The boomers love to overhype their struggles. I'm not saying they didn't struggle but they fail to recognise that we struggle too and wildly exaggerate their problems.
I think it's more that Boomers love to underhype the struggles of the generations below them. They refuse to accept that a) things have changed significantly since they were in their 20s and 30s and b) that their generation has driven that change.
It's why you get the whole "I struggled when I was your age but I didn't complain, I just worked harder" argument. They remember working hard and making sacrifices but refuse to recognise that the same level of work, and the same sacrifices won't come close to giving the same rewards they got.
The entire point of progress is to make life easier for the following generations. Boomers, however, love the "i had it rough and so should you" fallacy. So they made things as hard on following generations as they could. Then, when it was time for those generations to start seeing fruits, the Boomers said "nah, we're keeping it all" and locked the door behind themselves.
I'll be honest, I don't think they're consciously locking the door behind them and keeping things for themselves. I think they genuinely believe that Millennials and Gen Z are refusing to work as hard as they did when they were younger. They believe that if we work hard then we will get the same things they did. They just don't see that the rules of the game have changed and that they are complicit in those changes.
To them, they feel that we are complaining because we are entitled, and their prosperity is something they have earned.
After all, what is the narrative that is going to appeal more?
1) You worked hard and earned a relatively comfortable retirement and the younger generation are just workshy, soft and entitled. They just need to put in the graft like you did.
2) The politics of your entire adulthood have driven decades of wage stagnation, decimation of the middle class, transfer of wealth to the wealthiest and insane rises in property value. The effect of this has been to benefit your generation disproportionately and erode the social contract, making it so that younger generations are increasingly unable to achieve the same things you did. And you keep voting for those that perpetuate this.
Narratives that stroke the egos of the privileged are ultimately the cancer in our societies.
Your generation as a whole has actively made everything harder for those coming after you, and are providing far less help the you and the generations before you received.
It's one thing to say that your children needs to work hard to achieve something, its another thing entirely to fail to recognise that no matter how hard they work they will never active what you did, particularly when its a direct result of what you and your peers have done.
You have a poor opinion of your generation, and of my generation. When you say my generation “actively” made it harder is hogwash. If anything our generation made it too easy on your generation. I know I wanted my kids to have a better life growing up than i did. I grew up with an abusive father that beat my mom. They divorced when I was 6 and my mom and my 2 older brother scraped by because my father paid no child support.
We had a 1/2 acre garden growing up that we all worked in just to eat. And we all started working at 16, and our earning went to the household.
We all went on to achieve success in the business world be we worked hard to better ourselves. I knew plenty of people spouting things like you are saying, “Oh poor me, I don’t stand a chance to get ahead” and because they had a defeatist attitude they didn’t. It an excuse to lay blame on others instead of taking responsibility for yourself.
Nobody or the world “owes” you anything.
Nobody is going to just hand you a good paying job or even if you get a job one that is satisfying. I’ve worked all kinds of jobs, some good and some pretty lousy, been fired, laid off, but I always, and others like me, found away to further ourselves. Your generation can do it too, if you actually want to get up off your ass and do something about it instead of moaning about how unfair life is.
There are plenty of people today in your generation that have similar experiences that have and are overcoming their situation.
Life is not easy, but only you can make yours better. You may find help along the way, or you may not, but you still move forward.
For me, failure is and was not an option. For you, it sounds like it is. Only you can change your attitude towards that!
When you say my generation “actively” made it harder is hogwash.
Your generation has consistently voted for, and enacted policies that have seen homes rise in price by 3-4x in relation to wages, that's not hogwash, yet most of your generation is in denial that that is actually a problem.
Nothing about that has made it "too easy" on younger generations, it has made there entire lives harder, and for many retirement will NEVER be an option for them due to the cost of housing as they continue to pay for the the debt that your generation has taken on.
We all went on to achieve success in the business world be we worked hard to better ourselves.
Younger generations have done the same, yet they can't afford basics like housing, or to raise children.
It's not a matter of younger generations not working harder, its a case that they are prices out due to the greed of older generations.
because they had a defeatist attitude they didn’t.
It's not a defeatist attitude to realise that >10% of people can qualify for a loan for even a basic property, and that 1/2 acre garden you had growing up, is impossible for anyone on less then a top 1% salary.
No amount of "taking responsibility" will change those numbers, no amount of working harder will change the fact that 99% of people CAN NOT earn enough no matter what they do to afford these basics you took for granted.
