A coming retirement crisis? Are you worried?

[Broomstick]

@chappachula

The choice isn’t between two extremes, either big city or else “in the sticks”.
No, I’ve never heard of St.John, Indiana.
But I have heard of Indianapolis, Indiana.

I guess you didn’t read all the way to end of my post - my last paragraph addresses that.

@Velocity

Or rent a nice apartment for $600 per month. You won’t be in an upscale neighborhood, but you won’t be in the slums either.

Uh, yeah, right - you can’t rent a “nice” anything around here for $600/month and we’re more out in the sticks that Indianapolis.

I’d check out Zwillow but they don’t want to let me look at their site without giving my email and profile picture so fuck that noise. Seriously? People can’t take a look without handing over their privacy? Wow. Not doing it.

@Velocity

And if you can’t drive, these cities have Uber, which is a lot more convenient than the subway when you’re 84 years old and carrying groceries.

Except that a lot of old people don’t trust Uber, are afraid to get into a car with a total stranger, don’t use a smartphone, and Uber drivers in no way have to be handicap accessible. Unlike municipal buses and trains.

@Velocity

(And you don’t have to step over a homeless guy.)

The homeless don’t bother me, largely because I don’t bother them.

I was bothered by the two dead homeless people I encountered in Chicago on my way to work, but that’s because they were dead, not because they were homeless.

@Velocity

Moving to a cheaper city is a realistic option, which does not get mentioned often enough.

It’s an option, but it costs money to move, and there’s that whole business about security deposits, needing a job or, if you’re on a pension, getting things adjusted… Moving is a headache and I can why people avoid it and put it off. Sometimes until it’s too late for them to make that choice.

@Velocity

They interviewed a Starbucks waitress who lost her job after the recent fires burned down half her town, so she moved to LA and is now homeless, living in an unused trailer and shitting in the street. She apparently never thought of moving somewhere other than LA. The cities I mentioned have cheap enough rents that a waitress can live a respectable life…It’s difficult, but better than being homeless.

So… she’s jobless and homeless and you suggest she move to a different city where she will be… jobless and homeless?

At least when you’re a pensioner your income will move with you for sure, but if you’re jobless and homeless you’re in a really bad place. I’m not sure relocating to a new city where you can be jobless and homeless without knowing anyone there or where things are improves things. She’s still jobless and homeless.