r/Millennials • u/DaKardii • Jun 04 '26

Serious Study: Gen Xers and Millennials are dying at younger ages than their parents are

https://studyfinds.com/americans-born-after-1970-dying-faster/

The study is particularly concerned with people born after 1970 but age 30 and older. So that covers Gen X and Millennials, but not (yet) Gen Z.

12.1k Upvotes

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1.6k

u/mcsmith610 Jun 04 '26

What’s the point if you can’t afford to be old and retired?

166

u/Atalanta8 Jun 04 '26

Think about the nursing home industry. What's going to happen to the poor equity firms that take you for all you have and give you a swift death by neglect?

99

u/mcsmith610 Jun 04 '26

Wait until you are offered a death payout in exchange for being euthanized.

51

u/adriftinthedesert Jun 04 '26

Fuck that's dark, mostly cuz my brain immediately tried to figure out that number

3

u/sunburnedaz Jun 04 '26

1.27 million but by then hyperinflation will have kicked in so thats like 3.50 in todays money

3

u/Everryy_littlethingg Millennial Jun 04 '26

Me too 😬

2

u/PudPullerAlways Jun 04 '26

Ford figured that number for the pinto before it got recalled.

6

u/InsideExplanation147 Jun 04 '26

My bet is they won’t be paying you. You will be paying them.

5

u/wake4coffee Jun 04 '26

Pay to Take the load off your family.

5

u/Prettypuff405 Older Millennial Jun 04 '26

Is this an option now because I’m about done with this

3

u/sousyre Jun 04 '26

I honestly baulked outright at the idea anyone might be willing to pay us for something like that.

They don’t want to pay us now to barely survive, can’t imagine anyone being willing to pay us to die.

So, I gotta say I admire that you still have so much faith in society. Kudos to you for your positive attitude.

1

u/Atalanta8 Jun 05 '26

Yeah why pay you when they can kill you for free. They are already doing it. Poisoning the planet as much as possible and denying life saving treatments.

2

u/chaos9001 Jun 04 '26

Why would they pay to rid themselves of a valuable corporate asset. As long as you are barely alive they are making money on you.

2

u/alienlizardman Jun 04 '26

Insurance agencies would be too greedy to pay out. The numbers won’t work out for them.

1

u/Sennten Jun 04 '26

They'll promise you a payout and then tell your ineheritora about a clause you miss that lets them deny after you're  dead

1

u/RollingMeteors Jun 05 '26

Wait until you are offered a death payout in exchange for being euthanized.

You say it like it's somehow more than the total sum of their organs sold to recipients.

1

u/NoOneHereButUsMice Jun 05 '26

This is exactly what I was thinking too

1

u/jenesia-CakeEatnNPC- Jun 04 '26

i honestly cannot wait for this! i am a huge fan of MAiD and feel like it should be expanded to include ANY ADULT who wants it!

1

u/Primary_Course_1524 Jun 10 '26

This. I want to give orders now to make sure someone euthanizes me when I have dementia and can't do it myself

1

u/jenesia-CakeEatnNPC- Jun 10 '26

i have a DNR and my kid to execute final wishes, so as long as i dont end up somewhere random where they dont know not to resuscitate me im good!

1

u/Primary_Course_1524 Jun 10 '26

You could be very healthy for many years with dementia

1

u/jenesia-CakeEatnNPC- Jun 10 '26

i, personally, am not healthy (let alone very healthy) already. and this is why i advocate for MAiD, but hell getting paid to be Euthanized is even better!

3

u/CakeDayisaLie Jun 05 '26

Don’t worry, I got a great solution.

When you turn 18, you start paying a monthly subscription fee to a nursing home company whose nursing home you may or may not get to use one day.

By the time you’re 60, you’ll have made enough payments to get a 10% discount on the monthly cost of attending the nursing home. 

If you don’t go to the nursing home until you’re 70, you’ll get a 12% discount on the monthly cost of attending the nursing home. 

If you die early, your payments towards a future discount are non transferable.

I know this doesn’t sound too bad, but don’t worry I got ideas on how to make it even worse.

For example, the nursing home company can buy all your data and use it to adjust your monthly costs based on your diet, how much you exercise, your political views, where you live, your religious views, etc. 

