Boomers vs Younger Generations?

[iliveonramen]

Pitting generations against each other always seems to get some spirited debate which is why 90% of the articles you see on Facebook are Millennial are ruining X. This article that ultimately the book the article is based on looks at the generation we have actually seen in action for the past 30 or so years...the Boomers. What the authors of the book think about the Boomers and how they are leaving the country isn't very positive.

I'm curious, do you guys agree with this? There's really no discussion that boomers have dominated US politics since they hit voting age. The demographic was much larger than any that came before it. It also dominated it for decades as the baby boom was larger than US population growth. It's only now that younger generations outnumber the Boomers.

In addition, Boomers were born into a very rich country...there's no doubt about that. Low debt, high wages, and ultimately not very much was required by a boomer to live a middle class lifestyle.

https://www.vox.com/2017/12/20/16772670/baby-boomers-millennials-congress-debt

 

[MrPeanut]

I listened to that book on Audible. It isn't particularly good, but it does make some valid points. I think one of the bigger problems we see with the Boomer vs Millennial comparisons is income inequality. In the Boomer years there was a much broader middle class. So when somebody says Boomers had it better they aren't completely wrong. However, when someone says Millennials are spoiled they aren't completely wrong either. The middle class now is divided into high and low. There are people that are better off than the previous generation and people that are worse off. I don't blame Boomers for the offshoring of hundreds of thousands of good jobs, or for the skyrocketing price of education. I look at those things as problems that arose naturally, and weren't handled effectively when they needed to be by our government.

Politicians have pandered to the Boomer generation for decades because of their shear size. Over time policy has been adjusted to benefit Boomers more. This once again is a problem of our politicians and our government. As the Gen-x/Millennial generation take over the voting power of Boomers we will see politicians switch to pandering to them. I think that the Boomer's size has lead to the shaping of our country in a way that smaller generations just haven't been able to do.

 

[bearpoker]

Pitting generations against each other always seems to get some spirited debate which is why 90% of the articles you see on Facebook are Millennial are ruining X. This article that ultimately the book the article is based on looks at the generation we have actually seen in action for the past 30 or so years...the Boomers. What the authors of the book think about the Boomers and how they are leaving the country isn't very positive.

I'm curious, do you guys agree with this? There's really no discussion that boomers have dominated US politics since they hit voting age. The demographic was much larger than any that came before it. It also dominated it for decades as the baby boom was larger than US population growth. It's only now that younger generations outnumber the Boomers.

In addition, Boomers were born into a very rich country...there's no doubt about that. Low debt, high wages, and ultimately not very much was required by a boomer to live a middle class lifestyle.

https://www.vox.com/2017/12/20/16772670/baby-boomers-millennials-congress-debt

It looks to me like an indictment of Republican tax cuts and debt financed wars. Maybe because I'm a boomer myself, as well as a liberal, I see this form a political instead of a generational perspective.

 

[DamnYankee]

The overall degradation of America began with the arrival of modern day liberalism. Since about the mid 60's the nation contracted a cancer that is slowly eating away the country.

 

[reinoe]

I got so tired of the Boomer's mantra of "get a job". In the days of the Boomer they could walk into a random place that had a "now hiring" sign, work at that place for 40 years without having their spouse work at all, and live middle class throughout. However, since I work in the insurance industry and I can tell you first hand that many in the boomer generation don't have a lick of sense about economics or retirement. It's really gross when I hear some of the clients say "I want more coverage at a lower rate" completely un-ironically. What world do they live in where that's a serious suggestion?

Politically they are the advocates of nearly all the negative changes in the world: from trickle down economics to funding wars overseas on a credit card.

 

[bearpoker]

The overall degradation of America began with the arrival of modern day liberalism. Since about the mid 60's the nation contracted a cancer that is slowly eating away the country.

It was "conservatives" who gave us those tax cuts and wars, not liberals. It's conservatives who now deny global warming. It was liberals who ended the Jim Crow era and fought for racial and gender equality. Which part of this do you have a problem with?

