Move Over Boomers -- Gen-X And Gen-Y in the Coming Decades <p>

At all levels public education in America is boldly blazing a trail to 3rd world literacy right here in the US.

Yeah. It couldn't have worked better if they had planned it that way.

Please, don't paint us all with the same warped brush. Ya wanna attack the hippies and flower children, have at it. But, bear in mind, while a lot of them were doing drugs, enjoying free love and protesting the war, others of us were fighting in a futile "police action" our pre-baby boomer government got us into.

You also don't know what it's like growing up with the prospect of atomic or nuclear war at any time. In all likelihood, you never had an atomic bomb drill in school or ever saw a Civil Defense Shelter sign. You may recall air raid drills that communities used to have, but even those are gone.

With respect to the Constitution, not all boomers took part in undermining it. Yes, the liberal fringe had their way with it and I agree that they did considerable damage to the nuclear family; but that doesn't mean that all or most boomers supported it or participated in it.

Rather than blame boomers in general (which you sort of have and sort of haven't - in all fairness, you have focused on the liberal boomers), why not attack the liberals in general without regard to the generational era?

Liberals, overall, have done a lot of damage to this country and if the Gen X-ers and Gen Y-ers are more conservative for it, hallelujah!! If it's true, there may be hope for this country yet, but I'm not willing to bet the farm on it. A lot of those more conservative Gen X- and Y-ers are also Dean supporters. that doesn't give me a warm fuzzy feeling about their more conservative stance that you have claimed.

As for education, how do you think we all got educated in classrooms that averaged 33 - 35 kids each? Today, the teachers are complaining that they can't handle classrooms with 28 kids and the parents are complaining that Johnny can't learn because the classrooms are overcrowded. Boomers didn't start the downturn in educational standards, those were started by the pre-boomer generation which came up with "new math" and "new English". It only got worse from there.

Finally, take another look at the pictures of the guys who engineered and pushed through the space race. When I clean the crap off of MY bifocals, they look a lot younger than the pre-baby boomer crowd you handed the credit to. Their managers MAY have been pre-boomers, certainly JFK who set the challaenge was a pre-boomer, but the guys who built the rockets and blasted off in fragile tin cans were baby boomers.

Yes, there are problems today; welcome to the real world. If you want paradise, strap a bomb to your chest and blow up a supermarket. In the real world, things aren't perfect, just as they are now. And, also in the real world, people have different ideas. When we can't discuss those ideas and, instead, spend our time accusing one another of causing the problems, what do you expect to happen? There was a time when we were the world's melting pot. We were comprised of different nationalities and different races, but we all came together to be part of the American dream. Then, one day, a pre-boomer came up with the politically correct idea of hyphenating Americans.

I might suggest that you take another listen to that song by Mike and the Mechanix about generations. it applies here.

Thanks for the Ping. Excellent article.

Only a handful of our elected politicians even pretend to represent the best interests of "ourselves and our posterity". Most of them advocate and implement policies that are clearly detrimental to the survival of the nation and its people. Why? Why are they amassing public debt that can only leave future generations fiscally crippled? Why are they opening up the borders, driving down incomes and causing record numbers of home foreclosures and personal bankruptcies? Why do they look the other way as the wealth and productive capacity of the nation is outsourced to foreign countries that are not even our allies? Why do they steadfastly refuse to reform the regulations and taxation that have driven our industries off shore and caused the unemployment of millions of Americans? Why do our policies regularly discriminate against the productive people of this nation and reward the miscreants? And the big question is: why do the people keep electing these same people over and over? And when will they ever just go away?

I kind of know why, Because there is only 10 things on Baby Boomer's minds Me,Me,Me,Me,Me and Now, Now, Now, Now, Now

There is hope, and it is not to be found in the leadership and policies of the destructive Boomers and Silents that have already brought us to the point of disaster. In a few short years, the Boomers and their elders will be irrelevant to the course of the nation, other than forever bearing the blame for its near destruction.

I disagree with the time frame, The baby boomers are entrenched in positions of power for at least another 10-20 years with more good intention feel good programs to come, Especially in light of the fact that many lived for the moment and haven't saved and we be in the workforce longer than usual. But you are right the Boomers have already secured their place as the Worst Generation in the history of the USA.

There is little doubt where we are in the current cycle if the patterns of history hold true, and there is absolutely no reason to believe we are exempt from the powerful forces of generational shifts that have occurred with stunning regularity for centuries.

