There are millions of young people who oppose progressive policies. The arrogance of some of these younger people astounds me. They don't even know yet that millions do NOT agree with them and they will have to fight Republican/oligarch thought just like we had to.
They are also usually woefully ignorant about civics and history as well.

They vote at around 50% vs 70% for older Americans. If you’re not willing to vote for your interests- quit complaining

Younger folks don't vote as much as older folks therefore older folks have more influence over politics. The answer isn't to stop older people by taking away their savings and paid for benefits; Or reducing their voting frequency.

The answer is get the younger folks out to vote more, raise minimum wage and stop compounding interest on student loans. There's a lot that can be done to help younger voters...but the first step is to get out there and VOTE.

The New York Times is advocating what all narcissistic parents and cruel enmeshed families do. Take away from the successful child and hand it over to the problem child to equal out the rewards. It teaches the problem child to live off others and makes the successful child a 3rd parent.

Like they are just too cool for school. They can go fuck themselves. Sorry, just using the language, the young people understand

We certainly don't need these stupid fabricated generation wars. Meanwhile the author Samuel Moyn is 54 years old and perhaps is feeling uncomfortable with his coming senior years. Some of the most offensive purveyors of all the ageism crap are those who are on the brink themselves.

To the many journalists, writers, and late night hosts who keep spewing this garbage, please know that I have been your age, but you have never been mine. Should be quite entertaining watching you clowns grow old. Don't expect a lot of sympathy guys. I've already shunned a bunch of you already. I will not be the brunt of your seriously stupid and redundant "old age" jokes.

park for the Epstein class.

Same day different shit.

Worked until I was 70 as a copier/printer tech which can be physically demanding, but
that was my decision.

and I would have kept working, but I got laid off by covid. I enjoyed my job and did it well.
When people make these comments about older people, they are creating a bias and I'm afraid of what it will come to.
I love Scott Galloway, but he makes these comments all the time. I have my husband's pension and my ss. Along with savings, I am not wealthy and my husband and I earned everything I have.

Who wrote this a teenager?

Technics Turntable with felt mat
A leisure suit jacket. Why? I dunno.

I'd hoped all of those had died a horrible death and were now extinct. "That polyester look" was gag-inducing at the time and it's even more sickening now. 🤮

He got it from our dad. Can only use film that shoots at 400 tops. That camera belongs in a museum.

"underwear" that is older than he.
And! I retired from doing all the work in flipping houses at age 74 due to CFS and I could no longer lift wall board by myself!
Most of us 'oldsters' earned what we have with actual hard work (not by sitting on our asses at a keyboard) only to now find that what we earned is being taken away from us by an unscrupulous administration and his really wealthy supporters.

Just hoping I don't outlive my modest savings and the GOP doesn't kill Social Security before it kills me. Cat food is getting expensive.

......have to eat cat food. Haven't heard about that in a while.

And, they better hope they don't get laid off after 50. If think they have it rough now...

IIRC it was 30yo
Logan's Run (movie)
In the book it was 21yo !

Soylent Green wasn't collected too much differently either.

Be careful what you wish for!

Us older people have more experience, and are more likely to look at more considerations than the younger, faster 'move quickly and break things' types. Breaking things is almost always BAD!

I read the book and watched it several times.

The TV series was OK for shows in the 70's.

It's also a good display of how gullible people are. They can call it "renewal" all they want, still looks to me like they're just blowing up and disintegrating.

And Donald Trump is ready to take it and give it to them.

This type of ageism is part of it. Because the current generation of retirees is the last generation the Epstein Class wants to have retirements at all. And articles like these get regular people thinking that, "hey, yeah, why should these people get to enjoy the fruits of their labor after a lifetime of work when I won't get to do that decades from now?"

Baby Boomers got to enjoy pensions and affordable homes, fair pay that allowed them to live comfortably and retire in dignity. And all of those things are a threat t the Epstein Class.

... while banning the corporate ownership of these homes.

It seems that in many cities the only new housing that's allowed to be built is corporate owned apartment buildings and large single family homes 2000 square feet of larger. That's great for the big developers, but not so good for young people.

