Ok, I am getting on my soapbox now so be forewarned, especially all you youngsters out there. I have already put on my flame proof clothes so flame away…
I know the trend nowadays is to blame us Baby Boomers for all the troubles in the country. They say we sucked all the money out of the economy but I as usual look at it from a different perspective:
- We created a strong middle class where average workers earned enough to buy the products they made. You allowed the politicians and CEOs to ship all those jobs to cheaper foreign labor on the idea that you could buy things a little cheaper. You didn’t have the foresight to see that one day your job would also be taken from you.
- We created prosperity of the 60s and 70s. Stock markets boomed, the GDP rose year after year, and the average family earned enough with a single bread winner to allow mothers to raise their children instead of being farmed out to a minimum wage earner. You allowed all that to slip from your grasp……
- We created a re-enforced safety net for those who fall on hard times. We did it by asking the most affluent among us to pay a little more in income taxes. You chose to let the revenue that the safety net requires flow back to the most affluent among us. You are the ones who are tearing the safety net apart, don’t blame us….
- We marched in the streets to assure civil rights for every citizen. We marched on the picket lines to insure a living wage to every family. You allowed your politicians to dismantle the worker’s unions on the promise of the “job creators” would then add more jobs which of course never happened. You started the “Occupy” movement; that was a good idea but then let it fizzle out….
You lost all these things that we fought so hard to give you so don’t blame us for your failures. We gave you example after example of how to create a shared prosperity among everyone and keep our deficits under control. We showed you how a rising tide lifts all boats, you chose to let the greedy regain the ground we fought so hard to wrench from them. We were counting on you to continue to advance all the gains we gave you. You just dropped the ball. Quit blaming it on us….
When it comes right down to it you chose to install a snooze button on a smoke alarm and now wonder why you got fooled by a smoke screen.
Don’t blame us…….
RJ's Corner 
Are you a baby boomer (b. 1945/6-1963/4)? I am. Here is what Wiki says :>) “Baby boomers are associated with a rejection or redefinition of traditional values; however, many commentators have disputed the extent of that rejection, noting the widespread continuity of values with older and younger generations. In Europe and North America boomers are widely associated with privilege, as many grew up in a time of widespread government subsidies in post-war housing and education, and increasing affluence.[3]
As a group, they were the wealthiest, most active, and most physically fit generation up to that time, and amongst the first to grow up genuinely expecting the world to improve with time.[4] They were also the generation that received peak levels of income, therefore they could reap the benefits of abundant levels of food, apparel, retirement programs, and sometimes even “midlife crisis” products.
Boomers DID outsource and continue to do so. Moving to a foreign country to retire well – while living on SS is a good example.
I also give the indecisiveness of my generation the gold star of giving gold stars where none is due.
I think you might be a part of the Jones generation. They were the people who learned from parents struggling from the war and the rise of the unions. Then everything you said is very true. My father is part of that group and they did great work in the 1950-1980’s.
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Hi Janette, I am at the very head of the Baby Boomers. I was born about nine months after the soldiers returned from WWII. Since we are talking about over 70 million people spread out over a twenty year span it is really hard to put everyone in the same box. We are just too diversified for that. But I do stand by my post as far as the front end of this group is concerned. Culturally, not everyone in that time period should be classified as a Boomer.
I really don’t want to over think this but yes, much of what you say is true. We were at the peak of income levels, that is one of my points. Those that came later let the shared prosperity decline; I think with the same amount of effort we put into it we would see today the wealth spread out over a much broader population. Cultural change takes a lot of work and the generations that followed just didn’t seem up to the task. Many were just too worried about only themselves to see the common good collapse around them.
A very distinct change came with the MBA degrees starting around 1980. That is the point where workers started to be treated as liabilities instead of assets. The MBA programs spurred that thought and helped bring about Reaganomics, otherwise known at “trickle down”. That proved the death knell for shared prosperity.
I personally don’t know about freely giving gold stars. I am pretty much against that as a basic principle. You should just do your job without expecting a lot of praise. The job should be its own satisfaction and if it is not you are probably in the wrong field.
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