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When No One Retires (hbr.org)
More and more Americans want to work longer -- or have to, given that many aren't saving adequately for retirement. From a report: Before our eyes, the world is undergoing a massive demographic transformation. In many countries, the population is getting old. Very old. Globally, the number of people age 60 and over is projected to double to more than 2 billion by 2050 and those 60 and over will outnumber children under the age of 5. In the United States, about 10,000 people turn 65 each day, and one in five Americans will be 65 or older by 2030. By 2035, Americans of retirement age will eclipse the number of people aged 18 and under for the first time in U.S. history.
[...] Soon, the workforce will include people from as many as five generations ranging in age from teenagers to 80-somethings. Are companies prepared? The short answer is "no." Aging will affect every aspect of business operations -- whether it's talent recruitment, the structure of compensation and benefits, the development of products and services, how innovation is unlocked, how offices and factories are designed, and even how work is structured -- but for some reason, the message just hasn't gotten through. In general, corporate leaders have yet to invest the time and resources necessary to fully grasp the unprecedented ways that aging will change the rules of the game.
What's more, those who do think about the impacts of an aging population typically see a looming crisis -- not an opportunity. They fail to appreciate the potential that older adults present as workers and consumers. The reality, however, is that increasing longevity contributes to global economic growth. Today's older adults are generally healthier and more active than those of generations past, and they are changing the nature of retirement as they continue to learn, work, and contribute. In the workplace, they provide emotional stability, complex problem-solving skills, nuanced thinking, and institutional know-how. Their talents complement those of younger workers, and their guidance and support enhance performance and intergenerational collaboration. In encore careers, volunteering, and civic and social settings, their experience and problem-solving abilities contribute to society's well-being.
[...] Soon, the workforce will include people from as many as five generations ranging in age from teenagers to 80-somethings. Are companies prepared? The short answer is "no." Aging will affect every aspect of business operations -- whether it's talent recruitment, the structure of compensation and benefits, the development of products and services, how innovation is unlocked, how offices and factories are designed, and even how work is structured -- but for some reason, the message just hasn't gotten through. In general, corporate leaders have yet to invest the time and resources necessary to fully grasp the unprecedented ways that aging will change the rules of the game.
What's more, those who do think about the impacts of an aging population typically see a looming crisis -- not an opportunity. They fail to appreciate the potential that older adults present as workers and consumers. The reality, however, is that increasing longevity contributes to global economic growth. Today's older adults are generally healthier and more active than those of generations past, and they are changing the nature of retirement as they continue to learn, work, and contribute. In the workplace, they provide emotional stability, complex problem-solving skills, nuanced thinking, and institutional know-how. Their talents complement those of younger workers, and their guidance and support enhance performance and intergenerational collaboration. In encore careers, volunteering, and civic and social settings, their experience and problem-solving abilities contribute to society's well-being.
Really the biggest problem I see, is how Gen X and Millennials are getting blocked out of their advancement tracks. When people in their 60+ are not retiring, that is creating a workforce where it is difficult to for the younger folks to advance in, because these promotion jobs are already covered by people with more experience.
Plus the next set of problem, is these older people are not planning on retiring, so this means, they are not taking promising young people under their wing, mentoring them the tricks of the trade, to be ready to step up and continue on the work. Now these people are working to their death, without a transition plan in effect.
If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
If a worker get injured or fired, it was nearly a death sentence, because it wasn't a case of getting an other job, but spending the rest of your life homeless, barring extensive effort in finding new work.
Your family would often take care of you. This happened to several members of my family in the 1800's. Instead of paying 20-30% in income tax to the government to take care of the invalid, they paid 20-30% of their income to take care of their invalid relatives.
I am retiring the instant I meet my relevant financial goals for doing so.
I got laid off in June 2017, but am debt-free (including having my mortgage paid off) and financially independent for my current and foreseeable situation, according to my spreadsheets where I track everything -- think FIRE, though not that young. My wife died in 2006 ( Remember Sue... ) so it's a little quiet.
As it turns out, I've been contacted by a number of employers and recruiters recently and had one in-person interview and several phone interviews that all look like they'll progress further. I've got 30 years experience and been a system/application programmer and system administrator on just about every version of Unix, several versions of Linux and Windows and am big into automation and am getting inquires to do DevOps work. I'm thinking of going back to work. Some extra coin in the piggy bank wouldn't hurt and I'll get benefits and, eventually, 18 months of COBRA -- which was *way* less expensive than plans on the ACA marketplace, because I have too much passive/investment income to get subsidies.
It must have been something you assimilated. . . .
Only people who own things can retire in the US. You can't earn enough working for people to retire. You need to be collecting rent, either figuratively or literally. We're building our wealth by doing that literally... collecting rent from real estate.
I don't respond to AC's.
couple of family member illnesses hit in 2006. Then the 2008 crash wiped me out when I started getting back on my feet. By the time the Affordable Care Act's protections kicked in my career and finances were pretty well shot. Right around the time I recovered from that kid got to be college age. Of course nothing saved (even though I made 2x median income and lived like crap driving a 20 year old car). Suddenly had $20k+/year in school bills. I could borrow, but what's the point? They're gauranteed loans. I can never default. They'll just garnish my wages and toss me in jail if I can't/don't pay.