My wife and I bought our first home for $8,000 cash in the "rust belt" of the Midwest. That was about the same price I paid for the only new car I've ever bought, about $20,000 in today's money.

We could set kids on the path to home ownership starting in high school, teaching them the skills to refurbish old homes or build new ones and then give them the opportunity to buy these homes. From there they could keep "trading up" as their incomes increased. That's what my parents did, that's what my wife and I did, that's what my siblings did

Why can't we do this today? Apparently it would hamper the ability of the wealthy to suck money out of working class communities. Gotta keep those proles in their place.

The home ownership rate is still about the same as it's been since 1980. And that's higher than it was in the 50s, 60s, or 70s.

The State of California paid for most of that. There was no tuition, just fees, in today's money about $4500 annually. My grandma paid for some of that since I was the first person in her family to go to a four year college. I worked part time.

I got a good full time job after I graduated. (That's when I bought a brand new car...)

When my wife and I got married we rented a small two bedroom tract home that was built in the 'fifties. The rent was about one fifth of our combined income. We were saving to buy a house or pay for graduate school.

Our children were not so lucky. They paid about ten times what I did, inflation adjusted, to go to college. That was with scholarships. After they graduated they had student loans and their housing costs were a substantial fraction of their remaining income. They were, however, able to move to big cities, which is what they wanted to do.

A lot of their grade school classmates are still living with their parents and some are having children of their own. In our neighborhood there are a lot of multi-generational families living in single family homes. Maybe grandma watches the kids while everyone else works. Childcare is expensive.

That's the change I see.

It seems to me that everything started turning to shit after Ronald Reagan was elected president. We really are cheating our kids. Real wages haven't kept up with rising costs, especially for college and housing.

Too many wealthy developers and affluent "boomers" reject affordable housing because they fear it would decrease the value of their own properties and they don't want to pay for the education of anyone else's children but their own. It's just plane selfishness.

Unfortunately the people in power, especially the Republicans, would rather use this as a wedge issue to deflect the blame from themselves and too many people, young and old, are falling for it.

Probably close to 80% of older people are struggling to get by financially just like 80% of younger people. You can judge a society on how the older generation and aging population is treated. America absolutely sucks in that regard. The "American Dream" as advertised has been unattainable bullshit for the majority, whether young or old, for a long time. The blame is being directed at the wrong targets. The ruling class loves to create division as it directs the blame away from their selfish and greedy lust for more while the majority continues to get screwed over. Way too many people both young and old buy into the division.

Welcome to DU !!

Welcome to DU

Works like a charm every single time. Meanwhile the REAL culprits are laughing all the way to the bank.

You want immediately what we didn't obtain until our 40s: House; new car; vacation.

And you want a family, too, when many of us had to choose, because of finances.

You want now salaries and positions we never reached, even with our multiple Graduate degrees.

You want no war to be drafted into, no Wall like ours.

You want to believe you won't age.

Did I mention? 🖕

That's not the way it works.

And for their progeny.

As I always say, "I wish I'd been born into immeasurable wealth instead of being devastatingly handsome." (Actually, I'm neither, but I am an extraordinary wise-ass). 😉

And from the article:

neither of us would have been able to afford a house.

Couldn't now, post divorce--but she kept her faculty retirement account, unscathed, and I "kept" the amount paid for the house and what was left on the mortgage, after making payments from 150% to 200% of the principle due each month. So I have a house and she has an apt. Her retirement will have more money than mine, but she'll also have rent while I'll have house insurance and upkeep. And when I am forced to sell, I'll have the sales price of the house to tide me over to the grave.

Don't combine finances, it makes things tougher. When we moved into the neighborhood a lot of couples, because of financial stress, divorced or separated--and less than a year later maybe 25% of the houses had been told. At a discount. (Which is how we got ours.) And too often to a REI. Note that most of the REIs in the area own fewer than 5 properties, so it's not like it's megacorporate America. (Still, the renters are usually obnoxious and don't care.)

My generation married younger, oftentimes like myself, at 20 and started their families younger too. So by the age of 30 we had 10 years of saving for a down payment on a house. Our generation mostly bought older, starter homes. I question the statement here that in 2024 the median age of a first time home buyer was 56.

downsize, whatever) is 56.

