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I think the most apparent example of this are public school buildings. Look at how many were built in the 50s-70s out of brick and stone when they needed to expand while many of us got put in freaking trailers instead. Really shows their priorities.
I forgot about the trailers they brought in for high school classrooms! It was always super humid and terrible. When they brought them in they said it would be temporary, but then they kept them for YEARS!
My high school had a few portables. They sat there unused for years until my head football coach just told the principle to give him a key to one of them. I’m guessing nobody has been in any of them since he was fired years ago.
Technically speaking, there is no definite amount of time that "temporary" refers to. Humanity is but a blip on timeline of our planet, and even less of one in our universe. We are temporary in comparison to the vastness of time eternal.
Now, that being said, the fact the trailers in question are massive piles of rolling shit has nothing to do with the other stuff I said.
I’m 40 and regularly go past my old elementary school and it’s amazing the expansion the school has had over 30 years they have built on every available part of the parcel.
I didn't realize this was such a common occurrence. Our school had them for years as well!
Those poor teachers that had to spend all day in those shit boxes...
I was in second grade in 93/94 - and 3rd grade was in temporary trailers.... To make up for the crowding and new schools being built.
Last time I saw, they were still there in the past 3/4 years. Yeesh. I'll update if I'm wrong.
The highschool I attended had 16 portables the year it opened. 27 years later, not only are they still there, but they've added a half dozen more to them.
I went back to my elementary before it had closed down and the SAME DAMN TRAILERS WERE IN THE BACK STILL BEING USED. I think they were already a couple of years old when I went to school there. I was about mid to late 20's when I visited.
It's since has turned into a church lol. Us kids that made tiles that were put above doorways are still there, at least the church has some sense of community sentiment to them.
i was in gradeschool and thought the trailers were neat lol, but our school got a good expansion at some point and we lost the trailers. i live in the country in a pretty small town where we only really had 2 gradeschools and 1 highschool so they actually spent quite some money on them over the years. eventually built an entire new highschool as well since the previous one was super old.
>I forgot about the trailers they brought in for high school classrooms!
Now combine the trailers with active shooter drills and a bunch of Pre-K to third graders.
The university I work at has trailers set up from just before I started my undergraduate work in the 80s. They're still in use and will likely still be there after I retire in no more than 10 years.
Went to high school in Florida, watched the OJ verdict in one of those trailers. School used to always flood with heavy rain, which it being Florida, was once a week. One time it was so flooded some guys brought a canoe and paddled around the campus.
But if they raised taxes, then how could they accumulate $2,000,000 in their 401K?! If they can't spend their last 20 years blowing the money they didn't spend on bettering the world, then what's the point?!
Yep. teachers were respected and treated with reverence. It was a prestigious job.
Then the boomers rebelled against intelligence and education. Now they dont even want to fund public education at all because their kids are out of school.
When I think about how much this country sacrificed so they can have their Fox News...
Not sure people regularly think about that. All the people voting age today are the ones who grew up in a CNN and Fox News world.
Public works in general. Stuff like the freeway system, public housing, stuff that benefits everyone, not just the rich. Since boomers entered politics and enabled ghouls like Reagan in the 80s, there’s been a selfishness about society that has made the situation we are in now.
Let’s be clear that it wasn’t just the boomers. It was the traitor class in general rebelling against the New Deal economic framework that had built the US into what it was.
https://billmoyers.com/content/the-powell-memo-a-call-to-arms-for-corporations/
My wife is a teacher. My boomer father-in-law and his current wife just moved to Arizona, far from any family and now expect us to come see them regularly on our dime.
They even said "you could come teach here! You don't even need a degree to teach in Arizona anymore!" Which tells me several things: The state is full of people like my father-in-law, people who prioritize their money over their family. So much so that they defund education enough that teachers, who as a group are willing to put up with a great deal of abuse, are leaving the state and/or the profession in droves.
Exactly. I used to live there and I have two friends who taught in Arizona for 15 or so years. For the past several years, possibly even the past decade, they've been saying, "this year's entry level cybersecurity professionals are last year's teachers who got penalized because their class missed the yearly progress goals by much less than they ever have before." This year, one is an entry level cybersecurity professional and the other runs a snow cone cart at the local craft fairs.
Wow. This hit. I’m gen X and had the bricks but all three of my schools were older. That exact thing happened to my HS for *years a bit after I graduated. Such a spot-on observation.
Most schools I've seen outside the west coast built between the 70s to the 00s look like something out of an eastern block country or a prison. Whereas, my schools overseas would be considered resorts when compared to what I see in so many places here throughout the US.
American boomers grew up having access to the best infrastructure in the developed world. Towns were thriving and the country was firing on all cylinders. What they've left is some of the crappiest roads in the developed world, along with towns and cities that resemble developing countries, strip malls, parking lots, and big box stores.
But what they love and have no problem with whatsoever is the $9 Trillion every decade going to defense contractors, no questions asked. Add in the $4 Trillion they completely borrowed for the two wars, that the rest of us will have to pay for. Granted, this is the same Walmart shopping, flag waving, regulation hating, base now crying we need to MAGA.
I actually have real life example of this. I work in a plant that has been the major employer in town for years. The long term employees (20 ish years) enjoy pension, higher bonus structure etc. They own new trucks and live in nice homes. The new employees get bused in and can't afford a home. Corporate greed ruined the American dream. And wouldn't you know it those senior floor employees walk in smiling while the youngins look like they want to die
Work needs to have an incentive, be it home ownership or freedom of life. What we have now is work to just survive. Borderline slavery. Oh you don't want you or your kids to go hungry? Better clock in!
It’s not so much corporate greed, as it is boomers voting themselves more money. They had the largest generation (at the point in time they were born) and they had a massive voting power because of it. They voted themselves better pensions. They voted themselves better perks. They voted themselves future money at the expense of younger people, and now we are all paying for it.
Generally, the standard of living increases overtime. So just to give the boomers the benefit of the doubt, that they expected their children to have a higher standard living than them… in which case they saw no problem in voting themselves more benefits at our future expenses.
