Posted on 08/22/2010 1:07:34 PM PDT by Publius804
The baby boomers. Born between 1945 and 1955, they are busy ignoring the biblical calculus that a man's span is three score years and 10. Having enjoyed a life of free love, free school meals, free universities, defined benefit pensions, mainly full employment and a 40-year-long housing boom, they are bequeathing their children sky-high house prices, debts and shrivelled pensions. A 60-year-old in 2010 is a very privileged and lucky human being – an object of resentment as much as admiration.
I'm at the heart of all of it – guilty as charged. Born 21 May 1950, I'm the quintessential baby boomer. And for the last three months, while most of the rest of the world has been getting on with their lives, I've been wrestling with the implications of my new seniority. Sixty may or may not be the new 50, but it is a significant milestone; I've been on the planet for an awfully long time. What sense can I make of the decades I have lived through? To what extent am I and my generation unfairly lucky? What is the best way to live my life from now on?
To a degree I have some sympathy with the resentment, marshalled in a cluster of recent anti-boomer books. Individually, we may not have been the authors of today's flux, uncertainty and lack of social and cultural anchors, but we were at the scene of the crime. The cultural, economic and institutional cornerstones of British life have been shattered – and the way our love of fun was channelled is undoubtedly part of the story. The upside is that some of the old stifling prohibitions and prejudices have gone, hopefully for ever.
(Excerpt) Read more at guardian.co.uk ...
Nicely done, and spot on.
Ans will you accept my apology for being grumpy the other day? I am truly sorry.
The only boomers that I saw in that long list of musicians were a few band members.
Just about all the major young people of the 1960s, and the 1960s icons who we can name, were not boomers.
Sigh....
Bite me. I’m sick of boomer bashing. The “Greatest Generation” broke the piggy bank (SS and Medicare) and Johnsons “Great Society”. THEY were in charge when we lost Vietnam ( the people in charge of WW2 were from the Victorian age). Millions of boomers served honorably in Vietnam. Millions more volunteered and manned the military during the rest of the Cold War. The vast majority of us worked hard and raised our families. So again, bite me.
I’m 53 and life is good. Retired from the federal government earlier this year, got a new private-sector career. I don’t know if Social Security or Medicare will be around in their current forms when I reach eligibility age, but I won’t need them — already executed plans for alternatives.
What do you have in common with your fellow boomer, Barrack Obama, or a heavy accented Hispanic boomer, born in and still living in a little Hispanic town by the border and still doing grunge work?
You don’t. You are close, but you probably have more in common with the Gen Xers. The definitive book on the subject, “Generations: The History of America’s Future, 1584 to 2069” by Neil Howe and William Strauss defines the baby boomer generation as being born between 1943 and 1960.
I was born in 1961 and fell the same as you about boomers and/or yuppies. Being the youngest of that generation I fell mistreated by them and they deserve every bullet.
They might shoot YOU first !
1954 to 1965 is Generation Jones, culturally distinct from the Boom Generation. Originally postulated as a “boomlette” Generation Jones was absorbed by govt statistical analysts into the Boom Generation. It now has been recast as Generation Jones. These are the people who when they first voted in mass numbers did so overwhelmingly for Ronald Reagan. Jimmy Carter was an embarrassment to us. I was born in 1960 - I was punk, pro-nuclear, pro-life, pro family, healthier, more involved in technology faster, developed distinctly anti-Liberal, pro-Conservative viewpoints. As a “townie” in Madison WI I argued constantly with the professional leftists who’ve overrun the University here, am to the right of most Republicans (I work for the RPW at their State headquarters in Madison.) The biggest problem is that we are small in number and we’re the fringe to Generation X (I married an X-er who was born in 1969).
I fell for it twice. My brain said FEEL.
Yeah, Boomers. The Generation that DESTROYED Western Civilization.
Thanks! When the Apocalypse happens, shoot anyone over 50 on sight.
Yes it is. And just as serious. So why didn't YOU take it that way? Go chill.
AMEN TO THAT!!
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2574116/posts
As one Freeper frequently says, “Not this s**t again!” Most of the boomers I know are conservatives and always have been. They went to school, got jobs, got married, had families, and are trying to survive as this administration is destroying the country. Boomers are the ones funding the retirement of the current crop of oldsters. The boomers will be the first generation to get less out of the gov’t’s ponzi schemes than they paid in.
I get really tired of people trying to lump everyone of a particular age group together under a bogus generational label. It is no different from saying all blacks are the same or all women are the same or any other group. There is as much variation among boomers as there is in the general population. These generational labels and divides are odious. Government is what pits groups against each other. If we had more freedom and less government, then maybe we could live together cooperatively and stop the accusations and name-calling.
Wow, just wow! You do realize that involves quite a lot of Freepers don’t you? People who share your values, except the killing of someone based on age (but I guess that means you have quite a bit in common with the Dems and their “death panels”). I raised two boys who understand the value of service to God and country...one who served and one currently serving. Just what have you done that makes you so damn special, other than whining about “mean” people? Oh, and the person you’re quoting in your tag line...he’s one of those boomers who “deserve every bullet”.
Cindie
No, no, no, no, and only if I made it happen.
There has been no 40 year housing boom for me, and as for the rest, I noticed the real climb in prices started in the Carter years, for everything from autos to oil to cigarettes and even beer. I remember nickel hershey bars and dime cokes in glass bottles, three-for-a-penny candy, $2000.00 new cars, and nice $20,000.00 houses.
Kindly tell me who were the idiots who paid more? Every new generation has been accompanied by a jump in the price of all of that, but that's because the money has become more worthless.
Me too. We really had and still have the advantages, being just in front of the baby boomers. Jobs were plentiful, college was unbelieveably cheap, concern for the future wasn't even serious until Sputnik in JrHigh. Science class got more serious then. I never even heard of marijuana until college. The Soviet Union was kind of a cool enemy, in a MadMagazine kind of way.
It's pretty weird that the birthday card this year is Medicaid eligibility. We sneak in on everything before it gets cut.
But, I don't blame us. I think it's more viewpoints that got more globally centered and less community and neighborhood centered that caused the lack of societal restraints. May I be outrageous and say maybe what messed everything up is when Moms just about all went to work, and nobody has the full time job of raising the kids and being part of community values and activities?
I was born in 1961 and fell the same as you about boomers and/or yuppies. Being the youngest of that generation I fell mistreated by them and they deserve every bullet.
Then you need to get a clue too. falling for the generational warfare trap is just what the elite ruling class wants.
FYI, my husband and I have paid in to all the social programs established by our parents generation—social security, medicare, medicaid, and we know there will not be one dime there us from what we paid in—Being mid t50s, let’s see, my husband and I (to a lesser extent) have been working since oh 1972—so we have paid a lot into this bankrupt system.
Now we take crap from the likes of you that we “deserve a bullet?” How do I deserve a bullet? Because my husband and I paid and paid? Oh I guess it must be because I don’t own a firearm as one on this thread has deemed that worthy of absolution from my sin pf being over 50.
You probably have not paid nearly what we all did. So start studying history, get a clue and stop stereotyping.
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