In between "the state should take care of them" and "they should be abandoned" there's another possibility, which you almost thought of but then dismissed with,
"Their kids don’t have the time (their own babies) or resources to help them as much."
It's not a matter of time, because worldwide you get vast extended families who are very very busy, but who look after their elderly nonetheless. This is cultural: Anglo (or Anglicised) families are much more socially atomised. Smaller families, geographic mobility, and an attitude of "I'm an individual, fuck you" are common.
Often the Anglo Boomer parent engaged in neglect, if you were lucky it was benign neglect. It was common to move around a lot, so the child or children could never make lasting friends, never had uncles and aunties and cousins around, and the children got kicked out at 18 to make their own way. So when the Anglo Boomer became elderly and lonely, there wasn't much sympathy.
You don't really see this as much with other ethnicities, except where they've assimilated into Anglo life (common enough, since they'll be migrants and will have left their own larger families behind in the homeland). You'll notice those who teach their children their homeland's language are more likely to be looking after their parents. Those who are exclusively english, less so.
Obviously with the elderly there can be a level of health problems which require professional help, even aged care. But short of that - an elderly person with adult children should never face homelessness and starvation. You'll see this in Italian, Chinese, Indian, or in NZ in Maori homes - they'll always squeeze you in somehow. Of course, you'll then have to watch over the grandchildren and do some cooking and cleaning, it won't be a free lunch.
Culture’s also relevant in that Boomer parents have not collectively learned how to assimilate into a home that they do not themselves run. US Anglo Boomers—in houses and in the workplace—cannot cede control, and it makes integrating them into extended families very difficult.
I remember several things from the 70s and 80s. When I graduated from college, the valedictorian speech was about how she was getting her tubes tied because there were too many people in the world. This was also the time period when women were moving into the work force - was it to weaken family structure? Was it a reaction to needing more income? Was it because women were made to feel like second class if they didn’t demand equality? IDK I also went to graduate school with an exec from Planned Parenthood. She also echoed the same sentiments. And this was the time period when Paul Erlich’s book, The Population Bomb” came out. In addition, outsourcing work to foreign countries made jobs scarcer in the US and put corporations at an advantage. They began to move employees wherever most cost effective. Initially, it was done with massive benefits but later, it was on the employee’s dime. It was joked IBM stood for “I’ve been moved”. I’m not passing value judgements here. I just don’t think any of it contributed to family structure and now I see very few examples of children supporting elderly parents in any way in the US.
I'd suspect the number of homeless, elderly Boomers who have adult children who could take them in is extremely low. When you eliminate children who normally WOULD have taken them in but for addiction/mental health problems, then I'd wager the number is pretty close to zero.
This is a pretty normal number historically - usually 15-20% of women never had children, even in the Middle Ages - they just went and became nuns, or spinsters caring for elderly relatives, etc. Some would have been lesbian or asexual or simply obnoxious and ugly. But even if you go full-on Iran-style patriarchy you only get it a bit under 10%.
But even without children, there will be nieces, cousins and so on. So there's still the question of why they're not being taken in. And that question tends to have a cultural answer. The Anglo Boomer rejected connections with them for most of their lives, and they rejected connection with the Anglo Boomer, so they can't expect a connection when one of them is elderly. Relationships take decades to build.
Addiction and mental health problems correlate strongly with social isolation, both for individuals, and for society as a whole. Connected people are less likely to get stoned or crazy. So again it's cultural.
Not a Boomer, I'm an Xennial, but I'm here to defend them. Honestly Millennials and Zoomers who hate on Boomers display levels of selfishness and straight up malice that far exceeds anything they complain about in Boomers, who they are seemingly mad at for not dying fast enough and giving them their money.
First of all, Boomers work a lot harder than younger generations, that's clear in any workplace. They're like 70 and still the first ones in in the morning and last ones at night. They had to marry the first girl they ever slept with, because there was no Plan B and there was a shotgun held by dad. Their own parents universally hit them and barely ever told them they loved them, if ever, and they were all absolutely kicked out and expected to join the military or get a job at 18. And if they didn't, they could actually be drafted and sent to go get shot in a war whether they wanted to or not. The Boomers were WAY nicer to their kids and grandkids than their own parents ever were to them, and those kids just turn around and deride and bitch about the parents who gave them more than they ever got themselves. And give me a break with the idea that any generation has control over national policy...people voted and half of them lost, just like always. In the 80s they all actually believed the trickle down, privatize everything BS that every major economist was peddling, and hadn't yet seen how it would work out to carve out the middle class and make the rich richer. And just like always, the top decile got theirs and screwed over everyone else...you don't blame 50M old people for that unless you're just an a-hole. The young tearing apart the elderly and being maliciously covetous of their assets because they don't want to wait is just grotesque. No wonder no one wants kids anymore, when this is how they treat their own parents. The vast majority of Boomers had parents who 1. Never paid for or assisted with their college (because most Boomers didn't go to college), 2. Never passed on a dime in inheritance, 3. Rarely if ever said "I love you" and sure as hell didn't dote on them or watch their sports and activities or try to raise their self-esteem, and 4. Regularly whipped them and whupped their asses...and yet most Boomers would never have even considered cutting off or talking badly about their own parents the way young people do today. Bunch of spoiled ass jerks (I mean the anti-Boomer young people, not the Boomers). If they can afford a cruise, why the hell shouldn't they go on one, after working their ass off their whole lives? I honestly cannot comprehend people that are mad at old people going on a cruise. And most of them couldn't afford it anyway.
