What generation do you think has it the best right now?

[kielkin]

And will probably continue to have it goood?

 

[topdog]

It's Baby Boomers all the way! We're in our prime right now (though not for much longer). We're going to hog the stage until we retire. (And then we'll redefine retirement as the prime of life.)

 

[etilit]

none

 

[Tjerk12]

The generation that is busy creating the next generation. One of the nicest things to do.

 

[lovetosuckcock]

The generation that is busy creating the next generation. One of the nicest things to do.

Yes, definitely.

 

[BigBenni]

Times became difficult and I think every generation has to fight and nobody can rest on their laurels!

 

[ritsuka]

Generally speaking, the baby boomers started out with a much better deal; low-cost or free college education, affordable housing, higher wages, better working conditions, more social welfare programs, no war on drugs...and then when they gained political power they legislated every bit of it away and thereby made things much more difficult for succeeding generations. Today unemployment and debt levels are much higher among young people than the rest of the population. But thankfully worldwide "the indignants" are rising up to say we won't take the austerity and political repression anymore; from Tahrir Square to Occupy Wall Street, young people are driving these movements.

 

[KCinLA]

Our Fathers and Mothers

And maybe the baby boomers if they don't spend it all !

During and right after the second world war people learned to save and get by with less.

The baby boomers were spoon fed for the most part.
Then their children grew up expecting even more.

The latest generation wants not just the spoon but the whole place setting !
God help the parents now a days.
Thankful I am not one. :cheers:

Kevin

 

[logan222]

Generally speaking, the baby boomers started out with a much better deal; low-cost or free college education, affordable housing, higher wages, better working conditions, more social welfare programs, no war on drugs...and then when they gained political power they legislated every bit of it away and thereby made things much more difficult for succeeding generations. Today unemployment and debt levels are much higher among young people than the rest of the population. But thankfully worldwide "the indignants" are rising up to say we won't take the austerity and political repression anymore; from Tahrir Square to Occupy Wall Street, young people are driving these movements.

I agree that there is a bit of hypocrisy with the Baby Boomer generation. They were the original liberalizers of modern national public opinion (what with the feminist movements, the civil rights movement, privacy rights, etc.), but now that they're the generation in power, they don't seem to be looking adequately into the future and the prospects of their descendants. Many baby boomers felt entitled to all of the goody government subsidy awesomeness they got to experience post-WWII and now they're telling us (Generation Y) that we're somehow not worthy of receiving what they got when they were our age. Yes, I know that we've got political and major economic issues on our hands, but the rhetoric of many baby boomers really upsets me. In an overcrowded market where decent employments are incredibly scarce and institutional discrimination keeps many poor people in poverty, as a baby boomer you can't say, "Well, you just have to try even harder" when they got so much subsidiary benefits! I had to work my ass off (two or three jobs as I was a full-time student) so I could afford going to college! Was it hard? Yes! Did I still do well? Yes! But that doesn't mean the bar should be raised up that high by politicians that are mostly baby boomin' hypocrites! Haha, I got carried away there. I don't hate baby boomers; I think they are an incredibly important group that has reshaped American culture in a lot of positive ways.

On a different note, I am worried about Generation Z, the kids born after 2000/2001. I feel like their reliance on technology has prevented them from learning a lot of good basic values that shaped previous generations. For example, now that we have DVR, TiVo, Netflix, Hulu and all that stuff, my niece does't have to wait for her favorite shows and movies to come on. I tell her, "No, you have to wait!" - then she screams and cries until her mom puts on the show she wants to see. I know that's a problem with how my sister is raising her, but I see that with many kids. They are used to instant gratification, and they think they're entitled to getting whatever they want for free and instantly! I think that might translate to some pretty bad habits and conceptions of the world as they get older.

 

[tonka]

If we are considering the gay generations, young people have the freedom to live their lives in a way that humankind has never seen.

In open societies, people can truly live their lives openly. An extraordinary thing!

Even in repressive societies, you can go on gayheaven and use your smartphone to hook up. I am not minimizing the dangers, but compared to the last generation?

For gay people, the past is darkness. The future is brighter every day.

 

[lovetosuckcock]

This is for those complaining about how good the baby boom generation had it and what was and wasn't done.

