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Comment by expertentipp | Hacker News Reader

It's "I got mine and don't care" until what you've got melts in your hand like an ice cube and then nobody cares.

I've noticed this with my parents — for decades they reacted negatively to any changes the regulations around Australia's housing market, since that was and remains the principal personal wealth creation mechanism in Australia...

Until they reached retirement age. Then the painful realisation that, without plentiful housing, rental prices would consume most of their government pension. Now they're one expense away from financial ruin.

The sold also the last property from their flipping endeavours or investment portfolio? ouch.

Divorce, largely.

Indeed, the perpetuators of "pull yourself up by your bootstraps" are finding themselves short of said bootstraps.

Or that, thinking logically, if you pull yourself by your bootstraps, you either don’t move or fall down.

If this were about the younger generations being unable to afford housing, the sentiment would be to stop ordering avocado toast and going to Starbucks all the time. Obviously the problem is much bigger and complex, and maybe something will finally be done to fix this for everyone.

Especially if “got mine” depends on a forest of laws and regulations and transfer payments rather than genuine liquid savings and investments

Demonstrating that there was never anything especially greedy or selfish about baby boomers, because everyone will sneer at the less fortunate when it's their turn to have a little more.

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