Baby Boomers Better Beware

Matthew’s Substack ^ | 20 Apr, 2025 | Matt Bracken

[JusPasenThru]

I have nothing positive to contribute here. I’m just expressing outrage and anger.

I feel so much better.

PS I live in very conservative SoFloville. Everybody here is armed. My firearms are in storage. I don’t worry about it much because of the herd effect: I may not be armed but everyone else here is, so make good choices.

[Big Red Badger]

Obummer,Cankles and Joe Potato...
.
To the dustbin of History.

[Abathar]

I read this as I’m sitting at my business on a holiday weekend getting programming and setups done for my guys come Monday morning. I guess that makes me one of those greedy owners who is out for every penny on the backs of the indentured servants I have slaving away for me here while giving nothing back.

I was born in 65, so I’m as old of a GenX as they get having turned 60 this year. Whoever wrote this dribble of nonsense hasn’t had to hire anyone I can see, or he would certainly know the difference between the older generations and GenZ, Millennials, etc. when it comes to work ethics.

If I hired 10 people now I would probably manage to keep 1-2 of them, the rest are not worth investing my time and effort to train. Just trying to keep the damn phones out of their hands is ridiculous, and it’s only getting worse as time goes on.

Fastest way for me to weed out the applicants is to inform them that we have a no phone policy, and they have to either leave them in their car or in a locker and are not to be carried on the shop floor. Say that to a young person these days and watch their face closely, you can see the shock registering on them every time. No poker face has yet to be strong enough when that is put out there to not react to those horridly alien words.

I have now taken it a step further, I don’t even fill out their paperwork until they go past a month either. I pay them their full amount as a contractor and then give them a 1099 if they don’t make it. At 30 days we sit down and we will decide if they and I are happy with what is offered, and if so then I pay the taxes on the first month for them as a freebie.

I worked through high school, college, and have been running this business for about 25 years now. I’m 4th generation doing it, and I refused to allow my son to follow in my footsteps here. He understands, he sees the stress and the way business is done now and why I don’t want him to do this.

My grandfather and father instilled a work ethic that didn’t take much stock in “quality social time” unless you were slow on work and could afford to take the time off. You made hay when the sun is shining because the bad times are always going to come around eventually, and you had better have enough set aside and not be overextended with machine loans and payments when they do or you will lose it all.

In the past 25 years, I still haven’t figured out if I really do own the business, or if it owns me.

[55Ford]

This is what Boomers are like; be careful loser millennials et al.

[Cletus.D.Yokel]

That egghead is totally wrong about the so-called “Jones” generation.
My cohorts (me circa 1958) were blessed with common sense.
The following generations rejected it for ‘government’ ideologies.

[gitmo]

I see this hatred on Threads and X all the time.

[Steven Scharf]

Baby boomers should be at most 10 years after ww2. 1946-56.
Generations used to be (sensibly) described as lasting 20, 25, or 40 years, depending on the context. Your grandparents are one generation, your parents are the next, and you’re the next.

Generation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Birth Years. . . . . . . . Age . . . . Gen Length
The Greatest Generation (GI Generation) . . . 1901 to 1927 . . . . 98 to 124 . . . . 26
The Silent Generation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1928 to 1945 . . . . 80 to 97 . . . . 17
Baby Boom Generation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1946 to 1964 . . . . 61 to 79 . . . . 18
Generation X 1965 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1965 to1980 . . . . 45 to 60 . . . . 15
Millennial Generation or Gen Y . . . . . . . . . . 1981 to 1996 . . . . 29 to 44 . . . . 15
Generation Z or iGen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1997 to 2010 . . . . 15 to 28 . . . . 13
Generation Alpha . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2010 to 2024 . . . . 1 to 15 . . . . 14
Generation Beta . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2025 to 2039 . . . . 0 to -14 . . . . 14

[poconopundit]

Terrific post, Ikeon. Thanks.

[ansel12]

Notice that military service and the GI bill are never tied to the boomers, the last great warrior generation that produced 10 million GIs.

Not only did boomers produce 10 million GIs, they were also the age group that was most supportive of the war in Vietnam and who voted 52% for Nixon.

Just about all of that is shocking news to the ignorant and easily manipulated, with their lack of historical knowledge.

[onona]

I was once homeless, living out of my car (a 1976 Mercury Comet)

At least I had a van with a couch in it :)

[combat_boots]

You are really heroic.

Respect

[usconservative]

At least I had a van with a couch in it :)

Is your name Matt Foley by any chance?

[bobbo666]

Oh, some whinging losers are calling the products of my working my arse off for 30+ years to be the result of greed?

Kiss my arse! I will vote for your starvation.

[Macoozie]

“In twenty years, the baby boomers will be between 80 and 100, if they are still around. Huge numbers of fine houses will be available, and prices will plummet.”

That is the truth.
20 years from now, the glut will be gone.
It will rebalance.
It you want a shiiitey, poorly built 1980s McMansion, you’ll have your choice.
Most won’t.

[Wilderness Conservative]

Yes.

[MtnClimber]

I can appreciate your strategy with new employees.

[Harpotoo]

Hey if they want a cap in their arse I’d be willing to oblige:-)

[mass55th]

They can have all my wealth because I don't have any. I never owned a home. I've been divorced for 46 years from a man who hasn't seen his kids in at least 25 years. I raised my two sons alone in apartments. I own no property, have no savings, no investments...nothing. I even lease my car, choosing not to own one any longer at my age. I have my pension and social security. My kids will split a $50,000 life insurance policy, and whatever items of mine they want to sell when I'm gone...mostly books. I have no valuables...no jewelry. Never had a diamond engagement ring in my life.

At 78, I have my youngest son, aged 54 back home because of colon cancer in 2019, and the after effects of chemo that never went away, also major heart problems now. He's on social security disability, getting less than $1,000 a month. He pays for his own health insurance out of that, and his medical co-pays. He gets nothing from social services.

[mass55th]

"I’m going to leave my kids the exact same amount of money that my parents left me."

My parents had nothing, so we got nothing. My father aged 73, passed in 1978, worked on the NY Central Railroad his whole life. He had a $1,000 insurance policy when he passed, which paid for his funeral, burial and double headstone. My mother never worked and lived on a widow's pension from the railroad until she passed in 1990 at age 69. She died without insurance...told me my father didn't believe in it. So as not to be a burden on us four kids, she chose to donate her body to the University of Rochester. After a year, they cremated her, they called my second old sister who lived in Rochester to pick up her ashes. She paid to have my mother's ashes placed next to our father.

[MinorityRepublican]

America’s major moves left, the irreversible ones, came from the generations prior to the boomers gaining power.

True. All the Communists were there before the Boomers took power.

However, the Boomers have been around for a long time. So you could argue that they were immensely influential.

Due to demographics and the stranglehold on the institutions by the Boomers.

It appears that Gen X is a more right-leaning generation. But they do not have the numbers.