[Boomers] Dear Millenials: I'm Sorry We Didn't Stop Them

For discussion of religion and politics

Moderators: LawBeefaroni, $iljanus

Post Reply
User avatar
Smoove_B
Posts: 54567
Joined: Wed Oct 13, 2004 12:58 am
Location: Kaer Morhen

[Boomers] Dear Millenials: I'm Sorry We Didn't Stop Them

Post by Smoove_B »

Just seeing this article over on the Daily Kos and I think he's raising some interesting observations. It crosses far too many topics to try and shoehorn into another topic, so I've created this one.
Dear millennials: back in the 1980s a lot of us worked like hell to try to stop the Reagan revolution. We failed. This may be our last chance to save American democracy and the American middle-class.

When my boomer generation was the same average age as your millennial generation is today, back in 1990, our generation held 21.3% of the nation’s wealth. Louise and I shared in that wealth; although we were still in our 30s, in 1990 we owned a profitable small business (our fourth) and a nice home in suburban Atlanta.

That was, in fact, the “American dream.” It was normal then. My dad (born 1928), who worked in a tool-and-die shop, was able to buy a house, a new car every two years, and take a two-week vacation every year because the middle class in America before Reagan had a pretty damn good life. He retired in the 1990s with a full pension that let him and my mom travel the world.

Your generation today, in contrast, is about the same number of people but holds only 4.6% of the nation’s wealth and, if you’re the same age I was in 1990, you’re most likely struggling to own a home, are deeply in debt, and find it nearly impossible to start a small business.
The article lays out how the GOP has targeted wages, education, healthcare and then housing. In summary:
This 42-year-long process, with Reagan’s original massive tax cuts amplified by trillions more in tax cuts for the morbidly rich from the George W. Bush and Donald Trump administrations, has produced a $50 trillion transfer of real wealth from the middle class to the top 1%.
Not really sure about how he ends it though:
I’m so embarrassed to have to say this, but my generation let this happen. Back in the 1980s, huge numbers of Boomers voted for the Reagan Revolution that kicked off this whole political and economic death spiral. The guilt is largely ours.

And now, these Republicans are trying to marinate your children in their white supremacy and racism by forcing teachers to push a false narrative about American history — all while they try to rig our elections by purging millions of minority, Boomer, and Millennial voters from the rolls.

The good news, however, is that, increasingly, our two generation are working together to throw Republicans out of office and elect progressive Democrats who understand these issues and know how to do something about it.

From the 80-year-old Senator Bernie Sanders to 19-year-old progressive candidate for the Ohio House Sam Lawrence (now endorsed by Sherrod Brown and me!), progressives are growing in political power at the same time America is waking up from the fog of bullshit Republicans have been crop-dusting over us since 1981.

All is not lost; change is in the air.

Get out there. Get active. Tag, we’re it!
He sounds like he has hope; I'm having a hard time believing we can change the path we've all been marched down.
Last edited by Smoove_B on Thu Jul 14, 2022 10:55 am, edited 1 time in total.
Maybe next year, maybe no go
Drazzil
Posts: 4723
Joined: Fri Oct 15, 2004 3:54 pm

Re: [Boomers] Dear Millenials: I'm Sorry We Didn't Stop Them

Post by Drazzil »

Yeah. I suspect the Democrats who haven't actively sold us out in exchange for golden parachutes and board seats will be sabotaged by the ones who have.

Our salvation will not come from the system currently in place
Daehawk wrote:Thats Drazzil's chair damnit.
User avatar
Unagi
Posts: 26376
Joined: Wed Sep 20, 2006 5:14 pm
Location: Chicago

Re: [Boomers] Dear Millenials: I'm Sorry We Didn't Stop Them

Post by Unagi »

Drazzil wrote: Thu Jul 14, 2022 10:45 am Yeah. I suspect the Democrats who haven't actively sold us out in exchange for golden parachutes and board seats will be sabotaged by the ones who have.

