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This seems to be the golden era of being an average American in many aspects. Like my grandparents, born in a depression and childhood was hard, but after WW2 ended that ended quickly as well. The biggest boom in mankind followed, coupling with a generation growing up in the sweet 50's. Cars, freedom, soda fountains, etc. Move on to employment where retirement is at 55 and with a pension, that many are still collecting today. They get to spend their golden years coming off the Internet boom of the 90's, use tech to stay in touch with Grandkids, and yes there were some hard times and stress but not like today's under 40 somethings.
Full disclosure - By all means every generation had something good. Many say today's kids have it too easy, and in some ways they do, but in others they dont. $100k of student loan debt is not nice. Many people today are propped up by social services, while others partake in activities considered quite debaucherous. I'm not saying the silent generation was perfect by any means, but as far as opportunity, rapid increase in standard of living due to us winning WW2, etc, they would probably have to be considered the golden generation for the average American. For the exceptionally rich American, I would say there is no better time than now post-globalization if you have the money to travel the modern world.
You mean having to live through various wars where the majority of the population was affected to one degree or another?
And why are you and so many people so focused on "jobs" and "pensions" they are still around today. Get off the sofa and get a job. Then get good at it and then get into a career. Then build on it and you'll retire at 55 without any problems either. It's still common to become a millionaire at 55 today, even easier than back then with all the investment opportunities today.
Why are people qouting 100k student debt? Those students are dumb if they knowingly take up 100k and not have a plan for paying it back. Med students take on that debt because they know their careers will return more. What does the Spanish/Art/etc student have to say if they take on 100k debt when their job outlook on average pay in the middle $50k?
Last I looked, school cost around $30k debt, I bought a new car for $30k last year, I can pay it back easy and I don't treat the car like a noose everyday. Why are college grads treating their "purchase" like a noose? They should enjoy having it, stop having buyers remorse over it. College isn't some playground that you spend the early 20s rolling around in. It's there to help people learn what they need for their future. If late teens,20s want a playground, go to Mexico/abroad where they can play for 4 years for cheaper and learn real life skills, then come back and go to college knowing what they need to focus on.
All this talk about "golden age" from people who don't have or barely have memories before the 1990s is pitiful. Today is as golden as any other point in history for people who are motivated to save/invest/work.
edit: Sorry OP I misread your post about how they were lucky, I took it the other way since I figured you meant economically lucky... because this is the economics forum I still feel luckier as a young person, I don't want to be drafted or have it hanging over me like the past generations. Nor do I want to live before vaccines became widely available. Neither do I look forward to aging in nursing homes from the 1960s either.
Why wouldn't I consider myself luckier than my parents? I'm young, making more money than they are after working 30 years and I come out of college making more? I also have a pension plan from my job. I travel to other countries to see family every other year. Invite them to visit me the other years. How am I not as lucky as the past generations?
Us older ones in that period, grew up in the depression. What wonderful times those were. Think it is tough today to get a job, back then there were not many jobs even available. Thankfully my family was better off than the majority. My dad had decent jobs, so we survived. We lived on the family ranch, and raised our own food, while a lot of families went hungry. People would go door to door begging to see if there was any food the householder would give them to keep from starving.
O boy were we lucky. The majority of the men had to spend a few years in the military and it was not voluntary. You either joined as I did (joined navy with draft notice sitting in mail box) or you were drafted into the army. I was lucky and never went further away than Hawaii. Always land duty, either in schools or naval air stations. In the navy 4 years, and never on a ship. Always in a supervisory position after getting out of school nearly a year after joining. I was one of the lucky ones.
I know a lot of my friends back then had to go fighting living in fox holes, being shot at and to stay alive had to shoot someone else before they shot you. And a lot of them did not survive the war.
And the great pay, when your monthly paycheck was less than what the majority earn every day today.
The only reason there were lots of jobs then, was we were the major country in the world that was not effected by war. We were making things for everyone else. We also often had to take jobs, the young people today would not even consider taking seeing their posts on these threads. A lot of jobs were high paid, at fifty cents an hour. I was lucky, as I got into sales right out of the service and could make much more money than the majority of the people. I was soon making $125,000 per year in commissions in today's dollars. But the median wage was less than $2 an hour back then. People did not expect to live as high on the hog as they say, back then as the young people do today. One third of all working people, were working on farms, etc., producing food. Today only 1.5% are involved in producing the food with the majority being replaced by very expensive machinery.
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Ohh, those good ol' days! My grandfather says the good old days are right now, so live it up!
I get the original poster's main point, but I think he's got the ages a bit wrong. I would say it was the tail end of the silent generation and the beginning of the Boomer generation who were born at the "right time", economically speaking. The older silents endured the Great Depression as children, and that was no picnic, despite the OP passing it off as nothing. Then they had to go off and fight World War II, from which many returned minus and arm or a leg or an eye, or their balls, or their sanity.
There is no doubt, of course, about the post-WWII boom times which resulted from the rest of the industrialized world being devastated.
I was born in 1944, just two years too soon to be a boomer. I feel like I had the best of all worlds. I missed out on the Great Depression and on the war. Growing up in the 1950's was ideal for children; we could play outside after dark without fear, among other things. Then college had not yet become so frightfully expense and it was feasible (even if not "easy") to work one's way through and emerge with no debt. Then after exiting college, there were decent jobs available, at least for most majors.
So I am now 71 and I have a secure pension based on 34 years of service as a high school teacher in California. I worked hard, but I had it good, meaning I was fortunate from an economic standpoint to have been born when I was.
Originally Posted by eyeb View Post
You mean having to live through various wars where the majority of the population was affected to one degree or another?
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Originally posted by rruff View Post
The US hasn't been in that kind of war since the civil war.
Again someone young enough (rruff) to not know what they are talking about. The WWII was not fought on American soil, but everyone was effected by it. He has not listened to air raid sirens going off (unannounced drills), and full blackouts and people frightened we would be bombed any second. Cars had to stop and wait for a bomb to hit them or until the all clear was sounded, Women replacing men to build war ships and airplanes. The draft taking men away from their homes and families to go fight the war. People searching for things like any type of metal that they would give to the war effort. Food rationing, limiting the meat products, kitchen oils and greases, and sugar you had to exchange stamps for, with each family being issued their limits. Gas rationing, and if you used yours up, you would not have gas the rest of the month. No new cars and a lot of other things were not built for years, and people had to get along with the existing stock. And Americans dying in big numbers in the war.
Yes rruff, everyone in the country was effected by wars. After WWII, we had the Korean War, and again it effected everyone in the country one way or another, but not nearly as bad as WWII. That was my war to have to serve. Before that WWI was also no picnic as my parents and grandparents explained things to me.
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I still feel luckier as a young person, I don't want to be drafted or have it hanging over me like the past generations. Nor do I want to live before vaccines became widely available. Neither do I look forward to aging in nursing homes from the 1960s either.
