Sure. I get it.
Romani- wages are not low. Clearly you have no idea what is going on in corporate America and in this strong economy. It requires some wise choices, but things are good.
The vast majority of us on this forum are Boomers. I don’t think I’ve seen many people on this forum complaining about millenials, particularly since most of us have at least one of them as our children, and we think they’re amazing.
Most of us have had very tough times in our lives. Many of us have suffered job loss, illness, financial loss, and a myriad of challenges. My grandfather and his family almost starved to death, but were rescued by the Communists. My parents grew up completely impoverished, my mother abused and my father the child of poor farmers. I grew up in a house in constant construction, without heat (but with plenty of rats and spiders). My kids grew up in a low income household at first, and ended up in a high income one. Now as tech workers in their twenties, they are making more than I did at their age.
If either one of them ever started griping about their situation and calling me, “Boomer”, I would kick their entitled butts. I can’t imagine that they would do that. They know they’ve had opportunities and a comfortable lifestyle that many in my generation never had, and never will.
There you Boomers go again, claiming credit for smart phones when it was gen X’ers that developed them. Ok Boomer, you can have credit for the Commodore 64.
I’m kidding, I’m kidding. But seriously, the first iPhone was introduced in 2007 and probably the software and hardware was developed by folks in the their 20’s, 30’s, and 40’s. How about a shoutout for Gen X?
Hold my avocado while I read about how Millennials are ruining everything. https://www.chicagotribune.com/opinion/commentary/ct-perspec-millennials-killing-economy-avocado-toast-rampell-1210-20181207-story.html
Pay for labor has not increased that much over the decades (although benefit costs, much of it medical, have increased significantly). Most of the economic gains over the decades have accrued to holders of capital rather than sellers of labor. Among the sellers of labor, the main gainers are those with the highest pay.
So it is no surprise that much of “middle America” (in terms of economic position) does not feel all that satisfied with economic conditions from their point of view, even though the forum demographic (mostly those holding lots of capital and/or able to sell their labor at high rates of pay) sees a strong economy from their point of view.
https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2018/08/07/for-most-us-workers-real-wages-have-barely-budged-for-decades/
https://fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/R45090.pdf
https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2019/04/50-years-of-us-wages-in-one-chart/
I know, right? But it’s also our fault. We glorified being a slacker, though we also were the ones that glorified being smart. In half the teen films in the 80s and 90s, the lead characters were either slackers or nerds - Matthew Broderick starred as both.
As a sidebar to the whole argument, is this actually true? Today’s traditional-age college students are GenZ, and most of their parents are Xers. Boomers are (for the most part) the Millennials’ parents rather than GenZ’s, unless they had children quite late in their reproductive life.
…or adopted. 
I am sure the poster meant “this forum” = Parent Cafe. 
Judging by the hot action in the Medicare etc. threads… yup. Boomers as charged.
This is the last thing I’ll say on this thread because this really isn’t the hill I want to die on and I’m rarely on here anyways.
Some of the posts here are exactly why the “OK, boomer” retort exists.
I presented why millenials are finally snapping back at boomers and several of you responded with things like “you’re welcome for that smart phone!” That is precisely why “Ok, boomer” became a thing. Instead of actually listening to why we’re annoyed with many people of the boomer generation, many would just rather belittle and dismiss us.
This clearly doesn’t apply to all boomers and the retort isn’t directed at all boomers. It’s directed at people of a certain age who think that “I’m big, you’re small, so I’m the boss” is a good life motto (this is a paraphrase line from a film that millenials grew up with that’s said by a boomer father).
My generation is the first generation in over a century that will do worse than their parents. My generation is the first generation to almost uniformly be saddled with debt from the time we’re 18. My generation is the first to work jobs with no benefits despite having a college degree. My generation is the one who will really, truly have to start dealing with the effects of climate change. What we’re seeing now with massive storms and disrupted climate patterns is nothing. We’ll have to deal with the climate refugees while contending with a crumbling infrastructure - that boomers refuse to invest in - and a gutted social safety net - which boomers benefited heartily from.
But if you want to continue believing that we’re just being whiny, have at it. The generation coming up behind us - the one that has the likes of Greta Thunberg, the Parkland kids, and so on is going to put my generation’s demands to shame. If you’re having a hard time with “Ok, boomer” then you’re in for a nasty surprise when Gen Z gets political power.
In my kid’s class there were many boomers, and it seemed that there were even more boomer parents for her college classmates. As I wrote, I was born on the cusp, and grew up with the baby boom being defined as 1946-1960, and think of myself as a Gen-X, though not growing up in the USA also affects my behavior.
Academics and professionals often have children late, so having their last kid in their early 40s or late 30’s isn’t all that rare. So many Boomers born the late 1950s or early 1960s were having kids the 1998 or 2001.
Why yes, it is actually true. Just read the posts, and you will agree that most people here are Boomer age (55-75). Many of us have stayed here on the parents forum well after our kids graduated. Many on here have had children at later ages or have multiple kids. I suspect there aren’t too many here that have their first child still in college. I know, it’s scary, we are old!
