Gen Xers - Did you always know that we were on the cusp ?

[FirstLight]

Just the other day i was having a conversation with a good friend of mine from college. we both graduated HS in the late 80s, and were looking back on how our generation stood on the edge between old and new...

Life and high school in the 80s were dramatically different, this was before metal detectors and litigation and the paranioa that exist now.
...and we spoke about how in some way we knew that our lives were the last of a good time, like something was coming that would change the face of our world. Mostly, at that time we were afraid about Nuclear War - Regan and Yeltsin sacred the hell out of us, and almost every kid in junior year had to write an essay for World Cultures class on how we would go about steeling the issues between the us and russia. Overwhelmingly, i recall so many in my class saying that if we just recognized the HUMANITY in our enemies, then the rest of our issues were easier to solve. ya, not your regular 9/11 thinking

My friend and i recalled that we used to talk about how different the world was going to be when OUR generation came into power - when it was more laid back and less about these stodgy old white men addicted to their power. We liked Clinton & Gore (even if they were not our contemporaries) because they had the attitude of where we wanted our society to go... innovation, eco-consciousness, and peace (ya well, we didn't quite understand our role in kosovo or somalia, but technically we are at peace for that decade)
the worm turned in 2000...when the old, power-drunk, white males decided they were not going to turn over the keys to the kingdom.
talk about disenfranchised!
How many of us just decided to screw it and dive back into extended adolescence? How convenient that's when Xbox was invented.

so our generation was supposed to be coming into it's own right about now...instead, we have an aging workforce that can't move on to the next phase of their own lives because they need to survive...and we are either losing jobs and homes and livelihoods (so much for going to college, right?) Normally in a tribe or community, the progression of age leads each generation to its next phase of life. but here we are, sitting at the peak of our age-group, and we are stalled.
Not only that, but it looks like we may have to hold the fort while the rest of the world implodes, so we are looking at some hard road ahead...

My question is: Did you know? Did you recognize at some point in your growing up that our generation was the last of it's kind?
we got to enjoy childhood in the 70s & 80s, at the height of 20th century prosperity and ease...when did you first realize that you were seeing the end of an age?

and, the next question: How do you plan on stepping into the void ahead?

[Rex]

1. I knew at 13 (the Reagan Era) that if we didn't hold accountable our

highest elected officials...one day we would pay for it. Now we are going to pay for it.

[maryellen99]

2. Amen

I knew republicans were bad news when I was 9 back in 1980. I cried when Reagan was elected.

[FirstLight]

4. scary, huh?

I can remember the actual fear of him dropping the bomb because he talked like such an absolutist... he'd be a tea partier by definition now, wouldn't he?

[CarmanK]

12. ME TOO! I tried to warn people. I could see the hate on the rise!

As a community activist in the '80's and 90's, I could see the attitudes of public turn toward hatred of the "other", of the poor and the disdain for those lazy people who had babies out of wedlock and needed public assistance to survive. Reagan spread hate. He demonized workers and unions. Hell is too good for him. But then again he was so good at the message of destruction, he's probably is doing quite well in Dante's inferno. Clinton was dysfunctional, he couldn't keep his pants zipped and he gave our nation over to the rising ideologues with his NAFTA, AFTA AND GRAFTA. He did nothing to enforce immigration reform, and to secure the american people. Had he done his job, immigration wouldn't be a major target of the GOP envy and hatred. And of course, the BUSHIES should be in jail, but Obama didn't have the stomach to pursue justice. That is why the WALL STREET thieves are still walking free and robbing the american people. I feel bad for Obama. He thought he would select a TEAM OF RIVALS who would lead the country. The only problem is that Lincoln's team, for all their animosity and bluster, their first loyalty was to the new nation. This 21st century Team of Obama's is loyal to the international market place and are far less contrained by patriotism to a single nation or ideology. It is not just a matter of differences of opinion, it is a matter of country and a way of life that was good at one time for the many instead of a temple for the privileged.

