What do you think : Boomers climbed up the ladder and pulled it up after them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think millennials really don't understand what life was like 20 years ago, 40 years ago and beyond. Those who made policy were not those who were out slugging along. People often had one car, ate at home every day, an airplane ride was a super fancy thing, and going out for coffee was unheard of. You can live the life of a boomer and save money. You can also choose a starter home (condo in a suburb that is cheaper - hence why suburbs were created by boomers), go to an in state school, send your kids to public, etc. It really isn't difficult.

Please stfu. There are no starter homes with starter prices. STFU!!!!!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think millennials really don't understand what life was like 20 years ago, 40 years ago and beyond. Those who made policy were not those who were out slugging along. People often had one car, ate at home every day, an airplane ride was a super fancy thing, and going out for coffee was unheard of. You can live the life of a boomer and save money. You can also choose a starter home (condo in a suburb that is cheaper - hence why suburbs were created by boomers), go to an in state school, send your kids to public, etc. It really isn't difficult.

Please stfu. There are no starter homes with starter prices. STFU!!!!!

Are you kidding with this? Yes, there ARE plenty of starter homes. You just don't want to live in a starter home. Sheesh, no wonder you're so unhappy. But, whatever, live in your parents' basement for the rest of your life. The rest of us are fine with that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Boomers put in long hours, don't work from home and dont use social media all day.

Social media and work from home was not really a thing in their prime working years.

Point being that they went to work and actually worked. Their homes and cars generally were not brand new. They didn't have the latest of everything. Yearly vacations to far away places were not done. Vacation might have been driving to another state to visit family, not flying to whatever destination suited them. I've seen posts about Italy or Paris for Christmas. Do you think Boomers did that?

Oh please. My boomer parents and in laws went to work at 9 and got off at 5 and after 5 they were done until they went into the office the next day. No cell phones, no round the clock calls and email to answer at all hours. Vacation and holidays were actually off. New homes; new cars. No interesting vacations because they prefer to sit at home drinking and popping pills (not a lack of money).

Did they take those vacations in their mid 30's while raising kids? Did they have the new house and car?

Don't bemad at Baby Boomers because they could live, and live decently on a 9 -5 job. They could relax at-home. What did you do without?

As I said, they didn’t take vacations because they liked to spend their vacation weeks popping pills and drinking by the pool. They bought a new house at 25 and another at 31. They have always had new cars that they replaced every 3 years. High end clothing, fur coats, jewelry.

What did I do without? Hmmmmm….start with daycare (I was a latchkey kid at 5 and left alone all day, every day in the summer), any extra curricular activities, more than one pair of shoes per year, winter coats, medical care (pediatrician visits stopped around age 5, no dentist, no orthodontist, only taken to an eye doctor because the school principal called my house and demanded they take me because I was tripping on things I couldn’t see, no college money, etc.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think millennials really don't understand what life was like 20 years ago, 40 years ago and beyond. Those who made policy were not those who were out slugging along. People often had one car, ate at home every day, an airplane ride was a super fancy thing, and going out for coffee was unheard of. You can live the life of a boomer and save money. You can also choose a starter home (condo in a suburb that is cheaper - hence why suburbs were created by boomers), go to an in state school, send your kids to public, etc. It really isn't difficult.

Please stfu. There are no starter homes with starter prices. STFU!!!!!

Are you kidding with this? Yes, there ARE plenty of starter homes. You just don't want to live in a starter home. Sheesh, no wonder you're so unhappy. But, whatever, live in your parents' basement for the rest of your life. The rest of us are fine with that.

Yeah, there are starter homes...in the middle of nowhere with a 90 minute commute each way. Boomers' "starter houses" were in Upper NW, Bethesda, and Arlington next to Metro stops.

Typical boomer response. "why aren't you happy with the crumbs we left you?!"

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think millennials really don't understand what life was like 20 years ago, 40 years ago and beyond. Those who made policy were not those who were out slugging along. People often had one car, ate at home every day, an airplane ride was a super fancy thing, and going out for coffee was unheard of. You can live the life of a boomer and save money. You can also choose a starter home (condo in a suburb that is cheaper - hence why suburbs were created by boomers), go to an in state school, send your kids to public, etc. It really isn't difficult.

