Generation X...this is so true.

[dkf]

"Since then, "Generation X" has always signified a group of young people, seemingly without identity, who face an uncertain, ill-defined (and perhaps hostile) future. "

Gen X has always realized we weren't going to have it good.



http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Generation_X

[DonCoquixote]

1. Yes, all true

but we must not fall for the BS like some of us have, we need to be radical in ways even the Boomers never thought of, because we will be the first Generation to really have to pick up the tab for Ronnie Raygun, Pres Bush, and sad to say, Clinton and Barry O.

[dkf]

3. How does radicalism get us anywhere?

I don't see it.

Our prosperity came from being the last one standing after the world wars destroyed the infrastructure of the other manufacturers. It was abnormal. How can we get that back?

[Taverner]

10. Oh, it only gave us the 40 hr work week, OSHA, 8 hour workday, safety regulations and unions

Not a big deal ya know

[QC]

11. +1

[Snoutport]

39. +1 more

[Romulox]

13. Most of that was 3 or 4 generations ago. The Boomers' "radicalism" lead us to where we are.

:hi:

[Taverner]

14. Which Boomer radicalism? The "get out of Vietnam now" radicalism?

The whole Clinton-DLC-NAFTA 'radicalism,' if you even want to call it that, was a top down mandate from corporate campaign donors...hardly radical in my mind...

[Luminous Animal]

16. Which many of us in our 30s protested. And Clinton's horrible welfare reform.

Impossible to get youth to show a bit of interest in organizing against any of Clinton's move to the right.

[Taverner]

24. Yes, and it really didn't have anything to do with the boomers

Except that it was pushed by two boomers...

[Romulox]

17. The radical consumerism of the Baby Boomers has given us this the present world

in fact, it DEFINES the present world.

In essence, the boomers created this world in their image, and have been complaining about it ever since.

"The whole Clinton-DLC-NAFTA 'radicalism,' if you even want to call it that, was a top down mandate from corporate campaign donors...hardly radical in my mind..."

No, not really. Boomers were gleeful participants in the selling out of the Labor movement, for example. The government didn't make boomers buy the Toyotas and Hondas that destroyed the middle class way of life in the Rust Belt, for example.

[Taverner]

21. The Boomers don't own that any more than they own the drug war

If you want to know who's responsible for the radical consumerism, well, you're not going to like it but you and me have to look in a mirror to see who to blame for that one.

[Romulox]

23. LOL. I know. The Boomers have never been responsible for anything, EVER.

The apologia gets to be a bit much to take seriously, you know?

MASSIVE LOL for the "not responsible for the Drug War" bit! The Boomers INVENTED the Drug War, with Bill Clinton being one of the most punitive presidents in US history.

[Taverner]

25. Bill Clinton is not "the boomers"

Anymore than I am "generation X"

[Romulox]

27. Bottom line: if the Boomers can't collectively be blamed for anything, they get no collective praise

by the very same token.

[Taverner]

29. I'll agree with you on that one...

[Luminous Animal]

38. There have been several generations since. There was no need for them to follow

in their parent's footsteps.

[JustAnotherGen]

51. They didn't know any better

By that - I mean they didn't recognize what they were doing when they did it. And it's OUR time now. It's our world - and if we say . .. we don't buy your 'House in the burbs and 2.5 kids' - they have to accept it. They HAVE to accept it because it's not OUR reality.

We aren't slackers. We're realists. We see or financial resources and prospects and say: Okay, here's what I've got. Now what can I do with it.

But remember - this is DU. Read my post #50 downthread. They aren't snidely smirking at us - their hearts are breaking for us. They really were TRUE believers - those old liberals and progressives. And many still are. ;-)

[Luminous Animal]

2. Gen X sat on their fucking ass and allowed themselves to be run over.

The political disengagement of the past couple of generations is pathetic.

[dkf]

5. We awoke to Ross Perot telling us how screwed we were.

Clinton gave us some hope and Bush destroyed it.

[Luminous Animal]

18. Clinton gave you hope, eh? He was instramental in tilting the downward slope for labor

and the poor even steeper.