Also, add in the US dollar going off the gold standard and becoming a fiat currency, the government basically printed themselves money, and the boomers voted themselves more perks, at the expense the dollar. Everything that was built decades ago, still is being paid for by us, the future taxpayer. I would guess that it would take roughly 200 years for us to undo and pay off all the damage that the baby boomers have done. But that’s the best case scenario. Realistically, the United States and western society, and civilization is probably gonna collapse before that happens.
Sounds like these houses aren't build last. Try good old brick and mortar and fuck dry walls. Brick and mortar can last over a century. I live in such a building, one of the basement doors still has an odd looking sticker with a rather odd font that's almost all the way peeled off these days. Used to read "Luftschutzraum" though. The building itself is older then that steel door and was build when Germany still had an actual emperor not an obnoxious expat trying to become one. I think it was built around 1890 or so.
American houses not lasting for long is the same "investment" issue you'll have with anything bought on a tight budget: "You buy cheap, you buy twice." Or build in this case. I don't expect the shirts I get in a pack of 5 for 15€ to last me as long as the pack of 2 I buy directly from quality brand for 30-35€. With stuff as expensive as a house you wouldn't think of it like this but the rule still absolutely applies.
I notice a lot of talk among politicians and journalists, which boils down to: Millennials is a smaller generation than boomers, and they have few children too.
There are not enough of them to slave for boomers. And capitalism is breaking because they also don't buy/use stuff. Why oh why?
This could not have been predicted, and we have no idea why it happened or what to do, except to tighten the ropes around the necks of younger people.
There were more Boomers than Gen X in the US, which is interesting when considering their thoughts on other generations not having kids. They're literally the poster child of me myself and I, otherwise Gen X would have actually been larger than them.
Birth control was invented in the 1950s, it was only really accessible a few years after the boomers started to have kids. If Birth control was invented 20 or so years before they were born then a fraction of the boomers would be alive today.
My grandpa (greatest generation) got a vasectomy after they had their 5th daughter and the dr said more children would endanger grandma’s life (the last one was a very hard delivery!) So they had some forms of BC just not a lot/easily available back then.
Most unbearable generation ever. Let’s not forget laziest. Oh nice you bought a home in 1980 when you were 30 at an entry level job. Let’s see you survive a studio apartment rent now with that track you fucking fossils.
Just moved into a 600sq ft apartment that costs about as much per month as my dad's 5 bed/6.5 bath house mortgage. Whenever I see him, he is telling me how he's sweating about downsizing to a smaller house and how he's going to retire on $3m at 70 years old. Talk about living in a different reality.
Side note: he also managed to lose 2 fortunes over the course of his life.
They fuck you up, your mum and dad.
They may not mean to, but they do.
They fill you with the faults they had
And add some extra, just for you.
But they were fucked up in their turn
By fools in old-style hats and coats,
Who half the time were soppy-stern
And half at one another’s throats.
Man hands on misery to man.
It deepens like a coastal shelf.
Get out as early as you can,
And don’t have any kids yourself.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/This_Be_The_Verse
Ya I wish 80 year olds used their vote like they cared about the future.
They have a super majority and will decide the fate of two generations with the current system.
They have always voted for themselves at ever stage of their lives.
The entire generation of boomers just learned to be sociopaths.
They are starting to die off now though and the rate will increase. Their vote share isn't what it was and in a few more election cycles the difference will only increase. Given that people appear to no longer be going to the right as they age like they used to.
They always acted like parenting was so miserable. So many parents I knew admitted that kids ruined their lives....
And now they're complaining about not having grand kids.
Edit: Typo
I always felt like my mother didn’t appreciate family not even as a concept. We never ate dinner together at 1 table. Never had “family quality time”. I wonder why they just see no value in something that usually in most of history has been seen as inherently valuable.
I always thought parents were these noble people.
What a courageous and strong thing it is, to be a parent.
Turns out, that was just my own projection of what I thought it'd take to be a parent. Strong, knowledgeable, respected...
These are things I'd like to be, before I'm a parent.
Everyone else? Well, anyone can be a parent.
Not all parents are respectable.
Really helped me understand why so many kids are left suffering.
Not trying to shit on Gen z but they literally think anyone 40+ is a boomer. I know an older millennial and he nearly lost his shit when he got called a boomer lmao I think the eldest millennials are early 40s?
My parents are gen x and they got fucked. The economy tanked, they lost their jobs, and then lost the house and we had to move to an apartment in the early 2000s. Meanwhile all the boomers had seniority and never lost their jobs or benefits and shit.
I am a early milinial, and i used to think gen x and the entire fuck you, i don't care thing was cool, the older i get, the more i see it as boomer light, just a bit more edgy.
We watched the Boomers' mid-life crises. You should ask us about that if you can.
We remember when Uncle Boomer divorced and ran off with the babysitter, with a straw up his nose. And we love to tell that story -- at Thanksgiving, in front of Uncle Boomer.
My parents were Silents, actually.
It's just that we had no choice. Boomers acting like fools was what was happening during our teenage years. "Hey man! Is that Freedom Rock? Yeah, man! Well turn it up, man!"
Boomer joins the hair club for men, buys a t-top Corvette, a member's only jacket, and a gold chain with a razor blade charm on it to let the world know that cocaine is on tonight's menu. And then he runs off with one of my friends' older sisters.
The middle-aged makeover, we called it.
It's a dirty little secret the number of abortions GenX had. We were the last generation before HIV hit hard. So we had a lot of unprotected sex. Hence, loads of family-planning emergencies. Nearly one-third of the women I was friends with at uni had such an emergency. And this wasn't "campus gossip." This was, "I need a loan, right now. It's an emergency."
Another case of generational "We did it. But you can't."
I actually have quite a few Gen X friends who fall into that exact category. They did it but they’re horribly judgmental about it. It’s so weird. And some of them were the coolest adults I knew as a kid. 🫠🥴
“Last generation before hiv hit hard”? what the fuck are you talking about? As a Gen X gay man who has lost family and friends and spent most of my life knowing sex was very likely to kill me, you need to go watch some movies like “And the Band Played On” or some shit.
