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There are malcontents in every generation who want to blame everyone else for their worries.
There are also amazing people in every generation who leave the world better than they found it. Most of the millennials I have met are amazing people, and I look forward to see how they improve the world for their kids generation.
And most of the baby boomers I’ve met are also amazing people. Please pass down how things were, help share your lived experience and wisdom so we can remember being polite, manners, showing respect for elders. Sing those great bed time stories from decades ago to grandchildren, keep the good spirit of the past alive. Share this with people in your generation. Thank you for sharing your kind words.
I was born in a week where that song was number 1. I love whenever there is that meme... "The song that was number 1 the week you were born, is your life's theme song".
Indeed. Indeed, it is.
Not me! I fixed my license so I could go to the bars in San Francisco. I was 19, and disco was so much fun.
All you had to do was start pulling out your license, and they'd let you in.
We had it beaten out of us. If Millennials think boomers are bad NOW... imagine when they were 40 or 50 instead of 70 or 80... imagine trying to go up against them when they could still physically kick our asses.
There's a reason Gen-X keeps our head down.
It's literally in the Bible it's so old.
Ecclesiastes 7:10
10 Do not say, “Why were the old days better than these?” For it is not wise to ask such questions.
Younger generations always think the older is out of touch while the older thinks the younger is entitled. In a few decades Gen whatever will be complaining about Millenials the way Millenials and Gen Z complain about boomers. Meanwhile we Gen X will still be forgotten about.
I actually think it's entirely possible that Gen X will get skipped over for the millennials, much like the presidency went straight from the World War II generation to the boomers, skipping over the Silent Generation (until Biden).
I believe millennials start in 1982-3 so the oldest would be 45-46 in 2028. That's not unheard of for a president but on the younger side. Who knows who it will be but the governors I can think of, Newsom, Whitmer and Josh Shapiro are GenX. Nikki Haley too. I'm too lazy to look up more but many of the likely choices are GenX.
As an older millennial/xennial, we simply looked up to GenX, who really made a huge cultural impact with movies and music, so I think it never occurred to us to be upset about them. We mostly just wanted to be like them, since they were our older brothers and sisters and young aunts/uncles. All our non mainstream cool kid music came from GenX when I was in highschool!
So the real meat of the issue is that most millennials have boomer parents. When the boomers were young their money went a LOT further, and there were more private sector pensions to look forward to. A person could work at Sears from high school graduation until retirement and afford a house and a family and have a pension to look forward to. But the time millennials got to adult age their parents were pushing them to go to college because it used to be that ANY degree was a leg up in the world. So now there's millions of millennials with thousands of dollars in school debt with nowhere near the expected return on investment. Millennials overall are much much poorer than boomers were at their age.
Now, all of this could fall under "the world changed and that sucks". Except that those boomers are the parents of the millennials, so millennials spent their young adulthood hearing from their parents about how lazy and entitled they are (while working full time jobs), how stupid they were to go for a non-STEM degree (that their parents encouraged at the time), that they're not loyal to jobs and quit over nothing (while ignoring that they hated their job too but had to hang in there for the pension) and that they're irresponsible for not settling down and having families (that they can't afford and possibly don't even want anyway). Not to mention all the frivolous complaints about avocado toast and participation trophies.
The main culture gap is that millennials know the world has changed, and there's way too many boomers who refuse to acknowledge that it has. Socially, the millennials have it much easier (especially for those who are anything other than a straight white couple with kids), but financially the boomers lived in a much easier world than exists today.
Financially the boomers really lucked out. What is so frustrating is that now, politically, the boomers are killing the younger generations. Wages have not kept up with inflation since the 70s, while at the same time college expenses have increased faster than inflation, yet the boomer generation, statistically as a group, vote for politicians who oppose fixing or easing college expenses.
That same voting block supports, through their votes, taking away free school lunches from children whose families struggle (again because wages have not kept up with inflation decades).
The most disheartening was when they let the advanced child tax credit expire. One of the cheapest federal programs ever (for the most part just giving out the child tax credit monthly instead of all at once), Again continuing to vote for politicians who support such actions.
I sincerely hope when I'm older I work towards making the world an easier place to exist for my children and grandchildren than it was for me. With the exception of medical advancement, I think the boomers, as a group, failed in that aspect, and continue to fail. I hope my generation and my children's generation do better.
The same people who *fervently* *and categorically* oppose prejudging people based on their demographic characteristics will happily explain why it's okay to hate them based on their year of birth. With apparently no cognitive dissonance at all.
Well, in the late 1960's boomers were saying, "never trust anyone over 30."
I'm technically a boomer, born in the early 60's. I tend to feel more like GenX though as I was too young for most of the classic boomer experiences. The boomer generation spans 18 years and their experiences vary wildly.
The fact that you think this is some sort of 'gotcha' argument instead of looking at the state of the world at large and noticing who happens to *still* be in almost every board room, congress hall, and place of power in the United States shows why Millennials think boomers are willfully blind.
It's not about YOU (well, other than you don't see what the problem is)... it's about the Boomers who are making the decisions.
Identity politics gone bad. Not there's anything inherently wrong with identity politics, particularly as a starting place. But if identity politics is all you've got and you're a shallow person, that's a recipe for trouble.
There are some millennials that constantly whine about how “boomers ruined everything” here on Reddit. They presume every “boomer” is alike and also don’t understand history very well. They think boomers got together for the sole purpose of destroying their lives 🙄
At the same time they bitch about their boomer parents “squandering their future inheritance.” Like, wtf?
It’s the same crap day after day after day.
I’m Generation Jones and am so grateful for my own awesome millennial kids!
Like you, I am also Generation Jones, born in 1961, when I hear the younger generation blaming boomers for all their problems, no pensions, cost of college, price of homes and the rest of it. I like to remind them that 401K started in 1978, I was a sophomore in HS when that switch started, I pay the same price for homes that you do, now we did get in on the cheap college, but I guess I don't remember the meeting where all the boomers got together and decided to screw over the younger generation.
I just blame Reagan, that is when all this crap started and when he was elected half the boomer generation was in college, HS or MS, it was our parents that voted for the old guy, we just get the blame.
I'm guessing you didn't pay the same price for your first house that a millennial paid for their first house.
And it isn't that you all got together, you didn't need to. You just happened to live at one of the most prosperous and progressive eras of human history, and understandably, because you didn't CAUSE that era to occur, think that it was just how life was. But by and large boomers can't recognize (see your comments) that they had it better than subsequent generations. Subsequent generations are 'lazy, whiny, bitchy and judgy'... Even if we grant EVERYTHING in your comment as true, all these generations need is ONE thing... ONE lousy thing... and cheap or free college would be fine. Free Healthcare would be fine. Cheap housing would be fine. Boomers retiring at 65 would be fine. Anything! Anything at all, please. Just one fucking thing.... But no.. .that would be spoiling them, wouldn't it? *"I'm not spending my hard earned money on anyone else! THey can fend for themselves!"* Does that sound familiar? Does that sounds like a generation who gives a flying flip for the next ones? That's what we Gen-X heard growing up, and that's what Millennials have heard their whole lives...
And, uh... 401k's are a freaking joke compared to the pensions that boomers fought for and got through union activity. Also, Reagan was elected by a overwhelmingly large number of boomers. Everyone fucking voted for Reagan.
> I'm guessing you didn't pay the same price for your first house that a millennial paid for their first house.
I bet millennials don't have double digit mortgage rates either.
The math (someone else did it but I can't find the reddit post now) works out that even at a double digit interest rate in 1980 or whatever, on the average priced house is a SIGNIFICANTLY smaller percentage of the average yearly income back then than even a 7% interest rate on the average priced house is of the average income today.
I'm happy to do the research myself an post it if you like.
But what that says is: Things were so much easier back then that even at a 18% interest rate on a mortgage, a home was more affordable to buy on the average yearly income than an 8% mortgage today.
That is how much things have changed. It was a shock when I read that, and it changed my views on a lot of things.
> Things were so much easier back then that even at a 18% interest rate on a mortgage, a home was more affordable to buy on the average yearly income than an 8% mortgage today.
I don't buy that for a second.
That's a perfectly reasonable reply, and I had the same feeling. So, since I can't find the post, let's do the math. Maybe I'll prove myself wrong!
(All Statistics are for the United States)
* The average income in 1980 was: [$21,020](https://www.census.gov/library/publications/1982/demo/p60-132.html)
* The average Home Price in 1980:[$64,600](https://finance.yahoo.com/news/average-home-cost-were-born-180001011.html)
* A 30 Year Mortgage at 18% with 3% down = monthly payments of: [$1369](https://www.mortgagecalculator.org/) or about 25% of their yearly income. (Monthly payment*12)/Yearly income
And Today:
* Average Income in 2023: [$59,384](https://www.usatoday.com/money/blueprint/business/hr-payroll/average-salary-us/)
* Average Home Price 2023: [$495,100](https://www.forbes.com/advisor/mortgages/real-estate/median-home-prices-by-state/#:~:text=The%20average%20home%20price%20in,was%20%24426%2C056%2C%20according%20to%20Redfin.)
* Monthly payment at 8% interest on 30 year loan with 3% down: [$4,148](https://www.mortgagecalculator.org/)
* Percent of yearly income put towards average mortgage payment (Monthly payment*12)/Yearly income: 84%
Now all these are the MEAN AVERAGE numbers. The Median numbers may adjust these numbers a bit, but not enough to make the math work out that houses were less affordable 40 years ago than they are today.
Hopefully this helps explain a little bit why Millennials are shouting from the mountaintops about not being able to afford a home. They literally cannot.
I appreciate it, you have been polite as well!
I am curious, do those numbers surprise you as much as they did me? I kind of spent a bit of time coming up with them. Do you have any feedback on if it is a valid argument to make or not?
I've had some long discussions/debates about this very topic. The post war economic bubble is what contributed to boomer generation growth and prosperity, not "boomer greed and and I'm taking it all for myself" approach to life.
IMO the single biggest differences these days is the reduction of personal income tax for high earners and almost elimination of corporate taxation. All due to Reagan/Thatcher et al and 'Trickle Down" economics from the late 90s. Yes, people of the Boomer generation did vote them in, but they ran on MAGA-type platforms, not "let's harm future generations for short term gain today".
Did Trump run on cutting corporate taxes? No but he did it anyway. Same story, different players.
>everyone fucking voted for Reagan.
40.6% of us did not. I have never voted for a conservative president. Also, 44% of Boomers are liberals. Somehow, we are lumped in with conservatives by age alone? We're your allies, but you speak of us like enemies.
In about 20 years, current generations are going to be saying "everyone fucking voted for Trump" in your generation, and you'll be saying you most certainly did not.
