‘Unconscionable’: Baby boomers are becoming homeless at a rate ‘not seen since the Great Depression’ — here’s what’s driving this terrible trend
‘Unconscionable’: Baby boomers are becoming homeless at a rate ‘not seen since the Great Depression’ — here’s what’s driving this terrible trend
So nobody gives a shit that the younger generations can't afford a house, but it's "unconscionable" when boomers can't?
165You don't earn the title "Me" generation without being legendarily self important.
68That was my first thought, homelessness has risen all across the board, especially among children, but boomers are still made the focus.
52Honestly, maybe this is an effective strategy. Rather than continue to try to convince them to care about others, we just have to convince them that they are in danger themselves. Republicans discovered that fear motivates boomers better than avocado motivates millennials, so it’s time to start using the tools we have available to drive the point home.
And then we can finally get our hands on all that sweet avocado and toast…
15
"Well, well, well...if it isn't the consequences of my actions"
42The young people who can't BUY a house still have housing. This is about unhoused people who are in a decidedly worse position.
15I don't know what's it's like where you are, but there are definitely also a lot of young homeless people where I live. I don't just mean house-less, I mean living in tents or worse.
It really sucks that so many people are suffering, and there isn't even a good reason for it.
You can work your arse off day in, day out, only to get hit by someone driving drunk. Then, you get stuck on insufficient disability payments, even through you had no fault in what happened to you. Even if you manage get a decent court payout in a good country, you're still probably looking at a lot of expenses accessibility-wise (ESPECIALLY if you live somewhere like the US.) A lot of that stuff isn't cheap. Plus, you would have to try to make that payment last for the rest of your life. Food, bills, rent, clothing, and more would all still be costs you would have.
It sucks that so many people push back against any kind of support for these individuals. It really makes you wonder what they would do if they woke up with the shoe on the other foot.
10
individuals pointed to a major event, like the death of a spouse or a medical emergency, as the trigger.
Gee, if only we had a healthcare system that wasn't solely focused on making a profit and growing the amount of profit quarter after quarter.
160It's not just that, it's Boomers as a generation not saving.
Obviously some did, but most have lived their entire lives paycheck to paycheck and have zero security net. It's why they're not retiring like other generations, it's not a choice, they just can't ever stop working.
And they can't recover from any speed bumps they hit. Losing a spouse for those people also means losing an income. And that can mean losing housing.
48Honestly. Medical bills are the number one cause for bankruptcy in the US
39
Boomer retirement plans and savings aren't enough? Sheesh what hope do any of us have, then? They are the wealthiest generation this country has ever seen..
80Have you seen the size of the average American home?
7It doesn't matter how much money you make if you spend it all after you've already exceeded your ability to earn income through work when you still have decades left to live .
4I don't subscribe to "all boomers blew their money." My parents worked hard all their lives, and were as successful as any average couple. They are fortunate enough to have a roof over their head and some assets to liquidate, but there's no question they were not where they anticipated being financially entering retirement.
It's just hard out here. Every year the rug gets a little longer, the treadmill runs a bit faster. Even if you get ahead, do everything right, it just takes one market downturn or medical diagnosis to still lose.
12
How did these boomers vote?
What policies did they support for their entire lives that have impacted this?
59Well, they brought it on themselves.
No sympathy, not even a little.
When we can't afford housing we're told to get a second job, get a better job, stop buying things we can't afford, eat only 2 meals a day, etc. When the reality is that we can't afford housing because of the world they created, how they vote, and because they pulled up the ladder with them just before they told us to find our own way.
Well, those same policies and voting habits are finally biting them in the ass and we're supposed to give a shit?
Nah, they're attitude has always been "fuck you, got mine" well, fuck them too, they also got mine.43Yep and when they complain about paying taxes or how things got so expensive you tell them to get a job and they gasp and say "I paid my dues....I'm retired".
21Tarring an entire generation with the same brush is dumb as hell. It's dumb when boomers whine about the young and it's dumb when people try and pin the blame for this mess on literally everyone in a similar age group.
-4It's not that they all wanted this to a person but the majority, and not just a slim majority but a big one, wanted this. We can't just turn a blind eye to that. This is democracy functioning as designed: People get what they ask for.
2
There were actually no homeless Boomers during the great depression.
39That's why the numbers haven't been seen before.
22
Hey this is what they wanted, right? Pull yourselves up by your bootstraps, ya chucklefucks! Stop buying all that diabetic medicine and eating out at Bob Evans every day!
Let's see how many of those same boomers still blame everyone else, including liberals, for how their life is ending up and continue voting for the same party that stripped them of the social safetynets and policies that may have helped them out in a situation like this.
29Implying that Boomers only vote Republican is reductionist and unproductive. They vote proportionately similar to the rest of the country. There's just THAT many retards across all age groups, including Gen Z, in America that vote against their economic interests.
