There is a big difference between baby boomers and our grandparents.. My grandmother also went thru the depression. Americans today really do not know what hunger, being without and survival is. We are spoiled, myself included. My grandmother was not a waster. She recycled everything. Times were hard all her life. When she was in her 70-80s she still worked for Goodwill. She didn’t make much money but she was around “bargins” I never, once heard her complain about her life though. She would tell me stories but more in the way of reporting than how bad she had it. Several times when I would whine about how hard things were she would sternly tell me to toughen up. No complaing allowed around her.
I can identify with you memories, I am not much of a whiner partly do to Grandma living with us. It is what it is....deal with it and be content in all things. Being grateful for what you have.
yes - it always helps when you are reminded of their hardships to put your own “complaints” in perspective.
I’ve been whining alot lately about my upcoming winter heating oil bills.
But even that doesn’t come close to what our grandparents suffered.
I agree that we need to keep things in perspective and be willing to work hard for everything we have. I also believe that America was set up on the model that govt should be unrestrictive enough that we can go out and make our own success, not expect the govt to figure out what our needs are and then give us things.
I know my husband and I have worked for everything we have. I know my Dad did too (a baby boomer) who just retired but with a very small home and a very small pension.
Part of what has made our country the richest in the world is our huge middle class. A middle class that would not exist if the masses just accepted living like peasants the way the elite would love and the way it was in the past here. So, I get a little suspicious whenever I see articles and such that try to frame the average American worker as having “the entitlement mentality”, being lazy, or “whiners”. The entitlement mentality people are those unwilling to work for everything they have or expect more in return than what they are worth. The average American works very hard.
We don’t need to be figuring out ways to lower our standard of living. The swindlers would love nothing more. We need to be figuring out ways to maintain and increase our standard of living. That is and has been the American way. It’s why our history for the longest time was one in which those trying to advance themselves came here. The wolves came here and the sheep stayed at home to be poor. Of course, now we have those wanting free housing, food stamps, etc coming here.
Point is, the sheep can all go somewhere to live and be poor. We Americans aren’t going back to being peasants no matter how much the filthy rich think they can brainwash us with guilt trips about being “whiners”. It didn’t work in the past and won’t work today. Some things about being an American hasn’t changed and one of them is the refusal to be exploited by the rich and powerful.