Retirement Nomads: Too poor to retire and too young to die • Hacker News Board

Re: Retirement Nomads: Too poor to retire and too young to die

#11

Post by dreamdu5t » Tue, Feb 02, 2016, 8:39 PM UTC

xutopia wrote: post #2

I feel so sad when I read stories like these ones... a 300$ ticket is the difference between being broke and having food on the table for her. To me it says a lot about our society if we can't take care of our elderly.

While I agree with your sentiment, I do not agree that it is my responsibility to take care of your parents. I want to take care of mine, and socializing these costs just means I'm forced to pay for your parents at the expense of mine. There is no replacement for the family unit. Obviously I feel differently about people who have no family, but that is the exception not the norm.

Re: Retirement Nomads: Too poor to retire and too young to die

#12

Post by Lawtonfogle » Tue, Feb 02, 2016, 8:39 PM UTC

kafkaesq wrote: post #6

Westfall — 5 feet 1 tall, with a graceful dancer’s body she honed as a tap-dancing teenager — is as stubborn as she is high-spirited. But she finds herself these days in a precarious place: Her savings long gone, and having never done much long-term financial planning, Westfall left her home in California to live in an aging RV she calls Big Foot, driving from one temporary job to the next. This is just shameful. You…

>But there should be no hesitation at all about applying it to seniors. As in, right now.

So something like social security. Which she is already receiving.

Re: Retirement Nomads: Too poor to retire and too young to die

#13

Post by ossreality » Tue, Feb 02, 2016, 8:41 PM UTC

dreamdu5t wrote: post #11

xutopia wrote: post #2

I feel so sad when I read stories like these ones... a 300$ ticket is the difference between being broke and having food on the table for her. To me it says a lot about our society if we can't take care of our elderly.

While I agree with your sentiment, I do not agree that it is my responsibility to take care of your parents. I want to take care of mine, and socializing these costs just means I'm forced to pay for your parents at the expense of mine. There is no replacement for the family unit. Obviously I feel differently about people who have no family, but that is the exception not the norm.

>socializing these costs just means I'm forced to pay for your parents at the expense of mine

wow, just wow. that doesn't even make sense and yet you asserted it because it's the only leg you have to stand on

Re: Retirement Nomads: Too poor to retire and too young to die

#14

Post by knicholes » Tue, Feb 02, 2016, 8:41 PM UTC

kafkaesq wrote: post #6

Westfall — 5 feet 1 tall, with a graceful dancer’s body she honed as a tap-dancing teenager — is as stubborn as she is high-spirited. But she finds herself these days in a precarious place: Her savings long gone, and having never done much long-term financial planning, Westfall left her home in California to live in an aging RV she calls Big Foot, driving from one temporary job to the next. This is just shameful. You…

I find it unfair that I'm expected to make sacrifices while I'm young to ensure a comfortable retirement and also have to pay for other's retirements because they failed to do so.

Re: Retirement Nomads: Too poor to retire and too young to die

#15

Post by MrZongle2 » Tue, Feb 02, 2016, 8:42 PM UTC

xutopia wrote: post #2

I feel so sad when I read stories like these ones... a 300$ ticket is the difference between being broke and having food on the table for her. To me it says a lot about our society if we can't take care of our elderly.

"a 300$ ticket is the difference between being broke and having food on the table for her."

And the same could be said for a 18-year-old, living out on his or her own.

But in both cases, it is the result of a poor choice (inattentive driving) rather than a major flaw of society, and has nothing to do with being "too poor to retire and too young to die", as was the supposed focus of the article.

Re: Retirement Nomads: Too poor to retire and too young to die

#16

Post by kasey_junk » Tue, Feb 02, 2016, 8:42 PM UTC

kafkaesq wrote: post #6

Westfall — 5 feet 1 tall, with a graceful dancer’s body she honed as a tap-dancing teenager — is as stubborn as she is high-spirited. But she finds herself these days in a precarious place: Her savings long gone, and having never done much long-term financial planning, Westfall left her home in California to live in an aging RV she calls Big Foot, driving from one temporary job to the next. This is just shameful. You…

You are being down-voted because the US has near universal basic income for older folks & the subject of the story collects it.

It's one of the real questions I have about basic income schemes generally. The examples we have are not powerful arguments in favor of them.

Re: Retirement Nomads: Too poor to retire and too young to die

#17

Post by marshray » Tue, Feb 02, 2016, 8:42 PM UTC

dreamdu5t wrote: post #11

xutopia wrote: post #2

I feel so sad when I read stories like these ones... a 300$ ticket is the difference between being broke and having food on the table for her. To me it says a lot about our society if we can't take care of our elderly.

While I agree with your sentiment, I do not agree that it is my responsibility to take care of your parents. I want to take care of mine, and socializing these costs just means I'm forced to pay for your parents at the expense of mine. There is no replacement for the family unit. Obviously I feel differently about people who have no family, but that is the exception not the norm.

Not every elderly is a parent.

Re: Retirement Nomads: Too poor to retire and too young to die

#18

Post by kafkaesq » Tue, Feb 02, 2016, 8:42 PM UTC

maerF0x0 wrote: post #3

Its tricky to feel sympathy w/ the lady in this article. She's part of the most benefitted generation, the "hardships" shown are induced by her own choices (expensive dinner, speeding ticket) and by world standards she's won the lottery to even be alive and living comfortably at her age. Alas, thats the trick with other people's stories-- difficult to project how it would feel if I were in their shoes.

$300 is beyond exorbitant for a speeding ticket. It's vindictive and exploitive.

Re: Retirement Nomads: Too poor to retire and too young to die

#19

Post by 6stringmerc » Tue, Feb 02, 2016, 8:43 PM UTC

>Nearly one-third of U.S. heads of households ages 55 and older have no pension or retirement savings and a median annual income of about $19,000.

So now we finally get to the root of why Baby Boomers are so upset with the Millenial generation - there's nobody to bail them out of the mess they created.

Re: Retirement Nomads: Too poor to retire and too young to die

#20

Post by exhilaration » Tue, Feb 02, 2016, 8:43 PM UTC

dreamdu5t wrote: post #11

xutopia wrote: post #2

I feel so sad when I read stories like these ones... a 300$ ticket is the difference between being broke and having food on the table for her. To me it says a lot about our society if we can't take care of our elderly.

While I agree with your sentiment, I do not agree that it is my responsibility to take care of your parents. I want to take care of mine, and socializing these costs just means I'm forced to pay for your parents at the expense of mine. There is no replacement for the family unit. Obviously I feel differently about people who have no family, but that is the exception not the norm.

You're pretty confident that you and/or your savings will live to take care of your parents. What if you get hit by a bus? Or lose your ability to work? Isn't that what a social safety net is for?