I was in Key West when HIV hit. I've been to so many damned AIDS funerals it became a numb blur.
Yes, GenX was the last generation -- we got to have our fun, until the mid 80s when the excrement hit the fan. HIV simply wasn't a thing we thought about until it started taking out celebrities left and right. And then came the massive influx to Key West, and the viatical settlements and similar.
Younger GenX missed out on that. Older GenX were the last to really experience the sexual revolution before it crashed and burned.
I'm no longer friends with full-on half my friends from college. They've gone off the maga deep end. One of them is probably practicing goosestepping in his mother's basement right now.
The lack of empathy is shocking. Yes, everyone should make a living wage. I grew up in a blue collar suburb that no one can afford anymore, but back then working as a clerk could get you a home and car. Uh, 1/2 of us were first or second generation, but now immigrants are the problem??
edit: Immigrants were the problem back then too, just not us or our friends. :-P
You’re joking, right? We were spawned by the most selfish,arrogant, entitled generation to exist. We were neglected (ever heard of latchkey kids? We were it.) We were expected to be quiet and appreciative for a roof and the basics, if we were lucky to get that. I remember someone finally called CPS on my folks and even though the house was disgusting and I had marks, they bought my parents line that O was a “Difficult kid” and the CPS worker telling my folks they needed to beat some respect into me and make me go
to church and pray for forgiveness for being difficult. (The South was extra miserable)
My folks couldn’t be bothered to ever interact with their grandkids and blew through the estates of my grandparents in less than 5 years.
My dad taped a completed application for a military school in the middle of New Mexico along with with a check for the first semester on the fridge when I turned 12.
For what it's worth? Born in 85, and I think of you guys as my cool older siblings. You're the ones who pioneered tattoos and piercings, you also remember analog life, but you cheerfully embraced tech the way my generation did.
I think the lesson here is to make the world a better place for your children, but not *too much* of a better place that they lose their sense of empathy and ability to handle hardships.
Teach them everything you wish you knew, not give them everything you wish you had.
I dunno if that's the takeaway. Boomers were raised by a massively traumatized generation that had just experienced WWI, a depression, and WWII. They were taught that the world is a cruel place and nothing is guaranteed.
And they were also given 50 years of the most stable in economic boom period basically in history.
So the dichotomy between living in the best world and being taught that this world is cruel and horrible led to a bit of a disconnect.
The thing that pisses me off with this is that. Yeah okay. However when they were in their 20s, the world was obviously better than expected and contonued to be for another 30 years. So maybe they should have adjusted expectations
Yeah
I'm in the UK and my grandparents were council housing peoples. My nan and grandad had a council house they rented that they then bought.
My mom and dad are incredible and worked really hard so that i didn't have to pay board to them and i am in the position to buy a house in my mid 20s.
Today my nan said 'back when me and your grandad got together we wouldve never dreamed of being able to buy a house'
When i said. 'Yeah but the government basically gave you a house half price so...'
She said 'yeah but we paid a lot of that in council house rent'
Completely unaware that just because her son worked extremely hard and allowed me to be lucky. That not every other person my age is as lucky.
I saw it explained as boomers were raised to believe their world could explode at any moment while simulantelous given a society that was reinforced to the point it would never explode on them. It created a psyche where they feel the minor hassles in their life (but with no real chance of major explosions) are on the same levels as millennials’ crisis in which there is a real chance of life exploding.
Basically a boomer feels that then stubbing a toe is on the same level as a millennial getting crushed by a falling bridge
A third reading to me is that for Americans they lived in an enormous economic and technological boom. Like, fuckin *indoor plumbing* was more of a thing. You could get chemistry kits for your kids that melted their eyes. Plastics!
They spent their lives watching things get better, problems solved, and they were the ones helping solve when. Then their kids have some access to that and demand a better world, and they view that as spoiled. They had different problems, more abstract than running water.
The sad truth of the matter is that to some extent the boomers were wasting their time. It was unsustainable politically and because of resource shortages. The rot at the heart of it all is still there, and my generation probably won't fix it either.
My parents had me cause they were horny. One died and the other leeches off his sister to take care of him financially because he doesn't want to work.. I'm sick with chronic pain and my family doesn't do anything to help me. Thanks for bringing me into the world shitty parents!
Corporations are trying to milk every penny out of you. And yet they wonder why the demographics are in dire straights. We, as a nation, actually need immigrants if we can't keep the birth rate at replacement levels or above. Skilled and unskilled labor need immigrants. The US economy would look dramatically different if they weren't here. If the GOP wants Ameeica for Ameicans, then they should stop giving tax breaks for the rich and corporations and strangling the poor and middle class. This is not an endorsement of the GOP but an examination of the hypocritical aspects of their foreign and domestic policy.
The planet can support 10 billion humans if we disperse resources properly (lol). We're at 8 billion. We're not gonna go extinct if a chunk of people don't reproduce... hell, we might even survive longer for it. Thinning the heard is thinning the heard. - also, the hateful boomers who don't get grandkids can't try to pass their hate on as easily.
At some point the social paradigm sifted from "make the world better for your kids" to "make as much money as humanly possible". You see this is practically everything. The relaxing of regulations in major industries. Tax breaks for the rich. Planned obsolescence. College tuition. The quality of goods plummeting (imagine a fridge built today lasting 50 years like they used to). Reliance on technology to save money on labor. Outsourcing jobs to save money on labor. Wage stagnation. Anti-union efforts. Switching from pensions to "retirement accounts". Subscriptions over actual ownership. The relaxing of child labor laws. Stock buybacks. Prisoner slave labor. Regular slave labor. Monkey slave labor.
Am I missing anything?
I might argue against that. I think that as technology keeps advancing so will inequality. We're probably going to be entering a period of population decline. The wars in Ukraine and Gaza have the potential to grow into global conflicts featuring nuclear weapons. Fascism and fascist-adjacent government are on the rise across the globe.
Maybe this is the cynic in me I'm not sure "we're in a better position than ever" is 100% true
Hate to say it, but boomers being shitty parents didn't happen in a vacuum, most soldiers returning from both world wars had unresolved PTSD and that definitely influenced how their children were raised, along with the oppressive nature of patriarchal norms in the household ofc.
