Worth pointing out that not every older person is like that. Nor are they all rich because they have retired.

My dad is a good example, he was earning about £160k a year in today money back in the 80s working in the census office, but eventually he got chronic fatigue and this forced him into a very early retirement at the age of 41/42. A messy divorce took all his savings from him around the same time as well. He's surprisingly left wing. He's kind of disillusioned with the 'rat race', he said to me once that you can work so hard and get to the top only to find it's empty of anything that really matters and enriches your being. We were discussing Capitalism once and he said it's only designed for one thing: 'lining the pockets of the high heed yins (leaders) by taking everything they can take from the common man.'

It's fair to say the only reason my family is alive is thanks to the welfare state, the only income we have is his two pensions and some disability benefit for me and my mother. He's bitter that his generation was given so much for almost nothing while mine is getting everything systematically taken away. In the late 60s he had a sports car and a flat in the middle of Edinburgh at the same age I am now-- though he was an army officer at the time, the same would be unthinkable now. I live at home, unemployed, mentally ill, and I have no assets to call my own, with no sign of that changing any time soon.

In Scotland almost everyone except rich English folk have been priced out of the housing market. Where I live it's 70% holiday homes (actual statistic, not exaggeration), which sit empty for most of the year, nobody allowed to touch them. I'm reminded every single day of the sickening machine because there's three in our house's immediate vicinity. One is right next door-- they have a lovely garden they pay some poor locals to maintain, and they spent over a million 'fixing it' (it was fine before). Whenever they're here we have to be careful because their kids like to catch and torture our cats, and they complain about everyone 'making noise,' even though they can be heard every time they're here yelling and thumping from half a mile away.

Anyway, it's people like me and my dad I feel a more communistic society would really benefit. Those of us struggling would be raised up to a level where we can at least have a shot at being happy functioning people. And retired people who aren't rich can live out their last years in comfort, doing things they enjoy.