Despite these long faces, this blog is about happy pensioners , rich in opportunity and experience!
I really like Nic Millar for her social media – I don’t know her otherwise but I like the way she challenges the idea that pensioners are hard-up , vulnerable and in need of Government hand outs.
Why it’s right to focus tax cuts on workers not pensioners:
– because pensioners already pay less
– because previous Tory govts favoured pensioners so much.Quite #Budget24 https://t.co/rLpH7EGVRf
— Nic Millar (@NJM71) March 8, 2024
And…
I am one of the lucky ones for whom the cards fell right
- full scholarship to posh school at 13
- free education at Cambridge University
- amazing family support all of my life
- tall , white , Anglo-Saxon male
You don’t get much more privilidged than that.
Do I feel that privilege? You bet I do, I loved every minute of my time with my good friends. So why am I looking forward to a full state pension in five years? Isn’t that just plain greedy!
Hands off my wealth! Not a good look.
The hell it is, “I can’t help it if I’m lucky”
Like the singer in the Idiot Wind, I don’t allow myself to feel guilty, I just get on with being the best version of myself – tra la la.
Most people have far more than they need, when need is measured on subsistence and I hope that most pensioners will feel as good as I do about the prospects of a long- happy and financially comfortable retirement.
My hosts last night, forked out a lot to make themselves and me happy. Scroll to the bottom for full evidence. Why not?
Is this complacent? I don’t think so. I’m not justifying my existence with reference to others who are even better off. I’m justifying myself by my own sense of self-worth.
My sense of self-worth comes from a deeply religious sense of righteousness, based on a Christian belief in salvation. I am redeemed through the sacrifice of another , my responsibilities to others are based on the fact that I am nothing without the love of another. That’s what Christians believe, it’s not a religion of envy but of love.
End of sermon, but beginning of explanation!
If I honestly believed that I was parasitical on Nic Miller and her generation , I would say so. But I can’t see that. The pension increases I’ve had from the triple lock, she’ll have in 10-20 years time. The productivity of my career feeds into the productivity of hers. We are not generations apart, we are generations together . There is a solidarity between generations that means my son aspires to be me and I aspire to be my son.
If Nic Millar knew just a little about how wonderful it is to be as young, bright and beautiful as she and her generation are, then she would not be moaning. I would give it all back, the pension , the house – yes even these 8,000 blogs to be in my twenties or thirties (or even to look it!).
But you don’t grow young again, you just grow older gracefully. Full of the delight of memory and the fulfillment you get from watching youngsters coming along behind. Nic Miller is a youngster coming along behind – so are all the Next Gen. Do it!
In defence of rich pensioners
Sometimes, when you are climbing up a steep slope, you see people at the top, enjoying themselves. You can either curse them for being happy or aspire to be as happy as them by pressing on. When you get to the top , you don’t wish the journey any easier or shorter no matter how you felt on the way!
And I guarantee you can’t fully empathise with the pain of the people you see struggling up the hill behind you when you get to the top! You look down and smile as I am smiling writing this. You are feeling good and you know you look smug but it doesn’t matter as you know that you’ll be shaking hands with your fellow walkers when they reach the top!
Rich pensioners, standing at the top of the hill are an incentive. If there were none of us, you might not want to carry on climbing !
I can tell you it’s lovely at the top and you will tell me it was easier for me and both of us would be right, because it is always hard climbing!
