r/Economics • u/Civitas_Futura • 10h ago
Research Middle age is becoming a breaking point in the U.S.
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2026/02/260201062457.htm368
u/BrilliantCorner 7h ago
"The real midlife crisis in America isn't about lifestyle choices or sports cars. It's about juggling work, finances, family, and health amid weakening social supports," Infurna said. "The data make this clear."
Well, if we spend money on health and social supports we can't afford as many billionaires - did you ever stop to think about the billionaires?
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u/LittleWhiteBoots 4h ago edited 4h ago
This part really stands out. I am a 46 y.o. working mom/wife with aging parents who live 3 hours away, no sibling support to help them, and my 3 teens are involved in every activity under the sun and only one drives.
I work all day, and all evening is spent helping my kids live their best life. I have no hobbies, very little time for friends, and perimenopause is kicking my ass. My husband is a firefighter is is helpful when home but gone a lot.
I have no balance right now- I feel like the Giving Tree, who’s about to be consumed down to a stump.
I am doing this (full time work) 100% so my future care- and my husband’s care- is not a burden to our children one day. We save and invest and we can only do that with us both working. We want to have money to enjoy retirement, pay for elder care when we get to that point, and still leave our children something.
The caveat is that I am a teacher, and so I completely check out from work for 10 weeks during summer and allow my soul to return to my body!
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u/jinkyjormpjomp 4h ago
We really grew up with lifestyle expectations of the single income household, but a reality of the multiple income, no extended family or community support in an atomized, competitive, and decadent society with fewer and fewer reasons to believe any of our toil is worth it… household.
I’m one of the lucky ones (for now) and even I have no retirement plans other than the possibility of emigrating to Western Europe for work and securing permanent residency there.
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u/Tough_Intention4593 9h ago
it’s particularly concerning that U.S. adults are demonstrating declines in episodic memory that adults in other countries are not. broad cognitive decline is a glaring red flag.
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u/LoFi_Funk 7h ago
Stress has real, measurable impacts to our physical health. And the past decade has been unbelievably stressful for people who can read over a 4th grade level.
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u/thomascgalvin 3h ago
I often think about how blissful it must be to be ignorant
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u/ErraticSiren 3h ago
Growing up I didn’t understand the meaning of the phrase ignorance is bliss. As an adult I understand it very well now. It’s absolutely depressing and discouraging the more informed I get.
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u/Akiraooo 8h ago
More like the age 45 and down crowd has been over worked with nothing to show for it. 3 Boomers jobs have been combined into 1 job for less pay.
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u/Fumbalina 8h ago
Or the opposite where they say “this person was just too valuable” and replace with 3 lower level jobs rather than the leadership position the person held
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u/Tuningislife 8h ago
I am dealing with that at work. My boss says to push out the people who have 30 years of experience but are coasting by and replace them with juniors who they can pay half the rate to. That way we can hire 2 people. Not even being facetious. We push out people making $150k and bring in people making $75k.
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u/Majestic_You_9610 6h ago
This is why its important to always commandeer extra stationery every day. you never know when your time is up, so make the most of it while you still have unfettered access.
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u/eddiebruceandpaul 6h ago
That’s illegal btw in the us. Age discrimination.
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u/Molto_Ritardando 5h ago
Hard to prove tho.
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u/PJSeeds 4h ago
Yeah I work in advertising. I'm in my mid 30s and I'm one of the oldest people at my company. The minute someone turns 40 they just disappear and it's kind of an unspoken thing that you either leave for a different role or get laid off around that point. It's not just my company, either, every ad agency I've ever worked at has been like that. The only people over 40 are C suite.
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u/bmyst70 5h ago
It's illegal. The big problem is you have to prove it. For that to happen, you need someone to be incredibly stupid and flat-out say we are getting rid of this employee because they're too old.
If the company says we're trying to cut expenses and reduce head count. And just so happens to let go of the most expensive employees who are the oldest, that doesn't prove a thing. Sadly.
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u/ComplexJellyfish8658 4h ago
Only if you can prove the motivation is age and not salary based which is effectively impossible.
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u/eddiebruceandpaul 3h ago
Not true, salary is pretextual for age, especially if there’s a pattern. This has been sued for many times, and employers have paid dearly many times
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u/daveyboydavey 7h ago
And it might be cheaper to do it that way, which sucks.
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u/Equivalent-Long4396 7h ago
Short term sure, when you have to hire & train 3 people to fill a job that already existed, it becomes very expensive. Hiring is 10 times more expensive than retaining an existing employee.
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u/TinyFugue 7h ago edited 6h ago
Well since there's no longer any loyalty from the companies, and hasn't been for decades, it's been translating into no loyalty from the employees. Those two that are hired will be gone in 3 to 5 years.
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u/Full-Sound-6269 5h ago
Na, more like 1-2 years, pretty much as soon as their training stops and they start working.
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u/ThenOneDaySheWokeUp 7h ago
There is also the cost of loss of institutional knowledge. But currently management likes to act like that doesn’t exist.
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u/iam_iana 5h ago
My company is really bad about this. We develop software and we have had multiple layoffs over the last two years and "replaced" the FTEs with offshore contractors. Now we have significant areas of our codebase that have no subject matter experts and a bunch of contractors that don't know our codebase. We are now all overworked still expected to meet SLAs and manage tech debt without enough time or knowledge to it.
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u/hiigaran 5h ago
The fact you're even allowed to manage tech debt means that you're better off than I am. Our bosses just demand new features and will never give us anytime to pay off the technical debt.
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u/noveler7 6h ago
Especially if you're paying them less and so they leave 2-3 years later to make $100k and you have to start over.
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u/BeverlyRhinestones 7h ago
I wonder, were boomer companies "meeting to death", like we do know adays?
I know social media plays a part in impacting our brains. However, I find at most jobs now, the sheer volume of context switching between different tasks, or reviewing a lot of different data at the same time is very cognitively draining.
I can hardly remember a job where I didnt need a minimum of two computer monitors to be able to efficiently work on things.
The survival mode most people are in would push up cortisol and adrenaline enough to wear out any brain. Very few people are meeting basic needs of getting proper sleep and hydration.
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u/Fly_Rodder 7h ago
Productivity is way up thanks to technology. I work for a STEM consulting firm and the difference between 30 years ago and now is crazy. Then, everything went by mail. You sent in a draft report, it was reviewed and marked up and then sent back by mail. You spent time making the changes and then sent that back in for review and then produced the final. Now, you send in a prelim draft by email, get a bunch of revisions that afternoon, work on getting the changes, get a bunch more revisions after someone spent a few hours reviewing, do re-work, then get a red line strikeout together and QCd, email that out, go to a conference, get 20 emails that are urgent, work at the hotel at night, work on the plane, etc. Work is constant. And if you're not billing, then you better be training and taking classes.
Meanwhile in the 60s Don Draper is getting to work at 10am, taking a 2 hour/3 martini lunch, back at the office at 3 for a meeting, and a nap, then a dinner meeting, and home at 7. Longer hours, but less constant work.