[FirstLight]

wow...

thick with points to ponder... thanks...

and yes, i see now that clinton was just a bush friend in disguise. Gore was not let into the clubhouse because he wasn;t willing to sellout

2000 was a huge turning point too, as far as i am concerned

[Rex]

20. For me, 2000 was the final nail in the coffin.

[Hawkowl]

57. Ditto

The stealing of the election was the end for me. I knew that we were in for a long, hard, slog. I figured 20 - 30 years of declining economic prospects, the rising police state, and god knows what else. We may never recover as a nation. I figure we have a better chance of disintegrating into several countries, than making it through this in one piece.

[awoke_in_2003]

65. ...

[lbrtbell]

37. Hate is indeed Reagan's legacy

He made it fashionable to be greedy, selfish, cruel, and unfeeling.

[Delphinus]

58. Amen.

:(

[lbrtbell]

36. I cried when he got RE-elected

I really feared that senile, warmongering bastard would start a nuclear war.

[FirstLight]

45. I swear, me too

and i was only 10 in 1980, but by 1984-88 it was really scary. Especially since at that age you are just learning civics and opening your attention to the powers that be and understanding what goes on in the BIG world...

that's why i can't just laugh away the teahaters, they scare me because they are total suicide bomber types. they would rather sink the ship and drown right along with us, than try to make things actually 'work'


but the crumbling has to happen sometime, why not during our lifetime, it was something i guess we all expected on many levels.

[Ship of Fools]

6. Me too --

I was in college during the "There he goes again ..." *debate* (when is the last time politicians held an ACTUAL debate? Just askin' ...) with Carter. I was having a beer in the pub (back in the good old days when alcohol was A-OK on college campuses), and YOU COULD HEAR A PIN DROP at that moment. The TV was on, the bar was packed, and everyone interpreted it the same way: What an insulting thing to say, albeit a brilliant one, to a political opponent. The beginning of the cynical and dishonorable S0UND-BITE.

In our collective minds, that was the beginning of the end.

[Arugula Latte]

30. I was 14 in '80. I hated Reagan with a passion and I couldn't believe how stupid

Americans were to vote for that fuckstick. Looking back, it was all much, much worse than I'd ever imagined even at the time.

[Rex]

41. Same here, I understood that is was wrong but was too young

to understand the ramifiactions of what harm was going on to our country...hell why not go back to Nixon and Agnew! Those fucking crooks started it all imo.

[mrs_p]

3. Yes, I thought we were the end if an age

But that end would be nuclear war. I'm still kinda convinced that it will be the doom of us all. My cynicism since my childhood days is as strong as ever - we don't really get a say in anything. The rich still own the world and class struggles will never go away. My plan now is to love those around me and do the best I can in my career and life. Everything else is out of my hands.

[FirstLight]

5. that's what I mean

it's like our whole generation has held this dark cloud over us from the get-go...like we knew we'd never get to change things, like we knew we had no real power, that we are just going through the motions with the vision of the impending mushroom cloud in our collective psyche.

not easy to go on with our lives with that bummer energy following us around, huh?


and yes, i think we will wake up to realize the ONE place we have power is in our communities and small circles. as the shit continues to hit the fan, we are at least 'young enough' to knuckle under and rebuild our own worlds, from the ground up and in our own 'tribes'...

[dana_b]

7. I was a late bloomer

probably not until the mid to late 80s when it seemed to me that were on a path of unending wars or "conflicts". My mom also would go on about the crap that Reagan was doing and how much she detested him (she was a very loyal Dem) ever since he was our governor in the 60s.

I think we were less sheltered than kids today in some ways however I think they also go through crap that we didn't deal with too much (guns at schools is a good example). I definitely feel that we had more freedom than they do now.

Stepping into the void ahead? Well, personally our household is all but unemployed/disabled at this time so we have to deal with those personal issues first. After that, I guess we will continue the good fight for what we believe in. We can't sit back and watch the world crumble around us. It's not fair for our kids and future generations. It will be an extremely hard road and I don't think we can ever be fully prepared for it because much of it is unknown. I almost wish that my girl would decide to try and live in another country. I know that it would be difficult for her but I am afraid to tell her that I don't see a great future for her here.

[FirstLight]

10. ...