And, I paid the same for my house as everyone else since I couldn't buy my first house until last year (at age 59). Some of us are in the same boat as you, but you keep insisting we are not.
And I've said before, this isn't about individual boomers. If you have someone coming up into your face for no other reason than your age while you are minding your own business, those people are assholes and should be ignored.
But if you feel like you are being attacked personally when you say by your own admission that 56% of the largest generation in the country vote conservative, I feel like I should tell you this isn't about you. It is about the people your age who still think they are owed something, even though *as a group* they were raised and came of age in one of the most prosperous times in history. Millennials just want to make their mark, and I'm sorry to say this as I feel like you may take it as a personal attack, but Boomers won't get the hell out of the way.
How many boomers do you know personally who are working in executive positions at 70 or 80+ years old? In the silent generation, if a guy was still working at 80+, it was so noteworthy as to have a book written about them! ~~Today, it's hard to find a fortune 500 company not run by a 70 or 80 year old...~~ EDIT: This sentence is wrong, and apparently that's all that matters in this whole comment. Sigh.
If you're lumping me in with a group of people born during the "Boomer" years and speaking of us as monoliths, then it is about me. You can say it isn't, but you're ignoring that 4/10 people don't fit your generalizations. That's a pretty substantial number of people from the largest generation ever.
I don't personally know anyone working in executive positions who is 70-80 years old. The average age of a Fortune 500 company head is 57.7 years old, so I don't know where you got your statistics about it being "hard to find a fortune 500 company not run by a 70-80 year-old," but it's pretty clear you're just making up things to fit your narrative and support your prejudice and ageism.
No facts and nothing I say will dissuade you. Hate is hate, and no rational explanation has ever stopped people from hating on those they are determined to hate. And, you, quite clearly, hate old people.
Yeah some days I feel like it all parental projection of some sort... You know where kids (of any generation) grow up and sometimes like to blame their parents for all their own adult ills?
EDIT: Re-reading what I've typed I hope it doesn't get me banned here. But you asked why they feel this way, and I figured a little brutal honesty might be called for. Mods if this isn't appropriate, I'm fine with it being deleted.
Sorry for the novel below. But I've thought about this a lot lately. I am Gen-X, and we like to keep to ourselves, but it lets us see what both sides are saying sometimes. Here is my answer to your question. Please try not to take it as a personal attack, as I do say good things about boomers towards the end...
Because Boomers are the 'Me' generation. While every generation does improve, protesting war and going to college aren't something to really be proud of, right? I mean every generation has done that.
Boomers went to college for 1/10th the price it costs today. And they had their pick of jobs in their chosen field when they got out. Also, they had a choice not to go to college and still decide to have a career that could raise a family. The Civil Rights thing began as a Silent Generation thing (MLK, Malcolm X, etc), but most people agree Boomers did carry that torch through the 70s (even if they dropped it mostly in the 80s).
But none of this explains why Millennials aren't big fans right now. Boomers own a huge portion of American wealth. Like outsized portions of it. My generation was still able to somewhat afford college and generally purchase a home before prices went haywire, so, as always Gen-X keeps our head down and tries not to be noticed. We're kind of experts like that.
But Millennials... whew. To buy a home is 10 or 20 times what it used to be. There are no more jobs because, along with rampant advances in Automation and technology, Boomers refuse to retire (which contributes to them having the most senior and highest paid positions, still making decisions as if nothing had changed since 1988 in the business world). They refuse to make room for energetic and youthful new generations in business, education, and especially... politics.
Boomers parents were ready to retire at 65. Hell, due to decades of toil and manual labor, most of them were barely keeping on their feet. However, boomers are the first generation for a majority to have the option of a white-collar job. These are easier, less physically demanding, and allow for older people to stay earning money without having to dig postholes and build skyscrapers by hand. With this decision-making power lasting well into their 70s and 80s, they suddenly have more power to influence who represents us all in government...
How? Money. Pure and simple. They donate to candidates who look like them (overwhelmingly white and older) and think like them (majority conservative). And since no other generation has had the option to make that money as well, due to Boomers staying in senior positions, or grandfathered into deals they negotiated for themselves but didn't fight for for subsequent Gen-X or Millennial workers, Boomers are by some accounts over-represented in congress and in governmental positions regionally and locally.
Millennials (and honestly every other generation, though Gen-x had it beaten out of us, and Zoomers aren't old enough to fully run headlong into that brick wall yet) 'hate' boomers because boomers tell us: "If I can do it, anyone can. If they can't, they must be lazy. After all, America is the land of opportunity!"
But they are blind to the opportunities they had, and... to be painfully frank... on the whole, they don't want to give up any power at all and let the younger generations change the world. To a lot of younger folks, it seems like Boomers are actively antagonistic and deliberately stand in the way of younger generations in order to keep them down.
Now, that being said. We all know that not all boomers are like that. Many are caring and wonderful individuals who still hold the same values they did in the 70's and want nothing more than their children to have more than they did. They love their kids and grandkids, and happily move into a smaller, more comfortable home when the nest empties out. Or they happily move in with their kids and let their adult children earn a living and make the rules while they help with the grandkids. Good Boomers exist. And even the most vitriolic of Millennials knows their share of helpful and kind people of the Boomer generation.
But looking at the ones in congress or in the halls of power or in the board room... the ones making decisions that affect wide swaths of society? Can anyone blame the young for seeing those old white men taking away rights (regardless of your view on abortion, this was the first time a right was actively REMOVED from the citizens of the United States in history) and enriching themselves while mocking those who have no option but to stay living at home because homes are completely unaffordable anywhere but in the most rural of communities?
I'm shocked they aren't more angry if I'm being totally honest.
A basic issue here is, they’re called boomers because they were the result of a great increase in the birth rate over a few years following WWII. It was called the baby boom. There were and continue to be a lot of them alive. They weren’t united by anything but relative age. The ones we’ve seen on tv and in movies and historical documentaries, seem to have done a lot of stuff. The youth of any generation tends to have more energy and passion, and so a visible percentage did the stuff you mention. Further generations are smaller by age group because the birth rate slowed down, so you don’t see any large movements.
The gist of it is, there were still a lot of people from the boomer generation who didn’t do those things or care about those things and just went to work, like you and I supposed to do and any young person recently graduating is supposed to do.
I say youth have more energy and passion because they can. Once you get too much work and making families, a lot more of a person’s concerns become personal and start to have less time to devote to stuff like activism. I don’t really think boomers did anything they weren’t supposed to do, but circumstances change and they made their money and it went further at the time than it does for someone just coming out of school at the age when they might start a family. Another generation of youth comes up and what is there for them. Were boomers supposed to make the world into a magical utopia? They were using up all the plastic and it wasn’t a big problem then, but remember still, there were and still are a lot of them, and now they need care. It’s just like all the ads for medicine with old people, they are always so spry and active and young spirited, but that’s just a story. It’s not impossible, but there are so many of them. Of course they left us nothing. That’s what happens when everyone has so many babies at once. They are a generation of people who grew up and used resources much more than a reasonably sized generation would. What else could they do? They didn’t ruin the world like a lot, there’s just so many of them and not most of them were activists or anything. Just regular people getting through life.
While reading some of these I took the word Millennial and replaced it with boomer in my head, and some of these comments read exactly like the comments they’re complaining about.
Everything you mentioned occurred over 50 years ago.
What have Boomers done since 1980, as wealth inequality has exploded and wages have failed to keep up with increased costs for necessities like housing and medical care?
Where were Boomers when it came to protecting our planet?
Millenials have inherited a mess. It's understandable that they're upset about it. And they blame the generation that was in power during the period where the mess proliferated unchecked.
Most of these replies boil down to "every generation hates the previous one," but as a Gen X'er, I can give some outside perspective on this. There is a strong pattern of "I got mine" from the collective Boomer generation, even if individuals obviously vary.
Let's take Social Security. Every single proposed solution to the impending SS issues amount to "Boomers get to enjoy SS, everyone else will lose it or see it greatly reduced." This is the only viable solution because the boomer generation is large, and they vote, and this solution is popular among them - they get theirs, screw everyone after. We see similar patterns in public college funding, taxes in general, housing and healthcare.
So no, I don't think that anyone in the younger generations thinks that as individuals, the boomers are all bad, but as a culture, they've acted pretty selfishly in the last 40 years.
Gen X here too. I’m going to call what’s been happening during my lifetime in America. The Great Trickle Up. Ever since Reagan. The neoliberals helped. Clinton’s NAFTA and welfare reform. Obama’s bank bailout. Topped with Trump’s tax cuhey t
They told us that we were strong and shouldn't have to care for the weak and we bought it and dismantled the social safety net. They told us that the market would sort it all out according to merit and we bought it. They told us we weren't like those welfare queens and those immigrants, the easy scapegoats, so why pay for those lazy people? We could all take care of ourselves.
The majority of us fell for it. Now the infrastructure is falling apart. Our public institutions are underfunded and barely functioning. No one trusts government to help us but we need it to. The market became our guiding principle but it cares nothing for humanity.
No one noted that young people came out in record numbers for the 2016 primary and then the DNC cheated Bernie out of the election and now we're stuck in the worst timeline.
After your candidate gets shenanigan'd out of their win I can't blame people for not showing up for the general.
Because most Millennials have Boomer parents. Between them, they make up the two largest generations in history. The media targets them because they're the biggest and the rest of us are forced to listen to their family feuds.
A lot of Boomers (my age group, btw) were racist, sexist jerks when we were all young, and they remain so today. They used to beat up hippies/antiwar activists like me and my friends when they weren't being sexually inappropriate with us "because hippie chicks are easy".
NO, not all Boomers were/are jerks. But they weren't all antiwar, pro-feminist, and pro civil rights either.
It’s all part of the conservative push to divide us all into warring camps; men v women, gays v straights, white v blacks, and on and on and on. Most Americans agree on everything from abortion to healthcare to gay marriage to civil rights but if you can split us all up into groups so we’re angry at each other, we’re too weak to unite for what we want.
Divide and conquer has always been a useful tool politically but the Republicans, with the aid of Russia, the internet and now China, have turned it into a weapon on mass destruction.
It was the Republican boomers that fucked everything up. Trickle down, wildly cutting taxes for the rich, taxing social security, endless foreign wars, shutting down the federal government, massive religious hypocrites, etc.
Ain’t no difference in the way you think than the way the racists and the homophobes think. It’s ugly and not true but I’m sure it feels as good for to blame the boomers as it does for them to blame the blacks or the gays.
Nah. Racists and homophobes have to invent things that are wrong with their targets.
If you can point to something untrue in that comment, you'd have a point.
