‘Will I ever retire?’: millennials wonder what’s on the other side of middle age
‘Will I ever retire?’: millennials wonder what’s on the other side of middle age
For millennials, financial security feels like a fairytale. What will the next 40 years look like?
Claire*, 42, was always told: “Follow your dreams and the money will follow.” So that’s what she did. At 24, she opened a retail store with a friend in downtown Ottawa, Canada. She’d managed to save enough from a part-time government job during university to start the business without taking out a loan.
For many years, the store did well – they even opened a second location. Claire started to feel financially secure. “A few years ago I was like, wow, I actually might be able to do this until I retire,” she told me. “I’ll never be rich, but I have a really wonderful work-life balance and I’ll have enough.”
But in midlife, she can’t afford to buy a house, and she’s increasingly worried about what retirement would look like, or if it would even be possible. “Was I foolish to think this could work?” she now wonders.
She’s one of many millennials who, in their 40s, are panicking about the realities of midlife: financial precarity, housing insecurity, job instability and difficulty saving for the future. It’s a different kind of midlife crisis – less impulsive sports car purchase and more “will I ever retire?” In fact, a new survey of 1,000 millennials showed that 81% feel they can’t afford to have a midlife crisis. Our generation is the first to be downwardly mobile, at least in the US, and do less well than our parents financially. What will the next 40 years will look like?
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The next forty years will look like absolute hell and the lack of proper services for the explosive number of diseases in the millennial cohort will directly contribute.
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Milliennials by and large don't have enough money to retire, and they are experiencing in striking numbers high rates of immunodeficiency and cancers. (I was personally diagnosed with cancer at 42. You know, the ultimate answer to life the universe and everything...) This will mean they will need more elder care and sooner... and they won't really be able to afford it.
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No Child Left Behind has properly fucked US education for the foreseeable future, and US education was abysmal before that already. The elderly are going to be being taken care of by adults who may be functionally illiterate and when you're functionally illiterate, you can become anti-vax even if you got hired as caretaker for the elderly. (Not all will grow up to be functionally illiterate, but if we're to take teachers at their word, the gap between the struggling kids and the smart kids is wider than ever. As in C students functionally don't exist, only A students and F students, and the F students are the larger group who are being passed on to higher grades just to hit numbers.)
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On top of education being gutted and there being a dangerous future of incapable people being put in these jobs because there's no one else to do them: The collapse in birth rate because nobody can afford to have fucking kids will also make this problem worse as fewer and fewer workers will be available to take care of more and more elderly and infirm people.
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Most of the places that take care of the elderly are being bought up at rapid pace by investment groups, private equity, hedge funds, and the like, and all they do is cut services, make things worse, and cause more suffering and death so they can wring more money out of people suffering at the end of their lives. How many of these businesses will even still exist in 20 years? Many of them are shutting down constantly because the numbers just don't add up, or because the private equity group that bought it has finished hollowing it out and there's simply no money left.
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Because of all of this, we will see an absolute explosion of homelessness in the elderly.
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You can bet your ass fuck-nothing will be done to prevent any of this. Especially if Trump wins in November, then we're dealing with this process outright accelerating at a breakneck pace.
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Oh and just for "fun" we can expect to see a lot more police violence against poverty-striken old people. "STOP RESISTING OLD MAN!"
EDIT: Oh yeah, and that's not even counting climate change, finite amounts of topsoil left, potential pandemics, and the fact that most of the world doesn't even have access to clean water. I try to keep an eye on neat, simple engineering projects from poor countries because we may need to rely on similar options soon enough ourselves.
EDIT II: Get involved in Mutual Aid Groups. We all have skills. No one is coming to save us. No government or political party or corporation. We have to save each other, and that will be very difficult to achieve. I forget the writer, but she said something like "No dictator is ever going to bring about the revolution. It will always have to come from the bottom organizing together." The only thing we can do is help one another. It will not be easy or fair or entirely successful.
