An Undefined Suspicion.

There’s an advert in my Hotmail account for retirement planning. I look at it and feel suspicious of the concept; the term ‘retirement planning’ causes me some consternation for some reason, even though I have no justification whatsoever for knocking those who plan for retirement. I’m sure it’s a perfectly sensible and reasonable thing to do. And yet I’m still suspicious and curious to know why.

I think it has something to do with the way we’re expected to structure our lives in modern, so-called developed cultures. There’s a nagging sense that it has become too structured, and there’s a further sense that it’s all part of an overall picture in which the great majority of wealth gravitates to a tiny minority of people. There’s a whiff of artifice about it; it feels unnatural. The picture accompanying the advert shows an anonymous executive in a smart grey suit ‘helping’ a middle aged woman in pearls plan for her retirement. The middle aged woman looks happy and pleased that she will be secure when the time comes. She also looks wealthy, while the executive looks merely functional. And yet it feels as though the converse is skulking behind the manufactured image.

This is all just an undefined muse, and I suppose it ultimately comes down to the fact that money and material acquisition is paramount in the modern world. We’re conditioned to chase it while we’re working, and we’re conditioned to expect it when we stop. Meanwhile, the bankers, the entrepreneurs and the corporate world take all the real wealth, and the same people are the ones who charge for their services to help us plan for retirement. Maybe that’s the root of my suspicion.