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Posted on 05/31/2026 2:53:08 PM PDT by MinorityRepublican
Once upon a time, inequality in Europe was largely horizontal. The rich western half drove BMWs and holidayed abroad, while the poorer east rewired its own appliances and queued for bread.
But three decades of catch-up growth in erstwhile communist countries has put paid to jokes about Romanian cars whose top speed was “downhill”. These days inequality in Europe has a vertical dimension—one that goes up and down family trees.
Youngsters unable to move out of their parents’ spare room due to sky-high house prices wonder if they will ever enjoy the lifestyle as adults which they knew as kids.
Thirty-somethings in jobs pay hefty taxes to fund the pensions of oldies who retired in their prime. Costs related to ageing are guzzling a quarter of the European Union’s GDP, a figure unlikely to fall as the Old Continent grows older still. To be a young European is to feel oneself an unwitting participant in an intergenerational confidence trick.
(Excerpt) Read more at economist.com ...
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bump
Now there is a shocker.
My post was that self-exterminators were relegated to the margins in prior generations, but not the Baby Boomer generation - in fact, the self-exterminators have DEFINED that generation, given their political power.
Not a single Boomer anywhere in power when the Club of Rome started.
Or do you want to say they were "in the margins"?
Well, when you drop 20 million people into a fairly tight system in a short time, it screws everything up. No, the illegals are not living in my area, but they are stressing the system from the bottom upwards.
In the normal cycle of life, the boomers will be “out of the system” in the next ten years and there should be a gradual “collapse” of the housing market. But now I am not sure. The immigrants will have integrated by then—and they will be looking to move on up as well.
The people in charge (mostly Gen X now) have really screwed the pooch by allowing the illegals to enter the country. Schools and local budgets will go bust. Real estate will continue to be a mess. Healthcare is going to go belly up.
If you were looking to destroy an empire…these fools have done it by the book.
“Our problems are the result of Congress.”
EXACTLY, I’ve typed those same words endless times and will do countless times ahead. The left, fake right, and the uniparty hogging the center put here by fool voters.
Just for fun: Our national debt should be about $42,000,000,000,000 by the end of the year. The nearest star Proxima Centauri is coincidently 4.2+ light years away, of course traveling at 186,000 miles per second, that’s quite the distance.
If we were charged $1 per mile to that star it would equal our national debt.
I am a boomer and wealthy. I worked for my wealth. I am 78 and that wealth will soon be passed on to our children. What the hell is wrong with the Economist. Their article make the supposition this wealth will not be passed on to our children.
The Economist was once a great magazine of which I subscribed to for years as I did Scientific America. They became political and thus I dropped my rather expensive subscriptions.
To be fair to young people the job market is absolutely brutal.
According to LinkedIn data there is a 2.5% response rate to job applications.
That doesn’t mean even an interview, that includes “we’re decided to move on with other candidates” emails.
Typically you need 200 applications just to land a couple of interviews, several hundred more to get an offer.
So no, you can’t just “work hard” if you can’t find work.
Did Europe have a baby boom, that is a post-war demographic bulge? Today, those born in the 40s or 50s are more likely to be grandparents than parents. Europe was 10-20 years behind the US, so their growing up years would have been less affluent than those of American boomers. Affluence did come in the 70s and 80s and they would have enjoyed it, but so would the following generation. If young Europeans have a gripe, it may be as much with their parents as their grandparents.
I have no sympathy. My two degrees are Geology and Pharmacy. I chose hard majors and the companies were waiting to hire me upon graduation. Oddly K&B pharmacy chain in Louisiana recruited pharmacists before graduation. They knew we were broke and basically opened up their check book worth several thousand dollars and a contract to commit to work for a year or more dependent on how large the check was. Everybody won. I was tempted but wanted to go back to Texas.
“We realize it’s wrong to demonize groups based on sex, race, etc...”
The Boomer’s primary fear was that they would be seen as “racist” so they let all our countries be destroyed, instead.
“Absolutely - and think their total control of television was the weapon they needed.”
They talk about the need to ban teenagers from social media.
But for real reform what is needed is to ban Boomers from watching television.
I understand the current world has changed. AI driven HR departments suck in applications and dump them rapidly. You have to deal with DEI crap obfuscating what should be a merit based hiring process. I'm thankful to be retired at this point in time.
Typical boomer post.
Well done!!!👍🏼
Oh really? You spoke to each of them & they bared their souls?
“We realize it’s wrong to demonize groups based on sex, race, etc...”
Who wrote this ? Why did this person write “We realize...” ?
Because this person was an only child who read a great deal, and was around adults and that’s how this person thinks, so that’;s how they write.
General usage of “we”
The Inclusive “We” (Author + Reader): Used to guide the audience through a thought experiment or build a shared conclusion (e.g., “If we examine the consequences of utilitarianism...”). This makes the essay conversational and engaging.
The Exclusive “We” (Author + Coauthors): Used to describe specific actions you and your research partners took in the text (e.g., “In this paper, we will argue that...”)
The Generic/Universal “We” (Humanity): Used when making broad claims about human nature, consciousness, or societal beliefs (e.g., “As humans, we naturally seek meaning...”)
Reason articles like this get written?
116 responses here...
I read the folks’ responses for the entertainment value.
All here have had unique experiences, some judged good - others not so good.
Who cares.
Where is the next Social Security article? They are my favorite...
I was thinking specifically of tenure-track jobs at universities, and particularly in History. Maybe it was different in other professions. I saw some old publications from the American Historical Society from the 1960s and there was an incredible number of positions being advertised. One of my professors who finished about 1965 had something like 16 job offers. Even though he was at a flagship university he liked to grumble that he should have gotten a better job.
If you really cared about your children being better off than you, you would give as much of your wealth as you could afford now, not leave it for them when they are old and you are dead. Imagine how much more impactful a couple hundred thousand dollars would be to a couple in their 30s or 40s vs in their 60s or 70s. Most boomers I know have done that if they were able, giving money to buy a house, start a business or pass on their own. Not to mention paying for college.
Thank you for your courteous reply.
I think academic positions will not be a lucrative or growing portion of our economy for many years.
Universities were their own worst enemy, adding bloated bureaucracy, hosting programs that do not lead to viable career paths(whose cost to the student in concert with the anticipated salary level post graduation constitutes a poor faith degree offering).
The games with tenure, abuse of post doc fellows and lack of academic rigor contribute to a situation where there will be continued retrenching until the value offered for degrees is commensurate with the cost. The salaries the university administration have contrived to pay themselves are offensive to any reasonable person. In essence most universities are now con games enabled by Government loans, grants and foreign students, a very sad situation.
This has nothing to do with boomers. It has to do with bureaucrats and cynical administrators chasing of dollars rather than a focus on education and transmission of knowledge.
There is little moral clarity remaining at most universities. The abuses discussed above as well as the antisemitism, attacks on any conservative position or speaker, overt racism and anti American rhetoric is alienating students and parents. In the end people vote with their feet. Many who love a discipline such as history make a pragmatic choice and explore history as a hobby.
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