Political Memes

Plus, the whole thing is about putting your money in some place where it will passively gain value, so that when you retire you will have compounded wealth. Well -- that whole system seems to be faltering in its own right. I mean, the stock market is not rational, that is pretty evident at the moment.

You're telling me you want me to forego part of my paycheck each month in favor of a tiny piece of ownership of a cross section of companies -- which I can only claim the actual liquid value without strict penalty until after I'm 67 -- and the value of which is highly dependent on the irrational fears and hopes of other people? and, if not that, upon how well that cross section of corporations extract wealth from the rest of the population? that that money is almost guaranteed to grow is part of the whole issue of the requirement of capitalism to achieve infinite growth year after year -- and if it does grow? -- where the hell does that money come from? Less and less from transformation of materials into value, and the exchange of that value for money. Less and less from the rendering of a service and the exchange of money for that service. More and more from the enclosure of resources (perhaps including the up front, one-time transformation of materials into those resources, and continued maintenance) and the extraction of rents for use (see: the current state of computing and data storage).

There've got to be losers here. If my future wealth is going to be based on a bunch of economic losers having near nothing when they reach the same age, wtf is the point? what is the point if I have wealth and my neighbor has nothing.

If my own future wealth is dependent on me owning a piece of an entity that pays a worker a fraction of the value of their labor -- that makes its profit purely on that distinction -- I think I probably ought to avoid that whole system altogether out of simple solidarity.

Edit: this is a rant.

Edit2: Oh yeah and thats all not to mention these companies I'd be vesting in are quickly destroying the global ecosystem

I'm in the same boat but I still find ways to do it, way too late in life, because as I said above, you need to take your years-away future as seriously as what you're going to eat tomorrow. It's going to get harder and harder to keep the grind going and you will absolutely need some measure of savings in the future. As long as you're making any money at all, even a few dollars here and there will help towards a better tomorrow.

I'm privileged enough to have all of very cheap housing, a paid off car and a well paying job, and I still don't contribute enough to my RRSP.

In case you aren't already, you should try shopping at Goodwill or another local thrift store. I get most of my clothes from there. Last time I took my daughter because she has strong fashion opinions.