Quite the resume, but my little grey cells are telling me his screeds are personal. His Harper'snarticle in next month's issue is even nastier. Someone older got a position he wanted.

onto everyone in their "golden years." For many the "golden years" are made from recycled plastic, not gold.

My generation (GenX) is full of entitled people.

This one, more than any other, is the key IMO:

Often in the "last places you'd expect" ... but there it is, front and center... for all to see. It's even CELEBRATED!

It makes me want to vomit.

Nobody has. We benefit from the strides in medicine re: longevity. By in large boomers have been activists over environmental issues and civil rights. We took pride in voting. I see so many cynical young people say voting is pointless. Is that the fault of their parents? Society today? Corruption? Being devoid of critical thinking? Totally distracted by God only knows what...

over my dead body. Literally.

Sorry kids but half of us didn’t vote for this shit. This old boomer never voted for a Republican a single time in my life. I protested and was active against it. This shit ain’t my fault.

I doubt old liberals are hoarding much

This story is ragebait meant to stoke resentments of younger folks who are struggling financially with jobs and housing. Oligarchs want to keep the left divided, this time by age group. It's becoming more frequent as elections are coming, and billionaires are getting the attention they deserve.

It will take a multigenerational, multiethnic and global effort to break the hold of capitalist oligarchs over our lives. When you see clips of No Kings marches, there are plenty of greys out there with signs. We are allies.

Some of the posts I see are clearly bots, or AI. I still respond because they attract eyeballs.

The kids are truly suffering and need all the help we can give. One way we can help is by gently pointing out the ragebait stories being planted in their feeds.

It’s only because too many young ‘potential” voters are too damn lazy to show up at the polls and for the future they want. They far outnumber us in terms of population, and can take over any time they want, if only they would participate in the democratic process.

If my age group is over-represented in the electoral process, it's because we've dragged ourselves out of our homes, walker or cane in hand, and made the trip to vote. I've voted Democratic all my life, and damned proud of it. But hea... I'm a (gasp!) woman! They're trying to take away my right to vote with every bill that gets through the process. The damned SAVE act is being tacked onto every single damned bill by the Repugs. THIS is what these people should be screaming about... not the damned fact we actually voted.

"Kids" feel under-represented? Hea... I got an idea! Get out there and vote in every election you can. Local, state, Fed... every single one of them... make your voice be heard until it becomes such an ingrained habit you'll be as enraged as I am that they want to keep me from voting!

Whoever said this is just the next point at which they try to divide us is right. But will kids see this? My grandson has been, for days, telling me trump is ruining the SS system so bad that there'll be no way he'll ever be able to retire. I can see the day when the rich demand that 1/4-1/2 of every paycheck is collected into a mandatory 401k account marked "for retirement only." We're already mostly there now.

I've paid into SS since I was younger than 16. I've worked all my entire life. But as a female, I've always had the lowest salary whatever I did... and remember the days when the "Want Ads" in the newspapers were divided into "Male" and "Female"? I do. It didn't take long to see the wage inequality between the sexes. Kids have a whole lot of ways to make sure they have more when they retire, they just have to look at the inequities of today and see that those change.

Frankly, my retirement sucks. The most I ever made in my life was around $70k/year. And that was in IT. Even *it* was lowballed because I was female. I nearly fell over when I discovered how much more my male coworker was making... and believe me, it was for nothing more than simply being male. This was just a few years ago. The mindset hasn't gone away... they're just passing it on down to the next generations.

But because I lived from paycheck to paycheck most of my life, there was no time or way to build "retirement savings." You can't save anything when you're trying to feed and educate your kids... not on the salary mothers were being paid. Kids today are mad because their salaries now match the ones I had to raise a family on. I don't have a lot of sympathy. I have some empathy for them; been there, done that; know the grief and frustration that comes with it. Even lived in my Horizon car with my kid the one and only time I was ever out of work for more than a week. Being on the bottom costs a LOT in all kinds of way, including monetarily. I honestly didn't think, after working all my life, that I'd be scratching by on $1200/month SS. And I know there are people who get a hell of a lot less than I do. I just finished paying on the last EMS bill. $335... again. With medicare, MA, and any other way you can be covered, it's still $335 that one of the other hospitals that didn't get paid will bitch about soon. And while I truly understand why and how SS became to be and has existed this long, remember YOUR parents got the full benefit of it. WE are getting less than they did. By the time it comes to my grandson, unless something changes, they won't have it anymore. People can't afford to have families now.

