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The billionaire, who chairs the world's largest asset manager, kicked off his 2024 letter to shareholders by telling his readers it is "time to rethink retirement" if they want to dodge America's looming "retirement crisis"

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[-] Astronut@lemmy.zip 47 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

Too late! I retired at 55 so I could see 65 (which I did! ). Fuck that fucking fucker!

Blackrock CEO should be hung by an angry mob.

[-] fyzzlefry@retrolemmy.com 9 points 2 weeks ago

This is the "both sides" I'm into.

[-] TheGoldenV@lemmy.world 35 points 2 weeks ago

Our life expectancy is down and we should keep working. For what exactly? Just to continue mucking along hand to mouth so the epstine class can continue to live a dream life?

Nah dog, I say fuck you. Burn it down.

[-] impairedimperator@lemmy.zip 32 points 2 weeks ago

Counteroffer: I retire at 45 and don't have kids.

[-] ChonkyOwlbear@lemmy.world 24 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

That's like saying the food price crisis can be solved by not eating 2 days a week.

[-] adarza@lemmy.ca 14 points 2 weeks ago

that might have worked before, but now it's 3 days a week.

[-] kamenlady@lemmy.world 3 points 2 weeks ago

Come on, a cracker a week will do.

[-] violentfart@lemmy.world 2 points 2 weeks ago

What kind of crackers are we talking about?

[-] emmanuel_car@fedia.io 7 points 2 weeks ago

Wall Street investors.

[-] switcheroo@lemmy.world 20 points 2 weeks ago

I have a thought: there should be no billionaires.

Get bent, Epstein class parasite.

[-] DupaCycki@lemmy.world 20 points 2 weeks ago

"People should work 60 hours a week, until 70 years old, and raise at least 2 children to do the same."

~ Guy who's never worked an hour in his life, retired at 3 years old, and raised 0 children

[-] Frozengyro@lemmy.world 5 points 2 weeks ago

Don't forget they paid someone to raise their heirs

[-] Dogiedog64@lemmy.world 16 points 2 weeks ago
[-] hOrni@lemmy.world 13 points 2 weeks ago

Ok, but we get to shoot CEOs when they turn 50.

[-] frustrated_phagocytosis@fedia.io 9 points 2 weeks ago

This guy underestimates how brutal working is when you're body is falling apart because you have to ignore your health to keep working so you won't starve and lose your home. You cannot do this for decades and not just die before you ever retire.

[-] kent_eh@lemmy.ca 6 points 2 weeks ago

This guy underestimates how brutal working is when you're body is falling apart because you have to ignore your health to keep working

Let's put him on a roofing crew for a week and see if his opinion changes.

[-] lukaro@lemmy.zip 8 points 2 weeks ago

I'ts greed for a lot of them. My boss who I would never consider to be greedy person is 68 desperatly wants to retire and even with close to 10 mil in the bank he doesn't think he has enough to retire. I want him to retire only because I want to and I've sworne to ride this till the end with my boss.

[-] lobut@lemmy.ca 12 points 2 weeks ago

10 MIL and he doesn't think he has enough to retire? that's insane to me ... I wonder what his burn rate is ...

[-] Eddbopkins@lemmy.world 7 points 2 weeks ago

by the time im 65 this guy will be dead, so i dont give a fuck what he says.

[-] Brkdncr@lemmy.world 5 points 2 weeks ago

He’s not wrong and it’s not a money thing. It’s also not solely a US crisis. There simply won’t be enough people to do all the work, while a bunch of folks are retiring.

In fact the US is going to be better off than most since the millennials did their best in having families.

[-] Elting@piefed.social 12 points 2 weeks ago

Most jobs are pointless ones, we can get by with far fewer laborers than we currently have. Implement a UBI and watch how many people quit and never work again.

[-] Brkdncr@lemmy.world 5 points 2 weeks ago

It’s much more dire than that.

30% aren’t participating in the workforce right now. That’s going to increase to over 40% in the next 5 years.

Half of all farmers are at retirement age today.

When people retire they become a burden to the people that are not retired. They don’t simply disappear.

Also, you can’t take a programmer and put them into farming.

These are just small focused examples. Things are going to get really bad. The only way to fix it is a time machine that distributes wealth and housing to genx when they were young.

Another problem that countries will have from a depleted workforce is a lack of military personnel. Countries will not be able to defend their borders. Geopolitical instability will only get worse over the next 15 years.

[-] Elting@piefed.social 8 points 2 weeks ago

Farmers love complaining despite the fact that a farmers job is nothing like it was before mechanization. We can't continue farming like we do, it relies too heavily on the fossil fuel industry and ignores too much the environment it depends on. However, agricultural science is so far ahead of where it was 150 years ago that it is almost unbelievable. Very few people have to farm to support our needs (especially if we stopped consuming so much meat.) You will also never be able to convince a person like me that there not being enough laborers to send them to war is a real problem.

[-] Brkdncr@lemmy.world 5 points 2 weeks ago

Most countries don’t have the resources in their borders to produce everything they need. They trade for it.

You can’t trade with countries that are unstable. You also can’t trade if the trade routes are under fire.

The best example of this today is Hormuz but it extends beyond that single resource. Think about how many countries contribute to make a cpu, and what would happen if that got disrupted. Suddenly all the mechanization advancements in farming become a little more expensive, along with everything else.

China is experiencing some of the worst labor shortages today, and Taiwan will be within the blast radius of geopolitical unrest. Every advanced cpu is assembled in Taiwan, and depends on resources sourced from nearly ever country.

