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Well, let's see how this Boomer (born 1960) and her DH stole their kid's future:
Worked long hours everyday. Not to house, feed, cloth and educate said kids, but just for the thrill of getting up at 5 and going to work.
Sent said kids to a private college prep school for K-12 because we cared nothing about their educations, but enjoy paying tuition bills.
Gave said kids opportunities to play an instrument, play sports, attend summer camps and travel overseas just to get em out of the house, expense be damned.
Paid total bills for 4 years of Undergrad education for said kids even though we know college grads enjoy those student loan payments.
And worst of all, we the awful Boomer parents, drove old cars, never took vacations and saved far less than we could have for our retirement just so we could steal our kid's futures.
And, I fully expect that FICA taxes will be raised significantly and benefits cut before I retire. I support both those measures not because I care about preserving SS for my kids but just because I love to pay higher taxes and have less money.
I say False. If anything, Baby Boomers have spoiled their children too much though.
I grew up with 2 T-shirts, a pair af tennis shoes, a pair of blue jeans, and 1 set of church clothes and that was all I owned. If I wanted something, I had to go earn it and buy it and that included my college education which I paid for while I worked full-time. A soon as I turned 15, I went to work after school and haven't stopped since.
My 3 kids have had cars bought for them (by me), their entire college education paid for by me and had so many luxuries that were not even something I could have considered as a child.
My kids and their generation futures will be guided by their own and the generation initiative...BOTTOM LINE.
My kids and their generation futures will be guided by their own and the generation initiative...BOTTOM LINE
And my older son (27 yoa) made over $200K last year and bought a house in a community with average house price of $425K. He is successful becasue he's smart, made the right decisions in HS and college, and has greatly impressed his managers.
My kids and their generation futures will be guided by their own and the generation initiative...BOTTOM LINE
And my older son (27 yoa) made over $200K last year and bought a house in a community with average house price of $425K. He is successful becasue he's smart, made the right decisions in HS and college, and has greatly impressed his managers.
That sounds ok ...
But there are thousands who have had the same in lifestyle
and before they knew what hit them they lost it all
there job, house, cars and were divorced
Look at those who lost it all in the past 4 to 5 years and they had it made too and lost it all.
The National Recovery Administration (NRA) was formed in 1933 as part of the First New Deal. It set minimum prices, wages, and competitive conditions in industries, strengthened unions, and limited farm production in order to raise prices. Most businesses supported it and the public boycotted those that didn't. The Second New Deal added social security and the Works Progress Administration. FDR was so popular he was elected to three terms.
That generation strongly favored big government. They were about a mile to the left of today's society.
And a substantial portion of that overbuilding either was invalidated (as with the NRA) repealed (transport regulation), weakened (Taft-Hartley), or rendered obsolete by market and technological changes. And now some of the fools withing the Beltway think it can be reintroduced, with a generous levening of the folly called Poliical Correctness for good measue.
Every advanced society has some form of safety net, and even if ours collapses, a bare-bones replacement can be reformulated within a relatively short time; but expanding the tax base to confiscatory levels won't work. The "suckers" intended to pick up too much of the tab will find a way out, thanks to globalization. That's being proven within our own borders, with Caiforna in the lead, right now.
Next time around, if we're going to have a safety net, it will have to be funded by taxing consumption rather than income. If somebody's vain and short-sighted enough to cruise around in a Mercedes or a Lexus instead of a basic, sensible set of wheels, I have no problem with them paying a much higer rate of sales tax, for example.
I really have no opinion as to whch generation dug most of the hole we're in, but I know that most of those involved are dreamers from LeftyLand whose idea of "long-term" is any time beyond the next election cycle.
If I wanted something, I had to go earn it and buy it and that included my college education which I paid for while I worked full-time.
How much was your college education?
I work a full time job(almost 50k a year)and i'm going to need loans to finish my degree
I laugh at all you baby boomers that think,just because you bought your kids everything they would some how be better off than you
How do you know people didn't complain? Were you there?