The people who make polcy are not slugging along, still, for the most part, but representation is better. I may have misunderstood you on this because it's a strange statement to me.

I am "rich" relatively, and we have one car, eat at home nearly every day, and fly about 1x per year. Coffee is a funny one, it's true it's a new spend item, but in my opinion it's a treat that should be affordable to every working person. (You work? Get the fancy coffee.)

Went to public, went to state, so far I am fulfilling your reqs ...but listen, the suburbs were not invented by boomers, unless boomers want to claim their parents' "white flight" from the cities, where everyone but farmers wanted to live before that, and where successful professionals still want to live now. Suburbs happened because of racism, not boomer frugality, and it took a long time for suburbs to become actually desirable/valuable.

Even though I am lucky and rich, I still got issues with boomers saying crap like this, and the one that really burns me up is that the boomer paid for a year of college with his summer job

All you had to do to be successful as a boomer was to be 1) male and 2) white and 3) somewhat bright, and the world was your oyster.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Boomers and the people who raised them did without all the stuff. They were happy in a 3BR 1BA house, and a car. It’s the subsequent generation that created Affluenza and the Teardown RE market.

Huh? My parents are boomers. I always grew up in 5 or 6 bedroom houses, 1 international vacation a year, car at 16, state college paid for. My dad was an engineer.

I'm sure a lot of boomers lived in a 3/1 house, but not middle class ones. Working class has always struggled. I would say that my parents benefited from college in a society where few people went to college. If you went to college you were basically guaranteed a nice, stable middle/upper middle class life style.

Now if you go to college you are guaranteed a mountain of debt and a job that will take a decade or more to pay that back. . . unless your UMC parents foot the bill.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Boomers put in long hours, don't work from home and dont use social media all day.

BOOM!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Boomers simply got lucky. They inherited the post WWII "golden age" of American capitalism and benefitted from it.

They didn't pull the ladder up; they just weren't clever enough to keep the ladder in place for subsequent generations.

Fair to chastise them for being fools, especially as compared to the greatest generation.

Probably not fair to criticize them for "pulling the ladder up". They were too busy gazing at their own navels to even see the ladder.

This is true, very well put.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Boomers put in long hours, don't work from home and dont use social media all day.

Some did. Boomer wives where able to not work. Boomer families could enjoy a relatively comfortable standard of living based on those hours. From the time that they had the numbers to control elections, they've vacillated between voting for lower taxes and better benefits for themselves. They have medicare and social security, but they never bothered to shore it up for their kids and grand kids.

I was raised by boomers. You want to live like my boomer parents? Feel free!

We had one car growing up and my mom would drive into DC each day to drop and pick up my dad. We never flew anywhere, I got my passport when I was an adult and rode in a plane for the first time at age 20. We never went out to eat and my mom cooked simple meals at home. Most days I packed a lunch of peanut butter and jelly in a brown bag. We did not play travel sports, nor were we allowed to go to college out of state. My mother sewed us all of our clothes when we were little and my “sneakers” were cheap white keds. There was no internet or cable TV. Wr had PBS and they watched Masterpiece Theater at night. Wr never had a kitchen or bathroom remodel and I still remember the orange shag carpet in my bedroom I shared with my sister.

My parents are now retired and still live modestly. None of you on DCUM could live like my parents did. Your be screaming poverty.

So so so much whining by my fellow older millennials comrades. However you are just mad that you can’t live an Instagram lifestyle. Pathetic.

Based on your father's job title, could one parent afford that lifestyle now with the same job?

Could any of you live that lifestyle? Could you forgo a car? Cell phones, premium TV, dining out, private of OOS college for your kids, new furniture, keeping a car for 13 years, No plane rides?, only road trips for vacation in your sedan, …on no, you all would be screaming how poverty stricken you were and how unfair the world has become!