Our salvation will not come from the system currently in place
Just checking. Are both those classes of Democrats part of the Kabuki theater?
User avatar
LawBeefaroni
Forum Moderator
Posts: 55316
Joined: Fri Oct 15, 2004 3:08 pm
Location: Urbs in Horto, outrageous taxes on everything

Re: [Boomers] Dear Millenials: I'm Sorry We Didn't Stop Them

Post by LawBeefaroni »

Smoove_B wrote: Thu Jul 14, 2022 10:43 am

He sounds like he has hope; I'm having a hard time believing we can change the path we've all been marched down.
He's promoting hope whether he has it or not Hope is the last defense against "fuck it." Hope of others, particularly the disenfranchised youth, is what will keep the end of his life from being spent in a civil war zone.
" Hey OP, listen to my advice alright." -Tha General
"No scientific discovery is named after its original discoverer." -Stigler's Law of Eponymy, discovered by Robert K. Merton

MYT
Drazzil
Posts: 4723
Joined: Fri Oct 15, 2004 3:54 pm

Re: [Boomers] Dear Millenials: I'm Sorry We Didn't Stop Them

Post by Drazzil »

Unagi wrote: Thu Jul 14, 2022 10:48 am
Drazzil wrote: Thu Jul 14, 2022 10:45 am Yeah. I suspect the Democrats who haven't actively sold us out in exchange for golden parachutes and board seats will be sabotaged by the ones who have.

Our salvation will not come from the system currently in place
Just checking. Are both those classes of Democrats part of the Kabuki theater?
:D Of course! Even the ones who don't know they're playing a part. Can't have everyone in on the plan... Otherwise the proles might get the right idea. The best lies and conspiracies are often spun when there are people on "your side" who don't know shit.
Daehawk wrote:Thats Drazzil's chair damnit.
Drazzil
Posts: 4723
Joined: Fri Oct 15, 2004 3:54 pm

Re: [Boomers] Dear Millenials: I'm Sorry We Didn't Stop Them

Post by Drazzil »

LawBeefaroni wrote: Thu Jul 14, 2022 11:17 am
Smoove_B wrote: Thu Jul 14, 2022 10:43 am

He sounds like he has hope; I'm having a hard time believing we can change the path we've all been marched down.
He's promoting hope whether he has it or not Hope is the last defense against "fuck it." Hope of others, particularly the disenfranchised youth, is what will keep the end of his life from being spent in a civil war zone.
Hopium. False and hollow. A self defense measure as was said above.
Daehawk wrote:Thats Drazzil's chair damnit.
User avatar
LordMortis
Posts: 70100
Joined: Tue Oct 12, 2004 11:26 pm

Re: [Boomers] Dear Millenials: I'm Sorry We Didn't Stop Them

Post by LordMortis »

https://fortune.com/2022/03/22/millenni ... n-boomers/
Of course, Baby Boomers are still worth nearly eight times as much. The older cohort saw their wealth increase roughly 28% to over $71 trillion since the pandemic began, while Gen-X saw a 65% jump to roughly $42 trillion.

Millennials still hold far less wealth than previous generations did at similar ages. When boomers were around the same age as millennials today, they held roughly 22% of the nation’s wealth compared to Millennials’ 7%, Fed data shows.
Boomers control over 55% of wealth today and will transfer it to the Millennials as they are die off. The real problem is going to be inflation, which we should have known, and inequity within the generations. This will be exacerbated by the death of pensions and lifelong health care in the middle class in favor of corporate shareholder and private investor getting bigger shares of their generational pie. What defined the middle calls of the 80s has been revamped in favor of 401ks and IRAs because people were supposed to know how to better invest their money than pensions and lifelong health care were supposed to provide. So benefits have gone in the shitter and wages have stagnated but generationally the wealth will still pass along. Just not to the vast majority of us. Plenty of millennials are getting in 3000 sq foot home their parents couldn't dream of and drive 70,000 BEVS and get pocket computers every two years while they fly around the world several times a year. It's just not the whole of the mythical middle class and their worries have only just begun. Especially if they don't have boomer invested parents to continue providing them with assistance, so they can get a leg up in creating and retaining their own wealth.

