Gen Xers need to over throw the age of the Baby Boomers
Everytime I hear someone do the shake and bake dance over lifting the Retirement age from 65 to 67, I always think one thing - 'Fucking Baby Boomers'.
That's right, this is the 'I hate Baby Boomers' blog, and it's been coming for sometime.
By lifting the age of retirement, we not only make it more unfair to Maori (who have a shorter life expectancy) we also allow these greedy Baby Boomers to cling onto the job market denying Gen Xers from rising through the ranks for another bloody two years.
GREAT.
On top of getting their education for free, their health care for free and their retirement for free all funded by their vast speculation on property (which makes it more difficult for Gen Xers to buy their own home), these greedy no good Baby Boomers are living off the backs of Gen Xers who have to pay for boomer lifestyles while paying the debt from their own education.
I call time on these bloody boomers. They have sold out every principle they fought for as the first youth culture and now simply hold on with all the energy greed gives them to continue to support their precious lifestyles while blocking Gen Xers from forging ahead.
Throughout industry after industry, I hear from my Gen X friends that they are forced to deal with Baby Boomer sales managers who have managed to slip into positions of authority with zero ability. These beige brigade that make up the gate keepers of NZ have zero interest in the future of the country and every interest in their cushy little fiefdoms.
Never before has one Generation taken so much and given so little, it's time Gen Xers across NZ started a quiet revolution to other throw the beige brigade of aging boomers and seize the power away from this selfish wasted clique.
The age of the Boomer is over, Gen X has inherited the shit Boomers have refused to deal with, we are the next Generation who will be running this country and it's time Gen Xers started making that changing of the guard a reality.
I'm not the only one calling time on baby boomers, so to is bloomberg...
Generation X Stymied by Boomers
...a typical member of the relatively small group called Generation X, 46 million Americans born between 1965 and 1978: They’re ambitious, squeezed by debt and frustrated by people who aren’t retiring on schedule.
It's not so much 'death to the baby boomers' as it is 'get lost and retire now you blood sucking sell outs', the next Generation need to take over now.
posted by Bomber @ 1:03 pm
15 comments
15 Comments:
is it pedantry to note that you have moved from gen x political-leaders...
..(the greens..)
..to a baby-boomer leader..?
..(mana..)
..(just saying..!..)
phil(whoar.co.nz)
There's a "hidden"(probably not the best description)job market out there that would exist if the current occupiers of these jobs would "get over themselves" and think "bigger picture". Of who am I talking of you ask?? Well-to-do and VERY-well-to-do, mainly women, whos household incomes/trust fund lifestyles run well into 6 figures, but who still work as teachers aids, casual bank tellers, part time accountants, even supermarket checkout girls. (our local has a middle aged lady, who drives an AMG Mercedes priced at over 100k).
50 years ago these mainly women, would not have been working - and people, I'm trying NOT to sound sexist here. If they really want to work, start busineses, buy a business creat jobs instead of "occupying" them!! - they would be doing volunteer work. Or they would've been fundraising for charity, working with their local parishes, etc., etc. Each of these undertakings carries with it the satisfaction of helping your fellow man - I know it's not the "done thing" in this day and age and the fallout from it is obvious for all to see, but it is time we found our humanity again and quickly.
There are thousands of households who would give their first born for the chance of just one of the adults having a part time job let alone a fulltime one. Is it time these second income earners on high joint incomes be taxed more aggressively to encourage them out of the jobs market and letting into the market people who NEED the jobs?
Just a thought that's been perculating away for the past 3 or 4 years, as I see and hear of more and more jobs being done by people who don't need the money.
Chris in ChCh
I can't agree with you more Bomber. You have nailed the issue. Everything you mention I have experienced/witnessed first hand from these fuckers. Needless to say I'm a Gen Xer, so maybe I'm just a bit biased...
What a giant dick you sound Bomber! Don't expect Gen Y or whatever freak show comes after them to like Gen X any better than you like us boomers but honestly is this really a serious position? Hating someone for their colour is wrong but not hating someone for the year they were born? It is a prejudice you need to get over or join the multifarious hordes of other commentators who got lost down a weird path.
Phil, I'm a Baby Boomer myself, and I understand what Bomber is getting at. I illustrate the issue myself, with this little number I wrote some weeks back; http://fmacskasy.wordpress.com/2011/08/28/greed-is-good/
The article relates to two baby boomers who graduated at high-income earning professionals - and who still felt they weren't getting enough, so they rorted the tax system....
*sigh* yet another commentator characterising a large and diverse generation with a limited range of negative attributes. (such stereotypes are just misleading and result in missing the real causes while scapegoating people who don't, in reality fit the stereotype).
By all means, rant against the people doing the things you mention. But some of us never got a free education, don't (and never have) own property etc, while there are many people of younger generations getting a relatively free and privileged life, while pursuing and supporting the neoliberal consumerist fantasy.
Many of us have struggled and campaigned most of our adult lives against a lot of the destructive policies and privileges you rant about.
Ranting about a whole, older generation based on selectivity and stereotyping, is just a variation on ageism, and diverts from the privileged elites (albeit with a significant core of boomers) promoting a capitalism that produces destructive inequalities, divisions and hardships.
The neoliberal power-holders no more represent me as a boomer than younger right wing politicians represent younger generations.
