Summary
Faced with inflation, taxes and concerns over the size of Social Security benefits, most Americans are more afraid of going broke in retirement than they are of death.
In total, 64% of respondents across generations said they are more stressed about running out of funds in their golden years than the prospect of death.
Americans say they need $1.26 million to finance a comfortable retirement, yet the median amount saved is $87,000. “Certainly for boomers…inflation is a big deal.”
Death isn’t scary, once you’re dead, you’re just gone. Being poor means uncertainty, vulnerability and discomfort (plus, as a bonus, often death). The one thing poverty has going for it is the possibility of getting really lucky and escaping before it kills you.
Right, this is a facet that a lot of people don’t get. I’m also more worried about smacking my toe on a table leg than I am of death, because I’m just not at all worried about death. When the game is over, it’s over.
Not having enough money to live sounds horrible though.
When you are poor you also have little to no agency over your own life. You are at the mercy of just about everything.
That’s the thing that scares them—they don’t want to suffer before they die. Being poor is suffering to them and they know most don’t help the poor because they are part of the “most”.
In this country, being poor is or leads to suffering. That is a hard rule that applies to all, not just “them”. It is how the system keeps us rats on the treadmill.
You’re correct, but I am addressing those that are American and not yet poor and why they are afraid of losing their retirement wealth over dying. I’m not talking about being poor itself and what it means.
Well that’s easily answered. It’s because they know how fucking easy it is to happen. They think if they leave their kids with enough wealth, they can just die easily “knowing” they left their kid in a good position but they trashed the world in doing so. They’re just the most thoughtlessly evil generation there ever was. Just fucking braindead to their own goals that they got from their parents. “Smell that? It’s the smell of money” no grandpa, that’s the smell of poverty and cancer you piece of shit.