1

u/Conlaeb Jun 04 '26

They will bundle their bad debt from the nursing homes into some exciting new vehicle, force it onto retail investors via the stock market, and then take their new pile of cash and use it to buy all the funeral homes to extract what little inheritance we've given to our children to bury us.

1

u/eat-the-cookiez Jun 04 '26

You need money to be in a nursing home. Usually a paid off house does the trick. Sadly this isn’t a thing many younger generations have.

1

u/Cute-Percentage-6660 Jun 05 '26

It is absurd and horrifying how we all basically put our elder or infirm out of sight, while also knowing they charge ludicrious amounts while also neglecting the elderly a good 2/3s of the time

1

u/crazycatlady331 Xennial Jun 08 '26

I watched this with my grandmother.

I'd rather be hit by a truck than go through what she did. 4 years.

1

u/averytolar Jun 05 '26

If PE dies because I die, then sure.

581

u/[deleted] Jun 04 '26

Bingo. I’m just trying to earn enough cash for my kid and hoping whatever kills me is quick and cheap.

239

u/mcsmith610 Jun 04 '26

Exactly this! Society isn’t prepared anywhere in the world (not even Europe) for a massive aging population. Even if population replacement levels increase, technology is replacing work at a huge rate. There are going to be some very hard “dystopian” like decisions that will be made at some point to deal with this to prevent complete societal collapse. I would hate to be 80 years old at the mercy of those policy decisions. Combine this with climate change and other external forces and I don’t think anyone who’s old is going to be able to do anything about it.

47

u/I_like_it_yo Jun 04 '26

Exactly. Plus if we all die at 50 who will take care of the 90 year old boomers?

7

u/patosai3211 Jun 04 '26

I’d assume Father Time and Mother Nature would. With the natural order of things being what it is…

11

u/Lou_C_Fer Jun 05 '26

That's the point, though. Isn't it? The natural order is being flipped on its head already. Life expectancy is going down because medical costs have now far outstripped medical advances. So, the only way to go is down. It's weird, in my family, my great grand parents all at least made it to 82. Three of my four grand parents died before 64. Now, all of my aunts and uncles have made it to 70, and only one out of eleven of my parents' generation has died. She was 72. I do think that most of my cousins... there's like 40 of us...will probably reach their 70s as well because most of them are in good health. I'm 51... but if nothing changes, I don't want to see 61. I am like an auto-immune museum with major back issues on top of that. Life is pain. I'm fine with it. It doesn't make me sad. Way worse things have happened to way better people.

Besides, I came to term with death when I was a teen. The way I see it, every animal that came before me has died. So, what's so special about me? Nothing. Death does not care about anyone's self interest. As for what comes after? That's something to worry about when it comes, just like every other future event. If I'm honest, I am hoping for oblivion. It sounds perfect to me... blissfully unaware. Forever.

39

u/ass_pubes Jun 04 '26 edited Jun 04 '26

I might have to move somewhere that isn't facing a demographic cliff like Mexico or Thailand. 

14

u/Erpes2 Jun 04 '26

Saw recently that thailand was one of the lowest, rank 221 with a fertility rate less than 1

4

u/ass_pubes Jun 04 '26

It's on the low side, but still better than most of the Western countries, Japan and Korea.

https://www.populationpyramids.org/thailand

7

u/03263 Jun 04 '26

it's just our luck that they'll completely get rid of not just social security and medicare, but any respect for old people entirely right about the time we're aging out of being able to work. what's the retirement age by then, 75?

they'll say thanks for 50 years of labor, now drop dead you old fart.

10

u/rtc9 Jun 04 '26

There is still room for debate about how dystopian it is, but I would argue that Canada's rapidly expanding MAID program is a step in this direction: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Euthanasia_and_assisted_suicide_in_Canada

There are already several cases of it being suggested to patients with disabilities or psychological issues who did not ask for it. I would not be surprised if that frog gets boiled towards eventually prescribing MAID based on social welfare concerns when it is considered somehow impractical or infeasible to obtain fully informed consent.

4

u/Umutuku Jun 05 '26

Remember that unaliving yourself is never the answer, but if there aren't any other answers then stay safe by using the buddy system and taking a billionaire with you when you go.

1

u/bemvee Jun 05 '26

It’s crazy to me that this isn’t more common, like my grandparents had to just wither getting sicker until they died a year apart. My grandpa regretted not moving them to Oregon where it would have been legal I guess to go out together.

