I have noticed a habit recently, a new portrayal of Millennials in media. Overly nurtured and pampered by parents. Overly confident, and achievement-oriented. Young out of touch hipsters with high expectations. Which isn’t so bad on its face. But, a lot of it is being produced by members of another generation. One that has been in power for twenty years and has a lot to be ashamed about. The boomers have a lot to answer for and they seem to have no concept of how much it takes to survive in this world compared to the 1970s and 1980s.
Yet they seem to be blaming the generation who is just graduating college with all the responsibility
take it Forbes article www.forbes.com/…
the title is “Millennials And 'Their Destruction of Civilization'
or this BBC report www.bbc.com/… defending the generation that is being labelled “Snow flakes”
I’m not going to include other links, but its a pattern i’m seeing. A cool artist who is obsessed with the Nanny in “Wine Country”, freaking bagel commercials with hipsters talking out of their ass, the jokes about AOC in Congress. Its just odd.
Look I get it. As a member of this very large generation, I of course see negative traits. I also see a restlessness that I don’t see in other generations. I have written and published four books in five years and I have severe Dyslexia (Sorry about the Grammar I’m trying) . Yet I got it in my head to write history books. I am very restless about it and I get it. I have a habit of standing up to authority. I get it!
But, come on!!! Wages have flat lined and prices are skyrocketing. The income gap has hit now highs, faith in institutions has never been lower, the output in congress is ridiculously low. Yet we get treated to images of a few youngsters trying to become Instagram famous as the symbol of an entire generation that includes tens of millions over twenty years. Plus you have boomers making jokes about the level of student loan debt my generation has created, almost hoping these kids who have masters degrees and can’t find jobs go bankrupt.
You have an entire generation of boomerang children still living at home, poverty is at record highs, and we get jokes. Biden the guy who went to law school and paid 25 dollars a credit hour mocks the generation.
The following is a conversation I had with a seventy year old member of the boomers. He was a former republican member of the Fl House of Representatives. In his time he voted down the minimum wage four times, voted to decrease funding for education, and free meals for school children. He will be referred to as “Bb” and I as “MIL”
Bb : Nothing is free...somebody pays for it
Mil : yeah it’s not about getting anything for Free or entitlements or generational entitlement
It’s about our collective generational decline
It’s about the Its a political cartoon using the “mr man” style of design
Talking about the high cost of living and decline in quality of life this generation is facing compared to every other since before the Second World War.
Bb: the cost of living hss increased considerably since my bride and were married in December of 1968. Our first budget allowed $10.00 a week for food. Of course, chuck roast was 39 cents a pound and chuck steak zoomed up to 49 cents per pound. Gasoline was 40 cents to 45 cents a gallon. It costs more to live now, but my first "real" job after college paid $100 a week. Define, if you will the "decline of quality of life", please.
Mil: u just did define it
The cost of living has exploded
Wages have flatlined
The average family of five makes about 30 thousand a year and requires nearly 45 to 50 thousand to live
The price of insulin is at an all time high
The price to go to school at a state university is twenty five thousand dollars more
While adjusting for inflation the average college teachers salaries are lower
Yet administrators salaries have gone up into the middle seven digits
The income gap is the widest since before the introduction of the income tax.
For the record
I’m a man who has no student loans, who’s gpa was so high the school paid for my summer classes, I work forty hours a week and get royalties monthly for my books
I live in a house I own and I’m still struggling
I have a son with autism and the lack of support from the state against the costs of providing him support is staggering
I’m frankly frustrated at some of the comments I see from baby boomers and
If you honestly don’t see a decline in standard living from the past ten years... than good for you, you’re blessed and I’m happy for you
But it’s not by any means a common experience
Bb: silence
Look my beloved late mother was a boomer. I have a lot of boomer friends. I’ve just noticed a tendency lately for them to mock us while we are struggling when it was them who fixed the deck against us. Yes I know I’m acting like a Snow Flake and Shouldn’t let it bother me. But, doesn’t it just feel like an unhealthy dose of projecting by a generation still very much in power, who need fix what they broke. You know so my sons aren’t the last generation who can live on earth.