Return of Student Loan Payments, 650,000 of Over-80 Still Working - Generational War Grows More Bitter

October could be the cruelest month of all for youth. Student loan repayments resume after a three-year hiatus. The interest on all that will kick in earlier, that is, in September. Some under-40 plum won't be able to manage that. Read professional anonmyous networks such as Reddit Career Guidance and what's palpable is their financial struggle. Tough to get a job even with a supposed marketable major like software development. Tough to work at it. Toughest of all is to keep it.

Simultaneously the Census documents that 650,000 over-80 are still working. They have no intention of retiring. Those are jobs and contract assignments which could have been done by those under-40, so the under-40 cry out, louder and more aggressively. And that narrative and other versions of it are quite irritating to those of us over-65 who know this: To stop working is to become irrelevant in capitalism. What the hell do they expect us to do: Schedule ourselves around the Early Bird Special and Silver Sneakers group exercise? 

So, those on all sides of the generational war are becoming increasingly embittered. We boomers kicked off that conflict when we overthrew our mothers, along with Eisenhower conformity. US President John F. Kennedy passed the torch onto us. We were emboldened. Now we, along with members of the Silent Generation, are overthrowing traditional assumptions about working. 

The oldest of the boomers I rolled my eyes when I spotted the blurb in an Insider interview in which the youngest of the boomers law firm Paul Weiss chair Brad Karp reflected if he would opt to renew his contract this May. At the time the guy was only 63. He has at least 20 years to go at it full-time. Then ease off for another five or so but continue working. You bet, Karp put himself up for a partner vote to continue with the leadership. 

Currently, just as I recommend to my coaching clients, I have multiple sources of income from work. They balance each other out. Let me tell you, the same desolation overcomes me now when one or more businesses are slow as happened when I first became an entrepreneur at 40-something. Capitalism is about keeping us off-balance. Of course, as the professional anonymous networks also chronicle, there is no compassion for us from younger gens. This appeared on Fishbowl Consulting:

"WHY ARE YOU WORKING. STILL. BOOMER TAKE YOUR PENSION, GO GOLF OR BE ON A YACHT AND LET YOUNG PEOPLE MOVE UP IN THIS WORLD SO WE CAN PAY OFF OUR COLLEGE DEBTS" 

Takeaway: This is war. War is hell. 

2023. It’s the year of AI, along with uncertainty, inflation, war and more. Jane Genova provides you with a complimentary check-in for your organization’s communications and your own career. It’s free. Content-creation and coaching provided on a sliding-scale fee basis. (for appointments text 203-468-8570 or janegenova374@gmail.com)