At about the time of the beginning of the USofA, land being owned was a rarity which only kings had access to before.
With land, you can grow food and live.
Without land, you die of starvation.
So, land is the most important thing ever.
Fast forward 200 years, and ...
- We no longer own land, we rent it from the govern-cement.
- It is a costly liability that is made more costly and more of a time sink by too many regulations.
- It has to be insured (more cost)
- You can't do what you want with it. (Raise a couple chickens in the city? The po-po will be at your door.)
- Financialization has made the world pay more and more for the same thing. Mortgage means death note. (or you will pay until you are dead). 99% of a house price today is bank money owing more bank money, not actual value.
- Our parents generation where taught that a house is an asset. Which was only sorta true when more kids were being born and more jobs were being created. Since the babyboom bust, and the exporting of jobs, only the liabilities of a house is left.
- Houses built in america today are ugly, stupid and energy wasters. These will become intolerable when the next generation sees what can be.
The only thing left is to see how the new generation handles retirement.
We won't have to wait long, as the babyboomer generation is going to have their retirement accounts sucked away, and they will cry bloody-murder.
Something will change, but change to what?
Retirement was something to plan for because of the problem of fiat currencies losing their value over time and lack of saving (by buying houses, cars, etc). Both of these won't hold true for millennials who
1> would be holding steem power or other cryptocurrencies of better economic systems that don't rob them of the value that they saved
2> They are going to be light travellers, and frugal owners of goods instead of huge buyers.
3> It is not like they can't generate value on retirement. In fact, they would be able to generate a lot of value sitting at home on the internet through the knowledge gained by their vast experience which they have accumulated throughout their lives and who knows what else? In fact, retirement won't be a thing probably!
Very optimistic thinking. I think retirement planning is extremely important and it's underrated.
I believe that you are correct in your assessment of the situation.
There will probably be so many empty houses as the babyboomers start dying off that you will probably just walk into one and see if anyone lives there before setting up shop.
In the "working era" as opposed to the "knowledge era" people got too old to do their jobs.
And now, since all of our families have been broken up by the nuclear family -> single mother social plans, there is nothing of the old method which gave elderly their place in society.
The babyboomers gave birth to latch-key kids. Technically abandoned them, and now, when they are entering retirement, they will reap what they sow.
I think you are correct @rohansharan, but I do not know how things are going to transpire. That whirlwind that is coming for the babyboomers... but I can see that the millennials are already making a new way.