Baby boom generation starting to retire in or around 2030

The Baby Boom Era applies to America and doesn't apply to here. It was an era of full employment, greater access to education, greater affluence and economic expansion after the War.

This did not happen in Ireland. Children still left school as early as 13 up til the late 1960s here, something which had disappeared a generation before in America.

Emigration was scandalously high, unemployment was high, conditions were bleak here.

The Baby Boom refers not only to a increase in population but a cultural change in those countries who experienced it.

Both aspects of this period did not happen in Ireland. Have you never talked to an Irish person over the age of 65 before and they will tell you what Ireland was like.

Our baby boom didn't happen until the early 70's, and then a brief surge during the Cetic Tiger years of the 2000's.

Other than that, steady decline overall.

https://www.macrotrends.net/global-metrics/countries/IRL/ireland/birth-rate#:~:text=The%20current%20birth%20rate%20for,a%202.81%25%20decline%20from%202021.

Marriage rates in this period were shockingly low in Ireland but those that did marry had very large families which keep fertility rates high.

In America, this is not what happened. Marriage rates were high and families sizes were small, but because marriage rates were so high, the population grew.

Suspect you aren't interested in debating. You never are.

I don't need to ask others; I am a baby boomer myself.

Yes, the baby boom played out differently in Ireland and in the US; you'd expect that. But that doesn't mean it didn't happen in Ireland or has no meaning in Ireland. It absolutely did play out here, and it did and does have meaning.

Even cringier when you urge someone to get the perspectives of people born in that era while yourself dismissing the perspectives of people born in that era.

No it's cringey you want to label yourself a baby boomer.

What's cringey is that you want me to consider the views and experiences of this age group while so casually dissmissing it yourself.

Seriously, did you not pause to think how that would look? Cringe city, man.

I responded in some detail, with facts, that you ignored.

you seem to be ignorant of the facts, perhaps a bit of self education wouldn't go astray

…but again, this isnt a 'burden', the term itself has an inbuilt negative meaning, this isnt negative, this is in fact a critical societal need, we need to make sure that those that do retire, at whatever age, have their most critical of needs met, theres clearly an extremely serious issue rising here, and its clearly obvious our governments are ill prepared for this, they still seem to think market based entities will fulfill these needs, they clearly wont…..

The economics just won't stack up anymore, the economic burden will become too high on the current working population so changes will have to be made. Working aged people just won't accept higher and higher taxes. So they can fund the lifestyles of retired homeowners, when they themselves are stuck renting into their forties or possibly forever. While the same retirees endless object to any new housing or infrastructure that could make working aged peoples lives better.

Indeed there's 3 options for the future operation of state pension system, raise taxes for the working younger generations and use the gains to prop it up, cut services for everyone and use the gains to prop it up or reform the whole state pension system.

Auto enrollment will help many under 50 when it finally kicks in but the problem is far too many people in the 50+ age brackets decided to ignorantly count solely on the state pension system due to a gross misunderstanding of how it works. Far too many still believe its some form of savings system akin to a private pension however in reality any money paid into the state pension system today is paid out to someone else tomorrow.

i disagree to a point, theres now so much pressure being placed on people, they actually dont truly have the space in their lives to even think about their retirement, this again can be traced back to processes such as financialisation of our property markets, its a monumental failure…

its one of the reasons of why i have always agreed with the auto-enrolment of pensions, this should have been done years ago, but our governments fcuking sat on it as usual, this once again can be traced back to their fundamental ideologies of not getting too involved, to promote more market based approaches, it has simply failed….

…you mean, you re done, please dont try speak for me…

This is a very good post, and in a few simple paragraphs it illustrates the social, economic and political challenges facing many societies.

The state and role of young men in the last decade / the housing crisis / cost of childcare, etc.

it is 100% true

people sit back think someone else should solve everything for them

pressure, most people have it pretty decent in ireland

you can undertstand people are perhaps unwilling to shovel even more of their money out to help people who wont be able to afford retirement, especially those who have had a cushy life paid for by others up that point

For a long time we had a functioning rental market, and I'm obviously not talking about 1913 or tenements here. People could rent their homes from the state if they needed to. This was the same in the UK, until Thatcher sold off that stock.

