That’s the argument Bruce Gibney makes in his book A Generation of Sociopaths: How the Baby Boomers Betrayed America. The boomers, according to Gibney, have committed “generational plunder,” pillaging the nation’s economy, repeatedly cutting their own taxes, financing two wars with deficits, ignoring climate change, presiding over the death of America’s manufacturing core, and leaving future generations to clean up the mess they created.
“The boomers inherited a rich, dynamic country and have gradually bankrupted it."
They also raised the Millennials, typically as grandparents after their X Gen kids abdicated parental responsibility, probably because their Boomer parents never taught them any. And, that by itself proves the Boomers are America's worst generation.
From the “Greatest” to the worst in successive generations.........
I used to wonder if the Boomers weren't getting a bad rap...but, twenty years later, I am beginning to think they maybe got a big break.
The Boomers’ primary wealth-building strategy requires housing to become increasingly unaffordable for Millennials.
The Boomers’ disinterest in doing anything to address risking health costs for decades means Millennials will shell out far more for the Boomers’ health expenses than they paid in for the prior generation.
The Boomers’ affinity for giving themselves tax cuts instead of investing in our infrastructure and future will require Millennials to play decades of catch-up, while dealing with both the Boomers’ public debt and their own personal heavy student debt burdens that’ve become the price of admission to the workforce.
And the Boomers’ inaction on and exacerbation of climate change means Millenials can look forward to spending their twilight years in a world that would be only vaguely recognizable to their parents and grandparents.
I’d say there are some grounds for intergenerational grievance.
The simple truth of it is that we as a country have been frittering away the once in a millennium advantage of having been on the winning side in a war that left the entire rest of the world in rubble without having a single bit of US property damaged outside of Pearl Harbor. But of course we as a country of the mid-twentieth century thought that had something to do with American Exceptionalism blah blah blah. The only thing we were truly exceptional at was consuming world assets at a ghastly rate and we still doing it!
So this "phenomenon" predates the boomers. The "greatest generation" certainly did nothing to suggest that they truly understood the scope of the advantage they had coming out of 1945. If they did, they would not have begun the process of consuming ourselves into oblivion....handing that aspect of American life down to future generations in the process.
There is absolutely grounds for intergenerational grievance. But you have to go back to the greatest generation for the roots of this mess.
Not only did we come out of 1945 with a self important air when in fact we were spared by an accident of geography more than anything else.
Then that WW2 generation never heard about getting help for their many ailments and maladies. Lots of mothers that were stark raving maniacs driven more so having hysterectomies without hormone replacement. Fathers simply leaving their families to these mad-women as they went off to work off the family mortgage. Neighborhoods were a hidden swarm of domestic violence with everybody thinking that this is just how its supposed to be.....isn't it?? For example does anybody really think those guys coming from from WW2 were not a bit loopy? Heck they were at least as loopy if not more so than troops coming home today.
Once we discovered "therapy" and there was widespread deployment without the stigma attached to it (about 1970) we went overboard with it which led to participation trophies and school teachers that had no means to control students on and on and on. That was a big mistake. But it could have and should have been predicted as a backlash to a generation of hidden domestic violence that was extraordinary for its depth and scope.
But through it all from 1945 onward, no matter how crazy we were societally the one constant has been consumption at an ungodly rate.....and that is in fact what has brought us to this cliff edge were we are actively participating in crapping in our own nests. Gotta' keep consuming. Its the great American way certainly since 1945. Frankly, that is what a rejection of human impact on Climate Change is for one....crapping in our own nests.
My own granfather was drafted to the air corps in 1944 and didn't get to Europe till 45 after the fighting ceased, but he was cleaning up concentration camps. He came back angry bitter and distured. He recovered eventually and overall was a good man. The years after the war though, he was not a nice guy.
In the generational battle kind of threads I always like when the older generation tells the younger generation how lazy or irresponsible they are when it was that older generation that raised them to be that way.
What kind of person comes back from seeing the horrors of the Nazi concentration camps and remain positive about the nature of humanity?
My theory re. parenting is that as a parent, you can raise your children how you wish, but at some point you have to “release them into the wild,” where peer pressure works on them and other parent’s measures blend with yours......
But I argue that the older generation started them down that particular path, consciously or subconsciously, when raising them. And it makes sense. If you grew up with a really hard life, most parents want to spare their children from all those same hardships. But it was those hardships that made the parents who they are and molds their ethics and values and behavior.
How old is the axiom, “spare the rod, spoil the child?” (This in no way condones child abuse.)
As stated, I am a middle Boomer, (1952). I experienced many disappointments that served me well when I encountered set-backs as an adult. No offspring just because I didn’t want any. As a parent, I think you need to expose your child to as many different things as possible and let them fail so they are prepared for the inevitable failures encountered in RL. I get blowback often as I have no first hand parenting experience, only three step-children in my first marriage. Still one of my pleasures is people watching, can learn much from watching....
But I argue that the older generation started them down that particular path, consciously or subconsciously, when raising them. And it makes sense. If you grew up with a really hard life, most parents want to spare their children from all those same hardships. But it was those hardships that made the parents who they are and molds their ethics and values and behavior.
ETA: the most well adjusted member of my family is my firefighter cousin who is beyond awesome. The most compassionate, kind and happy man you could ever meet. He is also the child of the most messed up and failed member of our family, who went to prison and died young. He grew up having to do for himself and make his own way. A horrible childhood, no doubt. But he emerged the best of us.
I think we are falling into a dangerous cycle. The more technology advances and the more comfortable and provided for we all are, the worse people we will become. Hopefully I am wrong and we go more the Star-Trek route.
Who's Bruce Gibney? Oh, and how old is he? :lamo“The boomers inherited a rich, dynamic country and have gradually bankrupted it."
They also raised the Millennials, typically as grandparents after their X Gen kids abdicated parental responsibility, probably because their Boomer parents never taught them any. And, that by itself proves the Boomers are America's worst generation.
“The boomers inherited a rich, dynamic country and have gradually bankrupted it."
They also raised the Millennials, typically as grandparents after their X Gen kids abdicated parental responsibility, probably because their Boomer parents never taught them any. And, that by itself proves the Boomers are America's worst generation.
“The boomers inherited a rich, dynamic country and have gradually bankrupted it."
They also raised the Millennials, typically as grandparents after their X Gen kids abdicated parental responsibility, probably because their Boomer parents never taught them any. And, that by itself proves the Boomers are America's worst generation.
This.Boomers inherited:
- A booming economy
- Strong unions
- One parent working easily supplied for the family without a credit card
- Debt free or cheap college
- Cheap healthcare
Boomers then:
- Stole their parent's retirement by inventing vulture capitalism. Closed down and/or stole pensions and pushed most everyone remaining into 401k's for wall street to steal with their boom and bust cycles that they call "market corrections."
- Then created a debtors society so that they could bilk future generations while simultaneously stealing from past generations' retirements.
Everything that the boomer generation was handed on a silver platter, they turned around and told the following generations that it was unaffordable and can't be done.
Everything that the boomer generation was handed on a silver platter, they turned around and told the following generations that it was unaffordable and can't be done.
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