I think people tend to project what they experience personally onto everyone else. It’s difficult to see beyond your own situation. The millennials I know (kid’s friends, co-workers) are successful, smart, funny, interesting, impressive…on top of the world. That’s what I see. I guess if you and those you knew were mired in misery, and thought life was terrible, you would assume it was the same for everybody else.
The world I deal with, people from different generations get along just fine. I didn’t realize that the blame and rage against someone because they are xx age, older or younger, was actually a thing.
Okay, y’all, point taken about the population here.
But some data: The oldest Gen-Z kids are (using the American Psychological Association definition) 22 years old, which means the youngest possible Boomer parent of a Zoomer would have been 33 at the child’s birth. Since the average age at birth of a child* in the US is 31 for women and 34 for men, those with traditional-age children currently in college (at least, as undergrads) are unlikely to be Boomers, since what I gave above are the extremes.
But it’s important to keep these sorts of stats in mind when talking about generations—the Millennials are (for the most part) the Boomers’ children, and Gen-Z is (for the most part) the Xers kids. Also, the Millennials are no longer undergrads, unless they deferred college entry for, say, a term of military service or took a break of some length in their education. It seems that sometimes Millennials gets used as shorthand for “Kids These Days!” and Boomers gets used as shorthand for “Old Fogeys”, and that ignores some (IMO) really useful distinctions.
- Couldn't find adoption age stats, sorry @bigmacbeth!
I’ve always found these labels - Boomers, Gen X, millenials, etc. - pretty dumb. A lot of these groupings span 18-20 years and have way too much generalizing of folks from multiple decades to be meaningful. I’m technically at the tail end of the Baby Boom and feel like I have little in common with folks 10-20 years older than me.
I’m surprised to see so much heated discussion regarding artificially contrived attempts at grouping people by age with arbitrary cut-offs.
I also dislike whining about “whippersnappers” which goes on way too much, including here on CC. It just makes one sound old and feeds into specious stereotyping.
@scubasue-
I so agree with you that most of us have those “war stories” about poverty in college and beginning adult life.
The details are different but I dont think one demographic can claim the most difficult economic environment.
Though I think Romanigypsyeyes is trying (imho).
Waaaay back in 1978, I graduated from a decidedly tier 3ish college chosen not for its sterling qualities but because it provided me a full tuition scholarship. No thought was given to taking loans to attend a more exclusive school.
My first professional job with a four year science degree paid $5,50 an hour; I admit benefits were good.
After saving (living w roommates) for 4 years, we DH and I bought a home in a distressed neighborhood offering fixed mortgages @ %13.00 to 1st time buyers. Standard rates were at %16.00.
We saved for college for DS, refinanced house several times, saved for retirement.
DS took standard fed loans and paid them off in 5 years.
We just finished paying a modest parent college loan and killed the last mortgage prior to retiring after 41 years.
@MaineLonghorn , wow.
Sounds like rough career starts in your family. Glad you figured out a more successful path.
$5.50 per hour in 1978 equates to over $45K in 2019. So, sounds low on the surface but adjusted for inflation and with good benefits, it really isn’t that bad by today’s standards.
@romanigypsyeyes complaints about the increased hardships for the current generation of recent college grads isn’t just her own opinion. There are many economic studies to back up what she is saying - unprecedented levels of student debt due to tuition costs increasing much higher than inflation, growing economic inequality, etc. are just a few contributing factors.
16% rates, @musicmom? Wow! Ours is 3.25% and I’m always looking for lower!
I think many people have different expectations regarding college now. I would have never considered going into debt. First year at a community college, next three years tuition paid by a military scholarship. Lived at home and worked full time. Masters degree paid for by the military. If I hadn’t gotten a military scholarship, it would have been two years at a cc, state school, waitress full time and live at home.
Nowadays everybody seems to want the dream school and no way are they going to go to community college or live at home, gotta have the full experience. Forget trying to get a job that assists with advanced education, need to get that degree now. There’s a reason for all this college debt besides costs going up. People want an experience me and my friends never would have considered as an option.
In some states, tuition, room and board for the public university options is over $30K per year. Not all states have decent community college options.
I went to a private college. If I put what my parents’ paid back in the 80s into today’s dollars adjusted for inflation, it would come out to less than $24K all in, including room and board and any fees. Today, that experience costs $60-70K.
That said, despite what the average CC posters portray, many, many students still pursue their cc/state college option which now costs more in some places, adjusted for inflation, than what it cost me for private, residential college.
Plus, jobs that never required a bachelor’s degree 30 years ago now require one.
That’s just the reality right now.
Hmmm, no. All of my kids’ friends are employed without their parents’ help. As a hiring manager I am having a hard time hiring people because unemployment is so low. I graduated into an economy that had double digit unemployment rate and car loan rate at 15-20% (I remember that because I couldn’t afford to buy a car). But we all made it through. My father used to like to tell us how hard they had it too. I am sure it’s not easy for young people today, just like every generation.
Maybe I live in a bubble, but I am not seeing/hearing that much bashing of Millennials. The only thing I will say about Millennials is over sharing of their personal lives, whether it’s on Youtube or blogs. All I could think of is that I really don’t care that much about your life.