I’m a mid 30s dude who worked since 16 off/on in some capacity.

When I was a teen the jobs were all such dogshit (yeah even in 2005 or whatever) that no one really talked about “savings” except my dad, which is kind of weird since he’s not exactly wealthy by any means. He’s that dude I guess they’re targeting “just put $5 a week in if that’s all you can afford! Feeeeeeel gooooood don’t off yourself! We need to exploi-- you’re like our family member!”

In my 20s, the jobs got less shit, and suddenly I was forced to learn wtf a 401K was. Pension? Wtf is a pension?

And now in my 30s it just feels like… it’s been 15 years of that 2008-era “you’re lucky to even have a job!” (During that recession) sentiment from workers (kill me…) and the bosses of course (kill… them…?). Must’ve been an amazing time to be a capitalist.

It’s just the same shit for years now. Wages have hardly increased. I was making $12/hr when I was 19. It was absolutely not enough, but of course I was also with my parents. I mean that’s still a common hourly wage I think for like grocery jobs and stuff. But since the mid-2000s the prices of everything are also up at least 50% or something like that. I guess gas is about the same price now, but rent and housing prices have just been on a straight upward climb. Wages just stayed the same.

That sentiment of “lucky to have a job!” hasn’t gone away, people legitimately have absolutely no understanding of where value comes from (which I don’t blame workers for since they’re kept ignorant on purpose), the capitalists keep squeezing the lemon harder and harder, no one knows what to do (well, some do… but, yeah), and I dunno. I feel like that whole “just invest!” thing worked on the boomers (such as my dad) since although he wasn’t wealthy by average American standards, he was definitely “ok.” As long as he worked he was able to provide and blah blah and he had some money, actually more over time, to put into investments. So when he gets to 50 and now 60 he can look at his life where he did legitimately start from basically the bottom (homeless for a while as a teen) to end up… well off, or whatever he is now. The system worked for him, buying a house worked for him, investing worked for him. And these people who are generally not “bad people” such as my dad just can’t see, or don’t want to see, that houses are a non-option for many of his children’s generation and their kids? I don’t think “beyond fucked” even sums it up. Investing is out the window since obviously with rising costs (normal over time) and no raises in wages… there is no investing. There’s social security which is also constantly under assault (but rarely do they openly admit that, but it is) and that can provide, you know, something more than just dying on the street when you’re 70.

I feel like the pitching of investments has dropped over time. Maybe I’ve become numb to it, so that’s my bias, but I don’t see as many “how’s your IRA?!” ads and shit and fewer people talk about it probably because it leads to a dark conversation (dying on the street and such) or just anger and rage when it’s becoming more and more impossible to hide the hoarding of wealth by some and the absolute getting fucked over by most and then some have the gall and balls to even suggest cutting literally the one thing which might prevent those years of despair when people are elderly. I don’t see how that doesn’t trigger a murderous rage in more people. They’ll flip the fuck out over nothing just because they’ve been massaged into thinking it’s literally satanic or whatever, meanwhile their bosses are robbing them blind and shoving them towards a cliff that has a tiny safety net and simultaneously the guys who work for their bosses (politicians) are trying everyday to figure out how to cut the safety net without everyone noticing. But we do notice, everyone fucking knows it, some like to cope with “we can’t afford it anyway…” and just resign themselves to, again, street death.

I dunno. I try not to be doomer or whatever but it just feels absolutely impossible to convince people to even not accept these types of things as inevitable. People are so disempowered by propaganda and, really, living in a world of commodity excess. It’s still kinda, mostly ok. All that abstract talk of dying at 70? Who cares? It also effectively forces me into a liberal position of arguing for keeping the fucking half-ass measure things just to prevent more pain. The way things are going, I think we’re all just gonna do like old elephants soon. Everyone age 55 just goes down to the closest landfill and drinks poison koolaid and then, hey, elderly problem solved. Now the biggest pieces of shit can keep getting richer. Except that’s actually more humane than the system which seems to be inevitable (because if people perceive something as inevitable it sort of wills it into existence, but maybe not) where you do alienating, pointless labor to enrich some asshole for 50 years until you get hurt or sick then you can’t pay for rent then you go live on a park bench for a year slowly rotting away while everyone pretends you aren’t even there. Sounds great. The future capitalists want.

Do I really even want to retire? Retirement homes are mostly dumping grounds for the elderly where they can be abused out of the public’s sight. I think I’d rather work until I drop dead instead of retiring under capitalism.

Remember near the beginning of the COVID pandemic when right-wing talking heads were saying it’s okay if a ton of the elderly die because they’re not working or paying taxes? That’s more or less an unstated universal sentiment, and I’d rather not live out the remainder of my life knowing that most people think I’m a worthless parasite who deserves to die.