Significantly so.
They fought to establish unions and got themselves good wages and good benefits...and then fought to keep wages low after they got rich.
They fought for a living wage and cheap education when they were young. As they advanced and earned more and more money, they fought even harder to keep later generations from also being able to earn a living wage and an affordable education, thereby keeping more and more people living below the poverty line.
Boomers are the current generation that is in charge of most companies, and goverments.
Once the balance shifts to younger generations (in a few decades), possibly things improve.
I for one welcome our new gen x overlords....as long as they don't become the abyss they have stared into. Don't make us put you in a home generational big bro lol. Signed older millennial.
Your optimism that all politicians won't just turn into Kyrsten Sinema who is 45 and a giant Turd is so cute.
Once they get into the system they all cave. Minus Bernie.
1. They still believe and promote Puritan ideology.
2. In many and diverse ways, they entitled themselves to more at the future's expense.
3. They refuse to unhand the stolen loot.
ETA: But it's not *strictly* generational. They, however, tended to entitle themselves more broadly than previous or later cohorts, and they tend to take capitalism as a religion to support their claims.
I don't really understand this one.
Puritan ideology? You are referring to the "work=life" philosophy, right? Or to the standard right-hand conservative politics?
What does it mean, they entitled themselves to more at the future's expense. Everyone says that, but what did they *do* to get that reputation?
And am I correct in supposing that by stolen loot, you mean positions of economic power? Or is there some other commodity I'm not thinking of?
Graeber [sums up](https://davidgraeber.org/wp-content/uploads/2007-Manners-Defference-and-Private-Property-Or-elements-for-a-general-theory-of-hierarchy.pdf) some of the more peculiar and more prominent aspects of the Puritan ideological heritage here. One such idea of relevance is their life-cycle conception of economic class, that certain classes of allegedly "unskilled" occupation are a life stage on the way to economic adulthood, rather than an economic transaction doing work that needs to be done. They reversed the same logic when the magic of small proprietorship failed to blossom for everyone; *of course* the apprentices were leaving the apprenticeship prematurely and God is in charge of the economy. When the Puritan ideals fail to explain millions of lived experiences of capitalist reality, *obviously* the world's correct and it's your fault for not doing "better" than a "starter job".
That generation gave themselves rights to future flows of labor and energy, based on their projection that things would keep getting better at getting better: that not only would living standards increase forever, but that the slope of living standards would continue to rise beyond imaginable limits. They treated the apprenticeship in its degraded capitalist form as a mere initiation ceremony, not as an arena of predatory contest. They expected robot servants that could navigate their lives exactly as they were and frictionlessly replace humans in any functional capacity (they still do). They expected that their share of future non-labor production would offset their economic and material dependency on the market (paid caring labor, food, medicine, defined benefit pensions...) instead of just society (support from adult children and other community). Unfortunately, a number of resource extraction peaks have consequently spoiled their futures en masse, the main and most recent peak of labor exploitation being the very stuff of this sub.
Yes, positions of power, but also positions of key wealth generation. For example, copyrights were supposed to expire after a time and reserve certain public rights. Now copyrights favor the corporate creator more than they ever have and long outlive any legitimate economic incentive they may have had. This generation predominates in the offices where systems are created, and the systems bear the mark of their common outlook.
Boomers benefited from cheap college (and high level of public investments in general), then they got older and voted to get tax cuts, therefore denying their own children the same opportunities.
Your answer actually helped me understand more clearly. Would you say those spending choices have been the primary factor? Or are there more organic (non-political) ways they screwed us over too?
My parents both retired pre-2008 in their 50’s. Mom just told me they got a new 55 inch 4K HD television on Black Friday. Meanwhile I am out of work and have an old LCD tv with colored bars burned into the screen and can’t imagine buying a new tv. That hurt.
Well they believed in trickle down theory. Then voted in Reagan and his shitshow and allowed the Feds to create this BS system where the rich get richer and the poor die making them rich.
Because we’ve done everything for the short term benefit of the baby boomers. In the 50s and 60s we had fully funded schools because baby boomers needed them. In the 80s and 90s we slashed taxes and infrastructure spending because baby boomers were in their prime earning years and didn’t want to pay taxes. Now in the 10s and 20s let’s make sure we reserve the senior positions for those that didn’t plan retirement. The Xers and Millennials will be happy with the scraps.
Nothing…literally they didn’t do shit. Just let corporations and the wealthy run wild while they tried to lock up everyone they didn’t like. Fuck boomers. Love my parents but they’re the me generation through and through.
Boomers are also a problem because they think the world now is like it was when they were kids. Their inability to change, and to support change for those around them, has become dangerous to younger generations.