:hug: hoping that you and yours have some ease and healing

Keep your friends and family close, extra hands make for easier work, and ya, it's not going to be easy. but at least we can also remember the stories our parents told us about life before technology, and we can teach ourselves how to get by. at least we are still 'young enough' to adapt...

[dana_b]

17. aw.. thanks

and that is very true about family. I am so fortunate to have some wonderful family and friends. We have actually talked about combining resources if things get too bad for any/all of us. We are still young enough and will have to do a lot of work with the younger generations.

[vanboggie]

8. You're not alone

I was a teenager in the late 60's - young adult in the hippie/Nam era. We've shared many of the same feelings with you - impending doom. It was going to be different when we came into power, too, but the hippies turned into yuppies and wrecked it all.

The common denominator = Not holding Republicans responsible for their crimes. It's called creeping Fascism.

[FirstLight]

13. i agree - BUT

it's not just about rethugs anymore...they are ALL crooked. Absolute power corrupts absolutely, no matter the party.

[lbrtbell]

38. You're right, I forgot about that

The hippie-crites became Reagan's biggest greedy, Yuppie supporters. :mad:

[marmar]

9. I just think about my college graduation in 1994, and the $6,000 or so in loan debt......

...... that I accumulated over 4 years in college, and the three job offers I had before graduation day. And then I think about my cousin who just graduated this year, $30,000+ in the hole and still no job.

And I think back to growing up in the 1980s - Ataris, MTV, Prince etc etc - and the rise of Ronald Raygun. I knew that Reagan was a major asshole but I was too young and politically unaware to realize how toxic that political era was.

It's funny that you posted this. I've been thinking a lot about the '80s and that legacy this week.

[JCMach1]

11. and the motto of the age was 'just say No' and we did, but where did that get us...

or if you didn't buy into the slogan and you went the other way you ended up on cocaine, or worse...

AIDS was an unknown apocalypse having over our sexual heads....

I think Siouxsie says it best:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lLP35SNOSDY

The only difference I can see is the ending is quite what we imagined...

[abelenkpe]

14. Same age

Reagan was frightening. I'd say most gen X ers are fatalistic. Seem to be getting a raw deal with all the plans to cut Medicare and social security too. This should work out real well after watching our 401ks go up and down and up and down and......

[JCMach1]

18. the oldest running joke in our gen X is we would never see social security

we really didn't want to believe it... now, it's an actual nightmare come true.

[FirstLight]

21. honestly,

I never actually counted on a lot of those things...social security, retirement, etc...

but then again, i never really go to the place where i had anything to count on anyway, living from hand to mouth all my adult life.

so in some ways, i guess i welcome the crumbling, because at least I'll have power over my own survival, and not be at the mercy of the fed.
fatalistic? ya...i guess we all have a tinge of that, too...

[Fokker Trip]

40. I'm Canadian.

And we had Prime Minister Mulroney, a real fan of Thatcher and Reagan All were fans of Hayek, those were the ideas (Libertarianism) that motivated all three "leaders". Our current PM is Harper...we are so screwed with him in power as he is even more ardent about Hayek's ideas.

We always said that we would never see old age pension either. The Boomers dominated everything and their numbers were so great. I think that a lot(certainly not all) of Boomers want to pull up the ladder now that they have lived through such prosperous years.

[WCGreen]

15. the late 70's and early 80's were pretty shitty times if you were a grown up

or coming of age...

But that was an age when there wasn't instantaneous news available, information wasn't everywhere and you had to expend time and energy to stay informed...

All times are challenging.

It's just that now we all know it is.

[proud patriot]

16. yes.

one step at a time

[TheKentuckian]

19. I've figured that if we didn't hold the line, it wouldn't be one to hold.

[FirstLight]

22. hmmm

soooo where do we all go from here?
do we even know how to vision something different?

do we know how to take our power back ...?

[marmar]

24. David Korten's "Agenda For A New Economy" captures my new vision pretty well....

....... but that won't happen until the current order collapses, which seems to be well underway.

[OneGrassRoot]

31. +1 for "Agenda for a New Economy" :) n/t

[Horse with no Name]

23. I consider myself a generation of the "Lost"

Not really a Boomer and not really a Gen X'er.

