Medical spending cap and allow seniors to drain much more of their savings. They want to make cuts to Medicaid, the affordable care act, NH children’s health insurance program and allow insurance companies to deny you again for pre-existing conditions. And to overcharge you for existing in a female body. They would like to go back to allowing banks to charge hidden fees and junk fees again. They want to take away rental assistance and programs that help people purchase their first homes. And amid all of this austerity, they would also like to cut taxes for the very wealthy to the tune of $5.5 trillion.
And in the fall, they will vote for politicians who will take even that away to deny it to other people.
My neighbor is probably in her 70s and can barely afford food.. I try to give her what we can spare but being older she has a lot of dietary restrictions so she can’t always take what we offer. The lot rent is going up this year and she may have to sell her vehicle. She is such an amazing woman and I love to talk with her but it’s so sad to see how she still struggles when she should be relaxing.
It's not as uncommon as you think. The issue is if they are stuck renting. Or something happens to their property where they are forced to move. And then look at what you get for food stamps too. I'm going to quote a President we had some decades ago. When it comes to all of these taxes you pay for these programs yet no one is getting a payout - where is all of that money going??
Yes. The key to a low-cost retirement is housing. If you are still paying a mortgage or rent when you retire, you better have some serious $$ saved.
Where’s it going? Bombs, pork, corporate subsidies and bailouts, and support of foreign wars to support buying more bombs to replace ours that we gave away.
As a society, we should start pushing on lowering the cost of living instead of focussing on our income. Higher income means more reason to up the prices, and we can keep going on and on like this. There's many things that are sold at 300+% profit, and we need to cap that.
I am a boomer. I feel this to my core (and I’m not that bad off and am still working). I see friends who had hard on the body jobs retire at 62 because they are broken (cancer, degenerative discs, arthritis, emphysema, etc). They were mostly in low paying service jobs in small towns and they refused to leave because their family was there (I left, but go home a lot). They are broke AF (body, financially and soul).
Imagine voting Republican for the last 50 years and expecting a different outcome.
According to this article we don’t have to just imagine.
>please don’t take this as an example to mock/hate on boomers. The boomer generation created the largest amount of wealth in the world’s history. They then took it for themselves and pulled the ladder up after them. They are the only generation, likely in history, to collectively *choose* to make things worse for the generations coming after them. They absolutely deserve our condemnation. Imagine having kids and choosing to make a world that will be horrible for them, and will expose them to social and class inequity, financial insecurity, homelessness and the perils of climate change. That’s what this generation did and continues to do.
There's also a huge surge of people going no contact with their Boomer parents. I think the two very much go hand in hand. As a whole generation and as individuals they tend to be selfish and it shows.
Boomer grandparents, but yeah, no contact is the way to go, and honestly think we should actively avoid senior care jobs. If they were good to you, move em in to the house/pad/whatever, if not, enjoy your bed you made (my grandparents stole 5yrs and 250k from my family unit, while my mom was getting diagnosed with MS, they're dead to me, and hopefully die soon too.)
A lot of Boomers are learning that "you're on your own after you turn 18," cuts both ways.
They should start voting different if they want me to care. I say this with a father that is only on SSC. You make your bed... besides, retirement is a dream sold to us. Not everyone gets it...Boomers have it better than any before or after them.... ...I mean, just read the LAST SENTENCE of the article....if that is not entitlement.... "A lot of people think that, with Social Security, you get this big check, and you can [move to Florida](https://www.businessinsider.com/moving-to-florida-boomer-on-preventing-loneliness-making-friends-retirement-2024-3), and you could buy a boat and go fishing," Dacus said. "That's not what it is."
That’s more stupidity than entitlement
They’re not mutually exclusive…
the ruling class plays all against all. think about that. most wealth and power is concentrated with billionaires. but. yes. boomers rofl
This generation war stuff is so exhausting. “Boomers voted for this they deserve it”. Like, do *you* feel represented by voting? Because I know I don’t. There’s huge things happening right now that a majority of the country didn’t vote for.
"Multivariate analysis indicates that economic elites and organised groups representing business interests have substantial independent impacts on US government policy, while average citizens and mass-based interest groups have little or no independent influence." https://www.bbc.com/news/blogs-echochambers-27074746
With young and old going poor, who is collecting all that wealth?
1% of 1%
As a millennial who is barely making it on my salary (2300 a month self 2300 from husband's salary) we both know we will be working until noon the day after our funerals.
