Are the boomers and especially bad generation?
I've seen people of various political stripes and various other generations vent about boomers quite a bit, as we all have. I don't recall much of this for the prior generation. And while Gen X takes some heat and is sometimes lumped in with boomers, the three younger cohorts all seem to have a special dislike of boomers.
It follows the same basic narrative, with various twists. In the US, boomers inherited a wonderful country where you could pay for college with a summer job and expect to buy your first home at 24. Or get a blue collar job and still support a family and celebrate holidays in full, take vacations and likely own a home. But where the norm in prior generations was to strive to make a better world for the next generation, boomers have plundered all they can for themselves, leaving future generations to clean up their mess and pay their bills.
Here a British boomer tells a similar story: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article...
On an individual level, there is an abundance of stories of wealthy or at least comfortable boomer parents refusing to help with things like college expenses, first home purchases and so on, and happily enjoying their wealth in frivolous ways as their children grind out a meager existence. Many boomers have become fairly wealthy largely because their houses exploded in value, which is also a primary reason younger generations struggle.
The stereotype is that they pretend younger generations live in the world boomers inherited rather than the one they created. "You went to college. Simply pound the pavement and you'll have a middle class job in no time." "I bought my first home at 24 with no help from anyone. You're 30, stop making excuses."
A brief example involving a HS friend. Very strict parents. He was legit in trouble if he got a "B." I do not know the details of their family finances, but they lived in an expensive house in a nice area and belonged to a nice country club and his dad owned a construction company. If appearances were close to reality, they were easily millionaires in today's money. So, the hard work paid off and my friend got into the same Ivy League school his father attended. However, he also got a full ride scholarship to a mid-level University of California school. His dad refused to pay for the Ivy, leaving my friend with the choice between Ivy + big student debt or mid level UC. All those years of work were really just to save his dad a bit of money. Obviously, the networking and prestige at the Ivy would give my friend significantly better prospects, and a better life for eventual grandkids. But his dad DGAF. To this day, it boggles my mind. This was in the 90s so college was expensive but not like today.
One example of self indulgent overspending I've seen in a few articles is extravagant 2nd or 3rd LARP weddings. Unless you are quite wealthy, one might expect that at this age you are starting to think about your children and grandchildren, and what you can do for them and what you will leave them, especially in uncertain times.
So... is this actually true? Are these cherry picked examples? Is it even true that generations of the past were significantly more mindful of the well being of future generations? Maybe a large % of boomers are incredibly selfish, even with respect to their own kids. But maybe that's how it's always been.
No.
Yes.
Maybe.
The younger generation/s mocking and criticizing boomers is mostly a meme that people ran with.
However there is certainly some truth to your argument and their criticisms of boomers.
A significant % of human beings (regardless of generation) are mostly selfish beings. Do boomers have a higher % of selfish people? I don’t know for certain; perhaps.
The younger generation/s mocking and criticizing boomers is mostly a meme that people ran with.
However there is certainly some truth to your argument and their criticisms of boomers.
A significant % of human beings (regardless of generation) are mostly selfish beings. Do boomers have a higher % of selfish people? I don’t know for certain; perhaps.
Sounds more like their rotten kids are whining their parents aren't leaving them piles of money.
A significant % of human beings (regardless of generation) are mostly selfish beings. Do boomers have a higher % of selfish people? I don’t know for certain; perhaps.
This.
Sounds more like their rotten kids are whining their parents aren't leaving them piles of money.
As an unapologetic boomer, this has not been my experience. At all.
That probably occurs to some extent in all generations--as does everything else.
In b4 OK, boomer!
or younger generations are whiny entitled pricks who'd rather make excuses and talk about their feelings than go out and make something of their lives?
Narcissistic Generations always make generalized judgements based on simplified understandings of things that they have no personal experience with.
The narcissism being that they are fully convinced of the righteousness of their own conclusions without having any respect of differing viewpoints.
A good indicator of narcissism could be when the word "selfie" was coined. It surely was not done by boomers, I can tell you.