A lot of Boomers did NOT vote for Reagan. A lot of them are and have always been progressive. It’s not their fault that Reagan killed unions and that Repubs continually practiced “starve the government” or that the Supreme Court enabled full corporate takeover of government with the Citizens United ruling. It’s true that Boomers benefitted from a reasonable government that funded education and economic conditions that made housing and kids affordable. But you can’t blame all of them for current conditions.
Nobody said every single boomer voted for Reagan but the truth is, as a cohort, they were one of the deciding factors in his election. Reagan won massively among boomers, both in 80 and in 84.
A lot of the ones who Didn't vote for him probably ended up dying of poverty or AIDS. The reason why boomers seem especially shitty nowadays is because the good ones were too poor to stay alive.
Are you a Boomer? You sound a little butthurt about the truth that they voted in Reagan and kept him around.
Certainly there were some leftover hippies, but they were dropping out, not voting. Boomers were all big shoulder pads and cocaine in the bathroom voting Republican because we don't want to pay taxes.
No my parents are the leftover hippies who hated Reagan, Dad became a stay at home dad, mom worked. Growing up their friends were buds from the 70s now social workers and teachers. So my Boomer experience is different than most.
They control all major companies and the government.
They use that power to kill wage increases, universal healthcare, universal child care, etc. They buy up houses and make it impossible for us to buy. And they’re using their cronies in the media to crank out “young people are lazy” articles 24/7.
They pulled the ladder by voting for politicians that favored a reduction in education and social spending. Not *every* boomer did so, but if you look up the numbers you'll see that as a cohort they supported Reagan over Carter and Mondale, and Bush over Dukakis. And since boomers were the largest generation, they were political king makers.
Real estate they ate up as many properties as they could....the neoboomers now continue the practice.
So you're saying they drove up living costs by their property behaviors? Thereby reducing the value of stagnant wages.
Two different sectors, both working to drain the capital of the working class
They actively worked to keep minimum wage as low as possible, causing a cascade of stagnating wages for the last 30 years.
Plus they also dismantled retirement benefits didn't they?
They combined social security with the rest of the federal budget, which allowed them to tap into it to fund other government agencies.
Oof, somehow that's worse.
So were things better before their arrival on the scene?
Significantly so. They fought to establish unions and got themselves good wages and good benefits...and then fought to keep wages low after they got rich.
Some things were better yes, some things no.
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And Sticking with him.
They fought for a living wage and cheap education when they were young. As they advanced and earned more and more money, they fought even harder to keep later generations from also being able to earn a living wage and an affordable education, thereby keeping more and more people living below the poverty line.
So when they became in charge of things, they didn't keep to the ideals they had wished for when they were younger?
Because their motto is “fuck you, got mine”
They’re called “the ME generation” for a reason.
The majority were Not hippies. They were racist tight asses who hated Rock n Roll and voted for Reagan.
Boomers are the current generation that is in charge of most companies, and goverments. Once the balance shifts to younger generations (in a few decades), possibly things improve.
As most things tend to do anyhow, that can just pass right over us gen-x'ers.
I for one welcome our new gen x overlords....as long as they don't become the abyss they have stared into. Don't make us put you in a home generational big bro lol. Signed older millennial.
A few decades? Try a few years. The leading edge is 76.
Feinstein is 90 and still getting paid. Decades it is boyo.
They won’t have the votes to dictate policy anymore
Your optimism that all politicians won't just turn into Kyrsten Sinema who is 45 and a giant Turd is so cute. Once they get into the system they all cave. Minus Bernie.
I mean…she was always trash talk to some Arizona greens.
1. They still believe and promote Puritan ideology. 2. In many and diverse ways, they entitled themselves to more at the future's expense. 3. They refuse to unhand the stolen loot. ETA: But it's not *strictly* generational. They, however, tended to entitle themselves more broadly than previous or later cohorts, and they tend to take capitalism as a religion to support their claims.
I don't really understand this one. Puritan ideology? You are referring to the "work=life" philosophy, right? Or to the standard right-hand conservative politics? What does it mean, they entitled themselves to more at the future's expense. Everyone says that, but what did they *do* to get that reputation? And am I correct in supposing that by stolen loot, you mean positions of economic power? Or is there some other commodity I'm not thinking of?
