Given the dismal trends in "our" economy today, retirement is increasingly an impossibility for many seniors. After a lifetime of hard work, the costs of living - food, shelter and medical care alone today - are fast draining dreams of a secure retirement.
Today, there are now some 78 million baby boomers either near or in retirement today - a full 26% of the population. These post-World War II babies represent the largest demographic bulge in US history.
In addition to this unusual, result-of-war, demographics, as many as 20 million people in this boomer category are facing retirement with a net worth of less than $50,000. After the Depression and social security enactments of the thirties, never before have such a large segment of our population faced such a destitute future.
In the past, in a more rural and small town America, people often retired upon a paid-off family homestead. This meant a home without mortgage debt, room to grow a garden of healthy food, and a place where many could look forward to support from a community of friends.
In effect, this healthy societal setup provided an almost cash-less, wage-less existence and secure retirement. For the great wage-slave majority of today this is but a bygone world.
In its stead, many are now simply trapped in an urban "free market" without means of support, without land to fall back upon, and with a depreciating social security dollar increasingly unable to provide the barest of essentials – i.e., those once available to a more rural, landed, populace.
In addition, the "nuclear family" and its support system are also breaking down, as more elders find themselves without any familial support. Many seniors have no or few children now capable of providing either room and board or any financial backing.
All of this is a formula for the emergence of what we might call Social Security Communes – wherein people come together to split the cost of housing, land, shelter, food and necessities. This may well be the only way that many will be able to replicate the landed security of bygone eras.
It may also be the only way that many will not become a burden to their family or to society. It may be the only way we save many rural, small town communities and farms. It may be the only way a new generation inherits a retreat upon the land from the "free market" economy and gains some equalizing power against employers who love a desperate labor.
Given the trends an emerging "co-habitation" and communal phenomena is one that is likely to grow into a movement, as the sheer cost of maintaining a separate residence and its attendant expenses exceeds the means of many.
As more and more pensions are gutted and stolen, and jobs outsourced, the need for alternative living and retirement arrangements is growing. I think we will see more people coming together - whether within an extended family, or a church, company, or professional society – to hold onto some alternative means of support in their twilight years.
This movement may well be easier for the sixties generation, a group whose ideals once included experimenting with such arrangements. For many, its simply a matter of looking forward to the past again.
Surely our pension fund organizations might also provide novel financing for such arrangements, assuming the funds and 401K monies are not first stolen by corporate pirates. After all, what is the function of "our" pension fund - to invest in Chinese companies stealing American jobs, or to fund alternative living arrangements which revitalize America, and reduce housing and retirement costs for their beneficiaries?
Or, imagine "our" "federal" reserve providing no interest loans? Dream on, the money pirates will not be there for you.
Much of the reason for the emergence, or re-emergence, of such a communal phenomena is that we are witnessing an economy besieged by the winds of a forced "free trade" scheme driven by an utterly predatory capital – i.e., resulting in no less than the repeal of the twentieth century's gains for the average working man.
Author, Exec. Dir. The Center For Balance. Websites: PanditPress.com, OligarchyUSA.com, PublicCentralBank.com, EditorFreedom.com,
FascismUSA.COM & more
Must Read (
Well Said (
News (
Touching (
Funny (
Supported (
Interesting (
Inspiring (
Valuable (