[dkf]

28. In terms of the nation's fiscal situation yes I began to think it was manageable.

[Romulox]

6. LOL.

:silly:

[DonCoquixote]

8. Tell that to

Bill Clinton, who WE elected.

[HappyMe]

9. lol!

Tell us how you really feel.



I do agree.

[Taverner]

15. That's "allowed" and I'll tell you how it happened

1991 - no jobs, no hope

1993-4 - Clinton makes it safe for VC to spend money again. Say what you will about his conservative leanings, he knew how to create jobs

1995 - Tech boom at its highest. Instead of taking to the streets, GenX takes to the workplace.

1999 - Tech boom crashes. Game over. Everybody out.

[Luminous Animal]

20. I changed it. I am at work with a 102 degree fever. I still have 8 hours of work to go.

[Warren DeMontague]

44. Wow. You get paid to post goofy generational broadsides on a message board

while at work?

Must be nice. As a politically disengaged member of the slacker generation, I have to say I've never been fortunate enough to have a job that lets me spend the better part of the day snarking off on the interwebs.

[loyalsister]

46. except the gen X

lawyers, doctors business MBAs on track for high level corporate positions.....
I have to be very selective about friends my own age. If they aren't absorbed in money worship, they are religious fanatics.

[Taverner]

86. I also know a lot of Gen X who aren't...

Who are community organizers, run voter registration drives, etc

Keep in mind one of my fave brothers of the generation, Tim Wise, is Gen X

[loyalsister]

88. Unfortunately too many are already elected politicians

Paul Ryan, for example, is 41 years old.

The General Assembly in MO is becoming more and more dominated by people under 50. In fact, our previous governor (Matt Blunt) was in his 30s. Republican Gen xers are are getting elected and groomed for future government roles while Democratic leaning Gen xers are rejecting getting involved because they don't see the urgency.
How many Gen X women truly believe their rights have ever been threatened, limited or that they couldn't get ahead with hard work? How many white Gen X men are sensitive to the struggles minorities have experienced. To many who don't realize that they have privilege, the conventional wisdom is that they are constantly getting screwed by affirmative action. How many gen Xers believe that people who are poor can't pull themselves up by their bootstraps?

We have had it pretty good. Bush 1 wasn't a serious threat. Many were coming of age during the Clinton years when things were good and government never was anything to worry about. I think it became a habit. On the bright side, the Ys and\ millennials are more liberal. They have come of age during the * years with environmental concerns, discovering that they have friends who are gay and mom and dad were wrong about them being evil, etc. I am very optimistic about their influence.

My only evidence is anecdotal and I know that there are plenty of exceptions. But, not having a sense of real history is a rampant problem among gen xers.
In my experience, even among Democrats, I notice that the conventional wisdom reflects what they learned in the Reagan years.

Things are going well for me, why worry?

[Warren DeMontague]

45. Bullshit.

Boomers are pissed because they let their vaunted idealism be packaged, homogenized, and sold back to them in VISA commercials.

And as much as you demanded the rest of us take your goofy conceits seriously, really, we never have.

[Odin2005]

58. Those WTO protesters in 1999 were Gen-Xers.

[Leopolds Ghost]

61. Yes, and I was one of them. Well, not WTO but same movement. Where are they now? Todays gen is worse

Than Gen X. Gen Xers and younger activists constantly complain about how bad it's gotten.

Kids today are another Silent Generation, only interested in what their FB friends think.

This was predicted in a famous book on Gen X vs. Millennials back in 2000. He said we were
entering a new Millennial generation which was far more conformist, consumerist, and
authoritarian than the previous two generations, and they would back a new political
movement that is socially liberal and economically conservative. And so it has been.

[Odin2005]

67. If you are talking about "Millennials Rising" by Bill Strauss and Neil Howe...

You got it totally wrong, and the authors themselves got it partly wrong, mainly because of their socially conservative biases and because, like many Boomers, they did not truly understand the WW2 Generation, which is equivalent to the Millennials in their model, and Crisis eras, because the Boomers are too young to have experienced the last one.