I agree though it worse now because never has there been a generation like the Baby Boomers so bent on destroying all the institutions that made America great. A case can be made the "Flappers" of the 20's that lead to the Great Depression were bad but they weren't out there attempting to undermine the country. You have to go back all the way to the end of the Roman Empire to find a Generation and leaders that are as decadent as the modern day Baby Boomers.

In Rome for every Nero and Commodus there was always a Trajan or Severus to follow them to clean up the mess until the very end where the people that could have saved Rome like an Aetius were assassinated by their jealous emperors. In the US for every James Buchanan and Jimmy Carter there was a Lincoln or Reagan to follow to clean up the mess. I am really hoping that continues and we get great Gen-X leaders to come in and pick up the pieces, Lord knows there will be no leaders out of the baby boomers to do it. And though while unlike in Ancient Rome I don't think elitist Baby Boomers will be physically assassinating Gen-Xers but through their hold on the media and academia they will be character assassinating anyone attempting to undo the status quo.

Boomers created this. They must fix it.

Absolute hogwash.

Ditto and worth repeating. They have done enough already.

This even includes Republican Boomers. It should come to no surprise to anyone that the current crop of Republicans in power right now turned out to be big disappointments (to say the least) because after all they are baby boomers and just because a Baby Boomer has a "R" after their name why would we expect them to act or think any different from the rest of that terrible generation.

Business leaders of the last two decades have set records in their quest to lead once prosperous and stable companies to ruin, likewise leaving formerly prosperous and stable communities in ruins. ..Throughout the last two decades, businesses tried on every management and technical fad that came down the pike, with little regard to whether the experiments added real benefit to their processes or bottom line.

Again I agree. The Baby Boomers like they did with government have destroyed corporate America by instituting massive bureaucracies filled with useless (but highly paid) people. Today you have high paid corporate trainers, Motivation speakers, efficiency experts (that are anything but), Quality Assurance Engineers, Concept designers and their ilk infecting corporations from the top down. All they do is have endless meetings and stifle production and innovation with their nonsense.

I am utterly amazed we can even compete at the level we do.

On a side note, I would advocate the death penalty for the person who came up with the whole concept of "Teams"

The major disconnect among the Boomers, especially the liberals, is that they are incapable of acknowledging the results of their actions. Their intentions are all that matter to them. Whenever one of their hair-brained ideas produces undesirable results, their solution is another even more hair-brained idea.

True enough, But more often or not they look for scapegoats for their failures usually in the form of they need more money. Like Education for example, Even though we spend more money (even adjusted for inflation) per pupil on education than we every did before the Liberal Boomers still consistently claim we need even more.

than we ~~every~~ ever did before

On a side note, I would advocate the death penalty for the person who came up with the whole concept of "Teams"

I sense you are feeling some hostility, and that can be a destructive element in our efforts to reach consensus. We need to work through these feelings and return to a level of discourse where we can discuss the issues of cognitive conflict between us. :)

Well said.

I sense you are feeling some hostility, and that can be a destructive element in our efforts to reach consensus. We need to work through these feelings and return to a level of discourse where we can discuss the issues of cognitive conflict between us. :)

You are right, I will take a "Time out" and then first thing in the morning I will go to my doctor and get on Ritalin and then sign myself up for self esteem classes and sensitivity training.

I grew up in the south well within the expected blast zone of a major military base. I remember the duck and cover drills, and our grade school was a designated fallout shelter. I am considered a Vietnam era veteran even though it was mostly over when I enlisted. The Mayaguez was captured while I was in boot camp, and I volunteered for west coast/westpac duty, but was sent elsewhere. That little misunderstanding was over within weeks anyway.

You are correct that many of the Boomer-aged people have been conservative all along. I count myself among those.

Irving Krystol, who supposedly coined the term "neocon", admitted in a recent article that the neo-conservative movement started when less extreme liberals became disillusioned with some their more extreme comrades. These are the Boomer elitists who wear the Republican label and dominate the RNC and Republican organizations at the state and county levels. They despise conservatives but will tolerate them long enough to get their votes. Their beliefs are slightly to the right of the Democrats but far from being conservative.

GW Bush has done a fine job in the war on terror, and I much prefer him to any of the other possibilities. I disagree with him on the immigration and unfair trade issues.

My point about the Republican party was that there is little to gain from party cheerleading when the party itself is slipping so far into liberal territory. Third parties are no help, but there will be room for another major party once the Democrat machine is utterly defeated. The neo-cons are going to keep a death-grip on the RNC and they will continue moving left.

It is not too early to start encouraging younger conservatives to prepare to counteract those moves, either by exerting more influence in the Republican party or by looking ahead toward a better alternative.

