Hacker News Reader

Comment by irrational | Hacker News Reader

That there will be nobody to care for the great mass of old people, nobody to work jobs to make 401ks worth anything, nobody to prop up social security, nobody to buy old people’s houses so they can use that money to pay for nursing homes So… all the old people will suddenly find they can’t retire and are forced to work till death. They will consider it a crisis. The current retirees are probably the final retirees in our lifetime.

View on HN

But wasn't the idea that technology increased our productivity so that with few people we could do the work of many?

The amount of wealth an individual can generate and the amount of productivity one can activate on the world has ballooned unimaginably over the past 100 years yet we are still expected to produce 2.4 children to support us in the future.

Something doesn't add up and it feels clearer and clearer that the issue is wealth inequality. Regular people are being asked to breed like cattle to support the lifestyles of the ultra rich. We have enough to cover pensions but it's all being horded.

In 2024 this might have seemed acceptable but with the collapse of credibility in the Western world the clock has begun ticking.

Almost all the productivity gain got reaped by the 0.1%

If the burden is too high, there's a risk that future generations will simply decline to care for the elderly who contributed to the problem (childlessness), but then expect the children to care for them in retirement.

That's almost a "positive" scenario in my view, I would prefer people who are left to care about themselves and their kids rather than the elderly who screwed them up.

The alternative is, more and more resources will be allocated towards the elderly and by consequence less towards kids, making the problem worse with every generation. Not clear though how to break out of this spiral by democratic means if elderly are the majority.

Except, the elderly aren’t the majority. There are just as many Millenials as Boomers. It’s a matter of getting Gen x, millenials, Gen z and Gen alpha to actually vote.

Democracy is little more than simulated warfare. Rather than harsh campaigns and brutal battles over every issue, society has learned it's cheaper to predict the outcome and avoid the bother.

But if the majority voting bloc is geriatric, then that does rather change the fundamentals.

Honestly self-inflicted economic problems seem mild compared to overpopulation and overconsumption. I am sure there is a happy steady state somewhere but I don't think we have the collective will to find it.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com