TL:DR author’s positing that despite the public narrative we (gen x and millenials) are mostly better off (especially financially) than prior generations and at least partly due to actions from boomers.
Thought this was an interesting read. I don’t agree with all of the author’s points but figured it would generate good discussion here.
No one is seriously saying Boomers fucked everything up. They’re saying doing some things right doesn’t get you off the hook for fucking other things up and/or intentionally standing in the way to prevent us from fixing those fuckups now.
We got my grandpa to stop saying the n____r word for Black people. Great, woohoo. Doesn’t mean we won’t call him out for calling Mexican people w__backs now.
Grandpa put 5 kids through school and helped with another half dozen grandkids; great and generous. Doesn’t mean we have to silently put up with his whining when he wants a ride somewhere and the person offering has an EV.
With that logic we would have stopped and “been thankful” when black people counted as 3/5ths of a white person. Or when women were allowed to vote but not allowed to have their own bank accounts.
Boomers looking for their gold stars and participation trophies.
The whole “you should be grateful for what you have” narrative is bullshit. The only way human civilisation advanced was because people didn’t accept “good enough” and strived for improvement. This is especially true when people talk about first world problems — the core reason the first world is the first world is because prior generations said “not good enough” to their governments and corporations.
The boomers, however, reversed or squandered many of the massive gains they were left with —mainly attributed to the labor movements of the first half of the 20th Century — and set their children and grandchildren up to be worser off in most critical metrics. None of their successes will matter when the planets ecosystems collapse.
Corporate media are going to keep gaslighting us about “the economy” for the next 10 months, because the presidential incumbent has put all his election campaign eggs in the Bidenomics basket.
