Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
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".
Agreed entirely.... todays youth dont have the wage to house price ratio the boomers had right out of high school yet some of them preach about todays youth being lazy... if you mean not wanting to grind away at a factory job at $12 per hour that probably paid that much in 1985 then yes, they are lazy. Not to mention pensions are gone... completely.. a lot of the bonuses employers used to throw in are gone which doesnt show up in hourly wage stats.
Its not just an America thing though.... automation and technological innovation have lots to do with it... we have machines where I work that are only 10 years old yet already obsolete... the speeds the newest stuff can run at compared to just 5-10 years ago.... that and wealthy foreigners buying up land and real estate.... theres a small portion of people that have amassed a huge amount of wealth that have bid up commodities the last 10 years only putting more pressure on purchasing power.... also using our food supply to power vehicles (ethanol) was a silly idea driven by powerful interest groups.... and ultimately is an energy wasting exercise...
Unions did not destroy america, easy credit and fractional reserve banking, automation, globalization.... taking advantage of exchange rate differences... a strong dollar is not good for keeping jobs in america... its only good for creating a big credit bubble and getting other nations to use the currency for trade... but I predict all that may be coming to an end....
I don't know if the boomers or silents are the ones who changed the business world to being every single expense is looked after. I think the problem is boomers think the world is the way it was for them BUT it is no longer that way anymore at all.
When these a-holes hit their 30's & 40's and started taking over corporations, they destroyed unions,
Not true. Union decline was an inevitable result of the post war boom, global integration and the renaissance of countries blown to smithereens. The fact is that the US had a windfall which has slowly withered away from secular economic forces.
Quote:
Originally Posted by TravelingBluesBrother
raided pensions, sent our manufacturing sector overseas,
Again, these were both the results of the accumulated fat that the US had built up while its main competitors were eating through straws.
Quote:
Originally Posted by TravelingBluesBrother
fought against public transportation,
I am not quite sure of the reference, but I am guessing the comparison is once again with Europe. The US is huge. Public transport is INCREDIBLY expensive. Case in point is the ridiculous high speed rail project in California.It will never happen and tens of billions of the taxpayers' money will be lost to government parasites.
If anything there is too much public transport and not enough intelligent design of the places to which transport goes to and fro.
Quote:
Originally Posted by TravelingBluesBrother
demanded tax cuts for the wealthy,
Right now the tax brackets are just about right. post war the highest brackets were 90%! Ridiculous. The problem is more with loop holes. Those are killer.
Quote:
Originally Posted by TravelingBluesBrother
and replaced public funding for education
I am all for full public funding of education provided the students have earned their places by meeting clear and rigorous standards. I give you the Swiss Higher education system as an example. Check out the entrance exams for the two federal universities. A cursory evaluation will show you what a joke our "system" has become. To achieve Swiss and German standards we would have to cull 70% of students from higher education, close 70% of universities, cut 70% of the curriculum, and raise the bar of all classic study programs. If you are not ready to do this, then there jus no basis to fund the disaster we are now tending to.
Same goes more or less with public housing.
Quote:
Originally Posted by TravelingBluesBrother
...and housing with finance schemes that caused global economic catastrophe,
The financial crisis was a marriage of Democratic politicking, Republican greed, and the linkages between global capitalism and the existing political economy. These are hardly generational.
Quote:
Originally Posted by TravelingBluesBrother
and put a generation in lifelong debt before they even had a chance to earn income.
There has been a compact for quite some time. Students, undeserving of university, will attend places demanding top notch housing, athletic faclities, dining facilities and sports and entertainment, etc., everything but more rigorous teaching and grading.
It is one thing to owe $80K but have a degree from U Penn in biomaterial science, in which case the loan was a good investment with high ROR, versus a degree from Pidunk U with a major in fluff and a minor in every more fluff. In this latter case the loan will be an albatross only fully recognized between bong hits.
Quote:
Originally Posted by TravelingBluesBrother
Now that they have destroyed the economy for future generations, they have the audacity to preach about "personal responsibility".
