[strider3700]

So our census numbers came out a couple of days ago. The newspaper reports that the town just south of me is 50% over 40 years old. The town north of me is 33% over 65 years old with 10% being over 80.

So is this good or bad in a SHTF situation?

[Plantagenet]

You have to be pretty tough to get old.

[Carlhole]

The really old ones are easy to kill but their meat is kind of tough and stringy.

[kpeavey]

The Wonders of Modern Medicine have extended our lives over the last few decades. We are living longer to enjoy pensions and flourish on such govt programs as Social Security. Life is Good.

In a fast crash SHTF scenario, senior citizens requiring medication to survive may not have that medication available. In many cases, age limits one's strength and endurance. In a crisis situation, the old, young and infirm are expected to be the first to go. This would seem to present a great deal of scavenging and squatting potential.

In a slow crash scenario, the old people have several advantages. -Steady income, albeit often fixed
-The Money, pensions, equity, paid off debts, IRAs, lifetime of savings and investment, low or limited expenses with few dependents
-Experience, especially in the area of self-sufficiency and getting through the hard times
-An attentive government more than willing to hand out aid in exchange for votes
-Networking, as it takes time to build those community bonds, something retirees have in spades
-an unquenchable admiration for Bob Barker, although I'm not sure this offers a survival advantage
-lifestyles which can readily adjust to considerably lower levels of money and energy availability
-Plenty of time available having grown past the need for full time employment and child rearing
-Lots of RVs for expanding housing availability
-Stability, peace and quiet, damn good cooking

In a slow crash, a mature population offers excellent advantages. Getting neighborly exposes you to the people, their wisdom and their experience. While the rest of the population goes through bankruptcy, joblessness, carpooling and PTA meetings, the old people are somewhat more insulated. Senior citizens are projected to be at the top of the list for the politicians to set up their aid centers.

Still, the only thing that can be predicted about the Transition is that it will be unpredictable.

Will the children of the old people have to move in with their parents after they lose their house?
Will the pensions go belly up with a financial collapse?
Will the drug companies go belly up from civil lawsuits, taking the needed life sustaining medications off the market
Will Bob Barker come back from retirement?
Will Social Security hold up?

Census statistics are just statistics, offering little useful information besides a head count. Why is it the old people like the area? The waters? Perhaps a giant Bingo parlor? What is the rest of the demographic? What about the towns just south and north of the 2 cited?

There are advantages and disadvantages is any situation. Making the most of things is what got the people old to begin with. Experience and wisdom is something that can not be had off a shelf.

[strider3700]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('kpeavey', '
')Census statistics are just statistics, offering little useful information besides a head count. Why is it the old people like the area? The waters? Perhaps a giant Bingo parlor? What is the rest of the demographic? What about the towns just south and north of the 2 cited?

[I_Like_Plants]

I give some perspective it's an old guy helping me out, his "young and irresponsible" son is 35. I'm 45, old guy and savior is 60.

I'd be fucking stupid to ask anyone my own age for help (as in cheap place to stay while I weather my bankruptcy) they'd tell me just what they were taught to say, to fuck myself.

There's been no real hardship in the US since the late 70s or so. And the hardship I've talked about in my own life only happened in parts of the US by no means all of it.

I'd not trust anyone under 40 myself.

[I_Like_Plants]

Oh and let me add another lick, when I was in my 20s the only people who were real with me were old-old folks who'd been through the 1930s, Good Consumers, not, people who'd had a dose of Reality, yes.

[JohnLudi]

Ummm...considering that the vast majority of people under 25 these days don't even seem to know how to count change (let alone repair a dead appliance or fix a car or find potable water or grow their own food), and seem to be largly amoral and motivated purely by narcissitic self-gratication...you're probably better off with the old folks.

[Pops]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('JohnLudi', 'U')mmm...considering that the vast majority of people under 25 these days don't even seem to know how to count change (let alone repair a dead appliance or fix a car or find potable water or grow their own food), and seem to be largly amoral and motivated purely by narcissitic self-gratication...you're probably better off with the old folks.