All that said, if you think the stats regarding impoverished Boomers are scary, just wait til Gen X gets elderly. They are absolutely screwed, none of them have pensions (except teachers and military and a few state workers), and they have even less saved than the Boomers. Gen X is going to have massive amounts of poverty in their old age.
I'll echo what you've said because, as what people would call a "boomer", I've lived what you've just described. In the end I find that I'm so "old school" that this country, and its inhabitants, have become alien to me. After so many years, and the countless lies spewed over me by the oligarchic class and their enablers and propagandists, I see little reason to remain in this country. I long ago could see that a populace that viewed children as a "burden" would one day wake up to find that any children they may have had will casually pull the plug on them because it was simply more "convenient" to do so. That's not the kind of progress one should be longing for... that'll be hell.
I think I'm also an xil-lennial, so... sup. I agree it's lazy to trash Boomers, but I don't think I was per SE trashing them here. I just think it's interesting question like, OK, if some Boomers struggle ... did their pick-me attitude make them deserve it? Does anyone deserve to struggle? It's heady shit.
Boomers were dime a dozen, there were so many of us, and we were reminded of that by our employers nearly every day. If we didn’t put up with the sh*t that came with our jobs, we were replaced. We were often hired based on our looks. Waitresses and receptionists could not carry any extra weight. Often we couldn’t get hired if we wore glasses.
Boomers were in their late 30s-early 40s when companies abandoned their defined pension plans and switched over to 401(k)s, often with the employer making pathetically small contributions. Retirement doesn’t look quite so cosy when you’ve got only 20-25 years to fund a retirement.
When we were looking to buy houses in our 30s, interest rates were 14-16%. We were thrilled when rates dropped to 8-9%, so it’s a bit hard to be sympathetic listening to people now whining about 6-7% rates.
Yeah sorry, I wasn't directing my rant at you, I know you were being nice to them here. I was more talking to the people YOU'RE talking to, all the Boomer haters. And also, I see constant reels on Insta etc just shredding Boomers and talking shit because...they have houses and aren't giving enough free baby sitting. But the Boomers themselves are too mellowed out with age to defend themselves, so I'm just doing it for them. 😂 I can't even get my mom to be upset or offended at the Boomer hate and she's exactly the cruise-going type they hate on, lol. Because that's how nice the Boomers are to their kids! They barely even stand up for themselves, they just get their feelings hurt.
It's too bad people under 30 simply never met and therefore don't remember what ACTUAL mean parents/grandparents were like...they never knew any Silent or Greatest Gens before they were nursing home aged. Now THOSE generations DNGAF. I think people imagine that in the past, there were all these nice, caring supportive families transferring wealth and helping raise the kids. More like they were there to boss everyone around and throw you across the room for defying them, but sure, maybe they'd babysit if they didn't have a heart attack and die by 55. 😎
Lol, I got some ass beatings by alcoholic parents that would curl your hair. I bet my parents beatings were worse and they were just doing what they learned. But I still would never say a bad thing about them. They brought me into this world, whether they could handle that fact or not.
Boomer here. I see the hate, the fingers, the blame. I didn't come into the world with a choice of what decade to be born in, I was just fortunate to be born at all. Parents didn't have much money, so no college or inheritance - just memories and a few dated looking pictures. I went into two branches of the military, volunteered as a reserve deputy for 5 years then later spent 15 years volunteering as a firefighter with a bum ankle thanks to a drunk driver. I've had various folks living in my home, the last were my only daughter, her new husband and my two grandkids for two years. The septic system couldn't handle the additional load and cost $28,000 to install a special replacement system.
I only see negative things coming from a discontent, angry generation who have the the privilege to live here in the US where we are all insulated from most of the harsher realities of living in a violent and dangerous world. Yet we are the beneficiaries of a profound period of prosperity, with every convenience and gadget at our fingertips.
Unfortunately, prosperity tends to breed a weaker generation - one that grows accustomed to the hard-wrought infrastructure that seems almost invisible. A generation that turns in on itself, labelling and categorizing, eviscerating and painting its elderly as leaches and enemies.
I don't know what will come for most of them, but if some of what I'm reading comes true, the decision by many to pursue career and self-awareness, self-love and to have and enjoy pleasure over family and investment, then who will they turn to blame when they are 65, childless and sitting alone under the shade of a cardboard box?
Technically a boomer here, but the Generation Jones label fits me better. Kinda like you watched a documentary about my life. Just wanted to say thanks for your perspective.
