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Would've been nice to grow up in the 50s. Didn't have to spend 90% of your money on education, health care and housing, like people have to today. An average Joe could afford to live in an area with nice views and good public schools. Now the Boomers own all the nice neighborhoods. Many of them own 2 or 3 houses! "Elites couples" in my generation can't afford 1 housee. We nneed to end this gerontocracy and make room for the next generation.
In the 50s, my mom, brothers, and I lived in a one-bedroom shotgun house with no A/C and one gas jet in the living room for heat. For much of that time we didn't have a car and there was no public transportation. We walked several blocks to the laundromat (which had wringer washers). Health care, what the heck was that? It was only for rich people. So was college.
I started working and supporting myself when I was 15, still in high school. As a woman, I couldn't get a credit card or mortgage in my own name until the ECOA was passed when I was 26 even though I had a long solid work history.
I started community college when I was 36, still working full time, and had 2 children. I got my BS when I was 42. Continued working full time, got my Masters when I was 52. Throughout all those years, I scrimped, lived well below my means, saved, and invested conservatively.
Would've been nice to grow up in the 50s. Didn't have to spend 90% of your money on education, health care and housing, like people have to today. An average Joe could afford to live in an area with nice views and good public schools. Now the Boomers own all the nice neighborhoods. Many of them own 2 or 3 houses! "Elites couples" in my generation can't afford 1 housee. We nneed to end this gerontocracy and make room for the next generation.
"Seized"? Do you mean they took it illicitly? If it were true - which it isn't - it would no more be "seizing" than it would if you took a tax break that was offered to you.
You can blame all kinds of corporate villains, but I suspect that if you really looked, you'd find that Boomers are hurting like anyone else.
As a baby boomer the only thing I can promise is that I will suck every last dollar out of the system I can. After you work 40 years, you can say that too. Until then, get to work.
Indeed. To the OP's point, the average house in the 1950s was less than 1400 sq ft, had one bathroom, no garage, no dishwasher, no dryer (clothes line instead), 1 TV, and 1 wired telephone with high probability that it was a party line.
Exactly.
The average boomer house in childhood would be considered living in poverty now.
Most of the stuff that has gone up in price (corrected for inflation) actually is a lot better. Healthcare, cars, etc.
What is left is market value of items with limited supply. Most notably: land
The post-boomer answer to the problem? Import more people, of course. The US would have been at ZPG decades ago otherwise.
There's not a finite amount of wealth...it's not like there's no wealth left for you millennials or Gen X'ers. You MAKE your own wealth.
Born in 1952 to very poor family of immigrants. All their kids went on to some sort of higher education...college, trade school or computer school (when they were NEW)....via scholarship, work-study, GI bill.
Worked HARD. Married stupidly young (but still together and happy). DH started his own construction company. Retired at ages 50/51. Have seen much of the world, still exploring. Houses in a beach town in FL and on a lake in Central Mexico.
NOTHING was handed to us. Nothing should be handed to you.
I am SO sick of people blaming us 'Baby Boomers' for the ills of the world. I can understand the milennials point of view into thinking why were the issue. The cost of college seems to be the biggest reason why were seen as better off since it wasn't as expensive for us. However, they're getting mad at the wrong people. Before the government got involved in every way shape or form, we had affordable college because the government didn't guarantee the loans. It's fine and dandy to blame us for what you see wrong with the world, but remember that you're going to be held responsible in a few decades for the ills as seen by future generations and remember that we having been paying, and paying, and paying taxes, etc a lot longer than you have. We've raised one of the most intelligent generations we've seen in years as the amount of high school dropouts have hit a low and the amount of milennials getting degrees is far higher than baby boomers.
All in all though, I think the government has created an environment that has made in difficult for milennials, NOT the baby boomers themselves. We would be far better off if we focused on reducing the expenses that drive the cost of living up for all. These high COL expenses are particularly punishing for low income workers.
But don't hate on us too much. Eventually you'll be taking care of us as we age .
I'm a Millennial but I'm also a social history junkie...
No offense OP but you have a very warped sense of history. I know it is a common kneejerk reaction to think life was better and more prosperous in the 50s, and to an extent it could have been but not to the lengths you are claiming.
As for now, I don't know where you live but here in St. Louis there are plenty of Gen Xers and Millennial in nice neighborhoods.
My husband and I are 29 and 33 and not an 'elite couple' by any stretch, but will likely own 2 houses by this time next year (rent out the home we live in right now and buy a bigger house to live in closer to hubbys work).
There are still multitudes of possibilities in the U.S, but some areas are easier to 'make it' in than others.
San Francisco isn’t the only city that has created new land. Large portions of New York City, Boston, Seattle, Hong Kong and Marseilles were built on top of fill. What is now Mumbai, India, was transformed by the British from a seven-island archipelago to one contiguous strip of land. The most extraordinary example of land reclamation and manufacture may be the Netherlands. As early as the 9th century A.D., the Dutch began building dykes and pumping systems to create new land in places that were actually below sea level.
The historic scale of land manufacture is minuscule compared to the rate at which it is taking place today. More and more cities are building expensive waterfront property for airports, skyscrapers and housing. And new dredging technologies have enabled developers to build land faster and on a grander scale, often at the expense of the environment.
Dubai has created a series of artificial islands for wealthy elites designed to look cool from Google Earth. But the wealthy desert Emirate is actually running out of sand (desert sand is too fine for construction) so they have to import it from elsewhere. So much sand is being used for concrete production and land manufacturing projects that there is now a global sand shortage. And that has forced countries to go to extreme lengths in their efforts to build new land.
Singapore, one of the wealthiest, densest countries in the world, has essentially stolen sand from poorer countries like Cambodia, Indonesia, and Burma in order to expand its footprint.
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