 

[brothern]

I'm curious, do you guys agree with this? There's really no discussion that boomers have dominated US politics since they hit voting age. The demographic was much larger than any that came before it. It also dominated it for decades as the baby boom was larger than US population growth. It's only now that younger generations outnumber the Boomers.

I've made the decision that I'm no longer voting for any Boomers that appear on my ballot. I'm sick of this EXACT attitude expressed by politicians who are Boomers,

I got so tired of the Boomer's mantra of "get a job". In the days of the Boomer they could walk into a random place that had a "now hiring" sign, work at that place for 40 years without having their spouse work at all, and live middle class throughout.

As well as this continued pervasive belief and rallying cry that the 1980s and Reagan were the greatest ever. :thumbdown

 

[Rexedgar]

Something went wrong in the experiment. If you go deep, all manner of issues can be connected to the Boomer generation. IMO the year range is too long, (‘46-‘64). Eighteen years is a little long. Much changed, parenting, participation trophies, etc. If I had to only choose one category, parenting would be the big one. Parenting or the lack of it leads to so many future problems. Also during the ‘Boom’ the musical accompaniment to the game of “musical chairs” sped way up. When the music quits, many will have no seat....

 

[bearpoker]

I got so tired of the Boomer's mantra of "get a job". In the days of the Boomer they could walk into a random place that had a "now hiring" sign, work at that place for 40 years without having their spouse work at all, and live middle class throughout. However, since I work in the insurance industry and I can tell you first hand that many in the boomer generation don't have a lick of sense about economics or retirement. It's really gross when I hear some of the clients say "I want more coverage at a lower rate" completely un-ironically. What world do they live in where that's a serious suggestion?

Politically they are the advocates of nearly all the negative changes in the world: from trickle down economics to funding wars overseas on a credit card.

It was always hard for women to get a job with a decent paycheck.

 

[chuckiechan]

I've made the decision that I'm no longer voting for any Boomers that appear on my ballot. I'm sick of this EXACT attitude expressed by politicians who are Boomers,



As well as this continued pervasive belief and rallying cry that the 1980s and Reagan were the greatest ever. :thumbdown

A few things not mentioned about the "boomers":

Many of our parents were WW2 vets.
We were educated by many WW2 vets.
We lived under the fear of sudden nuclear annihilation.
Family and church were moral anchors, much more tightly than today.
We went to or otherwise experienced Vietnam.
We graduated from college at high rates and went to work and created families rather than become social justice warriors.

Now were are faced with nuclear annihilation again, plus bio, this time by NoKo.

One of these days our luck is going to run out because we aren't taking threats seriously enough. So yeah, we think differently than you.

 

[Grand Mal]

The overall degradation of America began with the arrival of modern day liberalism. Since about the mid 60's the nation contracted a cancer that is slowly eating away the country.

This is how you do 'conservative'- take a snapshot of a moment in history, declare it to be the perfect moment and try to preserve that moment through legislation. Hopefully the right combination of laws and enforcement will let you live in that moment forever. For lots of white male conservatives, that moment was 1955-1963.
You can't ever go back to that moment, of course. All you can do is whine and complain about everyone who changed things because they weren't white male conservatives and the moment was not good to them.

 

[Grand Mal]

It was "conservatives" who gave us those tax cuts and wars, not liberals. It's conservatives who now deny global warming. It was liberals who ended the Jim Crow era and fought for racial and gender equality. Which part of this do you have a problem with?

They (conservatives) don't understand that every right, every personal freedom, they enjoy was won for them by liberals, liberals who had to fight against conservatives to win them. It's still going on- the last one was gay rights, the current one is drug laws, and you watch, the next one will be assisted suicide. Trouble is, for conservatives, these rights are being won for other people, not for them, so it represents 'degredation'.