Well said. I was thinking the same things. As a Boomer, it's too bad I won't be around to see what these next generations will look like when they hit their 60s. It's going to be brutal.
One of the things I find most sad in life is that you can only gain a frame of reference through experience. No matter how smart someone is at 25, they won’t have the life experience of someone at 75.
Some of the things I’ve witnessed through the years that directly impact the boomers (and younger generations although they are usually unaware):
The ‘70s saw massive inflation due to unfunded war spending and Nixon removing the constraints of the gold standard. This resulted in pension values being cut in half (which was the usual source of retirement funding, along with tax benefits from downsizing real estate at retirement) and resulted in smaller or no inheritance for the boomers.
Early 80s saw the largest tax increase in history to fund the “boomer bulge” expected in Social Security. So the boomers had to pay extra tax to secure their future - which reduced their ability to save. The late 80s saw the huge push to outsource manufacturing to foreign countries. All of that technological knowledge was moved to factories overseas. Unprotected. Many boomer careers never recovered.
In the 90s, Clinton changed the Real estate tax law. Previously, a person had to trade up in real estate to avoid any capital gains tax and then finally, upon retiring and downsizing, one kept the equity. It was changed so that one needed to hold for two years only for tax protection - and flipping was born. Flipping did not exist prior to the tax change. The house became a speculative investment resulting in booms and busts. Not a good retirement plan strategy. Corporate pensions disappeared in favor of putting investment responsibility onto the backs of workers who in many cases were not up to the task. IRAs, then 401Ks were born - which created a flow of money (a boom) into the stock market. In the 2000s when the market crashed, many boomers were wiped out. And in the 2000s, technology took off and suddenly, experience and education were a negative. If you were young, with little to no experience, you were hired at fabulous salaries to learn to code on the job. So once again, many boomers were left in the cold and struggled. Many mortgaged a house purchase to rent for income. Or started some odd small business.
Then covid came - where boomer small house landlords were required to continue paying mortgages while their tenants were give a pass. And small businesses were closed outright. It was as if designed to wipe them out. And if that didn’t, most boomers got the jab which looks like it’s resulting in disability - which is wiping the financials of the rest out.
I guess my point is, there were some who were able to make money in real estate and get out before the 2008 crash. There were some who were able to get out of the dotcom stocks before 2000, there were some who got into MSFT, AAPL, Bitcoin or whatever and got rich. To me, focussing on the boomers is misdirection. It is much more important to evaluate the shifting and many times corrupt landscape and your individual place in it. Good luck to all.
While nobody deserves a swift kick in the nuts by reality more than boomers, however: It’s not the boomers living large that are going to be affected here.
It’s going to be the ones who DIDN’T buy a 100.000$ house that’s worth a million today. The ones who worked hard at jobs that never made it possible for them to put away hundreds of thousand into retirement.
Ultimately, boomers, along with everyone else, got fucked hard by the ruling class and uniparty.
Nobody listened, because nobody ever got elected based on cutting spending.
The uniparty thought that the good times would never stop, that Pax Americana would last forever. We’d all be wealthy on cutting each others hair and nobody cared about reforming broken systems like SS and college. We could always import more darkies, right?
I bought a house in 2000 for $175,000 which made me gasp, choke and worry endless nights over for nearly 20 years. That same house is now worth three times what I paid for it. It's paid off, only because I raided my retirement savings due to getting laid off at 57. Try getting a job at that age.
We can barely pay our property taxes, and borrowed money to pay state & fed this year.
It's apparent to me this is unsustainable. I've left out lots of details, but it all points at the same conclusion.
If something does not change soon, and I mean within the next 10 months, my wife of 38 years and I will either need to sell this place or be on the street.
Similar story. The paid-off house we have now is worth more than double. We could sell, but if we downsize, any place might go to has also greatly increased. Do we dare rent and have absolutely no control over rent prices that are already far more than our mortgage was?
Recently articles have been published criticizing boomers for staying in their houses too long and not planning soon enough for the days when they can no longer drive. That we need to get our butts into places on mass transit lines near hospitals and grocery stores. Sorry, but there aren’t that many places near me that meet all those needs and none are affordable. Getting old is not for sissies.
It's really just arm-chair quarterbacking and identity politics. Same slop - tear everyone down that *isn't* themselves, project the self-righteous victimology and feel good that nothing is ever your fault.
I don't suppose it ever occurred to any Boomer to sell their house for less than $2 mil, or "current market value". That's certainly much more than what they paid for it.
I think you are getting hung up on the wrong shit. Change the value to 600K. I don't care where you put it. The question is: if they wrought SOME of this, do they "deserve" it? Does anyone "deserve" anything?
Stereotypes are by definition inaccurate, whether they categorize vt age, race, gender or any other demographic. The reality is that a spectrum of success exists across all age groups, including boomers.
Boomers who are struggling financially envy the young as ageism is a powerful drag on their market value.
Apparently the young envy Boomers based on the misapprehension that they all live in $2 million houses they bought for a song.
