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It used to be that elders were few and far between, as the population pyramid was, well, a pyramid. The other day I joked in conversation that I raise my daugh

• ramblerman 2y ago
  You can teach them whatever you want, but the model of the world you give them is also what they will pass on to their kids. "Family is a burden, and screw old people" doesn't seem that conducive to a good society.
  • tankenmate 2y ago
    I get the sneaking suspicion that this might be a case of Poe's law.
  • Tade0 2y ago
    I'm going more for "screw just old people". Nowhere in my parenting there's even a mention of family being a burden - well, the younger part at least. Anyway, again, half-joking here - I'm not actively pursuing this approach, just not nudging them towards the traditional one. I spent some years in Italy, where the younger generations are absolutely squeezed by the presence of a huge population of elderly. It went to such bizarre extremes where my one Italian friend not only doesn't own a home being in his 40s now, whereas both of his divorced parents each have their own properties, his salary is lower than his father's pension. Kids are of course out of the question. My country is speedrunning this same scenario and the only thing preventing it from happening now is considerably lower life expectancy compared to Italy.
    • gwervc 2y ago
      That's the same thing in France, where on average a retiree has a higher pension than a worker. Workers whose one third of gross salary goes to pensions, then at least another of net salary is paid for rent to live in a property often owned by the previous generation. It's very depressing environment to live in.
      • carlosjobim 2y ago
        Every social norm will be exploited until it becomes a threat to existence. Right now the olds are exploiting their protected status to outright exterminate the younger generations. I will be down voted because the truth is too bitter for most to swallow. This happens close to all of us and isn't some bogeyman foreign/domestic politician or other convenient scapegoat.
    • lynx97 2y ago
      I believe some resentment towards the elderly is unavoidable given the circumstances. Its unfortunate, but understandable. Looking at my own family, my mother inherited the family property after my father died. She has never had any officially payed job since her 30s. In the last 40 years, she has only lived off pension, and hasn't put anything back into the system. Meanwhile, I have worked 25 years straight now, and still don't have enough money to buy a decent apartment in the city where I work. I am guessing the perceived unfairness of this "pyramid" is going to make a lot more people unhappy in the future. Certainly, compared to my mother, my life feels like I am a drone. Not being female is a huge disadvantage these days. I mean, a pension for being married to a man who died? Alimony when the spouse leaves? All things males can only dream of. And, the incentives are all wrong. My mother didn't take on any official jobs because she would loose some of the pension she gets. So, its better to just suck every drop of blood you can out of the welfare state, instead of thinking about how the system actually works and that it needs people to put in effort so that others that really need it can take things out...
      • chgs 2y ago
        If my wife dies first I get half her pension, if I die first my wife gets half my pension. If we divorce assets are spread equally. Kids complicate things a bit, the person who owes the kids get paid by the other one. As I have a far more flexible job (I do after school care etc) it’s likely I’d keep the kids and thus would be paid child support. Things suck for the “young” (sub 45 nowadays). Despite what Andrew Tate and his ilk tells you this is nothing to do with gender. It’s to do with every increasing ownership of the wealth by the wealthiest.
  • johnisgood 2y ago
    "Screw old people" is a common theme in hospitals and ironically, elderly homes.
  • jorvi 2y ago
    I mean, the model the current soon-to-be old people (boomers) operated on is exactly "screw everyone coming after me", so considered on the whole they deserve every bit of cold shoulder. That doesn't mean that every boomer is bad of course, so if you have good (grand)parents, be good to them!
  • lotsofpulp 2y ago
    I prefer to frame it as “help the younger generations” rather than “screw old people”. I saw my parents, especially my mom, waste their youth taking care of two people who lived to near 100 years old, and I don’t want to see my kids waste their time and resources on me.
    • taway1a2b3c 2y ago
      You want someone else's kids to do it?
      • deleted 2y ago
        [deleted]
      • lotsofpulp 2y ago
        No.
  • chgs 2y ago
    > "Family is a burden, and screw old people" doesn't seem that conducive to a good society. Great for GDP though
• halgir 2y ago
  > Should they feel any obligation to help my siblings once the time comes? Absolutely not, but hopefully your siblings will have been positive enough presences in your children's lives that they will want to of their own accord.