4 ms·

That's very surprising, given that you typically hear about how it's the baby boomers who reaped the rewards and screwed over everyone else.

by 0dayz 3y ago

version_five 3y ago
They're not all identical and they don't share with each other. The article didn't mention it but I'd also suspect lack of strong family ties is a big contributor. It's going to be people who didn't have kids or have estranged kids and are widowed or unmarried that are most exposed, and that demographic will only keep going up.
- koolba 3y ago
  > It's going to be people who didn't have kids or have estranged kids and are widowed or unmarried that are most exposed, and that demographic will only keep going up. For millennia that was the standard retirement plan. It covered housing, food, medical care, and even entertainment. And portfolio diversification (ie have lots of kids) was just as important.
- gustavus 3y ago
  I honestly believe this is probably the biggest problem, it isn't the other issues, it's the dissolution of the family, many poeple got in big on the 80's "divorce" culture that promised that divorce would liberate and free you to live your best life, in the process they destroyed families and lives, especially their children's, and now many of them are realizing why family was always so important, as they've alienated their own and have no where to go.
unglaublich 3y ago
> who reaped the rewards and screwed over everyone else. Having an average net. worth of $1.2M [0] and _still_ having homelessness in your generation only confirms that attitude. [0] https://www.cnbc.com/2019/08/08/baby-boomers-wealth-is-12-times-greater-compared-to-millennials.html https://www.cnbc.com/2019/08/08/baby-boomers-wealth-is-12-ti...
- rpastuszak 3y ago
  average ≠ median
uoaei 3y ago
Demographic monoliths don't exist. There is inequality within the Baby Boomers just as there is inequality between Baby Boomers and other generational cohorts.
TapWaterBandit 3y ago
The boomers have copped too much hate at this point. Definitely not every boomer benefitted from the time they were born, the real culprit of the crises many nations find themselves in is: - Too much prioritising of the land development desires of existing landowners - Too much immigration without thought to how the infrastructure and housing to support it would be created (I am an immigrant myself fyi).
- CP3f6kMA 3y ago
  Is immigration or affordable housing the issue
leidenfrost 3y ago
You know? This canned argument is being used in countries other than the us. At first, I thought it did happen there, but it can't just be imported elsewhere. Now this article gives me the idea that this is not an accurate assesment of reality by any means, but a circlejeck with the purpose of isolating boomers with younger people. Old people tend to be conservative everywhere. Maybe this is not a calculated and coold blooded attempt to burn the bridge to next generations.
SamoyedFurFluff 3y ago
The wealthiest baby boomers, who already had a leg up, maybe. But remember baby boomers are just more populous than any other generation— schools had to be expanded just to educate them, hospitals had to grow just to heal them, suburbs built just to raise them. Of course as economic disparity hits, they will also be a broad chunk of homeless, even if proportionally they are more prosperous than other generations.
pgreenwood 3y ago
Highly skewed distributions often lead to unintuitive results.
m000 3y ago
And they want to screw everyone else again. "We have the means to end homelessness in older adults. By increasing affordable housing for older adults, engaging in targeted prevention efforts, and building off the success of permanent supportive housing, we can make homelessness for older adults rare and brief." Why are homeless baby boomers any more of a problem than entire generations that have been condemned to perpetual renting? Generations that never had access to affordable housing (like boomers had) are much more likely to end up homeless as they grow old. Yet, here we are discussing how to save those poor boomers instead of addressing the systemic inefficiencies their generation created.
- epistasis 3y ago
  It's difficult to lump together home-owning yet anti-home-building wealthy boomers with the working boomers who are now becoming homeless. Generational abstractions are unbelievably leaky.
  - Kretinsky 3y ago
    Given that there aren't infinite ressources, shouldn't we prioritize housing families, that prepare the future, rather than the elderly?
    - epistasis 3y ago
      With housing, the problem isn't so much that we can't afford to build it easily, the problem is that we have made it illegal to provide housing. We have a shortage not because it is expensive, but because we regulated a shortage into existence. We do need some subsidy programs to help those with the lowest incomes or no incomes. But those will become easier to provide once we allow enough housing to be built and lessen the rentier extraction that comes from having an unnecessary shortage.
      - Kretinsky 3y ago
        Housing is expensive, especially in the american, low density suburbian way. You need to build a large infrastructure around housing for it to be viable, and if the housed can't pay taxes, everyone will end up paying for it. Also, I don't understand: why not move to a place without zoning? Not all homeless have to live in SF right?
koolba 3y ago
Reminds me of these parasitic worms that resort to cannibalism when times get tough: https://www.science.org/content/article/stress-turns-tiny-worm-big-mouthed-cannibal https://www.science.org/content/article/stress-turns-tiny-wo...
deleted 3y ago
[deleted]