I’m at the tail end of the boom, raised by Depression-era parents. I still have kids in high school (AMA!) We live off my DH’s salary and yes we scaled back to one car. Last vacation by airplane was five years ago. No premium tv, etc, etc. I tell my kids they will never understand how we made it all work.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Boomers and the people who raised them did without all the stuff. They were happy in a 3BR 1BA house, and a car. It’s the subsequent generation that created Affluenza and the Teardown RE market.

+1 For example, teachers worked from about 7:30 - 4:00 with a half hour lunch and no available phone to use. There were usually 2 phones per school -- both in the front office,

Yes, and they provided free after school help to their students.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:People never saw an original Levittown home.

The original Levittown homes in Levittown Long Island were mass produced. They were built in one day each!

They were a 1,200 sf cape with no basement on a 60x100 plot with a totally unfinished upstairs and a driveway no garage.

They had two bedrooms and 1 bath main level. Geared towards young cash poor newlyweds.

The Dad when kid two came would finish attic himself with maybe a friend or two. Then later they build a one car garage.

Of course no AC, Diswasher etc. very basic and a far out surburb from NYC in a town no train station

Pretty sure today’s kids can afford a house like that.

Exactly!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Nope. Boomers aren’t “pulling up the ladder”. The issue is that there are a LOT of Boomers. Many Boomers worked jobs without traditional pensions. Living costs, especially real estate expenses have increased. So Boomers are continuing to work — instead of retiring— as many would prefer to do, and living in their own homes. It’s not that Boomers deliberately “pulled the ladder up “ after them, it’s that the turnover of jobs and homes from one generation to another isn’t happening as quickly as it did in prior generational shifts.

You forgot the part where boomers voted in (and continue to vote in) the scumbag politicians who did (and continue to do) everything they can to kneecap everyone younger than the boomers.

I really am surprised by this ridiculous vitriol. “Boomers voted in?” How about Reagan won and decimated the middle class labor unions.

[Anonymous]

What a weird thread. There are as many boomer stories as there are boomers. What do you folks get out of trying to stereotype and pigeonhole people?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There is absolutely no debate.

Millennials will be the first generation in US history to acquire less wealth than the generation before it. Boomers have and had more wealth at every decade in life compared to Millennials. Housing costs, even after adjusted for inflation, are much higher now compared to when Boomers had to buy even with high interest rates. Health care costs and day care are patently absurd.. Generations of Americans are worse off than the Boomers were by almost every objective measure.

It's not that big a gap. According to the Fed, on an adjusted basis, a 33-34 age Millenial had a net worth $227K in Q1/2022, compared to $251K for Gen X as a similar age and $239K for Boomers.

You are the whiniest generation, though, so there's that.

What? This is not even remotely accurate. For a millennial in the 30-34 age bracket, excluding home equity, a $227K net worth falls in the 94th percentile. Even including home equity, $227K puts you in the 88th percentile.

https://dqydj.com/net-worth-by-age-calculator-united-states/

This is based off Fed data, so yeah, you're full of it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think millennials really don't understand what life was like 20 years ago, 40 years ago and beyond. Those who made policy were not those who were out slugging along. People often had one car, ate at home every day, an airplane ride was a super fancy thing, and going out for coffee was unheard of. You can live the life of a boomer and save money. You can also choose a starter home (condo in a suburb that is cheaper - hence why suburbs were created by boomers), go to an in state school, send your kids to public, etc. It really isn't difficult.

Please stfu. There are no starter homes with starter prices. STFU!!!!!

Are you kidding with this? Yes, there ARE plenty of starter homes. You just don't want to live in a starter home. Sheesh, no wonder you're so unhappy. But, whatever, live in your parents' basement for the rest of your life. The rest of us are fine with that.

Yeah, there are starter homes...in the middle of nowhere with a 90 minute commute each way. Boomers' "starter houses" were in Upper NW, Bethesda, and Arlington next to Metro stops.

Typical boomer response. "why aren't you happy with the crumbs we left you?!"

Please. You live in such a bubble. I live in a starter house (3/1, family of four). Close in suburb, next to a metro and shopping. Houses in my neighborhood are $350k Who cares if boomers’ starter homes were in Bethesda? That was 60 years ago. Find your own way.