Reality is much different from these stereotypes. Many young people are struggling to get jobs commmensurate with their credentials, and many Boomers have never owned their own home much less a multi-million manse. I suspect the reason the latter misperception abounds is that educated, disillusioned, vocal youth think all Boomers are clones iof their rich parents and grandparents. That is most assuredly bit the case.
We live in a society whose younger generations have been heavily influenced by their exposure to far left academics, a culture ironically started by Boomers starting in the 60s and 70s. This cadre imbue students with a poisonous peasant mentality characterized by envy vs. ambition. Some elements of our generation are definitely at fault for abusing several geberaruins jf youth thusly. It is a completely dysfunctional mindset in a world of technological wonders which provide an unprecedented cornucopia of opportunities for young people.
I hate that people are trying to set generations against each other. It’s the same as trying to set different racial groups against each other. When you convince young people to disrespect and vilify older generations, you lose knowledge and wisdom. It’s a well-known technique for bringing down a society. The Chinese cultural revolution did the same.
Well, I was specifically replying to Kate, but the article was good too.
I've been working since I was 14 (60 now), supporting my mom and sister when my dad deserted us. Worked my ass off for 45 years and have literally broken my body doing it. I'm supposed to be a bad guy and feel guilty because, yeah, I have a house that is worth 3 times what I paid? The rate crunch/inability to sell aspect you laid out is real. And where would I go if I could even sell? It's not like only my house tripled in value.
I was told my whole life that SS would be broke before I would ever collect, so that money was just stolen from me. Until I reached my late 40s I would have said just keep what you stole, but quit stealing; I would have opted out. Now that I'm 60, bullshit. I would like to get some of it back. It's definitely not champagne and caviar for me, and I'm looking at never being able to retire. I'm not whining, just saying. The only thing I did right was have 11 kids. They'll have to take turns changing my diapers eventually. Karma, lol.
Boomers are fucked, like everyone else. SS is going to collapse under the weight of unfunded liabilities in a few years.
And the worst part is: It’s not like we were blindsided. People have been calling SS a Ponzi scheme for decades, and Ron Paul warned us all the way back in the 2000s.
Anybody suggesting that would have to be counting on guvmind numbers or something from a hollywood production.
The general populaes lives gettin cut short from over toxification and malnutrition from being fed non-phoods, skyrocketing rates of cancer and diabetes or more frequently both have been cutting life short long before generics, especially, convienience addicted boomers traded fuckshots or poosters to keep their jobs, schooling for job maintenance, or just to have to have their fat asses
Flown to vacation.
Since the democide began ppl in their 90a,80s,70s,60s,50s,40s,30s,20s,10 and even infants are perishing by the millions.
Ireland, , Australia, New Zealand, Israel
And a few others will be completely wiped out within a decade.
Live long and prosper.
another Hollywood li(n)e
As to the mini home that should be reserved for every worker, I will take one for the team and point out to you that the masses are considered cattle.
It is what our Keepers call us the exact term is goyim, if you are wondering.
Governments are not Charities.
they are businesses.the United States of America is an corporation.
The convoluted multitude of taxes on top of taxes that you pay only buy you the illusion of freedom!
Attempt applying for unemployment or disability sometime in an attempt to recover some of the money that has been stolen from you illegally from every paycheck you ever received and everywhere else pretty much.
Robots can man the factories MUCH better than we can.
13 out of 14 people have to go! remember the Georgia Guidestones that went up in the 1980s?
Boomers will not end up living longer. They not only have vaxxed the shit out of themselves, but they line up for Big Pharma any chance they get. If they do live to 90, it will be because their wealth kept then alive with zero quality of life. Like my grandfather said, you get all the healthcare you can afford, down to your last penny, then you can die.
Your views about pharmaceuticals including vaccines are mistaken. The problem is the opposite: they tend to increase lifespan only to leave you prey to diseases and conditions they can't treat—e.g., Alzheimer’s/dementia, cancer.
In between "the state should take care of them" and "they should be abandoned" there's another possibility, which you almost thought of but then dismissed with,
"Their kids don’t have the time (their own babies) or resources to help them as much."
It's not a matter of time, because worldwide you get vast extended families who are very very busy, but who look after their elderly nonetheless. This is cultural: Anglo (or Anglicised) families are much more socially atomised. Smaller families, geographic mobility, and an attitude of "I'm an individual, fuck you" are common.
Often the Anglo Boomer parent engaged in neglect, if you were lucky it was benign neglect. It was common to move around a lot, so the child or children could never make lasting friends, never had uncles and aunties and cousins around, and the children got kicked out at 18 to make their own way. So when the Anglo Boomer became elderly and lonely, there wasn't much sympathy.
You don't really see this as much with other ethnicities, except where they've assimilated into Anglo life (common enough, since they'll be migrants and will have left their own larger families behind in the homeland). You'll notice those who teach their children their homeland's language are more likely to be looking after their parents. Those who are exclusively english, less so.