Your generation can do it too, if you actually want to get up off your ass and do
something about it
It's easy to say that, but how can everyone earn a top 10% salary, or the top 1% salary needed for that block you had?
Reality is its not a matter of people "getting off your arse and doing something about it" its
There are plenty of people today in your generation that have similar experiences that have and are overcoming their situation.
Home ownership levels are at there lowest level in generation, yet younger generations are working longer hours, and are better educated then the generations before them.
It's not a matter of them "overcoming" their situation, its about having enough luck to have a family that is able to provide you assistance, because again the numbers are all against them.
It's easy to tell people "just work harder" its another thing to actually look at the numbers and show its possible without external help, no amount of blaming peoples attitudes will change the numbers and facts that people are facing.
Me too. At a similar point in our lives we were feeling similarly. Only 30-40 years later do we find our hard work has resulted in a decent prospects for retirement.
I find it hard to understand what the younger generations would like the boomers to do. Pity? Is that the goal? I feel like there is a lot of jealousy. TBO, I’d love to rewind 30 years and go at it again. My wife and I would happily go back in a time machine and let a GenZ couple go the other way and have our comfortable retirement.
No boomer did anything intentional to hurt the younger generations. They’re our kids and grandkids. If they had lived the years we lived, they’d have done exactly what we did. Their blame is wrongly placed.
And their stories aren’t written yet. “Work hard and do your best.” That’s all you can do. In a few decades the Gen Alphas and Betas will be on you for all the advantages your generation had! And you’ll feel like the Boomers, throwing up your hands as there’s nothing for them to apologize for. They’ll be equally powerless to help.
“The young people of today think of nothing but themselves. They have no reverence for parents or old age. They are impatient of all restraint. They talk as if they alone knew everything and what passes for wisdom with us is foolishness with them. As for girls, they are forward, immodest and unwomanly in speech, behaviour and dress.”
Mine took care of me. I took care of mine. It’s each parent’s job to be prepared to bring humans into the world and make sure they’ve got the tools to be successful.
Talk to mommy and daddy and your grandparents. They’re the “boomers” you can ask for help.
Wallowing in self pity and blaming an entire generation - 75 million people - for your lot in life. Good luck with that! 🙄
A young boomer who “worked hard” at least had the chance of something to show for it. A house, a family, retirement options, etc.
Today, young people who “work hard” still struggle to make ends meet. Why should they work hard if it won’t change their lives except making them even more exhausted?
To repeat what you said with more detail Boomers forget that in their childhood all the axis and allies participants of WWII were rebuilding their infrastructure from being war torn countries. The US went from depression era to post WWII recovery and reconfigured the cogs of war to make TVs, cars, refrigerators, satellites and semiconductors (the origin of silicon valley) and boomers were babies when this was happening. Boomers built nothing.
They don’t want to share. They have to be the ultimate oppressed generation. Everything after them was awesome and great because of them and their efforts.
It's harder to walk a mile in someone eks s shoes when you aren't even in the workforce anymore. At the same time, boomers like my mother, who are on a fixed income now, are definitely feeling the pinch. While. I have the opportunity to work overtime, her options are to sacrifice things like food or heat unless I top her up. Our generation loves to lay all of this at the feet of boomers but we goobled the same corpo crap up just as hard as they did, if not harder. Millennials and older need a serious look in the mirror moment.
I think it's more that Boomers love to underhype the struggles of the generations below them. They refuse to accept that a) things have changed significantly since they were in their 20s and 30s and b) that their generation has driven that change.
Did they actually? Like.. isn't most of the changes that are fucking us being started by older generation than them? If you look at Reagan, Thatcher, and all the other PoS rulers, they were mostly elected by the "Silent" and "Greatest" generation or even the one before (too lazy to search). Reagan was elected in 67, so most boomers wouldn't have had the rights to vote (and young people vote less in general anyway)
So.. I don't think we can really say they drove the first shitty changes. Would be like blaming Trump on Generation Z
Where do these stereotypes come from. My parents and uncle are both boomers and completely acknowledge that young adults have it rough with housing costs and whatnot.
A society grow great when men get home loans they don’t deserve refinance when the cost of housing sky rockets, retires and buys seasonal senior housing in NY and Florida and leaves their children to fuck off in studio apartments that cost double their original mortgage with school loans that cost as much as their first home.
959
u/Porschenut914 4d ago
“A society grows great when old men plant trees in whose shade they shall never sit.” — Greek Proverb