• FlashMobOfOne@lemmy.world
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    3 days ago

    My eighty year-old parents are driving for DoorDash. In my car.

    If they don’t, this supposedly ‘free’ country of ours will allow banks to force them onto the streets where they will be left for dead.

    Fuck capitalism.

    • ikt@aussie.zone
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      3 days ago

      Fuck capitalism.

      Isn’t that an America problem?

      Also randomly wasn’t this how we lived before pensions?

      • corsicanguppy@lemmy.ca
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        3 days ago

        Also randomly wasn’t this how we lived before pensions?

        I suspect you’re making a point here, but I’m not sure what it is.

        Remember that the silents were born in an age where unions were far more prevalent. I’m not sure whether that addresses the point you were trying to make, but maybe.

        • ikt@aussie.zone
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          3 days ago

          yeah like before modern capitalism, how did we live? we just worked until we couldn’t yeah?

            • ikt@aussie.zone
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              3 days ago

              Yep so it sounds like computers and society may be to blame for this? As we’ve moved towards a more individualistic society over the last 100 years we’ve gained a lot of things but being able to take care of our elders appears to have been lost in the fray :\

              This will hurt a lot coming up with the low fertility rate and significant amount of older people

                • ikt@aussie.zone
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                  2 days ago

                  why do you talk in a weird wikipedia style :/

                  edit: are you using a translator app/website?

                  from your earlier post

                  and they would certainly not have been left in the streets if they stopped being able to.

                  as worked out above in my other post they are not living on the street, they’re living an extremely nice first world life that they need to pay for, they could easily cut their expenses down by 1/3rd and still have a better life than most of the planet and in history without the need for any of their children or others having to live with them

                  In an industrial capitalistic society though, automation just means that the owner class can extract more value without bettering the material conditions of the workforce.

                  this sounds like you read a wikipedia article on communism and are just pasting it here

                  they live, clearly, materially better conditions not just in nearly every aspect of the workplace, from safety to tools, to a clearly materially better life in a nice happy retirement village with a nice new car and all the first world modern medicine they need, not the least after they have recently had multiple modern surgeries which have kept them alive to begin with

                  they blame their situation on a lack of access to personal finance advice:

                  They grew up against the economic backdrop of the Great Depression and World War II, and learned to be financially cautious after seeing what their parents endured. However, they didn’t have access to the same kind of personal finance advice and tools that are prevalent today.

                  and i’m pretty sure they’re not planning on moving to cuba anytime soon

      • garbagebagel@lemmy.world
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        3 days ago

        I know plenty of people in Canada and Mexico that still work much later than they should have to to support family members. Might not be a problem in more socialist countries but definitely not uniquely an American problem.

        • ikt@aussie.zone
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          2 days ago

          yeah wondering about the special pleading going on here, as i realised above, I’m really not sure about their finances

      • RaivoKulli@sopuli.xyz
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        3 days ago

        Most of the world has and to a large degree still relies on relatives to support them when they can’t work anymore

        • ikt@aussie.zone
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          3 days ago

          100% this is what i was thinking of, what do people in those countries do if they don’t have children to take care of them?

          • RaivoKulli@sopuli.xyz
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            2 days ago

            Some sort of charity. From religious institutions, some sort of alms house etc. Or just beg and die.

            • ikt@aussie.zone
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              2 days ago

              Right now, the Hindses take in $4,600 a month from their Social Security, Bill’s pension from a TV station in Connecticut, and Lydia’s monthly wages. Monthly rent for their one-bedroom apartment in a 55-plus development is $1,400, their car payment is $625 a month, their car insurance is $236 a month, and their Medicare combined is $426 a month. On top of that, they have emergency medical expenses, medications, grocery and gas bills, and utilities. They’re left with close to nothing at the end of the month.

              The hell is this? 2.1k a month on rent??

              Why do they have to pay nearly $1000 a month for a car?? What is a car payment? are they renting a car at extortion rates?

              Is this normal in America?

              • mrspaz@lemmy.world
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                2 days ago

                According to this article, average payment is $745 new / $521 used on a 6 year note. So they either have a nicer used car or slightly below average new car.

                $1,400 for rent in a managed apartment complex in a US suburban area also doesn’t raise an eyebrow, especially in a northeast state like Connecticut.

                So yeah, this is “normal” in America.

        • ikt@aussie.zone
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          3 days ago

          Pensions are a roman invention

          https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_retirement

          Looks like it was just for those who served in the military, what did other people do?

          In 1881,[3][4] the conservative German chancellor, Otto Von Bismarck, in a maneuver against Marxists who were burgeoning in power and popularity, announced that anyone over 70 years old would be forced to retire and that he would pay a pension to them

          What did they do before 1881? Just keep working?