Obviously with the elderly there can be a level of health problems which require professional help, even aged care. But short of that - an elderly person with adult children should never face homelessness and starvation. You'll see this in Italian, Chinese, Indian, or in NZ in Maori homes - they'll always squeeze you in somehow. Of course, you'll then have to watch over the grandchildren and do some cooking and cleaning, it won't be a free lunch.
Point is, culture's relevant here.
Culture’s also relevant in that Boomer parents have not collectively learned how to assimilate into a home that they do not themselves run. US Anglo Boomers—in houses and in the workplace—cannot cede control, and it makes integrating them into extended families very difficult.
I remember several things from the 70s and 80s. When I graduated from college, the valedictorian speech was about how she was getting her tubes tied because there were too many people in the world. This was also the time period when women were moving into the work force - was it to weaken family structure? Was it a reaction to needing more income? Was it because women were made to feel like second class if they didn’t demand equality? IDK I also went to graduate school with an exec from Planned Parenthood. She also echoed the same sentiments. And this was the time period when Paul Erlich’s book, The Population Bomb” came out. In addition, outsourcing work to foreign countries made jobs scarcer in the US and put corporations at an advantage. They began to move employees wherever most cost effective. Initially, it was done with massive benefits but later, it was on the employee’s dime. It was joked IBM stood for “I’ve been moved”. I’m not passing value judgements here. I just don’t think any of it contributed to family structure and now I see very few examples of children supporting elderly parents in any way in the US.
Not to mention, the Boomers aborted a third of their babies to begin with.
Do you have data to support this claim? Seems suspect to me.
The data is linked throughout the article.
That boomers aborted a third of their babies? Seriously? That’s some crazy ass statistic
If you don't know how to look up basic information, you shouldn't be commenting online.
I'd suspect the number of homeless, elderly Boomers who have adult children who could take them in is extremely low. When you eliminate children who normally WOULD have taken them in but for addiction/mental health problems, then I'd wager the number is pretty close to zero.
Well, apparently 80.6% of Boomer women had children.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/sarazeffgeber/2019/01/28/child-free-in-america-a-large-piece-of-the-solo-aging-pie
This is a pretty normal number historically - usually 15-20% of women never had children, even in the Middle Ages - they just went and became nuns, or spinsters caring for elderly relatives, etc. Some would have been lesbian or asexual or simply obnoxious and ugly. But even if you go full-on Iran-style patriarchy you only get it a bit under 10%.
But even without children, there will be nieces, cousins and so on. So there's still the question of why they're not being taken in. And that question tends to have a cultural answer. The Anglo Boomer rejected connections with them for most of their lives, and they rejected connection with the Anglo Boomer, so they can't expect a connection when one of them is elderly. Relationships take decades to build.
Addiction and mental health problems correlate strongly with social isolation, both for individuals, and for society as a whole. Connected people are less likely to get stoned or crazy. So again it's cultural.
Not a Boomer, I'm an Xennial, but I'm here to defend them. Honestly Millennials and Zoomers who hate on Boomers display levels of selfishness and straight up malice that far exceeds anything they complain about in Boomers, who they are seemingly mad at for not dying fast enough and giving them their money.
First of all, Boomers work a lot harder than younger generations, that's clear in any workplace. They're like 70 and still the first ones in in the morning and last ones at night. They had to marry the first girl they ever slept with, because there was no Plan B and there was a shotgun held by dad. Their own parents universally hit them and barely ever told them they loved them, if ever, and they were all absolutely kicked out and expected to join the military or get a job at 18. And if they didn't, they could actually be drafted and sent to go get shot in a war whether they wanted to or not. The Boomers were WAY nicer to their kids and grandkids than their own parents ever were to them, and those kids just turn around and deride and bitch about the parents who gave them more than they ever got themselves. And give me a break with the idea that any generation has control over national policy...people voted and half of them lost, just like always. In the 80s they all actually believed the trickle down, privatize everything BS that every major economist was peddling, and hadn't yet seen how it would work out to carve out the middle class and make the rich richer. And just like always, the top decile got theirs and screwed over everyone else...you don't blame 50M old people for that unless you're just an a-hole. The young tearing apart the elderly and being maliciously covetous of their assets because they don't want to wait is just grotesque. No wonder no one wants kids anymore, when this is how they treat their own parents. The vast majority of Boomers had parents who 1. Never paid for or assisted with their college (because most Boomers didn't go to college), 2. Never passed on a dime in inheritance, 3. Rarely if ever said "I love you" and sure as hell didn't dote on them or watch their sports and activities or try to raise their self-esteem, and 4. Regularly whipped them and whupped their asses...and yet most Boomers would never have even considered cutting off or talking badly about their own parents the way young people do today. Bunch of spoiled ass jerks (I mean the anti-Boomer young people, not the Boomers). If they can afford a cruise, why the hell shouldn't they go on one, after working their ass off their whole lives? I honestly cannot comprehend people that are mad at old people going on a cruise. And most of them couldn't afford it anyway.
All that said, if you think the stats regarding impoverished Boomers are scary, just wait til Gen X gets elderly. They are absolutely screwed, none of them have pensions (except teachers and military and a few state workers), and they have even less saved than the Boomers. Gen X is going to have massive amounts of poverty in their old age.
