"boomers can stay irrational longer than I can stay solvent" - it's why I don't buy new things when avoidable. They're all cheap facsimiles, or ultra luxury handmade. In some ways it's a reversion to most of history, aristocracy could afford highest quality items across the board, rest could afford one shirt, one chair, etc. so I buy Antique or vintage furniture, salvaged wood, used cars (toyota/lexus only). Trying to find value in a world where everyone has forgotten what quality is.
Great Episode! I work in healthcare with boomers and his analysis is spot on with my own experience with physician practices, hospitals, and the demographics of senior management.
It escapes me how deferring gratification to save money and invest in one's 401K is "selfish". It is not selfish. The fact that subsequent generations are facing an inability to save due to out of control government spending, an unregulated Federal Reserve printing money that is never audited, and mass invasion means simply that it is increasingly difficult for people to save money today. That doesn't change a good habit of saving and investing into an evil habit perpetrated by selfish villains.
Yeah, I think generally people like Sean are referring to a specific slice of the upper middle class that acts like Scrooge rather than savers generally
There is a segment of the population that cares more about cruises, golf, etc than family legacy. Up until maybe two generations ago, that would have been viewed as the height of selfishness and irresponsibility/fecklessness, as the goal of the successful was almost always to better the circumstances of their family
On the other hand, there are many who live and invest for that old tradition, and they are great
Generally the selfish moniker is used, as I think it was here, to refer to the types who sit on wealth like Smaug except fur wanting to spend it on certain feckless pleasures
The guest is doing a good job of pointing out "zombie capital" in the market is not genuinely productive and is just an asset bubble, so he's saying that boomers are going to face a market drop. I'm not sure. Possibly his case is that it would be selfish of boomers to think they have a right to a retirement stream of income from high 401k balances when the whole economy is a ghost market. (I might not be understanding him.) Thanks for your input. You make good points as well. I think I cut out on him when he said "selfish" and he was making his points later perhaps. :) He's doing a good job. Thanks.
Ah zombie capital means money left in companies that are unproductive but are propped up by cheap debt and benefit in terms of stock price by being part of an index
Theoretically that money, whether in a 401k or otherwise, would leave them and find something more productive to invest in. It largely hasn’t because of the increasingly sclerotic nature of the passive bid-driven equity markets
I think his point is that such a situation can’t last, and is irresponsible
This isn't just about the young generation anymore. People 30 to 50 have lost their income and soon theirs savings. It's even worse than portrayed here, which is staggering.
And government financing has already run out. The next cycle must be the mass culling of assets, corporations, labor, and finally the beneficiaries of this failure - the civilizational gamblers.
Great discussion, thank you! Love the "mercenary behavior" bit about women at the work force, so well put.
Wow, Sean is great. So cool to hear someone succinctly tie together what were in my mind disparate ideas and framings related through a general skepticism of the progressive and modern: fraud of the whole macro climate, criminal inflation of asset prices, the degeneration of actual productive capacity, but also the generational dynamics, and the ultimate solution of something closer to self sufficiency / small communities, for when the fall cometh...
I'm an older millennial so sort of lucky to have just got some purchase on career growth into the fake (tech) economy, was able to afford my first home after five years of looking, but inwardly I pretty much totally reject the modern project... feel somewhat caught between my (relatively recent conversion to) Orthodox Christianity on the one hand, with its rejection of modern epistemology, and selling b2b software on the other. The saving grace is living basically in the woods, and trying to build competence in physical things, and enlist those around me, so this resonated deeply.
It seems this cycle of excess has been around in one form or another since Roman times or earlier, so I guess we are just the latest iteration...
"boomers can stay irrational longer than I can stay solvent" - it's why I don't buy new things when avoidable. They're all cheap facsimiles, or ultra luxury handmade. In some ways it's a reversion to most of history, aristocracy could afford highest quality items across the board, rest could afford one shirt, one chair, etc. so I buy Antique or vintage furniture, salvaged wood, used cars (toyota/lexus only). Trying to find value in a world where everyone has forgotten what quality is.
Very smart
Now is a great time for getting antiques, as many younger people don’t see the value in the older, better stuff
“If printing money created value, then everyone in Zimbabwe would be a trillionaire.”
Lazerbeam quote
I was laughing quite hard when he said that. So good
Great Episode! I work in healthcare with boomers and his analysis is spot on with my own experience with physician practices, hospitals, and the demographics of senior management.
I did a deep dive on the hospital situation awhile back. It is particularly concerning, it seems
have you seen the private equity in healthcare issue crop up?
I have dealt with them frequently. It’s a real problem.
It escapes me how deferring gratification to save money and invest in one's 401K is "selfish". It is not selfish. The fact that subsequent generations are facing an inability to save due to out of control government spending, an unregulated Federal Reserve printing money that is never audited, and mass invasion means simply that it is increasingly difficult for people to save money today. That doesn't change a good habit of saving and investing into an evil habit perpetrated by selfish villains.
Yeah, I think generally people like Sean are referring to a specific slice of the upper middle class that acts like Scrooge rather than savers generally
There is a segment of the population that cares more about cruises, golf, etc than family legacy. Up until maybe two generations ago, that would have been viewed as the height of selfishness and irresponsibility/fecklessness, as the goal of the successful was almost always to better the circumstances of their family
On the other hand, there are many who live and invest for that old tradition, and they are great
Generally the selfish moniker is used, as I think it was here, to refer to the types who sit on wealth like Smaug except fur wanting to spend it on certain feckless pleasures
The guest is doing a good job of pointing out "zombie capital" in the market is not genuinely productive and is just an asset bubble, so he's saying that boomers are going to face a market drop. I'm not sure. Possibly his case is that it would be selfish of boomers to think they have a right to a retirement stream of income from high 401k balances when the whole economy is a ghost market. (I might not be understanding him.) Thanks for your input. You make good points as well. I think I cut out on him when he said "selfish" and he was making his points later perhaps. :) He's doing a good job. Thanks.
Ah zombie capital means money left in companies that are unproductive but are propped up by cheap debt and benefit in terms of stock price by being part of an index
Theoretically that money, whether in a 401k or otherwise, would leave them and find something more productive to invest in. It largely hasn’t because of the increasingly sclerotic nature of the passive bid-driven equity markets
I think his point is that such a situation can’t last, and is irresponsible
This isn't just about the young generation anymore. People 30 to 50 have lost their income and soon theirs savings. It's even worse than portrayed here, which is staggering.
And government financing has already run out. The next cycle must be the mass culling of assets, corporations, labor, and finally the beneficiaries of this failure - the civilizational gamblers.
Great discussion, thank you! Love the "mercenary behavior" bit about women at the work force, so well put.
V good discussion. Thanks, guys!
Thanks!
Finished listening, some more thoughts:
Wow, Sean is great. So cool to hear someone succinctly tie together what were in my mind disparate ideas and framings related through a general skepticism of the progressive and modern: fraud of the whole macro climate, criminal inflation of asset prices, the degeneration of actual productive capacity, but also the generational dynamics, and the ultimate solution of something closer to self sufficiency / small communities, for when the fall cometh...
I'm an older millennial so sort of lucky to have just got some purchase on career growth into the fake (tech) economy, was able to afford my first home after five years of looking, but inwardly I pretty much totally reject the modern project... feel somewhat caught between my (relatively recent conversion to) Orthodox Christianity on the one hand, with its rejection of modern epistemology, and selling b2b software on the other. The saving grace is living basically in the woods, and trying to build competence in physical things, and enlist those around me, so this resonated deeply.
It seems this cycle of excess has been around in one form or another since Roman times or earlier, so I guess we are just the latest iteration...