 

[bearpoker]

They (conservatives) don't understand that every right, every personal freedom, they enjoy was won for them by liberals, liberals who had to fight against conservatives to win them. It's still going on- the last one was gay rights, the current one is drug laws, and you watch, the next one will be assisted suicide. Trouble is, for conservatives, these rights are being won for other people, not for them, so it represents 'degredation'.

They seem to see rights as a limited commodity, a zero sum game that they've been loosing.

 

[brothern]

Many of our parents were WW2 vets.
We were educated by many WW2 vets.
We lived under the fear of sudden nuclear annihilation.
Family and church were moral anchors, much more tightly than today.
We went to or otherwise experienced Vietnam.

All of what I quoted may be more or less true, but it doesn't change that Vietnam ended 42 years ago and the Soviet Union dissolved almost 30 years ago. These threats no longer exist.

Meanwhile North Korea is an extremely poor, dysfunctional and isolated state that is not even remotely comparable.

 

[Goshin]

I regret that it is always "versus".

Does it have to be? White vs black, men vs women, young vs old, rich vs poor, boomers vs millennials... when we put things in these terms we make a self-fulfilling prophesy of division and conflict, instead of trying to identify our most serious common problems and come to an understanding we can work on together.



No, I am not smoking opium.

 

[brothern]

The overall degradation of America began with the arrival of modern day liberalism. Since about the mid 60's the nation contracted a cancer that is slowly eating away the country.

This is how you do 'conservative'- take a snapshot of a moment in history, declare it to be the perfect moment and try to preserve that moment through legislation.

No, the mid-60s is when I would venture that DamnYankee was in his childhood.

 

[Strings]

I have a couple questions re millennials:

1) Inasmuch as I always see these young folks referred to as "spoiled," should we then assume that members of this generation were reared in middle and upper income households?
2) Other than college educated, college bound or "gap year" types, who else identifies with the shared view of millennial? Young inner city folks? Rural farm folks? Latinos? Other?
3) Do they care enough about this nation to participate in its governance?

Not to mention the social commitment each generation makes for those to come. These are "media" kids. They are vulnerable to properly delivered messaging even if the message itself is political and flawed.

 

[Critter7r]

Something went wrong in the experiment. If you go deep, all manner of issues can be connected to the Boomer generation. IMO the year range is too long, (‘46-‘64). Eighteen years is a little long. Much changed, parenting, participation trophies, etc. If I had to only choose one category, parenting would be the big one. Parenting or the lack of it leads to so many future problems. Also during the ‘Boom’ the musical accompaniment to the game of “musical chairs” sped way up. When the music quits, many will have no seat....

How so? How soon do you expect someone born in 1946 to start the next generation? I'd say 18 years is spot on the earliest one would expect the next generation to start.

 

[iliveonramen]

A few things not mentioned about the "boomers":

Family and church were moral anchors, much more tightly than today..

I'd say family and church as moral anchors may of been the reality when boomers grew up or at least the early boomers, but divorce rates started spiking as of 1960's. Also, while I think most Boomers would call themselves religious, church attendance rates started dropping dramatically since the 50's.

We went to or otherwise experienced Vietnam.

This is true...but I think that experience gave Boomers a drastically different viewpoint than WWII gave the previous generation.

We graduated from college at high rates and went to work and created families rather than become social justice warriors.

While college graduation rates have increased since the 50's, the Boomer generation is known as THE social justice warrior generation.

While it's tough to group a generation into one bucket...there's no doubt in that what happened during your life impacts your views on government, society etc.

I also think it's interesting that most of the things Boomers tend to criticize are really products of that generation.

 

[calamity]

Pitting generations against each other always seems to get some spirited debate which is why 90% of the articles you see on Facebook are Millennial are ruining X. This article that ultimately the book the article is based on looks at the generation we have actually seen in action for the past 30 or so years...the Boomers. What the authors of the book think about the Boomers and how they are leaving the country isn't very positive.

