Ok then. I’d argue that a Boomer born in 1946 and one born in 1964 do not even inhabit the same galaxy. Not even close.
You’re falling into the trap.
In fact, as Jonathon Pontell pointed out in 1999 when he coined the phrase ‘Generation Jones,’ people born in the 2nd half of the Boomer era (which he definded as 1954-1964) had a very different ‘coming of age’ experience than those born in the prior years. And that difference shapes their world view, and unsurprisingly, their economic status.
He turned out to be far more prescient than he likely expected. No need to set forth all the reasons, you can do your own research.
But there is one little nugget I will share.
The economic disparities between those born prior to 1954 and those born after are stark. 10% of Boomers hold 75% of the generation’s wealth. Not much different than the stats of the entire economic pie. But that wealth is not evenly distributed. Not even close. Well past a majority of that top 10% of Boomers holding the wealth were born prior to 1954. About half of Boomers have virtually nothing saved for retirement. We can argue the reasons for that. But you can’t change that reality.
It’s no surprise, although it seems to be for the Boomer Bashers who don’t bother to actually look, that the fastest growing homeless segment in the U.S. are those 55-70.
That’s 2nd half Boomers and early Gen X. You can’t save the west if you’re homeless.
Hmm. Maybe if Gen X would get off their high horse and look a bit past 1964, they might find some natural ally’s with a bit more gray hair, but who are still spry enough to engage in the battle.
The generation thing is just another trap anyway that ‘they’ want you to embrace. Like sex, race, gay, straight, trans, DEM, GOP and a host of other labels, it’s just another way to stoke the divide between people, thereby ensuring that the likeminded stay in their own little world and never find each other.
It’s pathetic really that you fell. I’m assuming it was an accident. Call me and we’ll have a beer.
Thanks for reading. The Bashers who write crap like that somehow can’t seem to grasp the fact that the trap they are in is no different than the racial trap.
A big part of the reason nothing gets accomplished.
I also like to run them through the history of outsourcing jobs when they try and blame the Boomers. When the first jobs were outsourced (and it was a sponsored US govt program) the oldest Boomer was in 4th grade and the youngest wouldn’t be born for 10 years.
And by the time outsourcing was already starting to creat job losses, the oldest Boomer was about 21 and the youngest was in 6th grade.
So yeah. Clearly all their fault.
It is amusing how the Silent Generation (who actually were the genesis of most of the policies we hate) always seem to get a pass.
I'm sorry both of you, but people who grew up in the 80s have a very different view of the world than people who grew up in the 60s or 40s. We just do. Meanwhile, the differences between those of us a bit older and the Millennials and GenZers is vast and obvious. There are good reasons for this, well documented in books like Howe and Strauss's "Generations" and "The Fourth Turning Is Here".
Moreover, the Boomers certainly thought themselves a breed apart, better than all of us older or younger, vocally and rather unpleasantly, for decades...until they got old. Yeah, we noticed. The Millennial tendency to demonize the Boomers for everything is wrong and misplaced, but the Boomers made themselves easy targets for it through sheer attitude, long before the Millennials were born.
You can ignore the tools of historical analysis if you choose. You can ignore the obvious differences between very different groups of people if you choose. But they exist. I'm guessing in "MoodyP"'s case it's because he's a Boomer, based on the content of his comment. Since "She Speaks Truth" could not possibly be more than 20 or 25, I'll stack it up to tender youth and inexperience. :)
"Obvious differences between very different groups of people" ... like the person born on December 31, 1964 and the "very different" person born January 1, 1965? At least groups related to sex, race, and political persuasion are actually DIFFERENT. This is arbitrary, based on someone's concept of which years in history were pivot points. As I think I said before, that kind of perspective is best won from a significant historical distance, not from where the people who come up with these generational labels are working. I'll bet if you made up completely different generational groups broken down by different years, you could come up with all sorts of "obvious differences" between those groups too. And people would publish books about them, and they'd be just as irrelevant. But it's the tone your guest author had here, the condescending demonization of a vast swath of people based on the year they were born of all things -- it's nasty, divisive, and serves no one. If the West is to be saved, it will be people who think the same, not people who were all born at the same time.
I'm sorry you think that noticing the differences between people raised in the 80s and people in the 60, or the 40s, is "nasty". I think the differences between Madison's generation and Washington's were pretty acute, exceedingly well documented, and played out with dramatic effect in public life. But maybe that was anomalous.
I also note that our Boomer parents told us how special and unique they were for decades. Something tells me you might have noticed that too.