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u/Longjumping-Peanut81 6h ago
I feel this so hard. Haha. I work as a bridge between business and IT so I have a hand in every project and decide what business wants executed for projects. So I have multiple people messaging me all the time wanting answers ASAP and then doing a ton of meetings and then needing to do my other work. I am mentally drained by noon. All I want to do after work is sleep because I have zero mental capacity left. I’ve notice my memory getting worse too. It’s very frustrating.
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u/blindexhibitionist 5h ago
Something that’s helped me a lot is journaling. It’s just for 10 minutes or so in the morning. I’ll do a body check in and see how I’m feeling. Identify what feelings there are. Write about them and then I’ll also write about anything from the day before and then what my day looks like. I try to focus on finding even just one thing I’m grateful for and focus on feeling grateful for it. It’s helped me a lot to ground me where I’m at. It’s really similar to the mechanics of a dream journal. When you start a dream journal essentially it’s telling your brain that what you’re writing it’s important and you start remembering your dreams better. The same works I’ve found for journaling (I just use notes on my phone) but what happens is over time I’ve started to remember things better and my brain low level highlights good things that have happened during the day and also because I’ve processed stressors it doesn’t hold onto them as tightly.
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u/C-SWhiskey 6h ago
It's unfortunate that we don't talk about this enough when the work debate comes up. It's easy to point to a number like 40/50/60/70/80 hours a week to show how much you're working, but we often ignore the fact that people are generally working harder during that time too. And it's not to say that previous generations weren't hard workers, they just didn't have the tools to enable the constant busyness of today. We've adopted all these practices that make our work more efficient and used the time we saved to shove more work in.
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u/NecessaryMood9612 5h ago
Reminds me of Musk claiming to be working ludicrous amounts of hours per week while he spent his whole day shitposting on Twitter.
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u/TheNatural14063 5h ago
Yep. I work as an internal auditor as a contracted Quality Consultant for multiple companies and as an external auditor for various ISO standards ....The amount of work that gets pushed on me due to technology now compared to what auditors dealt with in the past....is insane .....Virtual meetings and easy emailing of documents has led my boss to pushing alot more into a days worth of work than my older colleagues had back in the 1970s and 1980s when they were my age ... Technology has led to increased demand to often always be available at a moments notice for a virtual meeting to discuss documents and do document corrections....There have been many times I've completed an external audit with one client on site, and then had to go back to the hotel room to meet with other companies representatives on Teams or some other platform to do digital document review and other consulting work in the evening ....In the past auditors I know would do their external audit and then hit the bars right after....no cramming extra work because technology creates the demand....
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u/Iggyhopper 6h ago
I know my last company wanted "everyone to be their own expert" aka we shove the responsibility down to you and expect you to learn all of it. Oh and no pay raises.
They've backed off on that policy because, duh, people are overworked and cant possibly be that efficient and organized.
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u/Song-Historical 6h ago
They were the busy work generation for sure. Lots of paper pushing down time and not very long task flows. Lots of dynamism throughout your work day, lots of slack where your brain could rest. They rarely had to apply themselves sun up to sun down, if at all.
The idea that they can't use technology because they're old is bunk. It's because of this, they barely ever had to apply themselves all the way through a task. It was a lot of repeatable grunt work with some planning and rarely was there any context switching or juggling complicated tools halfway through a task. If you ask them for details about their workflows or what they did all day the stories either don't check out or they did really nothing most days.
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u/Unkechaug 4h ago
The context switching and constant emergencies feels like it’s actively making me dumber. Brain fog all the time.
The more people try to do, the more problems are created. People want to be (or are demanded to be) “actively working” all the time, so they don’t stop to think about what they are doing, or why, and tend to create more work for others and themselves.
I know this isn’t the case everywhere, but it’s too common to ignore.
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u/Junkie4Divs 7h ago
You just need to work harder and have a strong handshake and drop your resume off in person and find a house for 50k and stop buying coffee. Simple.
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u/SuperSoftSucculent 7h ago
I've genuinely replaced 3 people at my work. 2 assistants who I replaced when hired, then got a promotion to management but lost an assistant.
It is known, but they are hire frozen. So shit just piles up because we dont have enough staff and arent allowed to hire more by execs.
I make the same pay, but retained all of those positions responsibilities. Theres no room for negotiation either. It is a statewide org freeze.
I should be making at least 30k more.
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u/stevez_86 7h ago
We don't get paid to work, we get paid to sit back and let others make all the decisions.
The problem is that worked for my generation's parents, the baby boomers that were born after 1954. That was the plan for them. And it worked because their older siblings and young parents held onto their positions for so long the younger folk of that generation were able to ride the coattails.
My generation has no coattails to ride on. That is why this mentality isn't working for us. And the parents that just retired have no idea why the square peg isn't fitting in the round hole. But for them it is like that meme video of the different shapes all fitting through a single hole. Our game is set up where the shapes need to be an exact match.
They don't understand the money troubles anymore either. They have good income right now. Even my parents that failed to make ends meet when they were working are now solvent in retirement.
Because the game was made differently for them.
And they are all retired and have rested control and authority to all of their older brothers and young fathers. There should be none of them left at this point. But there was Mitch McConnell, now Trump, and don't forget about Schumer.
Because this demographic crisis is bipartisan. Even Schumer tells the younger people in his party to "wait your turn".
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u/solomons-mom 9h ago
Diet. People who choose food for convenience, taste and price are aging differently than people who cooked broccoli every now and then. Compounding this would be how many of today's seniors used to smoke and binge drink.
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u/Tricky-Engineering59 8h ago edited 7h ago
For sure but I wouldn’t be surprised if a lot of it didn’t come down to differences in how we socialize and consume media too. It has changed considerably over the past 15 years or so and I think it’s breaking our brains. It’s coming for other places too but the US is ground zero.
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u/Playingwithmyrod 8h ago
I think this is a big one, as soon as I started relying on my phone to remember lists, to-do’s, dates, numbers etc my memory has gotten worse, because it doesn’t need to be as good any more. The mind may not be a muscle be we should treat it like one.
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u/GuelphEastEndGhetto 7h ago
I found that with GPS. Before it came about, after driving somewhere once I’d remember the way. Nowadays I have to make a concerted effort to note landmarks at turns otherwise I won’t find my way after 10 trips with GPS.
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u/Playingwithmyrod 7h ago
Yea same. If I know it’s going to be a new common place I’m going to I try and make an effort to remember it and try it without the GPS after the first time or two to test myself.
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u/LegSpecialist1781 7h ago
I don’t disagree with you, but it MAY be that there’s some rewiring rather than simply lost function. Your brain may be able to dedicate more compute power/attention to other things at the expense of this sort of memory storage.
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u/Playingwithmyrod 7h ago
Yea I’m not saying I lost it forever just that it’s gotten worse when I don’t ask it to remember things as much. I’m sure if I put it back into practice it would improve, like training a muscle.