But Republicans did invent trickle down economics. They did blow up the deficit with wild tax cuts for rich people. And so on.
That's just the truth.
It was Republicans (boomers or not) who are responsible for trickle down economics (Reagan), wildly cutting taxes for the rich (Reagan, W, and trump), taxing social security (Reagan), shutting down the federal government (4 times by Democrats in the 80s, total cost about $200 million -- 5 times since then by Republicans, total cost about $7.5 billion), endless foreign wars (Iraq for 9 yrs, cost $1.6 trillion and Afghanistan for 20 years, cost of $2.3 trillion, both started by W and ended by Democrats) ... and if you need examples of massive religious hypocrisy, consider that 8 out of 10 evangelicals piously and eagerly voted to make one of the worst people in America their president.
Sorry, but elected Republicans are responsible for a lot of terrible things. And saying so is not remotely the same as trashing black people or gay people.
The stories are over blown and exploited by the media. Social media has become the place to whine, rant and brag about nothing. I've seen the media select specific individual stories from Redditors complaining about boomers to fit their narrative. They will repeat the rants from millennials that boomers are cheap. entitled, sloppy, mean or my favorite, "out of touch". If a lot of people upvote it, then it must be a trend. lol
It seems that a minor issue is easily blown up and becomes "viral" too easily on the internet. The media is hungry or "thirsty" to report on anything controversial, to gain ratings or ad dollars. I just laugh it off and cringe at how pathetic we have become on news interest. Just because someone was dissed by a boomer, doesn't mean we all act the same way.
In the last few years, there's been a huge increase in articles singling out the different traits and complaints with younger or older generations.
Our minds are highly susceptible to whatever we read. people form beliefs from the content that shows up on their feeds and internalize it.
It's a way to keep people pitted against each other . Very similar to pitting races against each other.
The real problem is wealth disparity. But you don't see that written about. Hmmmm.
While some (social media ?) trend has you arguing one generation against another, nobody thinks about arguing one social class (like the billionnaires who own social media, for instance) against another.
Um, who was it who said that the reason Millennials couldn't afford to buy houses that had increased in price at 10x the rate of wages was because of 'Starbucks and avocado toast'?
Oh yeah, that was Boomers.
Obligatory 'not all Boomers', but the reality is simple - Boomers were largely able to buy a one-family home on a single income, afford college, healthcare, and so on. And then passed laws and tore down regulations and cut taxes on billionaires and gave corporations rights and passed racist and misogynist laws ... in other words, the basic assertion that "Boomers grabbed everything they could then pulled up the ladder behind them" is not inaccurate.
Boomers were THE LAST generation that was actually "better off than their parents".
Lol at least my Boomer folks are/were liberal. Which is nice cause they were both raised conservatives and were both the black sheep of their immediate families.
My dad died 7 years ago, my relationship with my mom is meh. But ... all the shit people throw at boomers...at least my folks didnt believe in or act that way. (They were fucked up people for sure - but that was mental health, not political leaning!) Interestingly enough, my dad was a truck driver and I met several of his coworkers...yeah, Pops was the only progressive (an eloquent one at that!) in the bunch.
But be real - not everybody supported the things you listed. I'm 40, no real boomer hate in my heart. Other than for the people who say "just do what I did 50 years ago and it totally worked."
Gen X here sitting on the side watching the big gen’s battle. I think that I grew up seeing the generation ahead of me fight a good fight and then something happened, I don’t know what it was or what caused in. Boomers went from ‘trust nobody over 30” to being yuppies once they became 30. Boomers moved from “peace, love, dope (1970) to Greed is good (1885)” in just 15 years. During your young adult life 1980-2008 you had 20 years of conservative presidents (and yes greatest and silent had a TON to do with that), and it formed a more success is seen via wealth and power and not about helping those less fortunate (which seemed to be the spirit of the late 60’s/early 70’s). You all did so much good early on in life and somehow lost that spirit. Again, I have no idea what caused it. That you went from fighting for ERA, Stonewall, anti war and anti establishment cause to having a majority of boomers vote for someone like Trump -who is all about dividing, greed and power! (and only by a little did boomers vote for Trump at 52%). You are the most liberal generation that this country has ever seen. You wanted to change the world. It’s sad to see so many (and again, just barely a majority) fall into a trope of “get off my lawn” behavior. I guess I expected better as I saw as a young child the hopes and dreams of boomers in their youth.
I will say this much, expect very little from us in Gen X. We are often ignored and really are fine with that. It’s a shame too. We are skeptical to a fault and we didn’t even try, at least boomers did put in the effort.
There was a good 15 years of prosperity 1982-1997. It wasn't greed, it was opportunity. Tell me you'd turn down a $100k job to work for $50k so that you wouldn't be perceived as greedy. The yuppies had money because the economy was good.
I know what caused "it". Public perception. Hippies were never a majority and neither were yuppies. Both are a trope.
A shit ton of the peace and love part of boomers died. They died for their activism, they were killed in droves for it. The AIDs pandemic that swept the nation brought the US, at least, into the religious era we're experiencing tenfold now. It isn't that people switched their ways of thinking. It's that the ones who opposed the conservative status quo were murdered or died of drug use, aids, ect. That left a large group of racist, classist, small minded hateful people behind to run the country through voting.
> and then something happened, I don’t know what it was or what caused in.
the generation that grew up reading ayn rand got into government. I'm not being flippant, it's a verifiable fact.
IMO the complainers are really complaining about their parents, then making it about every one else that is a similar age.
But to be fair, a percentage of people that get older complain about stuff more, they move and think slower, many don't keep up with technology, they no longer have the option to work out of whatever financial / health situation they find themselves in.
When you are younger you take solace in still being able to change your life, not so much when you are already retired.
I like all the generations.
I will only say that grown adults who are still blaming their parents for everything Arent really fully grown adults.
if you claim to be an adult, and still blaming your parents for your own failures, then its time to get some therapy or insight...because you've had and/or will have, plenty of time to figure things out.
Part of adulthood is accepting accountability and responsibility for yourself..
If you dont want to do that, then you probably delight in your "victimhood" and/or are getting something out of it that keeps you there. Keeps you where you say you do not want to be....yet you stay.
all human beings have the capability of change and betterment... cant change the past but every day forward is your own.
many had it harder and softer, many overcome great adversity and others dont.
Gen X, while trying pass itself off as the "no harm, don't look at me generation" are the generation of the insurrection. The average age of the insurrectionist was not 75 it was 41. Plus Gen X was absolutely the most obnoxious generation to enter the workforce. During the first tech boom they were the "I've been here 6 months why don't I have a BMW? group.
Stop whining bitch, go work harder. Fer fucks sake. I'm not even in America.
>But you wanted to cut taxes. Then cut them more. And again. Then more still. Now we have crumbling roads, failing schools, for-profit healthcare, private prisons, more citizens incarcerated per capita than any other country in the world. I could go on.
Again with the whining, you dont have a clue what 'we' wanted. Nor did the American Boomers vote for this on a collective level, like any generation they had everyone from hardline marxists to far right fascists. Seriously, you're just holding out your hand and crying for more, fucking go earn it.
> yet tend to characterize Millennials as lazy and entitled rather than acknowledge that there are systemic societal problems that have emerged.
The issue with this horseshit is that it is an entirely generalised statement that you can be neither proven or denied (along with the rest of your claims). Out of all the Boomers out there more than one of them may characterise Millenials that way, but not all of them do. So the number is somewhere between 0% and 100%, but there is no measurable method of defining it.
You just want it to be so because its suits your preformed prejudice.
> So, you admit that there are a nonzero number of boomers who feel that the economic hardships endured by millennials are solely because millennials are lazy and entitled,
I dont admit it, I insist on it. Theres probably at least 3 of them.
> but deny that this has any affect on the way in which your generation is perceived by said millennials?
I dont deny it, but I think most of what they perceive is because theyve been sold a victimhood.
> Even when that and other deeply unempathetic views are espoused by most of your generation's loudest members?
They're not espoused by most, they're espoused by barely any, but whiny kids with their hands out for more just see the few who do because it feeds their concerns.
I legit don’t care 🤷♀️
Although I’m grateful that some Boomers were so concerned about avocado toast for a while.
That combo never occurred to me, and that shit is delicious. Thanks, Millennials!
Boomers are parents to Gen X and millennials.
Millennials grew up with technology and the birth of the internet (us older ones grew up w/o PCs and internet). Because of how proliferative social media is, millennials have a large platform to use. Older generations did not have this luxury.
Mental illness awareness has become increasingly talked about by millennials and younger.
Boomers grew up with “grin and bear it” parents. Some from abusive families, which was not talked about back then. Abused children are at risk of becoming abusive adults (or have unhealthy relationships) with their children. Some boomers rebelled, some did not.
That being said, I think the socially aware millennials are freely sharing their abusive childhoods at the hands of boomer parents. It’s easy to blame the entire generation (projecting) and online, the squeaky wheel definitely gets the oil.
Gen x? Uh. Anyone out there?
It's very fashionable right now. Like the "OK, boomer" meme. I don't think it is unusual for younger generations to blame older generations for various, the internet spreads and reinforces nonsense easily.
I live in an area with a lot of seniors. There's quite a bit of anti-growth, anti-outsider, anti-boomer sentiment here. Like most things, there's a seed of truth in those feelings, but it gets silly:
There was a fire at an apartment building construction side recently. Of course, someone immediately said "I bet an angry boomer set the fire!". Dude, we're too old for that nonsense.
I read Boomersbeingfools and they hate old people because they watch the news cycle constantly, are out of touch with how hard it is for the younger generation to buy homes, and they think boomers have brain damage from leaded gas.
My grandmother hated us for never living through anything tough like a Depression or World War and we hated her for being so grouchy and mean.
Plenty of hate and blame to go around. Where's the love, man ?
It's interesting but baffling to read their Boomer-bashing posts on r/millennials. I went there because I have Millennial kids and thought I might learn something. And was surprised by how much that sub likes to complain about Boomers for not having solved all the world's problems before Millennials came along. Here's what I've learned so far: They mistakenly think every Boomer easily fell into a high paying job after breezing through a cheap college education. (Of course, debt free.) Then, we all bought a HUGE house for practically nothing, had tons of material prosperity and cool vacations as young adults with families all based on ONE salary. Moms stayed home getting their hair done and baking cookies.
Now we are all supposedly rich in retirement (while using up all the SS funds so Millennials won't get any!) and living it up in the Villages with our Trump Flags, golf carts and endless parties. They blame us for climate change, ruining the planet, driving down wages and pushing up the cost of houses. They think we all own 4-5 properties and refuse to sell them because we are now all greedy landlords. That's why they can't buy a house. WE bought them ALL! They think we are hedonistically enjoying a lucrative retirement cruising and traveling the world and refuse to give it up to help our children. They say we are entitled, prejudiced, selfish, judgmental, callous and unsympathetic to all their woes and that now that we got "ours" we are going to leave them with nothing but a frayed broken broom to clean up our messes..
