Refusing to advise either his company or the officials (Water Patrol) of an impending sinking is near criminal imo. I don’t know about you, but exposing the waterways to a potential spill of several hundred gallons of diesel because you’re jealous is unacceptable. If millenial-boy thinks his ire at “old guys” is strong enough to make environmental spills OK, then he should have no problem explaining it to his boss. I wanted to be sure he had a chance to do so. 
The thing is that this really has nothing to do with Boomers. It has to do with the tendency for people to want to keep what they have and let others pay the bill - and your generation may do the same thing at some point. I say this because my mother and her friends were all for Romney’s idea of means testing of social security as long as it didn’t affect those already collecting or those who would collect soon. Here’s the thing though - she and her friends are between 70 and 80- too old to be Boomers. And every one of them has at least one kid born before 1964 but still under 55 who would have been affected. And they also hate the Affordable Care Act, which as far as I know does not affect Medicare recipients but has kept their grandchildren under age 26 insured. Selfishness is by no means restricted to those born between 1946-ish to 1964-ish. It’s just that the birthrate was higher during those years (hence the name “Baby Boom”) and there are more of them.
My parents are potentially very early boomers and by most counts, I just missed it.
I see parents who worked hard, didn’t get pensions, saved for retirement, put three kids through college without financial aid, and can afford a comfortable retirement. My Dad certainly hasn’t voted himself tax cuts - he’s become more and more rabidly liberal (far more than I am).
And I see me and my end of boom friends on the other end. And we’ve worked hard, and raised families, and haven’t voted ourselves tax cuts.
My Dad didn’t get to take advantage of the 50s boom except by growing up in it. In fact, his defining career period was the recession filled and energy crisis filled 70s and 80s. That’s when he raised his kids. And they weren’t pleasant times for a lot of people.
For me and my friends, we graduated into the 1980s recession, didn’t find jobs and a lot of my friends didn’t have careers for ten years post college before we all got lucky with the dot com and 1990s boom economy when we were able to make something of ourselves. But its the ones who worked to take advantage of that who did, and the ones who didn’t take advantage of that and don’t continually reinvent themselves who struggled.
So I wonder who these boomers are we should be angry at? They aren’t my parents and their friends at one end. They aren’t me and my friends at the other? Is there some sort of middle generation we can collectively blame for screwing the pooch.
I suspect its more just a case of rose colored glasses. People who are younger than I am don’t remember how horrible the 1970s were in terms of economic crisis. Nor how terrifying the 1980s were. They think they are unique in terms of having a hard time getting a career going, and the rest of us all stepped out into a world of jobs and a life of leisure and chose to rape the economy for our own benefit.
Thank you for a truly thoughtful and well-informed post.
I, too, am of your father’s generation. I was born in the late 50s, went to work at 15 and have paid into “entitlement” programs all my life, without grudge or grumble. I almost always worked two jobs to get ahead and sometimes even three. I have no children (took that overpopulation thing seriously) and I’ve saved, put by and been frugal enough that I can provide for my own retirement. I hope the Social Security/Medicare systems I’ve paid into my whole life will have some crumbs left for me, but if they don’t, I’ll scrape by.
I, too, didn’t vote myself any tax cuts and have been angry at the wealthiest individuals who have made sure it happened. Those folks cut across all generations, not just the Boomers. I watched taxes for the wealthy get cut and cut and cut, the middle class (now of the past) made to bear a greater and greater burden – and now that’s blamed on The Boomer Generation? Looks like ignorance to me.
It’s easy to blame one generation over another, but it’s seldom an accurate depiction of the truth. Dangerosa, you’re one who really paid attention, and if we had a “like” button on this site, I’d hit it ten times for your post.
This boomer, retirement age but still very much employed, thinks some of you young’uns should be ashamed of yourselves. Unlike Chefguy, I didn’t retire at 62- but I could have. We helped our children buy houses and vehicles, and paid for the educations they chose. I had help from my family, too, and all of this on a modest scale. My mother made our clothes (and took tailoring classes, and they were beautiful). I seem to have passed that on, and their father (and I) the work ethic. NOTHING is taken for granted, and nothing is arrogantly expected. By my parents, ourselves, or whatever you call children born in the 1980s.
Shagnasty. I’m really really glad you’re not my kid. Younger daughter and her partner/husband plan to build a house with a MIL for me/us- my husband is disabled (but NOT retired ;)) for when I’m too old to manage the farm any more. There are many reasons I’m very fond of the SIL, but one of them is that like me, he plans ahead and runs numbers in his head constantly. (He’s pulled his Boomer father out of debt, but that one’s not retired either, he’s in his late 50’s).
Big grin for the “no one likes rich people with big boats”. Except the builders of such, and then we hope the owners go far far away. Wooden boats, however, are a different story. It’s the big glass ones with helipads I despise- but then I was raised to disdain conspicuous consumption. However, the snotty kid who didn’t care about the leak would have gotten in serious trouble for not notifying the owner, and then the owner would be responsible for the cleanup. THAT’s a big deal. I don’t get people fired for being jerks, I get them terminated for not doing their job. Age is not the issue.
I will be looking out for these attitudes, now. I don’t pay people to sneer at me. Never have, never will.