8I'm not disagreeing that retards exist in all age groups but saying Boomers vote proportionally similar to the rest of the country isn't accurate either.
Ages 18-29 voted 60% for Biden and 36% for Trump. Ages 65 and older voted 45% for Biden and 52% for Trump.
28
Here's why...
...They all have been voting republican since Reagan.
28Full stop.
1
Maybe I'm dumb for not lumping an entire generation of people into this huge group of bad actors who intentionally and maliciously hurt all subsequent generations.
The issue is money. What part of "people don't have money" is so hard to digest?
The disparity has become much much wider over the years, and that is the issue.
26The ones hording wealth and property are not the ones going homeless.
6Here's a
.Lest you think that a one-off,
.Boomers loved that withered, hateful, hollowed out motherfucker.
(Yeah that's the electoral college and the popular vote was a lot closer, but that's a level of support no President has had since in even one election let alone two.)
1
TFW you live through one of the most prosperous times in the most prosperous nation in the world (a time when you could go to college, buy a house, and have a family on a job that anyone could apply to) and you STILL end up poor. Talk about dumb.
26It's because as conditions changed, they never lost that mentality.
My boomer parents make twice the food they need to eat for dinner every single time and then just throw out or freeze and forget the leftovers, they could literally cut their food budgets in half just by being more reasonable with their portion sizes.
They have coffee at home and a nice coffeemaker, they go out for coffee almost every day driving a round trip of ~50km for the exact same brand of coffee they have at home, and when I mentioned this to them the last time they were having financial problems they said something to the effect of "oh well it's only a few dollars each" not even understanding that the gas they use and the wear they put on their vehicles is part of it too, and maybe it only costs a few dollars (plus gas etc) that when you do it every day it adds up.
It's literally the same as talking to my preteen nieces and nephews, they just have no concept of the value of a dollar, and are completely unwilling to change a single aspect of their lives to save money, and then get confused as to how they keep running out of money before the end of the month. I know that sooner or later I am going to have to take them in, or put them in a home, because they can't even manage their own finances and get angry and defensive any time I try to make suggestions to help them.
11I still remember being really frustrated with an ex's teenage brother and his inability to save money. It was like only the short term existed, and somehow inexplicably the short term always kind of sucked.
At least he was a teenager. A lot of adults never advance
2I agree with what you said, but until your household jointly makes 75k+, it's really hard to save money when just existing eats up most of your expenses. I felt like I could breathe at 75k when my wife wasn't working, 100k was when I could cover all bills and still have enough to save up a bit of money. That's with my being lucky in that I bought my house 5 years ago and my mortgage is only like $900/mo...(modest 2br home in not a great neighborhood ) total monthly bills ends up being about $3k(including groceries, gas, utilities, car insurance and car payment being about $600 for both cars) Wife started working again so with her 50k and my 100k I can finally have financial goals instead of thinking about just surviving. Rent in my city starts at $1500 and I have no idea how normal people are getting by.
One of the worst things about being poor is that it becomes a mentality. If you have spare money after your bills are paid, you get used to it disappearing by life's circumstances such as an issue with your car, so people have the mentality of "I need to spend it before it gets spent on something else." That's why when people do their taxes and get money back for child tax credits and stuff and suddenly they go from a couple dollars in the account to $3000-$5000+ they go out and buy sofas or nice televisions.
1Do they also eat a lot of avocado toast?
1
Leopardsatemyface.jpg
24This is terrible, and nobody deserves this. As a millennial that has ben constantly screwed by boomers and their collective decisions, I can't help but to think that "you rip what you saw. Maybe they should try to make the coffee at home to save money, instead of going to Starbucks. Also, they'll be fine if they stop eating so many expensive avocados."
23you rip what you saw
reap, you reap what you sow, because if you sow wheat on fertile ground, you can later reap wheat.
40
Is this why grandma has an OnlyFans?
22Oh this is the perfect thread for a trickle down economics joke.
17That caught me off guard.
2That was serious funny right there.
-1
Live by the sword. Die by the sword I guess.
19You mean they didn't save and raise themselves up by the bootstraps??
18This sparks joy. Welcome to the party you created.
18I agree and understand however the ones going homeless were most likely victimized by the ones who created this situation in their peer group
24
I feel like the United States' fixation on limiting taxes and government intervention is something the rest of the world has been trying to warn about.
This seems to me like the second biggest example of "fuck around and find out" to come out of the US in a long time.
17theres no profit incentive, of course these useless bags of flesh deserve to be put on the streets. welcome to america!
14"The dildo of consequence rarely arrives lubed"
However, my Bugles are always lubed by my frothing salivating mouth. I'm a bit hungry and getting weird, sorry you had to read that.
8A little taste on their own medicine, eh. Better start tugging on those bootstraps, Karen.
3Kek.
1