An 87-year-old woman from Lemiers in Limburg who owned substantial real estate in nearby Vaals has left most of it to her tenants in her will.
According to the Telegraaf, Anneliese Houppermans, who earned her money from a successful fruit and vegetable business, owned several houses in the community. She never married or had children, and her ties to her family had faded over the years.
This to a certain extent extent is what we should be doing with housing. We’ve got a huge problem with elderly Care and who’s going to take care of them and where the money is coming from. And we’ve got a huge problem with rent going out of control going into people’s pockets that aren’t going to use the money for anything. Why aren’t rents just going to pay towards people’s elderly Care I don’t understand.
We should use housing to lift up those who came before us and can’t carry as much as their own anymore as well as enriching those who come into replace them.
We pay for your retirement. We get the house. Then those after us pay for our retirement. The cycle continues.
Every generation should finance their own retirements. Fluctuating population will lead to few having to finance many. This is the state of affairs in Germany, where old people live in both huge places and are paid pensions which will be unreachable for the younger generation.
I live in a village with many single family houses from the 70s and 80s. The people living here are old and are either not capable or willing to invest in their homes Understandable in my opinion. Why invest if you know you’ll die in 10 years…
What I wished would happen that older people would downsize. It is common for older people to live in their 7 room house they build for their entire family of 5. Children all grown up and in different cities, house not maintained and only partially heated.
Feels like pragmatism dies before the rest. Just move to a smaller apartment and give the house meant for families back to families …
Everyone should have a guaranteed basic standard of living with dignity, then you wouldn’t need to worry so much about retirement.
Individualism is the wrong direction to go.
Oh but we can’t afford that! No, not if we let a small handful of our population buy yachts for their yachts and fly around the globe in their private jets, and no not if we let individual companies hoard more money than entire nations.
Thank you for your insight. I didnt think hard enough. With declining birth rates this equation wouldn’t work without a secondary funding source to make sure it floated through the rough times.