My plan is to crumble with it.
My plan is to crumble with it.
239 comments
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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.
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Yeah blame the victims...
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I’m sorry but no… sure we should try to make a better world. But we’re not in this shit because of failings of personal responsibility.
10 companies produce 80% of the pollution in the world. Research after research shows that in “democratic” countries the poorer 90% have basically 0 influence in politics. We literally have no power to make any meaningful change.
The world will die and it’ll be the fault of a handful thousand families. Not ours.
Sure, we could’ve stopped them before it got to this point. But when? It’s been like this for thousands of years.
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I don't know if those statistics are correct, with the ten companies and poor 90%.
If it is, your conclusion is “we have no chance in this system”
Mine is “the solution can't be companies or politics then”
Man, the people still have the power. That's why political systems try to separate us as best as they can. Creating diversity instead of unity. Everywhere.
If we wanted, we could change the world within a month. We just don't want to. Because we are fed the most stupid stories and ideas, as many as possible. From diets to skin colors to countries being evil by nature.
Most of humanity are just normal people. A few million of them are megalomaniacs. And they managed to make us all believe that they run the show. But we are running it for them. :)
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Who do those companies sell to? All money in politics does is advertising. Why aren't we better informed regardless? Why aren't we better organized to stop them? We act helpless about where we can work but indebt ourselves for bullshit. Faster widgets, more content to ignore the world with, more drugs to ignore ourselves with.
It would be bullshit to ignore the antagonistic role capital plays, but we have to act for change to actually happen and it maybe acting so that beyond our life times we effect meaningful change. That's all I'm saying.
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Blessed are those that plant trees for the shade they will never see.
Trees can grow very quickly and its not unreasonable to believe you'll get to sit under the shade of one in your lifetime.
I mean, definitely, you're blessed if you do this. But also, you could just be playing the (very good) odds of self-interest through doing things to make the world a better place.
This mentality is why we are in the position we are today.
I think folks underestimate how quickly a new policy can yield change. To put a darker spin on it, consider the advent of fracking in the prior decade.
https://impactful.ninja/the-carbon-footprint-of-fracked-gas/
Fracked gas has one of the highest carbon footprints of all energy types. Per kWh produced, fracked gas emits 490 grams of carbon dioxide (CO2) on a life-cycle basis. It produces lower levels of CO2 than the other two fossil fuels, coal and oil, but still directly contributes to climate change.
Imagine if we hadn't planted that tree back in 2014.
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Fracking is like the exact opposite of planting a tree. How did you even come up with that insane counter example?
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How naive do you have to be to honestly think this‽ 😱🤦🏼♂️😶🤦🏼♂️
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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.
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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.
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These "you should have saved for retirement" people really piss me off, especially the "you should have cut out luxuries" assholes. Bitch, I'm like the 62% of the rest of America that lives paycheck-to-paycheck. What luxuries? The occasional chai latte to make my life slightly more bearable? Buying my daughter Taco Bell once in a while to see her smile?
If I have to work for decades and deny myself any comfort for those decades just to have some comfort for the last 10-20 years of my life? Fuck that.
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How TF am I supposed to do that?!! I can hardly eat.
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Fun fact: you can withdraw from your 401k. While there is a hefty tax penalty, you still can do it. Maybe you can get a down payment on a house or pay off student loan debt. Just make sure you withhold taxes from your payout. Don't get caught with that bill at tax season
Especially handy if you have a job with good matching and instant vesting. Of course, this is not finacial advice, but it is an option that exists.
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You can use $10k from your 401k for a down payment on a house with zero penalty. If you're married, then your spouse can do the same. So now you have $20k for a house down payment! With an FHA loan you can buy with as little as 3.5% down, which your $20k should cover. Weee!
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If this is your plan you're probably better off rolling it over into an IRA, and then doing a qualified distribution. There are a number of qualifying events that can be used to avoid the penalty for early withdrawals.
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Yep, my plan is to pull all the money from my 401k as soon as my employer funds are vested. Paying down debt and living a comfortable life now seems like a better bet than hoping retirement happens.
