[DianeM]

It’s very simple. Change your will. SURPRISE!

[OrangeBlossomBaby]

Originally Posted by queasy27

But I genuinely don't understand how boomers are somehow to blame for the high cost of housing, gig economies, lack of pension plans, soaring college tuition, etc. Even social security supposedly teetering on the brink of collapse is more a function of our sheer numbers than anything we did. And we're certainly not immune to the rising cost of living and increased housing prices ourselves.


How did boomers have it so easy, exactly? I'm not being sarcastic; I honestly don't understand the anger.

It's complicated. The late boomers kind of get it, because we were pretty much left out of the upward mobility whirlwind. And then we missed the dot-com boom, and then the next generation took over. The white house, picket fence, everyone has a job, everyone has a retirement account, everyone can afford health care days were the boomer generation.

Later generations - in particular the millennial generation, lost out on all that. Our generation saw to that with our generation's activities in business, the stock market, trade, investments, and legislation in government from the feds all the way down to village municipalities.

Our generation is why disposable diapers are common. Our generation is why plastic has replaced paper in stores. Our generation is why forests were stripped of wood, which created the need for plastics to replace paper. We were, and still are, the greatest CONSUMER generation in history. We are the biggest fans of disposables, and while we didn't create the niche, we gave it more value than it had ever had previously. And all of this gave way to greater pollution, greater waste, greater need to consume more, greater need to have more, greater need to throw away more.

That's all on the Boomer generation. We didn't create it. But we created the market for it.

The newer generation has college costs that spiraled out of control, promising the same rosy and successful future that their predecessors had, while at the same time bringing in new technology that made their college majors obsolete - leaving them with no USEFUL education, but a whole lot of debt.

We didn't cause the newer generation's headaches, but we contributed to them, we encouraged them, and we did very little to prevent them. And now they're burdened with it, and we're telling them to "get off my lawn."

People are living longer than they were, when the oldest of the boomers were growing up. That means there are more older people using more non-renewable resources than ever before. That means less for everyone else.

That's where their particular angst regarding the older generation comes from. It's a frustration that comes from overconsumption, and not giving it a moment's thought. The grandkids see how it's affecting the world - and they recognize that overconsumption is creating a risk to their own future. But how do you tell Grandpa to give up the fancy expensive hobbies and toys he worked for decades and earned, just because the continual use and purchase of more is killing the planet?

Frustration. That's what it is.

[graciegirl]

Originally Posted by OrangeBlossomBaby

It's complicated. The late boomers kind of get it, because we were pretty much left out of the upward mobility whirlwind. And then we missed the dot-com boom, and then the next generation took over. The white house, picket fence, everyone has a job, everyone has a retirement account, everyone can afford health care days were the boomer generation.

Later generations - in particular the millennial generation, lost out on all that. Our generation saw to that with our generation's activities in business, the stock market, trade, investments, and legislation in government from the feds all the way down to village municipalities.

Our generation is why disposable diapers are common. Our generation is why plastic has replaced paper in stores. Our generation is why forests were stripped of wood, which created the need for plastics to replace paper. We were, and still are, the greatest CONSUMER generation in history. We are the biggest fans of disposables, and while we didn't create the niche, we gave it more value than it had ever had previously. And all of this gave way to greater pollution, greater waste, greater need to consume more, greater need to have more, greater need to throw away more.

That's all on the Boomer generation. We didn't create it. But we created the market for it.

The newer generation has college costs that spiraled out of control, promising the same rosy and successful future that their predecessors had, while at the same time bringing in new technology that made their college majors obsolete - leaving them with no USEFUL education, but a whole lot of debt.

We didn't cause the newer generation's headaches, but we contributed to them, we encouraged them, and we did very little to prevent them. And now they're burdened with it, and we're telling them to "get off my lawn."

People are living longer than they were, when the oldest of the boomers were growing up. That means there are more older people using more non-renewable resources than ever before. That means less for everyone else.

That's where their particular angst regarding the older generation comes from. It's a frustration that comes from overconsumption, and not giving it a moment's thought. The grandkids see how it's affecting the world - and they recognize that overconsumption is creating a risk to their own future. But how do you tell Grandpa to give up the fancy expensive hobbies and toys he worked for decades and earned, just because the continual use and purchase of more is killing the planet?

Frustration. That's what it is.