We are NOT authoritarian, we are COLLECTIVIST. In 1936 86% of WW2 Generation voters voted for FDR, and that generation leaned to the Left for their whole lives, and so will Millennials be. We are the builders that make real the ideas of our Boomer elders, much like how the WW2 Generation were inspired by the ideas of the populist radicals of the 1890s and the Progressive Movement of the turn of the 20th Century.

[indurancevile]

70. why was i there, then? come to think of it there were a lot of older people there. were you?

[Taverner]

87. Gen X AND Gen Y

Credit where credit is due :)

And the whole 'Blue Green' Coalition was Gen X + Gen Y

[Odin2005]

93. The oldest "Gen-Yer" (I prefer "Millennial") was only 17 in 1999

[KurtNYC]

4. Gen X is/was a marketing demographic

I think the Gen X experience is defined by coming age after the golden age of the USA -- declining jobs, declining manufacturing, declining life expectancy and a declining standard of living.

MTV screwed us out of having any distinct culture and any genuine cultural icons.

[HockeyMom]

7. My tail end Gen X daughter

and her Gen Y sister, have both said they wished they had been born Boomers, OR EARLIER. Neither likes the generation they were born into. As a boomer, I did consider not having kids at all because some of us did not see a good future for our future children even back then, but that is the subject for another thread.

[Warren DeMontague]

55. I wish I had been born a cro-magnon man.

Things were WAY better back then.

[onpatrol98]

64. I've actually sat in a room full of classmates...talking about the same thing...

I have no disdain for baby boomers, but I also have no desire to be one. When my mother was a child, Jim Crow laws were in effect and life for minorities were even worse than they are now. I can do without those kinds of good old days. I just sat there quietly as my classmates whimsically wondered how great it would be...to go back. And, I'm constantly amazed at just how differently our life's experiences color our perceptions. They've heard fond stories of "record hops" and ice cream parlors...I guess. All I can think of is desegregation, separate water fountains, and people dying for the right to vote in peace. Yep...the good old days.

I do agree, however. I think many boomers realized even before they had kids, that there were troubling times ahead for them. I also wonder how many actually made a conscious decision not to conceive because of it. I think I have heard a DUer or two mentioning that very thing.

[MannyGoldstein]

12. You will soon have the responsibility of saving our country

History shows that things will soon get very ugly. Will we end up as the New Deal, or the Third Reich? Your generation will figure strongly in that choice.

[Romulox]

19. I think the Boomers' worst nightmare may be that we don't want to save it...

:shrug:

[JustAnotherGen]

52. I agree

We can't save what was - we have to create something of our own. They have to accept it.

[bananas]

22. Yup - Thom Hartmann asks "Fourth Turning" author about world war: "clearly the line-up is there"

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=115x306263

[Morning Dew]

26. Gen X - that group whose oldest members are closer to fifty than forty?

That group of young people?

[Pithlet]

30. No.

I'm on the older end and I turn 40 next year.

[Morning Dew]

32. from the link

While there is no universally agreed upon time frame,<2> the term generally includes people born in the latter half of the 1960s through the late '70s, sometimes as late as the early '80s, usually no later than 1981 or 1982.

[Pithlet]

Yes. Latter half of the 1960's. None of us are approaching 50 yet.

Not saying we're spring chickens. But I'm putting it off as long as possible, darn it :P

[Morning Dew]

34. 1965-2011 would be 46

closer to 50 than 40

[Pithlet]

35. One guy wrote a book that started it at 1965

Pfftt..

[Morning Dew]

36. Admit it, you're just like the boomers - aging is not for you.

:hi:


I hate the generation "war". We're all on this sinking ship together.

We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies - mystic chords of memory, better angels and all that.

:)

[Pithlet]

37. Smilies don't make it nicer.

I was just trying to keep it lighthearted is all. But the fact is, Gen Xers grew up in the 80's that's all I'm saying. And if you were born in 1965, you didn't grow up in the 80's. The guy that wrote that book didn't know what he was talking about, but since he did it pedantics like to point that out. I wasn't being all "don't want to age" You were hte one who came in the thread calling us old. Funny.

