I have had this conversation about the effectiveness of generations for a while now. I've talked about it with different demographics of age and race and ultimately I come back to the same conclusion. The baby boomer generation has generated the bulk majority of major issues that we currently face and when they have retired the world will be a better place.
I am actually really repulsed because a lot of Boomers I speak to blame their parents, and then when a finger is pointed they also blame their children. Obviously any generation that creates any kind of change will leave wakes of both positive and negative ends. It's inevitable. You cannot really please everyone in the country at the same time. What I'm aiming at here is a massive slide of negative waves versus positive ones, lending that the generation did more bad than it did good. It's not something I'm claiming about every individual. So you there, Mr. or Mrs. Boomer, I'm not specifically saying that you yourself had a direct hand in the downfall. I'm saying that the bulk of influence from your generation created a bad effect and those of you that didn't have a hand didn't stop it.
I'm going to break this down into the typical claims that people make for and against them to make this easier, because when you talk to a boomer, they claim all kinds of outlandish things and likewise I have seen nonsensical rants from other millennials with absolutely no basis. Thus, here we go.
CLAIMS ABOUT SYSTEMS THAT BOOMERS HAVE BROKEN
- 1. Climate Change Induced By Humans
Arguably the beginning to excessive use of chemicals that damage our environment was begun by the Boomer generation. Their use of such materials has eroded the use of the more safe alternatives and created dependency. As millennials, we are tasked with making sacrifices that they never made in order to help reverse the actions taken.
- 2. Savings and Loans
DISCLAIMER: I know this is wiki, but there are about 40 sources at the bottom of the page
Ultimately the major underlying factor among all of the causes of this crisis is a boomer at the head of the banking that governs savings and loans. Giving predatory loans to people who could never afford them so that they could get a bonus was regular. All of the causes for the problems with the S&L industry were done by boomers in charge and supported by boomers in the senate.
- 3. MASSIVE inflation resulting in stunted subsequent growth
Inflation as boomers graduated high school was around 1.5-2%. Ten years later they were hovering 11-12% inflation while having an increased ability to earn money and having the largest voting block of all time. Not only were they beginning to take power at this time, but they were enjoying the false fruits of epic inflation of gross proportions that led to recession in the 80's. This is actually a huge indicator of massive unemployment that began then and a huge trend in wild spending of money without concern for the future - as we can currently see.
- 4. Sending Jobs Overseas
Several tax laws (Not NAFTA or other trade agreements - although the certainly didn't help) have caused problems with retaining domestic positions. Until these laws were enacted by Clinton (the first boomer president) and by a primarily boomer senate, the concept of trickle down was actually working pretty well. The problem with trickle down economics is greed, and these tax cuts enabled the wealthy to become wealthier without providing positions for the middle and lower class, leading me to my next point.
- 5. Wealth Inequality
As a result of the points made in #4, you see in this graph a disparity that has origins in the 70's/80's, as boomers were taking the helm at corporate america.
- 6. Inflating College Costs
Tuition fees drastically have expanded due to several problems in funding from the federal government that was enacted by Boomers. The loan system for banks is now hopelessly tied to these loans. It would actually be less expensive to forgive all college debt than it would be to bail out all of the banks again. Banks should not be too big to fail.
- 7. Outrageous Oil Prices
So in the 1970's there was the Iran/Iraq war, which you could argue either way whether we could have helped or not as it's a non-domestic issue. Sure the boomers were taking the helm during that era and held the largest voting block, but I think that it might be fair to write that one off to foreign soil and/or the Silent Generation. Probably more the former than the latter. The second spike, however, is directly in time with us declaring war on an unspecified target (Terrorism?) and pursuing an agenda of military action in the middle east. Coincidentally this was approved in mass by the boomers in politics that were voted for by boomers in majority (roughly 50% of boomers vote as opposed to about 20-30% of other age groups). The more disturbing price is the "real" price and not the nominal one, which is at unparalleled heights in all of history - even since the massive spikes in the 1800's.
- 8. Social Security Problems
Boomers have statistically paid less into social security and will cash out more from it than any other demographic in history. If it doesn't bankrupt the system, the burden of keeping the system alive will not only shift to the millennials but to the generations after them who will be paying higher tax rates with lower volumes of jobs and less opportunities. By 2032 the boomers will all be able to claim SSI and the system will begin to unravel or taxes will be ravaging everyone besides them.
- 9. The Housing Bubble
Baby boomers routinely were valuing all of the homes that they had as higher and higher among one another while no actual changes were taking place to the home. A house I bought two years ago, despite having more problems that would exceed the added value to the home, increased in value out of simple principle for some reason. The thought to a lot of boomers was that the properties gained value, and they inherited this from the Silent Generation. That USED to be true when the bulk of properties were large sprawls of land and had very large homes. The reason those homes gained value is because many of them were gone when we started building more houses and started making them smaller. The problem is that boomers ignored this and just kept tacking on value to homes without regard for other trends and then the bubble burst because of other issues that they caused specifically in the Savings & Loans industry.
- 10. One Of The Least Effective Congress' in History
Despite the boomers having a majority of 65 Senators (to 28 Silent Generation and 9 Xers) in the senate, having 33 states worth of governors, and a total of 276 voting members in the house of representatives (64.137931%). With all of this done and the members collecting their salaries they are among the least productive of all time and are doing the absolute least to impact change because they are so polarized in their factions and they all want to "fight the power" rather than realize that THEY ARE the power and unity is what they need rather than fighting.
- 11. MASSIVE Government Debt
http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2013/06/29/how-the-baby-boomers-destroyed-americas-future.aspx
So debt isn't inherently evil if you are producing product to compensate or if you have investments that can counteract the debt by producing dividends. Unfortunately, the programs that the boomers have enacted for entitlement (specifically for the elderly and retired - convenient now that they are retiring) with no actual return far exceed the actual investment and cause a problem that can only be overcome with more product or more investment that must be sacrificed by the generations following them.