Our rental situation, now, is an absolute disaster because government has, largely, offloaded it out to private concern, which are only interested in bleeding people dry for a profit.

We have a huge swathe of people who'll never be able to own a home, and who'll never be able to rent a house from the state because the waiting list is insane. So they have no recourse but to rent a room in a house with strangers.

And, if things don't change, that's the way it'll be until they're OAP's.

Imagine this future, because it's future we're setting up. People in their 60's and 70's having to rent a room in a house with strangers and not knowing if they'll even be in that house next year.

That's the reality that faces many of our younger generation in this country.

I disagree, pensions is just as immediate and the longer we take to solve the worse the problem will be, its just not as easy to see and feel that way about it as its not as physically tangible compared to health and housing.

What is the point you are trying to make? I wish we didn't have to live in a country where single people "compete" for secure housing against people who get married. No doubt you'll say that's pie-in-the-sky thinking, but cost rental for the masses in Vienna works extremely well. You can rent studios or small one-beds for around €400/month.

I didn't even mention older generations. Yes, there are many expectations that are different for people my age compared to my parents. I was lucky enough to travel a bit in my 20s, and get a good education. But it doesn't matter how much you save, how many nights out you don't go on, how many holidays you don't take, when the average home costs 8x the average salary, compared to 2-3x the average salary in 1982.

"even now thats way 5 6 years behind the curve and the curve is not that long"

Are you saying I'm 5-6 years late to having kids? Thanks for your opinion on my reproductive choices or lack thereof, random man on internet! Of my close female friends, the youngest to have her first child was 34. I don't know anyone in Dublin who can afford to have a child before that age.

You're contradicting your previous claim that being a "boomer" is nothing more than having been born at a time when births were high. In fact you've just proven that you understand very well that "boomer" refers to a generation born at a time when the economy was also "booming", leading to a generation whom both previous and later generations considered to be lazy, entitled and selfish. More than them anyway.

But since the economy in Ireland didn't start to boom until the late 80s, then Irish boomers, if there are any, are the generation who came along then. Not in the 60s.

Fair points, but the elephant in the room is that its generally larger, poorer countries that are expanding populations fastest.

Nigeria's population grew by close to 6 million in 12 months. Thats more people than there are in the whole of ireland.

In reality, we do need to encourage the birth rate here and to make it affordable for working people to have families.

We also need to make pension contributions mandatory. We need to do that yesterday.

I really don't see how this changes.

I can't see how it changes myself. But what's clear is that what's in operation at present isn't working.

For starters, do we even have enough people to actually build houses? I doubt it. Then there's the cost of materials, planning, legal things, and so on. 

I don't think manpower or legality is the issue. It's political will. We have a political class that, generally, just don't give a fuck about housing. But sure, why would they? They're not made to.

No politician is stupid enough to challenge this asset-rich class 

This is part of the issue with attitudes to housing over the last few decades. We've started to look at HOMES as "assets". Most people aren't interested in buying "property". They want a HOME to live in.

In Ireland, it just looks like there's no housing.

Ireland's housing situation is a national shame.

The dystopian vision of pensioners housesharing having grown up in houses where only Dad worked will be the future. There's no political will to change this and I can't see where it comes from until the boomers pass away as they are irresolute in their opposition to change. 

I'm not sure it's a boomer issue. But it's certainly a political will issue. But, as said, our political classes don't care. Our politicians have consigned a whole generation to a lifetime of renting in a private renting sector that's nothing short of horrific. It's just not fit for purpose, and it most certainly isn't something that's suitable for someone's average lifetime. Renting in this country is designed to be a temporary thing. Not something that's long term.

But, as I said at the top, I can't see how anyone can get us out of the deep, deep, mess that FG's neo-lib attitudes to housing have put us in. Even with all the good will in the world, they have fucked us so badly, that I cannot see how this mess can be cleaned up.