No Retirement

Study hard, get a good job, save some money and have a good retirement plan; this has been the story I've grown up with. But right now, in 2021, I doubt if I'll ever be able to retire at all, and for the generations that come after me this will be even more difficult.

When I was a young adult in the late 1980s and 1990s, the economy was booming. Finding a job was no problem at all. I even worked as a freelance writer for several PC Game magazines, traveling all over the world, visited the almighty E3 expo in the Los Angeles Convention Center twice, just to write reviews of games I loved to play. My freelancing and job-hopping days were over in 2006, partially because I bought a house in 1998, after my wife gave birth to our son one year earlier; financial stability became our number one priority, naturally. So I've been doing the same work for almost 16 years now with the same employer, but when I look at my yearly retirement-plan reports, my heart sinks. Well, at least we've only got 8 or 9 more years to go before the house is paid of...

In the "golden" years of the last two decades of the previous millennium, it was still possible to go on an early retirement; I know several people who retired at age 55 with adequate monthly payments. For me, starting a steady job in 2006, my earliest retirement age was 65 years. However, some 10 years ago that age was increased to 67 years, and who knows how high it will become in the future? It doesn't look good, I can tell you, and I fear that young people will never be able to retire if they don't have a plan. And even if they do have a plan it'll be difficult. The reason for this is that the enormous economic growth we've seen in the last century is slowly but surely grinding to a halt...

As I see it, two of the biggest drivers of recent economic growth will seize to be, and growth itself will clash with the planet's finite resources. Production of real goods has been driven by oil, and that's becoming problematic with the realization that we'll have to cut down the use of this highly efficient and easy to transport source of energy. Alternative sources are available, but so far none of them are as efficient. The second boost we've had was the addition of women to the workforce. With emancipation the workforce of modern western economies was nearly doubled since the 1960s and 1970s; that's a boost we can not repeat, unless we let children start working at a younger age or... let adults work until they're 100 years old.

Focusing on America for a moment, if I remember correctly the American people are already the hardest working people on the planet; they work most hours per household. But even with that astronomic work ethic, millions can't afford an economic emergency of 400 dollars because they're not able to save any money. Most Americans live paycheck to paycheck, with many of them having trouble to make ends meet. And that's with husbands and wives working full-time jobs, or several part time jobs. Buying a house is no option, so building some equity that way is out of the question. And they start their professional career with a huge student loan debt... I'm really worried for young people. How will they ever be able to enjoy the simple things in life, like having a place of your own, starting a family with the one they love and have a decent autumn and winter period in their life, things we took for granted just a few generations ago? I know what the answer is; end capitalism. It's not really that we need more growth. What we need is better distribution of the wealth we have. It's so simple, yet so unattainable...

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