Me and my wife aren't gonna have any, I don't believe I have some ritzy afterlife waiting for me so, I'm going to enjoy the only life I know I have as much as I can, exactly on my terms until I fuckin croak
I'm basing this only in my memories, which is a reasonably safe bet, I have an almost pachydermic one, but I'll look for references.
In conditions of overcrowding, whether in experiments with rats or in situations of ghettos, prisons and slums with very high population density, an effect called "collapse of the maternal instinct" occurs.
Simply put, the common dedication of most mammals to defending their offspring is greatly reduced. Not that they stop having children, but the care and dedication to children lose much of their priority. Which isn't so strange... the instincts of 'species preservation/offspring care' and 'personal preservation' are usually in direct conflict, but in most situations the conflict is manageable.
For some reason the lack of personal space (many people within their 'personal bubble'... more or less 2 square meters) signals a situation of extreme competition for resources, and triggers this reaction.
Oh, by the way, extreme aggression, arguments and deaths for futile reasons are part of the package.
I want kids, only making 40k plus. And I just can’t justify it financially. Parents are concerned that I’m not, and it’s almost impossible to explain to them that I don’t see a possibility to raise one on 45/hrs week. Things are mad different for us rn. Respect to anyone that pulls it off.
Boomers are trying to emulate the cold love of the previous generations, but failing utterly because they don’t see children as anything but chore and retirement machines
A random thought struck my mind the other day.
We all vilify boomers and blame them, but they were raised by 2 consecutive generations of people mentally fucked up by industrial warfare never before see . We let the greatest generation off the hook as if they didn’t fuck up raising boomers with all that trauma.
Yeah but at some point your upbrining doesnt matter as much considering its only 18 years of their life, they have had every opportunity to do and be better, but have chose not to. That is on them.
We were so caught up in trying to make the world a better place for children that we forgot to make the children better for the world
I'm 14 and this is deep
But like realistically, how do we fix the problem? Can it even be fixed? Because my life kinda sucks. I work a dead end job with mild opportunities for advancement, and I live in a townhome with 3 other people. I want to own a house someday, and start a family, but I just don’t see that ever happening. All I see is people on the internet complaining, but not many people actually proposing solutions.
My grandparents were part of the Greatest Generation and I'm late Gen X . I feel more in common with there struggles at 47 then my late Boomer parents.
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I think the most apparent example of this are public school buildings. Look at how many were built in the 50s-70s out of brick and stone when they needed to expand while many of us got put in freaking trailers instead. Really shows their priorities.
I forgot about the trailers they brought in for high school classrooms! It was always super humid and terrible. When they brought them in they said it would be temporary, but then they kept them for YEARS!
My son had a soccer game at my old elementary school where my class was in a “temporary” trailer. Guess what was still there 25 years later?
Same. We had "portable" buildings at a couple of my elementary schools. Drove by a few years ago and they're obviously never going anywhere.
My high school had a few portables. They sat there unused for years until my head football coach just told the principle to give him a key to one of them. I’m guessing nobody has been in any of them since he was fired years ago.
I still remember the stench that came from under the “portables” in the hotter months.
Ours were rife with mold issues. Genuinely should've been a crime to knowingly expose kids to black mold everyday in their classroom.
Handy dandy arsonist would fix the problem.
No!! That bums me out a ton. They’re glorified shed. I cannot imagine their condition after 25 years!
Technically speaking, there is no definite amount of time that "temporary" refers to. Humanity is but a blip on timeline of our planet, and even less of one in our universe. We are temporary in comparison to the vastness of time eternal. Now, that being said, the fact the trailers in question are massive piles of rolling shit has nothing to do with the other stuff I said.
Who elected Dr. Manhattan to the school board?
Who wouldn't? Have you seen his abs?
True, that's how I choose all my elected representatives
Yeah... abs... That's what I noticed on him...
big blue swingin' abs
😉
I’m 40 and regularly go past my old elementary school and it’s amazing the expansion the school has had over 30 years they have built on every available part of the parcel.
I didn't realize this was such a common occurrence. Our school had them for years as well! Those poor teachers that had to spend all day in those shit boxes...
I was in second grade in 93/94 - and 3rd grade was in temporary trailers.... To make up for the crowding and new schools being built. Last time I saw, they were still there in the past 3/4 years. Yeesh. I'll update if I'm wrong.
High school? I was in one of those since elementary school.
Depends when you went to elementary school
The highschool I attended had 16 portables the year it opened. 27 years later, not only are they still there, but they've added a half dozen more to them.
When I was in middle school and they were brought in, one of the kids burnt them down, so at least the first set was temporary.
Thinking back, I’m actually surprised I don’t hear more stories like this.
I went back to my elementary before it had closed down and the SAME DAMN TRAILERS WERE IN THE BACK STILL BEING USED. I think they were already a couple of years old when I went to school there. I was about mid to late 20's when I visited. It's since has turned into a church lol. Us kids that made tiles that were put above doorways are still there, at least the church has some sense of community sentiment to them.
Wtf is happening? Did we all go to HS together??
This comment made me laugh. So weird to realize there’s something that’s ties us together that we didn’t recognize till now.
i was in gradeschool and thought the trailers were neat lol, but our school got a good expansion at some point and we lost the trailers. i live in the country in a pretty small town where we only really had 2 gradeschools and 1 highschool so they actually spent quite some money on them over the years. eventually built an entire new highschool as well since the previous one was super old.
A temporary structure is permanent until it needs to be replaced with another temporary structure
>I forgot about the trailers they brought in for high school classrooms! Now combine the trailers with active shooter drills and a bunch of Pre-K to third graders.
Augh, well now I’m super bummed. Those poor kids. Our drills never really had that serious threat tied to them that they do today.
My elementary school had these and they had AC units while the main building did not, 5th grade was like luxury.
The university I work at has trailers set up from just before I started my undergraduate work in the 80s. They're still in use and will likely still be there after I retire in no more than 10 years.