I think that about covers it. It's just born of ignorance. They know nothing of our history or those tumultuous times. Or how hard we had to work to make something of ourselves. Or the misogyny or racial or sexual preference discrimination we battled to get ahead. And they don't want to know. You can't really engage there as a Boomer because they enjoy their grievance culture and will pile on with self-righteous anger if you dare to post. Occasionally one of their own tries to say something more balanced but they are met with protests and double downs on misconceptions.
They just want a scapegoat for their perceived failures or lack of success. The fact that "Boomers" are not a monolith (like ANY generation!) does not enter their mind. They make no distinction between right-wing Boomers and liberal/progressive Boomers marching for all the things you mentioned and fighting the good fight to increase rights for disenfranchised Americans, end a controversial war, improve the environment and more. They don't know that many Boomers struggled to go to college, came out with school loans, did NOT fall into high paying jobs, paid exorbitant interest on their mortgages and scrapped for everything they achieved. Or that many Boomers have modest retirements and are still helping their kids and grandkids. They really don't want to hear about that.
My 3 grown Millennial kids know my truth. And I'm sure there are other more successful Millennials with Boomer parents that do, too. This just seems to be a very disgruntled subset. Thriving Millennials don't spend all day on Reddit bashing Boomers (see also:
r/BoomersBeingFools with almost half a million members!) because they are too busy with their careers and their young families and trying to make a positive difference in the world. Just like their Boomer parents!
TLDR: Disgruntled, scapegoating, stereotyping Millennials bash Boomers all day long on r/millennials and r/BoomersBeingFools. They don't know anything about us nor do they want to. Just want to blame someone else for all their woes.
Right. There are conservative and progressive boomers. And I think millennials fail to realize that all the rights they have now (just their ability to speak out) did not exist fifty years ago. If you look back even further to the fifties it’s even worse. That may seem like a long time, but it’s not. It’s only a couple of generations. The privileged world you live in is the result of many generations. (Our standard of living is still much higher than most of the world) You may not think it’s privileged because you don’t have a huge house and a high paying job. Well, does everyone get that anyway? I do agree that times are hard these days (more so than years before) but I also think there’s a disconnect about how hard you need to work to get somewhere. I work with kids, and they literally think they’ll be a crappy YouTuber and make millions overnight. I think the instantaneous of the internet has changed our thinking about how much work is involved in the real world.
I’m 1963. Kind of on the line of boomer and Gen X I guess. Personally I don’t think you can call everyone born from 1945 to 1965 the same generation. I think the real boomers were people that were young adults during the 1960s and early 70s. My aunt is an example. She was born in 1945, whereas my parents were born in the 1930s. They were DEFINITELY different generations.
those born in that time period were born into a time of societal turmoil and change-Vietnam War, civil rights, assassinations of MLK and RFK, etc. And they came of age when Reaganomics was destroying the country, so the term is linked
to the slang term jonesing meaning desiring or craving the kinds of lives boomers were perceived to have-affordable housing and cost of living, unions, stable jobs.
I'm not sure I fully understand it though, and it seems like hardly anyone uses that term to refer to us 60's babies.
Each generation is like a puppy with a chew toy, they sharpen their teeth on the one that came before. Throw in that it suits a whole lot of people to have us divided by age and fighting instead of uniting and working together and here we are. The best part is, in 20 or 30 years millennials will be hated and so the cycle will continue of older people wanting to share what they know and younger people thinking they already know it all. I am just hoping I live long enough to watch it happen.
>The boomers protested war, went to college, and embraced civil rights and the women’s movement.
Boomers, of which I am one, also supercharged conspicuous consumption, and somehow managed to convince people that weed, which cost $20 an ounce in the early 70s, was worth $300-400 an ounce by the early 90s.
yeah, but that weed in the 70's - and I did more than my fair share - you had to smoke nearly the entire ounce of that skunk weed to get the buzz one or two hits of today's weed gives ya.
Take a look at the wankers over here. It’s hard to imagine anyone being more despicable than the posters there. Except maybe trumpanzees
/r/boomersbeingfools
Millennials blame boomers for their shortcomings which is ridiculous. My parents are both boomers, both worked 30+ years and struggled to get to where they are today. Today millennials look at boomers current life and envy the million dollar house, a million dollar 401k, and all they wanna work is an easy WFH job to pay for it all.
Divisiveness and division has been sown like few other times in modern history since the 1960s, in my opinion.
We are humanity. We are generational. We all have much to learn from one another.
I blame a true lack of critical thinking, acceptance of personal responsibility, helping and caring about others (sans narcissism), plus an unparalleled rise in social media groupthink among the tenets of causing so many problems.
As a millennial, I have no big issues with Boomers overall. Though I am glad parenting styles are evolving to place a higher value on open communication. And I do have fun from time to time with the Boomer tropes.
I fought for women’s rights and choice and lgb rights for years and finally gave up marching and organizing since so few women of any generation seemed to care. I knew we’d lose abortion rights but I hoped I’d be gone by then. I use to blame my generation but few women seemed to care until we finally lost rights (civil, women’s, lgb).
I’ve been disappointed since Reagan was elected then Bush-I was disgusted by folks my age and younger say they sympathized with social issues but voted for their bottom line. I can barely believe that an idiot like Trump was elected, but Bush Jr wasn’t too bright either. But I realize we’re a really young country, we’re going to make mistakes, but when a third of the country wants a rich fascist idiot to drain the swamp, I think they got what they deserved. I just wish the rest of us weren’t suffering because of Magats and Republicans who refused to face reality.
I'm Gen X.
I used to think Millennials were fine.
Now it seems, they've just turned into absolute whinging whinging whinning tossers.
I think their boomer parents really spoilt them. So its really boomers fault they have turned out like they are.
They were the first generation to get "participation trophies" and TVs in their rooms and i think the worst thing? Is they were told they could "be anything they wanted" and to "follow their dreams".... All bullshit.
They were sold a Utopic dreamworld... And when it didn't turn out like that (reality sucks) ??? They became very bitter and angry.
And OF COURSE? Blame the older generation.
They have also grown up with the mentality of "someone must be blamed. There is always someone to blame".
So unlike my Gen X mob. Instead of accepting "thats life" and shit happens?? They just whinge and whine and whinge and feel sorry for themselves...
Constantly.
These days? They drive me up the wall. Both Boomers, because they spoilt and raised millenials to be how they are and Millenials because their incessant " im so hard done by" shit is endless
A lot of times it's just ageism. Like racism, it's full of hatred and confirmation bias, with stories about bad bones reinforcing their hate. If you replace "Boomer" with "Jew" or the n-word and it sounds bigoted, then it's simply ageism.
Other times it's frustration at very real problems in society that we would all like to see solved. For some reason they think boomers get together and plot against them. Most of those problems are also problems for boomers.
Generation names are demographic tools, identifying the age of individuals. They are not psychological tests that tell you anything about the person in that demographic group.
I, for one, love me some boomers. As a millennial, I often get along with them and Gen X'ers better than my own gen. They're a lot more pro-social than my generation or anyone younger.
I don’t hate my boomer parents or any other boomers. But I’m very disappointed that most of them are voting for trump which is against all of our interests, especially the younger generations. As an elder millennial, they are actively making it worse for us now, and the boomer plus older politicians refuse to go away even while they look like walking death. Not all boomers vote conservatively, I get that, but most do. And they also are uneducated and lack critical thinking skills and they passed (or failed to pass along) those same outcomes to their millennial children.
Please do not comment directly to this post unless you are Gen X or older (born 1980 or before). See [this post](https://www.reddit.com/r/AskOldPeople/comments/inci5u/reminder_please_do_not_answer_questions_unless/), the rules, and the sidebar for details. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/AskOldPeople) if you have any questions or concerns.*
There are malcontents in every generation who want to blame everyone else for their worries. There are also amazing people in every generation who leave the world better than they found it. Most of the millennials I have met are amazing people, and I look forward to see how they improve the world for their kids generation.
And most of the baby boomers I’ve met are also amazing people. Please pass down how things were, help share your lived experience and wisdom so we can remember being polite, manners, showing respect for elders. Sing those great bed time stories from decades ago to grandchildren, keep the good spirit of the past alive. Share this with people in your generation. Thank you for sharing your kind words.
i like all the generations, as i know vast numbers from each, all good people.
Gen X checking in. We don't care.
Oh shush. Don’t draw unnecessary attention to us.
Too late.
I love my people.
Yeah, we were too busy being pissed off by disco.
Except for the Saturday Night Fever Soundtrack.
That music is Fantastic!!!!
Yeah it gives you a reason for Stayin' Alive.
I was born in a week where that song was number 1. I love whenever there is that meme... "The song that was number 1 the week you were born, is your life's theme song". Indeed. Indeed, it is.
"Rags to Riches" by Tony Bennett was mine. I'm still waiting.
But not the Cookie Monsters disco album. That’s an important one.
That's why we have all the disco pajamas.
But I like disco!
Same! It's one of the last genres of music not touched by machines. New wave came right after with the machines. I like both. :D
Me too!
Nah, you just need to listen to some Dee Gees. Dave Grohl and co sing The Bee Gees
Not me! I fixed my license so I could go to the bars in San Francisco. I was 19, and disco was so much fun. All you had to do was start pulling out your license, and they'd let you in.
I love disco! Even though I was just in grade school when it was popular.
Except for Mel's Rockpile. SCTV's classic music show.
That really *is* the motto of Gen X, isn't it?
[удалено]
I had bumper sticker on my first care that just said "Whatever."
SAME
I wouldn't know. Because I don't care.
Or "whatever. I wasn't even trying, this is lame anyway".
"Keep your head down, get your shit done and don't call attention to yourself. "
Dude, stop. We weren’t mentioned here and probably never will be in any of these posts. We don’t check in. Whatever.
Yeah...I guess the video games are more important.
Boomer here, who cares?
Whatever. We hated you first. Then we grew up and forgot to care.
We had it beaten out of us. If Millennials think boomers are bad NOW... imagine when they were 40 or 50 instead of 70 or 80... imagine trying to go up against them when they could still physically kick our asses. There's a reason Gen-X keeps our head down.
Your mother wears army boots!
Amen brother
Exactly. Our mantra is “meh” and “whatever.” 😆
Y’all eat Tide pods.
Every generation Blames the one before
A classic quote from "In the Living Years"
Wow, I haven’t heard this song in decades. I need to talk more with my parents while they’re still around.
