a world ruled by kids?

When Prue’s husband took an early retirement package she very happily retired from work too -- even though she is not yet 50 – because of what she calls the absolute humiliation of being ruled by kids.

“We’re enjoying early retirement – as much as we can with constant worries about our elderly parents in care homes,” says Prue, “but we’ve essentially accepted that our generation is very much sandwiched between elderly and youthful warriors who, between them, have inched us out and very soon the power of the elderly will fall completely into the hands of the young, bypassing us completely.”

"There are lots of people in their 50s and 60s – indeed their 70s, too – who are very apprehensive about our youthful leaders –particularly Cameron as the British Prime Minister," says Prue. "They worry that, as the older warrior generation dies off, the world will be controlled by kids – and there is absolutely nothing we can do about it.”

"In the early 1990s both my husband and I suffered a massive shift in workplace culture, favoring youth over experience, and up until we decided to retire early all of our bosses have been as old, or younger than, our children."

"It was pretty humiliating."

"The older people who retired about that time, including our parents, just kept on keeping busy doing voluntary work," laughs Prue. "In fact, there's a woman who volunteers at the local care home where our parents reside who is older than many of the residents."

"Our neighbor, an amazing woman in her 80s, is just like that, too," sighs Prue. "It's no joking matter, really, that the elderly generation of old warriors appear to be outliving the rest of us."

"Three of our friends died of cancer before 55," says Prue, "and this really caused my husband and I to wake up and decide to retire early."

"The elderly generation definitely grew up in a different world to us," says Prue, "and I'm not sure what makes them so healthy and active in comparison with us 'young uns' - maybe being fully formed adults before all the nasty nuclear bomb testing took place had something to do with it!"

"Or maybe it was due to the care and respect that my generation, and the state, showered on them," says Prue. "I know that, compared to us, they had an incredibly easy ride in the workplace and politics, generally, because of the deference they received from us."

"We were always told that our time would come, but it never did," laughs Prue. "We were trumped at work by the young warriors when the old warriors retired, and if they keep up the frantic pace they think is normal then these young warriors may end up trumping us in care homes, too!"

"In the meantime, we choose to keep a low profile in this youth ruled world because the young warriors have no respect for us whatsoever,” sighs Prue, “and they know that we know that they will be choosing our nursing homes!"

Read more about Prue:

battle of the generations

job hogs

global financial disasters

Maureen and her husband, Tom, took early retirement in their mid-50s to enjoy life after raising four children and building up considerable assets. Globalization had never affected their lives before, but when their idyllic retirement was cut short by financial disaster they began to realize how insidious the whole concept of globalization was – how it affects everyone.

"Tom had benefited from a long career with the same employer; he had never been out of work in his life and together with my part-time wages as a shop assistant we had built up considerable assets by the time we were in our mid-50s," explains Maureen. "When the children left home, it was time for Tom and I to start a new life."

"We had enough money invested to keep us in reasonable luxury for the rest of our lives," explains Maureen, "and, after 35 years of marriage, raising four children and working hard, we really deserved to start enjoying ourselves while they were still young enough to get the maximum benefit out of life."

"Having never gambled in our lives before, we decided we had reached a time in our lives when it was safe to risk part of our retirement funds on the stock market," says Maureen, "and we did so well that we both quit our jobs and took early retirement."

"Because we're not particularly astute people financially," explains Maureen,"we trusted our accountant and lawyer to take care of the business of managing our money, and we paid them well to do so."

"Also, we didn't want to spend our retirement watching every rise and fall in the stock market," explains Maureen. "All we wanted to do was enjoy ourselves, and in trusting our accountant and lawyer to invest our money in new global wealth schemes we ended up losing most of our retirement funds.”

"Incidentally, the accountant and lawyer had major losses, too," says Maureen, "but because they ran businesses where losses can be written-off - and they had ongoing work - they could pay their bills. We couldn't".

"Our major regrets it that we did not put our money into real estate - at least our money would have stayed in this country rather than disappearing into Nigerian scams or something," says Maureen, "but at the time we considered this option and chose ease of liquidity and quick gains instead. Serves us right!"

"We had no recourse but to get back to work," sighs Maureen, "but after five years of leisure we had lost touch with everything."

Read more of Maureen's story:

early retirement dangers

Councils, condos and annoying neighbors

Hedda and her husband are pensioners in their 70s, living in a small city condo, and they had to laugh when they heard that California's Belmont City Council had voted unanimously to prohibit smoking anywhere in the city except for single family detached residences.

"We laughed because the city council has little chance of getting the proposal cemented into law," says Hedda, "and even if it does then it'll be virtually impossible to enforce because the police have better things to do."

"Let's face it, when you live in a can of sardines," sighs Hedda, "you just can't help annoying someone and I feel sorry for Colleen and Rodger Sauve who lost an appeal after their condominium association amended its bylaws to prohibit smoking, forcing them out of their own home, onto the street, to smoke. That's ridiculous!"

"Smokers are the least of our troubles here," says Hedda. "Sure, we catch a whiff of cigarette and cannabis smoke from some of our neighbors -- and then there's the guy who barbeques on the balcony below us every night, filling our lungs with charcoal -- and even though it irritates us, and could be a health hazard, we can't really complain about a bit of smoke when we choose to live in a city with heavy automobile pollution."