But...the generation that is increasingly becoming responsible for their grown kids who are having trouble finding work--even with college degrees, and their children. As well as our parents as they stand on the verge of losing the social safety net.

It really sucks.

[sofa king]

25. Oh, yeah.

Even before I reached adulthood, it was already clear that the table was being rigged against us. Jimmy Carter was the last President who regularly acted in favor of future Americans. Reagan reversed that, and the boomers backed him all the way because he offered them the opportunity to steal everyone else's future in order to make themselves more comfortable at the time.

I watched the insane turned out into the mean streets of Washington, DC. I saw crack come to town to pay for an illegal war in Central America, and watched the parents of my schoolmates go down for the half you know about. I watched the schools decay and the teachers throw up their hands. I saw the federal minimum wage stay nearly flat (and therefore decline due to inflation) for twelve years, guaranteeing that none of us would ever reach the level of income our parents had.

Their parents wanted them to have the things they never had, and they got them. But the message to us, in politics at least, was always, "you're on your own."

In a way, I kind of welcome what has happened at this point, for they have created the monster which will devour their savings and then hasten their deaths as soon as they're sucked dry, consumed by their own selfishness.

I, and a huge proportion of others who grew up in the Reagan-Bush years, never had a chance to amass a fortune worth stealing. We never got health care plans, or retirement plans, or pensions, because as we approached the age and station where those things had previously been available, the people above us took them away to enrich themselves.

So the struggles of the future are no more frightening to me than my grim past, or my grim present. It does, however, produce an imperative in me to offer something better to the Americans of our future. All I'm going to be able to give is knowledge and experience, because that's all I've ever been able to keep.

[FirstLight]

26. yeah!

:applause:

I, too, have not amassed wealth to lose, so the next phase of hardship seems easier to handle. I know how to bake bread and chop firewood, and i am lucky enough to live in a rural area, so the freakshow that will happen in the cities will be far away from me.

crazy how we somehow always 'knew' we'd be living through the crumbling, isn't it?

[Kat45]

53. The boomers were not solely responsible for Reagan.

He got a lot of votes from the older folks, the "Greatest Generation." And while boomers did become yuppies, it was not all the boomers. It was more the boomers who were rich kids to begin with. I'm a boomer, born in the fifties, and being a working class kid, I never had any of the money and such attributed to boomers. I never had a high-paying job and after a layoff, I haven't had a steady job for over 2.5 years.

[Courtesy Flush]

27. I feel for you young guys

I was born in 1959. By some definitions, that makes me a Boomer, but I'm really not (you can't be considered part of a post-war boom if your mother was born during that war). But I'm more of a Boomer than you guys, and I'm starting to feel like I dodged a bullet.

My generation did better than our parents, and paid off our mortgages. We went to school when the drop-out rates were low, and college was affordable. Neither my wife nor I had a single student loan. She has advanced degrees, and I stopped at my bachelors.

My youth was much like you described, and I'm amazed how different it is for kids now. When I was growing up, adults frequently looked at me and said "I'd give anything to be a kid again. You've got it so good." Nobody says that anymore! I wouldn't be a kid today for all the gold in Fort Knox. Kids have lots of cool stuff now, but their lives are not the simple lives that children should have.

I guess you guys dodged the bullet too, barely.

[FirstLight]

28. kick. nt

[loyalsister]

29. I think it depends a lot on local culture

I grew up in a growing suburb. Upscale homes attracted wealthy people. At the same time, there was a strong religious influence in the schools. Everyone was caught up in keeping up with Jones' syndrome. Everyone wanted to be rich. Thus my peers embraced the Reagan and Yuppie mentality. And it seems like most of them are quite comfortable with where they are. If they didn't gain the kind of wealth they dreamed of, they pretend they did, and the rest are religious nuts. They still embrace the values of the Reagan years. The fact that I could count on one hand the number of non white individuals were in my class of 200 is also very telling.
With those influences all I could do was rebel and I learned my better lessons in college.