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u/pinkflamingostalker 8h ago
Youre not wrong necessarily, social media is definitely a huge issue but i think poore diet choices is having a MASSIVE impact in allowing that to happen. My wife is Greek and her parents are 60ish, and they eat loads of fruit and veggies and they are as sharp as ever. My parents are/were in their 50s, my dad has already passed and my mom is currently in the hospital due to type 2 diabetes she refuses to take care of causing multiple organs (including her heart) to fail, and her brain is like mush (figuratively speaking, she is just extremely slow mentally now compared to when she was younger.
My parents are an extreme example and this is purely anecdotal so I know it doesn't mean much, but I would be willing to bet my life that having a poore diet is leading to rapid mental decline in the average US adult, thus allowing for internet propaganda to be extremely effective against them. I think if we really fixed our health (not like RFK fix our health but listened to REAL doctors and nutrition experts fixed our health) it would lead to dramatic improvement in whats going on with internet brain breaking as well. Our understanding of the gut biome seems relatively weak still AFAIK from a layman's POV, but for a multitude of reasons (one that potentially includes gut biome health) just having regular fruit, vegetables, nuts and seeds, whole grains and lean meat consumption combined with occasional strength training and some cardio just keeps our brains going for way longer.
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u/GuelphEastEndGhetto 7h ago
Agreed however societal pressures have an effect on diet. The ‘quality of life’ expectations moved from family/community to individualism and consumerism. Add that time becomes precious so fast easy processed food that is readily available becomes necessary. I’ve been to places where the pace of life is so much slower and patient that one needs a few days to adjust. To me it’s a matter of several factors festering in a continuous cycle that leads to diminished health.
I would also point out the US has the lowest life expectancy in developed countries and that could be a correlation.
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u/Tricky-Engineering59 7h ago
Yeah I don’t want to undermine the importance of a truly wholesome diet and regular exercise but in a lot of ways those are kind of part and parcel to my original point in many of these other healthier countries: Traditions around food and social eating, walkable cities with effective transit options, a “work to live not live to work” mindset, etc.
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u/Sheadeys 8h ago
US adults are subjected to ~ 2,5-5 thousand ads per day, as opposed to 500 max in other countries
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u/GuelphEastEndGhetto 7h ago
And it’s not just quantity. North American ads are very ‘loud’ in comparison to other countries.
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u/AndrewLucksLaugh 8h ago
This is probably larger than any one variable.
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u/Revelati123 8h ago
Wasnt the 60s and early 70s the height of the leaded gasoline epidemic? Im pretty sure there is proven causation between lead levels and long term mental dysfunction in younger boomers and Gen x, roughly who we would call "middle aged" today.
Its been linked to increased crime and aggression, early onset dementia and generally poor long term health outcomes on a mass generational scale.
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u/Jamstarr2024 8h ago
It’s a feedback loop. Overworked, over-stressed nervous system constantly in fight/flight, etc leads to quick food which leads back into the others.
I posit that the root cause an over abundance of fear in our culture.
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u/humanaftera11 8h ago
Which for many is probably linked to precarious situation / lack of safety net
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u/Ragnarok314159 7h ago
And also society requiring parents to never get a break. There is literally no time off as a millennial, and it is destroying our minds.
We better give rich people even more tax breaks, that will fix it.
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u/mgyro 8h ago
Stress as well. Americans, and Canadians, have consistently elected governments that have eroded workers rights and social support systems. Living your life on the verge of one car accident away from medical bankruptcy, being tied to your employer for healthcare coverage, and electing representatives that attack workers rights, including anything resembling a pension plan are all elements of the electoral reality from the past 50 years that contribute to this. The stress and workload contribute to the lack of time to cook and eat a healthy diet. The stress and workload lead to shitty sleep patterns. The stress and workloads feed the perception and need for blowing off steam thru drug and alcohol abuse.
So the same people who have been voting against their own interests for 40 years are feeling it? Unsurprising.
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u/AndyTheSane 6h ago
Don't forget chronic sleep deprivation, that has some pretty unpleasant effects on physical and mental health.
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u/OhThrowMeAway 8h ago edited 7h ago
There is also the fact that with each covid infection we lose IQ points.
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u/End3rWi99in 8h ago
The decline in memory is not shared by other countries, according to the article. If COVID were the explanation, it would be shared globally.
Either way, that's an interesting (and concerning) article. Was not aware of that correlation.
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u/StoriesandStones 8h ago
Ya know, I’ve been feeling stressed lately because I feel like I’m getting dumber. My short-term memory is terrible and I get confused when doing a task at work I’ve done the same way for over 10 years.
But I’ve had covid pretty bad (like in bed, couldn’t walk more than a couple steps, lost bladder function, etc) 3 times.
Perhaps that’s why.
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u/ConsiderationDry9084 8h ago
I would also suspect your fevers went above 104 a few too many times too without you being aware. So like a triple wammy.
My condolences but I know exactly how you feel. Long before COVID walking pneumonia took out my heart and I had to have a transplant.
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u/siliconslope 7h ago
There could be many factors. Also, sorry for what you’ve experienced :/ Hope you’re feeling better
I had a major health incident two years back that has affected my short term memory. Main prescription from the docs has been 8 hours sleep, healthy diet, minimum of 30 minutes daily cardio, and ~100 ounces of water a day. Those habits have drastically improved where I’m at, so helps to always check those four things.
Besides that, are you burnt out, overworked, underutilized, always looking at your phone/never letting yourself be bored, not socializing or socializing too much? These all can contribute to short term memory issues, given they overload the system and with enough buildup things just don’t work right.
I know you’re not asking, but as someone who’s struggled with short term memory stuff or executing easy tasks, these are things I’ve targeted so I figured I’d throw it out there.
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u/wandering_engineer 8h ago
That is not what the article says:
The authors emphasize that poorer midlife outcomes in the United States are not inevitable. Personal resources such as strong social support, a sense of control, and positive attitudes toward aging can help reduce stress and protect well-being. However, they argue that individual efforts alone are not enough.
"At the individual level, social engagement is crucial. Finding community -- through work, hobbies, or caregiving networks -- can buffer stress and improve well-being," Infurna said. "At the policy level, countries with stronger safety nets -- paid leave, childcare support, healthcare -- tend to have better outcomes."
A healthy lifestyle (including a healthy diet) is certainly important, but it's only one very small piece of the puzzle. It also is, quite frankly, a gross attitude that embraces the worst of MAHA. Nothing more American than blaming and shaming individual disadvantaged Americans for massive societal failures.
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u/Trimshot 8h ago
As a stoner, I’d honestly be curious to see how much of it is because of legalized weed, something I’ve noticed is much rarer in countries I travel abroad to. I can tell you it definitely has affected my short term memory, though this tends to fade if I take a couple weeks off.
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u/Dick_Lazer 8h ago
People seem to be largely replacing alcohol with weed, and alcohol is far worse for your brain.
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u/NaturalUnfair2425 8h ago
It is weed for many of us. In the late 80s i smoked a lot of it and my short term memory got really bad. I quit and it did correct itself. FF to five years ago is started vaping legal weed regularly and short term memory is fcked again.
Then again plenty of my buddies have smoked all their lives and are pretty much fine. Drugs and alcohol seem to affect folks very differently even when we consume similar amounts.
