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The thing is baby boomers really really messed things up for future generations.
You guys pretty much took everything great that was established by your parents and completely destroyed it. You ruined things for your millennial children. You killed a once-great nation.
So I'm not sure why you expect sympathy from us.
To be fair, watch movies from the fifties and sixties.. obviously not written nor produced by baby boomers. I am amazed at the lack of moral character displayed in many of them and have had to wonder why our parents didn't object to them.
Prayer in schools was removed in the fifties - again, baby boomers wouldn't have been involved nor capable of preventing that. Our parents were the guardians of the nation. They may have fought in WWII and lived through the Great Depression, but where were they when the positive aspects of our culture were being blatantly removed?
No doubt much of the Boomer generation was front and center on the cover of Life magazine. But children are influenced by the society in which they grow up. If their parents and their grandparents sleep through the desecration of our foundational documents and do not react to the less- and - less subtle attacks on what was "once-a-great nation", please do not blame their children for lacking a moral compass. I am very saddened when I think that by the time I arrived in 1952, the slide was well in play.
The thing is baby boomers really really messed things up for future generations.
You guys pretty much took everything great that was established by your parents and completely destroyed it. You ruined things for your millennial children. You killed a once-great nation.
So I'm not sure why you expect sympathy from us.
You do realize this era of greatness in the late 40's to the early 60's saw most of the world devastated by WW2 and the US mainland untouched with no real economic competition and as the world recovered.......
Oh well maybe we can nuke Japan again and have Europe, Asia, North Africa invaded and bring back colonialism. Yup pulverize the world and make us great again. Gotcha!
Oh yeah the earliest Boomers graduated from high school in the sixties and college in the late 60's.
Cry babies? The reality is both generations have hard working individuals and lazy bums. I have worked with baby boomers who are incompetent, lazy, unprofessional and should have probably been fire long ago. I have also worked with baby boomers who have had long successful careers. They are extremely knowledgeable, hardworking, and wise. I have worked with millennials who have busted their butts and been rewarded for it. I have also worked with millennials who don't know their left hand from their right and need to be whipped into shape. You cannot paint millions of individuals with a broad brush.
At the end of the day, people from each generation need to learn how to work together, learn from each other, and try to get past the nasty toxic stereotypes.
I agree. I am an engineer, was hired at age 61 at my current employer. I work with amazing engineers / production line personnel, technicians, etc. that are all younger (many millenials) and are incredibly competent at skills that I am not as well versed. I learn from them daily. That said, I am consulted often due to my experience in areas that they don't have the depth of experience, and it is a great mix. I am going to miss these people terribly when I go, but there are (finally!) some things that are becoming more interesting to me than doing differential equations or sitting in technical design meetings.
It takes all kinds make a successful society, and we have all kinds available. The only real sadness I have as I age is that I am watching a slow 'death of kindness and compassion' in this society. I hope that is a trend that is turned around before it becomes America's new motto.
At the end of the day, people from each generation need to learn how to work together, learn from each other, and try to get past the nasty toxic stereotypes.
^^^I concur.
Quote:
Originally Posted by ACollegeStudent
Out of both opinion and experience I have seen qualified workers from all age-ranges. The problem that millennials face, who, both need jobs and a place to stay aren't getting those jobs. We are often shuffled around, forced into low-paying non-living jobs, or unfortunately face those situations with a worker(s) or boss who is 60+ with full retirement, married, and perks, still occupying a job that should have been retired from 20 years ago. That is a job that could have helped a millennial family or, a job that could have helped a millennial single who could have possibly, done amazing things, and they are unable to get it due to job-squatting and BB clickery.
I would question, if someone is younger than you, why even feel threatened by them in the first place? Your life is almost half-over, yet your upset at someone else maintaining or starting theirs? Some insecurities here? Do this generation think it's funny to peanut-pay us while they wine and dine on privilege, stocks, and pleasures at our expense?
True professionals don't have time to get jealous, they are busy working changing lives and advancing society.
A professional would not announce that "your life is almost half-over." However, many BB and
Millennials share similar financial and employment obstacles and challenges. As you said,
we are all capable of doing great things. It is possible if we stop thinking one generation
is better than than the other.
The one thing they overlook is that we "Baby Boomers" show up for work, are on time, do not talk on our cell phones or text all day, and we have knowledge that takes years to gain. I have outlasted a whole bunch of younger people at my work because I take my work seriously and know what I am doing.
Don
You got that right! I've been plenty of news articles saying the same thing.
We were at BWW the other night and up came a list of some 10 sports types that were retiring. Their ages were mid 30's. Meanwhile some of us have a mandatory age/length of service time before we can retire, thus putting some of us anywhere from mid 50's - early 60's. Others choose to work even longer (mortgages/cars& kids college/family members medical care costs) to ease the financial burdens.
There are a lot of those "sports types" retiring are "retiring" because they can no longer play at a level that some team will pay them a salary.
Many of those athletes will need to either find a job in another profession or SIGNIFICANTLY cut their lifestyle.
The overwhelming majority of professional athletes cannot live on the money that they have (not) saved.
Prayer in schools was removed in the fifties - again, baby boomers wouldn't have been involved nor capable of preventing that.
The Supreme Court inevitably sided with Engel and the decision was issued on June 25, 1962 — a day that lives in infamy in the minds of many religious individuals and free-speech advocates.
ROFL, not even sure it would have been heavy enough to be a decent anchor.