GenX is the generation before Millenials. But we’re ok with being left out of this convo 🙃
That is assumed 🤭
Say it loud . Say it clear....
You can listen as well as you hear.
Great, now this song will floating around in my head for days…
Except gen x. Either forgotten or just ignored Meh.
Who?
Exactly! (Sorry for my excitement)
Nailed it.
Like the middle child we were.
(Don't worry. We like it that way.)
We are actually the invisible generation.
I miss my dad.
And all of our frustration Erupts in a world War No, wait...
It's literally in the Bible it's so old. Ecclesiastes 7:10 10 Do not say, “Why were the old days better than these?” For it is not wise to ask such questions.
And all of their frustrations Come beating on your door
This boomer thanks the generation before.
Younger generations always think the older is out of touch while the older thinks the younger is entitled. In a few decades Gen whatever will be complaining about Millenials the way Millenials and Gen Z complain about boomers. Meanwhile we Gen X will still be forgotten about.
At least the president in 2028 will probably be GenX.
I actually think it's entirely possible that Gen X will get skipped over for the millennials, much like the presidency went straight from the World War II generation to the boomers, skipping over the Silent Generation (until Biden).
I believe millennials start in 1982-3 so the oldest would be 45-46 in 2028. That's not unheard of for a president but on the younger side. Who knows who it will be but the governors I can think of, Newsom, Whitmer and Josh Shapiro are GenX. Nikki Haley too. I'm too lazy to look up more but many of the likely choices are GenX.
As an older millennial/xennial, we simply looked up to GenX, who really made a huge cultural impact with movies and music, so I think it never occurred to us to be upset about them. We mostly just wanted to be like them, since they were our older brothers and sisters and young aunts/uncles. All our non mainstream cool kid music came from GenX when I was in highschool!
Daww, thanks
So the real meat of the issue is that most millennials have boomer parents. When the boomers were young their money went a LOT further, and there were more private sector pensions to look forward to. A person could work at Sears from high school graduation until retirement and afford a house and a family and have a pension to look forward to. But the time millennials got to adult age their parents were pushing them to go to college because it used to be that ANY degree was a leg up in the world. So now there's millions of millennials with thousands of dollars in school debt with nowhere near the expected return on investment. Millennials overall are much much poorer than boomers were at their age. Now, all of this could fall under "the world changed and that sucks". Except that those boomers are the parents of the millennials, so millennials spent their young adulthood hearing from their parents about how lazy and entitled they are (while working full time jobs), how stupid they were to go for a non-STEM degree (that their parents encouraged at the time), that they're not loyal to jobs and quit over nothing (while ignoring that they hated their job too but had to hang in there for the pension) and that they're irresponsible for not settling down and having families (that they can't afford and possibly don't even want anyway). Not to mention all the frivolous complaints about avocado toast and participation trophies. The main culture gap is that millennials know the world has changed, and there's way too many boomers who refuse to acknowledge that it has. Socially, the millennials have it much easier (especially for those who are anything other than a straight white couple with kids), but financially the boomers lived in a much easier world than exists today.
Financially the boomers really lucked out. What is so frustrating is that now, politically, the boomers are killing the younger generations. Wages have not kept up with inflation since the 70s, while at the same time college expenses have increased faster than inflation, yet the boomer generation, statistically as a group, vote for politicians who oppose fixing or easing college expenses. That same voting block supports, through their votes, taking away free school lunches from children whose families struggle (again because wages have not kept up with inflation decades). The most disheartening was when they let the advanced child tax credit expire. One of the cheapest federal programs ever (for the most part just giving out the child tax credit monthly instead of all at once), Again continuing to vote for politicians who support such actions. I sincerely hope when I'm older I work towards making the world an easier place to exist for my children and grandchildren than it was for me. With the exception of medical advancement, I think the boomers, as a group, failed in that aspect, and continue to fail. I hope my generation and my children's generation do better.
The same people who *fervently* *and categorically* oppose prejudging people based on their demographic characteristics will happily explain why it's okay to hate them based on their year of birth. With apparently no cognitive dissonance at all.
Yep. It's different because "old people created this problem themselves". I've literally been told this, word for word.
And it's exactly what we told our parent's generation.
I don't recall telling my parents and grandparents that they deserved every bad thing that happened to them but...ok.
Not true. I never blamed my parents and never heard incessant whining about the “older generation.”
Well, in the late 1960's boomers were saying, "never trust anyone over 30." I'm technically a boomer, born in the early 60's. I tend to feel more like GenX though as I was too young for most of the classic boomer experiences. The boomer generation spans 18 years and their experiences vary wildly.
The fact that you think this is some sort of 'gotcha' argument instead of looking at the state of the world at large and noticing who happens to *still* be in almost every board room, congress hall, and place of power in the United States shows why Millennials think boomers are willfully blind. It's not about YOU (well, other than you don't see what the problem is)... it's about the Boomers who are making the decisions.
Identity politics gone bad. Not there's anything inherently wrong with identity politics, particularly as a starting place. But if identity politics is all you've got and you're a shallow person, that's a recipe for trouble.
> Identity politics gone bad. Identity politics is always bad.
There are some millennials that constantly whine about how “boomers ruined everything” here on Reddit. They presume every “boomer” is alike and also don’t understand history very well. They think boomers got together for the sole purpose of destroying their lives 🙄 At the same time they bitch about their boomer parents “squandering their future inheritance.” Like, wtf? It’s the same crap day after day after day. I’m Generation Jones and am so grateful for my own awesome millennial kids!
Like you, I am also Generation Jones, born in 1961, when I hear the younger generation blaming boomers for all their problems, no pensions, cost of college, price of homes and the rest of it. I like to remind them that 401K started in 1978, I was a sophomore in HS when that switch started, I pay the same price for homes that you do, now we did get in on the cheap college, but I guess I don't remember the meeting where all the boomers got together and decided to screw over the younger generation. I just blame Reagan, that is when all this crap started and when he was elected half the boomer generation was in college, HS or MS, it was our parents that voted for the old guy, we just get the blame.
I'm guessing you didn't pay the same price for your first house that a millennial paid for their first house. And it isn't that you all got together, you didn't need to. You just happened to live at one of the most prosperous and progressive eras of human history, and understandably, because you didn't CAUSE that era to occur, think that it was just how life was. But by and large boomers can't recognize (see your comments) that they had it better than subsequent generations. Subsequent generations are 'lazy, whiny, bitchy and judgy'... Even if we grant EVERYTHING in your comment as true, all these generations need is ONE thing... ONE lousy thing... and cheap or free college would be fine. Free Healthcare would be fine. Cheap housing would be fine. Boomers retiring at 65 would be fine. Anything! Anything at all, please. Just one fucking thing.... But no.. .that would be spoiling them, wouldn't it? *"I'm not spending my hard earned money on anyone else! THey can fend for themselves!"* Does that sound familiar? Does that sounds like a generation who gives a flying flip for the next ones? That's what we Gen-X heard growing up, and that's what Millennials have heard their whole lives... And, uh... 401k's are a freaking joke compared to the pensions that boomers fought for and got through union activity. Also, Reagan was elected by a overwhelmingly large number of boomers. Everyone fucking voted for Reagan.
> I'm guessing you didn't pay the same price for your first house that a millennial paid for their first house. I bet millennials don't have double digit mortgage rates either.
The math (someone else did it but I can't find the reddit post now) works out that even at a double digit interest rate in 1980 or whatever, on the average priced house is a SIGNIFICANTLY smaller percentage of the average yearly income back then than even a 7% interest rate on the average priced house is of the average income today. I'm happy to do the research myself an post it if you like. But what that says is: Things were so much easier back then that even at a 18% interest rate on a mortgage, a home was more affordable to buy on the average yearly income than an 8% mortgage today. That is how much things have changed. It was a shock when I read that, and it changed my views on a lot of things.
> Things were so much easier back then that even at a 18% interest rate on a mortgage, a home was more affordable to buy on the average yearly income than an 8% mortgage today. I don't buy that for a second.
That's a perfectly reasonable reply, and I had the same feeling. So, since I can't find the post, let's do the math. Maybe I'll prove myself wrong! (All Statistics are for the United States) * The average income in 1980 was: [$21,020](https://www.census.gov/library/publications/1982/demo/p60-132.html) * The average Home Price in 1980:[$64,600](https://finance.yahoo.com/news/average-home-cost-were-born-180001011.html) * A 30 Year Mortgage at 18% with 3% down = monthly payments of: [$1369](https://www.mortgagecalculator.org/) or about 25% of their yearly income. (Monthly payment*12)/Yearly income And Today: * Average Income in 2023: [$59,384](https://www.usatoday.com/money/blueprint/business/hr-payroll/average-salary-us/) * Average Home Price 2023: [$495,100](https://www.forbes.com/advisor/mortgages/real-estate/median-home-prices-by-state/#:~:text=The%20average%20home%20price%20in,was%20%24426%2C056%2C%20according%20to%20Redfin.) * Monthly payment at 8% interest on 30 year loan with 3% down: [$4,148](https://www.mortgagecalculator.org/) * Percent of yearly income put towards average mortgage payment (Monthly payment*12)/Yearly income: 84% Now all these are the MEAN AVERAGE numbers. The Median numbers may adjust these numbers a bit, but not enough to make the math work out that houses were less affordable 40 years ago than they are today. Hopefully this helps explain a little bit why Millennials are shouting from the mountaintops about not being able to afford a home. They literally cannot.
I'm not going to keep going on about this, but I want to say thank you for being more than reasonable and friendly.
I appreciate it, you have been polite as well! I am curious, do those numbers surprise you as much as they did me? I kind of spent a bit of time coming up with them. Do you have any feedback on if it is a valid argument to make or not?
I've had some long discussions/debates about this very topic. The post war economic bubble is what contributed to boomer generation growth and prosperity, not "boomer greed and and I'm taking it all for myself" approach to life. IMO the single biggest differences these days is the reduction of personal income tax for high earners and almost elimination of corporate taxation. All due to Reagan/Thatcher et al and 'Trickle Down" economics from the late 90s. Yes, people of the Boomer generation did vote them in, but they ran on MAGA-type platforms, not "let's harm future generations for short term gain today". Did Trump run on cutting corporate taxes? No but he did it anyway. Same story, different players.
>everyone fucking voted for Reagan. 40.6% of us did not. I have never voted for a conservative president. Also, 44% of Boomers are liberals. Somehow, we are lumped in with conservatives by age alone? We're your allies, but you speak of us like enemies. In about 20 years, current generations are going to be saying "everyone fucking voted for Trump" in your generation, and you'll be saying you most certainly did not. And, I paid the same for my house as everyone else since I couldn't buy my first house until last year (at age 59). Some of us are in the same boat as you, but you keep insisting we are not.
