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Yes "willingness to work" and "work ethic" have changed considerably. A lot of perspective employees are not willing to engage in work that pays well but which they consider below their station in life. Having been involved in the hiring process for several companies during the '60s and '70s, and having owned several businesses over the past three decades, I've seen a gradual decline in willingness to work and moreso in the work ethic.
No longer are many willing to work to stay off government assistance, but are more inclined to draw welfare and unemployment because it pays too close to what they can earn sitting on their butts. It seems that government assistance no longer carries the stigma it once did, and in fact gaming the system is something in which the younger generation takes pride.
I'm going to agree with the change in willingness to work and work ethic. It has changed. I'm Gen X and people coming up behind me ~ simply are NOT willing to give up their life for the job. I'm not saying that's a bad thing but if you want to climb the corporate ladder - thousands of unpaid hours are usually involved.
I understand that the next generation wants something different - not being a wage slave or whatever - but then you can't expect to always reap the same benefits either.
Do you realize my parents raised kids in a 1200' house with no central A/C and we had one car and one TV and my mom clipped coupons and if we wanted to play sports we met after school in the dirt lot and if we showed up to work late they fired our ass, and God forbid a kid act up in school cause the teachers pounded his butt, and eating out was a treat and we actually did the work you kids hired 12 million illegal Mexicans to do because you're such big pansies you might break a nail?
As a baby boomer, I also realize that my parents raised me in a 1500 square foot house. My brother and I shared a room till we were teens. We had one car. Mom stayed home and Dad worked 60 hours a week. We had one TV in the house, and three channels. We had two phones however - one in the kitchen and one in the master bedroom. We had no cell phones, no video games, no cable TV, no VCRs.
I had a pair of Sunday shoes, a pair of loafers, and a pair of tennis shoes. All three kids shared one bathroom with a single sink. Eating out was a special treat, not an every day occurrence. We went on one family vacation a year - all in one vehicle. That's right - three kids in the backseat together on a road trip.
When I was ten, I started working in yards with my brother for money. By twelve, I was babysitting for cash. When I turned fifteen, I started working at Burger King - that's right, for minimum wage, which was $2.15 at the time. I worked at Burger King for two summers in a row and saved my money over the summer so I'd have cash on hand during the school year. The summer of 1978 was the last time I ever earned minimum wage. The next summer, I started working in a job that offered a base pay (minimum wage) plus a commission on what I sold, and I never looked back.
We had 30 or more kids in each class. We were the largest generation ever born. We learned early on that if we didn't EXCEL -if we didn't work harder and shine brighter - we'd be lost in a crowd of mediocrity. So - we became competitive and grew to truly value a strong work ethic.
Speaking of school, kids didn't get a car when they turned 16 automatically. We rode the bus to school. When I started driving, Dad FINALLY got a second car and my mother and I shared a car - this was in 1978 and the car I shared with my mother was a 1969 Galaxy 500 Ford, with well over 300,000 miles on it.
And hey - we were solidly MIDDLE CLASS - not poor by any means. We lived in a nice neighborhood and my dad had an executive level job. But as you can see - VALUES for the concept of "middle class" were drastically different than they are today.
Us baby boomers moved out when we were 18 or 19 years old. Most of us worked our way through college as well. We were paid more than minimum wage by the time we were 19 or 20 years old because we'd already been working for four or five years by then, and actually had skills and a work ethic.
A smaller percentage of us obtained a bachelor's degree or higher - but we managed to climb the corporate ladder anyway. We knew we'd have to work long hard hours to do so - but we've always known that and been willing to do so.
Most of us bought our first home when we were around 30 - and that home was often very small. We didn't expect our first home to outshine the home our parents were still living in. We saved up our money and put a twenty percent (or more) down payment on that house. We didn't think it was fiscally responsible to buy a house with little or no money down.
We furnished our first home with garage sale finds, our parents' old furniture, and odds and ends. When we had two kids, we bought bunk beds, and we put two car seats in the back seat of the sedan - we didn't figure "OMG now we've got to buy a new vehicle and a new house so that each kid can have their own room and we can still have two living areas, a home office, and a workout room!"
And hey, I'm not complaining about a bit of it. My upbringing and my early working years laid a foundation of self confidence and a skill set that has served me well my entire life. I've worked hard but I know without a doubt that I've earned every comfort I enjoy now -and ever penny I've invested and saved.
Today the same parents would both be working, they'd have a 3000 square foot house, each kid would have their own room, with their own TV, their own cell phones, hell, their own vehicles. There'd be a media room, a three or four car garage, and every bedroom would have to have a walk in closet to hold all the clothing each child had. No one would eat dinner together, but each kid would have a preloaded debit card so they could eat out with their friends anytime they wanted to. They probably wouldn't really WORK because of all the extracurricular activities they're involved in - after all, their nanny can pick them up till they're 15 and can drive their own new Dodge Charger on a "hardship license." Never mind what their enabling parents have to pay for insurance, right? These same parents will, after all, be supporting them till they are about 26 years old - maybe even longer!
Baby boomers aren't without faults (no one is and every generation has it's good and bad points). All I'm saying is that we have DIFFERENT values than many in younger generations - just as our values differed from those of our parents.
And there was no central AC. Either a fan in the hall ceiling to pull air through, or window units, or a swamp cooler. In those days, you could recognize your neighbor by his/her odor. A man's wage had little to do with social recognition.
And ditto Mircea, a very large percentage of U.S. homes had a stay at home mother... a one income household.