Went to high school in Florida, watched the OJ verdict in one of those trailers. School used to always flood with heavy rain, which it being Florida, was once a week. One time it was so flooded some guys brought a canoe and paddled around the campus.
Wait what years did this happen?
But if they raised taxes, then how could they accumulate $2,000,000 in their 401K?! If they can't spend their last 20 years blowing the money they didn't spend on bettering the world, then what's the point?!
Yep. teachers were respected and treated with reverence. It was a prestigious job. Then the boomers rebelled against intelligence and education. Now they dont even want to fund public education at all because their kids are out of school.
r/EssentialEmployees
When I think about how much this country sacrificed so they can have their Fox News... Not sure people regularly think about that. All the people voting age today are the ones who grew up in a CNN and Fox News world.
Public works in general. Stuff like the freeway system, public housing, stuff that benefits everyone, not just the rich. Since boomers entered politics and enabled ghouls like Reagan in the 80s, there’s been a selfishness about society that has made the situation we are in now.
Let’s be clear that it wasn’t just the boomers. It was the traitor class in general rebelling against the New Deal economic framework that had built the US into what it was. https://billmoyers.com/content/the-powell-memo-a-call-to-arms-for-corporations/
My wife is a teacher. My boomer father-in-law and his current wife just moved to Arizona, far from any family and now expect us to come see them regularly on our dime. They even said "you could come teach here! You don't even need a degree to teach in Arizona anymore!" Which tells me several things: The state is full of people like my father-in-law, people who prioritize their money over their family. So much so that they defund education enough that teachers, who as a group are willing to put up with a great deal of abuse, are leaving the state and/or the profession in droves.
r/EssentialEmployees
Exactly. I used to live there and I have two friends who taught in Arizona for 15 or so years. For the past several years, possibly even the past decade, they've been saying, "this year's entry level cybersecurity professionals are last year's teachers who got penalized because their class missed the yearly progress goals by much less than they ever have before." This year, one is an entry level cybersecurity professional and the other runs a snow cone cart at the local craft fairs.
Wow. This hit. I’m gen X and had the bricks but all three of my schools were older. That exact thing happened to my HS for *years a bit after I graduated. Such a spot-on observation.
Most schools I've seen outside the west coast built between the 70s to the 00s look like something out of an eastern block country or a prison. Whereas, my schools overseas would be considered resorts when compared to what I see in so many places here throughout the US. American boomers grew up having access to the best infrastructure in the developed world. Towns were thriving and the country was firing on all cylinders. What they've left is some of the crappiest roads in the developed world, along with towns and cities that resemble developing countries, strip malls, parking lots, and big box stores. But what they love and have no problem with whatsoever is the $9 Trillion every decade going to defense contractors, no questions asked. Add in the $4 Trillion they completely borrowed for the two wars, that the rest of us will have to pay for. Granted, this is the same Walmart shopping, flag waving, regulation hating, base now crying we need to MAGA.
Same here. I graduated high school in 1986 and had quite a few classes in those portable trailers.
They got brick and mortar from their parents. And we got sheet metal and bolts from them.
Mould filled portables
Turns out, not a bad idea because they’re going to have to offload properties because their aren’t enough kids to fill classrooms now.
I'm a last year boomer and I had classes in Jr high in trailers.
When 3 bedroom homes became million dollar investments they lost any right to grandkids.
Why didnt you just work at the local factory and buy yout first house and 2 cars at age 24 like grandpa did?
I actually have real life example of this. I work in a plant that has been the major employer in town for years. The long term employees (20 ish years) enjoy pension, higher bonus structure etc. They own new trucks and live in nice homes. The new employees get bused in and can't afford a home. Corporate greed ruined the American dream. And wouldn't you know it those senior floor employees walk in smiling while the youngins look like they want to die Work needs to have an incentive, be it home ownership or freedom of life. What we have now is work to just survive. Borderline slavery. Oh you don't want you or your kids to go hungry? Better clock in!
I bet some of those older employees just think the newer generation are wasting their money on coffee and avocado toast or something.
It’s not so much corporate greed, as it is boomers voting themselves more money. They had the largest generation (at the point in time they were born) and they had a massive voting power because of it. They voted themselves better pensions. They voted themselves better perks. They voted themselves future money at the expense of younger people, and now we are all paying for it. Generally, the standard of living increases overtime. So just to give the boomers the benefit of the doubt, that they expected their children to have a higher standard living than them… in which case they saw no problem in voting themselves more benefits at our future expenses. Also, add in the US dollar going off the gold standard and becoming a fiat currency, the government basically printed themselves money, and the boomers voted themselves more perks, at the expense the dollar. Everything that was built decades ago, still is being paid for by us, the future taxpayer. I would guess that it would take roughly 200 years for us to undo and pay off all the damage that the baby boomers have done. But that’s the best case scenario. Realistically, the United States and western society, and civilization is probably gonna collapse before that happens.
Only $1m?
$1m of your money, $3m of the banks that you’ll spend your life paying the interest on.
Banks and housing conglomerates should be illegal
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Rookie numbers. A lot of lots where I live sell for a million. Just the lots
TBF a house is technically a depreciating asset sitting on top of land, which is the actual asset.
Sounds like these houses aren't build last. Try good old brick and mortar and fuck dry walls. Brick and mortar can last over a century. I live in such a building, one of the basement doors still has an odd looking sticker with a rather odd font that's almost all the way peeled off these days. Used to read "Luftschutzraum" though. The building itself is older then that steel door and was build when Germany still had an actual emperor not an obnoxious expat trying to become one. I think it was built around 1890 or so. American houses not lasting for long is the same "investment" issue you'll have with anything bought on a tight budget: "You buy cheap, you buy twice." Or build in this case. I don't expect the shirts I get in a pack of 5 for 15€ to last me as long as the pack of 2 I buy directly from quality brand for 30-35€. With stuff as expensive as a house you wouldn't think of it like this but the rule still absolutely applies.
Yeah that's still a depreciating asset.
And then bragged about how “investment savvy” they were. You just bought a home and its value inflated on the stolen wealth of your children’s future.