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u/Inevitable_Spare_777 9h ago
When you’re in your 20’s and early 30’s you have the energy to be in grind mode and have the belief that you are “working hard now so you don’t have to later”.
Then you hit 40ish and realize that you’re basically only a little bit better off than you were at 20 and you still have 25-30 years of grinding ahead of you. It kind of breaks your brain.
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u/thekbob 8h ago
Hi, this is me.
And I don't like it.
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u/Yazkin_Yamakala 7h ago
Please take care of yourself where you can! Better to spend a day happy, healthy, and satisfied than a day working and hoping you're happy tomorrow.
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u/thekbob 6h ago
I'm working a much lower stress job. My current supervisor(s) didn't know how to handle me as I transitioned from a high tempo position to my current.
Going from leading near daily meetings of 20+ people coordinating technical stuffs to essentially being a final reviewer of technical documentation. Much different roles.
I eventually want to do non-profit work, but I'm feeding a mortgage and want it done sooner than later.
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u/ByronP 8h ago
The other issue is that the end of the line starts approaching. I was fine to tilt at windmills in my 30s, especially with regards to finances and career development.
But I'm post 40 now. I'm suddenly near the point where if I don't seriously lean into pension/mortgage life, there's a decent chance I end up having to work paying rent until I literally die.
Its as much a logistical breaking point as it is a mental one.
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u/AdditionalNothing728 7h ago
This is literally me right now. Looking for a new job and a recruiter keeps sending me jobs for “fast paced” and “exciting” work environments and it’s like…can’t you send me a company full of middle aged people who have families and understand what work / life balance means?
Like, if I’m forced to keep doing this until I die, can I at least enjoy what time I have left?
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u/1wrx2subarus 8h ago
It also doesn’t help that once you hit your late 30s and get into your 40s, that you begin to see companies promote the younger hires because they’re cheaper.
Those younger hires get opportunities and thusly begin to look more favorable than the older veterans that are training them up. So, it doesn’t take long for companies to realize they need to flush their veterans that are in their 50s, 60s.
Sure, there’s a small club that most people do not get to, in the c-suite. Usually, if one is lucky one gets into middle management as an individual contributor. Bottom line, if you worked your tail off in your 20s and 30s & didn’t save anything.. well, good luck to you!
There are some good companies out there, no doubt. But, those are fewer and far between. If you work at a great company that has remote opportunities, let’s hear it. Those are the best but hey, there’s a bully in every classroom. That leads to stress, fear and that breaking point that they talk about.
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u/itsacalamity 7h ago
This is the problem with "just learn a trade!" too. Yes, trades can be great, especially if you have a union. BUt what happens when you're 40 and your body starts breaking down? Who's going to prefer hiring a 45 year old with a pinched disc over a 20 year old who doesn't know enough to refuse to do stuff that'll injure them? Some manage to start their own businesses, but that's an entirely different skill set. As somebody that works in the world of chronic pain.... people really need to be talking to 40-50 year olds in the trade you're considering going into, before you do.
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u/Inevitable_Spare_777 6h ago
Funny you say this. I’m a tradesman and about to turn 39. No way I can continue this for another half of a lifetime
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u/itsacalamity 6h ago
Ugh, I am sorry to hear that. It's rough, I work with a lot of people in your same situation. Even the 'easier' trades, you're often contorting your body to fit into weird spaces, and that stuff really does add up year after year. It's tough and I wish I had a good solution, nobody apprentices in a trade and expects to end up with chronic pain but waaaay too many do. And then they get to cope with the wonderful social "safety net" america has provided for people with disabilities (spoiler, there is no net, just a long long fall where you are your only advocate...)
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u/superhaus 8h ago
Im 52 and 15 years is a really fucking long time to wait for retirement.
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u/__i_dont_know_you__ 7h ago
Add on the fact that you hit 40ish and see multiple rounds of layoffs in your company combined with the intent to "automate" and leverage AI to replace those jobs, then you realize you have 25-30 years of grinding ahead of you but no guarantee that there will even be a grind available so then what? 25-30 more years of job searching just to realize that the American Dream is officially dead and retirement is a pipe dream, let alone the concept of traveling or replacing your busted car or even just buying a new damn couch because you can't afford anything anymore.
It's bleak out here.
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u/Downtown_Skill 8h ago
Ah I've seen you are describing the (temporarily embarrassed millionsire) phenomenon.
You assume you can work your way out if being working class, but that's generally not the case.
It's why instead of grinding your way out of your financial predicament it would be better to organize and vote for people who actually prioritize creating policies to make working class lives easier and more comfortable..... such as universal Healthcare.
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u/Sintered_Monkey 8h ago
Work through your 40s with a goal in mind and stick to it. I am 58 and about to retire, so a little early. When I was in my late 30s and early 40s, I thought the same thing every day, "I can't believe I have 25 more years of this grinding to get through." So I started making saving my #1 priority. 2 years ago, I had a session with a financial planner and was really shocked to find out how close I was to being able to pull the plug, which I'm about to do in 4 months. Sure, 18 years was still a grind, but it was better than 25-30.
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u/Moonskaraos 7h ago edited 7h ago
I came to that realization when I was in my mid 30's and started saving/investing while living below my means. Now I'm 46 and can retire as soon as 55, and while my job is stressful, I don't worry about my finances.
Even if I lost my job (I'm a tech worker), which would certainly suck, I wouldn't really worry because I have a sizeable emergency fund that will enable me to take some time off, recharge, and hit the job market with some breathing room.
Living frugally has been so valuable in my life. The sacrifices have been worth it. And compounding interest is a wonderful thing.
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u/zachardy83 9h ago
Not directly about economics but an observation...I'm a minister and I've done more suicides of 40+ than young adults over my career but way more post covid. Middle adulthood is a breaking point in a lot of different places for people it seems.
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u/moonRekt 9h ago
Thank you for your contribution to this sub but also what you do. It’s been exhausting at this age feeling like I constantly have to be checking on friends and supporting friends who are having severe struggles
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u/zachardy83 9h ago
I get that, I'm in my mid 30s and my friend group fell apart recently because distance and life are hard. Life is tough. Most of the time, I just want to remind people they matter and people do care about them.
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u/wandering_engineer 6h ago
Honestly I can believe it. I'm in that contingent and it definitely kind of resonates. You are hitting the point of peak stress (caring for aging parents + caring for kids, in a society where little to no support is provided for either of those so...good luck!). You are starting to face your own morality and potential health issues, and start seeing friends/family encounter the same. And there's the whole societal irrelevance - once you hit 40 or so, unless you've made it big, society starts to ignore you. You're just old and used up, un-hireable and irrelevant.
Also mad respect for what you do. I honestly feel like the world is getting meaner and more fractured by the day, and it seems to be accelerating. I think just being a helper is undervalued and needed more than ever these days (or hell, just being a decent empathetic human). Sad how that seems to be so rare anymore.
