<p>[url=<a href=“http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/07/09/AR2008070902281.html]Waaaaaaaaah![/url”>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/07/09/AR2008070902281.html]Waaaaaaaaah![/url</a>]</p>
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<p>When I saw the thread I thought it would be about generation Y…the Washington Post a couple of months ago did an article about how Gen Y has been coddled so much, they were the generation that started everyone at school received an award for something, and little league could no longer keep score. Anyway, companies are now complaining that parents will call the HR dept complaining that their child should have been promoted, or you can’t make them work so many hrs and threatening to sue. The HR people interviewed for the article were from large firms, the companies are in shock because they don’t what to do. </p>
<p>If you look at the baby boomer generation they are the parents of generation y. The same parents calling the employers. They have taken helicopter parent to an entirely new level.</p>
<p>I am gen X, very close to the baby boomers, but I think there are 2 different types of baby boomers…the ones born closer to 60, became adults in the 80’s era with spend, spend, spend. The ones born closer to the 50’s were being raised by parents who could remember the depression and the war, so they were thrifty.</p>
<p>Let’s also remember boomers also became to be known as boomerangs…moved out of the house and somehow boomeranged back home!</p>
<p>I’ll tell you why I’d say WAAH.</p>
<p>My H was laid off when his company was taken over. (I’m forgetting now whether this was the second or the third takeover.) He hasn’t been able to find comparable work since. In his mid 50s, he’s apparently considered too old. We have to pay between $3000 and $4000 per year for health insurance with a $15,000 deductible. The retirement age for social security has been extended just for us into our 70s. I recently went to the dentist for the first time in almost 10 years. I don’t have a doctor and haven’t had an annual physical in living memory, much less things like colonoscopies at age 50. </p>
<p>Meanwhile, the so-called “greatest generation” rode the biggest wave ever of prosperity into retirement at 65 or earlier, has free health care that WE pay for out of our meager earnings, and drives around Hilton Head Island and the like spending the excess freed up by this on greens fees, whining because every single cent of their prescriptions isn’t paid for, but of course they adamantly oppose single-payer universal health care. (I can’t afford to get prescriptions filled, so I had to drop medications that dealt with my allergies. I also had to drop seeing a provider for depression, and drop the medication for that.) THEY have THEIRS, so screw us. </p>
<p>Locally, the most vocal segment of the “greatest” generation spends a good deal of its time attacking the school budgets and complaining about being on a “fixed income.” Some of the most vocal chose to retire at age 55 and move here, unfortunately. Of course, they used up every penny they ever donated to SS years ago, and for at least a decade have been getting benefits paid by the people whose kids they want to shut off the education $$ for. The same people who pay for their health care without being able to afford any themselves. I only wish <em>I</em> had a “fixed” income with those benefits!</p>
<p>The “younger generations” are just beginning to realize the buzz saw that they are walking into. Just wait.</p>
<p>Enjoyed greater job security LAST YEAR??? This article is total crap in too many ways to count.</p>
<p>I know it’s a statistical grouping, but I was born in 1962 - and I do not feel like a boomer. I do not have much in common with the cohort born in 1946. Those 16 years made a huge difference in so many ways.</p>
<p>I totally agree with you on that. I was born closer to the war years. My niece and nephew were born in 1964, 1965! I really dislike the term “boomer” in the first place. It is all hype. When I was starting college, the end of the so-called boomer group where in playpens! I think “they” whoever they are, made the grouping by numbers. 1946-1964…good grief. That said, I have many friends who are much younger than me because I had my son when I was “older.” It keeps me younger! And I will be working for a long time to come and enjoying it.</p>
<p>I agree with some of what Consolation wrote about the entitlement mentality of many of today’s seniors. I’ve often felt that young families need the “senior discount” more than those folks supposedly on a fixed income, but have a paid off home and seven figures in CDs.</p>
<p>However, as evidenced by many of the threads here, I think many boomers do not realize how good we (and our kids) have it today.</p>
<p>LOL. When I saw the thread’s title, I correctly guessed that it was talking about …sigh… my generation.</p>
<p>I was born in 1958, and I say Waaah because of what’s happened in the country in the last eight years, and my fear that my kids might be killed in an unnecessary war if things continue the same way. I felt very differently 12 years ago, and hope to feel differently in the future.</p>
<p>What Consolation said. It’s not “whining” if it’s true. My father is comfortably retired on two Social Security checks and a pension (pension? what’s a pension?). I’m in my early 50s looking at paying for college for two sons, and hoping I don’t end up living in a trailer and eating catfood during retirement. I’m paying a high percentage of my income into taxes to support the “greatest generation” while wondering if those iPod-stroking kids will do the same for me. </p>
<p>No wonder the alphabet-generations think things are better than they ever were. Their baby-boomer parents are footing the bill for their self-actualizing life-styles.</p>
<p>As for helicopter-parenting of adult children, that’s just weird. I don’t believe in “failure to launch.” I’d bet a quarter that incidents of parents calling their childrens’ employers are a teeny-tiny minority.</p>
<p>As for the ‘highest median income’, well that comes as no surprise. We’re the people who have reached the top of our earnings potential. We’re also the group that has some of the greatest expenses, with college costs for our children, care costs of our ailing parents, etc. Most of us (I think) haven’t paid off our mortgages yet.</p>
<p>I’m not sure that ‘worry’ and ‘pessimism’ is the same as whining. And I think if you’d asked my parents how THEY felt financially when they were my age, they would have said ‘worried’ because when they were my age <em>they</em> were parents of teens and young adults and they were trying to balance things the same way I am now.</p>
<p>This economy is the scariest I’ve ever seen. </p>
<p>Expenses have increased dramatically for things like food, taxes, gas, cars, insurance. Incomes have not increased in real terms at all. Also, things that used to be 'extras" are now “staples” – cell phones, cable TV. </p>
<p>Twenty years ago, my VISA bill was ~$1,000 a month. Now it’s $4,000 a month – and I’m not buying anything else.</p>
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<p>I agree with Consolation 100 percent. America’s greatest generation is also our greediest generation. It does not seem to bother them that all of the benefits they receive are paid for by borrowing from their children and grandchildren and that their grandchildren will not be able to enjoy that same level of benfits when they retire.</p>
<p>I’ve often felt that young families need the “senior discount” more than those folks supposedly on a fixed income, but have a paid off home and seven figures in CDs.</p>
<p>How many have a paid off home?
With schools expecting families to access equity for college, offshoring and downsizing making working at the same company for 30 years and retiring with a pension, a fairy tale & stagnant wages with increased expenses for many?</p>
<p>Our credit card bill is $500 a month & that is only because we use it for everything we can,( inc groceries) because we get a rebate. But that is a 1/4 of our take home.</p>
<p>Ya, there must be people who are buying a lot, but I don’t see how that applies to most when national income around $50,000 & gas is heading for $5.</p>