Why Am I Paying For Your Retirement?

My city is one of the most expensive: Victoria. I walk the financial tightrope in a town where earning $100k/year get you an "average" home. A co-worker chided me for not owning a home, since I had a full-time job. He bought his house in the 1960s and it cost him $5000. That exact house is worth $500,000 today. In the last 40 years, incomes rose 15 times and house prices climbed 100 times! In the last few generations, food prices have plummeted and the price of land has shot into the sky. I can't buy a shack, but I can find a cheap Big Mac? What's happening? Baby Boomers are using inflated home values to fund their retirement and do it on the backs of my generation.

The generation that gave us Global Warming and suburban dreams, has capitalized on my generation's desire for a chunk of land. We were raised to covet real estate: programmed to pay them when the time came. While they spend summers RVing around the Southwest popping Cialis and enjoying a culture tailored to suit their needs, I will be home, walking the tightrope they strung up to pay for the Boomer legacy.


Note: I submitted this piece to Canada Writes and it dudded out. I'm used to losing contests (I've only won a few) but getting paying work instead. The last three things I pitched were automatically accepted. I have always aspired to being a professional writer rather than a professional contestant.

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