CLAIMS ABOUT SUPPOSED VICTORIES OF THE BOOMERS
- 1. Civil Rights
The Civil Rights act was passed in 1964 - which was right when the oldest boomers were graduating high school. They likely remember it, but hardly did they have any impact on the legislation for it. Only one year worth of them were able to vote. Hardly an impact on Civil Rights.
- 2. Musical Revolution
This is actually decidedly true. The Boomers decidedly changed the face of music. Peter Frampton, Journey, Michael Jackson, Queen (Freddie Mercury), and a host of others. Denying the boomers the musical revolution is asinine. They basically invented good music.
- 3. Vietnam
While you can make an argument that protests were making change in America, we were profiting hand over fist from the war. The problem is that there was a balance between the cost of life and the profit that we were gaining. The deaths and people sent over to vietnam were increasing, but the profits held steady, which is a negative trend. The war seemed to be leaning that it would be coming to an end. The Tet Offensive by the Vietnamese drastically changed that outlook and made it appear as it truly would be - a stalemate - and decidedly marked the point where we changed our stance. The Vietnamese essentially ended our involvement in the war with the Tet Offensive.
Not to mention that Operation Northwoods decidedly left the boomer generation in the dark about what was really happening because they also didn't have the internet or access to information besides the news. (Let's not even get into the other proven true conspiracies about their time in power - like the heart attack gun)
It should be noted though that they did need to endure the draft, which was horrendous by any standards and they have my sympathies on that end especially given that the war was essentially for profit.
- 4. Women's Rights
Theoretically this is ambiguous. A lot of monumental legislation like the CRA and other things were passed before they were even in the opportunity to vote for such legislation. There was also a massive movement of women's rights that were happening previous to their time pushing it. On the other side of that coin, they DID push that agenda for women dramatically and caused a lot more things to happen in the public spotlight than had previously. This one I would call a draw at best. The laws that enabled a lot of them to do what they did were passed before they did it, but their actions did spur a lot of further action.
- 5. Sexual Revolution
This one I also call a draw, on several grounds. First, Alfred Kinsey decidedly started the revolution in the 50's with his controversial research and he was decidedly NOT a boomer. The Revolution actually started closer to the mid-1930's and 40's, but Kinsey publishing Sexual Behavior in the Human Male (1948) and Sexual Behavior in the Human Female (1953), also known as the Kinsey Reports, as well as the Kinsey scale set of a huge spark in the revolution. So the boomers didn't really "start" the revolution, but it did explode under their care.
On the other hand, the spread of HIV infections peaked in the 80's, as they matured but had minimal information on HIV and AIDS. Not to mention the wide spread of other STD's that still plague our nation (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2598671/bin/st26245.f6.gif)
So on the grounds that they didn't start it, and their expansion was so uninformed about it as to wide spread disease for several generations, I'm calling this one a draw. We have more liberties and understanding but at the cost of disease and death.
- 6. Technology
So yes/no here also. A lot of the technology began in it's infancy long before the boomers got a hold of it, but they did take technologies very very far. They took computers from number crunching machines to what they are now (Thanks Gates and Jobs!). They created the wireless systems that we all now enjoy and updated the phones that we use. I wouldn't say they invented the ideas for a lot of technology, but they absolutely expanded that technology. Our generation, including Mark Zuckerberg, is currently using those technologies to revolutionize communication. This is a resounding YES for the boomers. They have given vast new ways to communicate and widely opened technology.
- 7. The Cold War
Um...half of the cold war was over before the boomers reached 18 years old. Most of politics was run by the Silent Generation still. This is a resounding no. While there were contributions that happened to wrap things up toward the late 70's and 80's, most of it happened because of some very heavy lifting on the hands of the generation before the boomers and them doing things that we would never consider ethical.
- 8. Fixed Polio
The Polio cases and vaccines happened while boomers were alive, but not when they were in power. It was again the Silent Generation who came up with most of the cures for these problems and consequently the cases drastically reduced in the 50's. This is like 3/4 no, but also 1/4 yes, because the Boomers did create more versions of it and standardize the use of it.
- 9. Established better retirement
Boomers have done a ton to bolster social security and set up nursing homes. The problem is that since they have put their parents in these nursing homes there is a wild flurry for how horrible those places are. In addition, there were a lot of gaps in Social Security that caused problems for their parents. They have moved to fix those holes, but haven't chipped anything more into the pot while beginning to already cash out. So they fixed a system for themselves and are now depleting it while not likely to go into the said homes that they created for their parents. This is also a resounding failure.
CONCLUSION
Based on all of the observable problems that have been created by leaders from that generation (not during their generation, mind you, but BY MEMBERS OF their generation), the lackluster performance of a bulk of their important contributions, and the very self-absorbed nature of a lot of the mindsets I am currently of the opinion that they are actually (as a collective) the problem with progress. This doesn't mean there aren't great people in the generation who did great things. It means that the bad things they allowed their leaders to do and voted those leaders in for, drastically outweigh the benefits of the good things they did by marching and so on. I don't think the bulk of the generation had ill intentions or is that greedy, but undoubtedly the major influencing powers from the generation have left a generation of greed, selfishness, and personal ambition at the expense of anything else.
Feel free to show me wrong. I am more than happy to hear about all of the definitive evidence about how they did great things and did NOT cause most of the problems we have today.
Disclaimer: I might come off as smug but I just speak in a more matter-of-fact tone. I'm always open to other opinions as long as they are actually supported and not inane statements like, "I don't need a source because I was there."
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