Fun for 2 years as a little kid, school for 16 or 20 years, then work until you die.

Many people retire early, in which case they stop working before they die.

First, let's ignore the rich for the purposes of this discussion. The vast majority are not and never will be rich, so it can still be generally true (generally true being "true with exceptions").

How to the non-rich afford to retire? Living off savings and Social Security. So what happens when all the Boomers rerite? "Damn! 50% of my check is going towards supporting the boomers!" If Social Security is still around and not pushed to 100 by the time i reach retirement age, i'll be surprised. Maybe they'll just create a new Socual Security only for those born after September 30, 1983. Whatever. With half the check going towards supporting old farts, saving enough to live off of (with inflation) is an unlikely prospect...

Maybe i'm overly pessimistic. But maybe i'm right, and if i'm not then it'll be a good surprise.

Instead of going through life pessimistic, I'm going to enjoy it as much as possible, no matter what the situation is. Being overly pessimistic is probably bad for your health anyways.

Sidenote: Why do you think I hate paying taxes? anomie just wrote a really good reason why.