The best thing most baby boomers can do now is to stop whining and start preparing to give everything we have robbed from the future back to those in line behind us, sooner than later ideally, and to fade away as gracefully as our sordid history will allow. While there is small section of the baby boomer generation in the first world that truly suffered most of us have had a unprecedented life of relative ease and leisure that we in no way earned (to all those saying in response that I may speak for myself but that you earned yours I call BS). We had the good fortune to show up at the right time in the right place to allow us to breeze through life like no other generation before. We still complained all the way along but it was snivelling whining founded on a notion of entitlement truly astounding in its arrogance. Our lack of care for the damage we were doing to the future at the start and our pathetic sticking of our collective heads in the sand instead of stepping up to take a hit for the future when we started to realize just how badly we had f’ed it up makes us failures at the only important job we had, to just be decent human beings (there is no real argument about what this means at its core- only those trying to rationalize their own failure to meet the standard argue about what the standard is). To the very end we grasp onto the delusion that we somehow earned or deserve the wealth we cobbled together and that we are right to fight it being taken back, even though we know full well that doing so just dooms the future to more and more misery. You can’t take it with you and others need it more. Pay your F’ing taxes, stop abusing the health care system to keep yourself breathing beyond your time, stop electing clowns that have no concept of what it means to be a public servant, give away everything. Redeem yourself. Not because it will let you live on beyond this life, it won’t. It is what a decent human being would do and our children deserve that we at least step up to that modest mark.
I'm curious, what happens to all the money when one dies in where you live? They don't give it to their children? And what people are abusing the health care system? Not the ones that have paid into it their whole lives. And how do you not pay taxes if you are working.
As my parents, aunts and uncles reach their late seventies, I can see the shocking adjustment that arrives for each they can suddenly no longer drive. And that change does often come very suddenly, after a medical crisis or a car accident.
All of them live in car-dependent suburbs and haven't really used public transit since they were teens or young adults. I've complained over the years about the difficulty of visiting the burbs from downtown without renting a car and haven't received much sympathy (I think I'm generally viewed as being strange or difficult for insisting on living in the city and not owning a car). Thankfully increased frequencies for the GO trains are starting to kick in, which helps a lot, but the last mile problem remains a big one. In the meantime some relatives are using paid drivers fill the gap, especially for medical appointments, but that is not a cheap solution and only works if you don't outlive your money.
In contrast, several neighbours in our downtown condo building have aged in place here well into their 80s and 90s, and we see them out walking every day on their errands. I think the walking has kept them healthy, though the dangers I see from terrible drivers and e-bikes on the sidewalks these days makes me worry for them -- and also worry that by the time my wife and I reach that age, if we're so lucky, our habit of walking everywhere will be what kills us, not what saves us.
The first problem was caused by Govt - instituting policies (in all kinds of areas that govt should have just left alone) that reduced the size of families.
The second problem caused by feckless politicians (here in the US and plenty of other countries) - the national debt traps placed upon by politicians that had no problem in spending other peoples' money and then borrowing even more.
Third problem - people not understanding that the economy changes all the time and not preparing themselves for that change. There have been a large number of Black Swans and "Disruptive" technology / science events that most folks should have taught them "I need to be able to reskill myself at a moment's notice" and jump before the worst hit my marketplace.
Fourth problem - At least in the West, a loss of confidence in our culture and values caused by those who wanted to "remake" civilization into their own image and forgetting that "they who forget history repeat it" in tossing away norms, taboos, and cultural values that served well for thousands of years.
I'll think of more later on but if one addresses Lloyd's problem from a completely different viewpoint, some of those issues become irrelevant.
"instituting policies (in all kinds of areas that govt should have just left alone) that reduced the size of families"
Interesting I can't think of any - want to post a couple of examples. I see a lot of people in this area are blaming their personal choices on the Government but that's just excuses for their choices.
"politicians that had no problem" - I would point out that this was just fine by the voting public and for many it continues to be just fine. You can't really fault the politicians for following the messaging from the voting public. Your "feckless spending" is somebody else's "good Judgment".
Your third and fourth problems conflict. "the economy changes all the time" it's not just the economy it's everything! Lloyds entire article could be said to be showing this. People think that things have been constant their entire lifetimes have always been like this and always will be. Take car usage - the way we use our cars is a comparatively recent thing. Starting just before the Boomers started appearing. Yet it has resulted in Boomers refusing to think about transport any other way. Too many people think that the answer to every transport problem is a car for example and seem to be completely unable to think any other way.