[Codeine]

32. I have always expected that my parents' generation

would burn the ladders behind them; no social security or cozy retirement in my future.

[Politicub]

33. My awakening happened during my freshman year of college

Way back in 1991. It was exciting and eye opening to have my world rocked by reading about Malcolm X, discussing Gregor Samsa and the Metamorphasis, and being shocked by Laud Humphries' the Tearoom Trade study. Then you learn about social darwainism, what really happened during the Reagan era, the wages of poverty and the extreme racial, gender and lgbt inequality in America. I quickly outgrew the small town where I was from and knew there was no turning back. Still, I would never want to unlearn anything, and cover myself with the shroud of ignorance that so many people seem to want to wear forever.

I graduated college with about $5k in debt - nothing compared to what today's graduates are saddled with. I had come out of the closet, become a staunch feminist and card carrying liberal and and felt comfortable with who I was. For people graduating at that time, we were still in a period of recession, though emerging from it. Who knew the Internet boom was just a couple of years away.

I can't imagine what it's like to be a kid today. Hours of homework, nonstop standardized testing and constant attacks on the education system are what they see and hear.

If not for an affordable state university and financial aid for a poor kid like me, I would have traveled down a completely different path. I fear people coming of age today are emerging into a harsh world where a liberal arts education is devalued, and the idea of a social safety net is something to be despised - an anachronism, really.

I don't know where things are heading, but it feels to me that the gas pedal is being pressed to the floor as we head towards ruin and brutality beyond anything experienced in this X'er's lifetime.

[FirstLight]

34. i know what you mean

i watched my teen graduate with NO life skills or idea of who he wants to be...mostly because there is such a sense of futility for him and his friends...they have no idea where they will end up, so why bother...that's why the video games are such a welcome distraction

[lbrtbell]

35. I knew my generation would be screwed out of SS/Medicare

We have always lived in the shadow of the boomers, strugging to get more than a McJob even as the boomers derided us as "slackers". Now that the boomers are about to get screwed, as we knew we would all along, I'm hoping they'll quit pissing on us and cooperate with us, for the sake of all our futures.

On a side note, I knew a lot of my peers would grow up to be conservative, because of the freakin' unwashed hippies giving Dems a bad name in the late 1960's and early 1970's. As a lifelong Dem--and I mean, I was a feminist in pre-school!--I saw it coming and dreaded it.

We X'ers were never allowed the luxury of really being kids. I see a young generation now that's having their innocence and future robbed just as ours was. The difference is, we had a glimmer of hope that we could invest our money so it would be there when we retired...today's youth doesn't even have that illusion to cling to.

Damned corporate whore politicians....

[FirstLight]

46. oh hell yeah

living in the shadow, mcjobs, and being told we are all just slackers... i am SO right there with you! Sometimes i fiund myself in a job or social situation and i still feel like the young inexperienced slacker kid, when i am around successful boomers and they condescendingly nod at my choice to 'freelance'...and it is so weird to find yourself taking a 'college kid' entry level job, when i have been in the workforce longer and should be in mgmt by now.

You speak with an attitude and a repressed anger that many of us feel.

I find it interesting that we have such a similar collective experience, and i also hope we can step into our own self-empowerment before it's too late. We are going to be the ones cleaning up this mess ...the entitlement of the boomers spread into runaway consumerism, and damaged the planet just as much as the economy and more... I just hope we can work with our following generations to rebuild something better...

[Shandris]

39. I came to that conclusion sometime in 1991, walking near my old High School.

The profundity of it struck me at the time. I looked around and saw the divisiveness, the hatred. I was on the wrong side of it; I was a dyed-in-the-wool-and-raised conservative. I actually believed LIBERALS would start the great unravelling because they couldn't just 'leave things alone'. Now, I know better. But at the same time, I was kind of right too. We refuse to leave things alone because things AREN'T RIGHT. And that last part was the oh-so-important part I didn't quite grasp at the time.

I've watched it grow and grow, and thought about where it would lead and what it would mean. I've walked a long road and emerged better for it...at least, I think I have.