[Romulox]

33. He's talking the punk group featuring Billy Idol

William Michael Albert Broad (born 30 November 1955), better known by his stage name Billy Idol, is an English rock musician. He first achieved fame in the punk rock era as a member of the band Generation X.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Billy_Idol

[dkf]

31. It's an explanation of the situation when the term was coined.

[Odin2005]

60. GenX is people born from 1961 to 1981.

Obama is fro the first Xer birth year.

[Chimichurri]

40. I remember Bill Clinton telling me while I was in high school that we would not have

Social Security or Medicare. He was absolute about it and to this day, not one person my age gives a shit about it.

[dkf]

41. Well we grew up and were told it wouldn't be there.

How are we supposed to be super attached to it? It's always seemed like Santa Claus.

[Luminous Animal]

42. That simply shows your ignorance about how either one of them work.

Bill Clinton was a big fat liar.

"Duh... Okey doke Prez Clitton. If yez say so. Der-de-der."

[girl gone mad]

43. It's been explained to her dozens of times.

When someone refuses to acknowledge the plain truth, they're not merely ignorant. They have an agenda.

[dkf]

53. I think it won't be there for you if you have a decent amount of assets.

It won't be anywhere near enough to live on, and it's going to be a huge burden for workers.

[Luminous Animal]

54. All the govt. needs to do is raise the cap. Not even eliminate it. Clinton was a scare monger

and so is the rest of government. They've been setting us for decades and you've bought it hook, line & sinker. Talk about "consumer" society.

[dkf]

57. He understood the problem with Demographics.

Less workers per retiree. We seem to think the rich can take care of all of us. There simply arent enough of them and the really rich dont earn wages, and unless they sell their stock, they don't have capital gains.

[Luminous Animal]

68. And one day those boomers will be dead. The generation before the boomers managed to educate

those tax-sucking hordes of people. The generation after can suck it up and do similar.

There is indeed enough people to fund the retirement of those societal parasites. And, whew (!) once they are dead, dead, dead, dead, we can all go back to being good and kind again.

[girl gone mad]

73. You've gotten some bad information.

According to a report on http://aging.senate.gov/crs/ss4.pdf">Age Dependency Ratios and Social Security Solvency from the Congressional Research Service at The Library of Congress:

"If one considers the 130 year period from 1950-2080, the greatest demographic “burden” — when the number of dependents (children plus the elderly) most exceeds persons in the working-age population — is already in the past"

Sorry, no sale on the intergenerational wealth transfer bullshit.

[dkf]

75. From the trustees report

Both Social Security and Medicare, the two largest federal programs, face substantial cost growth in the upcoming decades due to factors that include population aging as well as the growth in expenditures per beneficiary. Through the mid-2030s, due to the large baby-boom generation entering retirement and lower-birth-rate generations entering employment, population aging is the largest single factor contributing to cost growth in the two programs. Thereafter, the continued rapid growth in health care cost per beneficiary becomes the larger factor.

Under current law, demographic trends will be the primary driver of cost growth for both Social Security and Medicare over the next couple of decades. The leading edge of the large baby boom generation began signing up for retirement benefits in 2008 and Medicare coverage in 2011. This generation will dramatically increase the number of program beneficiaries through the mid-2030s, while also living longer than previous generations and having produced fewer children than did their own parents. Accordingly, combined Social Security and Medicare costs, which amounted to 7.4 percent of GDP in 2007 (the last year in which the ratio of program costs to GDP was not strongly influenced by the recent recession), are projected to rise to 11.8 percent of GDP by 2035. More than 90 percent of combined cost growth in Social Security and Medicare from 2007 through 2085 relative to GDP will have occurred by 2035 under current projections. This rapid cost growth for Social Security and Medicare represents the greatest financial challenge facing these programs as well as the most important reason that delaying legislative corrections would be increasingly disruptive.

http://www.ssa.gov/oact/trsum/index.html

[girl gone mad]

77. Any cost increases have little to do with demographics.

[dkf]

78. The trustees report directly contradicts you.

Under current law, demographic trends will be the primary driver of cost growth for both Social Security and Medicare over the next couple of decades

[girl gone mad]

79. Reality directly contradicts you.

You can see the projected population growth for yourself. There is no serious shift in demographics. People are living a little longer, but they're also working a lot longer.