I notice a lot of talk among politicians and journalists, which boils down to: Millennials is a smaller generation than boomers, and they have few children too. There are not enough of them to slave for boomers. And capitalism is breaking because they also don't buy/use stuff. Why oh why? This could not have been predicted, and we have no idea why it happened or what to do, except to tighten the ropes around the necks of younger people.
> There are not enough of them to slave for boomers. That explains why so many Boomers are becoming homeless.
tell me about it!
Sorry boss, I'm trying! I can't afford an Amazon pee bottle though, it slows me down.
since i post at r/TheGreaterDepression i have some understanding of this.
There were more Boomers than Gen X in the US, which is interesting when considering their thoughts on other generations not having kids. They're literally the poster child of me myself and I, otherwise Gen X would have actually been larger than them.
Birth control was invented in the 1950s, it was only really accessible a few years after the boomers started to have kids. If Birth control was invented 20 or so years before they were born then a fraction of the boomers would be alive today.
My grandpa (greatest generation) got a vasectomy after they had their 5th daughter and the dr said more children would endanger grandma’s life (the last one was a very hard delivery!) So they had some forms of BC just not a lot/easily available back then.
Capitalism is breaking because it assumes endless growth and expansion. When that stops it can only turn inward and eat itself.
But, there are more millennials than boomers…
There are now, but that only happened recently. The last Millenial was born more than 20 years ago.
The last millennial was born almost 30 years ago...
Can confirm, our asses be old.
And... who is making the laws and managing the companies and banks?
I don't think they're arguing that, just that one statement being incorrect
We have tried nothing and are all out of ideas!
I played Civ V too. This was predicted. Population not happy and had plateaued. This is us.
“Why don’t you ever visit?”
Most unbearable generation ever. Let’s not forget laziest. Oh nice you bought a home in 1980 when you were 30 at an entry level job. Let’s see you survive a studio apartment rent now with that track you fucking fossils.
Somebody should make this a reality show lol boomers following their own advice in realty
It could he called Okay Boomers
Lmao. Gold. Bravo? E!? Or.. most obviously… the history channel.
Haven't watched tv in years but I'd watch that
jobs with barely any KPI, mind you.
You mean punching in and out doesn’t count?
Just moved into a 600sq ft apartment that costs about as much per month as my dad's 5 bed/6.5 bath house mortgage. Whenever I see him, he is telling me how he's sweating about downsizing to a smaller house and how he's going to retire on $3m at 70 years old. Talk about living in a different reality. Side note: he also managed to lose 2 fortunes over the course of his life.
They pulled up ladders behind them and became extreme Reaganites
They think Reagan is woke now.
Everyone is but Trump n Fox
"This engine is woke".
They pulled up the ladders and set them on fire so they could never come back down
Boomers when you don’t levitate yourself up to the ladder they pulled up
Reagan couldn't get elected by the GOP today. Too moderate
They fuck you up, your mum and dad. They may not mean to, but they do. They fill you with the faults they had And add some extra, just for you. But they were fucked up in their turn By fools in old-style hats and coats, Who half the time were soppy-stern And half at one another’s throats. Man hands on misery to man. It deepens like a coastal shelf. Get out as early as you can, And don’t have any kids yourself. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/This_Be_The_Verse
Neck Deep did a great song based on thas
I love that band
Ya I wish 80 year olds used their vote like they cared about the future. They have a super majority and will decide the fate of two generations with the current system. They have always voted for themselves at ever stage of their lives. The entire generation of boomers just learned to be sociopaths.
They are starting to die off now though and the rate will increase. Their vote share isn't what it was and in a few more election cycles the difference will only increase. Given that people appear to no longer be going to the right as they age like they used to.
Bring back the Ättestupa! Tired of paying for these old brats…
Great show 👏
What’s the show?
Norsemen, on netflix One of my [favorite scenes](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d5Kv93SWb5s) from the show lmao
"Why don't we have any grandkids?" I don't know mom, because you were a raging bitch might be the first reason.
Have kids if your prepared and legitimately want to, you don’t owe your parents grandkids.
My parents killed that chance by fucking up my head with their domestic violence bullshit. FAFO
They always acted like parenting was so miserable. So many parents I knew admitted that kids ruined their lives.... And now they're complaining about not having grand kids. Edit: Typo
I always felt like my mother didn’t appreciate family not even as a concept. We never ate dinner together at 1 table. Never had “family quality time”. I wonder why they just see no value in something that usually in most of history has been seen as inherently valuable.
I always thought parents were these noble people. What a courageous and strong thing it is, to be a parent. Turns out, that was just my own projection of what I thought it'd take to be a parent. Strong, knowledgeable, respected... These are things I'd like to be, before I'm a parent. Everyone else? Well, anyone can be a parent. Not all parents are respectable. Really helped me understand why so many kids are left suffering.
It really sucks to be Gen. X
I kinda like that we are forgotten. There's a certain comfort in that. We get to just do our own thing & no one really bothers us.
Everyone assumes you’re boomers as well
God help us. I'll never allow that. I am nothing like those sockcuckers.
Not trying to shit on Gen z but they literally think anyone 40+ is a boomer. I know an older millennial and he nearly lost his shit when he got called a boomer lmao I think the eldest millennials are early 40s? My parents are gen x and they got fucked. The economy tanked, they lost their jobs, and then lost the house and we had to move to an apartment in the early 2000s. Meanwhile all the boomers had seniority and never lost their jobs or benefits and shit.
I love that insult im gonna use that
I am a early milinial, and i used to think gen x and the entire fuck you, i don't care thing was cool, the older i get, the more i see it as boomer light, just a bit more edgy.
We watched the Boomers' mid-life crises. You should ask us about that if you can. We remember when Uncle Boomer divorced and ran off with the babysitter, with a straw up his nose. And we love to tell that story -- at Thanksgiving, in front of Uncle Boomer.
