Worth Reading – You Will Not Retire
Alex is 25 and sees what his future holds, and how what exists is nothing like what we have designed our systems for:
Every piece of advice anybody has ever given you was built for a much shorter and more linear career, where you chose your subject at sixteen, qualified by twenty-two, were established by thirty and senior by forty, then coasted a while before collecting. The whole apparatus, careers advisers and graduate schemes and thirty-under-thirty lists and the particular dread of turning thirty without a senior title, assumes you’re part of a race that finishes at sixty-five.
https://thestillwandering.substack.com/p/you-will-not-retire
Alex sees the writing on the wall; the idea that anyone can retire at 65 in the near future is a joke. That future existed when pensions were common; homeownership early in adulthood was achievable, and you could work for the same company doing very similar work for over 40 years.
We don’t have any of that now. What we do have is a system that was designed for that, though, and a system that refuses to change with the times.
I’m over 50; I know that makes me unemployable in certain job markets. The assumption that I’m not technical enough, or that I’m probably not as hungry, because I’m looking at retirement when I know damn well no one my age is going to retire at 65. Most of us won’t be in a position to do that without some kind of job. So our professional and personal lives must change to account for this new reality. Outside of the very wealthy, most of us will never see the days of being healthy, retired, and enjoying a life full of golf games, travel, and luxury that we gave 40-45 years of our lives to our employers to receive.
Still, a lot of people are willing to sell you on that dream. If we all woke up and realized that it’s impossible, things would have to change. I think things are changing, but the old folks in charge of these systems haven’t figured out how much it has. The younger folks in your office, the ones you claim just don’t work as hard or aren’t as invested. They’re already living based on the new reality.
They want everything now because they’ve watched previous generations get broken promise after broken promise. Later doesn’t exist when the company will lay you off to boost a stock price. That game is over.
Can you blame them for changing their expectations of the workplace?
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