I'll echo what you've said because, as what people would call a "boomer", I've lived what you've just described. In the end I find that I'm so "old school" that this country, and its inhabitants, have become alien to me. After so many years, and the countless lies spewed over me by the oligarchic class and their enablers and propagandists, I see little reason to remain in this country. I long ago could see that a populace that viewed children as a "burden" would one day wake up to find that any children they may have had will casually pull the plug on them because it was simply more "convenient" to do so. That's not the kind of progress one should be longing for... that'll be hell.
I think I'm also an xil-lennial, so... sup. I agree it's lazy to trash Boomers, but I don't think I was per SE trashing them here. I just think it's interesting question like, OK, if some Boomers struggle ... did their pick-me attitude make them deserve it? Does anyone deserve to struggle? It's heady shit.
Boomers were dime a dozen, there were so many of us, and we were reminded of that by our employers nearly every day. If we didn’t put up with the sh*t that came with our jobs, we were replaced. We were often hired based on our looks. Waitresses and receptionists could not carry any extra weight. Often we couldn’t get hired if we wore glasses.
Boomers were in their late 30s-early 40s when companies abandoned their defined pension plans and switched over to 401(k)s, often with the employer making pathetically small contributions. Retirement doesn’t look quite so cosy when you’ve got only 20-25 years to fund a retirement.
When we were looking to buy houses in our 30s, interest rates were 14-16%. We were thrilled when rates dropped to 8-9%, so it’s a bit hard to be sympathetic listening to people now whining about 6-7% rates.
Yeah sorry, I wasn't directing my rant at you, I know you were being nice to them here. I was more talking to the people YOU'RE talking to, all the Boomer haters. And also, I see constant reels on Insta etc just shredding Boomers and talking shit because...they have houses and aren't giving enough free baby sitting. But the Boomers themselves are too mellowed out with age to defend themselves, so I'm just doing it for them. 😂 I can't even get my mom to be upset or offended at the Boomer hate and she's exactly the cruise-going type they hate on, lol. Because that's how nice the Boomers are to their kids! They barely even stand up for themselves, they just get their feelings hurt.
It's too bad people under 30 simply never met and therefore don't remember what ACTUAL mean parents/grandparents were like...they never knew any Silent or Greatest Gens before they were nursing home aged. Now THOSE generations DNGAF. I think people imagine that in the past, there were all these nice, caring supportive families transferring wealth and helping raise the kids. More like they were there to boss everyone around and throw you across the room for defying them, but sure, maybe they'd babysit if they didn't have a heart attack and die by 55. 😎
Lol, I got some ass beatings by alcoholic parents that would curl your hair. I bet my parents beatings were worse and they were just doing what they learned. But I still would never say a bad thing about them. They brought me into this world, whether they could handle that fact or not.
Boomer here. I see the hate, the fingers, the blame. I didn't come into the world with a choice of what decade to be born in, I was just fortunate to be born at all. Parents didn't have much money, so no college or inheritance - just memories and a few dated looking pictures. I went into two branches of the military, volunteered as a reserve deputy for 5 years then later spent 15 years volunteering as a firefighter with a bum ankle thanks to a drunk driver. I've had various folks living in my home, the last were my only daughter, her new husband and my two grandkids for two years. The septic system couldn't handle the additional load and cost $28,000 to install a special replacement system.
I only see negative things coming from a discontent, angry generation who have the the privilege to live here in the US where we are all insulated from most of the harsher realities of living in a violent and dangerous world. Yet we are the beneficiaries of a profound period of prosperity, with every convenience and gadget at our fingertips.
Unfortunately, prosperity tends to breed a weaker generation - one that grows accustomed to the hard-wrought infrastructure that seems almost invisible. A generation that turns in on itself, labelling and categorizing, eviscerating and painting its elderly as leaches and enemies.
I don't know what will come for most of them, but if some of what I'm reading comes true, the decision by many to pursue career and self-awareness, self-love and to have and enjoy pleasure over family and investment, then who will they turn to blame when they are 65, childless and sitting alone under the shade of a cardboard box?
Technically a boomer here, but the Generation Jones label fits me better. Kinda like you watched a documentary about my life. Just wanted to say thanks for your perspective.
What type of stuff resonated?
My reply showed up further down in the comments. Good article. 👍
I replied but for some reason it didn't appear here as a reply.
🙏thank you, you have described my life so accurately, my Mother was very cruel to us and she is still alive at 94!
Well said. I was thinking the same things. As a Boomer, it's too bad I won't be around to see what these next generations will look like when they hit their 60s. It's going to be brutal.
Absolutely! They should hope they get more empathy from their own children than they're willing to give their parents.
One of the things I find most sad in life is that you can only gain a frame of reference through experience. No matter how smart someone is at 25, they won’t have the life experience of someone at 75.