The first thing you should do is quit believing all the whining drivel that is so popular in the media. Then you should actually do some studying and reading about what conditions were like. Everyone that I know from my generation had to go and work hard. Nothing was handed to us. It was just as hard getting a job then as it was at any time, including the current time period. The difference between now and then is that my generation actually went out and worked. We never sat around expecting to get everything handed to us.

The baby boom generation, for the most part, did not start getting elected to legislative positions until the mid to late 80s and there were no finance ministers, in western countries, until sometime into the 90s.

The cost of post secondary education was just as expensive then as it is now. The monetary figure was lower then, but so was the cost of living as well as wages lower. Also there were far fewer scholarships available.

And don't forget that those of the baby boom still walked to school, had to actually go outside to play, had to meet people in person to have any interactions, did not have adults organizing "play dates" for kids, as well as a myriad of other things that kids no longer seem to be capable of doing.

Lastly I'll mention that some of the baby boom grew up without running water in the house, no indoor toilets, laundry was done once a week in a ringer washer, and showers were almost non-existent. Nothing was handed to the baby boom generation. We worked for what we got and no one went running and whining to mommy and daddy at every little perceived wrong.

So before you continue to spout off do some research.

 

[logan222]

This is for those complaining about how good the baby boom generation had it and what was and wasn't done.

The first thing you should do is quit believing all the whining drivel that is so popular in the media. Then you should actually do some studying and reading about what conditions were like. Everyone that I know from my generation had to go and work hard. Nothing was handed to us. It was just as hard getting a job then as it was at any time, including the current time period. The difference between now and then is that my generation actually went out and worked. We never sat around expecting to get everything handed to us.

The baby boom generation, for the most part, did not start getting elected to legislative positions until the mid to late 80s and there were no finance ministers, in western countries, until sometime into the 90s.

The cost of post secondary education was just as expensive then as it is now. The monetary figure was lower then, but so was the cost of living as well as wages lower. Also there were far fewer scholarships available.

And don't forget that those of the baby boom still walked to school, had to actually go outside to play, had to meet people in person to have any interactions, did not have adults organizing "play dates" for kids, as well as a myriad of other things that kids no longer seem to be capable of doing.

Lastly I'll mention that some of the baby boom grew up without running water in the house, no indoor toilets, laundry was done once a week in a ringer washer, and showers were almost non-existent. Nothing was handed to the baby boom generation. We worked for what we got and no one went running and whining to mommy and daddy at every little perceived wrong.

So before you continue to spout off do some research.

I did a cross-generational comparison study of access to higher education for a political science thesis during college. The baby boomers without a doubt had much easier access if you are looking at average weighted costs across time frames (and taking inflation into account). Post-WWII American brought about a lot of "impact aid" to the realm of public education and the Cold War race to the moon also brought in a lot more attention and A LOT more funding for science, math, and foreign language programs. Lyndon B. Johnson's "Great Society" is ultimately what created what is still the first expansive moment of government involvement in education. That's when the baby boomers were receiving all of the amazing new services the US government was dishing out to make sure they'll do better than the Soviets and to rebuild national morale after WWII and during post-WWII wars/conflicts.

Please do not assume that we have not done study and research on things we mention without knowing if we have or not. Sure, there are many uninformed Gen X and Y-ers that are completely manipulated by the media, but a lot of their basic arguments are not unfounded. I have had a lot of extensive research on the topic, and I can attest to that.

I do agree that my generation has the negative quality of expecting more things being handed to us or having unfounded feelings of entitlement...but who do you think raised us?

Perhaps you are only speaking to your own experiences, but when you take the baby boom generation as a collective, they did undeniably have greater access to post-secondary education and employment.

It was just as hard to get a job back then than it is now? I'm sorry, sir, but have you erased all of your ulative work experience from your resume and tried finding a job in this economy? I dare you to do that and then come back telling me how easy it was to find a DECENT job with a livable wage. We are in an economic crisis that has been unprecedented since BEFORE the baby boom generation. To be new meat with no work experience in this economy is a lot harder than during the boastful economic times of post-WWII America; that is a fact, not an opinion. I really do respect all of the great values that your generation has brought to America, but it is not fair to say that the playing grounds are leveled for these separate generations. There are huge disparities, and just because we are tweeting, Facebooking, social media-friendly Internet junkies doesn't erase that fact. Of all things, PLEASE do not compare the economic times of the baby boom generation with that of current times. They are night and day, and I've met very few baby boomers that would deny that.