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In Switzerland there is a retirement fund similar to the 401k from which you can withdraw if you definitely leave the country or if you want to use the money to buy your main house.
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just don't get caught with that bill at tax season
Meh, I'm pretty sure the IRS will agree to a payment plan for a small monthly fee on top of the payment, which at this point is almost certainly less than what I'm paying in these fucking usurious interest rates.
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Pretty telling that so many comments here immediately blame the proletariat. The fucking power of propaganda. Christ, we're so fucked.
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If everyone else wasn't so lazy and evil, I could retire sooner and more comfortably.
I'm uniquely underpaid, overworked, and unlucky. No one else is like me. No one will ever sympathize with me. So its just me against the world.
The only thing I can do to change my lot in life is to throw in harder with a high profile ultra-wealthy industrial captain in the eternal war against foreigners, corporate rivals, and the unemployed.
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Yes, yes, blame the other crabs in the bucket. That's the way to the top, for sure.
Also, the "woe is poor me & my wholly unique predicament" trope is yet another spoonful of bullshit you've been fed. We're all underpaid, overworked, and unlucky — and no one is different in that. Begin the sympathizing with yourself, and see we're all against the fucking world out here.
You do you, at the end of the day, though. The only thing at stake is your happiness.
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Nobody is coming to the rescue and we're on a timer.
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I quietly take a truly unhealthy regimen of stimulants before I go to the gym, and every man in my lineage either died of or was diagnosed with heart problems.
A heart attack at the gym sounds like an admirable death, "they died trying to better themselves" kind of thing. Bonus, I look good now.
Its bullet proof gym motivation too, the worse day I have, the harder I cardio. It's like depression aikido.
Me having a morbid thought: "I just want to be dead."
Also me, in Morpheus voice: "Show me."
Ten years now with that mindset, barely ever miss a gym day.
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Things never work out the way that you plan.
It's a fine line between a clean noble death and being the guy who strokes out on the treadmill, falls, gets his nut sack wrapped up in the belt.
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Don't be the guy stroking one out while getting their nuts tugged, got it.
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thank you for this comment. brightened my day. I haven’t laughed with this sort of light relief in a long while. (I tend to carry the world on my shoulder). Especially the Morpheus line. gold. ✨
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That’s funny, thinking that people get to retire at 65. For me it’s 68.5 years, but that will probably be pushed backwards before then.
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...i'm hoping to pull off eighty, at least have sufficient reserves to care for myself in senescence...
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I want to retire every 7-10 years. I definitely hope I can still work hard beyond 68.5 years young.
The advantage of a self-employed mindset, I suppose.
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With climate change and fascism in a dead heat, I like my chances.
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Huh, my reasoning was always I'll probably be dead before I reach 65, but I guess this also works
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My retirement plan involves laying down in a ditch off a highway in Colorado with an amazing view of the Rockies during a freezing winter night and just falling asleep. Social Security will not exist when I reach retirement age. I have a pension through work, I contribute to a Thrift Savings Plan, none of it will be enough, and I refuse to contribute more to either (as my Boomer parents both (of course) suggest), because to me I am literally throwing that money away. I will never see that money, the markets will crash, I will be left with nothing anyway, there's no point.
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That does sound a lot more peaceful than my retirement plan of: using my 2nd amendment rights on myself lol
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This is.... An unhealthy mental stance to take. The markets have pretty consistently gone up for just about a century now, its about time in the market not timing it. Yeah it will go up and down, yeah we really might see a recession in the next few years, but 20-30 years from now, money you've invested will be worth considerably more and you'll likely feel quite different when the time rolls around.
I worry about you, grasshopper_mouse. If you really feel this way, please talk to someone.
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"You don't understand! Right now is the worst times, and my specific suffering is the worst and most hopeless in history! This is the end!"
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Hey, I've tried that one before, it doesn't work that easily. I think you might need to do some drugs or get really drunk for it to work properly. Alcohol would work well because it encourages blood flow to extremities, making you feel warmer while making you go faster but I think ketamine would be the best way to go
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(Edited for accuracy)
The copium some people have about gov work is absurd, GS pay raises don't match inflation AND (at least in the IT field) typically pay worse than industry standards, for....