Kids also don't have our living costs. Every COLA is based on them and their cohorts. No one factors in what it costs the elders to live, how they have to spend their money. Even Obama turned back a change for the better. What he promoted was "if they can't afford to buy beef, they'll do the next best and buy chicken." Didn't fly then with us.. won't fly now, when even chicken costs what a steak *used* to cost (if I still had good enough teeth to eat it!)

My grandson and I have a lot of the "generational" talks. His eyes have been opened to what we seniors have to try to do with what little money we get each month. And I worry for him and his future. He's a good kid; but he's gotten jaded long before I did about it all.

Yeah, this "article" needs to flushed down the toilet where it belongs! Bah!

Last edited Tue Apr 21, 2026, 05:45 PM - Edit history (1)

The most rage inducing thing I ever saw was an infuriating profile of Wayne Hsiung, the Direct Action guy by this lame New Yorker columnist whose profile I have no wish to raise.

Wayne is a little too high energy for me. I don’t trust people who think attention is the way to change. If anything it is the other way around. You cannot do or hell even think anything worth doing/worth thinking about under surveillance.

And by the time you figure out how to think again your captors unfortunately are probably quite a bit ahead. Except the perverts who wasted your time, but at least their own as well.

It is these damn non-pervert saboteurs, especially the most “expert” who are sabotaging one without even being aware of it like my asshole mentor. I hate that guy.
He offers one unusable advantages that aren’t going to work in a society this brainless.

This society cannot distinguish between sad web comedy performances and genuine shock at everything being a joke in these societies to a level that is baffling to the merely honestly mediocre.

I don’t really hate my mentor. Or at least not how people classically think of hate. I still consider him my mentor and a colleague.

But he is some kind of insane Type A. I mean most pis are and that’s cool to the extent that a small subset of these guys (high profile scientists) of whom one might ask questions like “Okay how crazy are you?” are people who are crazy in ways I genuinely would respect. I understand that type of crazy and were I not committed to marijuana which pays its dues in this horrible world in less terrifying ways and these people are all unfit to draft sexual harassment norms because they are male and insane in generic ways or female and non-existent or not allowed to weigh in.

Well and there is my category. Not insane but for all common sense purposes labeled that.

It is all about balance. I am not context unaware. I am trying my best with the hand I have been dealt. But I am on the left and Gen X.

And the one thing I liked about Gen X was feb facade of ironic detachment. I do care about stuff, but purely aesthetically very nice people who are very demonstrative re protests etc tend to attract a lot pf attention which is counterintuitive.

I often can’t very clearly remember how I ended up here that isn’t totally pathetic .

It is really lame. The only types of people “inside fhe system” I would mesh with would be similar people who ideology wise are always about to get the boot from corporate jobs or national security jobs, but not like someone really daft who doesn’t use whistleblower protections and leaks stuff in ways thT.

Like it is not sane people who want to be photographed and cannonized.

But there should at this point exist a pool of web data - especially at a time like this - that is shared between national security (U.S. and India), honest journalists (i.e. Yasha Levine or Christopher Ketcham), honest activists (e.g.: Apar Gupta of the Internet Freedom Foundation) and of course the scientific and medical community (with Prof Hennessy’s tendencies to hog kept under control by someone senior enough to explain to him why it is bad even for him to have no Yasha Levine/Lina Khan/Current Affairs types around.

The thing I like about EarlG, Yasha Levine etc is that they have the ability to be discreet while being on the left and not paranoid.

Like to me, people who want to go viral or be influencers, that is not a bright person. If you go sharing some link because you found something obscure online at least to the extent of being something as lame as the purloined letter meeting Candide’s Garden conceptually.