Personal responsibility has never been a part of the American ethos, save for in its mythology. No, we cry merit and demand respect when we are holding a hot hand and we cry foul and point fingers when we are cold and losing. It is easy to demand that government butt out when one has an iron clad pension earned elsewhere.
While I sympathize with your OP, the truth is the downtrend has been in place for many generations, with blame not only across the political spectrum but across each and every one of us.
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".
Your logic is flawed. You group millions and millions of people into some nebulous abstract overall category based on a narrow range of dates and assign to them mystical powers and an "evil" designation under some philosophical label.
It wasn't the birth date. It must have been the Beatles lovers. No, the blue jeans.
Every generation has its jerks. It was Reagan who began the union-busting, and he was from the WWII generation, not the Boomers. He also began the unravelling of the great progressive tax system, and did away with free college tuition at the UC system. Before Reagan, everyone went to public college in CA for free, even at UC Berkeley. Reagan also took the solar panels off the White House roof, and rolled back Carter's alternative-energy-friendly policies.
Public transportation first got trashed in the 1950's by the generation that was running the oil companies, the auto industry, and the trucking industry back then.
There have always been greedheads. And the anti-greedheads of each generation haven't had much power. Wait until your generation reaches an age where some are getting into leadership positions in politics and business. Then people will show their true colors.
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".
The Baby Boomers had nothing to do with the period of time they came of age. It was immediately after a war, that left the United States the only advanced industrial country, ready to start producing large amounts of consumer, goods, etc. We were exporting a huge percentage of what we produced, as we were the only country that could do so. This was the reason, that the unions flourished. Unions could make unreasonable demands, and the companies just raised their prices and paid out.
Then the other countries in the developed world, rebuilt after WWII. The need for American products started to shrink. Our export market slowed down. Then the countries started to export to us, instead of us exporting to us. The world became a true global economy. It was now a two way street. Some products could no longer be made in the U.S. in competition with other countries on everything. Companies had to make drastic changes on low cost high labor items. They had the choice to close down and lose their investment and lay off their 500 person workforce. Or they could change and have the items made overseas, and only have to lay off 200 people that did the actual manufacturing. They were able to save 300 jobs. They considered it better to lay off 200 and keep 300 working and no loose everything they had invested. I agree with them.
We have been importing a lot of jobs, other countries have moved to their country to the United States. A good example is 10 Foreign companies, build automobiles in the U.S. employing many thousands of people building cars and components. One as an example, builds way more cars in the U.S. than in Japan. It is less costly to build higher priced, items in the U.S. than to build them overseas and ship to U.S. There are technology companies from Europe, etc., and many other companies building in the U.S.
The biggest thing lowering the need for workers in the U.S. is not shipping jobs overseas. It is technology that is eliminating jobs. Robots, and automation, is what is greatly reducing the need for a lot of manufacturing workers. Today it takes less than half as many people to build a car, and they can build more cars than just a few years ago with that smaller staff, and can build to a higher quality. If you want to see the future of auto manufacturing, Google Tesla, and look at how they have automated their plant and use very few workers over what they used for the same jobs years ago. Same thing is happening in all industries.
They tell us, that half the jobs people will be working at in just 10 years, have not even been invented yet. That is how fast the world is changing.
Public transportation is only practical in cities, large enough to support them. Today people fly instead of taking buses and trains across country.
Quote:
Before Reagan, everyone went to public college in CA for free, even at UC Berkeley. Reagan also took the solar panels off the White House roof, and rolled back Carter's alternative-energy-friendly policies.
Babyboomers were the post educated class. They wanted to change the world from the chaos that produced two world wars. They wanted fairness protesting and shouting. When they got their bums in the seats of power they forgot their principles and became greedy.
The boomers were not like the generation of Hitler, Mussolini and Stalin. And the western systems that exploited labour mercilessly. They just forgot their principles.
Some baby boomers are not suffering from the spoiled economy along with everyone else? All baby boomers are/were in positions of power?
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