While I will acknowledge that there are many fine and up standing baby boomers, I am sorry overall as a generation the baby boomers are simply the worst that ever walked the United States and to put it bluntly the world will just be a better place once you are all gone from power.

And don't just blame a few liberal elitist boomers, It wasn't just liberal elitist boomers who had all those abortions, all those divorces, grabbed all those guns, Passed all those health/safety initiatives, Put their careers over their children and latch keyed them and ruined education. With a little exception it was the whole bunch of you.

But, while we made mistakes, we also pushed the envelope with successes in science, exploration, the environment, education, engineering, health, etc., etc

No you didn't, Like everything else the baby boomers have corrupted science for their own purposes. Instead of in the past where they came up with antibiotics and cures for things like Polio today we get useless junk like Global warming, How food from McDonalds is addicting, How smokers are more likely to allow their children to stand up in shopping carts, etc, etc. Not a day goes by that we aren't bombarded with more of these silly studies on how something innocent will harm/kill you and/or make you do bad things. In the past scientist worked on things for the future betterment of mankind, Today Baby Boomer scientist work on things for the future betterment of lawsuits and more regulations. If you baby boomers spent just 1/10 the resources you spent on your junk science on something meaningful we would probably already have a cure for cancer and cold fusion and much more by now.

As for the environment, Don't make me laugh. Baby Boomers are only for saving the Environment when it hurt a corporation or America. Which is why there hasn't been a new nuclear power plant build in the past 25 years and why there is all this protest against GMOs. As for those gadgets, Well it might have been the baby boomers, But not the ones in America but the ones in Japan and Korea(if they have such a designation) that came up with them. When's the last time a TV has been made in the USA.

The internet, Well sorry that's ours. Computers and the internet have existed since the 60's but it wasn't until the new entrapanuer ial spirt of the Gen-Xers got a hold of them that they became what they are today. And it is this way by bringing computers and the internet into mainstream that Gen-X has already surpassed the Boomers (who have overall been a net drain on the country) in making positive contributions to United States and the world.

People who have walked on the moon

As of 2003, only the following twelve people have walked on the Moon, each on one mission only. Nobody has walked on the moon since 1972.

Astronaut Profile

Neil Alden Armstrong (born August 5, 1930)
Edwin Eugene "Buzz" Aldrin, Jr. (born January 20, 1930)
Charles "Pete" Conrad, Jr. (June 2, 1930 - July 8, 1999)
Alan Bean (b. March 15, 1932)
Alan B. Shepard, Jr. (November 18, 1923 - July 21, 1998)
Edgar D. Mitchell (born September 17, 1930)
David R. Scott (born June 6, 1932)
James B. Irwin (dob not listed)
John Watts Young (born September 24, 1930)
Charles Moss Duke, Jr. (born October 3, 1935)
Eugene A. Cernan (born March 14, 1934)
Harrison "Jack" Schmitt (born July 3, 1935)

~~entrapanuer ial spirt~~

entrepreneurial spirit

I have no idea what happened there

Well said. Unfortunately each new generation does this and thinks they are on to something new. The inherent imperfection of mankind assures this. I guess its just a stage...a learning process each generation goes thru.

No, To quote previously

"This anger towards the baby boomers is different from the past. In the past previous hostility between generations usually faded away as the younger generation matured. In today's case, I see the opposite happening with hostility toward the older baby boomers growing as the X & Ys age. The reason is because we have been propagandized during school and in the media on how great the 60s were and how enlightened the baby boomers are and it's not until we age that we start to see the damage to this country they and their "good intentions" have done. They are in power now and I feel in order to go forward we have to break the "Myth" of the baby boomers which would help in starting to get them out of power and undoing the damage they done."

With me it's not that I am a young whippersnapper complaining about the older generations because I have the up most respect for the WWII generation. Yes they weren't perfect and did start the ball rolling on these socialist programs and way of thinking but at least they did something like save the world from fascism and unlike the baby boomers they weren't actively working to undo all the institutions and the Constitution that made America great.

Here is one Baby Boomer I can respect take on your generation.

http://www.rushlimbaugh.com/home/daily/site_082703/content/the_limbaugh_library.guest.html

Click the audio link on the site (It takes about 1:50 before he gets into it), Even Rush in referring to the Baby Boomers calls them "A group I am ashamed to be a part of"

BTW. Baby Boomers shouldn't be the one to talk about not respecting the older generations since Baby Boomers even to this day have always thought of the WWII generation as a bunch of uneducated simpletons.

Thanks for speaking up. You have proven one of my points (at least to me). Once the Gen-Xers are fired up, they are going to move.