"What really distresses us, and definitely affects our health, is noise from our neighbors after midnight," sighs Hedda. "The streets are quiet, except for an occasional ambulance siren, but the condos are alive with all manner of noises -- crying babies, arguing couples, loud music and doors slamming -- and it's seriously disrupting our sleep."

"We've complained to the condo committee about the noise problem," says Hedda, "but even with a city law banning noise after midnight there's not much they can do, or want to do. Let's face it, you'd be a nazi jerk to call the police and get your neighbor fined or locked up for such trivial things."

"Even our legitimate complaint resulted in our being targeted by one of our offending neighbors for daring to complain about him."

"He's a loud music freak and the worst offender," explains Hedda, "and he was really abusive to us, calling me an interfering old cow. After that experience, we've been intimidated into silence. Our condo committee -- as you can tell -- is probably intimidated, too!"

"We're considering selling up and moving to a purpose built old folks condo, but we'll really miss the convenience of where we live now and there's no telling what we'll have to put up with at a new place -- some old folks can be as annoying as hell!"

"The problem, basically, is too many people living too close to each other, like sardines in a can," says Hedda. "If we all lived in single family detached residences there wouldn't be so many problems with neighbors, but an out-of-town lifestyle isn't for everyone -- it's costly and it's too far from jobs and entertainment."

"At our age, though, our main problem would be the burden of maintaining a house -- and we couldn't afford to buy one in any case -- so we've resigned ourselves to living, and dying, with neighbor noise."

"The problem of neighbors not getting along with each other -- being irritated by smoke, noise or just not liking your religious beliefs or the color of your skin -- is going to get worse with increasing longevity and immigration pressure," says Hedda, "and if councils want to solve these problems then they've got to do something more civilized than criminalizing people for being themselves."

"We already have towns purpose built for old folks -- and ghettos where particular races congregate -- so I see nothing wrong about Belmont declaring itself a no-smoking city or new condos being constructed strictly for non-smokers."

"The trouble with the Belmont proposal -- and the Sauve matter -- is that existing smokers are criminalized, and that's clearly wrong."

"Forcing smokers to move into single family detached residences may not work either," says Hedda, "because smokers would feel they're being marginalized -- and that's almost as bad as criminalizing them."

"I don't mind cities declaring themselves for or against something just as long as they don't criminalize or marginalize people," says Hedda. "Just a simple declaration -- without laws -- would be enough to inspire people to toe the city line and discourage antagonists from moving there."

"Look at it this way," says Hedda, "some cities have earned world recognition pandering for certain tastes, and nobody in their right mind would buy a detached residence let alone a condo in those cities if they hated what the city stood for."

"Belmont has declared itself 'The No-Smokin' City', so the first city that declares itself 'The Smokin' City' is going to attract a lot of new residents," laughs Hedda, "and I bet some enterprising real estate agents are lobbying their city councils right now to haul in the smoking dollars!"

"As for us, well, until a city declares itself 'The Loud Music City' or 'The Cryin' Baby City' or 'The Arguin' Couple City' or 'The Slammin' Door City' -- and inspires our neighbors to move there -- then I guess we'll get all the peace and quiet we want when we're six feet under," sighs Hedda. "And, when the noise gets unbearable, we'll just have to get permanent earplugs fitted."

golden generation vs. boomers

The Golden Generation appear to be outliving their Boomer children and now that she is 60, retired and has time to think, Marina has come to the conclusion that her parents’ generation used WWII as emotional blackmail to justify massive exploitation and used her generation as the scapegoats for all of the world’s ills that they, not the Boomers, caused.

“With apologies to the few real war heroes, who truly deserve our respect – like my dad, who returned injured and died before his time -- I want to expose the rest of this generation as undeserving frauds, peddling endless war films and veterans’ marches to glorify themselves at our expense.”

“The Golden Generation never suffered unemployment throughout their lives as we and our children have – there was no globalization, their jobs were protected by tariffs and the union movement – and most important of all, they had very little competition because the world was a smaller place back then and millions of talented people had been wiped out by the war.”

“The Golden Generation never suffered housing or land shortages when they were starting a family. Many were given land grants for free! They built ranches; they had holiday homes, and double garages. They paid off their mortgages early and easily. They had drive-in movies, supermarkets a block long; vast tracks of wilderness to escape to and more recreational facilities per person than we can dream of. They deserved it – they fought for freedom!”

“The Golden Generation never suffered prohibition in their working years – they drank, smoked and did drugs with impunity, on and off the job. They deserved it – they fought for freedom!”

“The Golden Generation never suffered population control or family size worries in their fertile years – they procreated freely and easily, producing the unlucky Baby Boomers, a generation the size of which has never been seen before or since. They deserved it – they fought for freedom!”

“The Golden Generation never suffered racial or religious or other PC prohibitions in their working years – they called a spade a spade, so to speak, and protected their suburbs and borders from outsiders. They deserved it – they fought for freedom!”

“The Golden Generation never suffered environmental prohibitions in their working years – they slashed, mined and burned merrily, destroyed forests, polluted the land, air and waterways, hunted other species to extinction and littered the world with discarded motor vehicles which they still insist on their right to own and drive into dotage. They deserve it – they fought for freedom!”

“In fighting for freedom, are they proud of the overpopulated, under-serviced and horribly polluted world they left us necessitating loss of OUR freedoms?”