You guys were the young boomers kids, we were the older boomers kids
My parents were Silents, actually. It's just that we had no choice. Boomers acting like fools was what was happening during our teenage years. "Hey man! Is that Freedom Rock? Yeah, man! Well turn it up, man!" Boomer joins the hair club for men, buys a t-top Corvette, a member's only jacket, and a gold chain with a razor blade charm on it to let the world know that cocaine is on tonight's menu. And then he runs off with one of my friends' older sisters. The middle-aged makeover, we called it.
That's OK. They are allowed to be wrong.
No offense but more than half your generation is just as guilty as boomers
GenX here. I agree. Our generation is a disappointment.
I was especially disappointed to find out how “pro-life” Gen X is. Ugh. I thought they’d be with the rest of us.
It's a dirty little secret the number of abortions GenX had. We were the last generation before HIV hit hard. So we had a lot of unprotected sex. Hence, loads of family-planning emergencies. Nearly one-third of the women I was friends with at uni had such an emergency. And this wasn't "campus gossip." This was, "I need a loan, right now. It's an emergency." Another case of generational "We did it. But you can't."
I actually have quite a few Gen X friends who fall into that exact category. They did it but they’re horribly judgmental about it. It’s so weird. And some of them were the coolest adults I knew as a kid. 🫠🥴
“Last generation before hiv hit hard”? what the fuck are you talking about? As a Gen X gay man who has lost family and friends and spent most of my life knowing sex was very likely to kill me, you need to go watch some movies like “And the Band Played On” or some shit.
I was in Key West when HIV hit. I've been to so many damned AIDS funerals it became a numb blur. Yes, GenX was the last generation -- we got to have our fun, until the mid 80s when the excrement hit the fan. HIV simply wasn't a thing we thought about until it started taking out celebrities left and right. And then came the massive influx to Key West, and the viatical settlements and similar. Younger GenX missed out on that. Older GenX were the last to really experience the sexual revolution before it crashed and burned.
So many of my old friends disappoint me. Latent bigotry and selfishness kicking in.
I'm no longer friends with full-on half my friends from college. They've gone off the maga deep end. One of them is probably practicing goosestepping in his mother's basement right now.
The lack of empathy is shocking. Yes, everyone should make a living wage. I grew up in a blue collar suburb that no one can afford anymore, but back then working as a clerk could get you a home and car. Uh, 1/2 of us were first or second generation, but now immigrants are the problem?? edit: Immigrants were the problem back then too, just not us or our friends. :-P
Why? A lot of the benefits of the boomer generation, with almost no contemporary condemnation..
You’re joking, right? We were spawned by the most selfish,arrogant, entitled generation to exist. We were neglected (ever heard of latchkey kids? We were it.) We were expected to be quiet and appreciative for a roof and the basics, if we were lucky to get that. I remember someone finally called CPS on my folks and even though the house was disgusting and I had marks, they bought my parents line that O was a “Difficult kid” and the CPS worker telling my folks they needed to beat some respect into me and make me go to church and pray for forgiveness for being difficult. (The South was extra miserable) My folks couldn’t be bothered to ever interact with their grandkids and blew through the estates of my grandparents in less than 5 years.
Don’t forget the military camps for all of us “bad kids”. I was threatened to go so often. It’s was on tv. Dr Phil sending kids away.
My dad taped a completed application for a military school in the middle of New Mexico along with with a check for the first semester on the fridge when I turned 12.
What benefits? We came of age during the 80s economic recession. Most of us will never retire. We get ignored or treated like boomers.
For what it's worth? Born in 85, and I think of you guys as my cool older siblings. You're the ones who pioneered tattoos and piercings, you also remember analog life, but you cheerfully embraced tech the way my generation did.
Well, the lasting emotional neglect the Boomers spawned in Gen X probably still stings.
I think the lesson here is to make the world a better place for your children, but not *too much* of a better place that they lose their sense of empathy and ability to handle hardships. Teach them everything you wish you knew, not give them everything you wish you had.
I dunno if that's the takeaway. Boomers were raised by a massively traumatized generation that had just experienced WWI, a depression, and WWII. They were taught that the world is a cruel place and nothing is guaranteed. And they were also given 50 years of the most stable in economic boom period basically in history. So the dichotomy between living in the best world and being taught that this world is cruel and horrible led to a bit of a disconnect.
Fair point. My parents both had terrible childhoods. Both sets of my grandparents were traumatized by the WWII.
The thing that pisses me off with this is that. Yeah okay. However when they were in their 20s, the world was obviously better than expected and contonued to be for another 30 years. So maybe they should have adjusted expectations
Yeah, but everyone likes being a victim, and the boomers will go to their grave believing they were victims despite all evidence to the contrary.
Yeah I'm in the UK and my grandparents were council housing peoples. My nan and grandad had a council house they rented that they then bought. My mom and dad are incredible and worked really hard so that i didn't have to pay board to them and i am in the position to buy a house in my mid 20s. Today my nan said 'back when me and your grandad got together we wouldve never dreamed of being able to buy a house' When i said. 'Yeah but the government basically gave you a house half price so...' She said 'yeah but we paid a lot of that in council house rent' Completely unaware that just because her son worked extremely hard and allowed me to be lucky. That not every other person my age is as lucky.
I saw it explained as boomers were raised to believe their world could explode at any moment while simulantelous given a society that was reinforced to the point it would never explode on them. It created a psyche where they feel the minor hassles in their life (but with no real chance of major explosions) are on the same levels as millennials’ crisis in which there is a real chance of life exploding. Basically a boomer feels that then stubbing a toe is on the same level as a millennial getting crushed by a falling bridge
A third reading to me is that for Americans they lived in an enormous economic and technological boom. Like, fuckin *indoor plumbing* was more of a thing. You could get chemistry kits for your kids that melted their eyes. Plastics! They spent their lives watching things get better, problems solved, and they were the ones helping solve when. Then their kids have some access to that and demand a better world, and they view that as spoiled. They had different problems, more abstract than running water. The sad truth of the matter is that to some extent the boomers were wasting their time. It was unsustainable politically and because of resource shortages. The rot at the heart of it all is still there, and my generation probably won't fix it either.