No. I wasn't there. I can't tell if your teasing or just being sarcastic with that question.
My comments are based on personal stories told to me by my parents (who were married during the Depression) and seeing how their life was and that of their close friends who'd come to the house. Sometimes you have to listen to people talking about their lives in that time to gain perspective that not everyone complained about their life.
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With an unemployment rate of 20% during the Great Depression, people worked 2nd and 3rd jobs? Really?
Not a typical job that we see today that's paid in currency. I meant jobs paid in goods or food. My mom would take in laundry, in exchange for milk and eggs. Dad would work at any odd job he could find because, as you said, unemployment was high. Often, these jobs were paid with food and goods. It really was a difficult time.
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A lot of people actually didn't "get up every day and keep going," since the suicide rate increased by 50% during the Great Depression. Maybe they didn't complain, they just killed themselves. Nah, let's be realistic, people have been complaining for all of human history. Of course, the whiners didn't make compelling human interest stories so their pity parties are lost to time.
True, lots of suicides during that time, just like there was in 2008. (I've never been able to understand why money would be a factor in why someone takes their own life)
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Please tell us more about how in the olden days people walked up hill both ways to work their 6 jobs and never complained about anything, about how righteous, moral, and hardworking everyone was. "Every generation imagines itself to be more intelligent than the one that went before it, and wiser than the one that comes after it." -George Orwell. It's a trite story older than time of revisionist history viewed through rose-tinted glasses.
Well, this is just sarcasm and those jokes are told by the next generation in jest about their parents. But there is some truth in the difficulties of life back then. They didn't have the modern conveniences we see today. Parents will always tell their children things like that, not so much to lay guilt on them but rather to get them to appreciate what they do have instead of complaining about what they don't.
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They didn't like government intrusion in their lives?
FDR created the Federal Emergency Relief Act (FERA) in May 1933. The act provided for $500 million in grants to state governments "to aid in meeting the costs of furnishing relief and work relief and in relieving the hardship and suffering caused by unemployment in the form of money, service,
materials, and/or commodities to provide the necessities of life to persons in need as
a result of the present emergency, and/or to their dependents, whether resident,
transient, or homeless."
Welfare, as a percentage of state spending, increased from 2.2% to 19%, while total spending increased 2.5x (more if you factor in deflation).
The National Recovery Administration (NRA) was formed in 1933 as part of the First New Deal. It set minimum prices, wages, and competitive conditions in industries, strengthened unions, and limited farm production in order to raise prices. Most businesses supported it and the public boycotted those that didn't. The Second New Deal added social security and the Works Progress Administration. FDR was so popular he was elected to three terms.
That generation strongly favored big government. They were about a mile to the left of today's society.
Again, I was speaking on a personal level which (by your chart) did not reflect the feeling of the entire country. I stand corrected.
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Furthermore, you do realize that 8 million people in America have 2+ jobs, nearly 1/3 of the workforce is looking for a second job? That the age group most likely hold 2+ jobs is 20-24?
Wow, I didn't know that. Thank you for pointing that out. I must live in an area where I don't see that. In fact, I know of two (I know only two) young people who aren't paying back their student loans because they feel they were robbed. Their skewed thinking is that they weren't able to find a job after getting their degrees so why should they pay back loans because they didn't get their money's worth? Yes, I know. Pretty warped. But I guess you have to look at the bigger picture and that often escapes me.
Look, it's pretty hard to come here and read some of the nasty comments I do about people. As someone who had parents who went through the Depression and struggled to build a better life after it, I can appreciate the hard work they did to give their children a better life. We weren't rich and we weren't given everything we wanted but we got everything we needed and we learned to appreciate what we had.
I worked over 30 years and paid into Social Security and I knew that the money was going to help my parents and others of that generation. I didn't moan and groan about it because that's what we did. Those working today seem to take issue with the fact they are paying for a previous generation. So, I guess I can't help look at them as being just a tad self-centered. But this isn't about SS or Medicare or playing tit for tat about the GD. The question was whether the boomers have ruined life for today's generation.