Wait until the GOP gut the ACA and then don't fund Social Security like they should. It'll start the pain with Xers and Joneses but the Millennials will really feel it and Gen Z are fucked.

To my nieces and nephews, in the immortal word of Titus Andronicus, "You ain't never been no virgin kid, you were fucked from the start"
Last edited by LordMortis on Thu Jul 14, 2022 1:55 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Drazzil
Posts: 4723
Joined: Fri Oct 15, 2004 3:54 pm

Re: [Boomers] Dear Millenials: I'm Sorry We Didn't Stop Them

Post by Drazzil »

LordMortis wrote: Thu Jul 14, 2022 1:20 pm https://fortune.com/2022/03/22/millenni ... n-boomers/
Of course, Baby Boomers are still worth nearly eight times as much. The older cohort saw their wealth increase roughly 28% to over $71 trillion since the pandemic began, while Gen-X saw a 65% jump to roughly $42 trillion.

Millennials still hold far less wealth than previous generations did at similar ages. When boomers were around the same age as millennials today, they held roughly 22% of the nation’s wealth compared to Millennials’ 7%, Fed data shows.
Boomers control over 55% of wealth today and will transfer it to the Millennials as they are die off. The real problem is going to be inflation, which we should have known, and inequity within the generations. This will be exacerbated by the death of pensions and lifelong health care in the middle class in favor of corporate shareholder and private investor getting bigger shares of their generational pie. What defined the middle calls of the 80s has been revamped in favor of 401ks and IRAs because people were supposed to know how to better invest their money than pensions and lifelong health care were supposed to provide. So benefits have gone in the shitter and wages have stagnated but generationally the wealth will still pass along. Just not to the vast majority of us. Plenty of millennials are getting in 3000 sq foot home their parents couldn't dream of and drive 70,000 BEVS and get pocket computers every two years while they fly around the world several times a year. It's just not the whole of the mythical middle class and their worries have only just begun. Especially if they don't boomer invested parents to continue providing them with assistance, so they can get a leg up in creating and retaining their own wealth.

Wait until the GOP gut the ACA and then don't fund Social Security like they should. It'll start the pain with Xers and Joneses but the Millennials will really feel it and Gen Z are fucked.

To my nieces and nephews, in the immortal word of Titus Andronicus, "You ain't no virgin kid, you were fucked from the start"
If things continue on the course they are things will become unsustainable for the vast majority. I really wonder how long it will take to get people out in the streets in large enough numbers to truly threaten the ruling class. The answer may be sadly... Never.

I think that up till now the powers that be have managed to turn up the heat slowly enough to fool people into thinking these changes are "normal" The wheels are coming off now though, so the changes are much more noticeable and pronounced. Will this be enough? Time will tell.
Daehawk wrote:Thats Drazzil's chair damnit.
Drazzil
Posts: 4723
Joined: Fri Oct 15, 2004 3:54 pm

Re: [Boomers] Dear Millenials: I'm Sorry We Didn't Stop Them

Post by Drazzil »

Also, with the social safety net being done away with and one party rule on the near horizon, and all the safeguards of living in a society being done away with; the ability of the GOP to blame the other may be sharply curtailed. If they were smart they would keep the Vichycrats around to blame when the inevitable multiple crises caused by their misrule strike... But lets be honest here. The GOP is dumb as dogshit.

I think they will fuck enough things for enough people within a decade. They won't be able to afford a police state big enough to protect them from all the people they will mess over. I mean look at them now, wait till the actual impact of the stuff they are putting in the law books hits.

As I said if they were smart, they would take a few decades to get us use to the giant spiked vibrating dildo they will be shoving up our collective ass. The Republicans aren't that smart. Right now the GOP is fucking around.

I hope I live to see them find out.
Daehawk wrote:Thats Drazzil's chair damnit.
User avatar
hepcat
Posts: 51302
Joined: Wed Oct 13, 2004 3:02 pm
Location: Chicago, IL Home of the triple homicide!