I am confused sometimes to ponder something where it is unclear whether something is a sign of the Idiocracy or well..something I can roll with once the shock settles down.

With one exception (a creepy Indian male doctor in his mid to late forties whose first name starts with an R whom I met in one of the following states- KY, TX, TN, OR, CA*), I didn’t meet any not serious people prior to Jan-Feb.


My horrible mentor should totally appreciate honest support from a card carrying “MeToo Type” as someone who is less sophisticated than I assumed initially. Maybe not unsophisticated exactly so much as common sense failing when there are some cultural differences.

That was the thing about my main mentor. It didn’t matter that he was white, male or American, we were always completely in sync in how we think about science I can now see.

He had gotten past that hump that is the test of every scientist - talented or piddly but aspiring to a bounded level of limited but perfectly respectable and attainable competence.

He will be fine. His managerial skills were far superior to even the average pi’s. My last mentor was decent. But it would be impossible to establish communication (I can see in retrospect) fast enough then, but not going forward as much.

Whose fault is that?
Get your young ass off the sofa and vote.

and I'm perfectly ready to vote for(and donate to) a young leader. Our kids are getting the shaft from the regime we have now. I had hope for Kamala, but legitimately or not the orange idiot was elected.

assumed we would all be self-sufficient and independent, like other Predator Species and part company when the offspring demonstrated they could feed themselves.
And yet, that isn’t the way we got here.
The Extended Family was the cart that brought us here. If we work together we may get something for us all………...
Like most of our existence, we’re now competing groups, complete with trash-talk names and catch-phrases.
More Wild-West Dog-Eat-Dog crappola.
This is making somebody rich. Is it you?

Not really pulling off that Don Johnson Miami Vice razor stubble.

Especially since Social Security will be of utmost importance in 2028. So, it must be time to attack seniors, of which I'm one.
This won't be a problem once we start taxing the crap out of billionaires.
Oh, do you think they might be behind this?

blame each other and lose focus on the ongoing theft of the capitalists and the billionaire class as
as they concentrate more wealth.

The loss of opportunity for younger people is not because their parents and grandparents were
successful during a time when middle class people could still acquire wealth, the loss of opportunity
for these generations is because the society has been restructured by the 1%.

Portrayed as a generational argument, but actually, if the parents see that social security won’t cover their living expenses the way that they planned, the parents will downsize into the waiting arms of all of those big ‘luxury communities’ and similar places where you pay every month for living there.
Converting equity that the kids would have inherited into profits for the giant real estate developments that have been overbuilding — the same ones benefiting from a bunch of tax breaks in many locations.

Let's just start more wars between different groups of people! As if racism, sexism, and homophobia wasn't enough, let's go after Grandma and Grandpa?

I guess it is the whole culture of "nothing is my fault, blame someone else". We've become a society of relentless victims.

The Gen Zz or whoever is spewing this 💩 should see where the real wealth is being hoarded and that’s those who don’t pay their fair share of taxes, multi million dollar homes n yachts which good for them but pay your fair share! Zz, quit your whining and jump in to your future and find your best interests, volunteer, talk with your elders and learn something 😤

Donald J. Trump. He would set an example. He does not need Mar a Lago AND Trump Tower.

Second, McTurtle. He hasn't got much time left, so he can let go of his houses and a few $million toward affordable housing.

Next, Lindsay Graham. He is 70. Doesn't need to hoard wealth.

Etc.

will kill our social security and medicare. Screw that. My kids can have my "wealth" when I'm dead.