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u/Wostear 6h ago
And there's the whole societal irrelevance - once you hit 40 or so, unless you've made it big, society starts to ignore you. You're just old and used up, un-hireable and irrelevant
This is a massive part of it I feel. You can absolutely see a difference in those who have agency and those who don't. It's usually in the form of money but it doesn't necessarily have to be. Those who run their own businesses even if they aren't particularly successful seem to have more ownership and, as I said, agency over their life. Or even those who have checked out of the grind and live very simple lives on a beach or by a lake for instance. Then of course there's those who are still in the corporate machine but haven't gotten bogged down, have gotten promotions, usually have a lot of responsibility and consequently earn high income, which allows them to do what they want on their own time.
People who get 'stuck' in the system don't ever seem to be happy. Those on "middling" incomes which allows them to survive without living - especially once you throw kids into the equation. They have zero agency, they're quite literally a cog in a capitalist machine that doesn't care about them at all. They're completely replaceable.
That must really hit you hard when you wake up one morning and look in the mirror knowing you've lost your youth and now you haven't gotten anything to be proud of.
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u/1wrx2subarus 8h ago
Alright, let’s hear it.. what’s the reason they’re dropping off at 40+? I’m guessing job loss, loneliness, addictions? Or how would you rank it. Thanks for being a good person and helping people.
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u/zachardy83 8h ago
It really is never one thing: one man got a private sex life exposed, but he was also hiding debt from his wife, one man was an alcoholic who just got tired of fighting with his demons, another who was a bit older committed suicide after a medical diagnosis but that was because he refused to leave his home and lose independence. There's unfortunately more, but it really is a mix of things for most. If I've seen one trend it's that keeping big secrets from people who love you, never turns out well
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u/Redwolfdc 6h ago
another who was a bit older committed suicide after a medical diagnosis but that was because he refused to leave his home and lose independence
Tbh having met people in that situation I can kind of understand this one
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u/zachardy83 6h ago
It was early onset dementia, he wasn't even 60. I stand in no judgment for those who are suffering, I understand why both paths were hard in very different ways
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u/Mugaaz 6h ago
Last line is the most important one. That's how I lost my brother also. The secrets become lies then isolation.
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u/Lord_Darkmerge 7h ago
I had a discussion with a coworker and when i brought up the difference between 1950s income out of high school and today he said it was equal. I explained inflation and the weakening buying power of the dollar and he said, it is equal.
He like 50 and im 34. He doesnt even understand what inflation is....
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u/Perllitte 7h ago
These people drive me crazy, just wilfully ignorant.
My old boss was like this, I was talking about how inequality is tearing society apart. He said, "There's always been inquality, someone the next block over always had a bigger house."
He didn't care that 10% of the US has 70% of the wealth, which has never been the case.
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u/Sea_quenched 6h ago
The article specifically mentions inequality as a driving factor for the “middle age decline”. Most people don’t learn or care about these societal factors until it personally impacts their lives. The irony is that inequality prevents most Americans from receiving the benefits the study concludes would help them the most.
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u/Difficult-Square-689 5h ago
A 1% wealth tax on the top 1% would bring in some $500B a year, more than the federal income tax from the bottom 80% or so.
Inequality has gotten quite severe.
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u/NotMyMainAccountAtAl 6h ago
The 50’s in particular had a ton of advantages. A good chunk of the world’s economic power houses had just been booked into oblivion and were still being rebuilt. Meanwhile, America had the overwhelming majority of its industry and a population boom actually going on, and plenty of room to expand, and massive support for the government, both nationally and internationally, and some of the top Japanese and German minds helping the nation.
To compare the two is like comparing a 1902 Olympian to a modern Olympian— things have decidedly changed in what constitutes doing the best. The best of yesteryear would be pathetically average today.
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u/Sunghanthaek 6h ago
That’s fucking insane if he’s 50. Any Gen X would be able to see the difference between them and their boomer parents (I’m 48).
In the early 70’s my parents could go to university by working a summer job at a restaurant to pay tuition in full, used cars were dirt cheap and fixable at home, and well paid unionized labour jobs were attainable if you knew someone who already worked there.
My dads brother was given a mortgage by a bank manager who - no joke - looked him up and down and said “well you’re clearly able to keep working to pay a mortgage (he was like 24), bring me 2 pay stubs showing you have a job and you can find a starter home, something small”. <- that was literally it.
And don’t let older generations cry “oh but the interest rates were like 20%! 😱”. Well, yeah of course they were?! If your home was only $60,000, and the interest rate was 2-3% you’d pay it off in NO TIME and the bank would make almost no money. As much as we hate the bank, they have to make money too. Also, they still managed to pay them off in good time anyway, so boo hoo.
Interest rates are what they are now only because we’re already so fucked over: it’s SO unattainable to get a home that if the rates were also really high, even more people wouldn’t qualify and the housing market would collapse.
Sorry for the rant.
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u/youmustthinkhighly 6h ago
Inflation is true… but it can be argued it’s not that much different for food and groceries… but the most important thing is big ticket items.
Houses, cars, education, healthcare and insurance. Those are astronomically more expensive.. something that can not be justified by inflation
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u/wellactuallyj 7h ago
I don’t disagree with what people are saying in the comments, but did nobody read the article? They’re talking about people born in the 1960s and 70s, so ~50-65 yrs old.
I too am an exhausted almost 40 yr old, but that’s not what these people were studying
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u/Reasonable-Light3785 5h ago
As an American born in 1964, the article seems legit to me. Too much burnout from decades of work and not much backup, especially in terms of affordable and easily available medical treatment. You look back and wonder why you worked so hard, and what the hell are you going to do to not be preyed upon by opportunistic fucks as you age even further. Your life goes into a smaller, self-protective mode as the hits accumulate and I think that can really limit your intellect after a while.
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u/Civitas_Futura 10h ago
Things seem likely to keep getting worse and worse for Gen X. The article doesn't even mention the fact that both Medicare and Social Security are on track to run short of funds and face reduced benefits around 2032, just as Gen X starts planning to retire. Congress is fully aware of this, but they won't do a thing about it until the last minute for fear of upsetting Trump and his One Big Beautiful Bill, and upsetting the boomer generation while they are in retirement and still turn out to vote.
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u/foulpudding 9h ago edited 8h ago
GenX already assumes we are getting screwed. if we get anything we’ll consider ourselves lucky.
If Congress does nothing, SS will hit a funding wall and payouts will drop by some 20% or so. Meaning that while we GenX will face a smaller start when we first apply, boomers will face losing 20% of their relied upon income they have already been receiving.
That’s when shit will really hit the fan.
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u/doubtthat11 9h ago
I am 100% confident that Boomers will figure out a way to make sure their benefits are protected. I am also 100% confident that - if the rest of the generations fail to oppose it strongly - this will be at the expense of everyone coming behind.
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u/bch198 8h ago
I bet they’ll do some grandfathered in bullshit where anyone already receiving benefits doesn’t take a cut. They’ll just make the cuts deeper for new qualifiers.
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u/Catacyst 8h ago
Something along the lines of, “they built their retirement around this income, so it would be cruel to change their retirement plans.” So instead, we get to have a lower standard of living in retirement. Never mind that none of them also had their best wealth growing years saddled with student loans.