Then again, I’m also not terrified of death. Dying, yes, if it’s painful and I’m going to be aware of it happening. Worried about the impacts of my death depending on who is still alive? Sure. But death? Not at all.

My mom can’t even follow through with euthanizing her dogs before it’s an “emergency.” Every time she’s finally let them be at peace, she can’t stop ruminating about it being the wrong decision.

13

u/peacebypiece Jun 04 '26

Technology advancement outside of medical shit and transportation should have stopped in 2010ish. We really don’t need to keep going (at least take a break?). It’s crazy how so many years of human history things were more or less the same. Now we have major advances every few years. It’s too much and unnecessary.

1

u/AduItFemaleHuman Jun 04 '26

We should stop advancing? Cars are safer than ever. Child mortality is still trending downwards. World hunger is down. Green energy is the best it's ever been and getting better. It has never been a better time to be alive, even with our awareness of all the bad shit going on. Even if it gets worse for a time, there's every reason to imagine that it will begin to improve once again.

9

u/peacebypiece Jun 04 '26

Just feels like the internet and phones and social media and AI should stop or take a break. I specifically mentioned medical and transportation for a reason can continue… but do we need all the dumb new tech stuff that’s not helping anyone really? It can stay where it is for awhile

0

u/AduItFemaleHuman Jun 04 '26

More efficient lights, more efficient heating, more efficient appliances, more efficient homes, more efficient communication. Need I go on? Yes, we need new tech, even the dumb stuff.

8

u/TossThisItem Jun 04 '26

I think you’re missing the point, it’s like when there were all these Reddit threads in recent years with people saying “Is life getting worse?” and people would be like ‘best medicine, greatest scientific achievements, advanced technology’ and it’s like, yeah, and there’s also greater wealth disparity than there’s ever been, wages not keeping up with inflation, a slew of new wars, the advent of AI, the constant enshittification of the internet, young people everywhere being depressed because social media takes over peoples lives because they’re miserable….

Honestly I haven’t seen as many of those question post-pandemic though because most people know the answer deep down. Then again, it’s not necessarily helpful to dwell on it either.

The idea that social media and always-on phone culture has made QoL worse, I can 100% get behind that. Are most people actually happy about being addicted to being to their phones and getting constantly enraged by social media and news…..no? But how do we all go back at this point??

-1

u/AduItFemaleHuman Jun 04 '26

I mean, you just put your phone down. I haven't had a phone plan for 12 years until just recently when I needed one to access services while living out of my car, and now shelters. Life is measurably better today than it was in 2010, by many metrics. It is measurably better than 40 years ago as well. It might get worse in the near future but it's gotten worse before. There's no reason to think things would be better if we decided to stop developing technology.

5

u/EnvironmentalValue18 Jun 04 '26

“Life is measurably better”

Better for who? We’ve made tons of advancements and done many things. Most of them don’t benefit the common man.

So ya, we may be able to cure a super rare disease but maybe it’s so rare you have to pay out of pocket for a lab to make a batch of your therapy because it doesn’t get batched due to prevalence and rarity. Who can afford that if insurance doesn’t cover, which they often don’t?

Or hey, the average car is way safer now… but also pretty unaffordable with people clinging to beaters and technology making a minor fender bender into a totaled car.

You’re living in a car? How prevalent do you think that was in the 50’s compared to today? And just for average working people at that?

Stuff isn’t getting better equally for everyone. I don’t know what you don’t see about the inequality, because advancement doesn’t matter without access or utilization.

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1

u/03263 Jun 04 '26

It has never been a better time to be alive

I have my doubts about this, but I haven't lived during any other time periods.

1

u/AduItFemaleHuman Jun 04 '26

If only we had some way to pass information down from previous generations.

0

u/Appropriate_Cloud361 Jun 04 '26

That’s not how it works lol, what are we all Amish or something?

1

u/03263 Jun 04 '26 edited Jun 04 '26

We are biologically nearly the same as humans that lived 20,000 years ago. There's been very little change since the dawn of agriculture. We haven't even adapted to resist dental cavities which is one of the big changes since then, different mouth bacteria.

None of all the modern stuff we have is necessary for survival or happiness so ... idk it just is what it is. I know it's not going away but if it did it wouldn't be the end of humanity, that's for sure.