... I'll turn 80 next year, if I'm not shot in the back by ICE. In theory, us ol' fuddy-duddies have accumulated the wisdom and experience from having circumnavigated Old Sol more than 60 or 70 times, to be able to make well-informed decisions that affect – and hopefully benefit – all of us. But then, because of the perverse, and mistaken belief of some, that ignorance is just as good as knowledge, we end up suffering the capricious and malicious whims of a mentally unstable, and pathologically selfish narcissist in the person of Donald J. Trump. He is the worst thing that's happened to this country since the Civil War. He is a hateful, petty, and vindictive bully with the moral compass of a rabid hyena. It going to take years, if not generations to undo the catastrophic harm he has inflicted on America. But he is also the product of a centuries-old rationalization that accumulating untold wealth somehow makes someone inherently better that those not so wise in their choice of parents, like little Donnie.
Liars, thieves, and child molesters are running this circus at the moment, but the center will not hold, as they say. Their arrogance and grotesque incompetence will be their undoing, and the clown car filled with billionaires not content to wallow in their wealth, but instead, crave dominion over the lives of others, is going down, and it's gonna go down HARD.
It will fall to us to clean up the mess they've made of things. And Gawd help anyone who tries to carry on their diseased legacy; we've had enough of assholes that decry DEI, eschew empathy, and condemn being "woke", when they don't even know what the fuck means.
Let conservatism take its rightful place at the Dark End of the sociopathy spectrum, and banish Republicans to political Siberia until they see the error of their ways, and try to redeem themselves by endeavoring to be decent people for a change.
Sigh... but I ain't gonna hold my breath in anticipation of such an outcome.

Anything to take attention away from billionaires.

The real object lesson here is how parasitic a lot of the industries tech is fueling are and how these creeps thought data mining and bs guilt like this will make people hand their homes and lives over to this manipulative trash.

“You have a pension! You owe the corrupt creeps at Reliance/SBI Card and Tata!” No I really don’t! That is why I am filing complaints about the whole thing asap in India. Really stupid to try to get away with shit like this.

And mandatory retirement age.

but some people just cannot give up power

All y’all in the back of the room catch that?

But you are absolutely fucking right that I and the rest of the boomers are not the main problem. Thank you.

And I don’t have a problem with collecting the benefits that I earned. I will also leave a decent bequest to my kids when I’m gone, but that’s just the way it is. I got very little in inheritance from my parents, but I certainly want to do better for my kids.

The housing market is currently priced beyond what they can afford, so the only way they’ll get the American Dream is to inherit it.

I'm Generation Jones. I remember the same complaints and arguments from my peers when I was younger. If you don't like us old farts "overrepresenting" in elections, then get off your ass and run for office.

typical ivory tower asshole.

None will be given in return.

-Gen X

We did buy our first house in 1967. It was a 1000 sq ft ranch one bathroom three tiny bedrooms. Holding our family of 7. House built in 1955. Didn't have any vacation till our tenth anniversary. Stayed home mostly and drank cheap wine and beer. Today a grandchild just had to have a totally remodeled kitchen and bigger master bedroom, plus an addition to have an office in their first new home. Tne "old" ten year old house was so very outdated and all needs to be redone. Can't bear anything other than quartz countertops. Then the vacation to the Caribbean is soon and the concert season is starting so they gotta go! We paid our dues. Won't apologize to the spoiled generation.

I was a kid in the 1950s that was probably the best time in history to be a kid.

The 1960s were the best time to be a teenager and young adult (except for that Vietnam thingy).

Married a wonderful woman.

I was able to get through college with a couple of Engineering degrees without any debt.

The 1970s were a great decade to start a family and career.

I was able to advance in my career and raise two two sons in the 1980s and 90s.

Got both my sons through college without debt.

Did a significant amount of community service.

Paid a ton and a half in Federal, State and Local taxes.

Gave a respectable amount to charities over the decades.

Was able to retire at age 55 with a comfortable retirement.

I passed on some degree of success to my sons since they are doing well.

Can't I enjoy life without some yahoo blaming me for their generational problems?

I like old people. I did even becoming old myself, some time ago.

you're IP address is being used", when I try to remove it. I'm on a VPN.

And these people seem to think nothing happened before they were born.

Got news for them: The despised baby boomers went through SHIT during most of their working years because that was the time when Reagan--who they didn't vote for--put through ruinous trade policies and tax policies which all but destroyed the middle class.

Most of the time it was difficult for my generation to get work because there were so many of us and not enough jobs for everybody. Many of us, especially if we are never-married women, are unable to leave the labor force and are working well past 70. We aren't dripping in wealth.

Fuck that goddamned shit lies from people who don't know anything.

needed now.

>>>REAGAN

This is propaganda meant to divide us.