"In tossing away norms, taboos, and cultural values that served well for thousands of years." Yes, and remembering your point 3 it is inevitable that some have reached their "Use By Date", are worn out and deserve to be discarded. Our technical advancement will inevitably result in this.
"That served well for thousands of years." they have but perhaps it's really time to reevaluate them.
Please continue to tell me/us (younger generations) how we can help. I am not ok with this trajectory, which is already starting to occur with my parents.
As a 76 year old, I get tired of gross generalizations about how we all vote conservative. While more than half of us voted for Trump, almost half voted for Biden.
I think people fail to differentiate between being a conservative and voting Conservative.
You can want to vote National but be so disgusted by the candidates and policies that you still vote Labour to keep them / get them out. While you wait for better candidates and policies to appear.
When you state that boomers “won’t raise the taxes needed to fix what we have,” you are buying into a false mentality of what I like to call “forever austerity” that will keep us from doing the things that you, and I, believe we need to do (like creating better public transit, fixing/modernizing/correcting our aging infrastructure, etc.). As Alan Greenspan, then head of the US Federal Reserve told Paul Ryan in a hearing in which Ryan was trying to get Greenspan to acknowledge that we needed to privatize the US Social Security system because it was going broke, said “Well I wouldn’t say that the pay-as-you-go benefits are insecure, in the sense that there’s nothing to prevent the federal government creating as much money as it wants and paying it to someone. The question is, how do you set up a system which assures that the real assets are created which those benefits are employed to purchase.” In even hinting that real resource constraints are what matter, Greenspan was saying something that a person in power is really not supposed to say because it makes the question–how are we going to pay for it? —irrelevant and then what excuse can they possibly come up with to justify not doing the things that benefit the many, rather than the privileged few (Main Street not Wall Street with virtually all members of Parliament and Congress representing the latter). Going back in history, your former finance minister, J. L. Ilsey, was onto this when he asked, “If the government debt is a private sector asset, how do we make it an asset of the people?” If we get this wrong, we’ll continue to miss opportunities such as that which presented itself during the 2008 financial crisis when there was so much slack in the economy that we could have spent trillions—on fixing our aging infrastructure, building social housing, retrofitting every old home in the US and Canada with heat pumps and better insulation—without creating inflation because all that slack could have absorbed that level of spending. And then, when we do struggle with inflation as we have been recently here in the US, we simply sit around and wait for the Federal Reserve to adjust interest rates. That would have worked real well during WWII! Thank G-d we weren’t such idiots then and actually believed in the public good. In short, getting out of the mess that we’re in requires diagnosing the problem correctly and buying into the myth that taxes determine spending doesn’t help.
People reaching retirement age without plans (assuming they did not have some sort of disaster) really get to me. You knew this day would arrive; you knew you would need appropriate financing etc.
Whenever somebody 65+ says " I can't afford to retire" I always want to shout " Where has all your money gone" you knew this day would arrive. You have always known; you are an adult why did it take so long to start acting and planning like one.
I knew this day would arrive (I turn 65 in less than a month) 47 years ago when I was 18 I started my first "Real " job and I celebrated by opening my first retirement plan. (Why because I knew that God willing and a downhill following wind, I would reach this day) I funded it with a 4% lean on everything I earnt since that day to this. I never missed 4% I never did not do something because of that 4%. I traveled in style, bought not enough books, had nice cars, had 3 kids, put 2 of them through University)
So here I am retiring with over a million dollars in that fund. None of that was Rocket Science, I am in no way a financial wizard.
Im 60 and i have nothing. My net worth is $30k. Ive had a great life, I'm in great health and I'm NOT COMPLAINING! I'm more focused on figuring out a way to contribute to positive change for the remainder of my life than I am on my personal comfort.
still working as an Architect for people who appreciate what we do and are willing to pay for what it's worth.
and I was out rowing this morning too.
Another rower here...though not being near a body of water, I use a WaterRower, which I highly recommend.
well I am only on the water 3 months of the year, then it is back to the garage and the Concept II
Warning! The following will be a bit of a rant.
