> Any single catastrophic event can end your economic security.
This quote and your comment as a whole sum it perfectly, imo.
We used to have stronger family/friend connections that were very helpful for times like these, i.e. for when catastrophic events were happening. Nowadays we're most probably living hundreds if not thousands of kilometers away from our very close family, and not sure about other HN-ers, but I personally would feel very uncomfortable if I were forced to ask for some financial help from my very close friends, as I think they would turn me down.
Again, that wasn't always the case. One could "pass" the kids to said kids' grand-parents for a while, because most probably they were living in the same town/village, and the same goes for sharing economic resources in times of need with friends. Now we're into all this alone.
And I wonder if remote work cannot help there. I did choose to stay close to grandparents and friends but did huge commute before and now thanks to covid the question of relocating is off the table. I think we can hopefully find that what you describe back in the future.
This quote and your comment as a whole sum it perfectly, imo.
We used to have stronger family/friend connections that were very helpful for times like these, i.e. for when catastrophic events were happening. Nowadays we're most probably living hundreds if not thousands of kilometers away from our very close family, and not sure about other HN-ers, but I personally would feel very uncomfortable if I were forced to ask for some financial help from my very close friends, as I think they would turn me down.
Again, that wasn't always the case. One could "pass" the kids to said kids' grand-parents for a while, because most probably they were living in the same town/village, and the same goes for sharing economic resources in times of need with friends. Now we're into all this alone.