Now it's merely a matter of wait and see if they'll finish what they started so long ago, and if so...where I fit into it, for as long as I fit into it, be it an hour or a decade. I looked for inspiration from above, and found there was nothing there. We're on our own in all this, and to use of my favorite quotes...

I shall finish the game.

[Fokker Trip]

42. "I shall finish the game." Nice line, might have to put it on the wall.

They just tore down my old high school. Built in the 40's, it had a beautiful auditorium. Sad.

[reggie the dog]

43. I graduated high school in 1997

never had metal detectors, there was still a parking lot where we could smoke ciggies. i realized things were changing a lot when i realized that we could not even come near to having the same standard of living as our high school educated parents without going to college and grad school

[FirstLight]

44. hehe...

I remember we used to have a smoking section at our school too... it was painted as a huge yinyang and surrounded by benches, lol!
:smoke:

sometimes i actually miss those days, then i remember how much i hated it ;)

[Rochester]

54. Detectors were just coming around when I was in my last year...

...of HS, but it was one of the first schools to get them, as it was a typical ghetto school, infested with gangs and drugs with fights almost every day.
They weren't used every day and only on randomly(?) selected people on the days they were (I'd bet my ass that that's changed by now), and I made sure I learned what to look for and which doors were unmonitored so that I could always get in without being screened.
I'm glad my school days are over.

[FirstLight]

47. thanks for everyone here who answered

It's always nice to come here to DU and bounce ideas off my peers. It's also nice to know i am not the only one who thinks fatalistically ;)

[eilen]

48. It has all gone down hill I think since I was born in 1965

And yes, Boomers were fucking annoying telling us the stories about how great it was back when (and I would ask them why they fucked it up for the rest of us-- and they would tell me I was harsh, a bummer, and too young to understand)

I graduated HS in 1983-- personal computers were not endemic.

The Reagan years were a nightmare. I was an angry punk rock girl. I remember when he was re-elected as clearly as it was yesterday. We used to think we would be annihilated by a nuclear bomb. We would protest nuclear bombs, the US funded terrorism in Central America. My German born mother would warn me not to sign my name to any lists or papers at meetings or lectures I would go to held by the Peace Council.

We lived like we would not get old. We partied a lot. We went places independently--road trips etc and had good times. I know most of us did not freak out about schoolwork like the kids do today. When I see my contemporaries acting like uber paranoid parental hover crafts among their teenagers I laugh at them. What hypocrites. They are raising a generation of helpless infants who couldn't find their way home without a GPS if dropped off 3 blocks away.

So here we are, not blown up but certainly sold out but our predecessors. The Silents and Early Boomers were the last ones to get the juicy pensions and retirement homes in Florida. The rest of us (those born in the mid-sixties) are either lucky to be 5th Tier or crossing our fingers that the 401K doesn't take a dive before we become permanently disabled or get Alzheimers early. Most of us don't think we will get to retire now. I have a kid going into college (so glad I paid his tuition from the 529 before the market plunged) and my elderly mother just moved in-- at 45 I can't even consider retirement and don't trust the market (stock nor bond) to invest any income to it. My grandfather lived through the last Crisis at my age and saw his currency totally devalued 3 times. Unlike the US, his country saw a leader rise up to the occasion that was not an FDR but was Hitler. In the aftermath, he ended up on the wrong side of the Berlin Wall. Don't think that a similar outcome is not possible in the US--the trends are not reassuring. Make an escape plan (a Plan B).

[Dawson Leery]

49. It depends on one's situation in time.

As someone who graduated high school in the 1990's, we too did not have metal detectors.
The world most certainly changed for the worst after 9/11, really, Bush's illegitimate tenure.

[liberalmuse]

50. I knew on 1/1/81...

I had a sense of dread for what lie ahead. That was when Reagan was on the verge of becoming President - we'd already made our choice. I'm a Joneser or tail end Boomer, but that is when everything changed. That is when American chose the path we find ourselves on now. Instead of conserving energy American listened to a flatterer who said we were Americans and didn't have to conserve. I'm glad I wasn't quite politically aware through the entire '80's, but I was repulsed by the incessant greed, materialism and arrogance of that decade, and it's only gotten worse. I hope our kids can turn the shit my generation did around. The spoiled post-Depression and Boomer generations are 100% responsible for this shit. I exclude the post-Depression babies/Boomers who tried so hard to change things in the '60's - you're my heroes.