The best thing most baby boomers can do now is to stop whining and start preparing to give everything we have robbed from the future back to those in line behind us, sooner than later ideally, and to fade away as gracefully as our sordid history will allow. While there is small section of the baby boomer generation in the first world that truly suffered most of us have had a unprecedented life of relative ease and leisure that we in no way earned (to all those saying in response that I may speak for myself but that you earned yours I call BS). We had the good fortune to show up at the right time in the right place to allow us to breeze through life like no other generation before. We still complained all the way along but it was snivelling whining founded on a notion of entitlement truly astounding in its arrogance. Our lack of care for the damage we were doing to the future at the start and our pathetic sticking of our collective heads in the sand instead of stepping up to take a hit for the future when we started to realize just how badly we had f’ed it up makes us failures at the only important job we had, to just be decent human beings (there is no real argument about what this means at its core- only those trying to rationalize their own failure to meet the standard argue about what the standard is). To the very end we grasp onto the delusion that we somehow earned or deserve the wealth we cobbled together and that we are right to fight it being taken back, even though we know full well that doing so just dooms the future to more and more misery. You can’t take it with you and others need it more. Pay your F’ing taxes, stop abusing the health care system to keep yourself breathing beyond your time, stop electing clowns that have no concept of what it means to be a public servant, give away everything. Redeem yourself. Not because it will let you live on beyond this life, it won’t. It is what a decent human being would do and our children deserve that we at least step up to that modest mark.
great rant!
Big boomer approval from this corner on that rant!
I liked that rant! - just how I feel on many things.
I'm curious, what happens to all the money when one dies in where you live? They don't give it to their children? And what people are abusing the health care system? Not the ones that have paid into it their whole lives. And how do you not pay taxes if you are working.
As my parents, aunts and uncles reach their late seventies, I can see the shocking adjustment that arrives for each they can suddenly no longer drive. And that change does often come very suddenly, after a medical crisis or a car accident.
All of them live in car-dependent suburbs and haven't really used public transit since they were teens or young adults. I've complained over the years about the difficulty of visiting the burbs from downtown without renting a car and haven't received much sympathy (I think I'm generally viewed as being strange or difficult for insisting on living in the city and not owning a car). Thankfully increased frequencies for the GO trains are starting to kick in, which helps a lot, but the last mile problem remains a big one. In the meantime some relatives are using paid drivers fill the gap, especially for medical appointments, but that is not a cheap solution and only works if you don't outlive your money.
In contrast, several neighbours in our downtown condo building have aged in place here well into their 80s and 90s, and we see them out walking every day on their errands. I think the walking has kept them healthy, though the dangers I see from terrible drivers and e-bikes on the sidewalks these days makes me worry for them -- and also worry that by the time my wife and I reach that age, if we're so lucky, our habit of walking everywhere will be what kills us, not what saves us.
My dad was an architect, that sure persuaded me not to enter the field despite the allure. Also, can't sit down that long...
“Unfortunate choice of professions”?
Hah ……. I have a MA Poly Sci U of Chicago!
No different than being a hatter in 18th century England. ;)
The first problem was caused by Govt - instituting policies (in all kinds of areas that govt should have just left alone) that reduced the size of families.
The second problem caused by feckless politicians (here in the US and plenty of other countries) - the national debt traps placed upon by politicians that had no problem in spending other peoples' money and then borrowing even more.
Third problem - people not understanding that the economy changes all the time and not preparing themselves for that change. There have been a large number of Black Swans and "Disruptive" technology / science events that most folks should have taught them "I need to be able to reskill myself at a moment's notice" and jump before the worst hit my marketplace.
Fourth problem - At least in the West, a loss of confidence in our culture and values caused by those who wanted to "remake" civilization into their own image and forgetting that "they who forget history repeat it" in tossing away norms, taboos, and cultural values that served well for thousands of years.
I'll think of more later on but if one addresses Lloyd's problem from a completely different viewpoint, some of those issues become irrelevant.
"instituting policies (in all kinds of areas that govt should have just left alone) that reduced the size of families"
Interesting I can't think of any - want to post a couple of examples. I see a lot of people in this area are blaming their personal choices on the Government but that's just excuses for their choices.
"politicians that had no problem" - I would point out that this was just fine by the voting public and for many it continues to be just fine. You can't really fault the politicians for following the messaging from the voting public. Your "feckless spending" is somebody else's "good Judgment".