Well, Boomers did raise these ingrates. So they're not totally without fault.
Every generation
Blames the one before
And all of their frustrations
Come beating on your door
Why does 1946-1964 qualify as a generation, while e.g. 1955-1973 does not?
Ok but seriously, I blame every generation for being suckers and economic illiterates.
Example: "hey let's have an income tax, it will only apply to the rich". I don't know what generations were voting in 1913 but thanks, *******s.
How about maintaining a global empire and being world policeman, at enormous cost to almost everyone. Unless you've positioned yourself to benefit with a job or investments in sectors that benefit from this, you're a net loser from this. And that's going to fall more on younger generations than older ones. (I'm being a bit U.S.-centric, but I guess the whole thread is too)
Capitalism drives toward greater and greater specialization in the work force, which can make things harder for those starting a career or forced to restart due to changing conditions. I wouldn't want any other system, but it is an issue. Allowing the government to micro-regulate almost every industry doesn't help.
People are living longer and working longer, so boomers are holding on a bit longer to the good jobs, inheritances, and housing that will eventually go to the next generations.
Now due to more economic illiteracy we are getting these moronic tariffs. Suckers for emotionally charged language are driving this (We're being "ripped off", we have "trade deficits" etc.). Just whipping off a quick post here and don't want to go in depth here, but read some free market economists to learn more. And not that the alternative in Nov 2024 was any better, we might be in a hot war with Russia or Iran by now if that easily manipulated regime puppet had won.
Ok but seriously, I blame every generation for being suckers and economic illiterates.Example: "hey let's have an income tax, it will only apply to the rich". I don't know what generations were voting in 1913 but thanks, *******s.How about maintaining a global empire and being world policeman, at enormous cost to almost everyone. Unless you've positioned yourself to benefit w
I dont even know where to begin on the ignorance in this SUPERFICIAL analysis of 'origin's'.. and the assessments of modernity.
clearly another example of the narcissistic behavior that leads one to believe that they posses some relevant understanding that the rest of us do not.
it's little more than a collection of shortsighted and belligerent 'labels' that do no more than fuel internal rage and delusion... because they surely are not representative of reality.
stop rage posting and try and put some thought into your responses.
I was being a little comical in my hot take, and it's superficial because I whipped off a post in the few minutes I had before I had to leave. Sometimes it takes a little rage post to get some responses around here. Anyway I've been studying Austrian school economics since the 2008 crash, and have been naturally libertarian since grade school, another 20 more years before that. None of what I'm saying is original thought from me.
If anyone wants to know the most common economic illiteracies, and why they are perpetuated, check out Economics in One Lesson by Henry Hazlitt. It's available free in many places, such as
The audio book is included in Spotify or on Audible.
Look, we have a real problem with anti-capitalist mentality growing in younger generations. This will only continue as the problems the OP outlined get worse.
And I do blame previous generation for allowing politicians to ignore the Constitution, to the point where they now feel comfortable laughing at you if you bring it up. (I'll find a link later)
clearly another example of the narcissistic behavior that leads one to believe that they posses some relevant understanding that the rest of us do not.
one of our own bros insists he knows the difference between when ouroboros officially starts swallowing its own tail and neener neener suck a big fat weiner
Lucillie Bogan is a national treasure
spoiled for obvious reasons once you watch this version from 1935
Spoiler
originally recorded by Ma Rainey in 1924, over a century ago
I've seen people of various political stripes and various other generations vent about boomers quite a bit, as we all have. I don't recall much of this for the prior generation. And while Gen X takes some heat and is sometimes lumped in with boomers, the three younger cohorts all seem to have a special dislike of boomers.It follows the same basic narrative, with various twist
Have you ever met spoiled kids of rich parents? They're almost all intolerable awful human beings. There is nothing wrong with teaching your kids a work ethic. I mean it sounds like the guy you mentioned might have gone a little too far if he could have easily paid for his sons Ivy league education but the easy thing for him to do for his kid growing up is to just throw money at everything. Actually parenting your kid is way more work and way more beneficial in the long run for everyone.
