Baby boomers are becoming homeless at a rate ‘not seen since the Great Depression’
Baby boomers are becoming homeless at a rate ‘not seen since the Great Depression’
On an unrelated note, suddenly, boomers care about affordable housing for no apparent reason.
184Ageist comments are weirdly popular on lemmy. Why is ageism encouraged when sexism and racism are not?
-18Disclaimer: These are obviously over generalizations and don't match all individuals.
Because it's not the age people are against, it's the generation. The boomer generation had some of the most prosperous years in American history and wasted them. The general idea is you're supposed to make the world a better place for the people that come next, and they did the opposite. They cut social systems, defunded education, let public transportation die, outsourced everything, and lined their pockets with investments in oil that are killing the planet.
I won't blame someone for being old, but I will judge them by what they did and supported during their life. And as a whole, the boomers have a lot to answer for.
43Because old people are insufferable and leech off of society while continually making things worse, even well past their expiration date.
12Noticed this myself, come here less and less since it's just as toxic as reddit ever was. Think I might be done with it since it's just ragebait crap.
-3
I blame the removal of pensions and replacement with inadequate 401k plans.
Social security was never meant to be a retirement plan.
109Actually, it kind of literally was. Though it's frustrating how common it is for people to share that misconception.
29That is incorrect.
This is one of the reasons why 401(k)s have been used instead of pensions by many employers, despite not being designed for this purpose
1
Or more accurately, social security should be a proper national pension plan. Fund it by increasing contribution rates and uncapping contributions.
I stick with my underpaid government job solely for my state pension. At 55, I can start to get 70% of my final salary guaranteed, with annual COLA adjustments. I may not be rich in retirement, but I can get by.
18401k plans are ripe for abuse by predatory financial advisors.. a smile and a wink and your grandpa's retirement is getting drained.
10401k works fine if you actually use it. A big problem is people didn't contribute, where pensions generally had mandatory contributions. Also letting people borrow on them was a bad idea.
0And borrowing on them is just a bad idea. At least in the case of my 401k, there's no early payoff, you don't make interest off it while it's borrowed, it really can hurt in the long term unless the loan amount is very small.
I looked out of curiosity because I want to buy a house somewhere in the next 5 years, and immediately ruled out any consideration of borrowing off 401k.
5
They should cut back on avocado toast and get rid of cable.
105They should get rid of that land line, you know they still have one
33Nah, they should've sold their houses to Aquaman, and move...
12Why can I almost never see the hidden replies?
1
Have they tried trickle down economics or maybe pulling themselves up by their bootstraps??
67Enlarged prostate and arthritis are making that difficult
6It’s a good thing they have an easy to use heath care system to rely on!!
7
Anyone here who comments about how they deserved this fate or how they got what was coming to them needs to grow the fuck up.
There are very, very few people in this world who have done something bad enough to have this kind of condition even be remotely justified. They're gonna either be on the streets or in basic Medicaid nursing homes for the rest of their lives. Many will get beaten and robbed. Many will probably just commit suicide to avoid the nightmarish conditions. And people here are celebrating this?!
Newsflash, the baby boomer generation are also people who also deserve to have someone give a shit about them. You people are sick.
36In any case, it's going to overwhelmingly not be reaganites who are going homeless. If someone spent decades shilling for austerity and had it bite them in the ass, that's one thing, but this is the economic bottom dropping out, so it's mostly not those people.
18So, the kids won't let you move in, you're running out of options, and you're here on lemmy telling us how sick we are (after how many years of boomers telling millienials we are the problem) because you're about to be homeless?
-8
Ugh, I just knew what this gross comments section was gonna look like.
Look, whatever perceived collective guilt an entire cohort of humanity has in your view, it's really disgusting to celebrate and gloat over a report about the elderly becoming homeless.
When subsequent generations decide they have the right to dance on our graves for whatever it is they decide we did, I hope your ghosts aren't too whiny about it.
29The article doesn't say, but I'm assuming the demographics of these newly homeless boomers is not predominantly white male. I still say boomer remover tho so i'm not exactly above generational warfare, it's just the worst boomers get hurt the least from poverty
12I think you make a valid point, unlike the federated smuglord that you replied to. This is mostly going to hurt people that least deserved it, as is often the case. Yeah, I know one or two boomer chuds that will likely get hit by that, but that's not worth it overall.
3
The material conditions and sociopolitical norms for a large demographic group of people were such that the majority of them actively and deliberately destroyed social safety nets and privatized everything they could in the hopes of making a quick buck and sticking it to the (slurs), and you're only upset that some people fucked over by that group are feeling schadenfreude about that group now experiencing what they had been dishing out.
5Can't see the 11 replies. So frustrating.
2
I'm pretty sure there were Zero homeless boomers during the great depression.
25But also all of them had zero homes.
1
"over-50 demographic"
Hey, hey, hey, don't group all of us in with those assholes...
18Enjoying the trickle down of piss? This is what you wanted
18Bruh they were and still are brainwashed by so much anticommunist propaganda. They had to survive in those material conditions, and if they made it they had to buy into the lie of American Exceptionalism for their prosperity and not the Dollar becoming the worlds reserve currency and propping up European Social Democracy, Dictators, and Kings. They reaped benefits they were actively being kept in the dark about, if they are waking up cause piss is tricking down their face, i will still celebrate them waking up. We need all the people we can to wake up and realize how the elite have stolen from the working class and are only taking more and more as we continue to kill our planet to give them more wealth...
14Cognitive dissonance is really strong if you have to question the way you were living your whole life when questioning the current situation. This makes those people far more likely to be easy prey for far-right propaganda than to be waking up, I'm afraid.
3Solidarity friend 🤝
2
15Like there aren't babyboomers who also have no say in policies and those that haven't struggled their entire lives
The more things change, the more they stay the same
16
if they only voted blue 😭
12Don't worry, as the saying goes "pull yourself up by the dick", and maybe they will gain enough wealth to become expats and gain more in foreign wealth and sex on Southeast and East Asia..., /s (Edited for clarification)
10Instructions unclear, tried unsuccessfully multiple times and now I just feel like God hates me.
9You just gotta pull yourself back up harder, my friend, remember the bootstraps and remember you d***, that's the important part...
7
There are many books and at least one Oscar-winning movie about this
7Meanwhile amount of empty homes is increasing. I WONDER WHY.
5Wait, the people who caused all of this are now suffering the consequences? Oh no, whatever will at do?!
4Because there were so many Baby Boomers alive during the Great Depression...
1They mean elderly during the Great Depression. It was a driving force behind Social Security.
19Yeah, that was my first thought
3