- slightly cheaper insurance benefits
- faster time off accrual (assuming you stick around for 3 years for 6 hours per pay period (2 weeks) or 15 for 8 per pay period, which is only for annual leave. Sick is capped at 4 hours regardless.)
- a pension that a political party absolutely intends sweep out from under you (that you pay more into than any of the folks in your office that have been there since before january 1 2013, 0.8% of pay vs 4.4%)
- TSP: a 401k by a different name.
Oh, but it's also "more stable" (we're definitely not facing a shutdown deadline on the 8th and 22nd of this month, which is somehow more confusing in news coverage because nobody covers who is/was affected which shutdown deadline or if the march 8 shutdown is still possible).
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I used a chunk of my 401k as an interwst free down payment on my house.
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Gonna just make sure I die at 50.
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over 50 is overrated
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...been over fifty for awhile, can confirm...
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My retirement plan is a cyanide pill to avoid the torture of roaming dystopian gangs of armed militias when they ransack my place because law and order has largely vanished and I'm their next stop.
Na, I'm just kidding. I enjoy the pain.
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You either die to the prion-diseased rape cannibals or you live long enough to see yourself become a prion-diseased rape cannibal.
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In 60 years all you dumb fucks are gonna be old and broke as fuck and demanding the next generations pay for your stupid asses through higher taxes.
Save your fucking money. The world might not end.
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Holy cow, how did I never think about saving my money? It's such an obvious solution! I can save so much by just saving! Sure, after rent, bills, and other expenses I only make about $100 of profit every month, but if I just save that $100, I'll only have to work 16 years for every year I'm retired. By the time I hit 96, I'll have enough saved to live to the age of 100! And then when you factor in high interest savings accounts, I could even retire at 95!
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The world will be fine. Its human society or specifically the working class who are fucked. Mostly by food scarcity due to drought and/or climate collapse.
We are already in the age of mass die offs, and low level extinctions, by the early 2030s mass extinctions will be the norm and by 2050naround 50% of all crops globally will fail on average. And that's only if thing stay the same trajectory as they are now. Major events like the gulf stream collapsing could make things much worse much quicker.
So I think I will just spend my money enjoying life while I can, before the global famines happen :)
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So... what's currently happening and has always happened? The current average social security payment is $1800. Which isn't even enough for rent and bills in most places. There are a lot of old people that worked blue collar or service jobs, payed taxes their whole life, saved what they were told and could. But they retired at 65 and planned on dying at 75, the average life span. Now they're 80.
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Exactly. Boomers spent all their money in the 80s and are now broke and surprisingly not dead yet. They should have saved more.
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Retirement being supported through taxes rather than individuals choosing to save would be far better. It's wealth based so people who can afford to save for retirement are already doing it by default, and people who make an egregious amount of money are taxed so those who can't afford to save for retirement aren't left to rot.
Same concept as other social services, really. Having the means for basic survival should be guaranteed by society, especially for people who can't support themselves.
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I've seen what happens to people who outlive their money. It isn't pretty. You might think you'll just keep working, but there's a lot of things that can make it so you can't work.
I'm sure a lot of people commenting can't afford to save, but if you're someone who can afford to do so and you're just not prioritizing it, you might come to regret it.
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How are people so dense?!?!
If they stop contributing to their retirement accounts then my contributions will be in jeopardy!!!
It's a pyramid that benefits us all...eventually.
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...when my forebears ask about my retirement savings, i point to my interest, insurance, and rent fueling theirs...
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No
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In 60 years, you will be dead. The world will be fine. You, however, will not.
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65 is too optimistic of a number for zoomers like me. 50 seems more reasonable.
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Did that for my student loans, unfortunately society didn't collapse... But I learned If you ignore it long enough they go away 😅
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I’ve been very slowly getting more open and candid with the idea that I’m not going to be around to retirement age. The men in my family have incredibly rough odds, starting at 50, and I don’t think I’m going to be the one to beat the odds.