The biggest problem we have is with people not working at all because there are no jobs which is why full employment must be our first priority, not this phony Social Security crisis.

[dkf]

81. 21% to 25% is pretty significant to me.

Also look at the ratio of 16-64 vs 65+.

In 75 it was 44 to 21. More than 2 to 1. in 2018 it will be 35 to 25 or 1.4 to 1

[dkf]

80. Here is more

Ratio of covered workers to Social Security beneficiaries

The line chart shows the ratio of covered workers to beneficiaries from 1955 to 2085. In 1955, there were 8.6 workers supporting each retiree. By 1975, that ratio had declined to 3.2 workers per beneficiary and remained between 3.1 and 3.4 over the next 30 years. Current projections have the ratio starting to decline again in 2008, decreasing at an accelerating rate until it reaches 2.1 workers per beneficiary in 2031. Thereafter, it continues to decline by one-tenth of a percentage point approximately every 15 years, arriving in 2085 at only 1.9 workers per beneficiary.


http://www.ssa.gov/policy/docs/chartbooks/fast_facts/2010/chart35_text.shtml

[Chimichurri]

85. exactly. Put a donut hole in there and start collecting again after 500k.

My generation is going to be kicking themselves in 30 years. How stupid can they be? I say they because I show up to all my town hall meetings and I stick out like a sore thumb for being the only one there under 50. It's pathetic, truly.

[Leopolds Ghost]

63. So you're against Social Security? Hmmm

[girl gone mad]

47. This member of generation X is not lost or listless.

I know what i want and what I believe in. It's the same basic thing that every idealistic person throughout human history has wanted: to enable a good quality of life for those who create, produce and build; to provide care for those without the means to produce; and to leave the world no worse than we found it.

Why waste time worrying about whether or not you're going to 'have it good'? Barring famine, resource depletion, disease or war, each generation is capable of meeting their own needs and wants. It's just a matter of proper economic planning and investment allocation.

[Gold Metal Flake]

48. But but but... there's a Wikipedia page!

Haven't you read the Wikipedia page that tells you who you are supposed to be?

[proud patriot]

49. I'm 42 .. Always knew.

[Luminous Animal]

56. You always knew what? The lies? Is there nothing worth fighting for? Is there nothing worth

preserving?

If Obama stated tomorrow, 7 year olds will be working on assembly lines 20 years from now, would you stand for that?

What fucking sheep. I'm disgusted.

[proud patriot]

90. boy that's a lot of assumptions about me

you don't know me very well do you . I find it rather insulting
actually. Do you make assumptions about people like this all the time?
I'm SAD for you. :-(

[Ghost Dog]

74. 1969.

I was 15 when you were born.

It has indeed all been downhill since then for UK culture.

[proud patriot]

91. I wonder if being born in such turbulent times

had anything to do with my generation's antipathy.

[JustAnotherGen]

50. I'm 38

I'm reading this thread as someone born right in the deep of it.

First, I don't blame the Boomers. They had the rug pulled out from under them. They're the Billy Joel Generation to me -

Every child had a pretty good shot
To get at least as far as their old man got.
If something happened on the way to that place
They threw an American flag in our face, oh oh oh.

They had the rug pulled out from under them. They played by the rules. And now? Our parents are facing their so-called Golden Years in a state of food, shelter, and health care insecurity. The younger ones? God help them. They had kids in their early 30's (I lived with one of these for six years and I'm going by he and his friends as an example) and now they are trying to put them through college AND save for retirement.

