Rob Cowell
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- Nov 15, 2011
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An example of the longer lifespan:
The challenge is that we are now regularly seeing 4 generation families, where 2 of those generations are not working.... the difference is now that it's those who have chosen/been able to retire.
- My Paternal Grandfather died 10 years or so before I was born, but I had both maternal Grandparents + 1x Great-Grandparent on that side.
- My nephew was born 4 years ago, and he had both maternal and paternal grandparents AND at least 4 Great-Grandparents. My brother was about the same age as our parents were when they had me. The number of Great-Grandparents has dropped of by 3 in the last 2 years, so there is a bit of a drop - but in those 3 cases they were 97 and 92ish respectively...
Although, I think the prize who goes to a Great Great Aunt who had managed to spend longer retired (spinster teacher, so a full 40something years working) than working, and had lived in 3 centuries... but she had no kids because that would have meant being married and not working.
I have the same examples. We have pictures of 5 generations of my family together from a couple of years ago.
I think the problem is we no longer work until we die. We expect to have a 20-30 year holiday before we die. And we expect other people to work to pay for it through national insurance, and a growing economy to fund our investments. Again, to be clear, I also want a 20-30 year holiday. But it's not a sustainable wish.