Remember folks, the boomers aren’t hoarding wealth. Billionaires and oligarchs are. Class solidarity. Don’t care if you’re 18 working your first job or worked for 50 years and trying to navigate retirement, the problem is the billionaire class.
Terrified of outliving their money?
Bitch, I’m a millennial and there’s already more month left at the end of the money…
Millennial hate it, boomers are clueless about it, its time to playyyyyy Bill Roulette! Which bill will get paid this month? Remember Boomers, you created this world.
[. . .] boomers are clueless about [. . .] Bill Roulette!
I don’t think that’s strictly true. Maybe some have forgotten about it, both both my boomer parents went through it, as did several others I know. Maybe it’s regional or people later in the generation, but it definitely wasn’t unknown. Especially women as, until the mid-to-late-seventies, they couldn’t even do certain financial stuff on their own IIRC.
I remember an episode of Roseanne from the early '90s where she did a move I was very familiar with growing up: mail the rent check to the power company and the electric bill to the landlord. “Oh no! I must’ve mixed up the envelopes!” And now you’ve bought another week until the next paycheck hits.
Capitalism only works when some people are incredibly broke, so, yeah, OP’s Bill Roulette has been around for a long as bills.
My boomer parents played bill roulette when I was growing up. My parents would put the check and remittance for the electricity in the return envelope for the water in order to give them a few more weeks to pay both. We ate many vegetarian meals because we couldn’t afford meat every day.
They were very aware of income inequality and the financial struggle of raising a family in the US.
a very good article.
america has never had something like an overarching nation-state or something that would make people feel that they’re part of one homogenous society; nevertheless individualism has accelerated and sharpened even more in the last few decades.
there is no functioning Social Security in the US because people are afraid that their money could go to some other, possibly corrupt and irresponsible person, who would waste the money.
the truth is, however, that it is basically impossible to live alone, except maybe if you’re a 25 year old man venturing through the woods. not only does almost anybody need something (whether children need childcare or elder people need elderly care), but also it is much more efficient if people work together.
this is the great tragedy of today’s rugged individualism: that it fundamentally contradicts human nature.
Just imagine every Boomer as a would be Pharaoh trying to build the bestest house with the mostest stuff in it, to carry with them over to the other side, and it makes more sense.
An entire generation of cowards, unable to accept that they will die one day, and that what you do while you are here, that’s what counts… not how long you can try to run the clock into overtime.
It’s got nothing to do with taking it with you. It’s about having a safe space to inhabit for the 25+ years you might live for, at an age where walking, talking and feeding yourself become increasingly difficult if not impossible. That stash of money might need to cover part or full time care, possibly advanced medical care in the case of dementia and Alzheimer’s. Get the wrong type of sick at the start of retirement and that 25 year stash of money can be gone in five. They either then become a financial burden to their family, need full time housing and care from their family, or are abandoned.
These people don’t think they’re God Kings, they’ve just lived long enough to see how the world treats people with no money, and their bodies and minds aren’t always young enough to stay in the workforce. Just like people trying to make it to the end of the month, they’re trying to stretch their savings for 10-25 years with an almost 100% chance of having crippling medical bills. Maybe you don’t want to acknowledge that because the quicker they drop dead, the more money you stand to inherit.
You sound as if you’ve never had any meaningful contact with somebody over 70.
Commit seppuku
