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Comment by kache_ | Hacker News Reader

In developing countries, the retirees' retirement is often their children. I think people need to keep in mind how important children can be in terms of securing your comfort in your old age.

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> I think people need to keep in mind how important children can be in terms of securing your comfort in your old age.

As much as I see your point, that is unrealistic for many, many people. Especially in the US where that is not prominent societal norm.

My parents live thousands of miles away from any of their children. Most of my siblings don't have the money to save properly for their own retirement let alone support their parents. And housing situations often do not support two households living under one roof.

And this applies to families that still talk to each other.

I guess part of what I'm saying is that we have a seriously dangerous anti-natalist culture. When young people get married, people will frown upon it.

Maybe its not a social norm, because state provided pensions broke that norm. If people knew that they can't live alone in old age they would be more interested in having more children, staying on good terms with them and living in the same house.

If people begin starving in their retirement, social norms will probably change. The US social norm of children not supporting their parents exists because of retirement programs having been so successful in the 20th century. Before then, the US had more parents living with their children out of necessity (and, for people who didn’t have the social safety net of children, people starving...)

Then it is a wrong societal norm. My grandmother retired at about 95 years old and she lived with us (daughter's house and 2 grandchilds) until she died at 106. She had a tiny government pension (about $100 per month) that she had not to spend on anything because the family cared for all her needs. When you live with someone and the marginal cost is just one room and one seat at the table then this is not a burden for anyone. If you want your separate house and someone to help, that is not sustainable unless you saved big time.

> Then it is a wrong societal norm.

This is an underrated point, but I hope you can see how prevailing factors in both the business world (Amazon's two-day shipping springs to mind) and the culture are seriously stacked against these mores.

I believe this to be largely the exact opposite in US and in large parts of Western Europe. Parents are indeed using their retirement savings to support their kids as they grow older and older (be that education, housing, cars, weddings, ...).

Caveat emptor: quick googling didn’t come up with evidence one way or the other.

It's a bit late for the people about to retire to have more children.

They already have some or they wasted their lives (excluding cases with medical conditions that prevented having children). In a society that exists only as long as people have children and where care for the elders is provided by young people (direct care or tax funded), having children is a logical condition to get care.

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