I'm 73 years old. I worked 30 years in developmental disabilities and loved my job. Most people wouldn't touch this work with a 10 foot pole. It didn't pay as well as like a lot of other fields because it was considered a woman's job. If there were any men, they were ones that got promoted. I worked for the state and county. I receive a pension and SS. Medicare which doesn't pay for hearing aids which I need and don't have the income to cover them.

I volunteered my butt off for Obama. I knocked on doors for Harris. I rarely saw young people out knocking on doors. If they did it was one time. I did it every Sunday afternoon and the Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday election day. I have voted in every city, county, state and federal election since I turned 18.

I paid my dues and am still paying. Don't come knocking on my door. If you want younger people in politics then get out and volunteer. I would gladly vote for younger people in politics. I go to pop up protests in my community mostly older people. I help the local spanish organization with food drives, I was an ICE verifier when they came to my town. I'm a member of indivisible in my city. I have attended all 3 no kings rallies in my city and have done the mile and 1/2 march through our downtown with a bad knee and painful hips. Same as knocking on doors which took me twice as long because of my knee and hips as it would have taken a young person. But they weren't there.

I'm not exactly sure what it is that I'm suppose to do or not do. You want me to go home and sit in my recliner? Gladly just let me know when the youngins are ready to take over.

One person's opinion published by the NY Times. Let's not overreact.
You know what opinions are like...And everybody STILL has one.

and is hawking his books.

Simply an in-kind exchange. Let's not presume a narrative which doesn't exist.

only me and my sister to care for her. I am 72, raised my son and have no energy to care for her. Any other care is simply unaffordable and just no words for necessary elder care.

and that makes us "over-privileged"?

BTW, I may be able to afford retirement but I know many people who have to work into their 70s just to survive. Are they "over-privileged" too? Are the grey haired senior citizens bagging groceries at the local market now part of a fat elite exploiting younger workers?

that use to have pensions now have matching 401K funds?

I suspect that most of the employers that do not give matching 401K or profit sharing now are the same ones that didn't have pensions before.

With 401K being non taxable and with matching funds a person should be able to mass a sizeable retirement fund.

My wife and I (Boomers) have pensions and 401K and that allowed us to retire comfortably at age 55.

Both my sons (late 40s) have substantial 401K funds that should allow them to retire comfortably.

YOU may have a pension, a 401K and SS, and can retire 'comfortably' at 55.

A lot of the rest of us do not have those privileges.

AMERICANS WHO VOTE FOR AND ELECT ANY REPUBLICAN, FROM SCHOOL BOARD TO POTUS, ARE THE PROBLEM.

ONCE, AND ONLY ONCE IN MY 76.5 YEARS, HAS A REPUBLICAN PRESIDENT PROMOTED ANYTHING EVEN REMOTELY POSITIVE FOR THE COUNTRY AND POPULACE.*

As we used to say, "The personal is political."

*Nixon, EPA.

Because I'm seeing a similar trend here in Oz.

For the record I have fuck all in the way of wealth, real estate and assets. I live in a lovely government unit that is well insulated and safe - a great improvement on most of my life. I have a lovely government aged pension to reward me for paying the highest level taxes my whole life (no dependents).

And I'm sick to death of X-ers, Y-ers and Millenials assuming that we ALL had it good. Blame the fucking billionaires not the battlers.

Bastards.

... on the cover. The picture is a grouchy old white man scowling. I'm not sure if I'm going to read the article. Harper's was so great. I sure hope it's not going nuts. The last few issues have shown depressing signs. Put it that way.

humanity.

Just enough to retire on comfortably ? That's not hoarding, that's the vey least you should expect. And for decades we've been watching that erode away, while billionaires and corps just keep getting richer.

Whoever wrote this for the NYT has a truly pathological set of priorities.

And villagers with large mallets finish off the old geezers if the fall onto big rocks doesn't kill them. Done!

to educate the populace and to create jobs or pay decent wages.

I won't worry about this article.

It comes off more like the whine of the spoiled child rather than a legitimate complaint.

However, it does create what they are wanting... disruption. They cannot handle being exposed for their lunacy, so they are trying to create anything to distract.

