This is also why time apparently moves faster when you are older. Your brain has fewer novel experiences, and because a deep part of your consciousness yearns for familiarity and regularity, you gravitate towards rote memorization of more and more of your living experience and move forward on autopilot. Time dilation is very real, and especially noticable if you spend a few decades in repetitive cycles.

Honestly it’s why marriages/partnerships fall apart, why people experience midlife crises, and why (traditional) conservativism is so easily fostered in older people. New is scary and dangerous. Same is safe and navigable. It sneaks up on you, too.

Sorry - I’m a fucking freak and I like this stuff.

Pensions generally are Defined Benefit plans versus 401(k), which are Defined Contribution plans. There are some definitions that lump (k) in with “pensions”, but they are quite different.

DB says “do XYZ and the plan guaranties a fixed percentage of your average earnings at retirement”. The benefit (or the result) is defined.

DC says “employee/employer can make contributions with specific advantages, and what you have at retirement depends on what you put in, and ROI, and market magic”. The contributions are defined.

The reason a (k) plan is powerful is that earnings compound in a tax advantaged environment, and there are fiduciary guardrails around plan administration and governance that better protect investors than the open market.

Pension plans in the US are basically dead or dying - variety of reasons, but volatility of everything and eroding labor negotiating power are easy to blame. Ballooning cost of these plans is also a real problem. Because a pension promises a given outcome, the employer can have enormous liabilities to fund the plan. Inflation, volatility, and business outcomes can put the company in the position where the liability to the pension becomes an overwhelming burden.

401(k) is a really powerful investment tool, with or without an employer match. I wish more young employees understood them better, and were more interested in using them. It’s easy to pine for the pension plans of the past - they have problems of their own that (k) plans do not. Pensions are really designed so that an employee stays at a job for a long period of time before they bear full fruit. A (k) plan is more flexible and transferrable.

Wish I had a pension, but I also don’t have much faith in any company in the private sector having the staying power to make a pension the basket where all my retirement eggs would sit. DC plans can help solve for that.

NNNNNNNEREEEEEEEEEEEEEERRRRRDDD

Bit of a community question on the OP theme:

I see a lot of yard-sticking with Reddit, and frequent comparisons are 1) more of Reddit should migrate here and 2) not enough content is generated in Lemmy. These are both confusing to me. Anyone else?

1. Reddit is a cesspool. Its users are often toxic. Administration and moderation is burdensome. With self-hosted and decentral-hosted Lemmy instances, why would we want more of Reddit to come here? Other than the philosopher king meme, I don’t feel the urge to bring R. communities and users to L. Separation is good, no?

2. Content follows users. Users follow content. Lemmy has less content. Fewer social games and participants who are seeking a dopamine relationship with the internet. If you come to Lemmy seeking dopamine fandom, you will be disappointed (narwhal bacon and my axe this amirite lol). That shite is generally absent, and users aren’t constantly jerking themselves off to get a spicy comment in for votes. This is good, no?

I guess I don’t understand the attraction to Reddit, or the urge to think of Lemmy as a replacement. It is similar, but shouldn’t it be different? If it isn’t different, defederated or no, won’t it eventually slide into toxicity? I understand why people like things about Reddit, but… There’s Reddit for that. This doesn’t have to be that.

Thinking of two groceries: one is a little odd spot that is run by an eclectic family, has some stuff you want, some odd German snacks you don’t understand. It’s cool, but it doesn’t have everything.

The other is a giant stucco nightmare warehouse that mostly sells deep fried heroin and also ten extremely useful things. It’s run by absolute creeps, and the customers are standing uncomfortably close, and being uncomfortably irritating. Maybe one of them is waiting to follow you home because they didn’t like what you bought.

Does the community want to put a sign out front to woo those people over? Does Lemmy perish without them? I’m relatively new here, but my own answer to both is no. IMO, Lemmy does not need to be an engagement addiction machine, and the people who want that might just really be wanting Reddit deep down.

Sorry for the diatribe! I tend to like that it’s kinda sleepy here and often more authentic. I like seeing what Germany is doing on a memie wemie from time to time. I’ve got other shit to do beyond my phone, and don’t want to have a pack of digital ultra nicotine with me at all times. Peace, homies.

With enough of those you could probably do some kind of epoxy pour and make a cool end table top.

Guests will be impressed by the amount you have pooped in the past.