Millennials graduated into a recession too. You didn't have it harder, we all have had it hard. The comparison game doesn't look good on you grannies. |
Huh? most of us don't seem to mind the rowhomes we bought. we're mostly concerned with the quality of schools. we don't want to give up our 10 minute commutes. |
The schools are great. They are run by liberals. Don’t give up your commutes. |
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Boomer here. Let’s talk about cheap colleges.
In 1980 tuition only at my college SUNY Stony Brook was $1,000. My parent only made $10,000 a year. In 2020 my nephew started SUNU stony and their parents made 160k a year but after deductions their AGI gets then free tuition, I think in NYS something like everyone under 140k AGI gets free tuition Yet somehow free in 2023 is more expense than $1,000 in 1980. BTW good private schools live on campus line $7k in 1980. A fortune compared to income |
NP. You don’t need to be ageist. You could have left that off and still have been successful in your comeback. Ageism is pernicious. —genX |
Graduated early 80s. Huge recession factories closing, massive inflation , 18 percent interest rates. Billy Joel singing “livin here in Allentown closing all the factories down our teachers lied that an education gets you a job” Springsteen sang The River “isn’t any work on account of the economy”. All the recessions since have never been bad enough for the most popular artists to write devastating lyrics about the difficulties. Life is way easier and cushy today but people don’t appreciate it at all and are treading water in a sea of covetousness and envy. |
What a strange take re: music. |
+1 The ageism here is really sad. One generation en masse didn't screw over another entire generation. The economy has many cycles. There are pros and cons to being a certain age at a certain time. We recently came out of a long stretch of a great time to buy a home with low interest rates. Then prices and interest rates both jumped. Now is a very difficult time to buy a first home. I feel bad for young people. However, this isn't the end of all cycles. It's hard not knowing when the next good time to buy a home will be, but it will come. - Gen X |
DP here I think but the point is that older generations also faced hard times. The music is influenced by the widespread economic issues like unemployment. |
The point is that life is cushier now but the population is weaker physically and mentally. Results in more covetousness and whining. I think the average boomer can still beat up the average millennial. |
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Boomers grew up in the tailwind of the U.S.'s victory in WWII and all the benefits of the U.S. being the only nation not ravaged by war. They also are directly responsible for most of the problems we face today. It mostly started with Reagan's administration. Boomers entered the workforce en masse and voted for significant income tax cuts (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reagan_tax_cuts) when the government and corporations still provided significant benefits to their employees and citizens. In the 1990s, as their investments were growing and they were hitting their peak earning years, there were significant cuts to capital gains and income taxes under Clinton and then Bush (https://www.thebalancemoney.com/president-george-bush-tax-cuts-3306331) and shifts away from government and corporate provided benefits to "public-private partnerships", outsourcing, contractors, and shift to 401ks instead of pensions and figuring out healthcare on one's own. While it was good for their investments, it was terrible for the public good and for the social safety net and the funding of public education.
It was on the Boomers' watch that NAFTA was implemented, unions were gutted, wars of convenience were started, unfunded tax cuts were implemented, and all manner of deregulation occurred (e.g., airlines, banks, energy, telecom, consumer protections), which often led to industry scandal and blow ups (e.g., S&L crisis, Enron, WorldCom, Great Financial Crisis). Our culture of consumer debt (e.g., credit cards used to be rare thing), disposable everything, and the financialization of the economy also started on their watch. It was also when corporations were given "free speech" (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commercial_speech) and the ability to legally bribe politicians. It wasn't always this way. As they have entered their senescence, they have been further gifted with lower estate taxes than at any point in the last century (https://www.forbes.com/sites/christinefletcher/2021/09/28/what-you-need-to-know-about-the-11-million-estate-tax-exemption-going-away/?sh=23f8da307e07). At every step of their lives, the government has sought to placate them at the expense of the rest of society and the general public good. "A society grows great when old men plant trees whose shade they know they shall never sit in." Boomers never once sacrificed for the greater good. They never once looked forward to improving the society of the next generation. For the Boomers, it's "f you, I got mine." And now, the bill is coming due on 40+ years of terrible policies. And now you have the nerve to complain about the state of affairs? GTFOH. Go pull yourself by your bootstraps if you can't afford your "dream" retirement. |
THAHNK YOUUUUUU. And for the person who made the comment about COVID and printed money, who was in charge during those policies?!? Same f?^%^ group. And why did we have to isolate? Not to protect kids! Nope, it was to protect those >45. |
Didn't say I had it harder. Just not easier like pp claimed. |
I grew up in NY. That program was not in place when I was in college (late 90s), I wish it had been! NYS has really made a concerted effort to keep SUNY schools affordable, such a contrast to where we live now. |
No, you isolated because the risks were highest to the Silent Generation and Boomers. Did teachers' unions want to protect their constituents longer than necessary? Probably. But don't pin it on them. Oh, and btw, COVID exposed how broken our healthcare system is and how balkanized it's become. Another thing that happened on Boomers' watch. Such a typical Boomer. It's never your fault. |