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Old 11-06-2014, 10:55 PM
 
Location: Oceania
8,610 posts, read 7,860,903 times
Reputation: 8318

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Quote:
Originally Posted by TravelingBluesBrother View Post
This post isn't meant to be taken seriously, and I do quite well for myself, BTW. I'm just sick of people from the older generation making stupid generalizations about millenials, and dismissing there valid economic concerns with the same uniformed platitudes over and over:

"Well, you should've gone to trade school instead of majoring in Art History."

"Well, these kids waste money on new iPhones, in my day, you paid off your tuition with your summer job and saved."

Those are sound bits of advice. Yeah, I am a retired boomer.
I learned trades when young and worked the space industry when older.
I can build/repair stuff and work on my car/truck.

How many millenials have done hard manual labor for any length of time? Seriously...

Lots-o-boomers know what hard work is.

We had no computers, cell phones, ipads or any instant gratification. We learned what it meant
to be disappointed after much anticipation and we all lived through it. It builds character.
Why did we take advantage of what was presented to us? The easy and truthful answer?

We made it happen.

It's your turn. Stop blaming old people for trying to maintain America. Illegals are taking away your opportunities and when we say no, you cry RACIST and allow it to happen.
Liberals will give away everything, leaving you empty handed.
Conservatives....conserve.
Do you want the USA or the United Nations? If you chose the later you are setting yourself and those after you up for even greater disaster.

Still want to blame boomers?

According to his ''birth certificate'', Barack Obama is a boomer.
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Old 11-06-2014, 11:37 PM
 
Location: Buckeye, AZ
38,936 posts, read 23,788,237 times
Reputation: 14125
Quote:
Originally Posted by Petunia 100 View Post
It's silly to vilify the Boomers simply because the world is changing. It is no more their fault than it is your own.
I found a post on another thread that I don't know if the co-worker was a boomer or not but it wouldn't surprise me if it was based on my experiences with boomers and education.
Quote:
Originally Posted by xhayatox View Post
The primary reason why I avoid socializing is people tend to ask prying questions. Like for example, one of the new coworkers I have had asked me why I'm not in college, and I told him that I simply wasn't interested, and he proceeded to tell me how it's the "right thing" to do, and how if I want to have a "house" and "luxuries" then I should go to college, and I told him to his face that I didn't give a single damn about any of that crap and that I don't need it to have a fulfilling life. People asking questions is one thing, but when they think they know what is best for you is beyond unacceptable. So that's one of the reasons why I avoid socializing. People asking me if I'm in a relationship and all this personal stuff is just unnecessary. It has nothing to do with the job and I don't care for making friends.
Now I ask you, if your generation is told to do something and you do it but it doesn't work out because of a catastrophic change in the economic landscape is that really anyone's fault? If someone is told pie in the sky fantasies from everywhere and nothing realistic, they'll believe it hook, line and sinker. I know I did.
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Old 11-07-2014, 02:48 AM
 
Location: London
4,709 posts, read 5,036,934 times
Reputation: 2154
Quote:
Originally Posted by Ruth4Truth View Post
Some forgot their principles, but many are involved in environmental work, alternative energy work, democratization and human rights in the 3rd World, and other work that's based on those principles they brought to the fore in the 1960's.
Those in positions of great power and influence and engaged in finance, were seduced by greed. It is true many baby boomers are environmentally concerned. Their naivety has a negative effect in keeping green things green for the sake of it, while herding people into urban areas that ratchets up land prices and hence house prices making lives miserable for many having to pay too much of their income on putting roof over their heads.

The generation before were also concerned about the environment. The clean air acts in the UK just after WW2 had no baby boomers involved. A pity the boomers are not running as fast with the torch as we still see diesel buses belching out pollution in cities. The technology to have most service and transport vehicles zero emissions in towns and cities has been here for decades, yet we do not see it. Do we see homes built to passive solar principles and superinsulated to keep heating and cooling to near zero running costs? And districts built to walk around as standard reducing the need for transport? No. We do not see anything on the horizon that will give us those essentials.

The baby boomers in North America and Europe were the most educated group of people in the history of the world. They largely did not deliver. They never repaid the investment society poured into them.