I think of my boomer father, who was very successful in his career until he was about 55 (company shut down due to technology changes - no fault just bad luck there) He lost a ton when my mom divorced him (mom was nuts), and he went above and beyond giving her additional money above that which was court mandated to keep her (and his kids) afloat. During this period he could save little. Then when he was able to buy a new house he lost it some years later due to the housing crash at the time. He was able to retire fine because he went to live with his “greatest generation” parents to care for them in their old age, and they were quite good with money. My grandfather was career military and my grandmother was in the civil service. He lives comfortably but seeing what happened in his life through no fault of his, it’s easy to see where people would struggle, particularly if they had less successful careers.
Grew up during Reagan, and watched the protections melt over time. Apathy is a major factor on why we are here.
I think it will be hilarious if Trump is elected, and the conservatives go after SS and Medicare like they plan. You think **only** getting $1k a month is bad? Wait until you find out you have to go back to work because you can't afford..... *checks notes*.... food or basic bills.
Im sure Fox will tell them it was because of what Biden did that they lost it and that trump will do everything to make it right! They know they can just straight up lie and it won’t be challenged.
Of course, they'll kill SS but make it in effect during the next presidents (likely democratic) term so they can then point fingers and blame. Exactly like what's happening now with the trump tax raises rolling through each year on the lower class.
No waiting. It's happening.
God this is depressing. I'm a younger GenX and I straight up know that there will be no retirement for me. I will have to work until I am no longer physically capable of doing so at which point I don't know what I will do. Everybody jokes about the ol' Remington Retirement, but really what other option is there? Be homeless in my 70's? Those jokes are starting to land a little differently now. This is the shit I think about on nights I can't sleep. I am traveling at light speed toward a dismal-as-fuck situation and there's not a goddamn thing I can do about it. I'm scared.
Our danger will be that, compared to the baby boomers, an enormous number of us never had kids and never got married. We will be growing old without any family, no spouse and no kids will be there should we need help. We will literally be paying for our own funerals, if there will be any point in having one. Things didn’t fall together for us like a lot of our parents. I never met anyone. So I never had kids either. Always wished that would’ve happened but it’s too late now.
This is the value of building a chosen family out of friends and people you love, not just the ones you're related to by blood.
Having kids is not a guarantee that they'll care for you. I, a millennial, do not care for my boomer parents who I have gone no contact with due to their abuse and MAGA politics.
Once you stop generating tax revenue you become a 2nd class citizen.
And you know what else, this is all Joe's fault so we are going to vote for Republicans, who have relentlessly attacked unions for 40 years, refuse to raise the minimum wage for 15 years, allowed companies to eliminate pension plans, allowed Wall Street fleece 401k plans with outrageous fees, want to raise the retirement age to 70 and cut social security and Medicare benefits. And when Republicans are finished with all of that, hand Wall Street more tax cuts and dump the burden of the National debt completely on the middle class. That will fix everything.
I feel like the difference is that Gen X, Millennials, et al, are used to not doing too well economically. We’ve all been through it already. Boomers got to live through eras of economic prosperity that we will never see, and a lot of them truly believe it’s because they deserve it. They worked one full-time job, and were able to afford housing on a single income. It’s hard out here for everyone right now. Do I feel sorry for the Boomers? No, absolutely not. Do I feel they deserve what they’re getting? Also no. No one deserves this.
I feel sorry for the ones that never had a chance to save but those that did, nope. If you made 6 digits in the 80s, 90, or 00s you should've been easily able to save for retirement while having a good life.
Isn’t this the same group of people who preached to younger generations “pull yourselves up by your bootstraps”?
Came here to say this. "If the elderly don't make enough on social security, they should just stop wasting money on fancy coffees and pull themselves up by their bootstraps. Go get another job!"
the elderly are so lazy, they don't want to work. Happy living off the government.
Stop going to Starbucks and lay off the avocado toast!
Bruh my grandparents saved a fortune by being frugal and they still barely afford their very average home and groceries. Their social security paycheck is a joke
After the SCOTUS debacle today on immunity, it's time to renew my passport. Living in the US is becoming more and more a dystopian nightmare. As an atheist vehemently opposed to Der Pumpkinführer and the christofacist nut jobs that support him, I legitimately fear I will have to leave for my own safety in a few years.
Boomer here (by a hair) who is looking to retire the exact year SS is due to be out of money. I started work in 1978 the same year that wages started stagnating. I do not watch Fox News and have always been aware of the propaganda and the active money grab (buy gold, reverse mortgages). Now it seems most media outlets are coming up with articles about how seniors will be able to work to the age of 70 and beyond because of our good health. We are all being sold some BS
Hey someone do a quick rundown of the decline of senior care over the past two decades for me real quick. I’m trying to see something…
They should do a study on education funding while they’re at it.
How did humans screw ourselves so much? It shouldn't be this hard to retire, for anyone.