So my answer is no. I don't think so. If people don't have what they think they should have, then they haven't been working hard enough to achieve it or they've just hit a bump in the road. Fortunes are made and lost every day. Nothing in life is a guarantee. Accept it work to make things better, just don't lay the blame on a generation of people who went through their own struggles.
No. I wasn't there. I can't tell if your teasing or just being sarcastic with that question.
My comments are based on personal stories told to me by my parents (who were married during the Depression) and seeing how their life was and that of their close friends who'd come to the house. Sometimes you have to listen to people talking about their lives in that time to gain perspective that not everyone complained about their life.
Not a typical job that we see today that's paid in currency. I meant jobs paid in goods or food. My mom would take in laundry, in exchange for milk and eggs. Dad would work at any odd job he could find because, as you said, unemployment was high. Often, these jobs were paid with food and goods. It really was a difficult time.
True, lots of suicides during that time, just like there was in 2008. (I've never been able to understand why money would be a factor in why someone takes their own life)
Well, this is just sarcasm and those jokes are told by the next generation in jest about their parents. But there is some truth in the difficulties of life back then. They didn't have the modern conveniences we see today. Parents will always tell their children things like that, not so much to lay guilt on them but rather to get them to appreciate what they do have instead of complaining about what they don't.
Again, I was speaking on a personal level which (by your chart) did not reflect the feeling of the entire country. I stand corrected.
Wow, I didn't know that. Thank you for pointing that out. I must live in an area where I don't see that. In fact, I know of two (I know only two) young people who aren't paying back their student loans because they feel they were robbed. Their skewed thinking is that they weren't able to find a job after getting their degrees so why should they pay back loans because they didn't get their money's worth? Yes, I know. Pretty warped. But I guess you have to look at the bigger picture and that often escapes me.
Look, it's pretty hard to come here and read some of the nasty comments I do about people. As someone who had parents who went through the Depression and struggled to build a better life after it, I can appreciate the hard work they did to give their children a better life. We weren't rich and we weren't given everything we wanted but we got everything we needed and we learned to appreciate what we had.
I worked over 30 years and paid into Social Security and I knew that the money was going to help my parents and others of that generation. I didn't moan and groan about it because that's what we did. Those working today seem to take issue with the fact they are paying for a previous generation. So, I guess I can't help look at them as being just a tad self-centered. But this isn't about SS or Medicare or playing tit for tat about the GD. The question was whether the boomers have ruined life for today's generation.
So my answer is no. I don't think so. If people don't have what they think they should have, then they haven't been working hard enough to achieve it or they've just hit a bump in the road. Fortunes are made and lost every day. Nothing in life is a guarantee. Accept it work to make things better, just don't lay the blame on a generation of people who went through their own struggles.
This is a very reasonable post, thank you for being civil. I apologize if I came across as being a little snarky. It's just one of my pet peeves when people glamorize the past and fall into the trap of imaging themselves and older generations as much more mature, responsible and good-natured than they really were, and imaging younger generations as much worse than they really are. I know a lot of generation y kids and they're not substantially different than my generation was. A lot of them are a hell of lot smarter, more mature, and knowledgeable about the rest of the world than I was at that age. They seem to engage in less risky behavior than my generation. A lot of them work 50+ hours between two jobs. A lot of them are have college degrees, can't find a job because of a financial crisis they had no fault in, and are working two part time jobs to pay student debt.
I definitely agree that complaining is a waste of time and energy and accomplishes nothing, it only inhibits one's progress.
Last edited by EugeneOnegin; 01-22-2013 at 02:28 PM..
That wouldn't be getting yours. That would be stealing from your parents. What do you think gives you the right to do that? Why do they OWE you?
What your parents have is theirs. Quit thinking of it as yours.
I guess you don't get sarcasm.That little blue face and the quotation marks denote sarcasm.And anyway,someday their stuff IS going to be mine!Unless the government takes it first!
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Yes, I know. Pretty warped. But I guess you have to look at the bigger picture and that often escapes me. 
