Will Baby Boomers be the Luckiest?

[eytonxav]

Are those low-rung opportunities still as abundant when much of the lower-entry servicing is gone now? I don't believe so, and while of course other things exist now that didn't then, I'm not sure it's evened out.

Opportunities for the younger generation are not as abundant as when I grew up. It used to be you could get an entry level job and receive OJT and progress fairly rapidly if you applied yourself. Now, they want specialists with 5 or more years experience, so unless you have some high demand specialized education or experience, climbing the career ladder is much tougher.

That said, I can remember high interest rates and at one time thinking rates will never go below 5%, but it happened, so not sure if opportunities could return to what I benefited from in the good ole days.

 

[ziggy29]

Opportunities for the younger generation are not as abundant as when I grew up. It used to be you could get an entry level job and receive OJT and progress fairly rapidly if you applied yourself. Now, they want specialists with 5 or more years experience, so unless you have some high demand specialized education or experience, climbing the career ladder is much tougher.

My dad became a computer programmer with a large aerospace company and rose to the rank of team leader, where he stayed for 15 years or so. He regularly turned down opportunities to be promoted into management because he didn't' want his BS bucket to become more heavily laden.

Oh, yeah -- he was hired in 1966. No college degree, just a few years in the Air Force and a couple of programming classes. Still wound up with a high paying job, solid pension and health insurance for life upon retirement at age 58, with 26 years of Megacorp under his belt.

 

[street]

I also am a 1956 and I know I registered but not sure what number I got. I beleive there is a Gov site to see what the draft numbers were etc..

I feel very lucky being born when I was. It was a great time to grow up.

 

[Beststash]

I think that once we (baby boomers) are gone things will get much better but until then we are in a very precarious situation. I'll never know but I see signs of hope in the younger generations if us old farts would just get out of their way.

 

[joeea]

I think that once we (baby boomers) are gone things will get much better but until then we are in a very precarious situation.

Things will get much better? Why?

I'll never know but I see signs of hope in the younger generations if us old farts would just get out of their way.

You first.

 

[imoldernu]

I squeezed by after college and OCS in 1958 1959..., and wasn't called to action, though my orders were originally set for Korea or the Berlin Wall... after mandatory 2 year service was transferred to the reserves for another 10 years, 'til 1969 when I made Captain, and received my discharge.. My generation was the "Lucky Few" and I was a lucky one.

... and i know it!

 

[Beststash]

Things will get much better? Why?

Baby boomers have committed “generational plunder,” pillaging the nation’s economy, repeatedly cutting their own taxes, financing two wars with deficits, ignoring climate change, presiding over the death of America’s manufacturing core, and leaving future generations to clean up the mess they created.

from "A Generation of Sociopaths: How the Baby Boomers Betrayed America"

 

[gooddog]

In future history, will the US post-WWII generation that is well represented here be considered the most fortunate generation?

Without a doubt - Yes. My father and I have had discussions about this years ago, and we both came to the conclusion that those born in the 40's and 50's (my father 1943) are the luckiest generation in history, and the following generation the 2nd luckiest. After that, it is downhill generation after generation, as we slide into resembling other countries policies, economics, and demographics. There are a couple of good books about this, but this site probably isn't the place to be posting such info.

 

[Al in Ohio]

This is a very interesting observation, since it prompts questions about what the statistics can tell each of us as an individual.



The Centers for Disease Control says life expectancy dropped from 78.7 to 78.6 years, a decline strongly related to suicides and drug overdoses.



https://scopeblog.stanford.edu/2019/01/16/why-is-life-expectancy-in-the-u-s-going-down-a-qa/



Those two contributors to mortality disproportionately affect younger people, which means they have more leverage to decrease The Average Lifespan. There is also discussion regarding the impact of chronic conditions. For example, rising rates of obesity get a mention.



But all of these are readily identifiable, discrete factors which a given individual either possesses or does not. Such factors create a multimodal distribution rather than a Gaussian one; we can't assume they spread randomly throughout the population the way breast cancer and car crashes do.



What this means is, if you are suicidal, overweight or suffer opioid addiction, you are in a different subset of the population than the one which doesn't reflect these characteristics.



But what if you and I are NOT in that subset? I think it means we, as individuals, probably still should count ourselves in the "luckier than prior generations" category.

The reason I heard stated was ingesting higher lifetime pesticides, more hazardous chemical exposure and food additives all that didn’t exist or were not used extensively in the earlier years of my parents lives.

 

[Amethyst]

Luckily, we see young politicians beginning to challenge this "slide" and propose ways to fight back against it. They are inexperienced, and a lot of their ideas may sound crazy to me, but at least they are not ignoring the problems, or trying to wish them away. Note: I am not interested in debating any of the new proposals, as that is forbidden on this forum.

The rest of the youngsters need to moan a bit less on social media about how awful their parents and grandparents were, and get busy actually doing things to counteract what they perceive as evils. Young people exchanging bloody-minded comments about "boomers" on social media, isn't any better than their grandparents' "awfulizing" to one another at the senior center.