Re: [Boomers] Dear Millenials: I'm Sorry We Didn't Stop Them

Post by hepcat »

The GOP isn't as dumb as you think...at least when it comes to the actual movers and shakers. They've managed to pack a SCOTUS, stymie a ton of social agenda shit, keep their orange figurehead from being impeached, etc, etc, etc.

Underestimating what they can do is a bad, bad thing.
Covfefe!
User avatar
LordMortis
Posts: 70100
Joined: Tue Oct 12, 2004 11:26 pm

Re: [Boomers] Dear Millenials: I'm Sorry We Didn't Stop Them

Post by LordMortis »

Drazzil wrote: Thu Jul 14, 2022 1:57 pm Also, with the social safety net being done away with and one party rule on the near horizon, and all the safeguards of living in a society being done away with; the ability of the GOP to blame the other may be sharply curtailed. If they were smart they would keep the Vichycrats around to blame when the inevitable multiple crises caused by their misrule strike... But lets be honest here. The GOP is dumb as dogshit.

I think they will fuck enough things for enough people within a decade. They won't be able to afford a police state big enough to protect them from all the people they will mess over. I mean look at them now, wait till the actual impact of the stuff they are putting in the law books hits.

As I said if they were smart, they would take a few decades to get us use to the giant spiked vibrating dildo they will be shoving up our collective ass. The Republicans aren't that smart. Right now the GOP is fucking around.

I hope I live to see them find out.
Putin doesn't have safeguards or safety nets for his people and he does just fine. In the US, the rank and file of the GOP want to eat at the trough and will happily usher in our own oligarchs and server them for their portion of the slop. The religious right don't care as long as they get be part of the elect and white nationalists don't care as long as they can make others and especially others with dark skin pigmentation suffer. The old just want to keep theirs until they die off and the old with money want to make sure every last cent of their money goes to only their children. Which goes back to that 55% wealth thing. They have 55% of the wealth. They have Social Security and medicare. And they typically have a pension of both money and health care. They don't see the Jone's largely don't have this luxury. They don't see X don't have it at all unless they are in government or pseudo government work. The don't see millennials making less so the stock market rises and that millennials have no benefits at all. So these millennials don't work and live off their Boomer parents wealth when they can, because what's to gain by putting in 60+ hours a week for a sustenance wage with no perks? And then there's Z, they have all of the pain of millennials and none of the perks of millennials whose parents were at the top of the middle class. They need the ACA so their parents can afford to get them work sponsored health care well in to their 20s. So why bother working at all? Just stream porn or take drugs and live the nihilist existence, worrying if won of your fellow Z or younger children are going to shoot up the place.

/wonders how many expensive private prep schools have disaffected kids shooting up the place.
Drazzil
Posts: 4723
Joined: Fri Oct 15, 2004 3:54 pm

Re: [Boomers] Dear Millenials: I'm Sorry We Didn't Stop Them

Post by Drazzil »

hepcat wrote: Thu Jul 14, 2022 2:14 pm The GOP isn't as dumb as you think...at least when it comes to the actual movers and shakers. They've managed to pack a SCOTUS, stymie a ton of social agenda shit, keep their orange figurehead from being impeached, etc, etc, etc.

Underestimating what they can do is a bad, bad thing.
Bad comes to worse I'd rather see the US in a massive Somali style civil war then as a North Korean style klepto prison state, even if I don't get to see the end of it.

Depends on how many Americans agree with me though. I've always had the idea that Americans don't really care about how bad they have it, as long as the people they hate have it worse. I would call this a peasant mentality, but let's be honest... Its more a slave mentality. Or a class thats more oppressed then slave. Hell we don't even have a word for the type of oppression we're walking into... Especially if our technofascist overlords perfect their surveillance tech... or survile-ance tech.
Daehawk wrote:Thats Drazzil's chair damnit.
Drazzil
Posts: 4723
Joined: Fri Oct 15, 2004 3:54 pm

Re: [Boomers] Dear Millenials: I'm Sorry We Didn't Stop Them

Post by Drazzil »

LordMortis wrote: Thu Jul 14, 2022 2:17 pm
Drazzil wrote: Thu Jul 14, 2022 1:57 pm Also, with the social safety net being done away with and one party rule on the near horizon, and all the safeguards of living in a society being done away with; the ability of the GOP to blame the other may be sharply curtailed. If they were smart they would keep the Vichycrats around to blame when the inevitable multiple crises caused by their misrule strike... But lets be honest here. The GOP is dumb as dogshit.