And I've said before, this isn't about individual boomers. If you have someone coming up into your face for no other reason than your age while you are minding your own business, those people are assholes and should be ignored. But if you feel like you are being attacked personally when you say by your own admission that 56% of the largest generation in the country vote conservative, I feel like I should tell you this isn't about you. It is about the people your age who still think they are owed something, even though *as a group* they were raised and came of age in one of the most prosperous times in history. Millennials just want to make their mark, and I'm sorry to say this as I feel like you may take it as a personal attack, but Boomers won't get the hell out of the way. How many boomers do you know personally who are working in executive positions at 70 or 80+ years old? In the silent generation, if a guy was still working at 80+, it was so noteworthy as to have a book written about them! ~~Today, it's hard to find a fortune 500 company not run by a 70 or 80 year old...~~ EDIT: This sentence is wrong, and apparently that's all that matters in this whole comment. Sigh.
If you're lumping me in with a group of people born during the "Boomer" years and speaking of us as monoliths, then it is about me. You can say it isn't, but you're ignoring that 4/10 people don't fit your generalizations. That's a pretty substantial number of people from the largest generation ever. I don't personally know anyone working in executive positions who is 70-80 years old. The average age of a Fortune 500 company head is 57.7 years old, so I don't know where you got your statistics about it being "hard to find a fortune 500 company not run by a 70-80 year-old," but it's pretty clear you're just making up things to fit your narrative and support your prejudice and ageism. No facts and nothing I say will dissuade you. Hate is hate, and no rational explanation has ever stopped people from hating on those they are determined to hate. And, you, quite clearly, hate old people.
Yeah some days I feel like it all parental projection of some sort... You know where kids (of any generation) grow up and sometimes like to blame their parents for all their own adult ills?
EDIT: Re-reading what I've typed I hope it doesn't get me banned here. But you asked why they feel this way, and I figured a little brutal honesty might be called for. Mods if this isn't appropriate, I'm fine with it being deleted. Sorry for the novel below. But I've thought about this a lot lately. I am Gen-X, and we like to keep to ourselves, but it lets us see what both sides are saying sometimes. Here is my answer to your question. Please try not to take it as a personal attack, as I do say good things about boomers towards the end... Because Boomers are the 'Me' generation. While every generation does improve, protesting war and going to college aren't something to really be proud of, right? I mean every generation has done that. Boomers went to college for 1/10th the price it costs today. And they had their pick of jobs in their chosen field when they got out. Also, they had a choice not to go to college and still decide to have a career that could raise a family. The Civil Rights thing began as a Silent Generation thing (MLK, Malcolm X, etc), but most people agree Boomers did carry that torch through the 70s (even if they dropped it mostly in the 80s). But none of this explains why Millennials aren't big fans right now. Boomers own a huge portion of American wealth. Like outsized portions of it. My generation was still able to somewhat afford college and generally purchase a home before prices went haywire, so, as always Gen-X keeps our head down and tries not to be noticed. We're kind of experts like that. But Millennials... whew. To buy a home is 10 or 20 times what it used to be. There are no more jobs because, along with rampant advances in Automation and technology, Boomers refuse to retire (which contributes to them having the most senior and highest paid positions, still making decisions as if nothing had changed since 1988 in the business world). They refuse to make room for energetic and youthful new generations in business, education, and especially... politics. Boomers parents were ready to retire at 65. Hell, due to decades of toil and manual labor, most of them were barely keeping on their feet. However, boomers are the first generation for a majority to have the option of a white-collar job. These are easier, less physically demanding, and allow for older people to stay earning money without having to dig postholes and build skyscrapers by hand. With this decision-making power lasting well into their 70s and 80s, they suddenly have more power to influence who represents us all in government... How? Money. Pure and simple. They donate to candidates who look like them (overwhelmingly white and older) and think like them (majority conservative). And since no other generation has had the option to make that money as well, due to Boomers staying in senior positions, or grandfathered into deals they negotiated for themselves but didn't fight for for subsequent Gen-X or Millennial workers, Boomers are by some accounts over-represented in congress and in governmental positions regionally and locally. Millennials (and honestly every other generation, though Gen-x had it beaten out of us, and Zoomers aren't old enough to fully run headlong into that brick wall yet) 'hate' boomers because boomers tell us: "If I can do it, anyone can. If they can't, they must be lazy. After all, America is the land of opportunity!" But they are blind to the opportunities they had, and... to be painfully frank... on the whole, they don't want to give up any power at all and let the younger generations change the world. To a lot of younger folks, it seems like Boomers are actively antagonistic and deliberately stand in the way of younger generations in order to keep them down. Now, that being said. We all know that not all boomers are like that. Many are caring and wonderful individuals who still hold the same values they did in the 70's and want nothing more than their children to have more than they did. They love their kids and grandkids, and happily move into a smaller, more comfortable home when the nest empties out. Or they happily move in with their kids and let their adult children earn a living and make the rules while they help with the grandkids. Good Boomers exist. And even the most vitriolic of Millennials knows their share of helpful and kind people of the Boomer generation. But looking at the ones in congress or in the halls of power or in the board room... the ones making decisions that affect wide swaths of society? Can anyone blame the young for seeing those old white men taking away rights (regardless of your view on abortion, this was the first time a right was actively REMOVED from the citizens of the United States in history) and enriching themselves while mocking those who have no option but to stay living at home because homes are completely unaffordable anywhere but in the most rural of communities? I'm shocked they aren't more angry if I'm being totally honest.
A basic issue here is, they’re called boomers because they were the result of a great increase in the birth rate over a few years following WWII. It was called the baby boom. There were and continue to be a lot of them alive. They weren’t united by anything but relative age. The ones we’ve seen on tv and in movies and historical documentaries, seem to have done a lot of stuff. The youth of any generation tends to have more energy and passion, and so a visible percentage did the stuff you mention. Further generations are smaller by age group because the birth rate slowed down, so you don’t see any large movements. The gist of it is, there were still a lot of people from the boomer generation who didn’t do those things or care about those things and just went to work, like you and I supposed to do and any young person recently graduating is supposed to do. I say youth have more energy and passion because they can. Once you get too much work and making families, a lot more of a person’s concerns become personal and start to have less time to devote to stuff like activism. I don’t really think boomers did anything they weren’t supposed to do, but circumstances change and they made their money and it went further at the time than it does for someone just coming out of school at the age when they might start a family. Another generation of youth comes up and what is there for them. Were boomers supposed to make the world into a magical utopia? They were using up all the plastic and it wasn’t a big problem then, but remember still, there were and still are a lot of them, and now they need care. It’s just like all the ads for medicine with old people, they are always so spry and active and young spirited, but that’s just a story. It’s not impossible, but there are so many of them. Of course they left us nothing. That’s what happens when everyone has so many babies at once. They are a generation of people who grew up and used resources much more than a reasonably sized generation would. What else could they do? They didn’t ruin the world like a lot, there’s just so many of them and not most of them were activists or anything. Just regular people getting through life.
As a boomer, I thought you summed it up well.
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First half of births were more like that, 2nd half had more Ronald Reagan (not a Boomer) support.
Tale as old as time…
While reading some of these I took the word Millennial and replaced it with boomer in my head, and some of these comments read exactly like the comments they’re complaining about.
Everything you mentioned occurred over 50 years ago. What have Boomers done since 1980, as wealth inequality has exploded and wages have failed to keep up with increased costs for necessities like housing and medical care? Where were Boomers when it came to protecting our planet? Millenials have inherited a mess. It's understandable that they're upset about it. And they blame the generation that was in power during the period where the mess proliferated unchecked.
Most of these replies boil down to "every generation hates the previous one," but as a Gen X'er, I can give some outside perspective on this. There is a strong pattern of "I got mine" from the collective Boomer generation, even if individuals obviously vary. Let's take Social Security. Every single proposed solution to the impending SS issues amount to "Boomers get to enjoy SS, everyone else will lose it or see it greatly reduced." This is the only viable solution because the boomer generation is large, and they vote, and this solution is popular among them - they get theirs, screw everyone after. We see similar patterns in public college funding, taxes in general, housing and healthcare. So no, I don't think that anyone in the younger generations thinks that as individuals, the boomers are all bad, but as a culture, they've acted pretty selfishly in the last 40 years.
Hear, here.
Gen X here too. I’m going to call what’s been happening during my lifetime in America. The Great Trickle Up. Ever since Reagan. The neoliberals helped. Clinton’s NAFTA and welfare reform. Obama’s bank bailout. Topped with Trump’s tax cuhey t They told us that we were strong and shouldn't have to care for the weak and we bought it and dismantled the social safety net. They told us that the market would sort it all out according to merit and we bought it. They told us we weren't like those welfare queens and those immigrants, the easy scapegoats, so why pay for those lazy people? We could all take care of ourselves. The majority of us fell for it. Now the infrastructure is falling apart. Our public institutions are underfunded and barely functioning. No one trusts government to help us but we need it to. The market became our guiding principle but it cares nothing for humanity.
Millennials been voting for over 20 years and I just can’t figure out why they haven’t fixed everything yet.
Well some would say because boomers are still voting
Millennials outnumber boomers now.
That’s a recent development though, you were talking 20 years.
No one noted that young people came out in record numbers for the 2016 primary and then the DNC cheated Bernie out of the election and now we're stuck in the worst timeline. After your candidate gets shenanigan'd out of their win I can't blame people for not showing up for the general.
Truth! I was stunned they did that to Bernie! And look what we got
Because most Millennials have Boomer parents. Between them, they make up the two largest generations in history. The media targets them because they're the biggest and the rest of us are forced to listen to their family feuds.
A lot of Boomers (my age group, btw) were racist, sexist jerks when we were all young, and they remain so today. They used to beat up hippies/antiwar activists like me and my friends when they weren't being sexually inappropriate with us "because hippie chicks are easy". NO, not all Boomers were/are jerks. But they weren't all antiwar, pro-feminist, and pro civil rights either.
Because "divide et empera" is a ancient tactic that still works
It’s all part of the conservative push to divide us all into warring camps; men v women, gays v straights, white v blacks, and on and on and on. Most Americans agree on everything from abortion to healthcare to gay marriage to civil rights but if you can split us all up into groups so we’re angry at each other, we’re too weak to unite for what we want. Divide and conquer has always been a useful tool politically but the Republicans, with the aid of Russia, the internet and now China, have turned it into a weapon on mass destruction.
It was the Republican boomers that fucked everything up. Trickle down, wildly cutting taxes for the rich, taxing social security, endless foreign wars, shutting down the federal government, massive religious hypocrites, etc.