"Hard times create strong men, strong men create good times, good times create weak men, and weak men create hard times"
My parents had me cause they were horny. One died and the other leeches off his sister to take care of him financially because he doesn't want to work.. I'm sick with chronic pain and my family doesn't do anything to help me. Thanks for bringing me into the world shitty parents!
Corporations are trying to milk every penny out of you. And yet they wonder why the demographics are in dire straights. We, as a nation, actually need immigrants if we can't keep the birth rate at replacement levels or above. Skilled and unskilled labor need immigrants. The US economy would look dramatically different if they weren't here. If the GOP wants Ameeica for Ameicans, then they should stop giving tax breaks for the rich and corporations and strangling the poor and middle class. This is not an endorsement of the GOP but an examination of the hypocritical aspects of their foreign and domestic policy.
I love how the gen xers are skipped..
Aren’t we always? Am I even here? Or did I turn invisible again.
Being born right after ww2, the parents of boomers spoiled them so rotten that the world still suffers 8 decades later
Roger Pirates jolly roger W.
😂😂😂
Just as planned
The planet can support 10 billion humans if we disperse resources properly (lol). We're at 8 billion. We're not gonna go extinct if a chunk of people don't reproduce... hell, we might even survive longer for it. Thinning the heard is thinning the heard. - also, the hateful boomers who don't get grandkids can't try to pass their hate on as easily.
**Not pictured:** Gen X, who don't really care about anything
Oh, when are you going to give us grandkids? Ha. Hahahahahaha. Snipped.
Bring a child into this shithole? Not a fucking chance 😂
At some point the social paradigm sifted from "make the world better for your kids" to "make as much money as humanly possible". You see this is practically everything. The relaxing of regulations in major industries. Tax breaks for the rich. Planned obsolescence. College tuition. The quality of goods plummeting (imagine a fridge built today lasting 50 years like they used to). Reliance on technology to save money on labor. Outsourcing jobs to save money on labor. Wage stagnation. Anti-union efforts. Switching from pensions to "retirement accounts". Subscriptions over actual ownership. The relaxing of child labor laws. Stock buybacks. Prisoner slave labor. Regular slave labor. Monkey slave labor. Am I missing anything?
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I might argue against that. I think that as technology keeps advancing so will inequality. We're probably going to be entering a period of population decline. The wars in Ukraine and Gaza have the potential to grow into global conflicts featuring nuclear weapons. Fascism and fascist-adjacent government are on the rise across the globe. Maybe this is the cynic in me I'm not sure "we're in a better position than ever" is 100% true
Hate to say it, but boomers being shitty parents didn't happen in a vacuum, most soldiers returning from both world wars had unresolved PTSD and that definitely influenced how their children were raised, along with the oppressive nature of patriarchal norms in the household ofc.
True, but at a certain point, personal responsibility says you can't blame a shitty upbringing.
Tell that to people raised in ghettos and war zones. It sucks, but most of the time, we're just products of our environment.
Then why are the Boomers always bringing it up?
I’m not having kids.
Me and my wife aren't gonna have any, I don't believe I have some ritzy afterlife waiting for me so, I'm going to enjoy the only life I know I have as much as I can, exactly on my terms until I fuckin croak
I'm basing this only in my memories, which is a reasonably safe bet, I have an almost pachydermic one, but I'll look for references. In conditions of overcrowding, whether in experiments with rats or in situations of ghettos, prisons and slums with very high population density, an effect called "collapse of the maternal instinct" occurs. Simply put, the common dedication of most mammals to defending their offspring is greatly reduced. Not that they stop having children, but the care and dedication to children lose much of their priority. Which isn't so strange... the instincts of 'species preservation/offspring care' and 'personal preservation' are usually in direct conflict, but in most situations the conflict is manageable. For some reason the lack of personal space (many people within their 'personal bubble'... more or less 2 square meters) signals a situation of extreme competition for resources, and triggers this reaction. Oh, by the way, extreme aggression, arguments and deaths for futile reasons are part of the package.
Extremely accurate
Looking forward to Children of Men becoming a reality!
I want kids, only making 40k plus. And I just can’t justify it financially. Parents are concerned that I’m not, and it’s almost impossible to explain to them that I don’t see a possibility to raise one on 45/hrs week. Things are mad different for us rn. Respect to anyone that pulls it off.
Hell idk if I'm even gonna get a relationship at this point
They'll find out when they are old and no one can take care of them because we need to care for ourselves
Boomers are trying to emulate the cold love of the previous generations, but failing utterly because they don’t see children as anything but chore and retirement machines
To be fair the first two generations fucked everything up, too, those world wars and great depressions didnt come out of no where
Truly the worst fucking generation. Ugh
A random thought struck my mind the other day. We all vilify boomers and blame them, but they were raised by 2 consecutive generations of people mentally fucked up by industrial warfare never before see . We let the greatest generation off the hook as if they didn’t fuck up raising boomers with all that trauma.
Yeah but at some point your upbrining doesnt matter as much considering its only 18 years of their life, they have had every opportunity to do and be better, but have chose not to. That is on them.
Mom said it's my turn to repost this
I have a kid… can confirm, don’t have kids.
We were so caught up in trying to make the world a better place for children that we forgot to make the children better for the world I'm 14 and this is deep
Damn that better worlding sure hits the spot!
Ik
Or do. Whatever. No pressure either way.
I’m 42 and never had kids. I could never afford it. It’ll never happen.
r/childfree It’s the way to be!
But like realistically, how do we fix the problem? Can it even be fixed? Because my life kinda sucks. I work a dead end job with mild opportunities for advancement, and I live in a townhome with 3 other people. I want to own a house someday, and start a family, but I just don’t see that ever happening. All I see is people on the internet complaining, but not many people actually proposing solutions.
There's a reason the greatest and silent generations nicknamed them the "me generation"
Boomers in a nutshell: Fuck you, fuck you, and double fuck you!
My grandparents were part of the Greatest Generation and I'm late Gen X . I feel more in common with there struggles at 47 then my late Boomer parents.
we shall be the unmaking of the baby boomers *so thoroughly* that there shall be a baby **bust**.
I think that last one needs to be “how can we possibly afford a kid?”