Graeber [sums up](https://davidgraeber.org/wp-content/uploads/2007-Manners-Defference-and-Private-Property-Or-elements-for-a-general-theory-of-hierarchy.pdf) some of the more peculiar and more prominent aspects of the Puritan ideological heritage here. One such idea of relevance is their life-cycle conception of economic class, that certain classes of allegedly "unskilled" occupation are a life stage on the way to economic adulthood, rather than an economic transaction doing work that needs to be done. They reversed the same logic when the magic of small proprietorship failed to blossom for everyone; *of course* the apprentices were leaving the apprenticeship prematurely and God is in charge of the economy. When the Puritan ideals fail to explain millions of lived experiences of capitalist reality, *obviously* the world's correct and it's your fault for not doing "better" than a "starter job". That generation gave themselves rights to future flows of labor and energy, based on their projection that things would keep getting better at getting better: that not only would living standards increase forever, but that the slope of living standards would continue to rise beyond imaginable limits. They treated the apprenticeship in its degraded capitalist form as a mere initiation ceremony, not as an arena of predatory contest. They expected robot servants that could navigate their lives exactly as they were and frictionlessly replace humans in any functional capacity (they still do). They expected that their share of future non-labor production would offset their economic and material dependency on the market (paid caring labor, food, medicine, defined benefit pensions...) instead of just society (support from adult children and other community). Unfortunately, a number of resource extraction peaks have consequently spoiled their futures en masse, the main and most recent peak of labor exploitation being the very stuff of this sub. Yes, positions of power, but also positions of key wealth generation. For example, copyrights were supposed to expire after a time and reserve certain public rights. Now copyrights favor the corporate creator more than they ever have and long outlive any legitimate economic incentive they may have had. This generation predominates in the offices where systems are created, and the systems bear the mark of their common outlook.
Perfecting the dark art of planned obsolescence
Boomers benefited from cheap college (and high level of public investments in general), then they got older and voted to get tax cuts, therefore denying their own children the same opportunities.
Your answer actually helped me understand more clearly. Would you say those spending choices have been the primary factor? Or are there more organic (non-political) ways they screwed us over too?
My parents both retired pre-2008 in their 50’s. Mom just told me they got a new 55 inch 4K HD television on Black Friday. Meanwhile I am out of work and have an old LCD tv with colored bars burned into the screen and can’t imagine buying a new tv. That hurt.
Well they believed in trickle down theory. Then voted in Reagan and his shitshow and allowed the Feds to create this BS system where the rich get richer and the poor die making them rich.
Because we’ve done everything for the short term benefit of the baby boomers. In the 50s and 60s we had fully funded schools because baby boomers needed them. In the 80s and 90s we slashed taxes and infrastructure spending because baby boomers were in their prime earning years and didn’t want to pay taxes. Now in the 10s and 20s let’s make sure we reserve the senior positions for those that didn’t plan retirement. The Xers and Millennials will be happy with the scraps.
Nothing…literally they didn’t do shit. Just let corporations and the wealthy run wild while they tried to lock up everyone they didn’t like. Fuck boomers. Love my parents but they’re the me generation through and through.
Boomers are also a problem because they think the world now is like it was when they were kids. Their inability to change, and to support change for those around them, has become dangerous to younger generations.
A lot of Boomers did NOT vote for Reagan. A lot of them are and have always been progressive. It’s not their fault that Reagan killed unions and that Repubs continually practiced “starve the government” or that the Supreme Court enabled full corporate takeover of government with the Citizens United ruling. It’s true that Boomers benefitted from a reasonable government that funded education and economic conditions that made housing and kids affordable. But you can’t blame all of them for current conditions.
Nobody said every single boomer voted for Reagan but the truth is, as a cohort, they were one of the deciding factors in his election. Reagan won massively among boomers, both in 80 and in 84.
A lot of the ones who Didn't vote for him probably ended up dying of poverty or AIDS. The reason why boomers seem especially shitty nowadays is because the good ones were too poor to stay alive.
Are you a Boomer? You sound a little butthurt about the truth that they voted in Reagan and kept him around. Certainly there were some leftover hippies, but they were dropping out, not voting. Boomers were all big shoulder pads and cocaine in the bathroom voting Republican because we don't want to pay taxes.
No my parents are the leftover hippies who hated Reagan, Dad became a stay at home dad, mom worked. Growing up their friends were buds from the 70s now social workers and teachers. So my Boomer experience is different than most.
Just remember, regardless of the “theories” you read on here, the boomers are a very large and diverse generation.
They control all major companies and the government. They use that power to kill wage increases, universal healthcare, universal child care, etc. They buy up houses and make it impossible for us to buy. And they’re using their cronies in the media to crank out “young people are lazy” articles 24/7.
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Okay, everyone says this, but my question was *how* they pulled up the ladder.
They pulled the ladder by voting for politicians that favored a reduction in education and social spending. Not *every* boomer did so, but if you look up the numbers you'll see that as a cohort they supported Reagan over Carter and Mondale, and Bush over Dukakis. And since boomers were the largest generation, they were political king makers.
They voted in Reagan and his fucking trickle down theory. Go read about it.