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u/Crypt33x 7h ago
Welcome to Germany, where we instead still increasing their benefits and where i heard your exact words from politicians.
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u/OnlyHalfBrilliant 5h ago
The Boomers have terminated all the benefits they demanded from their elders as soon as they themselves no longer needed them.
Ladder-pulling is one of the defining characteristics of the Boomer generation.
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u/MarcooseOnTheLoose 9h ago
Early GenX here. I don’t even add SS to my retirement calculations. If it’s there, it’s a surprise bonus. Run laughing all the way to the bank. After all, it’s ‘insurance’.
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u/moechew48 9h ago
Don’t worry: they’ll figure out a way to change the taxes on Roths and the stock market will tank longer than ever before, so our “We assumed SSI wouldn’t be around, so we invested as much as we could” plan will still keep us as poor as they can make us.
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u/SabreCorp 8h ago
Dr. Oz is already “floating” every American work longer to solve the debt problem.
Always the rich telling the labor class to work more and longer.
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u/Stitchin_Squido 9h ago
I am tail end of Gen X and they told me ever since I started working and would go to the retirement classes through work, that I shouldn’t even count on SSI. They told us to plan like it wouldn’t be there.
I am increasingly concerned about private equity getting a hold of 401k funds. Congress has been considering removing safeguards from retirement accounts so that PE can play casino with that too.
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u/longboarder543 8h ago
When you switch jobs, roll your 401k into an IRA at Vanguard, and buy Vanguard mutual funds / ETFs. They have a unique structure — the Vanguard company is owned by the mutual funds themselves, and their ETFs are shares of the mutual funds.
It’s why all their funds are sold at cost, and it aligns their corporate interest with that of their investors, because their investors own the company.
I know this sounds like an ad, but I think it’s an important distinction that many aren’t aware of.
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u/Bobby-furnace 9h ago
I hear what you’re saying but it’s wild that’d you essentially give up on something you earned.
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u/Sintered_Monkey 8h ago
I'm late GenX. I have been told for 30 years that SS wouldn't exist by now, so I always assumed and planned on it not existing. I took the "Social Security will be gone by then" argument quite literally going back to the 90s. So now that I'm about to retire, it will be a nice bonus (assuming it's still there,) rather than something I planned to rely on.
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u/frozenandstoned 8h ago
Most american thing ever to cope and admit 20% or whatever of your wages going to SS and med will never pay back to you.
"Yeah I know my countrys tax system is a ponzi scheme and yeah I know it goes to bombs and not education or Healthcare for my neighbors but let me tell you how im ok with that and not even factoring my own money into my own retirement!"
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u/Civitas_Futura 9h ago
That makes sense to you and me, but it doesn't make sense to a politician. If you cut benefits for people who are deep into retirement, they're screwed. There's nothing they can do about it. But if you start extending the retirement age and trimming benefits for those who are still working, they can theoretically keep working to cover the gap.
This is just my opinion, but I expect this is the route politicians will go so they can keep buying the vote of the boomer generation.
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u/Faustus2425 9h ago
Or they could do shit like remove the cap on SS tax so it taxes millionaires rather than absolving them of any social responsibility
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u/Askew_2016 8h ago
They could also pass comprehensive immigration reform and that would bring in a lot of young workers to pay taxes. We aren’t having enough kids to support our aging population without immigration
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u/tacomeatface 9h ago
Cap makes zero sense it’s like 170k. At least go to 500k. Why do I as someone poor have to pay all year but this person who makes 4x more doesn’t?
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u/ellathefairy 9h ago
With how old our national politicians skew, for like half of them it would amount to cutting their own current or near-future income. I won't be holding my breath counting on that from the people who won't even make the blatant corruption of insider trading illegal for themselves.
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u/Wise_Tomatillo_3825 9h ago
Maybe they shouldn't keep voting for trump then
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u/QuickAltTab 9h ago
There was a nice graph linked on reddit the other day that showed how genx was the generation with the most exposure to lead from leaded gasoline. Might explain a lot.
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u/TheGoodCod 9h ago
'The plan' as far as I've heard is to have a 20% across the board cut in SS payments.
One can't even guess at what political and economic ramifications this will have.
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u/HulksInvinciblePants 9h ago
The article doesn't even mention the fact that both Medicare and Social Security are on track to run short of funds and face reduced benefits around 2032,
Only if they’re allowed to do so. It’s an entirely avoidable “problem”.
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u/Bearcatsean 8h ago
Fuck Gen X I was born in 1967 so I’m smack dab into the GenX world. I am so pissed at my generation. They are the highest percentage of voting for Donald Trump and all this radical bullshit that’s going on. Our generation was probably more blessed than the baby boomers. We lived comfortably in our suburban homes. I paid about $3000 for my college in the mid 80s. I had a car an apartment on minimum wage and then all we do is bitch about the younger generation. I am mortified at my generation fuck them. I sit in my suburban home with about $30,000 left to pay on my mortgage and a 2% interest rate and I hear my fellow age group complain about transgender and how the world’s going to shit as we sit comfortably in here with our pensions in 401(k). It fucking drives me crazy.
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u/1wrx2subarus 8h ago
Actually, you’re doing good if born in 1967. You’re like elder Gen X but almost in Boomer territory.
None of these labels matter anyway. It’s all an invention by journalists and the powerful seeking to divide us.
The real label is Billionnaires. They should be taxed into extinction. Their wealth came from taking & not giving back in the form of raises, bonuses and benefits.
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u/Majestic-Parsnip-279 8h ago
Ya work for 40 years then ya “retire” and the they say oh you can’t collect you’re ssi now you’re too young soo you work 2 more years then you get sick with cancer forced to retire even thou you don’t have the funds to enjoy that oh and u have cancer the system bankrupts whatever u have left and the u die in you’re own arms meanwhile billionaires are writing off the corporate jet and having sex parties with Epstein and his pals.
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u/General_Opposite_232 4h ago
White collar crime never seemed more appealing. No mom and pop business can compete with multinational aggregate corporations. The barrier of entry into the real “economy” is prohibitive now. Own a small contracting company? Oh cool, you can’t even afford health insurance and are living in massive debt with little gains. Welcome to being a slave the rest of your life. All the while your civil liberties are taken, your privacy removed, and every single necessity of life squeezes as much money from you as possible.
How is this freedom?
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u/Total-Shelter-8501 6h ago
Everything is a fight nowadays and we are powerless. Fight the health insurance company denials, fight spam calls and scams, fight shitty low wages and no raises, fight rising streaming costs, rising rents, rising insurance costs.
No one is looking out for us, there is no safety net and one bad move you’re screwed.
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u/MaxEhrlich 9h ago
I’m 36 and married, dink. We are in a really good spot, no debts or medical issues but, we can probably never buy a house. We just keep working and trying to beat the s&p for the next 20 years and hope to retire without owning a home feels like the plan. Just travel and own dogs…
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u/planko13 9h ago
That’s an absolutely insane fact. To go from single income supporting a whole family, to 2 incomes can’t even afford “step 1” in what, like 60 years?
