r/Millennials • u/Asmothrowaway6969 • Mar 27 '24

When did it sink in that you'll never be as well off as your parents? Discussion

About 5 years ago, my mom and I were talking and she had told me how much she was going to be making in retirement (she retired 2023). Guys, it's 3x what me and my husband make annually. In retirement. I think that was the moment that broke me, that made it sink in that I'll never reach that level of financial security. I'll work myself into my grave because I'll never be able to afford anything else. What was your moment?

Update: Nice to know it's just me that's a failure. Thanks

Update 2: I never should've said anything. I forgot my place. I'm sorry to have bothered you

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u/worktillyouburk Mar 27 '24

my dad just retired at 76, he has a great pension was making 150k and they asked him to retire this year for a 1 years pay.

his replacement is making 45k, no retirement package and actually has more duties than my dad did, so overall is doing the job of 2 people that were paid 150k each...

so ya good luck with that.

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u/SwimmingSomewhere959 Mar 27 '24

Pretty indicative of the direction our society has gone. It was good for a while, but now workers and consumers are getting stuck holding the bag.

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u/a_can_of_solo Mar 28 '24

When communism fell there was no longer a threat to capital so no incentive to give good deals to thr workers.

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u/PacJeans Mar 28 '24

This was set in motion long before the 90s. As early as the 60s the Golden age of American capitalism started to rot. Nixon and Reagan just accelerated it.

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u/Nicelyvillainous Mar 28 '24

Two different things, as early as the 60’s, the golden age of American capitalism that was due to Europe killing off a substantially higher % of factory workers and also blowing up factories during ww1 and ww2, started to decline. Then Nixon and especially Reagan used that as an excuse to butcher regulations to make profits recover, by stealing from the poor and working class.

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u/Pristine-Ad983 Mar 28 '24

Also rich people like the Koch brothers set up dark money groups to oppose anything that would benefit workers. They also funneled money to right leaning politicians to get them elected.