Rules, unwritten or otherwise, have been created to ensure society functions effectively and efficiently. If you promise to diligently follow the rules you will be rewarded with a mortgage-free house, affordable healthcare and a comfortable retirement income to see out your days. The opportunity cost of conforming to this way of life is that you are tied to a salaried job for effectively three-quarters of your life, even though the mid-age years are when you are able to be most active. But, you are continually reminded how glorious retirement will be when you/if you reach it.
For all the above to continue in a cyclical motion there must be an abundance of young workers willing to pay taxes to fund the growing superannuation burden. Additionally they must also be willing to pay ever-increasing house prices so the older generation can extract the money from their properties at a handsome return. If they play the game, milleniums will be ‘set for life’ as they start on the property ladder to guaranteed {sic} financial security, albeit with a working-life size mortgage dangling around their neck. Watching their superannuation grow (and years fly by) they will strive for that ‘golden handshake.’ And thus the cycle continues unabated
For any Ponzi scheme to continue working there must be enough new investors to enable the earlier investors to comfortably exit. A Ponzi scheme will collapse if not enough new members can be found to sustain the circle.
Don’t you think the current societal structure somewhat resembles a Ponzi scheme? But now with fewer working individuals to support a growing number of retirees this very cycle is starting to succumb to immense pressure. To squeeze more time, governments have increased the retirement age, encouraged govt-backed retirement savings schemes,provided incentives to couples to produce more babies and increased migration. But still the system groans under higher life expectancies and declining birth rates.
Recently there have been growing voices of discontent from the younger generation who don’t want to participate in what they perceive as a system stacked against them. They don’t want to live the life they have seen their parents locked in to. They want more freedom in their lives, and the advent of social media encourages this. The older generation never had such powerful tools for exchanging ideas and questioning life – They just got their heads down and worked hard like everyone else was expected to do.
So is the younger generation lazy when they say they don’t want to strive for the same life the baby boomers (and older) had? Or are retirees just lamenting that not enough workers/taxpayers will be around to pay for what they were promised in old age?
It is convenient to lambast the younger generation by saying they have it easy compared to the ‘good ole days.’ But times continually change, for the good and the bad, and we all have to adapt. Nowadays having a job for life is rare, and a golden handshake even more so. However this suits many young adults as they are satisfied with working on a temporary basis and changing jobs frequently. They don’t desire to sign up to the career-for-life mantra that the older generation lived by. Flexibility in the workplace and more free time are more important than security and having the financial and time obligations that having houses, mortgages and children bring. Learning resources are at their fingertips so fast learning and thus pivoting into new vocations and opportunities are now much easier and doable than ever before in history. The good old days are indeed here and now!
Globally there are many youth movements gaining popularity that will increasingly question the very core of the society that we live in. NoRuleBook has an article on this very topic, explaining in detail the various groups in certain countries – you can access it by clicking here. Each movement has different values but they all have a similar train of thought flowing through – questioning the unwritten rules that enable the ponzi called life to operate as it currently does. To ignore such powerful signalling, from the generations that will be future leaders, is at the peril of the boomer generation.