Your third and fourth problems conflict. "the economy changes all the time" it's not just the economy it's everything! Lloyds entire article could be said to be showing this. People think that things have been constant their entire lifetimes have always been like this and always will be. Take car usage - the way we use our cars is a comparatively recent thing. Starting just before the Boomers started appearing. Yet it has resulted in Boomers refusing to think about transport any other way. Too many people think that the answer to every transport problem is a car for example and seem to be completely unable to think any other way.
"In tossing away norms, taboos, and cultural values that served well for thousands of years." Yes, and remembering your point 3 it is inevitable that some have reached their "Use By Date", are worn out and deserve to be discarded. Our technical advancement will inevitably result in this.
"That served well for thousands of years." they have but perhaps it's really time to reevaluate them.
The world changes so must we.
Please continue to tell me/us (younger generations) how we can help. I am not ok with this trajectory, which is already starting to occur with my parents.
As a 76 year old, I get tired of gross generalizations about how we all vote conservative. While more than half of us voted for Trump, almost half voted for Biden.
Yes you are correct. According to Pew it was very close, 52% for trump to 48% for Biden. I should not make gross generalizations. https://www.pewresearch.org/politics/2021/06/30/behind-bidens-2020-victory/
I think people fail to differentiate between being a conservative and voting Conservative.
You can want to vote National but be so disgusted by the candidates and policies that you still vote Labour to keep them / get them out. While you wait for better candidates and policies to appear.
From one of the already old-old (1942 vintage): well written, youngster! 10/10.
When you state that boomers “won’t raise the taxes needed to fix what we have,” you are buying into a false mentality of what I like to call “forever austerity” that will keep us from doing the things that you, and I, believe we need to do (like creating better public transit, fixing/modernizing/correcting our aging infrastructure, etc.). As Alan Greenspan, then head of the US Federal Reserve told Paul Ryan in a hearing in which Ryan was trying to get Greenspan to acknowledge that we needed to privatize the US Social Security system because it was going broke, said “Well I wouldn’t say that the pay-as-you-go benefits are insecure, in the sense that there’s nothing to prevent the federal government creating as much money as it wants and paying it to someone. The question is, how do you set up a system which assures that the real assets are created which those benefits are employed to purchase.” In even hinting that real resource constraints are what matter, Greenspan was saying something that a person in power is really not supposed to say because it makes the question–how are we going to pay for it? —irrelevant and then what excuse can they possibly come up with to justify not doing the things that benefit the many, rather than the privileged few (Main Street not Wall Street with virtually all members of Parliament and Congress representing the latter). Going back in history, your former finance minister, J. L. Ilsey, was onto this when he asked, “If the government debt is a private sector asset, how do we make it an asset of the people?” If we get this wrong, we’ll continue to miss opportunities such as that which presented itself during the 2008 financial crisis when there was so much slack in the economy that we could have spent trillions—on fixing our aging infrastructure, building social housing, retrofitting every old home in the US and Canada with heat pumps and better insulation—without creating inflation because all that slack could have absorbed that level of spending. And then, when we do struggle with inflation as we have been recently here in the US, we simply sit around and wait for the Federal Reserve to adjust interest rates. That would have worked real well during WWII! Thank G-d we weren’t such idiots then and actually believed in the public good. In short, getting out of the mess that we’re in requires diagnosing the problem correctly and buying into the myth that taxes determine spending doesn’t help.
Can I have a rant to please?
People reaching retirement age without plans (assuming they did not have some sort of disaster) really get to me. You knew this day would arrive; you knew you would need appropriate financing etc.
Whenever somebody 65+ says " I can't afford to retire" I always want to shout " Where has all your money gone" you knew this day would arrive. You have always known; you are an adult why did it take so long to start acting and planning like one.
I knew this day would arrive (I turn 65 in less than a month) 47 years ago when I was 18 I started my first "Real " job and I celebrated by opening my first retirement plan. (Why because I knew that God willing and a downhill following wind, I would reach this day) I funded it with a 4% lean on everything I earnt since that day to this. I never missed 4% I never did not do something because of that 4%. I traveled in style, bought not enough books, had nice cars, had 3 kids, put 2 of them through University)
So here I am retiring with over a million dollars in that fund. None of that was Rocket Science, I am in no way a financial wizard.
SO WHERE DID YOUR MONEY GO!
Im 60 and i have nothing. My net worth is $30k. Ive had a great life, I'm in great health and I'm NOT COMPLAINING! I'm more focused on figuring out a way to contribute to positive change for the remainder of my life than I am on my personal comfort.