Remember, any time you see one of them, start pointing and laughing. Loudly.

The young people felt the power of locking the olds up while they spent the summer partying, doing nothing to stop the spread. Hey they weren’t in danger of dying. Respect for anyone will never come back to them. Young people have no idea who the volunteers and community leaders have been. Zero idea who the givers and carers are, even in their own families!

Especially the millennial sub.

I kind of get it they are being out priced on housing and get this type of info.

Great distraction from the billionaire class.

Meanwhile friends of mine on social security are not able to afford their utility bills and have any type of comfortable life.

It's grounded in the reality that there are a sizeable number of older people who did get theirs, and are damned if they'll let anyone have any of it. Many of these people are in politics, to a number disproportionate with their demographic. And in many cases, they've been professional politicians all their lives. As Mr Carlin said, it's a big club, and you're not in it.

As with other broad-brush characterizations such as, oh, "White privilege," whenever this myth is called up, you'll immediately get dozens if not hundreds of people protesting that they belong to the group, but do not act like/enjoy the perks of the group. For "Not all old people" insert "Not all men," for example, and see what it buys you.

I happen to belong to the demographic under discussion, and I'm definitely not one whom is hoarding. The reverse, I've been shrinking over the past few years, largely involuntarily. But I agree that we need to get the dinosaurs out of government, where they are a brake on progress, not a contributor to it. But of course, as with anything else, "dinosaur" is a state of mind and not an attitude determined by number. There are a lot of under-30 dinosaurs, and plenty of the dinosaurs in the government are young enough to be my children, if not my grandchildren. The choke-hold is real, but IMO it has little to do with age qua age, but more to do with who owns whom, and for how long they have owned them. It is not that age leads to conservatism and ossification, but that the people who fund these aged politicians are ossified conservatives, wanting to acquire and keep more and more, at the expense of every other living organism on Earth, and they instruct their servants to facilitate this.

-- Mal

It’s called Democracy. Get used to it.

the ones that constantly go after the older folks for money. Is this like a Soylent Green moment wear older people become the resource for the younger people.

It appears to me just from the excerpt you posed, that they defeat their own attempt at dehumanizing older Americans.

The writer states:

Instead. I wish I could find the right-wing extremist thing I read last week.

Again, this is the NY Times peddling right-wing extremism as "opinion".

It's NOT. It's a manifesto.

Not being able to afford to keep your home is the result of these proposals.
Liquidating the equity in senior’s single family homes is a dream come true for all of these giant real estate developers that have been building ‘luxury townhomes’ and the like.
C-suite has been strategizing how to get its hands on the ‘great wealth transfer’ expected from boomers to their heirs.
This is a strategy not just to ‘fix social security’ but specifically to siphon this wealth upward.
Result is that kids won’t inherit anything.

will use the money to help the younger generation? My vote says not a snowballs chance in hell.

I’m guessing calls for mandated upper age limits for public office will eventually spill into broader discussion, specifically proposals for age-based voting restrictions as well. Either way, the logic is much the same, and both are just as arbitrary.

NY Times is a cog in that wheel.

Everyone's Medicare and Soc Security has big targets on them.

I can't remember what group or demographic is behind it, but it is right-wing extremism being parrotted by the NY Times as "opinion".

It's not "opinion". It's right-wing extremism. I'll see if I can find the previous article. No promises.

knocked one out of the Ball Park with this one, AND Covenina for pointing it out to everyone...............

Hardly anyone talks about this generational political age issue, and it is LOADED, on all sides..........

I will throw in a few things, and run for cover:

I am appalled at how precious little, most people from ALL classes know about our Federal Government and how it functions.
Civics classes must have gone out of the window....50-60 years ago......I would venture a guess, that about 90% of all voters could not pass the basic immigrants citizenship test.......

Along with some things I have stated many times here on DU:

The PERFECT title for a book about the past 46+ years, here in America Would be: WHILE THE NATION SLEPT

AND

"They" were walking down the Jungle Path, swatting at mosquitoes, and were totally oblivious to the herd of charging elephants........PUN INTENDED