I'm a boomer!

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Why do we feel the need to point the finger of blame all upon the “Boomers”?

Does my generation not have a say in the world today? Problem simply is; we don’t have the stones to do a damn thing about it.

Throwing the “Greatest Generation” under the bus is nonsense, so be it they spawned the Boomers… they had it right in so many areas were we as a country now have it wrong.

They built the economy on material goods and trade, not on paper and technology .com type non tangible goods.

The workers of then had superior productivity to the workers of today, and I am personally guilty upon this front. While I do what is required plus a bit more, I certainly could be more productive as a whole. Without doubt. And I am not alone.. I see it everywhere I turn in today's workforce. Hell I seen it in the late 80's and early 90's... the work put it often was less than the wage earned.

They had enough forethought to understand that if they build it here and buy it from here; they will keep balance in our national economy. They didn’t look for every shortcut to save a penny now by shipping the labor out of the country or buying imported good to construct “American Made” products. Sooner or later, as that becomes more and more unbalanced, there will be a lack of customers overall to purchase said product because they won’t have a employment source that provides enough to purchase.

They saved more than they spent; they avoided over leveraging themselves upon every front. I challenge one to look at 10 folks of my generation or even the boomers and find 2 that aren’t in debt up to their eyeballs.

As Foster noted, they stopped two of the biggest worldwide threats on foreign turf; and the folks back here had enough common sense to honor them in place of minimizing their sacrifices as “just a job” or worse yet booing them upon return.

If my generation is so damn good, how come we haven’t fixed the Boomers wrongs while we are in our prime years? Probably because we are too busy blaming the Boomers or looking for a way to undermine the WII generation to actually devote the time, energy and resources to fixing the issue.

First and foremost, this political model of today, with all its morphing over the generations is broken beyond repair, my generation could put our collective foot down and stop the nonsense… yet we spend countless hours infighting broken party against broken party in place of ending the madness that this two party greed driven system has become. Neither party is for the people… they are for getting their party reelected in place serving the people they claim to serve.

Don’t mistake my points as agreeing with all aspects of the previous generations, I think they had a ton of issues of their own, racism and workplace inequality being mentioned previous… but I find it wrong to try and pin the wrongs of today on those of yesteryear. If my generation was as smart and motivated as we talk, we would have learned from the good of yesterday and improved upon the bad… yet here we sit and the best we have is to lay all the blame upon their feet.

Just all I hear from my generation is one victim statement upon the next... how about we actually make a stand and correct the wrongs.

Sorriest part, this is still one of the best countries on the planet to call home. If we could get our shit together, start worrying more about taking care of our own infrastructure, population and good of the nation we could improve the quality of this nation two fold.

No generation is without flaw.. even my generation, the victims. Hell we are raising the next generation, O as Zombie coins, enough said.

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Actually, Shawn, as an empirical matter, productivity is higher in Gens X and Y than it was for either boomer or the "greatest" gens.

Arguably us oldsters, and definitely our parents, worked "harder". But Gens X and Y -- because they're bringing more tech and human capital to bear -- are more productive per unit of time or per person. Quite a bit so, in fact.

And that doesn't even account for the high proportion of Boomers who practice in professions like politicking and professoring and lawyering that are more about transferring value from one pocket to another than about actually producing new value.

p.s. Thanks for your post. It reminds me that I need to go dig out some productivity numbers for a class meeting about three weeks from now. (I love economic numbers, but I often procrastinate in actually working with specifics, since it invariably takes more time than my lazy ass wants to spend on work.

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I will concede that I should not have used productivity as a point.. whereas I should have stuck to raw effort and work ethic put forth.

Thank you for the correction.

Now get to work on your stats. :-"

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That was a very nice compliment, Non. I cannot imagine trying to teach a young 'un Latin in this day of distractions, that sounds like a good home. I'm good with the thought that some of my posts are contemplated by the cognoscenti- you already know who you are, and I most definitely reciprocate, no matter your chronological "generation." 👍

Yeah, yeah, we respect your old gunny ass too. I'll do shots with you anytime, and you can explain how you are able to kill with only using your thumbs.

Doesn't change the fact those hippies turned yuppies are nothing buy shitheads.

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You have a great point, but things are relative, imo.


Honest to God as my witness, I almost cry at the extraordinary pieces of luck that got me to the age 20 in the Marines. I'm 56, and shit didn't exactly improve. I don't do war stories, but I swear on my mother's grave that "my story" is both profound and common in the Marine Corps infantry. That's no job, that's a commitment, and the pay / bennies never entered into the picture (in a serious way) with us. I think you actually need to hear some Regimental commander on some boat tell you to "seize and hold your position or die in place trying" to habla the perspective. That cold rush of shit to your heart isn't all that easy to convey to others. It's just the truth, you can buy it or not. It is my experience in life.

Just a job? As one small example, try and bounce that concept off Jon Tumlison's dog (Hawkeye) ...he would not leave. (as I pet my doodle faithfully by my side)



http://forum.baby-gaga.com/about1871264.html 

I again aplogize for ranting about this, but I passionately hate the "just a job" talk... I owe it to many not able to set you straight because they are no longer here to just "let it go." Sorry. On that note-

I have a chicken pot-pie in the oven with an actual crust base and top. Chicken pot-pie in Pennsylvania doesn't have a pie base or top-crust. There is no crust whatsoever. No bakery product at all in the so-called "pie". I'm not making that up. These people are weird, but they get a waiver because they got exposed to radiation when three mile island went south on them and screwed 'em up.

Good stuff by all parties here, but I think I'm closest to Dakota.

You can call me Don Quixote as maybe I have done too much research and gone nuts. But my research has said that the baby boomers fucked up the country to the point that it is possibly not repairable.

I don't get defensive of my generation either. We're shitty parents and produced spoiled rotten (and obese) kids. We're pretty ignorant about what goes on in the world today while knowing pop culture like the back of our hands.

However, the damage we have done pales in comparison to the baby boomers. So I reiterate that all the great things the generation that survived WWII did was wiped out giving birth to the baby boomers. Our Constitution? Gone. Baby boomers. The economy? Gone. Baby boomers.

Sad thing are neither are coming back.

Of course sending someone to the moon with computers the size of Texas but having less power than my son's Trig calculator was an impressive feat. But once again, completely pales in comparison to Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, George Washington, Thomas Paine, and Benjamin Franklin. Now, they were the greatest generation. EVERY SINGLE THING THEY PREDICTED AND WARNED US ABOUT CAME TRUE. How could people with funny wigs from the late 1700s know exactly how this country would turn out hundreds of years later?

And bravery? Yes, the good folks who fought in WWII were brave. Not one bit disputing that. But had we lost the Revolutionary War, our Founding Fathers would have been tortured and killed and their families would have had their lands confiscated and would have died in poverty. Let's not kid ourselves. Japan and Germany weren't going to win WWII and America wouldn't be conquered. The Japanese knew it before WWII started, they were just afraid to admit it to their Emperor.

I can deal with my own death. I can't deal with my wife and son dying in poverty after I've been executed.

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