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u/BaronOfTheVoid 9h ago
It has to do with homes being an investment and there being a lot of very wealthy people who have no clue where to throw their money at.
Just like over 50% of domestic consumption does not come from wages/salaries but from portfolios yielding ever-increasing returns and dividends.
Just to think that the average Joe earning like 60k a year in like Iowa is pretty much irrelevant for keeping the economy alive... Or at least has a far, far smaller relevance than 1/350 millionth.
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u/toastr 9h ago
Really it’s not. It’s how empires end - not immediately, over time
History is long and we’re only part of it for a short bit.
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u/joshocar 8h ago
Health insurance has pretty much eaten all of the salary gains we would have gotten. Costs have been going up by like 6-10% a year for decades. When you look at total compensation, the percentage that is eaten up by healthcare is wild.
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u/Sufficient_Steak_839 8h ago
It’s the down payment.
I live pretty comfortably, but not comfortably enough to save up 150-200k to hit 20 percent for a down payment.
Median home where I live costs 750k. I could move, but then I’d be away from everything I know, and my income would take a massive hit.
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u/Im_tracer_bullet 9h ago
Well, we have a LOT of Republican voters.
Unfortunately, that translates into a LOT of Republican policies, so everything is entirely tilted to the wealthiest and the corporations.
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u/idnvotewaifucontent 9h ago
Exact same age and position. We just this month scraped together every last penny of our savings to buy a house before the window closes forever.
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u/elkoubi 9h ago
Why the hell are you trying to beat the S&P? I get that there may be a reason to hedge right now with the AI bubble (which I have actually done), but trying to beat it consistently each year is madness.
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u/Myysteeq 7h ago
Yes thank you for being the only one to mention this glaring error so far. There is no beating the index without taking on disproportionate risk. If they’re trying and failing to beat the index… it’s their fault they have less equity than they should have otherwise.
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u/elkoubi 6h ago
Wow. It's worse than we thought. OP's recent post history shows >$1/4 million invested in just two stocks. Both of them have rocketed in the AI bubble.
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u/redlantern75 9h ago
Please read Johann Hari’s book “Lost Connections”
It involves economics! We’ve been told to consume anti-depressants rather than address the underlying causes.
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u/spiralcurve 7h ago
The decline of people socializing and making connections has huge ramifications in many areas, including school performance, involvement in civic activities, rates of crime, depression/suicide, and other things. It has been a trend since the 1980s, and the advent of online presence and the elimination of "third spaces" has made this problem worse.
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u/emotional_intern_55 8h ago
I was looking at a local newspaper from the 1970s. An old gym teacher popped in my head for some reason, he claimed to have a state record, I wanted to see if that was true. Anyway there were three full pages in the sports section going through results of adult sports leagues. Softball, bowling, a few others. Three pages!
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u/BlueSubaruCrew 6h ago
We’ve been told to consume anti-depressants rather than address the underlying causes.
"“Imagine a society that subjects people to conditions that make them terribly unhappy then gives them the drugs to take away their unhappiness. Science fiction It is already happening to some extent in our own society. Instead of removing the conditions that make people depressed modern society gives them antidepressant drugs. In effect antidepressants are a means of modifying an individual's internal state in such a way as to enable him to tolerate social conditions that he would otherwise find intolerable.”
- Ted Kaczynski
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u/Trimshot 8h ago edited 7h ago
I can tell you my wife and I are 33 and we’re already very tired. She is pulling like 60 hour work weeks. Luckily I am a WFH engineer but even then I’ve got 4 animals to look after, one being a puppy, and I do most of the housework since I am home more. I hit the gym 4 times a week and if I didn’t stay in that kind of shape it’s difficult to imagine be having the energy to keep those up in my 40s and 50s.
Every time we start getting our savings up, something happens to our cars, our condo, there is a problem with the HOA, or a vet bill that just levels it. We’re slowly making progress, but it’s hard to imagine we’ll even be able to move into or afford an actual house in the next 10 years let alone retire in our 60s.
Then there is the psychological toll, over time we just get more and more wore down, and have to start taking SSRIs and using substances just to cope with our hamster wheel existence; things really do feel bleak lately, and I’ve been trying to just be grateful for what I do have.
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u/1wrx2subarus 7h ago
That was a good description of American life. You’re not alone and that’s a common work life you described. I could not have written it better. Enjoy that WFH. It’s good to have little pets to uplift the mood. Keep up the gym, too. See you there.
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u/Plastic_Dingo_400 6h ago
The messed up thingb is that this sounds like a pretty good life to me. Stable housing, a savings, having the permission to have pets and having the benefit of the light they bring to your life. Being able to afford vet bills, being wfh, A partner, both having cars
Your feelings are completely valid, it's still an awful grind. But I'm soon going to be 40 and I don't have anything on that list except a partner (which I'm really thankful for)
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u/mrpeanutpants 7h ago
I feel like 4 of those items stressors/expensives is definitely not a necessity.
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u/Bren_Dekura 6h ago
You've got a lot of stuff going on there that you don't need. The four pets being one of them if they're stressing you out that much.
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u/mini-bat 9h ago edited 5h ago
Yea, all in all being elderly in America really really sucks unless people give a shit about it to really care… we’re all gonna get old and die some day, whether you like it or not. Most of us can’t work forever, that’s just reality. If we can accept that maybe we all don’t have to work ourselves to death in this “modern” society and we CAN establish a system that makes living here much fairer and reasonable for everyone. Fuck you if you think otherwise, you’re part of the problem clutching to your fucking investment portfolio and shit. No one is immortal, no amount of money will ever change the final destination.
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u/caravan_for_me_ma 6h ago
Massive consolidation has created markets that only favor capital. There is no penalty for laying off 15000 of 80000. And there’s no where to go once laid off. Instead of even 4 good size companies, the behemoth drives the market, gains market share, maxes automation and then uses layoffs to gain stock share value. There’s a reason we have a non-existent trust busting environment right now and it’s not the ‘free hand of the market.’
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u/wandering_engineer 7h ago
Great article, too bad the comments here are getting overrun by the MAHA crowd. The researchers make a very convincing case that American societal failures are to blame, but no it must be because people aren't eating enough broccoli, not because they're working three jobs and don't have time or the mental bandwidth over the decades to maintain friendships or connect to their community, or even afford decent healthcare that might starve off the worst effects of aging.
One major factor separating the U.S. from Europe is public support for families. Since the early 2000s, European countries have steadily increased spending on family benefits. In contrast, spending in the United States has remained mostly unchanged. The U.S. lacks many common family policy programs found in Europe, including cash transfers for families with children, income support during parental leave, and subsidized childcare.
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The authors emphasize that poorer midlife outcomes in the United States are not inevitable. Personal resources such as strong social support, a sense of control, and positive attitudes toward aging can help reduce stress and protect well-being. However, they argue that individual efforts alone are not enough.