So let's not throw these folks under the bus. They thought if they worked hard and followed the rules, they could lead a decent life. That wasn't the case. Read around DU - look at their worries (real worries) and concerns. And remember - this is DU. Yep - some had conversions later in life to the progressive way - but many of them? I'm thankful they came along.

See - I'm glad I wasn't born in an earlier time. Meaning, if I had to be me with my parents. My dad was born in 19
41, just turned 70 on Saturday. He's not really a boomer. My mom was born in 1947. Boomer to the core. But she changed his heart many years ago. She and her 'zippy skippy dippy hippie' friends. :rofl: And nope - those words aren't an insult. They got out there and smashed open doors. For those of you that are women like me - we know that glass ceiling is as intact as ever. But our mothers are holding us on our shoulders and have given us the sledge hammer we need.

For those of us that are minorities - and women. Well - things aren't great. Let's not gild the lily. But it's a LOT better than it COULD have been. I look at my dad's mom - born in 1898 in Mississippi to a black/anglo father and Cherokee/Irish mother. If you think I want HER life? You have another think coming. :rofl:

I wouldn't have wanted to be one of my aunts either - coming of age between the mid 1940's and early 1960's. . . Living in Alabama. On my mother's side - I'll thank the Universe that I wasn't born when my Great Gram Feathers was. Yep, she had a great time as a flapper, and even spent time abroad in Paris after marrying her French immigrant husband to go see his family throughout the country. My mom has a few pics of her with members of the 'lost generation'. But she would tell you if she was here: I sucked it up duckie. I'd have loved to go to University but it was just frowned upon at that time. Best I could do was rouge my lips and play it fast and loose.

Which leads me to the generation that Generation X SHOULD relate to - and should be looking to for their grace and guidance. And that's our Great Grandparents. The people born early in the last century. I guess I was fortunate in that all of my mom's grandparents I had well into my 20's. I was especially close to my Gram Feathers I mentioned above.

Like us - they were young and in their 20's at a time of tremendous change. Of fast times, good times, getting hammered, 'loose women', money money, money! Money! Those women tested the boundaries the best they could - right after they got the vote!:rofl: Those men - coming back from WW I or if they were lucky to have been born in those years where they didn't HAVE to go? They saw a push to 'sitting' for a living from 'doing' for a living. And they all got by pretty well. Until the bottom fell out. And then the good times were over.

Up thread a poster kind of outlined key dates - one was 1999 when the bubble burst. It's a good snapshot - but having been ONE of those kids taking a private company jet to Bermuda to visit our headquarters at the age of 25/26 working for a telecom that was designed to carry high speed data and support the bubble - I'd say it was more like 2001.

Look, we all survived Reagan. We survived Bush 2. The wiki doesn't mention it - but almost all of us remember the shock of Sally Riding being blown out of the sky. If I say "Greed is good," you're probably smirking and fighting your progressive/liberal tendency to spit at the phrase -:rofl: but you know DAMN well it's a universally understood phrase amongst OUR "Lost Generation". I went to U on the Canadian border - but when I went back to Rochester for breaks - I fully understood that at 19 it was easier to buy a dime bag (pleading the 5th) than it was to walk in some place and buy a beer (Sound like the 1920's very much?).

"Wall Street" and "Don't Dream It's Over" gave way to "Reality Bites", and Arrested Development's, People Everyday. We had The Cosby Show AND Kate and Allie. Neither were the realities of our family lives. Most of us have never had sex without the specter of a big disease with a little name (nod to Prince - but just because I still love Prince's music :-) ). We are who we are. It might not sit 'just right' with our parents who are ALSO progressives/liberals - but as my dad said when I was sitting and visiting with him at the hospital on Saturday - and we were watching this NONSENSE we've all been subjected to for the last six weeks . . . and I was ranting and raving he said, "You sound like your mother's grandmother. Full of piss and vinegar. You're going to be alright."

And you know what? I think he's right. I think we ARE full of piss and vinegar. But we need to stop beating up on boomers and our grandparents for taking advantage of the post war Reset - and we need to look at the post WW I 'mini reset' and cultural change.

