The Young and Broke Can No Longer Afford To Support the Old and Rich

Summary

The article argues that the current economic system exploits younger generations to support the older and wealthier, advocating for systemic change and collective action to create a more equitable future.

Abstract

The article titled "The Young and Broke Can No Longer Afford To Support the Old and Rich" presents a critical view of the economic disparities between generations. It suggests that individuals under 40 are burdened with supporting those over 60 through various financial mechanisms, such as low wages, high rents, and pension schemes. The piece highlights the stark wealth gap, with millennials being significantly poorer than baby boomers were at the same age. The author contends that the system is broken, perpetuating a myth of individual success while younger people are forced to work for the benefit of the older generation. To address these issues, the article proposes a series of actions, including self-employment, avoiding the rental market, supporting ethical businesses, and resisting the expansion of public debt and corporate subsidies. The author calls for a shift away from hyper-individualism and consumerism towards cooperation and communal good, aiming to leave a positive legacy for future generations.

Opinions

The current economic system is inherently flawed, favoring the old and rich at the expense of the young and poor.
Younger people are compelled to participate in an economy that devalues their labor and overvalues the assets of the older generation.
The notion of individual success through hard work is a myth, as it often involves exploiting others, particularly the younger workforce.
There is a need to break away from traditional economic structures, such as the rental market and profit-driven companies, in favor of more ethical and sustainable alternatives like co-ops and not-for-profits.
The article criticizes the ever-expanding national debt and the decreasing corporate tax contributions, suggesting these are deliberate strategies that harm the younger generation.
The author advocates for resistance against war, corporate subsidies, and government-manipulated currencies.
Pension plans are viewed as unsustainable pyramid schemes that younger people should avoid in favor of traditional savings and real asset investments.
A collective effort is required to change the current system, with an emphasis on working together for the common good and avoiding the repetition of past corruptions.

Our system has been hijacked but is relatively simple to fix

If you are under the age of forty, you are being systematically compelled to bankroll people over the age of sixty in more ways than you can imagine:

You’re expected to work for low wages at their companies.

You’re expected to hand over a huge portion of those wages to rent their income properties.

You’re expected to turn a profit for the companies in their stock portfolio.

You’re expected to buy their overpriced houses when they decide to sell.

You’re expected to finance that massive purchase by paying them interest for much of your adult life.

You’re expected to shoulder the national debt they’re so happily expanding by billions each day.

You’re expected to fork over a huge portion of your income as taxation to support their favored programs (including war and subsidizing their largest corporations.)

You’re expected to use a currency that they’re constantly devaluing.

You’re expected to pay into pension plans (read: pyramid schemes that won’t exist when you’re old enough to collect) to fund their retirements.

If you take an honest look at the stats, it’s pretty clear that the older generations are planning to milk our planet dry before they kick the bucket.

So what can we do about it?

It’s not like the old-and-rich politicians and their old-and-rich sponsors will help us in any meaningful way.

We need to:

Capture the full value of our labor by working for ourselves or in co-operation with others.

Extricate ourselves from the rental market by all moral means.

Stop working for, and buying from, any company that flays a profit off the backs of workers. (i.e. buy from individuals, co-ops, not-for-profits, etc.)

Quit acquiring their bloated properties and start building environmentally sustainable right-sized shelters.

Fund our life’s biggest purchase in a way that doesn’t enrich wildly-corrupt multinational banks. (ie. use not-for-profits, co-ops, and credit unions.)

Lobby and resist the expansion of public debt, and institute a global minimum corporate tax rate. (The corporate share of federal tax revenue dropped from 32% in 1952 to 7% in 2020. It wasn’t an accident.)

Resist war and subsidies, and refuse to do business with companies that profit from government grift.

Re-allocate out of government-manipulated violence-backed currencies.

Avoid supporting pension pyramid schemes and instead focus on old-school savings and real asset investment.

This will require us to go against the hyper-individualist consumerist instinct the older generations trained into our heads.

It will require us to work together, for each other and the common good.

And then, when we’re old, to not repeat the corruptions of the past.

Let’s be the generation who leaves this place in slightly better shape than it was begrudgingly handed to us.

The Young and Broke Can No Longer Afford To Support the Old and Rich

Our system has been hijacked but is relatively simple to fix

Our system is fundamentally broken.

So what can we do about it?

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