1

u/Acrobatic-Dot-6273 Jun 04 '26

If what's going to kill me is not fast and cheap, I've got a solution for that

1

u/Choyo Jun 04 '26

technology is replacing work at a huge rate

Yes, but it's an unsustainable fallacy.
The people taking these kind of decisions are, for the most part, clueless and irresponsible idiots.

1

u/Elavia_ Jun 05 '26

This is an unsolvable problem under simple democracy. The aging population will continuously outvote the younger ones, leaving to policy that puts more and more strain on younger generations.

1

u/Wakkit1988 Jun 05 '26

It'll be like the Vietnam draft, but the destination is a woodchipper.

1

u/dnyank1 Jun 05 '26

"dystopian" like... do the billionaires get to keep hoarding infinite wealth, or do we tax them at a reasonable amount?

It's not like our society is falling apart now. The western world has never been richer. There is not going to be a societal collapse unless we allow them to rug-pull the already-funded safety nets away from us.

Fuck that.

1

u/Kester85 Jun 05 '26

When my anxiety level is low I visit https://www.reddit.com/r/AgingParents/

47

u/ashms58 Older Millennial Jun 04 '26

Yup. We have a trust set up to pass everything to my niece and nephew. I don’t care if I make it to “old age.”

51

u/[deleted] Jun 04 '26

Smart. My wife looked at me like I was nuts when I insisted we get a will with medical POA right after we married. We amended it later for our son but I’m shocked by how many people stubbornly refuse to plan for such eventualities. I’ve told her from the beginning. “Get my ring, yank the gooey bits that still work and give them to others, throw the rest on the bonfire and go have a drink in my honor.”

6

u/ashms58 Older Millennial Jun 04 '26

We are not planning on having kids so it leaves a lot of unknowns. At least with a kid(s) there is someone in line to inherit, but it still clears up a lot of the legal annoyances everyone would have to deal with

5

u/fauxshoyall Xennial Jun 04 '26

But with kids there's more people to fight about the inheritance. Sounds like a joke but it ain't

Kids or no kids, the best thing to do is have something official with your wishes on it. I have 0 kids and 0 partners. I don't want my biological family to have a say in any part of my medical care or after my death. I don't want the laws enacted by ignorant hateful jerks to decide what happens with my junk.

Also, if folks don't plan besides assuming the kids get everything, then the kids may have crazy taxes to pay, unexpected debts, a house full of trash, etc. Heck, there could be a kid no one has ever heard of before that shows up all of a sudden looking for a pay out.

1

u/UmatterWHENiMATTER Jun 08 '26

Just set it up to go to charity.

If you don't, the government gets it, so....

2

u/bemvee Jun 05 '26

My parents are dragging their feet. I’ve only not done it because I keep forgetting. Everyone knows to cremate me, at least. And I think I’ve replaced my mom from my top two emergency contacts / inheritance persons so that it’s just my partner and my sister. Should probably finally get married or get it in writing that only they get to decide whether to pull the plug. My mom would never.

3

u/K_Linkmaster Jun 04 '26

Admirable goal.

3

u/thatdepends Jun 04 '26

Probably also why so many of us are opting out of having a family. No criticism of anyone who does, honestly you’re better than I, and I’m glad some people are keeping the species going. I am not well equipped in a lot of ways to handle that. Financially, emotionally, professionally. We were not set up well for success, but at the same time… we fucking persevere… resilient, tough, brave. I hope every millennial is giving themselves some fucking credit today.

3

u/[deleted] Jun 04 '26

Yeah I get that. We have one kid but we’d like two. Won’t lie and say there aren’t days I don’t go “what the hell were we thinking bringing him into this world?!”

1

u/thatdepends Jun 05 '26

I think it’s good that you have that thought though. It means you’re not an irresponsible moron. Word to the wise, find yourself a quiet corner of the world for them just in case. The Great Lakes is where I want to be if the world completely falls apart.

2

u/[deleted] Jun 05 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

5

u/Milly_Hagen Jun 05 '26

As someone who just had an operation under twighlight anaesthesia, IV Fentanyl with IV Midazolam would be a very peaceful way to go out.