I don't think I agree with this although I have heard it often repeated in the last few years.

I see so much evidence of good thinking and careful use and reuse of things by my generation, the one older than boomers, and also by most of the boomers I know. My biggest criteria for any generation is seeing if they can restrict their impulses enough to save money. Some scoff at us and waste money on non essentials. I have to think no one has taught them to be very, very, careful. We saw it every day in our parents generation who lived through hard times during the great depression. Many people who live in The Villages, live in a large part of their investment. Hope it retains value....

[LI SNOWBIRD]

Originally Posted by Choro&Swing

I think the origins of this “OK Boomer” saying, said with en eye roll by people much younger than us, is weariness with people our age telling them how much more wonderful we were when we were young, how much better our music was, how much cooler we were, how much more . . . Fill in the blank. Is it offensive? You bet! Are we to blame for everything wrong? No, of course not!

However, can you remember back to the late sixties and early seventies? A lot of us thought our parents and grandparents were hopelessly old-fashioned. They didn’t like our attitudes toward the war, racism, poverty, capitalism, white collar jobs. We were eager to take over the country and make it better. Really, we weren’t all that different from young people today in our impatience with people older than us. We were highly offensive, too. When I started college in 1972, the Dean of Students had a sign on his desk reading “Vote, but get a haircut.” I thought “Pig” was an acceptable term for a police officer. Times change!

I graduated college in '72 and agree with all you said. but I'll add the "military-industrial complex" which was the ogre of the times.

[manaboutown]

Graduating HS in 1960 I grew up an 'Ike" as I was born toward the end of the Silent Generation. My parents who were born in 1898 and 1905 had been through a lot: WWI, the Spanish Flu (my father had it and survived), my mother had Scarlet Fever as a child, the Great Depression, WWII, the Korean Conflict, Viet Nam, and all the social upheaval of the late 1960s. My father was a grocer and during the depression noticed some of his customers who did not have pets were buying dog food which they probably ate to survive. I grew up in a house where we recycled everything we could, drove a single car until the wheels were ready to fall off and so on. There is no doubt Boomers who came a few years later had it better. Wartime gas and food rationing were over, people were buying homes and moving into new suburban housing developments and eating better. Huge numbers of veterans went to college on the GI bill. Over time technology improved everyone's life and has continued to do so and I believe shall in the future.

The younger generations can thank previous generations, including Boomers, for a far better standard of living than we could possible envision even a very few generations back. No one need starve, even people on welfare have cell phones and some pretty nice vehicles from what I have seen in welfare office parking lots. New technology will solve problems as it has in the past. Comparing the emissions of today's vehicles to those of the 50s and 60s will amaze anyone. Agricultural production per acre has increased astonishingly. I could go on but hope I have made my point.

[MaryRDH]

Well stated.

[OlifOlif]

It is too late?

[Tennisbum]

I will answer once I leave my safe space......I may have to call the campus verbal abuse committee and have you removed from the campus!

[graciegirl]

Right before Hurricane Irma, I received a call from a younger family member that a young lawyer who had been our grand's college roommate was very concerned about staying on the coast during her first hurricane. She asked if she could shelter with us, that she was paying off college loans and was watching her money....and I said of course, we had met this young woman several times and I said to send her over.

She arrived with her fiancé who we had not met and their cat three days before the hurricane was scheduled to hit. We welcomed them and they were stellar house guests, bringing with them their kind of food, organic, and one of them a vegan. The cat seemed to take an armed truce with our two cats and we settled in. We took them out to dinner and we cooked for them as well and they succumbed to a pot of chili I made, tossing aside the organic and the vegan rules they had arrived with. My husband took them both to a friends vacant home to secure the patio and outside for the hurricane and we did our best to see that we didn't discuss politics as we knew they voted differently from us. They and we sailed through Irma and they decided to stay for four more days after and I enjoyed feeding them and having them here.

I was later appalled to see the fiancé posting many "Million dead Boomers" posts on his Facebook page. I read where older people were the cause of much of the problems that millennials were having financially, and that the generation younger than mine were useless and burdens to society.

[larbud]

Web site

[manaboutown]

Here is a 93 year old not yet gone and forgotten who was treated nicely by the current generation. Coors Light delivers 150 cans to 93-year-old Pennsylvania woman | Daily Mail Online