Some of the things I’ve witnessed through the years that directly impact the boomers (and younger generations although they are usually unaware):
The ‘70s saw massive inflation due to unfunded war spending and Nixon removing the constraints of the gold standard. This resulted in pension values being cut in half (which was the usual source of retirement funding, along with tax benefits from downsizing real estate at retirement) and resulted in smaller or no inheritance for the boomers.
Early 80s saw the largest tax increase in history to fund the “boomer bulge” expected in Social Security. So the boomers had to pay extra tax to secure their future - which reduced their ability to save. The late 80s saw the huge push to outsource manufacturing to foreign countries. All of that technological knowledge was moved to factories overseas. Unprotected. Many boomer careers never recovered.
In the 90s, Clinton changed the Real estate tax law. Previously, a person had to trade up in real estate to avoid any capital gains tax and then finally, upon retiring and downsizing, one kept the equity. It was changed so that one needed to hold for two years only for tax protection - and flipping was born. Flipping did not exist prior to the tax change. The house became a speculative investment resulting in booms and busts. Not a good retirement plan strategy. Corporate pensions disappeared in favor of putting investment responsibility onto the backs of workers who in many cases were not up to the task. IRAs, then 401Ks were born - which created a flow of money (a boom) into the stock market. In the 2000s when the market crashed, many boomers were wiped out. And in the 2000s, technology took off and suddenly, experience and education were a negative. If you were young, with little to no experience, you were hired at fabulous salaries to learn to code on the job. So once again, many boomers were left in the cold and struggled. Many mortgaged a house purchase to rent for income. Or started some odd small business.
Then covid came - where boomer small house landlords were required to continue paying mortgages while their tenants were give a pass. And small businesses were closed outright. It was as if designed to wipe them out. And if that didn’t, most boomers got the jab which looks like it’s resulting in disability - which is wiping the financials of the rest out.
I guess my point is, there were some who were able to make money in real estate and get out before the 2008 crash. There were some who were able to get out of the dotcom stocks before 2000, there were some who got into MSFT, AAPL, Bitcoin or whatever and got rich. To me, focussing on the boomers is misdirection. It is much more important to evaluate the shifting and many times corrupt landscape and your individual place in it. Good luck to all.
Exactly. There’s little that annoys me more than the fantasy that all boomers had it made.
While nobody deserves a swift kick in the nuts by reality more than boomers, however: It’s not the boomers living large that are going to be affected here.
It’s going to be the ones who DIDN’T buy a 100.000$ house that’s worth a million today. The ones who worked hard at jobs that never made it possible for them to put away hundreds of thousand into retirement.
I cannot disagree with this.
Ultimately, boomers, along with everyone else, got fucked hard by the ruling class and uniparty.
Nobody listened, because nobody ever got elected based on cutting spending.
The uniparty thought that the good times would never stop, that Pax Americana would last forever. We’d all be wealthy on cutting each others hair and nobody cared about reforming broken systems like SS and college. We could always import more darkies, right?
That's an incredibly vicious and ageist comment.
Wait. How did we go from a $2M house to homelessness in two sentences?
I guess we lost ourselves a little bit.
I bought a house in 2000 for $175,000 which made me gasp, choke and worry endless nights over for nearly 20 years. That same house is now worth three times what I paid for it. It's paid off, only because I raided my retirement savings due to getting laid off at 57. Try getting a job at that age.
We can barely pay our property taxes, and borrowed money to pay state & fed this year.
It's apparent to me this is unsustainable. I've left out lots of details, but it all points at the same conclusion.
If something does not change soon, and I mean within the next 10 months, my wife of 38 years and I will either need to sell this place or be on the street.
Similar story. The paid-off house we have now is worth more than double. We could sell, but if we downsize, any place might go to has also greatly increased. Do we dare rent and have absolutely no control over rent prices that are already far more than our mortgage was?
Recently articles have been published criticizing boomers for staying in their houses too long and not planning soon enough for the days when they can no longer drive. That we need to get our butts into places on mass transit lines near hospitals and grocery stores. Sorry, but there aren’t that many places near me that meet all those needs and none are affordable. Getting old is not for sissies.
It's really just arm-chair quarterbacking and identity politics. Same slop - tear everyone down that *isn't* themselves, project the self-righteous victimology and feel good that nothing is ever your fault.
From the title I got excited to hear what horrors they have earned. Seems like living in a 2 mil home or not having a 2 mil home is the extent.
Eh, it does seem like the percentage rate of those "unhoused" is growing. Weirdly, the Boomer Divorce rate ("SILVER SPLITTERS!") is also spiking.
I don't suppose it ever occurred to any Boomer to sell their house for less than $2 mil, or "current market value". That's certainly much more than what they paid for it.
I think you are getting hung up on the wrong shit. Change the value to 600K. I don't care where you put it. The question is: if they wrought SOME of this, do they "deserve" it? Does anyone "deserve" anything?
No, they deserve much worse.
Okie!
Anybody using the term “Boomers”
is so fucked up that he/she should be
euthanised!
Anybody using the term "Boomer" dodged the abortion clinic, unlike a third of Boomer children.
Ya really think Boomers aborted that many kids?
