Comrades – we are going to have to save the Boomers

By
Martyn Bradbury
-
19
632

Cost of living taking toll on pensioners – retirement commissioner

The retirement commissioner says the cost of living is taking a toll on pensioners living off superannuation.

The latest ANZ-Roy Morgan survey shows consumers’ perceptions of their current personal financial situations fell to the weakest level in the survey since October 2023.

It comes after RNZ reported earlier this week financial advisors had found even some retirees that had paid off their homes were struggling with the cost of living pressures.

Retirement Commissioner Jane Wrightson told Saturday Morning 40 percent of pensioners were living off superannuation alone, with another 20 percent on just a bit more.

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Look.

No one is going to like what I’m going to have to say, but Comrades, I think we are going to have to save the fucking Boomers!

I Know!
I Know!

I Know!

I Know!

I Know!

I KNOW!

The bloody boomers.

The generation who enjoyed cradle to the grave subsidy from post war Governments who saw the public service provision of the middle classes would deny the extremism that ripped the Weimar Republic to pieces without tempting the communists.

The generation who changed society’s conventions, demanded nuclear free and fought the Springbok tour.

The generation who promise much, who benefited from the cradle to grave subsidy, the generation who promptly pulled up the ladder and left everyone else to be a user pays future.

Yes, that generation.

Many boomers have speculated well and their property portfolios bulge, but not every boomer however and we are going to have to do something meaningful about elderly housing.

Firstly, we never call them boomers again, because every generation hates them, we will call them Pensioners from now on and hope everyone forgets who that generation ripped the rest of us off and left us with a burning planet was.

If we don’t support their housing and lift social participation through adult education they will be lost to Peter Williams on Reality Check Radio and Sean Plunkett on The Platform while voting for Winston.

Sigh.

We are going to have to save the Boomers from themselves.

 

 

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19 COMMENTS

  1. I’m a ‘Boomer’ who never listens to NewsTalk,The Platform or Reality Check Radio nor have I ever voted National or Act. sure a lot of my contemporaries disappoint me with their ‘greed is good’ mantra anti environment climate change denial and their ghastly hatred for Dame Jacinda. Some of us 70+ are in fact progressive social democrats albeit in the minority with my peers but proud to be a ‘Leftie’ and supposedly’ woke.

    • I think some of us over 70+ is accurate. Not enough and certainly those that we ought to be thinking about are the middle aged. They have not noticed the destructive changes around them but seen them as happenings to adjust to. That the society that their parents had thought was a permanent base, with a carpet on top for colour, warmth and comfort is more than cracked but broken has not sunk in. The response has been varied and largely perverse, irrelevant or scathing. The kids deserve better, we have been informed by thinking people, constructive too, for yonks but we have been tied into a class system and politics that bind us and live in the understanding that there is no other way possible, just think how frightening communism is. But fascism that seems closer than we thought.

      And certainly the resistance is great to thoughtful change – just view the review of the taxation system. These aren’t representatives they are little lords and ladies setting up a class system that benefits themselves. Georgette Heyer books about 1810 Regency days tell familiar stories. Investment by the rich in the Consols making money out of developing other countries of the Empire.
      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Consol_(bond)

  3. Well stated Dave, a fellow boomer who is embarrassed by my peers who are anti Maori, anti environment change and into greed at expense of others, they “just need to work Harder” attitude. I know of several boomers who are hurting, not using heating at night, cant afford the bill, skimping on food. And before you say they should have worked harder and saved more, they did work hard, the rates of pay especially since Douglas have dropped for unskilled and semi skilled.. I hate to say it, maybe time to do some kind of means testing for topping up the “super”.

    • Yes it is .How ever from tomorrow the pension should be means tested as it is in AUS .My uncle was sorted but still had to accept the pension even after going in to WINZ and politely telling them where to jam it .He could not understand why he had to have it as he did not need it .Most of it was probably swallowed up by taxes anyway .

  5. While you are boomer bashing how about some one do a survey and find out how many of the lazy lay abouts are raising grand kids full or part time .Then there are the ones like my wife who do just that 5 days a week while te mum works as a nurse .Then at times I myself have to look after another grand kid because he has a step mum from hell who wont even take him to school or pick him up so his dad has to down tools and take time out from his job to do the school run if I dont .The step mum is a parasite who does not work or contribute to the household expenses .Maybe if that info was more out there ,there would be less boomer bashing because we may be getting the pension but are saving the taxpayer shit loads in child care and or unemployment payments because those parents might well be not able to work .

  6. Guess what?Boomers pay
    TAXES
    RATES
    INSURANCE
    ROAD USER CHARGES
    FOOD BILLS
    INTERNET
    PHONE BILLS
    SOME PAY
    RENT
    MORTGAGE
    AND are expected to leave the kids a fortune when we die .

  7. Yes, I agree with this article because my partner and I are supporting our 83-year-old mothers as much as we can. Times are hard and the cost of living is high, we also donate to the Childrens Hospital here in Wellington and Fred Hollows and we are not rich, still paying a mortgage, insurance and rates like many others, we go without a lot of things people need to stop being nasty and judgmental.

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