The difficulty might be in getting them pointed in a constructive direction. In fact, you guys will probably lay out your own path. By now you all should have a background in team building, diversity, and sensitivity skills sufficient to temper the more extreme tendencies of the age group.

I didn't get through it, so this is a bump for later perusal...

I didn't get through it, so this is a bump for later perusal...

Neither did I. And mine is for the same purpose.

"GW Bush has done a fine job in the war on terror, and I much prefer him to any of the other possibilities. I disagree with him on the immigration and unfair trade issues.

My point about the Republican party was that there is little to gain from party cheerleading when the party itself is slipping so far into liberal territory . . . (etc. to the end of your post)"

We firmly agree on these items. I still think it unfair and incorrect to blame the entire baby boomer generation for all of the ills of America today. Our parent's generation had the "Great" Depression and created the SS boondoggle (for government). FDR adopted Keynesian economics and initiated deficit spending. LBJ developed the "Great Society" that left us with Medicare, the War on Poverty and Bi-Lingual Education.

Life is what it is. Many younger folks blame the baby boomers for everything wrong with America today. I'll concede that, overall, liberalism made a large foothold in our political structure, but we also tried to fight back with the likes of Goldwater, Nixon and Reagan. I would also recommend that GEN X- and Y-ers pay close attention to the journey taken by David Horowitz to understand what we were up against. In the 60s, there were two wars going on; one in Vietnam, and a civil war here at home being waged by college radicals. Not all of us bought into the SDS, SLA, Black Panthers, etc.

With respect to our selfishness, it is due in large part to the participation of baby boomers that civil rights were advanced to the extent that they are. We did what we did and, IMO, we owe few people any apologies.

If Gen X-ers are supposed to be the salvation of America, how come we had 8 years of Bill Clinton? If Gen Y-ers are the solution to us selfish baby boomers, why is Howard Dean such a prominent presidential candidate for the Dems?

Each generation makes its own share of mistakes and has its own crosses to bear. I'm not convinced that we did such a bad job.

"The internet, Well sorry that's ours. Computers and the internet have existed since the 60's but it wasn't until the new entrepreneurial spirt of the Gen-Xers got a hold of them that they became what they are today."

Oh, PLEASE!!! Give me a break. First of all, computers have existed since the late 40s. But, if you really trace the computer back through history, crude computers have existed since about the 12th or 13th century. Secondly, Americans have exhibited entrepreneurialism since the long before the Revolutionary War. Are you going to take credit for everything that has been done since then? You are starting to sound like Al Gore. Finally, I worked in the industry that made the Internet happen. We developed the technology and the hardware that made it what it is. The Internet has been around since the 70s, it was just called the Darpanet, then. However, if you want to take the credit for it, thanks for the dot-com bust that put so many people out of work and caused the collapse of so many businesses. Good work!! Is THIS the legacy that you Gen X-ers want to have? You're not off to a very good start.

Tell ya what. Print out a copy of the post I am replying to and put it in a safe place. A VERY safe place. 30 years from now, when the next generation is blaming you for everything that is wrong with the America that THEY inherited from YOU, re-read what you wrote. If you have an ounce of honor in you, you will feel very embarrassed. But, I doubt it. Your post reflects a lot of anger; much like Howard Dean.

If Gen X-ers are supposed to be the salvation of America, how come we had 8 years of Bill Clinton?

The oldest Gen-Xers were first elegible to vote in 1982. They were statistically insignificant in Clinton's elections. If you look at the population numbers year to year, you will see that they become more significant as the years roll by.

FDR was a disaster for the country, economically and politically. Without his big government meddling, the people of the US could have gotten the economy rolling again. As it was, the economy was restarted by the buildup for and during WW-II, in spite of FDR's policies. Democrats dominated the body politic for the rest of the century, the Democrat's pet projects generally produced dismal results. The post WW-II high was accomplished by the drive of the returning WW-II Heros, and during that time the liberals had to go along to get along. The real problems started in the sixties when the Boomers came of age.

"BTW. Baby Boomers shouldn't be the one to talk about not respecting the older generations since Baby Boomers even to this day have always thought of the WWII generation as a bunch of uneducated simpletons."

Sir/Ms/Ma'am...this statement is moronic. It undermines any desire you may have to engage in a logical and thoughtful dialogue.

"The oldest Gen-Xers were first elegible to vote in 1982. They were statistically insignificant in Clinton's elections."

You want music to tap dance to or do you just want to keep dancing to your own tune? Tell me, how many millions are there in a "statistically insignificant", Muhammed Ali?