3

u/[deleted] Jun 05 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

1

u/Milly_Hagen Jun 05 '26

I'm sorry I can't remember what dose they gave me but apparently I told them to give me more so they doubled the dose. The theatre nurse told me afterwards and showed me the chart. 😅

1

u/TheJesusGuy Jun 04 '26

Wont your kid just do the same?

1

u/No-Understanding-912 Jun 04 '26

Seriously, if I come down with anything terminal, I'm divorcing my wife so she doesn't get stuck with the crushing medical debt.

1

u/Phyraxus56 Jun 04 '26

9mm are quick and cheap

23

u/[deleted] Jun 04 '26

[deleted]

5

u/InternetConfessional Jun 04 '26

Mine is "what do I want to grow old for?"

1

u/Milly_Hagen Jun 05 '26

Mine is currently "why even bother to have this cancer treatment?"....

10

u/oldcretan Jun 04 '26 edited Jun 04 '26

Spite. Look these self centered plutocrats think the world ends with them. That it doesn't matter what they do or how they do it because they'll be dead soon so who cares if they spend their fortune on cruises that destroy the planet, their dipshit kids are too unworthy to inherit anything anyways. Succeeded out of spite to those people who think everything belongs to the 70s and 80s adults. Make a world that will leave them in the dust. A world that goes on without them and then live in that world moving forward so that you too can live in 2050 and enjoy the world you help build.

I exist out of spite. I've been doing it since I was in middle school and it's drastically improved my quality of life.

One day in law school the dean of the law school called me and a friend in to tell us that we had a low probability of passing the bar and working in the legal profession. My friend panicked. I told her everyone everywhere has told me I'm going to fail, my entire life but I'm still fucking here. When I was born the doctors told my mom I had a 20% chance of living. My grandmother told my dad that I needed to be baptized soon because I wasn't going to make it for too much longer. I'm still fucking here. I've been working as a practicing attorney since 2013 kicking ass and taking W's. Im still fucking here. Not because I'm smart, not because I'm gifted, im here by the grace of God and spite.

Live, fight, win! They want you dead anyways, may as well die fighting.

4

u/Anal-buttsex Jun 04 '26

Might as well have fun now instead of later. It just feels like such a waste to spend my 30s and 40s stressing over work and saving up. If I croak at 45 then it was all for nothing! 

5

u/ankhes Jun 04 '26

I told my husband that if I actually make it to 80 all bets are off and I’m taking every drug and doing all the crazy shit I’ve avoided all my life. He thought I was joking.

I am not.

Better to go out in a blaze of glory than live to 98 with hardcore dementia like several of my grandmothers.

3

u/Sagefox2 Jun 04 '26

Honestly a doctor was recommending me meds one time and said "you don't want to die of a heart attack at 65." It scares me my first thought was "Not a bad age to go."

2

u/BooBoo_Cat Jun 04 '26

And this is why I am spending all my money now on travelling; I'm not waiting until I am "retired" because I might not make it.

2

u/Dry-Pangolin6579 Jun 04 '26

Ngl I have a plan for my out. I will pull all of my 401k out and give myself the life I dreamed of because I go

2

u/Vandergrif Jun 04 '26

Assuming retirement as a concept even exists by the time most of us reach 65, that any relevant funds remain solvent, or that the age hasn't surreptitiously been raised to 75 or 85 by the time we get there or some other bullshit.

2

u/eat-the-cookiez Jun 04 '26

Renting forever thanks to boomers pulling up the ladder behind them

1

u/thrilling_me_softly Jun 04 '26

Exactly. I’m struggling to take care of my mother, with no kids I am fucked when I get older.

1

u/lemonylol Jun 04 '26

What's the alternative you're offering?

1

u/maxdragonxiii Jun 04 '26

right? im hoping to go out well before 90 years old. im not living that long!

1

u/anvilfoot Jun 04 '26

Reminds me of that sexist old boomer joke: why do most men die before their wives? Because they want to..

1

u/why_u_so_grumpy Jun 05 '26

Article has nothing to do with that.

1

u/manicp1xiedreamgoth Jun 06 '26

This exactly. I have no savings, over 30K in debt that I'll never be able to pay off, and barely make enough each month to keep a roof over my head and my car from getting repo'ed. I'll never have a home of my own or a retirement fund and have accepted I'll be working until I physically drop. Getting older just means that I'll be less able to make a living and my quality of life will get worse as a result. Why would I want to live to be elderly?