Last edited by John-UK; 11-07-2014 at 04:17 AM..
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Old 11-07-2014, 09:09 AM
 
5,252 posts, read 4,652,808 times
Reputation: 17362
Quote:
Originally Posted by danielj72 View Post
This attitude is one of the primary gripes about the boomers. I don't blame the baby boom folks for taking advantage of the post war economy. Our industry dominated the world, untouched by war we grew at an unprecedented rate. The young boomer getting out of school did not need a college education, at 18 many of them landed very good middle class jobs that they would keep for life. Many of them owned homes and had 2.5 kids, 2 cars etc by their early twenties. Life was good for them, with one huge exception. Vietnam was the only glitch in their easy street life. For those who avoided having to go to Vietnam life was VERY easy compared to what Gen X dealt with, and compared to the nightmare the millenials face, their lives were charmed. Many millenials cannot find any work, or just part time work. They cannot marry and start families, they don't own homes. They went to college for jobs that don't exist, now the 70k student loans are due. The millenials have a lot of flaws, but I do feel for their situation. I am Gen X, my generation has lived in the shadow of the boomers much longer. We did not have the good jobs they did, we scratched and clawed our way through life. At least we have had jobs. We have heard the boomers criticisms of our generation since we came of age back in the 80s. We were slackers, unsuccessful, unmotivated etc. We grew up hearing their overblown stories of the wonderful "sixties". We also were told that the things we were growing up with in the 70s and 80s were inferior to the wonderful life lived in the 50s and 60s. They are a self centered generation, obsessed with everything to do with them. It should not surprise anyone that they overconsumed during their time. They had good union jobs, then demanded more. They milked the cow until the cow was dead. Look at the auto companies and the bailout. Some of the best examples of how the boomers harmed our economy can be found there. Unskilled union labor demanded more and more until the company was bankrupt. The government stepped in and saved their skin, and even today they still earn that fat wage. Very few non boomer workers can be found at GM today, Why???? GM simply does not replace them when they retire, they move the job somewhere cheaper. Either overseas or they give the job to a supplier company in the US. In areas where car companies have plants you often find the boomer parent working in the GM plant making 30 dollars an hour, while their children work in the sweat shops making 10 dollars an hour making parts for GM. This irony is lost upon boomers working in the GM plant, they dismiss this troubling trend. Often they say their children and their generation just was not as motivated as they were, or that somehow they deserved this fate. They don't make the connection between their outlandish wage and the fate of their own children. They are ignorant, lazy and overpayed. Like I said I don't blame them for their success, only for how they abused their situation, and for their lack of empathy for those who were harmed by that abuse. Had they not asked for too much, maybe some of the jobs in China and Mexico today would still be in the US. Had boomers who controlled the government and corporations in the 90s thought of more than just their pocketbooks maybe they would not have signed the free trade deals that helped to ruin this nations economy. They are a guilty generation, the way they lived was to enrich themselves with no thought of what would happen in the future. Now the future is here, the jobs are gone and America is diminished. The boomers still hold much of the wealth and their children and grandchildren have little of it because of the way they lived and the decisions they made. The children and grandchildren are angry, and the boomer still does not get it. Its no different than 20-25 years ago when they first started calling people my age slackers. History will likely call them out for their self indulged lives, and their part in the decline of America. However that will not even bother them, since "they got thiers".
Substitute the word "boomers" with "people" and you're sure to see the correct picture emerge. Yeah, I'm 70 but never bought into the shallow thinking that allows one to smear an entire generation for the acts of ignorant people who can be found in EVERY generation..The OP was seeing a monolithic group of humanity without ever realizing their individual sentiments.

I've always known who to blame for the atrocious behavior of politicians, bankers, educators, CEO's, etc. and that would be the individuals among them that have made life a ***** for all generations, mine included. I protested against the NAFTA,GATT, agreements from their beginnings, I protested our wars for money, I stood up for American workers whose jobs were being shipped to slave nations despite being told it was for the good of the economy.

You probably didn't notice the huge protests of the nineteen sixties, eh? Many in my generation were passionate about the many social issues of the day, but many of us were also told to "go to work" and "get a haircut" even though we worked at full time occupations to survive, and still found time to attend various political events. No generation can be gathered into a whole and then beat for the transgressions of some individuals among them, unless a beating for it's own sake is the goal.