The historical context of it all is what allowed for the baby boomers to have greater governmental assistance. After WWII, the US was emerging as a mega superpower. Now, we are in a steady decline, doomed by expanded globalization to be bested as the sole superpower by China in the not-too-distant future. As a superpower in decline, we do not have the morale and feeling of urgency to provide our citizens with the "best" as was the case in post-WWII America (and/or Cold War-era America).

Yes, our generation is not as physical and physically social as the baby boomer generation, but again, who raised us? It's not that the kids are NO LONGER able to do it (trust me, they are still born with the physical capacities to do everything these baby boomers did) - it's just that their baby boomer parents (or Gen X parents, in some cases) and society raised them to be very different.

Yes, baby boomers had to work for what they have, but their economy and historical context was very much in their favor. Maybe things weren't "handed" to them, but it was definitely a heck of a lot easier to get a decent job during their generation. The conditions were all ripe for them to have a much easier doorway to prop open for success.

 

[sleen9]

Two generations

And will probably continue to have it goood?

The postwar generation experiencing the fast economic growth and cultural change in the 19sixties and seventies and the generation that benefitted of the ICT and advanced financial services the last 2-3 decades.

 

[SimplyJakeAndAlex]

It's Baby Boomers all the way! We're in our prime right now (though not for much longer). We're going to hog the stage until we retire. (And then we'll redefine retirement as the prime of life.)

So darn right :rofl: But I'm not a baby boomer, but darn can I ever see how good they had it. Yes the X generation may believe they have it good, but it's only because baby boomers made it good for them, but they went through much more and they can sustain much more, one don't see a lot of baby boomer killing themselves like our generation... they enjoy life and accept their aging. My philosophy is mostly one of the baby boomer, from my parents, to me

 

[Tjerk12]

I am a baby boomer, born in 1946.

Reading your comments I get surprised how quick history fades. History as life you didn’t live seems to be as intangible as the future.

Politics are a reflection of the present. They influence the future, but although they have to manage as a steward our history, they seldom have the ability to learn from it.

You often hear that our world has become superficial. I think the world has always been superficial. The credo “give them bread and circuses” is as old as modern era.

“You get what you see” is a modern statement that gives the impression that it offers the possibility for “safe management”. An error, because it is necessary “that you understand what you see”.

Political one-liners are phrases which guide people, but they don’t tell why the track is the right one.

Baby boomer is such a political phrase. It has a bit weird taste. As if people after WWII had nothing else to do than multiply, what resulted in a lot of new human being’s, a huge new group of people. And one of the properties of a group is that it tends to have equal behavior.
But what actually happened?
The countries where WWII had their battlefields were largely destroyed. Their population was narrowed, partly by the terror of war, but also due to terrible life conditions. Furthermore there was the history of WWI and the crisis after that.

When peace was restored people tried to pick up life. They worked hard for little pay. And ad night in their beds they did the same thing as people always have done. Only the result was different.

War had learned medicine a lot. How contagious diseases arose and how they could be contested. The war had ensured that the invention that the British doctor Alexander Fleming made in 1928, “penicillin”, was developed to practical use. At D-day they were able to produce penicillin at such a large scale, that there was a shot available for each soldier.

The effect was that mortality after the war declined dramatically, which resulted in a large population growth.

You should bear in mind that from historical point of view children meant “old-age insurance”. Especially the religious people used to get large numbers of children (six to ten was quite normal).

I wonder what would have happened when WWI, the crisis and WWII had not taken place. At least one thing is for sure, I would not have been able to write these words, because my kidney illness was cured with the help of penicillin.

The first fifteen years after war there was in fact poverty for the common people. You had the means for proper life, not more than that. Obesities was an unknown problem in those days.
In my high school years I had 5 euro pocket money, for one month. Yet I did not complain. In fact there was no reason to complain. Life was wonderful. Your bicycle was your key to freedom. I played football. An away game could mean that you had to cycle twenty or thirty kilometers, than play the game and afterwards the same road back. Mostly no showers, and if there was a shower, it was nearly always cold.