US education was abysmal before that already
Solid points all around, but I wanted to add one historical tidbit: at one point the USA had literally the best edumacashiun in the world. After WWII, the other nations (like the UK + those in the EU) were bombed all to hell & back whereas the USA was relatively fine. People like Bill Gates advocated strongly for US education funding, b/c it helped feed that behemoth giant of a corporation to have an already-educated workforce, funded by US tax dollars, that they could take advantage of.
We have fallen FAR down the world rankings since then. Tbf, some of that may reflect changes in measurements e.g. does "every" kid need one, or can some be excused to go be a farmhand without needing to finish? (this affects averaged measurements, but not peak ones, or the previously thus-filtered ones)
After WWII, the other nations (like the UK + those in the EU) were bombed all to hell & back whereas the USA was relatively fine.
There was certain union in Europe(not European Union) that was bombed 9% by area and 55% by population.
does "every" kid need one, or can some be excused to go be a farmhand without needing to finish?
Translation: To have more you should produce more, to produce more you should know more.
Farmers need education too.
EDIT: lemmy broke my comment with link to image
Farmers need education. Farmhands do not.
Anyway I was just attempting to use it as an example - we could substitute gas station attendant or fast food worker, etc. There are jobs where, for the job anyway while ignoring the quality of life for the actual person, formalized education is less necessary than for other jobs, e.g. doctor or lawyer.
But my example of using farmhand was not made up: farmers literally pulled their kids out of primary schooling in order to make use of them on the farm. Perhaps they supplemented it with homeschooling at other times when the crop cycles allowed... or perhaps not. But either way, the ways we use to measure intelligence - e.g. if we ask what country does the city of Athens belong to - the farmhands will appear extremely low in such rankings.
So long as someone else in the family does the planning work, someone who was not merely pulled out but who flunked out of primary schooling could exist in life by contributing purely manual but not much intellectual labor.
I accidentally wiped my comment. Now it will not be as good as it was.
Farmers need education. Farmhands do not.
Derp. Still, everyone needs education.
we could substitute gas station attendant or fast food worker, etc.
Dull, mind numbing work that should have been automated long time ago. And we are talking about schools, not universities.
e.g. doctor
Schools are not medical universities. But even in school you will be taught first aid. And basic anotomy in biology class.
farmers literally pulled their kids out of primary schooling in order to make use of them on the farm. Perhaps they supplemented it with homeschooling at other times when the crop cycles allowed... or perhaps not.
This is bad. Terrible.
to measure intelligence - e.g. if we ask what country does the city of Athens belong to
This question does not measure inteligence, it measures erudition. Inteligence, erudition and wisdom are different things. Question for intelligence would be like "bat and ball cost 1.1$, bat costs 1$ more than ball, how much ball costs?".
So long as someone else in the family does the planning work, someone who was not merely pulled out but who flunked out of primary schooling could exist in life by contributing purely manual but not much intellectual labor.
We are Homo sapiens, not Homo ergaster. Tractor better contributes "purely manual but not much intellectual labor".
If you will allow me to say? Your premise seems incorrect. Words like "need" presumes a goal to keep people alive. We "need" Oxygen, in order to breathe which itself is necessary in order to stay alive rather than convert into a corpse state of 'existence'. However, as e.g. https://lemmy.zip/post/17644464 shows, we are not being allowed to have even that. And if even Oxygen is denied us, then surely education will be even less of a "right", for homo sapiens or otherwise.
To a fascist, such as the current set of billionaires in charge, education of the masses - or even our very existence, in light of globalism for now and automation eventually - is no longer necessary. And with climate change diminishing resources, possibly it is not even desirable or neutral anymore, so much as something to be either neutrally or perhaps actively pursued to demolish what has previously been built up. e.g. when the pandemic occurred, the response was "so what? let them die. BuT tHe EcOnOmY will go on just fine without them, in fact better without those restrictions imposed by safety protocols".
So no, "everyone needs education" sounds like something that is not true... at least according to the likes of Elon Musk, who now controls Twitter. Not Bezos, nor Zuckerberg, etc. And they would really like it if we did not tax them in order to pay for such. And a LOT of people seem to agree with them, whether we like it or not. See this fantastic description of it: https://youtu.be/agzNANfNlTs?si=dAGHoctLiPimmTTQ.