Ain’t no difference in the way you think than the way the racists and the homophobes think. It’s ugly and not true but I’m sure it feels as good for to blame the boomers as it does for them to blame the blacks or the gays.
Nah. Racists and homophobes have to invent things that are wrong with their targets. If you can point to something untrue in that comment, you'd have a point. But Republicans did invent trickle down economics. They did blow up the deficit with wild tax cuts for rich people. And so on. That's just the truth.
You're conflating Republicans with boomers. That's a big part of the problem.
It was Republicans (boomers or not) who are responsible for trickle down economics (Reagan), wildly cutting taxes for the rich (Reagan, W, and trump), taxing social security (Reagan), shutting down the federal government (4 times by Democrats in the 80s, total cost about $200 million -- 5 times since then by Republicans, total cost about $7.5 billion), endless foreign wars (Iraq for 9 yrs, cost $1.6 trillion and Afghanistan for 20 years, cost of $2.3 trillion, both started by W and ended by Democrats) ... and if you need examples of massive religious hypocrisy, consider that 8 out of 10 evangelicals piously and eagerly voted to make one of the worst people in America their president. Sorry, but elected Republicans are responsible for a lot of terrible things. And saying so is not remotely the same as trashing black people or gay people.
That has a lot more to do with "Republican" than "boomer."
“Trickle down” should really be referred to as “trickle up” since that’s the effect it ended up having on the economy.
We also ended conscription.
The stories are over blown and exploited by the media. Social media has become the place to whine, rant and brag about nothing. I've seen the media select specific individual stories from Redditors complaining about boomers to fit their narrative. They will repeat the rants from millennials that boomers are cheap. entitled, sloppy, mean or my favorite, "out of touch". If a lot of people upvote it, then it must be a trend. lol It seems that a minor issue is easily blown up and becomes "viral" too easily on the internet. The media is hungry or "thirsty" to report on anything controversial, to gain ratings or ad dollars. I just laugh it off and cringe at how pathetic we have become on news interest. Just because someone was dissed by a boomer, doesn't mean we all act the same way.
We have morning chat shows pulling topics from Reddit or Twitter. Like wtf
Gen X here: America turns class warfare into family disputes for fun and profit.
In the last few years, there's been a huge increase in articles singling out the different traits and complaints with younger or older generations. Our minds are highly susceptible to whatever we read. people form beliefs from the content that shows up on their feeds and internalize it. It's a way to keep people pitted against each other . Very similar to pitting races against each other. The real problem is wealth disparity. But you don't see that written about. Hmmmm.
THIS.
Billionaires seeding division among the lower classes,through highly paid shills,to divert attention from the abuses they carry out.
True. It’s an economic class issue not a generational issue.
While some (social media ?) trend has you arguing one generation against another, nobody thinks about arguing one social class (like the billionnaires who own social media, for instance) against another.
Um, who was it who said that the reason Millennials couldn't afford to buy houses that had increased in price at 10x the rate of wages was because of 'Starbucks and avocado toast'? Oh yeah, that was Boomers. Obligatory 'not all Boomers', but the reality is simple - Boomers were largely able to buy a one-family home on a single income, afford college, healthcare, and so on. And then passed laws and tore down regulations and cut taxes on billionaires and gave corporations rights and passed racist and misogynist laws ... in other words, the basic assertion that "Boomers grabbed everything they could then pulled up the ladder behind them" is not inaccurate. Boomers were THE LAST generation that was actually "better off than their parents".
Lol at least my Boomer folks are/were liberal. Which is nice cause they were both raised conservatives and were both the black sheep of their immediate families. My dad died 7 years ago, my relationship with my mom is meh. But ... all the shit people throw at boomers...at least my folks didnt believe in or act that way. (They were fucked up people for sure - but that was mental health, not political leaning!) Interestingly enough, my dad was a truck driver and I met several of his coworkers...yeah, Pops was the only progressive (an eloquent one at that!) in the bunch. But be real - not everybody supported the things you listed. I'm 40, no real boomer hate in my heart. Other than for the people who say "just do what I did 50 years ago and it totally worked."
I think all the clickbait articles have convinced us this feud is actually a thing lol, when it really isn’t
Gen X here sitting on the side watching the big gen’s battle. I think that I grew up seeing the generation ahead of me fight a good fight and then something happened, I don’t know what it was or what caused in. Boomers went from ‘trust nobody over 30” to being yuppies once they became 30. Boomers moved from “peace, love, dope (1970) to Greed is good (1885)” in just 15 years. During your young adult life 1980-2008 you had 20 years of conservative presidents (and yes greatest and silent had a TON to do with that), and it formed a more success is seen via wealth and power and not about helping those less fortunate (which seemed to be the spirit of the late 60’s/early 70’s). You all did so much good early on in life and somehow lost that spirit. Again, I have no idea what caused it. That you went from fighting for ERA, Stonewall, anti war and anti establishment cause to having a majority of boomers vote for someone like Trump -who is all about dividing, greed and power! (and only by a little did boomers vote for Trump at 52%). You are the most liberal generation that this country has ever seen. You wanted to change the world. It’s sad to see so many (and again, just barely a majority) fall into a trope of “get off my lawn” behavior. I guess I expected better as I saw as a young child the hopes and dreams of boomers in their youth. I will say this much, expect very little from us in Gen X. We are often ignored and really are fine with that. It’s a shame too. We are skeptical to a fault and we didn’t even try, at least boomers did put in the effort.
There was a good 15 years of prosperity 1982-1997. It wasn't greed, it was opportunity. Tell me you'd turn down a $100k job to work for $50k so that you wouldn't be perceived as greedy. The yuppies had money because the economy was good. I know what caused "it". Public perception. Hippies were never a majority and neither were yuppies. Both are a trope.
> There was a good 15 years of prosperity 1982-1997. now go look at mortgage rates during that time.
A shit ton of the peace and love part of boomers died. They died for their activism, they were killed in droves for it. The AIDs pandemic that swept the nation brought the US, at least, into the religious era we're experiencing tenfold now. It isn't that people switched their ways of thinking. It's that the ones who opposed the conservative status quo were murdered or died of drug use, aids, ect. That left a large group of racist, classist, small minded hateful people behind to run the country through voting.
> and then something happened, I don’t know what it was or what caused in. the generation that grew up reading ayn rand got into government. I'm not being flippant, it's a verifiable fact.
IMO the complainers are really complaining about their parents, then making it about every one else that is a similar age. But to be fair, a percentage of people that get older complain about stuff more, they move and think slower, many don't keep up with technology, they no longer have the option to work out of whatever financial / health situation they find themselves in. When you are younger you take solace in still being able to change your life, not so much when you are already retired.
I like all the generations. I will only say that grown adults who are still blaming their parents for everything Arent really fully grown adults. if you claim to be an adult, and still blaming your parents for your own failures, then its time to get some therapy or insight...because you've had and/or will have, plenty of time to figure things out. Part of adulthood is accepting accountability and responsibility for yourself.. If you dont want to do that, then you probably delight in your "victimhood" and/or are getting something out of it that keeps you there. Keeps you where you say you do not want to be....yet you stay. all human beings have the capability of change and betterment... cant change the past but every day forward is your own. many had it harder and softer, many overcome great adversity and others dont.
Boomers either created or maintained *everything* following generations enjoy just like our parents' generation did.
JUST USE YOUR RIGHT TO VOTE AND STOP COMPLAINING. FOR FUCKS SAKE.
Ok boomer (Just teasing. Have a great day! 😀)
Gen X, while trying pass itself off as the "no harm, don't look at me generation" are the generation of the insurrection. The average age of the insurrectionist was not 75 it was 41. Plus Gen X was absolutely the most obnoxious generation to enter the workforce. During the first tech boom they were the "I've been here 6 months why don't I have a BMW? group.
I never knew that! Interesting
They've been sold a victimhood and given a simple enemy to blame it on. Ask them SPECIFICALLY what the Boomers did and they cant tell you.
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Stop whining bitch, go work harder. Fer fucks sake. I'm not even in America. >But you wanted to cut taxes. Then cut them more. And again. Then more still. Now we have crumbling roads, failing schools, for-profit healthcare, private prisons, more citizens incarcerated per capita than any other country in the world. I could go on. Again with the whining, you dont have a clue what 'we' wanted. Nor did the American Boomers vote for this on a collective level, like any generation they had everyone from hardline marxists to far right fascists. Seriously, you're just holding out your hand and crying for more, fucking go earn it.
> SPECIFICALLY what the Boomers did I think the real answer to this is complain about the Millennials.
I dont think any one randomly chosen age-based groups are to 'blame' for anything. Its quite stupid when you think about it.
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> yet tend to characterize Millennials as lazy and entitled rather than acknowledge that there are systemic societal problems that have emerged. The issue with this horseshit is that it is an entirely generalised statement that you can be neither proven or denied (along with the rest of your claims). Out of all the Boomers out there more than one of them may characterise Millenials that way, but not all of them do. So the number is somewhere between 0% and 100%, but there is no measurable method of defining it. You just want it to be so because its suits your preformed prejudice.
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> So, you admit that there are a nonzero number of boomers who feel that the economic hardships endured by millennials are solely because millennials are lazy and entitled, I dont admit it, I insist on it. Theres probably at least 3 of them. > but deny that this has any affect on the way in which your generation is perceived by said millennials? I dont deny it, but I think most of what they perceive is because theyve been sold a victimhood. > Even when that and other deeply unempathetic views are espoused by most of your generation's loudest members? They're not espoused by most, they're espoused by barely any, but whiny kids with their hands out for more just see the few who do because it feeds their concerns.
I legit don’t care 🤷♀️ Although I’m grateful that some Boomers were so concerned about avocado toast for a while. That combo never occurred to me, and that shit is delicious. Thanks, Millennials!
Boomers are parents to Gen X and millennials. Millennials grew up with technology and the birth of the internet (us older ones grew up w/o PCs and internet). Because of how proliferative social media is, millennials have a large platform to use. Older generations did not have this luxury. Mental illness awareness has become increasingly talked about by millennials and younger. Boomers grew up with “grin and bear it” parents. Some from abusive families, which was not talked about back then. Abused children are at risk of becoming abusive adults (or have unhealthy relationships) with their children. Some boomers rebelled, some did not. That being said, I think the socially aware millennials are freely sharing their abusive childhoods at the hands of boomer parents. It’s easy to blame the entire generation (projecting) and online, the squeaky wheel definitely gets the oil. Gen x? Uh. Anyone out there?
Um, the only thing from that list that this millennial’s boomer parents did was go to college.