[-] Elting@piefed.social 4 points 2 weeks ago

Perhaps the paradigm of nation states isn’t suitable to our climate future.

[-] Smaile@lemmy.ca 3 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

Oh and tach nomads that just wander wherever, not paying into the nation they reside in are? Someone has to pay and a social collapse would destroy that idea real quick.

[-] Elting@piefed.social 2 points 2 weeks ago

A strong local community can fill all the unmet needs we have been trying in vain to cram into the welfare systems of nation states.

[-] reddig33@lemmy.world 3 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

Indoor local farming is the future. Less water. Less blight. Less shipping. No reliance on the weather.

[-] Smaile@lemmy.ca 3 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

Well... That leads me to a dark line of thinking... Jobs that are actually worth something are constrained by resorces we have and could extract if we're going by a "what is nessisary" line of thinking and who can just be cut out of the economy, we can't magic them out of thin air, it's part of the reason why it's so popular, also UBI would never work without keeping it low and having it replace existing welfare structures and aggressive taxation of the 1% and 0.1% (something I am for but that's tough when your population is comprised of mostly economic laymen who Don't Wanna be tAXd. )

[-] Elting@piefed.social 7 points 2 weeks ago

Besides capitalism being inherently inefficient, it incentivizes holders of capital to extract maximum monetary value from laborers. This means that, as capitalism progresses, more and more jobs exist for the sole purpose of enriching the owners of capital. If every job was a meaningful one, we could support everyone on the planet without everyone doing labor.

[-] Smaile@lemmy.ca 2 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

Oh I won't argue that base capitalism isn't a big waste machine, Iv never believed it was the end all be all, but the system needs to feed itself to keep going. UBI could work is funds are redirected carefully and kept as a booster and not as a full replacement. my only issue is convincing people of what has to happen to get that done.

[-] Semi_Hemi_Demigod@lemmy.world 4 points 2 weeks ago

While this is true the folks who would be delaying their retirement aren’t the ones doing most of the real, actual work. They’re likely in management positions and while that will help social security we’ll still have a huge shortage of health care workers

[-] kent_eh@lemmy.ca 2 points 2 weeks ago

There simply won’t be enough people to do all the work, while a bunch of folks are retiring.

If these companies had been hiring and training juniors over the last couple of decades, there would be plenty of experienced people available to move into those senior positions as people retire.

[-] Brkdncr@lemmy.world 2 points 2 weeks ago

The situation is worse than you think. There simply won’t be enough people.

The rate of retirement is already outpacing the rate of new workers by a lot. The rate is only going to get worse because we know how many people were born.

Immigration might be a way to deal with it. The US has been pretty good at using that. Outsourcing dumb production to other countries is another option, it’s what’s kept Japan afloat (Toyotas built in USA for example). But the problem is global. We didn’t have enough babies worldwide, and the boomers have started to retire.

[-] Omgpwnies@lemmy.world 2 points 2 weeks ago

productivity per capita has also been steadily increasing for decades. We have the capacity to produce more with less people, we just waste what's produced if it can't be sold for maximum profit.

[-] Brkdncr@lemmy.world 1 points 2 weeks ago

Not enough people to make up for the loss, although it’s one reason why I don’t agree with datacenter bans. We’re going to need datacenters and llm’s to make up for a lot of missing workforce.

[-] finallymadeanaccount@lemmy.world 5 points 2 weeks ago

What would he know about work? Probably sits on his arse all day surrounded by people telling him what a good job he's doing of sitting on his arse.

[-] Smaile@lemmy.ca 4 points 2 weeks ago

Yup, oldies have been underpaying their whole lives, time to face the music and pay your fair share.

[-] chilicheeselies@lemmy.world 11 points 2 weeks ago

People do get older... This affects you, not the current oldies

[-] Smaile@lemmy.ca 1 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

Take care of yourself then, expect to have to work longer, this was never lost on me and is only an issue is you overindulge and abuse your body on average.

[-] TheGoldenV@lemmy.world 16 points 2 weeks ago
[-] Smaile@lemmy.ca 1 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

If you Can't take care of yourself and aren't disabled, then suffer, it's called being responsible for oneself since the gov isn't going to baby you anymore.

[-] TheGoldenV@lemmy.world 10 points 2 weeks ago

Garbage take 2. You’re on a roll!

[-] Whostosay@sh.itjust.works 1 points 2 weeks ago

The old "fuck you, I have mine" strategy

[-] Smaile@lemmy.ca 1 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

All I'm hearing is 'I don't wanna' from a broken record, grow up. Edit: you know it is funny to me, the dislikes only rolled in after I said people should be take care of their own wellbeing and health not abusing their bodys, wonder what a lot of you are and aren't actively doing for yourselves rn ;).

[-] Bustedknuckles@lemmy.world 7 points 2 weeks ago

You sound like you've never had to work temp blue collar work. It's good advice, but ignores most of the realities that people face

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[-] TheGoldenV@lemmy.world 4 points 2 weeks ago

Ladies and gentlemen the troll rolls on!

Also I’m already quite old.

[-] damnthefilibuster@lemmy.world 3 points 2 weeks ago

He’s right. Every American over 65 should automatically become a CEO or a member of congress.

[-] kent_eh@lemmy.ca 1 points 2 weeks ago

When was the last time this CEO did actual physical work?

Let's see him pick up a shovel (or load boxes in a warehouse, or push a broom, or haul tools up and down a ladder or...) for a few shifts and see if he still thinks people should have to work late in their 60s.

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this post was submitted on 15 Jul 2026
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