Maybe the Boomers were mistaken (since before I was born) and they're actually no different from the group Tom Brokaw dubbed "the Greatest Generation". I assume you see no differences between those two groups either, but you are certainly a distinct minority if so. It's all a bit like pretending there are no differences between southerners and yankees, or between French and English. It's kind of silly: a too-broad use of the idea that we should judge people "by the content of their character, not the color of their skin", a principle that is absolutely correct so far as it goes, but which does not address the obvious: that there are different cultures; that those are the collection of the preferences, viewpoints, and shared history of their members; and that reality affects outcomes. This does nothing to lessen King's point, but King's point was limited to the individual. He did not pretend that cultures don't exist.
How this is controversial I cannot imagine. Do you think yourself to be identical in all these respects to a 90 year old man from Afghanistan? That would just be silly. And the differences are deserving of study and application. You and MoodyP may be the only people on Earth who believe that Boomer culture did NOT change America, and Boomers have long assured us that they changed it for the better. Were they all delusional? Or was there actually something unique about them?
In any case, I really do expect better from you than to pretend that what we're talking about is the difference between people born a year apart. That is disingenuous to the point of obfuscation.
I think you would benefit from (and actually enjoy) Neil Howe's "The Fourth Turning Is Here". Neil, by the way, is a Boomer. (You do acknowledge the existence of Boomers, correct? They certainly acknowledged their own existence rather loudly for the last 60 years).
Hmmm. I do see a lot of anti-boomer rhetoric these days, but can't say as I recall seeing any pro-boomer rhetoric. Calling oneself unique and special sounds like a character issue, not a generational problem. I would gently point out that it is actually disingenuous to frame my comment as you did. Of course I did not claim that "noticing the differences between people" raised 40 years apart is "nasty." What IS nasty, as I said, was your guest author's tone and condescending demonization of boomers, which he keeps up throughout the article. And when you draw bright lines between groups of people as your author did, he deserves the criticism about the difference between people born a year apart. HE is the one who is drawing those lines, not me, in all fairness.
Historically, there is a significant affinity between each generation and its grandparents' generation. A bit of a cultural echo effect. And of course, literally every generation wants to do things differently than its parents.
Ok then. I’d argue that a Boomer born in 1946 and one born in 1964 do not even inhabit the same galaxy. Not even close.
You’re falling into the trap.
In fact, as Jonathon Pontell pointed out in 1999 when he coined the phrase ‘Generation Jones,’ people born in the 2nd half of the Boomer era (which he definded as 1954-1964) had a very different ‘coming of age’ experience than those born in the prior years. And that difference shapes their world view, and unsurprisingly, their economic status.
He turned out to be far more prescient than he likely expected. No need to set forth all the reasons, you can do your own research.
But there is one little nugget I will share.
The economic disparities between those born prior to 1954 and those born after are stark. 10% of Boomers hold 75% of the generation’s wealth. Not much different than the stats of the entire economic pie. But that wealth is not evenly distributed. Not even close. Well past a majority of that top 10% of Boomers holding the wealth were born prior to 1954. About half of Boomers have virtually nothing saved for retirement. We can argue the reasons for that. But you can’t change that reality.
It’s no surprise, although it seems to be for the Boomer Bashers who don’t bother to actually look, that the fastest growing homeless segment in the U.S. are those 55-70.
That’s 2nd half Boomers and early Gen X. You can’t save the west if you’re homeless.
Hmm. Maybe if Gen X would get off their high horse and look a bit past 1964, they might find some natural ally’s with a bit more gray hair, but who are still spry enough to engage in the battle.
The generation thing is just another trap anyway that ‘they’ want you to embrace. Like sex, race, gay, straight, trans, DEM, GOP and a host of other labels, it’s just another way to stoke the divide between people, thereby ensuring that the likeminded stay in their own little world and never find each other.
It’s pathetic really that you fell. I’m assuming it was an accident. Call me and we’ll have a beer.
I couldn’t agree more. Obsession with these nebulous categories, and the subsequent snotty attitudes… adds zero value.
Thanks for reading. The Bashers who write crap like that somehow can’t seem to grasp the fact that the trap they are in is no different than the racial trap.
A big part of the reason nothing gets accomplished.
I also like to run them through the history of outsourcing jobs when they try and blame the Boomers. When the first jobs were outsourced (and it was a sponsored US govt program) the oldest Boomer was in 4th grade and the youngest wouldn’t be born for 10 years.
And by the time outsourcing was already starting to creat job losses, the oldest Boomer was about 21 and the youngest was in 6th grade.
So yeah. Clearly all their fault.
It is amusing how the Silent Generation (who actually were the genesis of most of the policies we hate) always seem to get a pass.
I'm sorry both of you, but people who grew up in the 80s have a very different view of the world than people who grew up in the 60s or 40s. We just do. Meanwhile, the differences between those of us a bit older and the Millennials and GenZers is vast and obvious. There are good reasons for this, well documented in books like Howe and Strauss's "Generations" and "The Fourth Turning Is Here".
Moreover, the Boomers certainly thought themselves a breed apart, better than all of us older or younger, vocally and rather unpleasantly, for decades...until they got old. Yeah, we noticed. The Millennial tendency to demonize the Boomers for everything is wrong and misplaced, but the Boomers made themselves easy targets for it through sheer attitude, long before the Millennials were born.
You can ignore the tools of historical analysis if you choose. You can ignore the obvious differences between very different groups of people if you choose. But they exist. I'm guessing in "MoodyP"'s case it's because he's a Boomer, based on the content of his comment. Since "She Speaks Truth" could not possibly be more than 20 or 25, I'll stack it up to tender youth and inexperience. :)
"Obvious differences between very different groups of people" ... like the person born on December 31, 1964 and the "very different" person born January 1, 1965? At least groups related to sex, race, and political persuasion are actually DIFFERENT. This is arbitrary, based on someone's concept of which years in history were pivot points. As I think I said before, that kind of perspective is best won from a significant historical distance, not from where the people who come up with these generational labels are working. I'll bet if you made up completely different generational groups broken down by different years, you could come up with all sorts of "obvious differences" between those groups too. And people would publish books about them, and they'd be just as irrelevant. But it's the tone your guest author had here, the condescending demonization of a vast swath of people based on the year they were born of all things -- it's nasty, divisive, and serves no one. If the West is to be saved, it will be people who think the same, not people who were all born at the same time.
I'm sorry you think that noticing the differences between people raised in the 80s and people in the 60, or the 40s, is "nasty". I think the differences between Madison's generation and Washington's were pretty acute, exceedingly well documented, and played out with dramatic effect in public life. But maybe that was anomalous.
I also note that our Boomer parents told us how special and unique they were for decades. Something tells me you might have noticed that too.
Maybe the Boomers were mistaken (since before I was born) and they're actually no different from the group Tom Brokaw dubbed "the Greatest Generation". I assume you see no differences between those two groups either, but you are certainly a distinct minority if so. It's all a bit like pretending there are no differences between southerners and yankees, or between French and English. It's kind of silly: a too-broad use of the idea that we should judge people "by the content of their character, not the color of their skin", a principle that is absolutely correct so far as it goes, but which does not address the obvious: that there are different cultures; that those are the collection of the preferences, viewpoints, and shared history of their members; and that reality affects outcomes. This does nothing to lessen King's point, but King's point was limited to the individual. He did not pretend that cultures don't exist.
How this is controversial I cannot imagine. Do you think yourself to be identical in all these respects to a 90 year old man from Afghanistan? That would just be silly. And the differences are deserving of study and application. You and MoodyP may be the only people on Earth who believe that Boomer culture did NOT change America, and Boomers have long assured us that they changed it for the better. Were they all delusional? Or was there actually something unique about them?
In any case, I really do expect better from you than to pretend that what we're talking about is the difference between people born a year apart. That is disingenuous to the point of obfuscation.
I think you would benefit from (and actually enjoy) Neil Howe's "The Fourth Turning Is Here". Neil, by the way, is a Boomer. (You do acknowledge the existence of Boomers, correct? They certainly acknowledged their own existence rather loudly for the last 60 years).
Hmmm. I do see a lot of anti-boomer rhetoric these days, but can't say as I recall seeing any pro-boomer rhetoric. Calling oneself unique and special sounds like a character issue, not a generational problem. I would gently point out that it is actually disingenuous to frame my comment as you did. Of course I did not claim that "noticing the differences between people" raised 40 years apart is "nasty." What IS nasty, as I said, was your guest author's tone and condescending demonization of boomers, which he keeps up throughout the article. And when you draw bright lines between groups of people as your author did, he deserves the criticism about the difference between people born a year apart. HE is the one who is drawing those lines, not me, in all fairness.
Awesome!
Millennials are NeoBoomers
Historically, there is a significant affinity between each generation and its grandparents' generation. A bit of a cultural echo effect. And of course, literally every generation wants to do things differently than its parents.