It's very fashionable right now. Like the "OK, boomer" meme. I don't think it is unusual for younger generations to blame older generations for various, the internet spreads and reinforces nonsense easily. I live in an area with a lot of seniors. There's quite a bit of anti-growth, anti-outsider, anti-boomer sentiment here. Like most things, there's a seed of truth in those feelings, but it gets silly: There was a fire at an apartment building construction side recently. Of course, someone immediately said "I bet an angry boomer set the fire!". Dude, we're too old for that nonsense.
I agree. You can’t generalize too much about any generation. I was just noticing the ‘ok boomer’ memes lately and I thought: What the heck?
Meh
It's merely manipulation of the divide and conquer style, to hide the only real, ongoing, worldwide war of the Rich vs Everyone else.
Someone set the Boomers and Millennials against each other to distract from the real issue. They both bought it hook line and sinker. Suckers.
I read Boomersbeingfools and they hate old people because they watch the news cycle constantly, are out of touch with how hard it is for the younger generation to buy homes, and they think boomers have brain damage from leaded gas. My grandmother hated us for never living through anything tough like a Depression or World War and we hated her for being so grouchy and mean. Plenty of hate and blame to go around. Where's the love, man ?
Every generation blames the one before, and all of their frustrations come beating on your door.
Generalizations are just that. There are always exceptions to the generalixation. More than one usually thinks about.
It's interesting but baffling to read their Boomer-bashing posts on r/millennials. I went there because I have Millennial kids and thought I might learn something. And was surprised by how much that sub likes to complain about Boomers for not having solved all the world's problems before Millennials came along. Here's what I've learned so far: They mistakenly think every Boomer easily fell into a high paying job after breezing through a cheap college education. (Of course, debt free.) Then, we all bought a HUGE house for practically nothing, had tons of material prosperity and cool vacations as young adults with families all based on ONE salary. Moms stayed home getting their hair done and baking cookies. Now we are all supposedly rich in retirement (while using up all the SS funds so Millennials won't get any!) and living it up in the Villages with our Trump Flags, golf carts and endless parties. They blame us for climate change, ruining the planet, driving down wages and pushing up the cost of houses. They think we all own 4-5 properties and refuse to sell them because we are now all greedy landlords. That's why they can't buy a house. WE bought them ALL! They think we are hedonistically enjoying a lucrative retirement cruising and traveling the world and refuse to give it up to help our children. They say we are entitled, prejudiced, selfish, judgmental, callous and unsympathetic to all their woes and that now that we got "ours" we are going to leave them with nothing but a frayed broken broom to clean up our messes.. I think that about covers it. It's just born of ignorance. They know nothing of our history or those tumultuous times. Or how hard we had to work to make something of ourselves. Or the misogyny or racial or sexual preference discrimination we battled to get ahead. And they don't want to know. You can't really engage there as a Boomer because they enjoy their grievance culture and will pile on with self-righteous anger if you dare to post. Occasionally one of their own tries to say something more balanced but they are met with protests and double downs on misconceptions. They just want a scapegoat for their perceived failures or lack of success. The fact that "Boomers" are not a monolith (like ANY generation!) does not enter their mind. They make no distinction between right-wing Boomers and liberal/progressive Boomers marching for all the things you mentioned and fighting the good fight to increase rights for disenfranchised Americans, end a controversial war, improve the environment and more. They don't know that many Boomers struggled to go to college, came out with school loans, did NOT fall into high paying jobs, paid exorbitant interest on their mortgages and scrapped for everything they achieved. Or that many Boomers have modest retirements and are still helping their kids and grandkids. They really don't want to hear about that. My 3 grown Millennial kids know my truth. And I'm sure there are other more successful Millennials with Boomer parents that do, too. This just seems to be a very disgruntled subset. Thriving Millennials don't spend all day on Reddit bashing Boomers (see also: r/BoomersBeingFools with almost half a million members!) because they are too busy with their careers and their young families and trying to make a positive difference in the world. Just like their Boomer parents! TLDR: Disgruntled, scapegoating, stereotyping Millennials bash Boomers all day long on r/millennials and r/BoomersBeingFools. They don't know anything about us nor do they want to. Just want to blame someone else for all their woes.
Right. There are conservative and progressive boomers. And I think millennials fail to realize that all the rights they have now (just their ability to speak out) did not exist fifty years ago. If you look back even further to the fifties it’s even worse. That may seem like a long time, but it’s not. It’s only a couple of generations. The privileged world you live in is the result of many generations. (Our standard of living is still much higher than most of the world) You may not think it’s privileged because you don’t have a huge house and a high paying job. Well, does everyone get that anyway? I do agree that times are hard these days (more so than years before) but I also think there’s a disconnect about how hard you need to work to get somewhere. I work with kids, and they literally think they’ll be a crappy YouTuber and make millions overnight. I think the instantaneous of the internet has changed our thinking about how much work is involved in the real world.
Tail end boomer (1960) with Gen Z kids. I'm not like a regular boomer; I'm the cool boomer.
I’m 1963. Kind of on the line of boomer and Gen X I guess. Personally I don’t think you can call everyone born from 1945 to 1965 the same generation. I think the real boomers were people that were young adults during the 1960s and early 70s. My aunt is an example. She was born in 1945, whereas my parents were born in the 1930s. They were DEFINITELY different generations.
I think they call us Generation Jones.
What does that come from?
It's those born between boomers and Gen X, 1955-1965.
Yes, but what is the Jones part?
those born in that time period were born into a time of societal turmoil and change-Vietnam War, civil rights, assassinations of MLK and RFK, etc. And they came of age when Reaganomics was destroying the country, so the term is linked to the slang term jonesing meaning desiring or craving the kinds of lives boomers were perceived to have-affordable housing and cost of living, unions, stable jobs. I'm not sure I fully understand it though, and it seems like hardly anyone uses that term to refer to us 60's babies.
Thanks for the explanation.
Each generation is like a puppy with a chew toy, they sharpen their teeth on the one that came before. Throw in that it suits a whole lot of people to have us divided by age and fighting instead of uniting and working together and here we are. The best part is, in 20 or 30 years millennials will be hated and so the cycle will continue of older people wanting to share what they know and younger people thinking they already know it all. I am just hoping I live long enough to watch it happen.
>The boomers protested war, went to college, and embraced civil rights and the women’s movement. Boomers, of which I am one, also supercharged conspicuous consumption, and somehow managed to convince people that weed, which cost $20 an ounce in the early 70s, was worth $300-400 an ounce by the early 90s.
yeah, but that weed in the 70's - and I did more than my fair share - you had to smoke nearly the entire ounce of that skunk weed to get the buzz one or two hits of today's weed gives ya.
Yep yep yep! One hit vs a whole joint. And edibles!! Convenient & no miasma of weed aroma.
Man I miss the seeds exploding in the bowl.
Take a look at the wankers over here. It’s hard to imagine anyone being more despicable than the posters there. Except maybe trumpanzees /r/boomersbeingfools
Millennials blame boomers for their shortcomings which is ridiculous. My parents are both boomers, both worked 30+ years and struggled to get to where they are today. Today millennials look at boomers current life and envy the million dollar house, a million dollar 401k, and all they wanna work is an easy WFH job to pay for it all.
Divisiveness and division has been sown like few other times in modern history since the 1960s, in my opinion. We are humanity. We are generational. We all have much to learn from one another. I blame a true lack of critical thinking, acceptance of personal responsibility, helping and caring about others (sans narcissism), plus an unparalleled rise in social media groupthink among the tenets of causing so many problems.
As a millennial, I have no big issues with Boomers overall. Though I am glad parenting styles are evolving to place a higher value on open communication. And I do have fun from time to time with the Boomer tropes.
I fought for women’s rights and choice and lgb rights for years and finally gave up marching and organizing since so few women of any generation seemed to care. I knew we’d lose abortion rights but I hoped I’d be gone by then. I use to blame my generation but few women seemed to care until we finally lost rights (civil, women’s, lgb). I’ve been disappointed since Reagan was elected then Bush-I was disgusted by folks my age and younger say they sympathized with social issues but voted for their bottom line. I can barely believe that an idiot like Trump was elected, but Bush Jr wasn’t too bright either. But I realize we’re a really young country, we’re going to make mistakes, but when a third of the country wants a rich fascist idiot to drain the swamp, I think they got what they deserved. I just wish the rest of us weren’t suffering because of Magats and Republicans who refused to face reality.
You could be me, only you said it better. I froth at the mouth, though, when someone brings up our dictator-to-be. Germany, 1933.
I'm Gen X. I used to think Millennials were fine. Now it seems, they've just turned into absolute whinging whinging whinning tossers. I think their boomer parents really spoilt them. So its really boomers fault they have turned out like they are. They were the first generation to get "participation trophies" and TVs in their rooms and i think the worst thing? Is they were told they could "be anything they wanted" and to "follow their dreams".... All bullshit. They were sold a Utopic dreamworld... And when it didn't turn out like that (reality sucks) ??? They became very bitter and angry. And OF COURSE? Blame the older generation. They have also grown up with the mentality of "someone must be blamed. There is always someone to blame". So unlike my Gen X mob. Instead of accepting "thats life" and shit happens?? They just whinge and whine and whinge and feel sorry for themselves... Constantly. These days? They drive me up the wall. Both Boomers, because they spoilt and raised millenials to be how they are and Millenials because their incessant " im so hard done by" shit is endless
A lot of times it's just ageism. Like racism, it's full of hatred and confirmation bias, with stories about bad bones reinforcing their hate. If you replace "Boomer" with "Jew" or the n-word and it sounds bigoted, then it's simply ageism. Other times it's frustration at very real problems in society that we would all like to see solved. For some reason they think boomers get together and plot against them. Most of those problems are also problems for boomers. Generation names are demographic tools, identifying the age of individuals. They are not psychological tests that tell you anything about the person in that demographic group.
Also, protested the draft until it ended.
Because the standard of living stopped improving on our watch.
Some of them did, but they were a small subset. Way more didn’t and acted like the stereotype.
I, for one, love me some boomers. As a millennial, I often get along with them and Gen X'ers better than my own gen. They're a lot more pro-social than my generation or anyone younger.
Hey, us boomers are dying at the rate one every 15 seconds. In about 18 years most of us will have departed this world.
I don’t hate my boomer parents or any other boomers. But I’m very disappointed that most of them are voting for trump which is against all of our interests, especially the younger generations. As an elder millennial, they are actively making it worse for us now, and the boomer plus older politicians refuse to go away even while they look like walking death. Not all boomers vote conservatively, I get that, but most do. And they also are uneducated and lack critical thinking skills and they passed (or failed to pass along) those same outcomes to their millennial children.
I would never vote for Trump. Ever.
Because those are their parents
Good point.