‘Unconscionable’: Baby boomers are becoming homeless at a rate ‘not seen since the Great Depression’ — here’s what’s driving this terrible trend

return2ozma@lemmy.world to News@lemmy.world – 217 points –
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individuals pointed to a major event, like the death of a spouse or a medical emergency, as the trigger.

Gee, if only we had a healthcare system that wasn't solely focused on making a profit and growing the amount of profit quarter after quarter.

It's not just that, it's Boomers as a generation not saving.

Obviously some did, but most have lived their entire lives paycheck to paycheck and have zero security net. It's why they're not retiring like other generations, it's not a choice, they just can't ever stop working.

And they can't recover from any speed bumps they hit. Losing a spouse for those people also means losing an income. And that can mean losing housing.

What is it that half the boomer threads complain that boomers are hoarding all the money in their 401Ks, and the other half say that boomers didn't save anything?

Because despite how the internet likes to talk, you can't generalize an entire generation in a single lemmy comment while still being accurate

I agree, but man do they do it. Search Lemmy for this headline (just "Baby boomers are becoming homeless" because there are variations), then skim the comments and imagine they were written about any other demographic. It's pretty frightening.

It boils down to we were mostly raised by boomers and we’re mad at our parents

And teachers. Every adult millennials dealt with either was literally a Boomer or had enough of their politics to shove their bullshit down our throats our whole lives.

We are angry because it was all self serving lies.

Because there was a fair portion of the boomer gen that inherited wads of cash and housing from their parents.

The rest of us were disowned, worked low-paying jobs and/or tried to help our kids do better than we did.

I guess I'm in the middle. I got a good education paid for by my parents, but nothing after that. I've worked decent paying jobs and tried to help our kids. Not rich, but should be able to retire fine.

Because only a few of the boomers became ceos, the rest are just "useful idiots" that vote against their own best interests.

A significant amount never planned to retire or else thought OASDI would be all they'd need. By the time they realized they were fucked, it was too late.

It looks to me like boomers' retirement savings aren't vastly different from other age ranges. I believe this is 2020 data, so boomers would be 56 to 74.

Lol, an unsourced image...

A boomer would think that's a valid source

You, of course, could have taken the thirty seconds to do a search and see if the data I linked is out of bed with the myriad other sources on the subject, and even could have done a reverse image search to see where mine came from, but it's more fun for you to be dismissive of anyone from an age group you think is less worthy of respect than all the others.

That data is from a TD Ameritrade/Harris poll. I pulled it from this article because I liked the way it's graphed, but you can find others that say the same thing.

If you think the range of years my birthday falls into is all you need to know about me, we can talk about credentials if you'd like. Personally, I try to be respectful of everyone until they show me that they, as an individual, aren't deserving respect.

See?

All you had to do was link the source and I could have immediately told you what you're not understanding...

Under the caption it says "currently in savings".

No shit the longer someone is retired the more of their savings they've gone thru.

Be nicer next time you think you know what you're talking about, and people may help you more.

I'm not putting any effort into teaching you basic logic you should have learned 50 years ago in elementary

Why the hell are you so arrogantly hostile?

You said boomers saved nothing and lived paycheck to paycheck, and when I pointed you to data showing they've saved in the ballpark of the same amount as other ages you say of course they have less because they're living off of it.

You not only need the basic logic classes, you need to learn civil discourse. Not sure why you need to belittle the people you're talking with.

By the way, you seem to have the notion that people put retirement savings into an account, like beans in a jar, then they pull those beans out to live off of when they retire. For most middle class folks and above, it doesn't usually work that way. They invest their savings in stocks or other investments and try to get it up to a point where they can mostly live off of the returns on those investments (plus social security and whatever else). The goal being not to have to draw much from the investments themselves, so just because people have been retired a while it doesn't mean they necessarily have less saved than when they first retired. Obviously not everyone can do that - it's much harder when your paycheck barely covers your expenses - but it's a pretty common strategy.

Don't you have your own kids to annoy? Or did they block all contact already?

I'm starting to think I've waited too long to follow suit.

So personal attacks are the only mode of discussion and debate you know, I guess. Seems like a miserable way to go through life. What am I doing to annoy you? Responding to your comments?

I have a good relationship with my kids, thanks. Our youngest is 25, getting her PhD. The other two are late 30s and doing well.

I really don't know what issue you have with me, or if it's really just because my birthday falls into a range that you find abhorrent. Aside from the year I chose to be born, I've voted for progressive policies, I give to charity, we've helped our kids as much as we're able including paying for education and letting them live at home as long as they wanted, I work a meaningful job, and I've saved a responsible amount so we shouldn't be a burden when I retire in a year or two. I know tons of people my age who can say the same things. I'm sorry if your experiences with older folks have left you with so much animosity or if you just live off of stereotypes.

Both of those things can be true, though i think you're right that the criticisms get a little incoherent.

Honestly. Medical bills are the number one cause for bankruptcy in the US