Healthy or not, constantly rolling this knowledge around my head—even voicing it —has helped to put a lot of things in perspective—even if it hasn’t yet instilled a YOLO mentality.
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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.
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I still want a retirement plan for my future but uncertainty over nuclear warfare and the end of democracy in the US played a role into me spending a chunk of my money on a motorcycle, which pushes aside the fear of the future into a present mix of joy and adrenaline.
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Well being a motorcyclist on the roads today may mean you don't need a retirement plan after all!
(in all seriousness, stay safe out there, I've lost too many friends to careless drivers who don't look for bikes before doing dumb shit on the roads)
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Thank you!
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Not to mention convenient transport in a Mad Max-style apocalypse, until the fuel runs out.
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Don't they mean "re-x" it? Why are people still on that stupid platform?
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Because not everyone is a Liberal Sheep.
"Elon Musk said something against our plans for Israel.... Better cancel culture him quick by shit talking his platform (that he stole from radical leftists).
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do you think the only criticism people can think of for twitter is that elon musk is a massive piece of shit?
i mean, he is a massive piece of shit, but twitter as a platform and as a piece of software is falling apart at the seams and you'd have to be blind to not notice
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No seriously, guys.
Musk talked about Israel, they tried to cut his ad funds.
He gave them the literal middle finger,
And exactly one week later, ya'lls Lord and Savior, John Oliver, does an exposé on what a terrible person he is, and how we "cool kids totes don't luke twitter any more".
But don't worry. Not ONCE does he actually discuss Elon Musk's argument. Not ONCE. Never ever. But Mr Oliver wasted no time calling him conservative and stupid.
Cancel culture playbook:
Call them conservative (Elon Musk's increasingly libertarian comments!)
Call them stupid (look at that dumb fighter pilot jacket! Lol what a tool!)
And don't EVER EVER talk about their side of the argument.
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This is a really bad coping mechanism to rationalize failing to develop important skills and to justify giving up. We have at least 200 more years of misery in store before it's all over, in my opinion.
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If people could plan for retirement during the cold war when nuclear annihilation could happen at any time then you can plan for it now.
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Pretty sure ecological and climate collapse are not the same thing as, eh, maybe they'll drop nuclear bombs, maybe they won't.
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Obviously, they're not exactly the same. My point is people still planned ahead even though there was a chance the world would end. And people should do that now, because I think it's more likely that civilization will continue.
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I love the pessimism of the young. A lot of you will hit retirement age and then realize that you should have saved.
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People would if they could afford it.
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That's an armchair rebuttal. When one is forced to economize, sh*t gets real. I've slashed and slashed and reduced my luxuries and expenses exponentially due to drastic changes in my income. It's amazing how little I need to survive, even after I think I can't cut my expenses further.
Point is, we can always AFFORD it.... 10% of my income goes to me. Doesn't matter if that's a thousand bucks or ten cents..... "People can afford it", but they still don't save.
And likewise, we "young" can see the importance of retirement.
The REAL PROBLEM,
Ahem,
Let me just grab my professor stick,
The real problem is Keynesian economics.
AKA, what happens when the government is no longer on a gold standard?
Smart people exploit the social impact of a free market. In other words, "we'll protect you from the pandemic, here's a bailout!"
...."oh noes, rapid inflation? [Because of our bailout!?] Don't worry, we'll bail "you" out again with a gas bailout!
...."never mind that this literally caused more inflation in the first place....."
TL;DR play some cryptofad games to learn the differences between The Traditional Gold Standard (Bitcoin) and The "Gold-like" Standard (USD etc).
The Tru™ TL;DR:
People don't save for the future because $20 under my mattress is worth $15 tomorrow. Because, you know, "inflation", aka smart people taking advantage of the masses not knowing how inflationary tokens work.
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What should I have saved?
Is this like how I should have gotten two jobs while going to college so I could pay for it without student loans?
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A lot of Boomers right now are reaching retirement age only to see their entire retirement funds wiped out by insane healthcare costs and increased life expectancy. Our system is so broken a lot of people would have been better off spending their life savings before retirement so they could at least qualify for Medicaid.
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239 comments