[EFerrari]

51. Late 70s and early 80s were hard for working people. n/t

[babydollhead]

52. I graduated in 1982

most of the kids in my neighborhood went to the same pediatrician. He prescribed every household a bottle of "Red Medicine" it was for Mom's to dole out to the kids if they were out of sorts, in our house, if one of us got it, the rest of us begged for it. The real name for this was "Phenobarbital" After we happily swallowed a spoonful, we would settle right down to 12 hours of television. (sitcoms, Hanna Barbera creations) We watched until it burned to blink. We watched until the TV went out for the night.

I remember hearing Carter talking about the Energy Crisis. I almost shit myself....we were going to run out of oil? we had to put on sweaters and turn the thermostat down to 68 degrees.
The next thing I remember was the threat that we would have to learn the metric system, since the rest of the world used it. We panicked and sweated and swore, but then, magically, we didn't have to learn after all, fuck it, we will measure our OWN way.

We smoked pot from 5th grade on. We had sex as early as we wanted. In high school Reaganomics was driven home as money was cut and cut towards Higher Education, friends fathers were home, and drinking, after being laid off from the steel mills.

I will tell you more if you ever want to know, bottom line, Apathy was what we aimed for. Or whatever. so what.

[Rochester]

55. I knew as soon as Nafta went through

that armies of the desperate and hungry were ready and eager to eat our lunch. I also had a hunch that the foreigners wouldn't be content only to steal blue collar jobs and that by the time I entered the work force they would be stealing white collar jobs, too. This was one (among many) of my reasons that I did not go to college. Today, I am very grateful for my union.

[TwilightGardener]

56. Well, my husband and I had both grown up with the assumption

(drummed into our heads by our high-school-educated, blue collar parents who didn't know any better) that just getting a college degree was THE SHIT!!!, the ticket to prosperity, didn't matter what you majored in--it was a big effin' deal just to graduate from college! You got the world on a string, you can write your own ticket! Or, uh...not. By the time we graduated, a BA just wasn't worth diddly squat. Back to school, for both of us, to try to come up with some actual marketable skills. Hell, I'm still trying to come up with something, still perusing the community college academic program lists to see what I might try next.

[LiberalEsto]

59. I'd be part of that "aging workforce"

but I've been unemployed for 3 years and have no hope of ever having a job again.

Please don't blame my generation for the lack of jobs. Many of us are unemployed too, and companies generally avoid hiring people in their 50s. And many companies also get rid of older workers and hire young people in order to save money on pay and benefits.

Our common enemy is corporations. They're the ones running this country, and they love pitting us against one another: older vs younger, white vs black, citizens vs. immigrants, etc. This distracts us from joining together and fighting the corporations.

Corporations are hoarding their tax break savings and refusing to hire.

Corporations are driving down salaries and benefits, with the intention of creating cheap labor right here in the U.S.

Corporations are trying to kill unions, labor protection laws, environmental laws, etc. so they can do whatever they want with bigger profits and less overhead.

Corporations are importing tens of thousands of foreigners to take over information technology jobs, nursing jobs, even teaching jobs. There are many Filipino teachers in Prince Georges County, MD, for example.

Corporations are outsourcing jobs to other countries with cheap labor and lax environmental laws.

Corporations are causing this depression.

It's time to stop blaming one another and work together to stop them.

[XanaDUer]

60. Well spoken and true

I tell younger ppl now I remember real health insurance. Remember where, if a (non-rich) kid did something dumb, he or she was not thrown in jail for the rest of their lives.

Stepping into the void? No clue, but I am starting to think we are so fucked, nothing will turn around at this point. SO GLAD I never had kids, tho.

[aikoaiko]

61. Not on a geopolitical scale, but yes on a domestic-cultural level.

I recognized that my brothers (10 years older than me and graduated high school in the mid 70s) were much freer than me and that things were tightening up in the name of safety.