I think they will fuck enough things for enough people within a decade. They won't be able to afford a police state big enough to protect them from all the people they will mess over. I mean look at them now, wait till the actual impact of the stuff they are putting in the law books hits.

As I said if they were smart, they would take a few decades to get us use to the giant spiked vibrating dildo they will be shoving up our collective ass. The Republicans aren't that smart. Right now the GOP is fucking around.

I hope I live to see them find out.
Putin doesn't have safeguards or safety nets for his people and he does just fine. In the US, the rank and file of the GOP want to eat at the trough and will happily usher in our own oligarchs and server them for their portion of the slop. The religious right don't care as long as they get be part of the elect and white nationalists don't care as long as they can make others and especially others with dark skin pigmentation suffer. The old just want to keep theirs until they die off and the old with money want to make sure every last cent of their money goes to only their children. Which goes back to that 55% wealth thing. They have 55% of the wealth. They have Social Security and medicare. And they typically have a pension of both money and health care. They don't see the Jone's largely don't have this luxury. They don't see X don't have it at all unless they are in government or pseudo government work. The don't see millennials making less so the stock market rises and that millennials have no benefits at all. So these millennials don't work and live off their Boomer parents wealth when they can, because what's to gain by putting in 60+ hours a week for a sustenance wage with no perks? And then there's Z, they have all of the pain of millennials and none of the perks of millennials whose parents were at the top of the middle class. They need the ACA so their parents can afford to get them work sponsored health care well in to their 20s. So why bother working at all? Just stream porn or take drugs and live the nihilist existence, worrying if won of your fellow Z or younger children are going to shoot up the place.

/wonders how many expensive private prep schools have disaffected kids shooting up the place.
I don't see the GOP stopping at Russian style kleptocracy though. I think I see them going all the way to Nazi Germany with nukes. Enough is never enough with these people. Which actually gives me hope. Time will tell.
Daehawk wrote:Thats Drazzil's chair damnit.
User avatar
Archinerd
Posts: 6836
Joined: Fri Aug 25, 2006 11:18 am
Location: Shikaakwa

Re: [Boomers] Dear Millenials: I'm Sorry We Didn't Stop Them

Post by Archinerd »

Smoove_B wrote: Thu Jul 14, 2022 10:43 am Just seeing this article over on the Daily Kos and I think he's raising some interesting observations. It crosses far too many topics to try and shoehorn into another topic, so I've created this one.

=
I'm just a little bit too old to be a Millennial, but this resonates with me. He forgot the part where we graduated and began our careers by being almost immediately dumped into the jaws of the Great Recession. I at least had 4 years to "establish" myself, others were not so lucky.
Drazzil
Posts: 4723
Joined: Fri Oct 15, 2004 3:54 pm

Re: [Boomers] Dear Millenials: I'm Sorry We Didn't Stop Them

Post by Drazzil »

Archinerd wrote: Thu Jul 14, 2022 2:30 pm
Smoove_B wrote: Thu Jul 14, 2022 10:43 am Just seeing this article over on the Daily Kos and I think he's raising some interesting observations. It crosses far too many topics to try and shoehorn into another topic, so I've created this one.

