Baby Boomers

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jennypenny
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Re: Baby Boomers

Post by jennypenny »

I think I'd describe Boomers as having *consumed* the most.

Seneca
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Re: Baby Boomers

Post by Seneca »

Ego wrote:Historical context. That's what I was after with those graphs. Per capita graphs look just as bad.

Three hundred years from now how will people look back on the boomer generation? When we think of it in those terms we start to realize that it is not unreasonable to demand that boomers pay a large chunk of the costs for any "solution" to whatever "problems" are manufactured over the next twenty years or so. Some will see this demand as bullying helpless old folks or will avoid it out of a sense of filial duty. The more we talk about it now the easier it will be when the time comes.

The Boomers will go down in history as the generation that had their cake, ate it too and tried to sneak another cake into the grave with them. We've got to give kids permission to take away their cake and not feel bad about doing it.
In 300 years, I suspect nobody will care enough about the Boomers to write on them, unless they financially break the country somehow, and even then I suspect they'd elude blame.

I don't notice the generational fascination in historical literature I see in current pop culture.

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Ego
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Re: Baby Boomers

Post by Ego »

Seneca wrote: In 300 years, I suspect nobody will care enough about the Boomers to write on them, unless they financially break the country somehow, and even then I suspect they'd elude blame.

I don't notice the generational fascination in historical literature I see in current pop culture.
I wonder.... I think we know so much more about Boomers because they are the first generation captured start-to-finish on home movies. We can watch them grow up in ways we couldn't watch the average Victorian. Three hundred years from now people will still be watching, comparing, contrasting. They will feel connected to the Boomers in ways they will never feel connected to the Victorian.

And I believe this is what they will think of.....
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wyx053CNMag

Seneca
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Re: Baby Boomers

Post by Seneca »

Ego wrote:
And I believe this is what they will think of.....
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wyx053CNMag
I was kinda thinking this one- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BBvIweCIgwk

7Wannabe5
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Re: Baby Boomers

Post by 7Wannabe5 »

The Boomers aren't counting on their own children to pay the bills for their old age. They are importing the best and brightest children from other lands to do that. Maybe I'm wrong but it's the only logical explanation I can come up with for the schizophrenic divide between our current legal immigration policies vs. our diplomatic policies. Pick any halfway decent American university at random and then any scientific/technical graduate department at random and then do a quick rough calculation of what percentage of the teaching and/or student body is from a part of the world we currently deem as uncivilized or backwards or threatening for other purposes.

Anyways, I was born in 1965 and I figure I can count on collecting at least 10 years of Social Security due to flight from regions there will never be enough copper to electrify...unless somebody does something truly stupid.

vivacious
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Re: Baby Boomers

Post by vivacious »

George the original one wrote:> the Boomers are the wealthiest generation in human history

I think you give Boomers too much credit. _Some_ Boomers are the wealthiest, but _most_ Boomers have not saved enough for retirement, so how can they be wealthy?

Depends how you parse the statistics I guess. Households headed by people 75 or older have the highest median net worth of any age group.


Not too hard to see why. They weren't as profligate as their kids and their investments have also had a long time to mature.


People also seem to be losing wealth. For households headed by people 65 to 74, average median net worth dropped 17 percent; for those 55 to 64, it fell 32.6 percent, and for those 45 to 54, it dropped 39 percent. That is from a national survey compared with the time the survey was done before that. Not sure how often they do it.

vivacious
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Re: Baby Boomers

Post by vivacious »

This chart is pretty clear.

You can also see the relationship between old and young. The old people had more time to work, save, invest, etc. But many things are also skewed in their favor.


http://www.pewsocialtrends.org/2011/11/ ... ell-being/

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Ego
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Re: Baby Boomers

Post by Ego »

This guy pulls no punches. :lol:

A Generation of Sociopaths
http://www.wbur.org/hereandnow/2017/03/ ... by-boomers

Chad
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Re: Baby Boomers

Post by Chad »

I can't be more inline with his premise. 100% true.

Lucky C
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Re: Baby Boomers

Post by Lucky C »

Baby Boomers are a Prophet generation, with their prime working years during a Third Turning, coming down from a high and heading toward a crisis. Institutions weaken and individualism strengthens, so naturally Prophets are (seen as) selfish individuals. The "negative reputation" of the Prophet generation is narcissistic, presumptuous, and ruthless, which I think many ERE type folks would agree are worse negative traits than those of the other generations.
http://www.lifecourse.com/about/method/ ... types.html

Maybe Prophet generations, being the most selfish group and being in control when society is coming down from a high and heading to a crisis, are typically seen as the worst generation by subsequent generations.

thrifty++
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Re: Baby Boomers

Post by thrifty++ »

Baby boomers have been the largest generation and have dictated policies since they time they were able to vote. Such policies have resulted in a substantial public investment being made in them when they were starting life out and once the majority of baby boomers had gotten into positions of power - politics, business owners, property owners, asset owners, senior management, they voted in neo liberal economics which has reversed most of the public investment they received so that younger people did not get those same opportunities and so boomers paid less tax. The net result is a substantial wealth disparity and opportunities disparity between boomers and younger generations.

Spartan_Warrior
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Re: Baby Boomers

Post by Spartan_Warrior »

Riggerjack wrote:In my opinion, boomers tend to have all the failings I associate with progressives...
Try again. http://www.gallup.com/poll/181325/baby- ... ative.aspx
Ego wrote:The Boomers will go down in history as the generation that had their cake, ate it too and tried to sneak another cake into the grave with them. We've got to give kids permission to take away their cake and not feel bad about doing it.
If only wealthy moderate liberal voters had given us this permission in 2016 instead of ignoring us, berating us, and clinging to the neoliberal status quo... That would have been nice. The suppression of Bernie Sanders and disenfranchisement of his voters perfectly encapsulates the reaction of Baby Boomers (and Gen X) to Millennials' struggle for our future. I hope my generation is starting to wake up to the idea that waiting for "permission" is not going to work.
Ego wrote:A Generation of Sociopaths
http://www.wbur.org/hereandnow/2017/03/ ... by-boomers
Truly spot on.

7Wannabe5
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Re: Baby Boomers

Post by 7Wannabe5 »

Yup. Even back when I was a little Gen-X girl, my Silent Generation parents told me "Do not go into the woods (small pockets not yet dozed into suburban lawn) where the teenagers hang out." Of course, I am getting back some of my cut of the pie now, because I never even consider offering to go Dutch on anything with a man born prior to 1965.

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