Why I Am Sick Of Hearing About Those Evil "Boomers" From The Gen X and Y Crowd
For the record. I was born in 1960. I am a a "baby boomer" albeit very late in that cycle and generation. (The boomer generation ended in 1964) I am officially "retired" but if the right kind of job came along- I might un-retire. I was a government worker long before being a government worker was cool. But more on that in a bit.
For the last 5 or 6 years, I have been doing a great deal of reading and a great deal of public writing. Very often when reading stories about baby boomers, I find the hate filled rants of Gen X and Gen Y writers. I have to tell you. I am getting sick of that whine. Here is a typical rant- stolen from ZeroHedge.
For the last 5 or 6 years, I have been doing a great deal of reading and a great deal of public writing. Very often when reading stories about baby boomers, I find the hate filled rants of Gen X and Gen Y writers. I have to tell you. I am getting sick of that whine. Here is a typical rant- stolen from ZeroHedge.
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I was ten years old when Nixon officially took us off the gold standard. I couldn't stop that. I graduated from high school and went to college, state school. I worked full time. I didn't qualify for student loans nor did I get much in the way of free money (grants). When I lost my job in 1981, the economy was horrible. I couldn't change that. I worked 3 part time jobs. Two jobs paid less than 5 bucks an hr., one was volunteer. I finished law enforcement school in 1982. My first job paid 1000 dollars a month in 1983 with an all you can eat shit boo fay served up by jail inmates. My rent was 400.
I worked the better part of 25 years as a cop and I spent the last seven as the Chief in a small town. I have never owned a new vehicle. I saved 20% down for a puny home. I did not take a second mortgage out on my house even though every Tom, Dick, and Harry on the block was doing it. I paid cash for everything. I saved. In fact, my savings sans the government
theftpenalty has bailed me out of this financial mess (2007-2011) which was caused by a bought and paid for Congress and greedy bankers.Ok, enough of that walking 20 miles to school through the snow schtick.
During the 90's, Gen X and Gen Y start coming up and through our ranks. We hired a bunch of them. They bought big ass trucks, financed houses, and did all of the stupid financial shit that greedy Americans do. They took out second mortgages and bought toys. Boats, sleds, campers, motorcycles. Some bought second homes.
In a boomer law enforcement management class sometime in the late 90's, I remember sticking up for Gen X and Gen Y members. The boomers were calling them lazy, latch key kids. I said that was bullshit. I maintained they were no different than we were. They were simply raised under different circumstances. I still argue that point. Like us, Gen X and Y were simply trying to make the most amount of money with the least amount of work. That folks- is a conspiracy. The greatest conspiracy ever. The most amount of money with the least amount of work. That is the national dream.
Bankers have perfected that skill.
The point I am trying to make with Gen X and Gen Y is that the boomers are just as powerless to stop this corporate kleptocracy as they are. We didn't invent the kleptocracy, it simply evolved. Regrettably, there is not a hell of a lot that anyone can do about it. In every generation, there are a handful of greedy and elite. They run this place. We have a larger supply of them simply because of the size of our demographic. But there is also a larger portion of people like me. People who worked and saved, people who don't get food stamps, people that didn't buy Jaguars because our ego demanded it. People that know a little bit about who the villains are.
Villains are found in every layer of generational strata.
What specifically have Gen X and Gen Y done to differentiate themselves from the mis-deeds of the baby boomers? As near as I can tell, nothing. We are all cut from the same cloth and just because you were born this year instead of that year, doesn't mean a fucking thing. Your generations will grow older and you will have your share of self serving politicians, judges, and greedy bankers with a FED willing to sell you into debt slavery just like the generations of Americans that have preceded you. Now on to the big finish.
There is no solution in isolating one group and castigating them. We all know that is bullshit. Strength is in unity. United, the boomers, Gen X and Gen Y, have a chance of beating back the real villains in our culture. We have a culture of political and corporate greed. We have a political class with no courage and no sense of what a civil servant really is. They are monopolizing our political system. We have a criminal corporate banking structure which privatizes profits but socializes losses and dumps them on the taxpayer with the help of paid for politicians. These people are inherently dishonest. They are destroying this country. They have plunged us into a debt slavery abyss from which there is no exit. Their ages do not matter two shits to me. I'd like to identify every last one of them and get rid of them.
The next time some member of the protected class of Gen X or Gen Y (heh) starts in with the big whiny rant about boomers- ask them what they have done. What specifically have their generations done which is a vast improvement over the boomers? The long silence or stuttering that follows- will be deafening. The sad truth is that Gen X and Gen Y have been just as apathetic as the rest of us. Welcome to the American kleptocracy. Where politicians have an unlimited credit line at the FED- a FED which is more than happy to finance their credit... ad infinitum.