I've also seen lots of entitled kids whose parents have decent money and they think they're just entitled to it as adults. Some even get mad if their parents blow the money they earned on themselves because their entitled **** stain kids think of it as them spending "their" inheritance. Healthy grown adults who think mommy and daddy owe them anything are pathetic.
As for the bolded- I don't see how that's true before WW2. People's lives were really rough, they had to work really hard, lots of kids died, people died young more often, They were just trying to get through life. Go back a few decades- people with no electricity, indoor plumbing, working on farms from sun up to down down weren't worrying about future generations. They were trying to survive.
I think it will be very fitting that the last act of the first generation in history to say 'f*ck them kids' will be to ask for help from said kids when they are old and deteriorated and broke. They're going to get crushed in the next 5 years.
The only good boomers know that boomers suck. A bunch of Dunning-Kruger psychopaths.
#notallboomers
A lot of triggered boomers in here already.
Some things are just a fact like that boomers benefited from a great and much more equally distributed economy and allowed it to become incredibly lopsided for short term gains.
That they benefited from cheap education and reasonable housing prices but made sure that future generations would not have the same experience.
Its not unreasonable for the younger generations to feel like the boomers crossed the bridge and than burned it down.
Its also very common for millennials to have grown up with amazing and very involved grand parents.
Now that we have children ourselves we realise that the boomer generation has no intention to live up to the expectations set by their parents.
That paired with a certain level of arrogance and the constant "well i pulled myself up by my boot straps". which usually is untrue and they had massive help not just by their parents but also a system was intact before it was wilfully removed by the people who just benefited from it because now that they dont see a personal benefit from it anymore they dont see a reason to keep it functioning.
Now does that mean that they are bad people? honestly i dont think so.
Its more the old adage: "Hard times create strong men. Strong men create good times. Good times create weak men. And, weak men create hard times."
Boomers are the weak man created by good times and have created hard times for their children.
Doesn't do anybody any good to cry about it now role up your sleeves accept that you have to work twice as hard to get half the result and make sure your kids have it better so they can **** over your grand kids.
So, the hard work paid off and my friend got into the same Ivy League school his father attended. However, he also got a full ride scholarship to a mid-level University of California school. His dad refused to pay for the Ivy, leaving my friend with the choice between Ivy + big student debt or mid level UC. All those years of work were really just to save his dad a bit of mon
It's somewhat rational not to want to pay for the Ivy. The tuition has increased so much faster than inflation, and the father knows this because he went there. Is it worth it? Much of the tuition increase is not going to towards improving undergraduate education. The guaranteed student loan system (and now direct loan system) is really insidious. Ostensibly designed to help students, it simply allows schools to raise tuitions to meet the student's ability to pay.
That they benefited from cheap education and reasonable housing prices but made sure that future generations would not have the same experience.
Anything that would allow mass affordable housing would make existing home prices fall. We can't have that now, can we? When home prices fall, that's a housing "crisis". Emotionally charged language to the rescue, again.
when these dazed kids organically grew tired and confused about social stigma and style
i knew quickly picking pistils would be the best way to help them flower while also saving and maintaining saffron ovaries
Anything that would allow mass affordable housing would make existing home prices fall. We can't have that now, can we? When home prices fall, that's a housing "crisis". Emotionally charged language to the rescue, again.
Boomers really benefited during the Bush years and then doubled down again to use that equity they already had early during Covid to purchase up big or renovate to increase the value of their properties even more. I think there is a lot to despise about boomers and even gen X tbh
Moths to a flame ITT.
27 nailed it.
I think it will be very fitting that the last act of the first generation in history to say 'f*ck them kids' will be to ask for help from said kids when they are old and deteriorated and broke. They're going to get crushed in the next 5 years.
The only good boomers know that boomers suck. A bunch of Dunning-Kruger psychopaths.
#notallboomers
