BabyBoomers responsible for our woes?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/4798825.stmWell I certainly know I won't get a pension when I retire. The price of my house is extortionate, as is my insurance policies. The NHS is in a mess. They have destroyed the environment (although our generation isn't really doing much about it either.

To clarify the terminology in the article
Baby Boomers - Born between 1946 and 1964
Generation X - Born after 1964 (give or take a few years)


I for one resent how previous generations expect everything from the state and expect our generation to pay for it through taxes. Our state pensions (social security to you Yanks) will not exist when we retire because the previous generation want it all for themselves.


Discuss...

We freed the world - built it up - you are lucky we are even allowing you to stay :p

Yeah, old people suck... I say we use some of the money to set up bingo parlors and keep them distracted until they're too senile to complain (or atleast able to complain about anything rational).

Interesting article though :thumb:

BabyBoomers pride themselves on civil rights advancements ,rock n roll, and technological advancements like computers.

Frankly, we're talking about 1 in 100 baby boomers who actually participated in student protests against the 'State'. Rock 'n' Roll was actually invented in the 50's by people obviously older than 14, therefore they cannot lay claim to it.

And the first electronic computer was was invented by a person born in 1904.

Aside from that, they are not responsible for the world's woes.

They do however pose a greater burden on their children to support them as they grow older what with heavy taxes (at least in the UK you have a nationalized health care system). We have medicare, which only kicks in past age 60 I believe (how convenient for them!)

I find it funny that an entire generation takes credit for the creation of computers and 75% of that generation still can't check their email without help from their kids. I like how they take credit for the space program as well. Pretty bold considering half of them werent old enough to vote. How old were the German scientists we nabbed after WWII that ran NASA?

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Originally Posted by Valleysboy1978

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/4798825.stmWell I certainly know I won't get a pension when I retire. The price of my house is extortionate, as is my insurance policies. The NHS is in a mess. They have destroyed the environment (although our generation isn't really doing much about it either.

To clarify the terminology in the article
Baby Boomers - Born between 1946 and 1964
Generation X - Born after 1964 (give or take a few years)


I for one resent how previous generations expect everything from the state and expect our generation to pay for it through taxes. Our state pensions (social security to you Yanks) will not exist when we retire because the previous generation want it all for themselves.


Discuss...

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I thought the baby boomers were the environmentalists. Its the following generations that didn't give a damn on average.

I think it's a little shallow to use such a sweeping generalisation as the mere concept of a "generation" in order to shift blame for the world's problems.

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Originally Posted by Valleysboy1978

Generation X - Born after 1964 (give or take a few years)


I for one resent how previous generations expect everything from the state and expect our generation to pay for it through taxes. Our state pensions (social security to you Yanks) will not exist when we retire because the previous generation want it all for themselves.

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I'll assume you are Gen X...

What in the world to you mean by this resentment?

The way any form of social security/pension works is that the workers following will continue to fund the pot - it's a simple financial arrangment - couldn't work any other way! Simple math - anyone should be able to figure it out (but they don't even try!).

It's up to your government to properly fund and allocate payments to insure that the funds will perpetuate.

It's a load of political garbage when they say it won't be funded in the future - that's a silly scare tactic that useless politicians use to put fear into the masses. Vote those idiots out...

Plus, 30 years from now; no one will have a job, everything will be automated and we'll earn our living by wearing hats that let the internet use our brains as folding client nodes.

That is if the neoluddites don't anger the internet. In which case, the internet will strip us of our bodys and keep one huge brain to do its bidding. Which sounds kinda cool, but some of those other people don't shower. You don't want to be around that.

Is there any benefit to be gained from this 'fight' between generations?

Turn that damn music down :p

When I was a kid we used to program on cards - and walk 3 miles to school in the snow to read them :D

I might have been born in the boomer generation but I still feel the same 20 years old I've felt for the past 20+ years...

Getting stuck in your generation seems like a weakness. I like music from every genre and era, for instance. Should I only be listening to old Beatles and Stones LP's? Should I still have my Chicago 8-tracks?

It fills in the gaps between bombings.

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I for one resent how previous generations expect everything from the state and expect our generation to pay for it through taxes. Our state pensions (social security to you Yanks) will not exist when we retire because the previous generation want it all for themselves.

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Actually this is a 50/50 statement, I think there is just as many (if not more) people who believe in getting the free meal ticket, that the world owes them something. A portion of those old generations worked part of their life in a job market where it was expected your employer/government would take care of you and that is what you got at your retirement. This is no longer true in most cases. So the adaptation from an entity saving money for them has shifted to people needing to save their own money. Which in my opinion is the way it should be anyhoo.

As a generation Xer I think the premise is slightly flawed. I do think our parents have generally had it better than we're going to (owning 2 houses, secure pensions, job security... all distant dreams for us poor saps) but that doesn't mean they're responsible for our woes. They've simply had the fortune to live in a period when the economic trend has generally been upward (as an overall trend - plenty of swinging along the way though)

But our situation isn't so bad. Compared it to our grandparents generation who really couldn't hope to own even one home until very late in life and you realise we're pretty lucky too. We can afford to go on foreign holidays from the age of about 20 upwards, eat out, go drinking in clubs, have more leisure time etc. No previous generation has been as free to casully enjoy themselves as us.

Long live Hedonism I say. If we all stand firm and don't bother saving the government will have to sort it all out when we come to retire. They'll just tax our kids. Ungrateful blighters who won't understand how hard it was in our day. :)

(A hint of sarcasm may just have crept in towards the end there) :rolleyes:

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Originally Posted by szlamany

I'll assume you are Gen X...

What in the world to you mean by this resentment?

The way any form of social security/pension works is that the workers following will continue to fund the pot - it's a simple financial arrangment - couldn't work any other way! Simple math - anyone should be able to figure it out (but they don't even try!).

It's up to your government to properly fund and allocate payments to insure that the funds will perpetuate.

It's a load of political garbage when they say it won't be funded in the future - that's a silly scare tactic that useless politicians use to put fear into the masses. Vote those idiots out...

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Due to the average age of workers there are simply not enough taxes going into the "pot" to fund the ever ageing population. I, along with my generation, know that there will not be a state pension as there will not be enough tax-paying workers to fund it. Simple economics.

I just hate how they won't admit how well they got it and how they think they change the world when in fact it was the previous generation (my grand parents) that changed the world. They fought in two world wars for a start, something I'm not sure I could do.

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Originally Posted by Valleysboy1978

I just hate how they won't admit how well they got it and how they think they change the world when in fact it was the previous generation (my grand parents) that changed the world. They fought in two world wars for a start, something I'm not sure I could do.

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The "They" that made those claims seems more like the author of the article rather than the actual people making up that generation.

It's up to individuals to secure their own future. Depending on state handouts is not planning for retirement.

man yall mussee got it good just to be talking about this ... :wave:

I think the generation before the baby boomers saved the world and the baby boomers got it ruined again. (not taking out the middle east among other things) and it is todays teens generation that has to save us. Unfortunately they are more intrested in the American Idol

We're Doomed.

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Originally Posted by demotivater

The "They" that made those claims seems more like the author of the article rather than the actual people making up that generation.

It's up to individuals to secure their own future. Depending on state handouts is not planning for retirement.

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Depending on state handouts is exactly what the babyboomer generation is expecting, but in so doing is at the cost of our retirement.

Consequently I have had to start saving for my retirement at 22 otherwise I will not get a penny (because the state will not be able to afford it by the time I retire)