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naraburns  nihil supernum  2yr ago (text post)   33194 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of October 10, 2022

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I don't think it comes across as any more uncanny than, as you mentioned, a college town, where the booze and sex flow freely, social life is overly preoccupied with the football team, and there's not much mixture of age demographics, only in this case it trends old instead of young.

I guess to me the issue is that it seems like there's no 'future' being built here, where there might be in a college town. These folks are, without literally admitting it, coming here to live until they die. Thus, the Villages can be seen as private equity sponging up the accumulated wealth of an entire generation at the very terminus of their lives, to be used for I-don't-know-what. Not their families, for sure.

That is surely their right, but its not the outcome I would choose if I had any control over it.

The question of what they would be doing otherwise is an open one. Is there anything for them to do? What responsibilities would they have if they were to maintain an active role in their society?

I know the feeling you mean, but, on the other hand, would have it been better if they'd just been spending more while they were still working, so had no savings, and now need to live frugally? You're basically punishing them (morally) for being financially prudent.

would have it been better if they'd just been spending more while they were still working, so had no savings, and now need to live frugally? You're basically punishing them (morally) for being financially prudent.

Definitely the point I'm aiming at.

I am fine with a person actually enjoying the fruits of their labors, I'm just wondering whether this is really what we would aim to end up for our twilight years. That is, concentrating a bunch of retirees together in a community that is insulated from the rest of the world and has, in my view, little to offer the next generation.

Although, I think there's something to be said for managing your finances such that you're able to make decent use and enjoyment of them throughout your life rather than either being destitute in old age or having so much accumulated wealth that you can only hope to spend it all before you die through years of partying into orgiastic decadent celebration of life.

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