this post was submitted on 18 Jun 2024
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647
‘Will I ever retire?’: millennials wonder what’s on the other side of middle age (www.theguardian.com)
submitted 5 months ago by MicroWave@lemmy.world to c/news@lemmy.world
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Claire*, 42, was always told: “Follow your dreams and the money will follow.” So that’s what she did. At 24, she opened a retail store with a friend in downtown Ottawa, Canada. She’d managed to save enough from a part-time government job during university to start the business without taking out a loan.

For many years, the store did well – they even opened a second location. Claire started to feel financially secure. “A few years ago I was like, wow, I actually might be able to do this until I retire,” she told me. “I’ll never be rich, but I have a really wonderful work-life balance and I’ll have enough.”

But in midlife, she can’t afford to buy a house, and she’s increasingly worried about what retirement would look like, or if it would even be possible. “Was I foolish to think this could work?” she now wonders.

She’s one of many millennials who, in their 40s, are panicking about the realities of midlife: financial precarity, housing insecurity, job instability and difficulty saving for the future. It’s a different kind of midlife crisis – less impulsive sports car purchase and more “will I ever retire?” In fact, a new survey of 1,000 millennials showed that 81% feel they can’t afford to have a midlife crisis. Our generation is the first to be downwardly mobile, at least in the US, and do less well than our parents financially. What will the next 40 years will look like?

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[–] LustyArgonianMana@lemmy.world 3 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) (1 children)

We can have different opinions. Imo climate change denialism is a cope. I also hedge my bets by also planning for retirement. But as it stands, we're all on hospice.

[–] Cryophilia@lemmy.world 2 points 5 months ago (1 children)

Imo climate change denialism is a cope.

I agree. And I think both doomerism and denialism are encouraged by the fossil fuel industry, because they both lead to inaction.

The reality is:

  • the climate is getting worse because of fossil fuels
  • through action, we can make it less worse
  • this action will be difficult
  • this action will cause a lot of very rich people and companies to lose money
[–] LustyArgonianMana@lemmy.world 1 points 5 months ago (1 children)

Maybe, but we're getting into a classic discussion about nihilism here when it comes to doomerism - if nothing matters, how should I feel? Depressed, or finally free to do whatever since it doesn't matter anyway?

The reality is:

As of 2021, according to SRI, we had already gone beyond the safe limit for five of these planetary boundaries: • climate change; • biogeochemical flows (i.e., excessive phosphorus and nitrogen pollution from fertilizer use); • biosphere integrity (e.g., extinction rate and loss of insect pollination); • land-system change (e.g., deforestation); • and novel entities (e.g., pollution from plastics, heavy metals, and what are commonly referred to as “forever chemicals”).

In an April 2022 update, SRI found that a portion of a sixth planetary boundary – fresh water use – had also been crossed. In addition, in a June 2021 interview with the journal Globalizations, Dr. Will Stefan of SRI said that a seventh planetary boundary had also likely been crossed: ocean acidification (one that has been theorized as a key contributor to previous mass extinction events in geologic history). One other boundary has been too uncertain to judge: atmospheric aerosols from fine particle pollution caused by fossil fuel combustion. Yet, we are clearly pushing this boundary too, when considering that air pollution from burning fossil fuels has been blamed for 8.8 million deaths worldwide per year.

If a used car salesman said, "just get this baby a new engine, new transmission, new brakes, tires, and new radiator and she'll be perfect!" Would you buy the car or trust that's everything wrong with it? Or would you assume it's "as is" or worse?

Best case scenario, we put up a gigantic aluminum or whatever space blanket in space to reflect a certain percentage of the sun's energy to buy us some time. But it doesn't appear to be happening.

Because the rich genuinely think they are immune to the laws of science. Look at the Titanic sub - they will bet their own lives on their hubris. Including with the planet.

[–] Cryophilia@lemmy.world 2 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) (1 children)

If a used car salesman said, “just get this baby a new engine, new transmission, new brakes, tires, and new radiator and she’ll be perfect!” Would you buy the car or trust that’s everything wrong with it? Or would you assume it’s “as is” or worse?

I kinda did that. Not with a car, but a house. Bought my mom a cheap shitty house because she's poor as shit and I'm trying to get her to be able to retire with some dignity.

But it's a start. We have the house. We just redid the plumbing. Next the foundation. Next the electrical, then the hvac. Improving over time as we have the money and the capacity. Eventually, it will be a perfectly fine, liveable house.

