this post was submitted on 17 Mar 2025
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Late Stage Capitalism

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[–] Sir_Kevin@lemmy.dbzer0.com 63 points 1 day ago (8 children)

I've seen this several times in Florida (retirement capitol of the US). Often times it's couples trying to drive around doing deliveries. They don't even know what a GPS is so they take forever and a day. But then they finally arrive and your anger turns to sorrow when you see these frail old people just trying to survive.

[–] K1nsey6@lemmy.world 33 points 1 day ago (1 children)

And that's why the elderly have become the largest and fastest growing segment of the unhoused

[–] stopdropandprole@lemmy.world 23 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

as social security and welfare are dismantled before our eyes (across both Dem and GOP administrations), homelessness will certainly rise especially among the elderly. i for one won't let my parents die in the street but caring for them full time means never having time or money to have children of my own.

capitalism has taken so much from us.

[–] LeninsOvaries@lemmy.cafe 13 points 1 day ago (1 children)

In an ironic kind of way, I'm glad my parents abused me. I don't have to feel guilty about letting them rot. Sure, I have lifelong mental illness, but at least I'll have a bit more money to spend on therapy for it.

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[–] partial_accumen@lemmy.world 119 points 1 day ago (6 children)

This is going to be even worse if/when Musk and trump dismantle Social Security. The adult middle class will collapse entirely when their seniors will lose their homes and food, and their children are still at home because they can't afford to live on their own.

Couple this with smaller family sizes, this could mean two single child adults might have to support four living senior citizens (both sets of parents) while also raising children of their own.

[–] pr0sp3kt@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 14 hours ago (1 children)

Kt looks like they have no other option that legalize euthanasia

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[–] OsrsNeedsF2P@lemmy.ml 43 points 1 day ago (1 children)

This is called the sandwich generation (when you have to take care of both adults and kids on your own). It's a thing!

[–] Dozzi92@lemmy.world 17 points 1 day ago (2 children)

Yeah, my mom grew up in a house with her parents and a grandparent of two. And her cousin. That was the 60s and 70s. Guess we're bringing it back!

[–] Hideakikarate@sh.itjust.works 10 points 1 day ago (3 children)

Back to when things were great!

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[–] Brunbrun6766@lemmy.world 28 points 1 day ago (7 children)

I fucking feel this.

I'm in a situation where in my family I'm the one who's going to be taking care of my parents as they get older because my only sibling (older) is entirely unreliable and financially unstable.

Then my fiance is ALSO being expected to take up that responsibility because all her siblings went and had 2-4 kids and "can't afford" or "won't have time" to help take care of her mother who is already aging.

So we're having to plan ahead as 25 and 30 year olds to be able to help and support 3 elders. This basically defaults us to not being able to have kids.

[–] Kecessa@sh.itjust.works 15 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

My girlfriend is taking care of her parents with her father having a couple of weeks to live and her mother being so anxious that she can't be trusted to take care of him (give him morphine, start preparing a second dose thinking she didn't give him his dose yet, change his fentanyl patch and doesn't remove the old one)... Her sisters are pretty much nowhere to be found, as if their boyfriends were unable to take care of the kids for one fucking evening.

They'll let their father die a painful death without seeing him, but at least they will have enjoyed the last few days of the ski season!

[–] Brunbrun6766@lemmy.world 6 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

Fuck thats grim. I assume home nursing is not a financial possibility? I'm really sorry to hear about yours and hers situation.

[–] grue@lemmy.world 7 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Then my fiance is ALSO being expected to take up that responsibility because all her siblings went and had 2-4 kids and “can’t afford” or “won’t have time” to help take care of her mother who is already aging.

Your fiance's siblings are stupid for turning down the free live-in childcare.

[–] Brunbrun6766@lemmy.world 10 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (2 children)

An elderly person verging on disabled and one day probably will be, also with what looks like developing early onset dementia probably doesn't make for good childcare

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[–] balssh@lemm.ee 22 points 1 day ago (1 children)

You are very optimist people will still have kids in this situation.

[–] BigBananaDealer@lemm.ee 20 points 1 day ago (4 children)

pregnancy prevention is expensive and abortions are becoming illegal i think we'll see more kids

[–] stopdropandprole@lemmy.world 13 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

birth rates might go up because times get harder and abortion is illegal... but childhood/infant deaths, deaths from preventable communicable disease, and deaths from exposure to occupational hazards and accidents will all go up

deregulation, dismantling EPA, FDA, NIOSH, medical and scientific research, education. and most importantly, reducing the federal workforce by a couple hundred thousand people who work directly on keeping Americans healthy and safe... is going to have consequences.

I suspect life is going to get much more brutal and short for the next couple generations, assuming we survive that long amidst climate multi crises and wars for resources that are increasingly more expensive to find and extract. so while some people might have a few more kids to work in the slave pits, the life expectancy declines among the 99% is going more than counter act it.

besides, the population growth in America is expected to go net negative by 2033 without sustained immigration, and is rapidly decelerating globally.