Also for some reason I didn't do first quote and my "derp" didn't looked like reply to my obvious mistake. Sorry.
Words like "need" presumes a goal to keep people alive.
I was talking more broadly as a goal to make everyone fully functioning member of society and citizens of their own country, preferably capable of finding cognitive biases in their and others' statements and distinguishing science and medicine from pseudoscience and homeopathic antivax chiropractors.
However, as e.g. https://lemmy.zip/post/17644464 shows, we are not being allowed to have even that.
I was so often sangry lately(for last 2 years), that I'm just tired of bullshit happening everywhere.
And if even Oxygen is denied us, then surely education will be even less of a "right", for homo sapiens or otherwise.
You know, from my sofa it seems everything sucks, just some countries like nordic ones suck slightly less. And it seems the world plunges into neofeudalism with celebrations by ignorant.
current set of billionaires in charge, education of the masses - or even our very existence, in light of globalism for now and automation eventually - is no longer necessary.
Meanwhile they will do everything to keep internationalism and automations to themselves, but never for masses. I think I already mentioned DMCA as expample. Other examples are software patents(which are basically math patents), patents on nature(for example plant varieties, genes of existing organisms).
pursued to demolish what has previously been built up.
It seems it happens everywhere. How about subject called "basics of orthodox culture" in school? Secular state is so secular. Another reason to hate Putinism.
e.g. when the pandemic occurred, the response was "so what? let them die. BuT tHe EcOnOmY will go on just fine without them, in fact better without those restrictions imposed by safety protocols".
This is so stupid. Human must not be considered a tool. And I feel stupid too because at start of pandemic my opinion wasn't far from that, but more along the lines of "it doesn't help that much, why bother" rather then economy part. To be fair it was during peak of police violence and fines printing press during lockdown.
And a LOT of people seem to agree with them, whether we like it or not.
Damn. I am afraid of my country becoming like this.
It's okay - that's how I interpreted it:-). Lemmy formatting can also be weird sometimes and people access via different methods, so I try to remember that as well.
citizens of their own country
^This is the big one, particularly in a democracy this is so extremely crucial. But... we did not bother to secure it, so now we may be (are?) losing it all. Like someone who has lost their immune system, we are now vulnerable to not only lack of knowledge but outright presence of active disinformation. Wait... didn't we need that - ooopsie daisy!? :-P
I am afraid of my country becoming like this.
If we had had more fear sooner, we might have avoided getting eaten alive by Russian disinformation campaigns. As it is... our lack of fear has definitely harmed us greatly, possibly fatally.
The good news is that whatever society rises out of our corpse will have learned lessons from the ordeal. Rome also fell too, but life goes on. Ours might not, and given climate change humans or even mammals + far more might not, but even so, all we can control is ourselves individually, right now. I for one take that as a charge to do whatever I can in however much time we have left. And maybe it's not a foregone conclusion after all? So much the better. All we have is today - make it a good one.:-)
People like Bill Gates advocated strongly for US education funding, b/c it helped feed that behemoth giant of a corporation to have an already-educated workforce, funded by US tax dollars, that they could take advantage of.
Sounds like bill gates just wanted to steal more surplus labor value from his workers.
Then you understand correctly.
The difference is, people like Bezos also want to steal the value of our labor, but without allowing us to educate our children.
Hence it is worse.
After WWII, the other nations (like the UK)
Translation: To have more you should produce more, to produce more you should know more.
Farmers need education too.
try to keep an eye on neat, simple engineering projects from poor countries because we may need to rely on similar options soon enough ourselves.
I am just sitting here as a infrastructure guy trying not to have a mental break of crying and laughing. It's so fucking bad and getting so much worse. You know what was today's item? I am working on one small system for a replacement wastewater treatment plant for a town of about 3,000 people that the pieces of shit general contractor has dragged out for 8 fucking years. 8 years for a project that should have taken 6 months. They haven't done any work. Longer it goes on the more they get to bill. Oh and my favorite part? The general contractor is one of the bigger ones, they have a Wikipedia page.