We live in an exciting time. Many of us don't own homes - because we never bought one in the first place. If you have a car - and it's 6 or 7 years old and you outright own it - that's okay. Maybe we'll only have one child - because we can't afford 2.5. Our great grandparents recycled tin foil because they were insecure about how they would get money to buy more. . . we do it from frugality - but also from an environmental concern. My point - it's okay if we don't have 2.5 kids, a house in the burbs, a couple of cars, and a time share.

It was okay for my great grandparents too .. . and you know what? They survived the Great Depression AFTER the good times of partying and drinking and playing it fast and loose in the 1920's. And after the Great Depression - they ROSE. And they set UP the 'Great Post WW II Reset' - so their children and grandchildren could be prosperous. And maybe that's OUR lot. To set up the next Great Reset. I believe it's under way now - but it's the first tiny shifts. And that's our 'Brand'. Our kids won't wear crap from the Gap - but they will learn the value of living below one's means, asking "How much do I REALLY need", and won't be nearly as subjected to the 'story of stuff' as we were. And that might not be a bad thing.

But in the meantime - those of us who are working and making a decent living? We can keep volunteering at and giving to food banks, shelters, etc. etc. But then we also have to push, pull and punch to make absolute certain that the Medicare and Social Security we were promised by our Great Grandparents suffering in the 1930's - is there not only for our parents, but for us and generations to come. It's NON NEGOTIABLE for any Y's, Boomers, and beyond Boomers reading this post.

It's non negotiable. Our American Dream might not be yours - but those two things? They need to be there. Our Great Grandparents promised it to us. Now off to listen to some Bessie Smith and drink a Gin and tonic.

[Mimosa]

72. Great post, JustAnotherGen

Thank you. :D

Babyboomers who were feminists, against war, and always hoping things would and could get better are disappointed. Quite a few of us aren't rich and comfy.

[JustAnotherGen]

92. Thanks

It's kind of silly to fight amongst ourselves. This is just another 'division' being created by the top tier in wealth in this country to keep us from getting organized.

[Odin2005]

59. As a Millennial, I find the numbing cynicism and fatalism of Xers to be disturbing.

It's like so many of them "know" we are DOOOOOMED and think there is no use making an effort. Instead of building up civil society and engaging in radical activism to counter one-party corporate rule, they just whine and bitch.

[Leopolds Ghost]

62. Millennial generation has been worse, by and large. Where are the protests?

Ask anyone in the millennial generation, I see kids in high school in the SAME town I grew up in, when I was there it was a hotbed of radical and progressive and civil libertarian sentiment. That was Gen-X. Most Gen-Yers are conformists, not civil libertarians. Sad but true. Of course, these things come and go. Same was true of the post-Boomers and the Silent Generation.

[Odin2005]

65. They are coming.

We are at the equivalent of 1931 right now, widespread labor radicalism did not take off until about 1936.

[jtown1123]

89. What do you expect? We've been spoonfed corporate propaganda ( a la pete peterson)

austerity nonsense since we left the womb. We are so misinformed it is really hard to engage.

[Warren DeMontague]

76. You just don't understand our sense of humor.

Seriously. You don't.

[dkf]

83. What did they tell you in school about what to expect from social security?

[Cerridwen]

66. Get off the generational bandwagon and realize this is class warfare.

And you ain't of the class that's winning; regardless of your generation.

You want to keep dividing and conquering; fine. Do it in their party.

Over here, we get that it's about those who own and those who are pwned!

Catch up.

[indurancevile]

71. +1. yep, the divide & conquer intergenerational stuff is promoted by the rulers &

those who pass it on, imo, are tools.

[Le Taz Hot]

69. You use wikipedia

as your authoritative source? :rofl: :eyes:

[dkf]

84. What's the big deal? It's just an observation.

[Skidmore]

82. Found these descriptions of Gen Xers and Millennials and

I must say that I'm more concerned about where the Millenials will take the nation.

http://apps.americanbar.org/lpm/lpt/articles/mgt08044.html

[WinkyDink]

94. Really? See this TIME cover from 1971, for BOOMERS: