OK, boomers; look at what we've left for our grandkids
By Ron Friesen / Herald Forum
I am a boomer who has had to look in the mirror. No, not the bathroom mirror which shows how old I am. (Do you say, OMG! How did this happen?) But the mirror in our mind that causes us to reflect on where we are and how we got here.
I had to admit to a painful reality during a conversation with my 15-year-old grandson. That reality is this: In 1968 when I graduated from high school, living in a meager single-income family, I could earn scholarships and make enough money working summers to put myself through private college and get a bachelors degree. This opportunity is a pipe dream for him.
In todays dollars, I had the opportunity to earn close to $50,000 in local scholarships, and a $17,000 college music scholarship. I had a $34,000 National Student Defense Loan at zero interest, and a work/study program while in school. In addition, my unskilled labor summer job in a lumber mill paid what would no equal $26.80 an hour.
I had a 3.76 high school GPA, so very good, but not spectacular. I was in a blue-collar community in Southern Oregon, and yet I qualified. This was normal then. So how has my generation done providing these same opportunities for our kids and grandkids? You tell me.
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https://www.heraldnet.com/opinion/forum-ok-boomers-look-at-what-weve-left-for-our-grandkids/
onecaliberal
(32,484 posts)Over and over and over.
True Blue American
(17,972 posts)And we watched it happen. Took the side of Union busters. Now many are struggling to be old enough for SS and Medicare! Yet they vote Republican!
Skittles
(152,964 posts)I never voted for a fucking repuke in my entire life
onecaliberal
(32,484 posts)Women are going to save us.
brush
(53,471 posts)to take on more loans than needed is more to blame than an entire generation. Banks, and colleges also with their ever increasing costs are to blame.
And don't forget the republican party's constant moves to cut education funding.
What the hell is up with this OP? You want to start the generation wars here again on DU? Place the blame where it belongs.
Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin
(107,085 posts)Sounds like he's trying to shame his fellow boomers into doing something better for the next generation.
brush
(53,471 posts)saddled on finanicially inexperienced students...MANY OF THEM BOOMERS. There are some boomers still paying off loans believe it or not.
Stop with the easy go-to cliche of blaming an entire generation for the student loan crisis. What generation was in charge at banks and universities who were pushing these loans on students back when boomers were in college? It sure wasn't boomers...try the greatest generation bankers and university administrators, not that entire generation either. But the boomers always get the blame.
KPN
(15,587 posts)The writer is right. We let our kids down as a whole. That doesn't mean you or I need to take it personally. I did what I could to point out and get attention to what was going on in the 80's, 90's and since as I'm sure you may have. The truth is, most of my generation went along for the ride.
So, yeah, I don't take it personally, but I do feel some level of shame being a part of what in the 60s seemed like the greatest generation ever, but could well turn out being among the worst. Go figure.
ps -- Boomers make up the greatest share of Republicans by far. They do deserve the largest share of the blame no doubt.
brush
(53,471 posts)who saddled boomers with predatory and odious loan terms? It didn't start with boomers or will it end with boomers or GenXers, or Millennials or GenZers. It's a silly, easy cliche to blame everything on boomers. Another poster on this thread pointed out that the greatest generation blamed boomers for losing wars that they started, for being drugged out hippies protesting everything. But boomers are the ones who paid for their medicare and social security yet get blamed for everything.
Bullshit again. The entire greatest generation wasn't to blame for starting the predatory and odious loan terms for boomer students. Just the bankers and college administrator who did it are to blame, not the entire greatest generation.
Same with the boomers who were the first generation victimized by predatory student loans but now get the blame for every ill in our society. And what about the republican party that continually has pushed to cut college funding?
Stop repeating easy cliches that blame a whole generation. Some boomers are still paying off student loans, for God's sake.
KPN
(15,587 posts)the author of the OP. The Boomer generation has had leadership for 30 years now. That was plenty of time to see the flaws in our tax and economic policy and, as a group correct them. As a cohort group, the largest cohort group I might add, we did not do that. Rather things spiraled further out of control creating greater imbalance and inequity over that timeframe.
I dont see your point. There is nothing personal about this. It is just fact. Boomers have been in charge over the majority of the time in which capitalism ran amuck. As a boomer, I have been furious about the trend for 30 years. It hasnt really changed. Sorry to disagree, but its not BS.
brush
(53,471 posts)block, all in lockstep. Being a boomer you should know that better than most. The boomers were split in the '60s...anti-war protestors, hard hats, hippies, young republicans etc...and they've remained split along the way. Not all are republicans or Democrats or Indies. They don't vote or legislate or govern as a block, and neither has any other generation ever, or ever will.
It a silly cliche IMO to blame what's wrong now on boomers, just as it was sillly to blame what came before them with the greatest generations. That whole term, "on their watch", is just as silly.
It's more accurate to attribute blame to the policy setters, the political parties in charge who pass the laws and enforce them. IMO that points massively to Reagan, Bush, Gingrich's Contract with America and Bush again, and the republicans who pass policies and tax cuts for the rich when in power, versus the Democratic Party that install policies and laws that benefit regular people...i.e. FDR's New Deal policies, Truman integrated armed services and generally gave republicans hell. LBJ helped regular citizens with the Great Society policies...Medicare, Medicaid, Pell grants, the tremendously important civil rights legislation, the Clinton's did their part, Obama got healthcare passed for millions.
So I say again that it's BS to say things fell apart on boomer's, an entire generation's watch, rather than placing the blame on actual ones who enacted the policies which negatively affected people's lives. And there are republican boomers, Democrats and Indies, same with GenXers, Millennials and GenZers. And they all vote to put Dems, or republicans in power. And we know who benefits when on republican's WATCH.
KPN
(15,587 posts)cohesive voting, governing, policy-making block, all in lockstep or anything like that. In fact, I specifically stated otherwise and that Republicans were primarily to blame. But blame wasnt my point.
My point was about my personal feelings about my generation. I identify with and actually resemble quite closely the author in terms of life experience and feeling about the role of our generation and simply expressed that feeling. They are my feelings, not yours. No need for terms like silly or bullshit.
True Blue American
(17,972 posts)But modify. Not all boomers voted Republican. We are not including the voters who voted Democratic. Millions did.
We have an our fated electoral College that needs to be abolished. We need fairness on selecting the Court. Not at one evil Politicians hands.
We need a flat out person vote. That should be the end of it. No electoral vote that is corrupt and allows tiny populations to over rule.
True Blue American
(17,972 posts)Of the economy happened on the boomers watch who predominately voted for Politicians who hated Unions, complained about programs for the elderly and still voted for Republicans who believed that?
No one is saying all boomers are to blame. Millions were.
It is far from stereotyping. Now the young are paying the price. The last, worst vote was for Trump! It started with Reagan, Bush, we elected a Democrat, Clinton who was cleaning up their mess. Then the Supreme Court chose Junior. An unending war,paid for with the blood of our young, a lie of a war. Then we elected Obama, again Trump.
Now we have Biden, who has accomplished miracles with just 2 Senators.Yet is blamed, ridiculed, too old. Want to bet it will last? A Republican House will mean nothing will be done. Along with a Republican Court.
True Blue American
(17,972 posts)During the early 80s. We took out a loan, left our money to earn 15% for 4 years. This was at the advice of our bank. You had one year after they graduated to pay it off.
DURHAM D
(32,595 posts)You know - they lost that war that the Greatest started. Meanwhile the boomers paid for Medicare for the Greatest.
Then all subsequent generations found reasons to trash the Boomers.
I guess they just should not have ever been born.
jftr - I am not a boomer.
Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin
(107,085 posts)But as far as the expensive tuition goes that started in the eighties with the Reagan revolution. The boomers didn't start this but those like Newt Gingrich and others helped it along.
DURHAM D
(32,595 posts)Trashing all Boomers is exactly what Republicans want you to do. Nice play
Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin
(107,085 posts)More of what it's saying is we have to do something to fix the problem.
And please read what else I've posted on this thread. It's all there. I don't need to repeat myself.
appalachiablue
(41,052 posts)Thanks Cali, Republicans and 'Reagan Democrats.' Not here.
brush
(53,471 posts)Last edited Sat Sep 10, 2022, 03:27 PM - Edit history (1)
force behind cutting funding for education.
True Blue American
(17,972 posts)Chainfire
(17,305 posts)Warpy
(110,908 posts)and they were far, far less than yours. Male students could work part time. I had to work full time for less money in order to survive.
However, my parents made enough to offer considerable help. That's the main difference in my case.
We didn't leave this shit to them, cheap labor conservatives who refused to raise our wages for 50 years did that, whether they were Republicans or "socially liberal, fiscally conservative" Democrats. They all fucked us over three ways from Sunday and they never asked our permission to do it.
Our grandchildren will have a better world in one way, at least: they won't face the labor oversupply that allowed these cheap bastards to depress wages. We're aging out, retiring, and dying off. There won't be ten applicants for every job when they hit the labor market.
Yes, automation and AI will cut into a lot of what we did for work, but that's not a bad thing, ending mind numbing and repetitious work.
These days, I tell bright kids to consider a 2 year degree in a field they can stand so they can pay the bills. Life is screwy and they never know where they'll end up and I certainly went through enough career changes to make anybody dizzy. Being able to pay the bills will present them with choices that just jumping into an expensive 4 year degree program with a mountain of debt won't give them, especially when they're not passionately academic in nature.
Every single generation comes into the world with a shit sandwich of problems the preceding generations were too busy to solve. We had our own to deal with, like 30 years of wondering if every new day would be nuclear Armageddon, having our wages depressed below subsistence, and watching our jobs exported by a bunch of greedheads. We also managed to make civil rights progress at the grass roots level, no mean task in a country full of hidebound conservatives.
So, Gen Z, we're sorry about your own shit sandwich. You'll be sorry about the one you leave your kids and grandkids. It's the human condition.
Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin
(107,085 posts)murielm99
(30,656 posts)Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin
(107,085 posts)You response should have been "My situation was not as rosy as the writer."
You don't know anything about me.
murielm99
(30,656 posts)That was Warpy. But I do agree with her.
KPN
(15,587 posts)about you. But much of the middle class economic decline has occurred under our watch as a whole. And keep in mind that boomers make up the largest cohort group in the GQP.
brush
(53,471 posts)for every ill in society.
KPN
(15,587 posts)My response to you upthread suffices.
brush
(53,471 posts)MichMan
(11,787 posts)Meaning they will be the ones having to pay for it anyway.
cksmithy
(230 posts)wage, when I was looking for work, was $1.76 which would equal $13.44 in today's dollars, lower than the current minimum wage in California, which is now $14.00 (according to the internet). In 1970, instead of taking a job as a state certified dental assistant, which I went to school for a year and passed state exams, I went to work for Pacific Bell for $91.00 as week as a telephone operator, (38.5 hours) which as a union job was a whole lot more than minimum wage. Also, walked in a picket line while we went on strike in my first year. My husband was making $2.00 and hour and Nixon had a wage freeze for two years. We were not rich, working class but could feed ourselves and pay rent. I really didn't know anybody who voted for Reagan as Governor and certainly not at president. Boomers are not all from the same year, I was born in 1951, to vote in Reagan as president, your birth date has to be at least 1961-1962. I certainly didn't vote for Reagan or any republican. Marched in the November 15, 1969 anti war demonstration in San Francisco. I know I didn't cause it, I think it has more to do with the "Greed is Good" philosophy of the 1980's. Anyways, anyhow, that's what I know for myself. The people around me and myself (not necessarily my family) tried to makes things better. I am so distraught with climate change, crazies being elected, the cost of a good higher education, I truly worry for the future.
True Blue American
(17,972 posts)Martin68
(22,671 posts)Republican Party that has year by year decreased funding of state colleges, supported for-profit institutions at the expense of public ones, supported for-profit academic lenders, fought against affirmative action at the higher eduction level, and created a hostile environment for education in general. I live in Virginia, and it was Republicans who drastically reduced state funding of the Commonwealths's public universities.
So, you can blame it on Republican boomers, but I resent the both sides-ism that implicates ALL boomers in any of the disasters the GOP has visited upon this nation.
Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin
(107,085 posts)brush
(53,471 posts)funding over the decades. And boomers are not all republicans. And some Genxers are, as are millennials.
jaxexpat
(6,703 posts)But you need to remember, we were the first generation raised on tee vee. Victims of sweetened cold cereals and Saturday morning cartoons, both consumed on the living room floor.
Reaganism saw an obvious encouragement on the part of "the man" to dismiss the value of sociological facts uncovered in the sixties. It was chic to be square then. Hatred and intolerance were taken as birth rights for certain types, the mantle worn with a prideful sneer. Well, those single minded types were the ones who often saw the greatest financial successes and they had no interest in sharing any of it. They did, however, gleefully hide 'neath the myth of American generosity to assuage their consciences.
When conscience is denied, the whole of the society suffers. Even Christianity became just another get rich quck scheme for the impatient faithful.
In a nutshell, there were too many "Kiss" fans and not enough "Grateful Dead".
Martin68
(22,671 posts)I agree with the Kiss fans vs the Dead fans point. Yes, there were many in our generation who were conservatives and voted for Nixon, Reagan, the two Bushes, and Trump. But the problem wasn't boomers or x-ers, or y-ers or any particular generation, but the people who voted for the Republican Party (or didn't vote). The Democrats have a large majority in the nation, but Democrats are known for being lazy voters. Sound familiar? Distrust of the system, and the knowledge that the game was crooked, discouraged as many in the boomer generation as the "unknown quantities" in subsequent generations (OK that was an algebra joke. I'm sorry. I said I was a boomer).
We disrupted the Democratic Chicago Convention to express our outrage about the Vietnam War, and the Democratic Party's major role in prosecuting that war. We? Well, not "me." I voted for Eugene McCarthy, a war hero, a liberal, and a powerful voice against the Vietnam War. Nixon won every single state except Massachusetts because he had announced that he had a "secret plan" to end the War. His secret plan was - "Run Away!" The fact is, the Democratic Party strongly supported the war (our president, LBJ, was running it). They National Guard shot some of us at Kent State. The FBI infiltrated anti-war groups kept files on them all. The FBI bugged Martin Luther King because he had made one or two mildly critical statements about the war. We watched John F. Kennedy, Bobby Kennedy, Martin L. King and Malcolm-X get gunned down by "whoever."
A lot of us boomers were good people: idealistic, activist, and well-educated. Every generation has a conservative element, a liberal one, and many in the middle who are hard to motivate. Our enemy, is MAGAs, not a particular generation. I think a lot of boomers learned something from our own history, and it has made us hyper-aware of the importance of engaging in the political system, no matter how stressful that might be. That means voting, at least. We have re-engaged and are doing what we can to fix the country before it's too late. Sorry for the rant.
True Blue American
(17,972 posts)By this guy. Governor Rhodes. Republican.
https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2001-mar-05-me-33652-story.html
shrike3
(3,268 posts)I've seen it. If you haven't, that's great. My experience is just that, my experience.
True Blue American
(17,972 posts)As they gained money and power.
vercetti2021
(10,150 posts)Remember the Gen X and my dumbass Gen also helped keeping this crap going too.
shrike3
(3,268 posts)This pretty much describes the white boomers I know. I'm astounded at the number of former classmates, high school and college, who turned out to be darned hateful. And this are people who had good lives. Everybody turned out pretty well. And yet they do not want to cut the younger generation ANY breaks. They are convinced the world is full of younger people -- plus liberals in general -- who want to take their hard earned money and get something for nothing. "Theft" is what they call Biden's loan forgiveness program.
Black boomers are a different story. They get it. I am speaking only of my own experience. Someone else may have a totally different one. That is all.