Maybe a paper weight?
My first computer was a top of the line IBM-XT a real power machine with 640k memory. These came with 512k memory but I needed the extra for a hydraulics program I used. I remember that extra memory was not cheap.
It came with two (count em, two) 5 1/4" floppy disk drives, a monochrome screen (all green all the time) and I seem to remember I paid $1,500 for it in 1985 dollars.
today's hydraulic programs are instant but back then it wasn't unusual for the computer to take 5 or even 10 minutes to iterate an answer to a complex problem. I liked it because I could get a cup of coffee.
A year later I heard what a hard drive was so it was back to the computer store where I had them add a 10 mg (not gig, mg) hard drive that cost $1,100 and would hold the equivalent of 30 floppy disks or whatever the figure was. I remember thinking how I would never fill up the 10 mg hard drive, that it would be enough to last me forever.
In 1989 I purchased my first CAD machine for AutoCad Version 10. Special graphics card and I seem to remember it cost $7,000 in 1989 which would be equivalent to $13,385.30 today. I remember it had the newer DOS 3.1 which was really impressive.
What did we do before computers?
Before the fancy pocket calculators we used Smoley's Parallel Tables of Slopes and Rises In combination with diagrams of slopes and rises and other tables : for bridge and structural engineers, ...
I still have my copy it's leather bound and looks exactly like below:
It's how we did things and if you needed to add feet and inches it was with paper and pencil because there wasn't anything else.
My first pocket calculator would add, subtract, divide and multiply with a green diode display that would eat batteries like popcorn. The first one I purchased ran $300 and in the early 1970's that was a lot of money.
When I first started my job (a promotion) in DC in 1995 after working in a very busy federal field office in NY state, I scheduled a morning meeting with someone about a small computer program that might be useful to me. I was 43 years old (and a baby boomer). I had to go to his office in the building across the street. He must have forgotten about it. When I arrived, I opened the door (his whole group would have worked in that office) all of the lights were off and the only light was coming from the large old windows. After calling his name, I walked around to all of the cubicles so I could leave him a note and I found him in the back row. He was an older man, sitting in his chair, facing away from his desk and toward the window with his feet up on a two shelf bookcase, sleeping. I was aghast. At a minimum, the guy was a Grade 12 and probably a Grade 13. I said his name very loudly and he practically levitated from his seat from jumping so high after being awakened. I have no idea where the rest of his office was and when I got back to my office I mentioned this to my immediate boss and was told to keep my mouth shut but in a nicer way. Apparently, this was nothing new to him. I found there were two types of offices in DC. The ones where you wonder where the day went because you don't even have time for lunch or breaks and the ones where you just show up to justify the hiring of some executive.
Now 11 years later after another promotion, still in the area, same federal agency but a different building and a different job. They have hired some 20 somethings out of college to replace retirees. Very nice people but their work style made me figuratively nuts. When working on any project they were all about process and not about goal. They would give a presentation and the emphasis was on how everybody contributed instead of results and they expected to be rewarded for it, too. It was more important that everybody on the team was happy and participated more than that they actually got to the goal of the project. My executive boss, at the time, was also rewarded for diversity as much as accomplishment. This made me nuts. That was one of the reasons I thought it was time to retire. I wanted to be in an achieving work group that brags about hitting some target not this loosey-goosey, is everybody happy environment. That contributed to my decision to retire. My better working days were behind me.
Point being Lazy Boomer "workers" and "lightweight" younger generation workers, what's the difference? No wonder big companies want more H-1B visa workers.
My first computer was a top of the line IBM-XT a real power machine with 640k memory. These came with 512k memory but I needed the extra for a hydraulics program I used. I remember that extra memory was not cheap.
It came with two (count em, two) 5 1/4" floppy disk drives, a monochrome screen (all green all the time) and I seem to remember I paid $1,500 for it in 1985 dollars.
today's hydraulic programs are instant but back then it wasn't unusual for the computer to take 5 or even 10 minutes to iterate an answer to a complex problem. I liked it because I could get a cup of coffee.
A year later I heard what a hard drive was so it was back to the computer store where I had them add a 10 mg (not gig, mg) hard drive that cost $1,100 and would hold the equivalent of 30 floppy disks or whatever the figure was. I remember thinking how I would never fill up the 10 mg hard drive, that it would be enough to last me forever.
In 1989 I purchased my first CAD machine for AutoCad Version 10. Special graphics card and I seem to remember it cost $7,000 in 1989 which would be equivalent to $13,385.30 today. I remember it had the newer DOS 3.1 which was really impressive.
What did we do before computers?
Before the fancy pocket calculators we used Smoley's Parallel Tables of Slopes and Rises In combination with diagrams of slopes and rises and other tables : for bridge and structural engineers, ...
I still have my copy it's leather bound and looks exactly like below:
It's how we did things and if you needed to add feet and inches it was with paper and pencil because there wasn't anything else.
My first pocket calculator would add, subtract, divide and multiply with a green diode display that would eat batteries like popcorn. The first one I purchased ran $300 and in the early 1970's that was a lot of money.
If only housing and the big costs had gone that direction. You'd have a 3 bedroom apartment in the best part of town for only $5.00. And heart bypass operation for under $1000.
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Apparently, this was nothing new to him. I found there were two types of offices in DC. The ones where you wonder where the day went because you don't even have time for lunch or breaks and the ones where you just show up to justify the hiring of some executive.
