Hi out there. I plan to be around on Tuesdays & Fridays if anybody is interested. I recently turned 66 - making me only one digit off 666, the number of the Beast from the Book of Revelations. That seems appropriate, since my generation - best known as the Postwar Baby Boom & ME generation - had it all & still has, if you count all the leading positions, both political & economic. What we did not have was huge families of future taxpayers to pay for us in our dotage. Neither did we browbeat our daughters to find a suitable stud, hop into bed & start reproducing. Nope - we said/say: You go, girls!
We didn't think of this as high treason at the time, but now we are the root of financial woe all over the place & known as the Elderly Burden or Pensioner Bomb. Sometimes it feels like the rest of the population hopes we will self-destruct. Never mind that a lot of us still hold down jobs, do useful volunteer work - it's simply expected of us - & are active grandparents. Nothing absolves our guilt.
Sorry, all you younger taxpayers. I'm still working for my living, have produced 4 amazing & creative children with 3 very different men on 2 continents. Still curious about all sorts of things. I agree that responsibility comes with all the privileges we have enjoyed. REALLY - not just trying to sound large - & life is so interesting that I can't wait to see what happens next.
Elders were once respected, then treated as a bit of a joke, but this must be the first time in history we are considered an international threat to society. Otherwise, as always, some old people are wise, some are dingbats, some grow more open & tolerant with age, some more narrow-minded, & some get senile.
Have no idea if I am wise, but I've been around both geographically & on that inner journey the ME generation was always into. And scrappy - yep, guaranteed.
Isn't it not so much about aging, but about how it's managed? I think about this a lot as someone who's only having one kid, so Ken and i are not "replacing ourselves" and is that not fair to the generation that will have to support us when we get old, decrepit, and waaaaay cranky? After angsting about it for a long long time (YES angst is a verb!) we decided that if we're smart and diligent and we plan, that we can do our best not to be a "burden" on Vivi or anybody. May be wishful thinking not to be a drag on our younguns, but personally - unfortunately - breeding another financial contributor isn't going to happen for us. For better or worse. So here i am feeling guilty just like you! :)
ReplyDeleteI think the reason sometimes we sneer at your generation is that you had such good fortune (economically) and we feel like we're not anymore (witness my first home purchase was 3 months before the market crashed in 2008 and now i'm stuck because i can't sell my house for anywhere near what i paid for it... never once happened to my parents!). But then again as my home price plummeted so did your pensions and retirement funds, so i guess we're all in this together...
Wow - I guess we are! THANKS for this comment! I hope everybody who ever checks in here reads it! In the greater order, the world would be better off with a LOT LESS people & I gag when I hear the 'growth growth growth' mantra from people smart enough to know better, but yes - honest conundrum.
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