After having lived 40 years as one of their offspring, the only conclusion I can draw by now is that, as opposed to the generation before, which was labeled the Greatest Generation, Baby Boomers officially made it as the worst generation so far.
Let me get this straight. It was the 60s, and Baby Boomers were in their very late teens, or started their adulthood. But they weren’t really into this whole working for a living thing, didn’t want to do what their parents did, found society greedy and selfish. Basically unfair.
So they proceeded to turn said society on its head, from the political/social values and financial standpoints, at the very least. Well… Really what most of them did was bitch and complain until society changed for them, while the previous generation was still in control/power.
Mind you, most of the talking points sounded great at the time: we should help one another (especially financially, when they needed it), we’re a whole, not decoupled individuals. War is bad (when they risked having to go), and so on. And they still do sound great, from the perspective of someone like I, who was raised to believe and taught just that all of my life.
But what it really translated to is that they whined until they got exactly what was best for themselves. And they sure proceeded to use and abuse it all over the next 4 decades, as national and individual debt levels show.
So, we’re now 40-50 years or so later, and now that same generation is in power (politically and financially). They got all the subsidies they could have potentially wished for for all that time, mainly just to shut them up. They even made up some new ones as they went because it suited them, etc.
But now they no longer have kids at home. They don’t really need social and financial support, because they’re out of the woods, about to or already retired. So let’s just go ahead and cut all of those services they so enjoyed, so the next generations don’t get the support, since they’d now have to pay for that. “Let’s now all vote Conservative. You know, to preserve and bring back those old ways we fought so hard to get rid of when we were young!”
Well, when I say cut, it’s not entirely true. They’re not looking to cut any of the old age pensions and such yet. Why would they? They need that now. What they suggest is that we should keep paying for them, until they’re done, and then just stop. But be stuck with their debt.
Also, while they’re at it, why not get into war mongering mode, since they’re way past the potential draft age range. Who cares? Right? War builds character in young men (if they survive it). They know, they went to war too! Oh, wait, no, they dodged those too… Never mind…
I’m 40 now, and what I’m facing downward is generations that are looking at this whole thing and, with the great benefit of insight 20-20 my generation didn’t get because it happened while we had nothing to say about it, go and tell my generation: “you got screwed dudes, but we’re not gonna”. And you know what? I get them. But, my generation is going to pay for the previous one, and the next ones are telling us they won’t pay for us.
In conclusion:
- Baby Boomers have been the most selfish, self-centered, hypocritical generation to walk this Earth (so far)
- My generation is going to get it both up the ass, and in the mouth.
- And with our track record, we’re just going to let them…
Thanks guys. I’m so glad, and so very proud, to be one of your sons…
Oh, and a loud, resounding FUCK YOU ALL!
tekArtist 
Just think! In 20 years time, you get to vote to screw over the next generations, too! ;-)
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I think they’ll be smart enough to take the power away from us before we can. Unlike ourselves. :)
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Just to get my facts straight: so, the Greatest Generation raised the Baby Boomers, who in turn raised us (do we have a name?), who in turn raised/are raising Generation Y/Millenials? This all sounds like a) the Greatest Generation wasn’t that great in all aspects, after all, b) the Baby Boomers weren’t such crap after all, since they raised us (yay for us), and c) we’re again not that great since we’re raising the not-so-fascinating Y’s. Do you see a pattern here? As in, “every generation sucks, but mine”? Or, more pointedly, that possibly *every* generation since the dawn of times has said the exact same thing of all generations adjacent to theirs? This is not a defense of Generation A, B, C,…, X, Y or Z, it is one of historical perspective.
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Let’s address this one by one:
* Greatest Generation: I didn’t coin the term. It doesn’t reflect what I think of their values as a whole. But history shows that after WWII, they thrived in ways that had not been seen decades, if ever. This is of course contextual (wars are always followed by economic booms, which is why it’s so attractive to greedy people), and isn’t rooted in their being special or better. But this society-wide surplus was squandered by their children, not them.
* Baby Boomers raising us: is that a good thing? I’m looking around me, and a lot of what I see are parents (now grand parents) that mostly think about themselves. Economically, they’re not thinking “what am I going to leave my kids?”, “how is my legacy continue to thrive?”, which every prior generations were obsessed with until them, What they’re thinking is: “where am I gonna spend the next vacation I can’t afford, and which credit card can I stick that on?”. My own parents are basically broke because of this mentality. All my wife’s own dad left her when he passed away, when she was 20, was $50k worth of debt she had to deal with. And we’ve been raised to do the same. Is that such a great upbringing?
* Millenials: not-so-fascinating: they’re kids… I don’t know for you, but most of the people I knew when I was 18-20 weren’t that fascinating either. Which is why I mostly hung out with older people, all my life, until I got older myself. On the other hand, yeah, they’re tripping seeing what’s coming down the pipe. Maybe they’re way smarter, or luckier, than us. We didn’t see it coming until it was too late.
I don’t think every generation sucks but mine. But I very deeply think the Baby Boomer generation, as a documented whole, does.
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I agree with this completely. I’m 27, living at home and in over $100 in student loan debt. I’m not saying everyone over 40 is bad, or that I shouldn’t be held accountable for my own personal life choices, but I am really starting to get tired of people older than me signing a paper giving them a mortgage loan they cant afford with one hand, and judging the youths who were given crushing student loan debt with the other one. I love how people who are in power and got lucky in life like to tell people whose circumstances are entirely different, to do the same thing they did, and that they aren’t trying hard enough. It’s also pretty sad that we live in a society that bails out banks for irresponsible behavior, but punishes youths for responsible behavior (ya know, for going to school? Doing that thing that you ALL have been telling us to do our whole lives?)
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“but punishes youths for responsible behavior”: I think it has more to do with insuring said youth is (literally) indebted to them, than a punishment. It’s a matter of trying to insure control over said population, through those means. And yes, it’s very much despicable.
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