=
I'm just a little bit too old to be a Millennial, but this resonates with me. He forgot the part where we graduated and began our careers by being almost immediately dumped into the jaws of the Great Recession. I at least had 4 years to "establish" myself, others were not so lucky.
I hate when people agree with me. Just makes me that much more pessimistic. :|
Daehawk wrote:Thats Drazzil's chair damnit.
User avatar
dbt1949
Posts: 25687
Joined: Wed Oct 13, 2004 12:34 am
Location: Hogeye Arkansas

Re: [Boomers] Dear Millenials: I'm Sorry We Didn't Stop Them

Post by dbt1949 »

Once again a president (Reagan) got elected because everybody hated the in office president (Carter). Personally I didn't care for Reagan but liked Bush Sr . Twenty years from now the boomers will be mostly gone. Maybe the millennials will have better luck.
Ye Olde Farte
Double Ought Forty
aka dbt1949
User avatar
Archinerd
Posts: 6836
Joined: Fri Aug 25, 2006 11:18 am
Location: Shikaakwa

Re: [Boomers] Dear Millenials: I'm Sorry We Didn't Stop Them

Post by Archinerd »

Drazzil wrote: Thu Jul 14, 2022 2:36 pm
Archinerd wrote: Thu Jul 14, 2022 2:30 pm
Smoove_B wrote: Thu Jul 14, 2022 10:43 am Just seeing this article over on the Daily Kos and I think he's raising some interesting observations. It crosses far too many topics to try and shoehorn into another topic, so I've created this one.

=
I'm just a little bit too old to be a Millennial, but this resonates with me. He forgot the part where we graduated and began our careers by being almost immediately dumped into the jaws of the Great Recession. I at least had 4 years to "establish" myself, others were not so lucky.
I hate when people agree with me. Just makes me that much more pessimistic. :|
I generally think your anger is justified, you just misplace your energy.
We don't have any hope of beating this by destroying everything.
User avatar
Smoove_B
Posts: 54567
Joined: Wed Oct 13, 2004 12:58 am
Location: Kaer Morhen

Re: [Boomers] Dear Millenials: I'm Sorry We Didn't Stop Them

Post by Smoove_B »

Archinerd wrote: Thu Jul 14, 2022 2:48 pm I generally think your anger is justified, you just misplace your energy.
We don't have any hope of beating this by destroying everything.
Absolutely true. To invoke the wise Mr. Nancy

Enlarge Image

The trick is using anger to motivate people into constructive action, not destructive. Not easy.
Maybe next year, maybe no go
User avatar
gilraen
Posts: 4312
Joined: Wed Sep 04, 2013 7:45 pm
Location: Broomfield, CO

Re: [Boomers] Dear Millenials: I'm Sorry We Didn't Stop Them

Post by gilraen »

LordMortis wrote: Thu Jul 14, 2022 2:17 pm Putin doesn't have safeguards or safety nets for his people and he does just fine.
Uhm...I'm gonna have to disagree with that. There are a lot more safety nets in Russia than there are in the US.
User avatar
Combustible Lemur
Posts: 3961
Joined: Tue Jun 07, 2005 10:17 pm
Location: houston, TX

Re: [Boomers] Dear Millenials: I'm Sorry We Didn't Stop Them

Post by Combustible Lemur »



Sent from my SM-N975U using Tapatalk

Is Scott home? thump thump thump Crash ......No.
Drazzil
Posts: 4723
Joined: Fri Oct 15, 2004 3:54 pm

Re: [Boomers] Dear Millenials: I'm Sorry We Didn't Stop Them

Post by Drazzil »

Archinerd wrote: Thu Jul 14, 2022 2:30 pm
Smoove_B wrote: Thu Jul 14, 2022 10:43 am Just seeing this article over on the Daily Kos and I think he's raising some interesting observations. It crosses far too many topics to try and shoehorn into another topic, so I've created this one.

=
I'm just a little bit too old to be a Millennial, but this resonates with me. He forgot the part where we graduated and began our careers by being almost immediately dumped into the jaws of the Great Recession. I at least had 4 years to "establish" myself, others were not so lucky.
I wouldn't be shocked if income inequality is the largest indicator of a country or empire imploding or collapsing. If enough people in a society can't be convinced to work through a countries issues (invasion, economic crash etc) then a country or empire just collapses.

I think we're one or two shocks away.
Daehawk wrote:Thats Drazzil's chair damnit.
Post Reply