Cost disease is going to break us. Entire country is going to be spending a trillion a year with the water supply of Flint.
Now if you excuse me I am going to drink now. Cause fuck it I can't save anyone.
Cause fuck it I can’t save anyone.
You've done your best. It's definitely not personally your job to save anyone anyway. If we can't figure out how to do it collectively, well, maybe we just suck as a species. Thanks for doing what you could and can and don't bemoan yourself for your inability to fight a broken system on your own. I don't expect engineers and scientists and doctors who have been telling us this shit needs to be done for years to have any fucking patience for it anymore. You've all done your bit.
Also, thanks because I've just been assuming as much has been going on behind the scenes for a long time. I've been saying for years the entire nation gave up on any idea of long-term maintenance of anything in the 90's. We've had failing infrastructure grades for bridges all over the country since at least 2010, if not earlier, and fuck-all has been done. I'm not even close to being an engineer, but I've helped some friends with some basic construction and I'm just floored at how many corners are cut on so many things in our country. It's prevalent everywhere, it's part of why there's so many data breaches in the tech sector. They don't want to pay to update old systems to bring them up to compliance. We've literally built workarounds in the form of Virtual Machines just so people can run outdated software on modern hardware so insecure outdated software can simply keep being used despite its age. So yeah, feeling vindicated that it's not all just in my head.
We've literally built workarounds in the form of Virtual Machines just so people can run outdated software on modern hardware so insecure outdated software can simply keep being used despite its age. So yeah, feeling vindicated that it's not all just in my head.
Insecure outdated software AKA proprietary software. Fuck that shit.
Brought to you by Free Software Foundation.
Are lawyers involved? You should sue to get it for free, not to pay more, because contracts like that usually put a penalty on the supplier if they break their promises
I appreciate your efforts, but we as a nation were not guaranteed to make it. It was up to us to make it, and we failed ourselves by devolving into petty tribalism between two 1% owned political parties.
I at first I expected you to work in IT infrastructure specifically, but sewage? When sewage can't keep shit together - nothing in country can keep shit together. USSA is slowly turning from worse than Russia in some areas to worse than Russia in all areas.
We some how got wedged between Idiocracy and Cyberpunk 2077.
Our dreams of technology didn't meet with the realities/limits of materials science/engineering except for computing and the internet.
The technology was there; the humanity wasn't.
You know, we live in "technology was there; the humanity wasn't" since DMCA was legislated. We literally have information duping machine, but there is law that forbids it. When there will be everything duping machine, ruling class will its use by anyone outside of ruling class.
What do you mean somehow? Cyberpunk as a genre has always been a vision of a future of unchecked corporate power, it only became prescient because Americans gave corporations unchecked power.
Original comment mentioned game Cyberpunk 2077, not entire genre cyberpunk. But yes, unchecked corporate power leads to neofeudalism.
I didn't think to word it "Walking into the future lubed up, bent over, and ready to pay for the patriotic right to get split roasted by Google and Blackrock" because that's a bit of a mouth full.
This is kind of where I'm at. I don't imagine any amount of cash in a bank account is going to prepare us for what's to come. Even if you could put money aside, the money you typically put towards retirement might just be better off towards becoming a doomsday prepper. Probably wouldn't save you either way, but it may buy you a little time that you wouldn't have otherwise.
Like others have said, I imagine my "retirement" as bearing witness to the collapse of modern society and ultimately dying in some lousy brawl with other desperate refugees, or by some untreated bacterial infection.
I just know that my death will be something dumb in the coming collapse, like stubbing my toe and dying to infection when there is no remaining, effective antibiotics on our superheated hellhole.
If the orange man wins, America is over and none of your concerns will matter as we slip into a fascist dystopia. That is an existential threat we have to deal with right now, and it can actually be prevented.
Republicans moving to install a fascist government? Sounds serious!
So when will democrats drop gun control considering this imminent threat?
Because of all of this, we will see an absolute explosion of homelessness in the elderly.
And it can't be fixed just through capitalism. Only either through policy or comand economy.
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