About five years ago, my husband got a notice from Social Security that he had maxed out his SS benefits. That means that no matter what else he pays in, he will get not a penny more. He's still working and will be for at least another ten years. That will be TWENTY years that he pays into SS without getting anything else in return.
People often leave out that part of the equation.
WOW!
You people are just standard bearers of what human beings should aspire to be!!
Color me impressed. Please never leave this board so that underlings such as my self can learn at your footstool.
In MD it was Gen X pushing the demand for McMansions and Hummers.
Since most of the Boom generation has been working and buying tangible assests for most of the last 1/2 Century it kind of stands to reason that there's a lot of wealth held in that cohort. Unless you think my 30 year old daughter (who bought a house 2 years ago) or her 28 year old brother should have the same wealth base as their parents.
I don't buy the Gen. X thing. There have never been enough of them to do much at all. Boomers rule the roost, and their buying power matters.
I agree that boomers should have more money than Millenials, but they also should do more for society. I see them using their demographic mass to bankrupt the country, launching wars with tax cuts, putting Grover Norquist zombies in office,etc.
And for full disclosure, I am a boomer myself, so I hold myself to the same standards.
I'm going to agree with the change in willingness to work and work ethic. It has changed. I'm Gen X and people coming up behind me ~ simply are NOT willing to give up their life for the job. I'm not saying that's a bad thing but if you want to climb the corporate ladder - thousands of unpaid hours are usually involved.
I understand that the next generation wants something different - not being a wage slave or whatever - but then you can't expect to always reap the same benefits either.
An employer rewards employees based upon a lot of factors, including going that extra mile, working hard, showing up on time, and giving a honest day's work for a honest day's pay. Make an employer a profit and that effort will be rewarded. Doing just enough to get by will get you COLA at most.
In short, one is compensated based upon what one puts forth.
I don't buy the Gen. X thing. There have never been enough of them to do much at all. Boomers rule the roost, and their buying power matters.
I agree that boomers should have more money than Millenials, but they also should do more for society. I see them using their demographic mass to bankrupt the country, launching wars with tax cuts, putting Grover Norquist zombies in office,etc.
And for full disclosure, I am a boomer myself, so I hold myself to the same standards.
Combined Generation X and Y comprise 110 million people. The oldest Gen X is 45, the oldest Gen Y is 35, the youngest is 18.
Once again I hear all this "Grover Norquist, bankrupting country, launching wars" crap and what it all amounts to is people pissed off because their particular ideology hasn't been adopted. People win elections because the people who vote for them agree with the bulk of their program.
What exactly should "our" generation do? Many of us served in the military whether drafted or volunteer (as I did), we've been paying taxes of all sorts for all of our working lives (and no I'm not an anti-tax person exactly) but comparisons with "well back in ______ the tax rate was _____" just don't fly with me. We've raised our children, put them through college, given them a start.
The generation before us was the one that started off shoring (it was a way to build up a destroyed Europe and a tamed Japan), the ones that started Medicare and expanded the reach of Social Security, the one that changed health insurance from covering only catastrophic illnesses to covering office visits and meds. So, I ask again, what should we do. We've been doing it our entire lives, damn near 1/2 my life has been spent teaching, the same time I've been a local official. I am involved in activities on a local and state level concerning Emergency Management, charities and other endeavors. Everyone involved is our age. So, what should we do?
Combined Generation X and Y comprise 110 million people. The oldest Gen X is 45, the oldest Gen Y is 35, the youngest is 18.
Once again I hear all this "Grover Norquist, bankrupting country, launching wars" crap and what it all amounts to is people pissed off because their particular ideology hasn't been adopted. People win elections because the people who vote for them agree with the bulk of their program.
What exactly should "our" generation do? Many of us served in the military whether drafted or volunteer (as I did), we've been paying taxes of all sorts for all of our working lives (and no I'm not an anti-tax person exactly) but comparisons with "well back in ______ the tax rate was _____" just don't fly with me. We've raised our children, put them through college, given them a start.
The generation before us was the one that started off shoring (it was a way to build up a destroyed Europe and a tamed Japan), the ones that started Medicare and expanded the reach of Social Security, the one that changed health insurance from covering only catastrophic illnesses to covering office visits and meds. So, I ask again, what should we do. We've been doing it our entire lives, damn near 1/2 my life has been spent teaching, the same time I've been a local official. I am involved in activities on a local and state level concerning Emergency Management, charities and other endeavors. Everyone involved is our age. So, what should we do?
Raise taxes (2-3%) and stop supporting idiots like Norquist. Invest in our future. I agree we need cuts too, but in a sensible, bipartisan fashion, not the crap the GOP is trying to push through. Our tax rates need to be about 22% of GDP to pay for the wars, the deficits, and to care for our crusty, geriatric butts. Otherwise the future generations will be paying 40%, and given our mass, we'll force them to do it at the ballot box. Guaranteed. We will be sailing into very rough seas, and the boomers have done almost nothing to help us prepare fiscally. I would like to see some genuine concern for the future, because this demographic transition is going to be cataclysmic.
How about cutting some spending at the federal level? Even with the sequester this year's budget will be higher than last year's. Every state has to balance their budgets as do most Counties and municipalities. The rough seas will be created when we retire and there is no one to take our places, or in my case, I retire and 1 1/2 to 2 people can be hired. You also know that we Boomers are the first generation to receive less in Social Security than we paid in. The deficit in that program will go away if we drop to 6% unemployment, something that doesn't seem to be happening.
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