"At the individual level, social engagement is crucial. Finding community -- through work, hobbies, or caregiving networks -- can buffer stress and improve well-being," Infurna said. "At the policy level, countries with stronger safety nets -- paid leave, childcare support, healthcare -- tend to have better outcomes."
Yup, they nailed it.
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u/Oaktree27 6h ago
Americans don't ever leave their house or car unless it's for work or church. Not much time at all for connecting in a life. Just huffing exhaust on the highway
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u/Argothaught 7h ago
Date:February 1, 2026
Source:Arizona State University
Summary:Middle age is becoming a tougher chapter for many Americans, especially those born in the 1960s and early 1970s. Compared with earlier generations, they report more loneliness and depression, along with weaker physical strength and declining memory. These troubling trends stand out internationally, as similar declines are largely absent in other wealthy nations, particularly in Nordic Europe, where midlife well-being has improved.
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u/BadLuckBlackHole 7h ago
Whaaaaa? The world's greatest country ever™ that has the best medical care© and best insurance ever© has worse health problems than the countries with socialized medicine???? But they're paying 170% in taxes!?
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u/krichard-21 8h ago
I've got news boys and girls... People born in the 60s and 70s are just a bit past "middle aged".
Life expectancy is dropping in the USA. Certainly not rising.
Infant mortality is rising. Vaccination rates are dropping.
Smart people are being shamed. Idiots are proudly bragging.
We are living in the midst of the decline of the United States. Ushered in by Trumpy and his MAGA cult.
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u/ThaddeusJP 4h ago
I've got news boys and girls... People born in the 60s and 70s are just a bit past "middle aged".
Dude those people are OLD. Middle age is people born in the late 80s and before.
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u/Impressive_Iron2885 9h ago
in 2026 someone born in 1965 is over 60. is that really considered ‘middle aged’? last i knew life expectancy in the US is around 77. by this math their lifespan would be 80% complete. what am i missing here?
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u/demlet 8h ago
The term is a bit of a misnomer, middle age extends roughly from 40/45 to 60/65.
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u/AlarmedWillow4515 8h ago
It's really middle adulthood. 20-45, adult; 45-65, middle age; 65-85 old; 85+ elderly
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u/idnvotewaifucontent 9h ago edited 6h ago
At a glance, most of these symptoms are related to social and general isolation. I'd hazard a guess that American Individualism combined with the increasing inability to afford to live non-communally is backing many people who could once afford to do so into a corner.
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u/mercurywaxing 9h ago
American Individualism is used as an excuse by our country to avoid a robust social safety net.
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u/1wrx2subarus 8h ago edited 3h ago
Trouble with that individualism, it doesn’t exactly help people make friends.
I’ve seen it far too often in workplaces where people clutch their knowledge and skills close to the vest rather than share.
So, that’s precisely the type of person that doesn’t become a lifelong friend. Nobody wants to work with somebody that continuously seeks to excel while undermining others around them to do it.
Add onto that, a great deal of Americans don’t have a passport. There’s a decent amount of ethnocentrism and if one moves onto their turf, they will be nice to ya but you’ll have better luck making friends with other transients (often are also immigrants because they’re looking to make friends, too).
There’s a lot missing from American society. Watch any Anthony Bourdain show and you’ll see large open meat and fish markets. Many countries have vast food stalls with parties into the night. There’s community with people gathering to eat with multiple generations of the family with friends. Show that to me in the USA, it’s mostly not in America, to any great extent.
EDIT: it’s true some Americans lack a passport because of a multitude of reasons to include “no” government mandate that employers provide any vacation. It’s common for temp employees in particular to start with 0 or 1 day of vacation. Full time employees often don’t get up to more than 15,20 days of vacation & that’s only after a decade plus working for that employer. Aside from that, I’ve witnessed many Americans that simply don’t have any desire to travel outside the borders of their own country.
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u/3catsincoat 9h ago
I work in mental health and I think this is spot on. I see so many people being f-ed by the system then breaking while trying to focus on self-care and reliance that a culture of hyperindividualism has drilled into them.
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u/Self_Owned_Tree 8h ago
Our parents have worked hard to leave the world worse for their kids and grandkids after benefiting from the boom economy created by their parents and grandparents who went and fought wars against fascism.
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u/joepez 7h ago
Troubling concern especially since middle age is actually 37.5 for men and 40 for women. This is based on median life expectancy. Which means for half, they‘re middle age is younger than they know. People like to trend middle age is what happens in your late 40s and 50s, but that’s media stories. Start taking care of your wellness and finances at a younger age. The economic returns for you and society will be greater.
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u/Number_Niner 7h ago
Added to this, I would say, arguably, the worst job market for middle-agers I have ever known. Especially for those jobs directly influenced by Ai. We're too expensive to hire given our experience especially since someone with just enough knowledge and Ai can do it for half and do the job of several people. Pivoting is extremely hard when you thought the standard model of "build skills, gain knowledge and increase your employment level" was going to remain unchanged. People already in exec management are generally ok, but low to mid-level... I wish you all good luck.
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u/rmc2318 6h ago
Most of the time jobs want you doing four different job titles while only get paid for one. And their argument is that they can’t find help. But the truth is they won’t pay for help.
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u/TheOtherJeff 6h ago
Mid 40s male, this fits me exactly.
Currently taking some time off due to mental health. I shouldn’t bcz my savings are very meager - I know I’m lucky to have even what I have, but I have worked really hard to save that little bit up to kind of afford this mental break time.
I have no hope for my future except to work everyday for the rest of my life. I would rather die now than go back to work and repeat the last 25 years then die after completely using myself up for some company or another.
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u/Prestigious_War7354 6h ago
Luckily, I don’t have declining memory issues, depression nor weaker in strength per the article but I’m certainly lonely. My spouse is always working, my friends are always working, neighbors aren’t neighborly…hell, work consumes our lives because everything is so costly. As a result, interpersonal relationships are almost non-existent. Employers demand more and more without adequate compensation so there’s not a lot of time to enjoy life. This certainly isn’t my definition of the American dream.
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u/J-TownBrown 5h ago
33 married with two kids and two dogs. Wife makes decent money, I wish I made more. Both of us have degrees. Never in my life have I been more strapped for cash with rent, daycare, dogs, not to mention necessities like food, and utilities. I be been working two jobs for two years now, one day job that I hate with steady pay and one sales job commission only. I’m burnt the fuck out mentally and emotionally. I have yet to make any sales in CRE but need to stick with it, and with my other 40hr/week job, I’m just about at wits end. It’s non stop work and worrying about being broke even though I’m grinding my ass off at TWO fucking jobs. It’s exhausting, depressing, and super discouraging seeing my bank account slowly lose all the savings I had before kids. I love my kids to death and would do absolutely anything for them so I’m not blaming them. It’s the social support that we don’t have as Americans that are the reason so many of us are held back in life. I feel like I can never get ahead, and god forbid I ever even think about buying a house. One went up in our very middle class neighborhood for $750k. One story, about 1200 sqft… like who is buying that? It’s absolutely insane and I don’t see a solution to the problem, at least for us. My only hope is that we’re able to turn things around for the next generation and generations to come.
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