To elaborate on Phil above:
Hone Harawira -Bn 1955
Annette Sykes - Bn 1961
Sue Bradford - Bn 1952
John Minto - bn 1953
.... Boomers all.
Then in National we get some non-boomers:
Paula Bennett bn 1969
Nikki Kaye bn 1980
It's always nice to have good vent occasionally and there's something of an entertainingly voyeuristic quality to a well-articulated piece of self-righteous indignation.
Although the frustrations you feel are no doubt valid through the sum of your own experience and the prisms of your perspectives and your points made are duly noted and not with out merit, it has to be said that many will find the width of that tar-brush with which you stroke a tad broad to say the least.
Many of the worlds greatest humanitarians, human rights advocates and environmental activists are and have been so called "Baby Boomers" though I wouldn't suggest they define an entire generation any more than the above description and I have to say to my casual observation I see many Gen-Xers picking up an equally selfish and intolerant mantle... some that would make even the baddest Boomer blush.
The point being no entire generation has a monopoly on goodness and some people are just pricks... irrespective of what year they were born.
Carol, I think you're missing the point entirely.
We are referring to Baby Boomers as a collective. Individuals may (and do) behave against the general pattern. I'm a Baby Boomer and I certainly have consistently voted against tax cuts (via voting Left).
But the facts are plain;
* prior to 1992, tertiary education was free - no student loans/debt.
* Since 1986, there have been SIX tax cuts (2 in the 1980s; 2 in the 1990s; and two in the last two years).
* Baby Boomers have (GENERALLY) benefitted from free tertiary education; and then (GENERALLY) benefitted from tax cuts; whilst Gen X and Gen Y have accrued $13.6 BILLION dollars in student debt.
I think you're getting angry at the wrong people. Bomber (and I) are simply pointing out certain realities to you.
As I wrote here, in the same vein: http://fmacskasy.wordpress.com/2011/08/28/greed-is-good/
Undoubtedly things have got tougher for large numbers of people in the generations below the baby boomers. But, I think the benefits were more in the form of available employment and welfare benefits, than from university education.
Back in the 50s- late 70s there wasn’t as much pressure on getting tertiary qualifications and only about 1-3% of the population went to university. The vast majority of university students were male, and also white, and most likely to be from a middleclass background. This was largely due to the selective system of secondary education. There weren’t fees. The small minority who stayed onto upper 6th/7th forms could earn a bursary/scholarship which would go a long way towards living costs, and it helped to be male for earning a reasonable amount of money in holiday jobs, and/or to have middleclass parents who could also provide support.
But that leaves a helluva lot of boomers who never went to uni, went straight out to work or into job training/apprenticeships.
The 50s-early 70s weren’t that great times to be a woman or gay. And as far as I could see there weren’t a lot of privileges in begin Maori, Pacifica, or working class.
Also, as far as I can see, many gen x children of comfortably-off boomers have also had a pretty privileged time, got themselves a good education, and reasonably well-paying jobs,. They have also been sold the neoliberal line about endless consumer good-times, having pretty high material expectations for their futures.
IMO, it’s more likely to be the grandchildren of boomers who are going to experience the most difficulty, as the neoliberal dream collapses.
PS; I do not like the whole student loan system, and the way so many people have been saddled with extensive debt at a young age. I also think that anyone who benefited from easier times, and then pulled up the ladder after them deserves all the vitriol sent their way.
i agree with much of what carol says..
..and agree the boomers have inflicted inequities on those who follow...
..and many have had their greed pandered to by successive governments...
..but the bummer fact of the matter is that gen x will always be overshadowed by the boomers...
..it's not right..it's a fact...
..the numerical-disparities ..(and thus political-clout)....but relative closeness in age will guarantee that...
..another aspect of the gen xers that disturbs me is that they have largely been an acquiescent-generation..
..suckled on and believing in the neo-lib/t.i.n.a. bullshit...
..i see the kids of today...
..having seen boom/bust...
..and knowing the environmental imperatives..
..who will stand on their hind legs and snarl...
..the x-ers are too busy being like the boomers..
..largely neo-lib/self-interest driven...
phil(whoar.co.nz)
All I can say is heaven help us when those genX's have paid off their student loans and decide to come home! They won't be happy about the designer depends, lipo, botox, and harley trikes they've seen their inheritances spent on.
You're right, Bomber, boomers obviously can't even organise pissups in breweries, all this time roaring round to U2 concerts and marijuana still not legal, tsk tsk "still haven't found...what I'm looking for...blah blah..."
Frank is right...nobody is blaming individuals and there are obviously babyboomers who have missed out.
Women, Maori, ethnic minorities and disabled people all suffered, as well as others...that's natural with capitalism.
But the babyboomers are a statistical bulge that have protected their own interests.
Policies, including economic, welfare, social, employment and educational have always been aimed at babyboomers since they were born....that will continue till they die.
Every generation feels the same way about the generation before. We baby boomers felt the same way about our parents' generation. Gen Yers will feel the same way about you. Sorry...
The trouble with boomers is that before retirement, they want to make sure to have their offspring at their place.
Maybe they want to retire later, so their beloved X-gen kids can be ready to take over their places.
My wife works at HR, and do you who are the managers that refuse to hire people over 30/35? Exactly, the boomers!
They fucked everything, outsourced and offshored, and now, they are going to make sure their kids have a place, even if it means fucking generation-X.
Post a Comment
<< Home