That's very surprising, given that you typically hear about how it's the baby boomers who reaped the rewards and screwed over everyone else.

by 0dayz 3y ago

That's very surprising, given that you typically hear about how it's the baby boomers who reaped the rewards and screwed over everyone else.

version_five 3y ago

They're not all identical and they don't share with each other. The article didn't mention it but I'd also suspect lack of strong family ties is a big contributor. It's going to be people who didn't have kids or have estranged kids and are widowed or unmarried that are most exposed, and that demographic will only keep going up.

koolba 3y ago
> It's going to be people who didn't have kids or have estranged kids and are widowed or unmarried that are most exposed, and that demographic will only keep going up. For millennia that was the standard retirement plan. It covered housing, food, medical care, and even entertainment. And portfolio diversification (ie have lots of kids) was just as important.
gustavus 3y ago
I honestly believe this is probably the biggest problem, it isn't the other issues, it's the dissolution of the family, many poeple got in big on the 80's "divorce" culture that promised that divorce would liberate and free you to live your best life, in the process they destroyed families and lives, especially their children's, and now many of them are realizing why family was always so important, as they've alienated their own and have no where to go.

unglaublich 3y ago

> who reaped the rewards and screwed over everyone else. Having an average net. worth of $1.2M [0] and _still_ having homelessness in your generation only confirms that attitude. [0] https://www.cnbc.com/2019/08/08/baby-boomers-wealth-is-12-times-greater-compared-to-millennials.html https://www.cnbc.com/2019/08/08/baby-boomers-wealth-is-12-ti...

rpastuszak 3y ago
average ≠ median

uoaei 3y ago

Demographic monoliths don't exist. There is inequality within the Baby Boomers just as there is inequality between Baby Boomers and other generational cohorts.

TapWaterBandit 3y ago

The boomers have copped too much hate at this point. Definitely not every boomer benefitted from the time they were born, the real culprit of the crises many nations find themselves in is: - Too much prioritising of the land development desires of existing landowners - Too much immigration without thought to how the infrastructure and housing to support it would be created (I am an immigrant myself fyi).

CP3f6kMA 3y ago
Is immigration or affordable housing the issue

leidenfrost 3y ago

You know? This canned argument is being used in countries other than the us. At first, I thought it did happen there, but it can't just be imported elsewhere. Now this article gives me the idea that this is not an accurate assesment of reality by any means, but a circlejeck with the purpose of isolating boomers with younger people. Old people tend to be conservative everywhere. Maybe this is not a calculated and coold blooded attempt to burn the bridge to next generations.

SamoyedFurFluff 3y ago

The wealthiest baby boomers, who already had a leg up, maybe. But remember baby boomers are just more populous than any other generation— schools had to be expanded just to educate them, hospitals had to grow just to heal them, suburbs built just to raise them. Of course as economic disparity hits, they will also be a broad chunk of homeless, even if proportionally they are more prosperous than other generations.

pgreenwood 3y ago

Highly skewed distributions often lead to unintuitive results.

m000 3y ago

And they want to screw everyone else again. "We have the means to end homelessness in older adults. By increasing affordable housing for older adults, engaging in targeted prevention efforts, and building off the success of permanent supportive housing, we can make homelessness for older adults rare and brief." Why are homeless baby boomers any more of a problem than entire generations that have been condemned to perpetual renting? Generations that never had access to affordable housing (like boomers had) are much more likely to end up homeless as they grow old. Yet, here we are discussing how to save those poor boomers instead of addressing the systemic inefficiencies their generation created.

epistasis 3y ago
It's difficult to lump together home-owning yet anti-home-building wealthy boomers with the working boomers who are now becoming homeless. Generational abstractions are unbelievably leaky.
- Kretinsky 3y ago
  Given that there aren't infinite ressources, shouldn't we prioritize housing families, that prepare the future, rather than the elderly?
  - epistasis 3y ago
    With housing, the problem isn't so much that we can't afford to build it easily, the problem is that we have made it illegal to provide housing. We have a shortage not because it is expensive, but because we regulated a shortage into existence. We do need some subsidy programs to help those with the lowest incomes or no incomes. But those will become easier to provide once we allow enough housing to be built and lessen the rentier extraction that comes from having an unnecessary shortage.
    - Kretinsky 3y ago
      Housing is expensive, especially in the american, low density suburbian way. You need to build a large infrastructure around housing for it to be viable, and if the housed can't pay taxes, everyone will end up paying for it. Also, I don't understand: why not move to a place without zoning? Not all homeless have to live in SF right?

koolba 3y ago

Reminds me of these parasitic worms that resort to cannibalism when times get tough: https://www.science.org/content/article/stress-turns-tiny-worm-big-mouthed-cannibal https://www.science.org/content/article/stress-turns-tiny-wo...

deleted 3y ago

[deleted]