Twice I made a holiday trip with my friends, on our bicycles. The first trip was about 600 km. (in one week) and the second nearly 900 km. (in two weeks). You did not need much money. We ate bread and drank tea (cold tea we poured in a bottle). Very occasionally we permitted ourselves the luxury of a cone with chips with mayonnaise.

There was little traffic, because few people owned a car. It was May 29th 1955 that the first traffic jam actually happened in The Netherlands. It was front page news. People were astonished and felt proud. Finally The Dutch had made their step to modern times.

In 1956 came the state pension. The need for children as an old-age insurance disappeared. Besides from the government much information was given about birth control. The effect was an dramatic decrease of birth.

Until the mid-sixties it was not done to loan money. If you wanted to buy something you saved money for it. I remember the time my father wanted to buy an electric razor. Three times we visited the shop. Long talks, several demonstrations and finally he bought it.

It was the end of the sixties when things changed. Factories had learned how to produce huge amounts of products for relatively low costs. And what was even more important, the salaries were not paid cash in an envelope, but you needed a bank account.
The banks suddenly possessed huge amounts of money. And they wanted to make profit with it. So they stimulated people to loan money. Because of the booming economy it nearly didn’t matter how much.
It worked as a virus. The whole world got infected. It became a disease that seems incurable. Especially since modern management introduced the bonus culture. Greed is ruling the world.

There is not something as a typical baby-boom person. In every country things will have developed different.
But one thing is for sure, it is the money system that caused our modern problems.

The occupy-movement is not so bad at all.

Wisdom is fragile and scarce.

 

[ritsuka]

The baby boom generation, for the most part, did not start getting elected to legislative positions until the mid to late 80s and there were no finance ministers, in western countries, until sometime into the 90s.

Yes, exactly; the 80's, the era when Reagan in America and Thatcher in England spearheaded massive cuts to social welfare programs, lowered taxes on the wealthy, deregulated the economy, attacked unions, and began the drug war. In the 80's and 90's a similar phenomenon happened in many countries, though of course cirumstances varied. Young people today are graduating with an average of over 30,000 dollars in student loan debts (and baby boomer legislators since the 90's have also taken away bankruptcy protections from these student loans, so they are with us for life, unlike people who went to school in the 60's), and many graduate with much, much more even from attending public universities, which have been defunded and turned into virtual for-profit businesses. The cost of college education in America (and the UK I know, but we'll focus on the US) has grossly inflated since the 60's, while wages have remained flat since then, despite massive gains in productivity and the cost of housing and everything else going way up.

Many baby boomers felt entitled to all of the goody government subsidy awesomeness they got to experience post-WWII and now they're telling us (Generation Y) that we're somehow not worthy of receiving what they got when they were our age. Yes, I know that we've got political and major economic issues on our hands, but the rhetoric of many baby boomers really upsets me. In an overcrowded market where decent employments are incredibly scarce and institutional discrimination keeps many poor people in poverty, as a baby boomer you can't say, "Well, you just have to try even harder" when they got so much subsidiary benefits! I had to work my ass off (two or three jobs as I was a full-time student) so I could afford going to college! Was it hard? Yes! Did I still do well? Yes! But that doesn't mean the bar should be raised up that high by politicians that are mostly baby boomin' hypocrites! Haha, I got carried away there. I don't hate baby boomers; I think they are an incredibly important group that has reshaped American culture in a lot of positive ways.

You make some really good points here. The narrative is so strong about individual initiative that people are conditioned to think any success or failure they experience comes 100% from them, so they ignore the larger context of legislation in regards to education budgets, social welfare, etc. that are in fact operating in the background and giving people either a significant boost or not. Many baby boomers just don't realize what has happened and how difficult and different things are for young people today, because they cherish this myth that it was all them and the government had nothing to do with it.

I don't hate all baby boomers either; but I really resent the condescending statements some of them make about younger generations that they don't know and have little-no contact with. I was born in the mid-80's, and I sure as hell do want more than this shit economy organized around debt-bondage and making the rich richer; instead I came of age much worse off than my parent's generation did.