Little things like it wasn't ok to hitch hike, cut class, have people in their 20s buy you beer, smoke at high school, drive without seat belts. I saw kids riding bikes with helmets. Don't get me wrong, I wouldn't want my kids doing any of those things, but at the time it seemed like the fun was being sucked out of life.

Oh, then there was HIV and AIDS. AIDS/HIV hit the news scene for me in 1983-ish in 8th grade, and by the end of high school (1987) it seemed like everyone was going to die. I remember newspapers publishing infection and death rates that followed exponential curves.

I also realized that the market crash of the late 80s was the result of deregulation and that regulations of markets and banks was necessary for economic stability.

[muriel_volestrangler]

62. Worth pointing out Reagan and Yeltsin were never leaders together

They probably never even met. Yeltsin didn't become a Russian leader until 1990; and didn't get more power than Gorbachev until the failed coup in 1991. So I doubt you knew who Yeltsin was when you were in school at all.

It just makes me wonder how many 'memories' of the 80s have been rationalised and altered since then.

[FirstLight]

66. just cuz

i was a teen and didn't follow the news or details and threw out a russian name that i recalled at the 'wrong time'
doesn't mean my memories of the 80's are all wrong.

I was recalling a feeling, a sense of impending awful that hung over many of us during those formative years
a knowing that we were not going to have it anywhere near as easy as our folks
a knowing that turned out to be reality as we grew into middle age

this had to do with a forming of our worldviews, regardless if my recall of details is off, i'm sure i got things wrong about clinton too, even though i was in college and paid a little more attention then...shit, there's still times when i don't know who or what in specifics about our current administration. I never claimed to be a poli-sci major lol

as far as 'altered'...well, sometimes we have to be that way to make it through! :smoke: ;)

[muriel_volestrangler]

67. But you also say your "lives were the last of a good time"

So, was this some halcyon time to grow up, or a time of fear? Your fear of "American President v. Soviet Leader", with nuclear weapons, was just what everyone had had since 1945. You and I didn't live through the Korean war or the Cuban missile crisis, and were too young to remember Vietnam (I'm just a couple of years older than you, FWIW).

:shrug:

[dorkulon]

63. Yeah, I knew.

Jello Biafra told me. My plans? Get used to being poor, and hope the decline is more gradual than I think it will be. And save up for a gun.

[Chorophyll]

64. Yes. Graduated college in December 87

into the aftermath of the stock market crash. The only time I really did all right for myself was during the Clinton years (imagine that.) Now I and everyone I know are cobbling together freelance careers and worrying about insurance, expecting to either retire into poverty or to keep working into old age (if anyone will actually have us.)

[babydollhead]

68. kick

[ileus]

69. 88 grad, college and gas were cheap...

Somewhere around the mid 90's I realized how special it was growing up in the 70's and 80's. I look at my kids now and I try and provide the best home life I can for their childhood, but school is vastly different. And college.....I keep telling them how important is going to be and how much it's going to cost. Time will tell what the future holds.

[Ricochet21]

70. 1969

it was vividly clear

[AngryAmish]

71. I'm a gen x er. We will never be in power.

The greatest thing I learned early was realism. I had a good home situation - but how many of my peers parents left to "find themselves" nothwithstanding the hell it gave their kids? I saw my teachers prattle on about "school spirit" and obeying rules but then try to sleep with their students. I worked at a fancy golf course where I watched the rich and famous get drunk.

It is adolescent to decry older generations for their hypocrisy. We were poorly led by our leaders. So be it. Therefore it is important to have institutions where it is hard for human frailty and avarice fuck things up too much. Because we are all filled with avarice and human frailty. That is human nature. Believe in nobody because they will fail you. Exhibit A, see the current occupant of the White House.

[Avalux]

73. Maybe it's not a negative, I've always felt that way too.

Perhaps we are here to understand that we don't NEED leaders, that the goal is to work together in unity, with everyone on the same level. I know it sounds hokey, but after the collapse, we will know what to do.

[katty]

72. yes. we are the Nomads in The Fourth Turning

we'll be managing the continuing unraveling/crisis modality for many years...we are on the way to a double dip recession.