It's a LOT of work. And ridiculously expensive. But it's DOABLE, and buying a "normal" house is NOT doable because they're crazy expensive nowadays. We improve as we can, and over time things get better as long as we keep moving forward.

That's what I think the best case scenario is for the planet. Renewables. Electric vehicles. Public transit. Carbon capture. Reforestation. Zero waste. I have a vision of a planet Earth in 500 years that is not an apocalyptic hellhole, but a green, vibrant, forward looking one, mildly embarrassed about how their ancestors let things get so bad before fixing it.

We can do that. A lot of us are working towards it.

[–] LustyArgonianMana@lemmy.world 1 points 5 months ago (1 children)

Yes, with a house and just you and your mom, it's doable. Even with a car, it's doable. Why? Because it's been done before (so parts are already made, how to guides, etc), not an entire planet of 8 billion people AND a completely new series of issues we have to engineer around and can't fuck up or we all literally die. We also don't have the time (like we are out of time) to implement much.

I think trying to fix it is completely imperative. I simply don't believe it will get fixed. It should be fixed, yes, imo - but I doubt it will be. Partially because our government isn't taking serious action to do so. Partially because every environmental scientist, environmental engineer, biologist, ecologist, I know is extremely depressed or suicidal.

The worst thing that would happen if you didn't fix up that house, is that you'd be living in bad conditions but not unlivable ones. The amount of dissociation people have from the seriousness of what's going on around us is stunning. I assume a profound lack of education about the environment or biology. Things are bad.

[–] Cryophilia@lemmy.world 1 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Partially because our government isn’t taking serious action to do so. Partially because every environmental scientist, environmental engineer, biologist, ecologist, I know is extremely depressed or suicidal.

Look, this is lemmy. Everyone and their fucking dog is suicidal here. It's damn near a death cult.

it’s doable. Why? Because it’s been done before

That's not an issue. We have the science. Sure, there are efficiency gains from improved science, but it's not like we're fumbling in the dark here. We know exactly what we need to do and how to do it. And it's not a braindead simplistic soundbyte like "just do a revolution" or "everyone bike everywhere". It's complex, it's complicated, but it is known. Stop using fossil fuels. Start using renewables. Capture the carbon that has already been released. It's a super simple equation. It's like dieting, you can have all the fancy diets in the world but the absolute core of it is that you need to take in less calories than you burn in order to lose weight.

or we all literally die.

That's not true and I can tell you're smart enough to know it, so I won't dwell on it. But it dovetails into the next point

We also don’t have the time (like we are out of time)

It's not a binary. We have passed the threshold where we can prevent negative effects. In that sense, we are out of time, yes. Species have gone extinct and we can't get them back. Not like, "very soon this will happen", but like "this has already happened". It will keep getting worse. That's how you have to think of it. Not like a video game. Not like "fix the problem in x years or else we all immediately die, game over!" It's "the longer it takes to fix, the worse the world gets in the mean time."

I believe, as long as the US doesn't fall into a regressive fascist science-denying hellhole (which is a whole nother thing but bears mentioning), we will fix it. Possibly in my life time, or at least be on a trajectory to complete recovery (minus extinct species) within my lifetime. A lot of people are putting a lot of money and time and effort into it.

[–] LustyArgonianMana@lemmy.world 1 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Those professions are people I know irl.

Being carbon negative will take time, like years and years, and no we don't have the technology for it and how to stopgap the warming that's already happening.

I hope we fix it. I doubt we will. I mean we are out of time because the amount of carbon we've currently released is enough to destroy all human life, it just takes a few decades for that impact to really show up. However, due to optimistic research done by scientists, there are probably numerous cascading loops that will shorten that time significantly.

The US just passed a law automatically signing people up for the draft. Trump is a viable candidate. It very well may go fascist.

[–] Cryophilia@lemmy.world 0 points 4 months ago

I mean if you're determined to be depressed in the face of all evidence, I can't stop you.

the amount of carbon we’ve currently released is enough to destroy all human life

That's not even close to true.

The US just passed a law automatically signing people up for the draft.

Every male is legally required to sign up for the draft at 18, it just hasn't ever really been enforced. This is a nothing.

Trump is a viable candidate.

This is actually a big fucking deal and the most important thing any of us can do for the climate is to prevent Trump from winning.