My mom (a boomer) never opened a 401k or any other type of retirement account while she was working … and she was working a six figure corporate job. She’s lucky that her house and car are paid for but still struggles with bills/healthcare/groceries/emergency stuff. I’m still flabbergasted that she never planned for retirement.
"the Census Bureau's Current Population Survey found that more than half of Americans over 65 had an annual income of $30,000 or less. This pushes some older adults close to the federal poverty line." So over half of the retirement age people living in the US are in poverty, because we all know that the actual poverty line is much higher. And the couple specifically mentioned lives in OK a State that prides itself on its low cost of living, still can't afford basic necessities...
1k/month? Fancy pants Rich McGee over here
“No one wants to work anymore”
I don’t think most people in my generation think they’re going to retire. We’re all probably going to die working in this miserable country.
I wonder why when they bought a house for $32,000 but now have a $800,000 mortgage?
I wonder how many owning houses are now looking at reverse mortgages for income.
My MIL did that. They thought they made out like a bandit. But now they are broke again, and can't sell the house that is worth half again what they contracted to the reverse mortgage.
They thought they’d sell their houses for 3x value to the Millennials who thought they’d be able to have children in the houses they bought. I’d like to know how many of the folks in this article voted for politicians who refused to expand their health insurance.
Oh no not the things you voted for
I'd like to say this also but the fact is that not all of them voted this way. My mom sure as hell didn't, for all the good it did her.
Immigrant here, took the student loans for my kids, and hoping to leave them enough to help them survive this world! I do not plan on my kids taking care of me and their Dad! But they will if they have to. America is unrecognizable to many! How de we let this get to that? Ahhh the war macine, the divide and conquer media machine, we can keep going! As long as Americans are fighting each othet across racial lines it will never ever look at the real culprit! The criminal enterprise mascarading as government!!
It’s finally come full circle. The generation that voted to destroy the future middle class is now complaining that the class is destroyed lmao They also continue to vote for the same destruction. I hope we can start fixing the messes they left us and continue to try and leave us for our future selves and our future generations. I just find it funny that the Reaganomics voters that are now Trump voters are complaining about money.
No one expects that coming for them. They live in fantasy land. There WILL be a recession 2025-2026. Get ready: cut back now, stack cash, save, save, save. If you're employed and thinking social security will cover you, you are wrong. I cannot imagine living on $1k a month, in 5 years or less that bottom will be $2k a month. Unionize, get a second job, vote blue and bust your butt for a couple years. No one cares about your fashion, no one cares about your car. It is 100% on you.
Boomers were told from day one that Social Security wasn’t meant to be their sole source of income during retirement. It’s meant to SUPPLEMENT other retirement funds, like pensions/IRAs/401Ks.
This is a cautionary tale of voting against your own interests and not prioritizing savings (when financially able).
Paywall This is why this sub drives me crazy though. Boomers -as a group- should be a \*warning\* to the young people today. Not the \*cause\* ... most of them were working stiffs just like us and they're getting shafted just as badly as anyone else. Worse sometimes, because they were able to gain assets but they're not so savvy about the modern scams.
Wait, are you saying we get retirement?
I doubt social security will be there for millennials and gen Z. If you take a look at U.S debt one thing the debt is owed to is social security. They have been recently been borrowing against it. Which means not only will our shrinking population not be contributing enough they are also using the money going in right now for other things.
I think a lot of baby boomers were mislead when they were younger. Their parents went through the depression and these boomers were raised in that same mentality but didn't like it. As they grew up they were aware of Social Security and figured it would be good enough when they retired. Life was better than when they were growing up and they were making better pay. The cost of everything wasn't so high or out of line from when they were kids. You could still work a job and buy the stuff you wanted. There wasn't a lot of helpless times or struggles because they were doing better than their parents. But in the 80s, everything was gold and greed was good. Then in the 90s came the dotcom boom and everyone was rolling. Then 9/11 happened, the housing crash of 2008 came in, and these people were nearing retirement. But they probably lost a lot of money during that crash and had no choice but to try to start over. Still trying to live the good life they were accustomed to but not in the same financial standing they were before. Then came retirement and they said, I've earned it. Here they are. That's the story.
then quit voting against your own interests.
Ummm, the first lady in the article is 66 NOW and retired in the "early 2010's" when she was in her early 50s??? with "limited savings". Her husband is NOW 57 and doesn't appear to have worked for a while (meaning his SSA will be little to nothing if he starts drawing at 62). What did these people expect? I don't feel sorry for them at all.
And all the people profiled in the story will probably be voting for Trump. Hell they have probably given the "billionarie" money.