The American working class got shafted since Clinton. The double whammy of Clinton Democrats and the GOP both siding with mega corporations against me left me screwed. H1-Bs flooded the market and my wages plummeted. I think the Berniecrats will eventually fix it, but I'm pretty sure I'll be dead by then.
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Of course, lots of us don't really need employment to have plenty of work to do. I spent about a year doing a tiny bit of contracting work, lots of extra traveling, and otherwise generally doing nothing besides working on personal creative projects. The freedom was absolutely amazing, and at no point did I ever feel like I stopped working, or really even slowed down. I would expect the same to be true when I retire for good in a decade or three.
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Whether that's true, in the tech halls they DON'T actually want us. They throw us out for the latest naive fad lickers they can find. IT is based more on fashion than science & logic*, and younger people are stupid enough to fall for and act sufficiently enthusiastic about every trend that comes under a PHB's nose.
Yes, there are exceptions, but I don't wanna hear them; and git off my lawn!
* I rarely see any solid studies that the newer shit is better, only babbling theory that sounds nice on paper. It's always keep up with Jones' first, science later.
Table-ized A.I.
I'll bite.
I'm what most people would refer to as a communist, I'm actually a pragmatist. I believe that everyone should do their part and the ecosystem of the economy should be built to facilitate that. This means that publicly funded medicine is required because people have to be healthy to work. This means publicly funded schooling because without an education, I might as well just replace a person with a machine. I also believe strongly that most jobs are simply not worth paying a proper salary for, so the government has to be in a position to subsidize those workers since in a free market, why would I waste my time and money to employ someone if there's no possibility of making a profit?
Also, I make a lot of money compared to most. I also pay 50% tax plus another 25% sales tax on most things I buy. I still have more disposable income that most.
I just came to work at 2am on a Monday morning. I worked Saturday, I worked Sunday, I work pretty much all the time. I'm certainly not work shy. I raise my children with three core beliefs.
- Treat other people the way you would want to be treated if you were them. (this is an enhanced version of do onto others since not everyone is the same)
- If there's work to be done, don't try to figure out who to put on the job. Do it. If that means standing in a pile of shit with a shovel to make fertilizer, start shoveling but make sure to have a few more shovels around. When people see you... a person they will hopefully see as being "above that station in life" with a shovel working, they'll ask "Why are YOU doing this, surely you can get someone else to" and they'll respond "The job needs to be done and I had a shovel." and some people will realize... if for no other reason than being embarrassed to do otherwise will grab a shovel and help.
- Nothing has ever been accomplished through competition that could not have been done better through cooperation. When we chose to go to the moon, it was a great achievement, but we would have done it faster and better if we combined the minds of the Americans and the Russians instead of having them work relentlessly in private from one another. If you absolutely must compete, try to outwork your competition and achieve more than they do. With competition as your motivation, we sent people to the moon... and we stopped because we won and said "screw it". With cooperation, we put a space station into orbit and it's been there A LONG TIME and keeps getting better. It has been a major contributor to further cooperation that will bring us back to the moon and further on to Mars because we've cooperated to find a common cause. Never use competition as a motivation. It's ok to measure your performance in comparison to someone else. It's also ok to be proud that you are doing well. But it is NEVER acceptable to compare yourself to someone else and consider yourself better than them because you have managed to achieve more. Instead, it makes it your duty to help them increase their capacity.
Economics are substantially more complex than "If this then that". Elderly can't retire because people don't die. That's a far accurate though grossly incorrect observation. We all need to work because we all need money. We all need money to become worth less to allow us to digest the high debt we incur to buy things which used to be much cheaper when people needed less money. Inflation is a necessity to allow people to prepare for retirement.
I bought a house 15 years ago for about $400K at today's exchange rate. My neighbor with precisely the same house (they're town houses) sold theirs for $900K this past week. The house hasn't doubled in size. The neighborhood didn't get an attraction to increase demand. The house simply increased in monetary value because the money has deflated in value by a considerable amount. In fact, the house is really worth less since we bought the houses brand new and now they're 15 years old with wear and tear on them. People paying $900K would have paid a million except they nee
Slaves cannot quit and choose a different employer. You can.
Actually, there are plenty of people who cannot withstand a disruption in employment. This is a problem that UBI seeks to fix.
Slaves cannot choose where they live. You can.
Actually, some people do not have enough money to move. This is a problem that UBI seeks to fix.
You like having things, like clothing, food, electricity? Well, somebody has got to produce all of that for you.
Actually, automation has gotten to the point where the efforts of a dozen people can feed thousands of people. It won't be long until it's down to just one person. Clothing is almost entirely made by machines. Electricity? Well damn dude, that shit is provided by the Sun.
You think THEY want to work for free?
You do know that some people do things just for the betterment of the world right? I write code and give it away so that other people don't have to.
No, you MUST give something back for all the effort they have put forth on your account.
Who said people didn't want to give back? If you provide people with that which they need to survive then they can make better decisions about their future.
Yes, we have a problem wherein too much wealth and power are concentrated among too few people.
And what is your solution to this problem? Should we just hope the wealthy have a change of heart? We tried labor unions and look what happened to those. You are standing in the way of progress. Be careful because it may run you over and drag you with it.
Anons need not reply. Questions end with a question mark.