Almost. The actual number is roughly 29 abortions per 100 pregnancies over the course of Boomer women's fertile years. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abortion_statistics_in_the_United_States
lolz
Basically, they're mad that bar was set too high for them by "boomers" and they don't want to have to make the same effort but want the same benefits.
Treating "boomers" as a single undifferentiated group that is to blame for literally everything today is lazy, plain wrong and solves nothing.
But necessary for a blame game and victim mentality.
Stereotypes are by definition inaccurate, whether they categorize vt age, race, gender or any other demographic. The reality is that a spectrum of success exists across all age groups, including boomers.
Boomers who are struggling financially envy the young as ageism is a powerful drag on their market value.
Apparently the young envy Boomers based on the misapprehension that they all live in $2 million houses they bought for a song.
Reality is much different from these stereotypes. Many young people are struggling to get jobs commmensurate with their credentials, and many Boomers have never owned their own home much less a multi-million manse. I suspect the reason the latter misperception abounds is that educated, disillusioned, vocal youth think all Boomers are clones iof their rich parents and grandparents. That is most assuredly bit the case.
We live in a society whose younger generations have been heavily influenced by their exposure to far left academics, a culture ironically started by Boomers starting in the 60s and 70s. This cadre imbue students with a poisonous peasant mentality characterized by envy vs. ambition. Some elements of our generation are definitely at fault for abusing several geberaruins jf youth thusly. It is a completely dysfunctional mindset in a world of technological wonders which provide an unprecedented cornucopia of opportunities for young people.
I hate that people are trying to set generations against each other. It’s the same as trying to set different racial groups against each other. When you convince young people to disrespect and vilify older generations, you lose knowledge and wisdom. It’s a well-known technique for bringing down a society. The Chinese cultural revolution did the same.
Well, I was specifically replying to Kate, but the article was good too.
I've been working since I was 14 (60 now), supporting my mom and sister when my dad deserted us. Worked my ass off for 45 years and have literally broken my body doing it. I'm supposed to be a bad guy and feel guilty because, yeah, I have a house that is worth 3 times what I paid? The rate crunch/inability to sell aspect you laid out is real. And where would I go if I could even sell? It's not like only my house tripled in value.
I was told my whole life that SS would be broke before I would ever collect, so that money was just stolen from me. Until I reached my late 40s I would have said just keep what you stole, but quit stealing; I would have opted out. Now that I'm 60, bullshit. I would like to get some of it back. It's definitely not champagne and caviar for me, and I'm looking at never being able to retire. I'm not whining, just saying. The only thing I did right was have 11 kids. They'll have to take turns changing my diapers eventually. Karma, lol.
Boomers are fucked, like everyone else. SS is going to collapse under the weight of unfunded liabilities in a few years.
And the worst part is: It’s not like we were blindsided. People have been calling SS a Ponzi scheme for decades, and Ron Paul warned us all the way back in the 2000s.
Americans didn’t WANT to listen.
Social Security wont collapse as long as the US can print money.
Ted,
"People are living longer"
Even during the pre-scumdemonic
decade that was a huge fallacy and s
Anybody suggesting that would have to be counting on guvmind numbers or something from a hollywood production.
The general populaes lives gettin cut short from over toxification and malnutrition from being fed non-phoods, skyrocketing rates of cancer and diabetes or more frequently both have been cutting life short long before generics, especially, convienience addicted boomers traded fuckshots or poosters to keep their jobs, schooling for job maintenance, or just to have to have their fat asses
Flown to vacation.
Since the democide began ppl in their 90a,80s,70s,60s,50s,40s,30s,20s,10 and even infants are perishing by the millions.
Ireland, , Australia, New Zealand, Israel
And a few others will be completely wiped out within a decade.
Live long and prosper.
another Hollywood li(n)e
As to the mini home that should be reserved for every worker, I will take one for the team and point out to you that the masses are considered cattle.
It is what our Keepers call us the exact term is goyim, if you are wondering.
Governments are not Charities.
they are businesses.the United States of America is an corporation.
The convoluted multitude of taxes on top of taxes that you pay only buy you the illusion of freedom!
Attempt applying for unemployment or disability sometime in an attempt to recover some of the money that has been stolen from you illegally from every paycheck you ever received and everywhere else pretty much.
Robots can man the factories MUCH better than we can.
13 out of 14 people have to go! remember the Georgia Guidestones that went up in the 1980s?
Seems accurate at most points.
Boomers will not end up living longer. They not only have vaxxed the shit out of themselves, but they line up for Big Pharma any chance they get. If they do live to 90, it will be because their wealth kept then alive with zero quality of life. Like my grandfather said, you get all the healthcare you can afford, down to your last penny, then you can die.
Your views about pharmaceuticals including vaccines are mistaken. The problem is the opposite: they tend to increase lifespan only to leave you prey to diseases and conditions they can't treat—e.g., Alzheimer’s/dementia, cancer.
If it's subset of boomers then it's not boomers. Why generalize it as "boomers"? Why not be specific and just say what group it is?