Just in case you missed rocketsurgeon’s response to The Cranky Version:
Thank you for writing on this. Before the recession hit, I remember hearing a lot of “if you don’t fly first class, your kids will”. These comments often came from some (otherwise) very likable people.
Here in BC, I could have shown many upper middle-class parents what they saved in income tax over the past ten years vs what their children had to put up in tuition increases. At the time, I heard the arrangement would teach them character. The kids have to have skin in the game or else, heaven forbid, they might go and study in one of those unemployable fields that teach critical thought.
There are many ways individuals and institutions in one generation may take from the next, some of them unknowingly or with the best of intentions. As an example, CMHC can stretch out amortization periods and lower down payment requirements. These changes helped cause a bid-up in prices. The organization pushed out press releases claiming increased affordability.
In pension plans, return assumptions can remain in the overoptimistic 7-9% range because well, we just don’t know what the market will do in the future and by the way, these assumptions allow us to keep monthly contributions low.
There are also the macro issues: Non-renewable resources consumed at ever-increasing rates. Non-sustainable agricultural practices can decrease food yields very gradually before they drop off a cliff. Air pollution, demographic challenges and overpopulation, global warming. You can probably think of more.
The majority of these problems were known and have been known for many years. It was convenient not to act. The unsustainable lifestyle junkies need an intervention.
There’s a Mark Twain quote, “… man is what he is – loving toward his own, lovable to his own – his family, his friends – and otherwise the buzzing, busy, trivial enemy of his race – who tarries his little day, does his little dirt, commends himself to God, and then goes out into the darkness to return no more, and send no messages back – selfish even in death.”
The most frustrating part is that I have found some in this age group who have become depressed, incredibly vulnerable, unprepared mentally and financially for their later years. In spite of all the prosperity, they need support.
– rocketsurgeon