After that, it is downhill generation after generation, as we slide into resembling other countries policies, economics, and demographics. .

 

[Pellice]

Having said that, I think that we're at a turning point very similar to where our grandparents were just before WWI when electrification began, autos were just coming out and telephone was in it's infancy. 1910 to 1950 saw incredible change in culture and how people lived, worked and played. My grandparents were born before airplanes ever flew and lived to see a man walk on the moon; they rode in horse and buggies but ended up driving Cadillacs.

I see a complete change of values, way-of-working, what is valued, accessibility and so on. Millennials just seem to be almost a different species sometimes (not a judgement) and I just see an entirely different world ahead that, while different from ours will not be better or worse...just different.

I think we are already past the turning point, which was the entry of "the internet" into the world. I am very aware of being on both sides of a true revolution. It has ALREADY reshaped the world, changing living patterns, transportation, the global economy, education, and work. I have tried to write down my experiences and perceptions of this time, as I think the changes will be the obsession of future historians.

I would LOVE to see more writing (and fewer photographs) from millennials on their thoughts on the changes they are seeing. I'm probably not reading in the right places. I ask my great-nieces and nephews (20-somethings) questions on their opinions and analyses, and I can't extract anything from them. Likely because they've written me off as not having much of interest to their situations! I feel lucky because I was able to draw my mother (WW2 generation) into substantive conversations about feminism, war, work, etc. later on in her life.

 

[joeea]

Baby boomers have committed “generational plunder,” pillaging the nation’s economy, repeatedly cutting their own taxes, financing two wars with deficits, ignoring climate change, presiding over the death of America’s manufacturing core, and leaving future generations to clean up the mess they created.

from "A Generation of Sociopaths: How the Baby Boomers Betrayed America"

Got it! LOL!

It's always fun to bash a generation.

 

[Bestwifeever]

We never wanted kids, made the decision very early in our relationship. Yes, we were chastised and ridiculed by our family and friends at the time. We Have travelled and enjoyed are lives quite happily without them. You will not find them on your lawns or biting your ankles. We do not regret it either, when we look at how disrespectful some other people's kids are, it just reinforces we made the right decision.

Boomers were certainly lucky to be the first generation to have reliable birth control.

Unlucky to be the first generation to have drugs be a problem for middle class youth. I remember visiting a friend in the psych ward in 1967— she was 17.

It’s hard to get outside my own experiences to compare from a personal level but so many of the Gen-Xers in our families have really struggled—they were and are bright but the job opportunities just weren’t there for them. The millennials otoh all seem to be thriving.

 

[Beststash]

Got it! LOL!

It's always fun to bash a generation.

I could be more specific and put most of the fault on a segment of the Baby Boom not the entire generation but that would not be allowed on the forum.

However, suffice it to say that we (BB) inherited a country they we had no part in building, failed to appreciate it, and seized on all the benefits while leaving nothing or little behind. Kind of like a generational trust-fund baby

 

[Pellice]

Boomers were certainly lucky to be the first generation to have reliable birth control.

This is an excellent point and isn't emphasized enough. Single women's financial independence is closely linked to the ability to control their own reproduction. Options for distributing family resources were greatly increased. I try to imagine the US population without birth control, and I see it as a huge draw upon resources, and poor, and needy.

 

[ychuck46]

Perspective

I have always found the old adage to be true about myself, a Boomer born in '53 - "The harder I worked the luckier I got".

 

[joeea]

I could be more specific and put most of the fault on a segment of the Baby Boom not the entire generation but that would not be allowed on the forum.

Forum rules require you to lump an entire generation in your bashing, rather than just a segment?

Hmm, I've never heard that one before.

However, suffice it to say that we (BB) inherited a country they we had no part in building, failed to appreciate it, and seized on all the benefits while leaving nothing or little behind. Kind of like a generational trust-fund baby

Sure. You can say that you never appreciated it, that you are leaving nothing or little behind, and that you are a trust fund baby if you like.

You are laughably wrong regarding many of the boomers I know.

 

[Amethyst]

I would say young women today have far more freedom of choice and confidence in their own views, than in my day. Frankly, it was confusing to come of age, as a woman, in the 70s and 80s, with parents and bosses whose mores were laid down in the 1930s.

There was supposed to have been a "women's movement," but we didn't yet see a lot of moving and shaking by women. Those women who stood up for themselves, and for women in general, were labeled troublemakers or worse.

You were supposed to be "liberated," but this was just a euphemism for "having sex without marriage." Nothing to do with equal pay or speaking up for yourself.

You were still judged, by men and women, almost entirely on how pretty you were. And it wasn't even a secret - people would come right out and say stuff.

Sexual harassment - strictly meaning "boss asks you for sex in return for work advancement" - was frowned on, but every other form of sex discrimination and harassment was taken for granted, and you were a troublemaker if you spoke up about it.

I could go on, but women of my generation gradually laid the groundwork for many advancements enjoyed by young women today - just as my Mother's generation laid the groundwork for the 70's and 80's.