I'm curious, do you guys agree with this? There's really no discussion that boomers have dominated US politics since they hit voting age. The demographic was much larger than any that came before it. It also dominated it for decades as the baby boom was larger than US population growth. It's only now that younger generations outnumber the Boomers.

In addition, Boomers were born into a very rich country...there's no doubt about that. Low debt, high wages, and ultimately not very much was required by a boomer to live a middle class lifestyle.

https://www.vox.com/2017/12/20/16772670/baby-boomers-millennials-congress-debt

Boomers sucked. I believe that is pretty much indisputable.

 

[calamity]

I have a couple questions re millennials:

1) Inasmuch as I always see these young folks referred to as "spoiled," should we then assume that members of this generation were reared in middle and upper income households?
2) Other than college educated, college bound or "gap year" types, who else identifies with the shared view of millennial? Young inner city folks? Rural farm folks? Latinos? Other?
3) Do they care enough about this nation to participate in its governance?

Not to mention the social commitment each generation makes for those to come. These are "media" kids. They are vulnerable to properly delivered messaging even if the message itself is political and flawed.

Wife relayed to me an excellent millennial tale the other day.

An elderly boomer lady got lost in the new super-grocery store. She approached an employee, an obvious millennial, with green, partially shaved hair and a piercing or two running through her nose.

"I can't find the exit," said the elderly lady. "Are you serious?" Asked the spoiled, twenty-something brat, who probably felt she was doing everyone a favor by just being there. "Yes." replied the poor little old lady, becoming embarrassed now. "Well, It's over there," the millennial twerp spits out as she points to a row of shelves, behind which presumably existed the exit.

 

[Lord Tammerlain]

I'd say family and church as moral anchors may of been the reality when boomers grew up or at least the early boomers, but divorce rates started spiking as of 1960's. Also, while I think most Boomers would call themselves religious, church attendance rates started dropping dramatically since the 50's.


This is true...but I think that experience gave Boomers a drastically different viewpoint than WWII gave the previous generation.


While college graduation rates have increased since the 50's, the Boomer generation is known as THE social justice warrior generation.

While it's tough to group a generation into one bucket...there's no doubt in that what happened during your life impacts your views on government, society etc.

I also think it's interesting that most of the things Boomers tend to criticize are really products of that generation.

Pretty much

Increase in divorce rates, during Boomer prime years
The 80's "me generation"
Social activism, ERA, anti Vietnam war protests, woodstock, the term Hippies,
The general decline in religious attendance.

All associated with Boomers

 

[Lord Tammerlain]

I got so tired of the Boomer's mantra of "get a job". In the days of the Boomer they could walk into a random place that had a "now hiring" sign, work at that place for 40 years without having their spouse work at all, and live middle class throughout. However, since I work in the insurance industry and I can tell you first hand that many in the boomer generation don't have a lick of sense about economics or retirement. It's really gross when I hear some of the clients say "I want more coverage at a lower rate" completely un-ironically. What world do they live in where that's a serious suggestion?

Politically they are the advocates of nearly all the negative changes in the world: from trickle down economics to funding wars overseas on a credit card.

Younger boomers did not have that job security especially those in blue collar manufacturing jobs (central and North eastern US) and boomer age women were working in much larger numbers than the generation before.

 

[calamity]

Pretty much

Increase in divorce rates, during Boomer prime years
The 80's "me generation"
Social activism, ERA, anti Vietnam war protests, woodstock, the term Hippies,
The general decline in religious attendance.

All associated with Boomers

More like selling out, trading activism for mutual funds, demanding long prison sentences for anyone scary, declaring endless war against brown people who bow East a few times a day, and Country Music Telivision.

 

[bearpoker]

More like selling out, trading activism for mutual funds, demanding long prison sentences for anyone scary, declaring endless war against brown people who bow East a few times a day, and Country Music Telivision.

Evil as we were, we had better music back in the day! :mrgreen: