Will Baby Boomers be the Luckiest?

[Andre1969]

My mom's dad didn't have a car until 1959, he was 58. I bought my first at 18 when I went to commute to college/then back to work.

That got me thinking. On my Dad's side of the family, Grandmom and Granddad didn't get a car until sometime in the 1950's. It was a used 1949 Ford. Their first brand-new car was a 1957 Ford Fairlane 500. By that time, Granddad was 43, and Grandmom was 40.

Now, on my Mom's side of the family, Granddad gotten some old Model-A, 2-door sedan as his first car, but I forget how old he was. When he met Grandmom in 1946, at the age of 30, he had a 1940 Chrysler...Royal, I think. He taught Grandmom how to drive. Their first brand-new car was a 1949 Pontiac, but it was a demonstrator with some miles on it so they got a deal. At that point, he would have been around 33, and she would have only been around 25. They had a couple used cars after that...'52 Buick in 1955, '55 Pontiac in 1958, but then in 1960, they got a brand-new Chevy wagon, although Grandmom's aunt helped with that.

For comparison, my Mom's first brand-new car was a 1966 Pontiac Catalina convertible, bought when she was only 17! But, she saved up a third waiting tables at the Hot Shoppes, borrowed a third from Grandmom and Granddad, and the other third from an aunt. My Dad never did have a brand-new car, but about the closest he ever came was a 1964 Ford Galaxie, bought around 1966, when he was 20. Oh, wait, he did buy an '03 Regal, an ex-rental, at the end of the '03 model year. It had about 19,500 miles on it.

My first brand-new car was a 2000 Dodge Intrepid, bought in late 1999, when I was 29. I also bought a 2012 Dodge Ram, at the end of the '12 model year, and got a good deal on it because it was also an unpopular model...regular cab, long bed. Everybody wants extended or crew cabs nowadays.

I don't know what kind of car the typical Millenial is buying. Of the batch I know, one got a hand-me-down 2002 Malibu back in 2014, but then soon got a new Civic. He totaled it, and now has a Hyundai, but I forget it it's an Accent or Elantra. This guy's around 26, works two jobs. A few Millenials I know have never owned a car, and some are in their 30's now. One got his Dad's old Toyota Yaris as a hand me down. And one bought a brand-new Suburu Impreza, but it got repossessed when he lost his job. Since then he had a beater Durango and then an Escape that wasn't much better. Now he has nothing.

 

[GravitySucks]

Us Boomers have it better than those before us and worse than those after us.
As for leaving a broke planet - look at old tv shows like Odd Couple of Nightstalker. The air was thicker in NY and Chicago then than LA on a bad day is now. No one litters anymore. River front land here was where the poor lived because the water smelled, now it's prime real estate.d

I'm optimistic AI and Fusion energy will transform the current economyand living standards to the better before I ( hope to) leave the planet.

 

[RobbieB]

I feel lucky. Even through the Carter years when I had a double digit mortgage and got downsized from my first job out of school. Yeah that job was with a "mega-corp" and was the only place that offered a pension (at 20 years) but I was gone in four and a half.

Big deal, get another job. Lucky I was in California and not my home town of Detroit.

Now retired and living well -

 

[free2020]

I am almost through reading Factfulness, by Hans Rosling. The author's primary message is that the world is doing much better than almost everyone believes. He uses hard data from the UN and other sources to show that most of the world's population has moved out of extreme poverty. Because of that, parent's no longer want to have lots of children; rather they now dream of having 2 or 3 children and being able to send their kids to school. And the data supports this. The period of rapid population growth has already started to slow down. The cohort of people aged 1 - 15 years old is nearly flat.

I am learning a lot from the book and that is changing my perspectives of the world we live in. He isn't trying say everything is wonderful, rather he focuses on the slow be very steady progress we've made at reducing infant mortality and moving people and their economies into the middle class. The changes in India and China in the just the last 50 years are amazing. And all of these people are becoming consumers!

Climate change is a big concern. Ocean pollution and over fishing are major issues too. I'd throw in the cost of higher education here in the US and the continue shift of risk from companies to individuals as issues that may impact the younger generations.

Fascinating book that I am currently reading. The numerous wrong instincts we’re beholden to is mind numbing. The other book similar is Enlightenment now by Stephen Pinker.

 

[Red Badger]

https://ourworldindata.org/uploads/2013/05/World-Poverty-Since-1820.png

Basically, extreme poverty has been halved in the past ~20 years. It is an acceleration of a trend going back generations. But you'll never read this in a headline. Never.

Boomers also dominate charitable giving. Another fact that will remain unknown.

Nixon, goaded by us planet killing boomers, created the EPA. US rivers no longer catch on fire.

We're getting there. It just takes a while. The "if it bleeds, it leads" media mindset doesn't help.

Every generation will have pluses and warts. I prefer not to disparage, begrudge, or envy. That behavior wastes time and energy. I have finite quantities of both.

 

[MuirWannabe]

What if the "birth lottery" is actually a choice in some alternate plane of existence about when and where to be born into a human life on Earth? If, when making that choice, I know the general human life conditions of all places and time periods, which one would I pick?



Assume I'm not allowed to pick the particular individual I would become, or my parents, rather only the country of birth and the approximate year. Presumably I would pick an interesting (but not too interesting) time period, one with food and shelter abundant, relatively minimal suffering, unlikely to be forced into hard labor, lots of opportunity to learn, freedom to make my own choices, and odds that favor a long enough life for many experiences.



According to data in Wikipedia, 74.5% of people born in London between 1730 and 1749 died before the age of five. Choosing that period and location to be born into would mean I'd likely die before experiencing much. I doubt survival odds were much better elsewhere on the planet then, or anywhere during earlier eras. 20th Century US or Europe looks much better as a choice. Narrowing that, if I wanted to minimize the risk of dying in a war, I'd choose late enough to avoid the World Wars, maybe Vietnam too, so maybe late 1950s as the chosen time?



For us here now, that particular selection involves hindsight of course, plus a guess about the future. Perhaps being born in 2019 would be an even better choice, we can't know for sure, yet. If one's outlook for the 21st and 22nd Centuries is less bright, being a US Baby Boomer sounds like a very reasonable pick.

This sounds like a good plot line for one of TromboneAl’s next books. I’d watch the movie. Which timeline would I pick? Would it work out as expected? Turn the page to find out.

 

[marko]

What if the "birth lottery" is actually a choice in some alternate plane of existence about when and where to be born into a human life on Earth? If, when making that choice, I know the general human life conditions of all places and time periods, which one would I pick?

My mom said that as an infant I cried all the time.

All in jest, I told her that I looked around and, realizing that I was born to these two fools, I couldn't help but crying. I was going: "Get me back! This was NOT, I repeat, NOT the plan!!"

 

[Cut-Throat]

I feel lucky. Even through the Carter years when I had a double digit mortgage and got downsized from my first job out of school. Yeah that job was with a "mega-corp" and was the only place that offered a pension (at 20 years) but I was gone in four and a half.

Big deal, get another job. Lucky I was in California and not my home town of Detroit.

Now retired and living well -

What exact year did you get 'downsized'?

 

[Svensk Anga]

Seems like many here seem to forget that we actually HAVE been at war the past ~20 years. As an X'er, and in the industry that I'm in, most of the people that I know have done a few years in the sandbox. Unfortunately some didn't come back.

The difference is that that those who fought (and died) in the sandbox were volunteers whereas a lot of those who fought (and died) in the jungle and the peninsula were there because the government insisted that they be there. That there is now a choice is progress.



One must keep in mind that their perception is largely shaped by the media and it is the media's job to keep the viewers/readers alarmed and therefore tuning in/buying subscriptions to get the latest developments. Reports of "all is well" do not draw viewers and so do not bring in the advertising dollars. Politicians too need to motivate the electorate by emphasizing whatever might be concerning. Otherwise, there is no demand for politicians to fix anything. No need to fix things, no need to contribute to campaigns, no need to volunteer for the candidate.... This really trashes the aspiring public servant's self esteem.



A parting thought:


"On what principle is it, that when we see nothing but improvement behind us, we are to expect nothing but deterioration before us?" Thomas Babington Macaulay, Review of Southey’s Colloquies on Society

 

[Cut-Throat]

The difference is that that those who fought (and died) in the sandbox were volunteers whereas a lot of those who fought (and died) in the jungle and the peninsula were there because the government insisted that they be there. That there is now a choice is progress.

Oh, there is a draft currently -- It is a 'Selective Service' based on Economics --- Rich kids don't go to war like a lot of them did in the 1960s... The have nots elect to 'volunteer' because it is one of their few options.. The 'Haves' have lots of options and no longer serve anymore.


So, yeah, it is a 'choice' -- If you believe that one!

 

[RobbieB]

What exact year did you get 'downsized'?

1983. Technically I was "spun off" or "sold off" I guess. The big Co. sold off my division and to make it more attractive (less cost) fired as many employees as possible before the sale.

 

[imoldernu]

Will Baby Boomers be the Luckiest?

Hmm... seems to me that that's already been handled. Takes one to know one... 1936.

 

[Cut-Throat]

1983. Technically I was "spun off" or "sold off" I guess. The big Co. sold off my division and to make it more attractive (less cost) fired as many employees as possible before the sale.

I thought so. So, to be specific you were downsized in the Reagan Years, as Downsizing was not even a verb in the 1970s.

 

[joeea]

We'll see how bad the boomers really screwed up the climate and the national debt soon enough I imagine.

It's always fun to blame an entire generation for something.

 

[Winemaker]

That got me thinking. On my Dad's side of the family, Grandmom and Granddad didn't get a car until sometime in the 1950's. It was a used 1949 Ford. Their first brand-new car was a 1957 Ford Fairlane 500. By that time, Granddad was 43, and Grandmom was 40.

Now, on my Mom's side of the family, Granddad gotten some old Model-A, 2-door sedan as his first car, but I forget how old he was. When he met Grandmom in 1946, at the age of 30, he had a 1940 Chrysler...Royal, I think. He taught Grandmom how to drive. Their first brand-new car was a 1949 Pontiac, but it was a demonstrator with some miles on it so they got a deal. At that point, he would have been around 33, and she would have only been around 25. They had a couple used cars after that...'52 Buick in 1955, '55 Pontiac in 1958, but then in 1960, they got a brand-new Chevy wagon, although Grandmom's aunt helped with that.

For comparison, my Mom's first brand-new car was a 1966 Pontiac Catalina convertible, bought when she was only 17! But, she saved up a third waiting tables at the Hot Shoppes, borrowed a third from Grandmom and Granddad, and the other third from an aunt. My Dad never did have a brand-new car, but about the closest he ever came was a 1964 Ford Galaxie, bought around 1966, when he was 20. Oh, wait, he did buy an '03 Regal, an ex-rental, at the end of the '03 model year. It had about 19,500 miles on it.

My first brand-new car was a 2000 Dodge Intrepid, bought in late 1999, when I was 29. I also bought a 2012 Dodge Ram, at the end of the '12 model year, and got a good deal on it because it was also an unpopular model...regular cab, long bed. Everybody wants extended or crew cabs nowadays.

I don't know what kind of car the typical Millenial is buying. Of the batch I know, one got a hand-me-down 2002 Malibu back in 2014, but then soon got a new Civic. He totaled it, and now has a Hyundai, but I forget it it's an Accent or Elantra. This guy's around 26, works two jobs. A few Millenials I know have never owned a car, and some are in their 30's now. One got his Dad's old Toyota Yaris as a hand me down. And one bought a brand-new Suburu Impreza, but it got repossessed when he lost his job. Since then he had a beater Durango and then an Escape that wasn't much better. Now he has nothing.

My son has several friends, who at 34, living in NYC, do not have a car or ever owned one. One of them has a father that owns 2 car dealerships.

 

[brewer12345]

I am stuck paying the Boomers' tab and their damn kids want to tell me how to live my life.

 

[Amethyst]

There have always been two kinds of people*:

Those who waste time blaming their troubles on some group or other (different from identifying, and dealing with, an actual culprit); and

Those who deal with the challenges in front of them, whether on their own, or with the help of other groups.

*Actually there are 8 billion types of people, but I could only list two.

 

[joeea]

I am stuck paying the Boomers' tab and their damn kids want to tell me how to live my life.

You're the one paying my tab? Terrific!

I guess I should offer some sort of thanks here? Meh.

Feel free to ignore the kids.

 

[brewer12345]

You're the one paying my tab? Terrific!

I guess I should offer some sort of thanks here? Meh.

Feel free to ignore the kids.

Unfortunately the kids are numerous enough to have the votes while also being idiots, at least collectively.

 

[TDub]

Personally, I don't see a lot of use for comparing "generational luck" insofar as it encourages generational warfare in a society where many forces are trying to polarize and divide us on as many fronts as possible..

This.

I’m a millennial. I love my generation, I love boomers, I love gen xers. We’re all just humans making mistakes, enjoying triumphs, playing the hands we were dealt. And most are just trying to find happiness and meaning. At least that’s what I’ve encountered in my few years on earth.

Peace!

 

[Al in Ohio]

I think the pre baby boomers (parents of baby boomers are the luckiest). My Dad was too young for WW2 and too old for Vietnam but worked for corporations that still had a pension and profit sharing plus he then started his own Roth and IRAs and retirement funds. He had the full four legged stool and so did my Mom. Plus salary and wages compared to COL were higher than they are now. His generation also has the longest life expectancy. Mine is slipping downward now and less than theirs.

 

[Amethyst]

Well, at least it sounds as if you'll likely inherit!

My parents, born in the 'teens, accumulated little during their lifetimes. Social Security came about when they were young adults and proved a Godsend. Mom remembered my grandfather dying young in 1932, his wife and kids with no social safety net and my grandmother and mother (then 14) taking crummy jobs to survive.

Husband's parents, similar histories (his had been turn-of-the-century babies). Father gone, young families struggling; hard times, until luck and hard work pulled them through.

It's just too tempting (read: easy) to generalize based on what we personally see - and click on.

I think the pre baby boomers (parents of baby boomers are the luckiest). My Dad was too young for WW2 and too old for Vietnam but worked for corporations that still had a pension and profit sharing plus he then started his own Roth and IRAs and retirement funds. He had the full four legged stool and so did my Mom. Plus salary and wages compared to COL were higher than they are now. His generation also has the longest life expectancy. Mine is slipping downward now and less than theirs.

 

[ziggy29]

I think the pre baby boomers (parents of baby boomers are the luckiest). My Dad was too young for WW2 and too old for Vietnam but worked for corporations that still had a pension and profit sharing plus he then started his own Roth and IRAs and retirement funds.

You forgot to mention that they could get many of these good jobs without a college degree. My parents were in the same boat (1935).

 

[MichaelB]

Unfortunately the kids are numerous enough to have the votes while also being idiots, at least collectively.

I don’t think any generation has a lock on idiocy. It seems to be one of the most non-discriminating and equally distributed attributes affecting us. No matter how you slice it, race, creed, color, gender, age, etc ... we all have our fair share.

Personally, I don't see a lot of use for comparing "generational luck" insofar as it encourages generational warfare in a society where many forces are trying to polarize and divide us on as many fronts as possible.

I agree. We all seems to be more aware of our own challenges, obstacles and effort than those of everyone else’s. Too easy to fall into the quagmire of who has it better.

One thing we can safely say is in the US the standard of living has steadily improved, and continues to do so.

 

[joeea]

Unfortunately the kids are numerous enough to have the votes while also being idiots, at least collectively.

Kids! I don't know what's wrong with these kids today!
Kids! Who can understand anything they say?
Kids! They are disobedient, disrespectful oafs!
Noisy, crazy, sloppy, lazy, loafers!
While we're on the subject.
Kids! You can talk and talk till your face is blue!
Kids! But they still just do what they want to do!
Why can't they be like we were, perfect in every way?
What's the matter with kids today?