On Reddit there was a thread along the lines of “Millennials, what’s your retirement plans?” and the thread was locked with a message from a mod saying they had to shut the thread down because of all of the comments about suicide.
Quite frankly, I get it.
So much of it is just Boomers passing the buck with a “personal responsibility” trope that doesn’t pan out for anyone with even a modicum of misfortune. What are your real options?
Age 10: Be in the top of your class. All of you. Everyone needs to be in the top 10% or you’re not allowed to go to a good high school / college
Age 15: Have a job, but also dedicate all your time to studying, so you can save up to go to a good college. Also, don’t let your grades slip, even a little, because you all need to be in the top 10%.
Age 20: Don’t take on any college debt. But go to a good school. But also hold down a part time job. But studying is a full time job, so make sure you’re getting As in all your classes. But take challenging classes, because no employer wants to see a bunch of fluff on your resume. But also join lots of clubs so you don’t look boring. And make sure you find a partner, so you can start spitting out babies before you turn 30!
Age 25: Get an upwardly mobile job! Maybe even two jobs! And don’t you fucking dare live with your parents, you loser. Have a career and a partner and don’t forget your network is your networth, so make sure you do lots of socializing. But don’t get into debt! Just own a car and live in a nice apartment and go on lots of dates and earn lots of money and DON’T SPEND ANY OF IT WHAT ARE YOU DOING!!!
Age 30: Did you invest your savings? Pull out! Pull out! The current investments are all scams! You should do this other thing that’s much more lucrative instead. Real estate is a scam, do stocks! Stocks are a scam, do crypto! Crypto’s a scam, start your own business! Businesses regularly fail, what were you thinking?! You’re a homeowner now, right? Because real estate is about to go up astronomically.
Age 35: Oh boy, hope you didn’t experience any amount of burnout, because this is the most critical point in your life for career growth. You’re already married and own a home and have at least six figures in the bank and own a car and have at least two kids by now, right? Because that’s what your employers are going to want to see before they give you a promotion.
Age 40: How’s it going, buddy? Ready for retirement yet?
Buy a small plot of undeveloped land in a swamp -> buy a pot -> cook soup in the pot -> repeat step 3 until dead
Ambitious I know, but it’s important to have goals.
Don’t forget to bring some potatoes. Those things will grow without soil, I’m sure they’ll grow in a swamp, and they upgrade soup to stew. :)
Don’t forget the “I’m a millionaire and I was on my way to spend a billion dollars on my big business deal when I thought to take some time out from my 26 hour work days to tell you all that the reason other people can’t afford a good retirement plan is because they ALL suck. If you don’t beleive my claims of wealth and their suckyness, then its because you can’t handle reality” comments from a statistically improbable number of people.
Wouldn’t an economic incel be someone who lives on their parent’s dime and doesn’t really engage with the economy to any real degree? Someone who works, buys, but isn’t making a living wage isn’t an incel, they are being involuntarily screwed by society at large.
I’m sure there’s a word for a person that’s being penetrated against their will…
Maybe if Peter was paid a living wage, had rent that wasn’t price fixed, wasn’t at the mercy of artificial inflation, could afford to buy a home without an outrageous interest rate, a retirement age and pension that could support his retirement, and had all the economical advantages the boomers had… he wouldn’t be in a bar drinking himself into an early grave.
But, let’s blame Spider-Man.
had all the economical advantages the boomers had
Spiderman was born in the 50s. He absolutely got all the economic advantages the boomers had.
Ehhh, that’s kinda like Batman though. Peter Parker is eternally a teenager/young twenties, just like Bruce Wayne is always in his late twenties/ early thirties, except that one comic.
I just don’t want to participate in a society that literally doesn’t care about it’s future or it’s children enough to actually help them.
It’s not giving up it’s just a refusal to add to the problem and fight against a community of individuals trying to take as much from everyone else as possible.
And unfortunately that means dying young, poor, and unable to help myself.
I mean, he worked as a teacher, and an engineer, which is not exactly dead end.
As a kid I always wondered why spiderman had to struggle for rent. I get that is part of his charm, but can’t the city of NY give him a stipend? Can’t Tony start pay him a salary? Damn Tony just give him one of your penthouses. Reminder that when Tony died he could have changed Peter and May’s entire life if he had just left a crumb for them in his will.
In the comics, he wasn’t paired with Tony Stark. He was famously unreliable, always disappearing to fight crime.
And he couldn’t make rent in 1970’s NY.
Tbf, a guy who’s that unreliable would have a ton of difficulty holding any job at all due to unexcused absence. He’d probably be working below minimum wage or getting fired every other week.
Although things have obviously changed a lot. I’m reading mercy Thompson right now, where a character complains about barely being able to afford living alone after giving away 60% of their check. Iirc they’re supposedly a waitress.
From a narrative standpoint, Spider-Man’s entire thing is thematically tied to the idea that “no good deed goes unpunished.” Peter Parker’s academic, professional, and social life all pay a price to enable his crime fighting. Spider-Man 2 does a good job of portraying that. After he stops the train that was about to crash in his fight with Doc Ock, he gets lifted up, arms outstretched, looking like a crucified Jesus. He suffers for the sake of others. It’s honestly a nice contrast to people like Tony Stark for whom being a billionaire playboy superhero has historically (if not in the Marvel movies) been depicted as coming with a fairly comfortable life. Well, at least ignoring the part of his backstory where he went homeless because of his alcoholism. But that was in the eighties, I think.
Iirc they originally wanted the iron man movies to show the damages done by his behavior and his alcoholism more like the comics but they ended up getting rushed to make a sequel to cash in on the popularity of the first movie instead
I’m sure that RDJ’s own alcoholism may have played a role there as well. Don’t want to trigger a relapse.
I think Peter does end up working for Stark in some of the comics. Then he goes on to form Parker Industries later on.
Which is odd too. I can’t picture Peter as a captain of industry. He’s brilliant but lazy remember? He’s not a leader. He’s that kid that forgets to turn off the oven, or runs off to chase a criminal instead of going to class. That kind of lifestyle doesn’t Jive with Spidey
The new Holland trilogy is for sure gonna be deadbeat Peter since nobody remembers him now. But yeah in the 80s and 90s comic he’s in space doing missions with Avengers, then in NY struggling with rent. Made no sense to me. Even worse when he couldn’t afford rent but he had a damn Spider car!
I’m in this picture and I don’t like it.
I hope this is a wakeup call.
I had this call when I turned 30, and spent a long couple of years to finally get my shit together. Im nearing 40, got a family, retirement fund and feeling like I see a finish line.
My buddy is the same age, and he’s still living paycheck to paycheck with roommates and recently asked me what a IRA was. I’m pretty sure I’m his retirement.
You can see the finish line at nearing 40? Man that’s a sad thought…what’s the point of life if you can see the end already?