Blessed are those that plant trees for the shade they will never see.
This mentality is why we are in the position we are today. If we all fail to try to build a better future today the next generation will suffer more than us and it will be our fault then.
Yeah blame the victims…
For making more victims? Yes. Fuck em. Being fucked over by the previous generation does not give you the right to fuck over the next generation.
The only victim of not having a retirement plan is yourself, surely. And for everything else… Genuinely what are we supposed to do? It’s impossible not to feel powerless today because despite all the efforts we go to, everything seems to be going more and more wrong with time. The far right is taking over and setting fire to the world for fuel. Alone no matter what noble actions I might take as an individual are meaningless, and even if by some miracle I manage, along with my fellow Brits, to vote in the progressive government of my dreams… Is that going to stop America’s swing to the right? Or China’s mega industrialization and carbon output?
Look, for the sake of me and the younger people here in the UK I won’t stop trying, you aren’t wrong that we shouldn’t, but I’m also sick of people blaming the crushed and despondent people of the world for their own situation.
The only victim of not having a retirement plan is yourself, surely.
The conversation is also about a) the likelihood that when (surprise surprise) the world does not end and these people have no retirement savings, they will demand public assistance funded via higher taxes on younger working people. And b) the idea of not taking action to make the world better, out of a sense of hopelessness and frankly laziness.
It’s impossible not to feel powerless today because despite all the efforts we go to, everything seems to be going more and more wrong with time.
Seems to be but isn’t.
Helplessness is propaganda. You are being lied to by people who want you to feel this way.
You can start doing your part in the easiest way possible: argue against and shut down Russian propagandists on this very site trying to convince Americans not to vote for Biden. That’s an important job if saving the world is your goal. Forums and social media are battlegrounds of ideas, and you can be a soldier in the army of truth and good.
While I can understand the sentiment, this is a REALLY bad and irresponsible thing to do and detrimental to yourself and society as a whole.
Lemmy, please do everything you can to set yourself up for a successful retirement. Even just a small contribution to a retirement account really will make a big difference when you’re older.
The best thing I can do for a successful retirement is commit some crimes and get arrested. A “small” contribution is still outside my price range. You gotta be putting away hundreds a month at least. Retirement simply isn’t something you can plan for if you make below average income.
Current predictions by scientist at MIT put collapse of global civilisation at around the mid to late 2040s, so if you won’t be retiring before then it’d better to just spend that money enjoying life while you can. Because even if global society doesn’t implode (big if) then retirement age will rise to the point you never get to retire anyway.
There’s been a similar prediction every decade for the last century. We’re still chugging along
you can’t ignore the fact things are getting worse and nobody is doing anything about them
That’s what they said then too
Because things were getting worse. And they’re still getting worse. And they will continue to get worse. We have charts and graphs and studies for a lot of different things showing things were getting worse, and have only continued to do so. Like the cost of living didn’t just steadily go up with a steady inflation. It’s been a curve. And then the last few years fucked us pretty bad.
Climate change. Still getting hotter. Still not slowing down enough. Some places are doing their parts, but places like here in the US, we aren’t doing nearly enough. And a lot of the stuff we are doing ends up on backfiring because of capitalism. For instance, California banned the single use plastic bags. But a lot of reusable bags are plastic. The law is the bag needs to be a certain thickness and be advertised as reusable… So places just made thicker bags. And then people still throw them away. So each bag is now more plastic than before.
So yes. They gave us a warning. Things got worse.
So we got a second warning. Things still got worse.
Then rather than shutting up as you would prefer, they gave us another warning. Still getting worse.