[Hawkcreek]

--

[Twilight]

I'm not so sure. Judging by the look of questions on recruitment tests, prior to the recent lowering of standards to keep meeting quotas, the standard there is no higher than the lowest rungs of the high school education system. Especially on the numerical stuff, I'd be more demanding if asked to select candidates for bar staff. Say what you like about bar work, but you need the mental arithmetic.

Of course, maybe the standard is dramatically raised after a few years in service. It had better be.

But I don't see why any country should have to fund compulsory military service to correct problems in the compulsory education system. Numeracy, literacy and self-discipline are what school used to be about, wasn't it? We shouldn't need to pay for everyone to take remedial classes.

[Roccland]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Plantagenet', 'Y')ou have to be pretty tough to get old.

[lawnchair]

Depends on why there are lots of old people.

In your case, lots of old people means moved-in retired city folk. I guess you could learn wealthier city-dweller things (accountancy? advertising? manning one booth at the Delco factory?) from them. Fewer city tradesfolk (plumbers, auto mechanics, etc) end up moving to Florida or BC. Even at that, they tend to stay together with their cohort of retirees.

Conversely, consider the northern tier of counties in Kansas (Smith, Jewell, Republic). They have geriatric populations not unlike what you describe on the Island. Not because they are great retirement villages. Rather, the youngn's left, and there aren't even that many breeding-age adults, so not even a lot of kids.

Older acquaintances here have a broad range of skills, and things one doesn't learn more commonly in a college. From non-relative over-65s in the last year, I've learned more edible plant identification, Aeromotor windmill repair, treestump removal explosives technique, ham radio tuning... probably plenty else. Plenty I, as a younger and technology savvy person, can do for them in return.

And, when they do die, there's lots of cheap land and useful stuff at the estate auction.

On the other hand, if you are in a service-to-the-elderly business (healthcare/nursing comes to mind first), the congregant wealthier elderly spots are much better places to work. Lots of our old folks refuse to be medicalized. They get cancer, the doctor says "yep, you're old", and they die. There certainly are not the hundreds of plastic surgery and vein removal places like you see in Scottsdale

[I_Like_Plants]

The military tends to put young people through experiences that only olders got over time. They learn to appreciate teamwork, a canteen of water their buddy got 'em, how to make new and interesting recipes out of what food they have, over a campfire, etc. Soldiers learn to sew, at least well enough to replace buttons and put together ripped knees and put their new unit patches on. They learn that some people are bastards and some are decent and you'd better learn to value the decent and stand up for 'em a bit, this ain't high school. They learn it's OK to play the harmonica or do macrame or be really good at drawing flowers or folding paper - these things are not to be made fun of, but really kind of cool, out in the field away from TV.

Young people used to grow up learning these things, but modern life shelters them from much of reality. Sadly, being in the military out in the field is one of the few chances they get to learn a bit of reality.

[vision-master]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Roccland', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Plantagenet', 'Y')ou have to be pretty tough to get old.

[Chesire]

Age and treachery trump youth and skill

[Chesire]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('vision-master', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Roccland', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Plantagenet', 'Y')ou have to be pretty tough to get old.

[Pops]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Chesire', 'A')ge and treachery trump youth and skill

[jboogy]

I think,like so many other questions related to P.O.,survivability,etc.,it's going to come down to the severity of the crash.slow steady powerdown seniors are a plus,for the reasons previousely stated.drastic hard and fast crash and the old will be among the first to be used,victimized, cleaned out and then cast aside.(except for POPS,he just might be running everything in his corner of the world when the SHTF)

[jboogy]

I think,like so many other questions related to P.O.,survivability,etc.,it's going to come down to the severity of the crash.slow steady powerdown seniors are a plus,for the reasons previousely stated.drastic hard and fast crash and the old will be among the first to be used,victimized, cleaned out and then cast aside.(except for POPS,he just might be running everything in his corner of the world when the SHTF)