[–] Liberal_Ghost@lemmy.zip 2 points 13 hours ago (1 children)

Yeah but the, upside is, I won't have to worry about being the homeless old guy. Because the world won't exist by then 🤷‍♂️

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[–] balssh@lemm.ee 5 points 23 hours ago

We had a blanket ban on abortion/contraception in the 60s in Romania and while initially there was a boom in newborns, it eventually reverted to the norm even if the ban wasn't lifted. So I'm not so sure about that.

[–] SlopppyEngineer@lemmy.world 26 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Romania tried that already. Decree 770. There was a bump in number if children. After that, pregnant women and childbed mortality went up, kids were neglected or dumped in orphanages. In the end birth rate dropped anyway.

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[–] jared@mander.xyz 76 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

"Couldn't even tip I was so upset"

[–] dditty@lemm.ee 30 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

Haha I was going to comment the same thing. Delivery took too long 🤣

[–] stinerman@midwest.social 44 points 1 day ago

For the OGs here, this is what George W. Bush would call "uniquely American" with pride. The rest of us...not so much pride.

[–] MyOpinion@lemm.ee 36 points 1 day ago (1 children)

We are into shit stage capitalism.

[–] Azzu@lemm.ee 6 points 23 hours ago (1 children)

And for some reason people still refuse to unionize :(

[–] jpreston2005@lemmy.world 2 points 15 hours ago (1 children)

The amazon warehouse near me went for a union vote, and they voted against it 🙃

I almost took a day off work just to go yell at them, but decided against it.

[–] Azzu@lemm.ee 1 points 11 hours ago

I'm sorry to hear that. Are you ok?

[–] adhdplantdev@lemm.ee 19 points 1 day ago (1 children)

As if there was ever a time where there wasn't someone who was too old working to earn some money. United States has never properly taken care of its populace why are we pretending that they used to.

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[–] Fizz@lemmy.nz 13 points 1 day ago

Hurry up nan me foods gettin cold

[–] arrow74@lemm.ee 10 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (3 children)

I'd blame a lot of this on the destruction of our communal living patterns. We used to live in extended family groups. It was reasonable and expected to live with your parents and siblings. If you did leave the family home it often was just to build a home on the same property.

But then the idea of the nuclear family was popularized, probably to make more money and sell house, and here we are.

To be clear since what I said has been immediately misinterpreted, family centric living patterns were torn apart by capitalism. It heavily favors capitalism when we are separated from each other and lose community. This wasn't a benign social shift

[–] facepainter@lemm.ee 59 points 1 day ago (3 children)

This is nonsense.

In Western/Central Europe and Scandinavia, smaller families are the norm, yet nobody sees 80 year old people working.

This is entirely the fault of unchained capitalism, corruption and half a century of lobbying against the working class.

[–] arrow74@lemm.ee 23 points 1 day ago

Let's not be unreasonable, there can be multiple causes and multiple solutions.

Those countries also used to have a more communal structure amongst families and that still was dismantled.

But they actually implemented social programs and living wages making it not an issue.

Also yes it is capitalism fault. It all is, including the dismantling of our communities to favor more isolated living. It's design to separate us and disempower the worker.

[–] Lv_InSaNe_vL@lemmy.world 1 points 18 hours ago* (last edited 18 hours ago) (1 children)

Sweden (I'm using them as an example) has a comparable employment rate at every age group than the US?

In the US about 41% of people 55 and older are working, compared to almost 38% in Sweden.

Edit: I did my math super wrong. Sweden doesn't have "much more" people at that age working, they have slightly fewer.

[–] facepainter@lemm.ee 2 points 16 hours ago (1 children)

But what's the statistic for people aged 65 and above?

[–] Lv_InSaNe_vL@lemmy.world 1 points 15 hours ago (2 children)

I'm not sure. The US only posts "55 and up", I couldn't find any more detailed info than that.

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[–] courageousstep@lemm.ee 9 points 1 day ago (2 children)

For what it’s worth, I agree with you.

But I still don’t want to live with my narcissistic MAGA parents, so…evidently things have gone really far sideways and it’ll be hard to rebuild that social fabric.

[–] arrow74@lemm.ee 10 points 1 day ago (2 children)

Honestly same. I haven't spoken with my dad in months thanks to his MAGA views. I blame this "fuck you I got mine" as a result of community destruction

[–] FreakinSteve@lemmy.world 1 points 14 hours ago

I hadnt spoken to my mom in years due to her pills and Fox News bullshit. She died alone and miserable a couple of weeks ago

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[–] LeninsOvaries@lemmy.cafe 2 points 1 day ago

I don't want to live with my autistic parents either

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