Read some of the works of Howard Zinn to see who ate the lunch of every generation in America, including yours, politicize your self in order to gain a broader view of how a class system generate the economic inequities for everyone not just you and your generation.
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Old 11-07-2014, 09:15 AM
 
41 posts, read 48,062 times
Reputation: 90
Quote:
Originally Posted by RogueMom View Post
No, I was still growing up in the 1970's. Even when I got out of high school and into the work world in the early 1980's, entry level jobs were plentiful.
Unemployment was above 10% in the early 1980's.

Quote:
Originally Posted by RogueMom View Post
I hit the horrendous unemployment and wage stagnation that started in the late 1990's and has continued ever since.
Unemployment was below 4% in the late 1990's.
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Old 11-07-2014, 09:31 AM
 
5,252 posts, read 4,652,808 times
Reputation: 17362
Quote:
Originally Posted by John-UK View Post
Boomers clearly ended up in positions of power. Too many of them to fill all the posts.
PEOPLE end up in positions of power NOT an entire generation, jeeez knowing the difference can't be all that difficult..........
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Old 11-07-2014, 09:34 AM
 
Location: California side of the Sierras
11,162 posts, read 7,604,563 times
Reputation: 12523
Quote:
Originally Posted by Escort Rider View Post
I don't get what is so hard on the eyes. I read the long post and found it quite good. I even agree that it should have been broken up into several paragraphs, but I don't agree about making such a big deal about it. Are we losing our reading comprehension in this country?
I have found that my eyesight has changed significantly since I hit my mid 40s. YMMV. It has nothing to do with reading comprehension, it has to do with whether or not I want to risk getting a headache. As it turns out, I don't.

I'm not sure that making a comment on a message board forum equates to something being a big deal.
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Old 11-07-2014, 09:36 AM
 
106,110 posts, read 108,094,712 times
Reputation: 79677
Quote:
Originally Posted by TravelingBluesBrother View Post
Baby Boomers grew up in an era where the US had a huge manufacturing sector, strong unions, cheap gas, a very high progressive income tax, and major expansion of affordable housing and free or low cost quality public higher education.

When these a-holes hit their 30's & 40's and started taking over corporations, they destroyed unions, raided pensions, sent our manufacturing sector overseas, fought against public transportation, demanded tax cuts for the wealthy, and replaced public funding for education and housing with finance schemes that caused global economic catastrophe, and put a generation in lifelong debt before they even had a chance to earn income.

Now that they have destroyed the economy for future generations, they have the audacity to preach about "personal responsibility".
really , were you there?

i got dumped out of school in the 1970's. right in to vietnam , double digit inflation and the highest unemployment since the great depression.

we had 20 years of dead stock markets only to be hit with having to spend double for things only a few years later.

it was great when the booming 80's came. we had not managed to save a dime to even take advantage of it.

somehow my view living it is very different than your view monday morning quarterbacking it.
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Old 11-07-2014, 09:37 AM
 
Location: St. Mary's County, Maryland
165 posts, read 193,925 times
Reputation: 321
Quote:
Originally Posted by TravelingBluesBrother View Post
This post isn't meant to be taken seriously, and I do quite well for myself, BTW. I'm just sick of people from the older generation making stupid generalizations about millenials, and dismissing there valid economic concerns with the same uniformed platitudes over and over:

"Well, you should've gone to trade school instead of majoring in Art History."

"Well, these kids waste money on new iPhones, in my day, you paid off your tuition with your summer job and saved."
I think you should walk away when someone makes one of these blanket statements to you, then. The problem is indeed generalizations. People are good at making snap judgments about others' circumstances. It is no use getting into an argument with someone who dismisses you so quickly; they will only think you are getting defensive. Let 'em rot with their opinions.
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Old 11-07-2014, 09:42 AM
 
41 posts, read 48,062 times
Reputation: 90
Anti-boomer polemics are a baseless reactionary product of the corporate right-wing, most of whom are of course themselves boomers. It's a means to divide people along lines other than the ones they ought to be dividing over. As has been pointed out but shouldn't have needed to be, birth dates do not define anyone. People define themselves. Some define themselves as being concerned for people beyond themselves, and some become rapacious, self-absorbed greedsters. This is the case in all generations, and in each, it's the latter that everyone else ought to be united in working against.
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