Huzzah!! Dangerosa! You ARE invited for lunch!
In the 2013 Retirement Confidence Survey conducted by the Employee Benefit Research Institute (EBRI),1 workers aged 55 and older said the following about their retirement savings:
60% have less than $100,000 in retirement savings
43% have saved less than $25,000
36% have saved less than $10,000
If you are a Boomer in the fraction that actually planned for retirement, good for you! You are awesome!
Well my parents are Boomers who exactly match the stereotype of the spend-all-save-nothing. They spent everything they ever earned, and a lot they didn’t (ie, large home equity loans) on things like a month-long vacation in Brazil, an apartment in SF they only used a few weeks a year, weekly Sushi dinners at the chef’s table ($200 a pop), etc. They now live off of SS and whine about how “liberals” cause their problems. Nevermind they haven’t even cancelled their cable despite living government handout to government handout… Welfare queens, amirite? They still have delusional fantasies of earning money through ritzy, artsy associations, so they spend on things like opera membership. I’ve floated the idea of making some quick funds for very little work though editing college essays (my mom is an excellent editor) and such ideas were met with disgust.
My brother and I have stable financial lives and dual-income households and fully expect them to come crawling to us when they can’t mortgage their properties any more. Its so depressing, knowing that my reward for every careful thing I’ve done to not end up like them will be subsidizing all their selfish, self-indulgent decisions.
I almost fell out when I read this. 
Why will you have to subsidize their decisions? Can’t you just tell them “no” when they come to you with their hands out? (Apologies in advance for this naive and personal question.)
I’d like to think I’ve had the assertiveness to tell my parents “no” if they came to me looking for assistance with luxuries (like covering their astronomical cable bill). But if they’re looking at an empty refrigerator, I’d gladly pay for a Kroger’s gift card.
When I say “subsidizing their bad decisions” I’m talking about the fact that I’m giving them a Kroger gift card is due to their bad decisions in the past that lead them to this juncture. BTW, they don’t lack for education (all free/at state expense… welfare queens amirite?) or examples of living modestly/within their means within their circle of friends.
As a boomer born in the late fifties, I’ll take these one at a time, using 1982, the year I and the missus started out (as young twenty-somethings):
-avoiding the doctor
I don’t recall a national healthcare system then. We either had a good job or paid cash.
-being indebted to school
There was a subsidized student loan program then. I believe it was at 6.8%, same as now. I’m not too clear on it, as I elected to pay cash whenever I could afford classes. I graduated (literally) on the same day my high school class had its 10 year reunion… with zero debt.
-chronic job insecurity
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the unemployment rate back in the good old days exceeded 10% for 10 full months. It was continually above 6% for eight entire years. Anecdotally, I went back and counted the following for us (in those 8 years):
Long distance moves to find employment (state or national borders) – 10 total;
Job changes (cumulative for both of us) – 18 total;
-higher taxes
According to this chart, today’s marginal tax rate for a couple earning 100K is 25%. A couple earning a similar amount (adjusted for inflation) in 1982 had a tax rate of 44%.
So to sum it up for us, we went through 8 years of difficult unemployment rates, disappearing jobs and mortgage interest rates approaching 16%. We moved through 3 different countries, and 7 states to find gainful employment, spending a full decade to finish our degrees (to avoid debt). I’ve worked in the North Sea on oil rigs, near the Arctic circle on pipelines, in the deep south in freight yards, driven trucks, run my own pipeline repair business (me and a pickup), contracted for janitorial night work at local restaurants, worked countless 48 hour shifts as ambulance EMT, and whole year as an linecrewman when the only shift I could get was 7 nights a week (literally). As of today, neither I nor the missus has ever collected unemployment, subsidized school tuition (other than scholarships), food stamps, rental assistance or room/board help from our parents. We don’t even know how.
I’m still trying to figure out where the easy part was.
I have no idea about doing that to my parents because that need never happened, even in my extended family and that is a big family. I can’t wrap my mind around that even though I know it happens. I saw & see it in others and do not feel sorry for either the parents or the children.
Worlds round
It is not fair
It is just round
IMO, if they did not know that was the way the parents were at age 20 and did nothing to get ready, they will get no sympathy from me at age 40 -50 when they scream about how unfair it is and it is my fault… or the worlds fault. What makes them such special snowflakes?
They are also dealing with a challenged child through no fault of their own or some such.
I would also like to know which years the perfidy of human nature did not do all the things that is being done today?
Bigger scale now, yes. But we are no longer the agrarian society that we were so maybe the results are worse or more wide spread, but by no means is the criminal nature of elected people on average any better or worse than any other time. IMO
I’m a boomer, born right smack in the middle of the boom. I never expected anyone to subsidize me in old age, and I worked at the best jobs I could get, saving as much as I could along the way. I’ll take my SS check when the time comes (I put in my fair share all these years), but I made sure I won’t need it. None of you is going to be put out on my part.
I live in CA so my lawn is tiny, but any of you youngsters are invited over to play on it anytime you’d like! I can even afford to cook (or more likely, buy) you dinner.
A note on hostility: It seems that more often than not, if I’m walking along on the sidewalk and some 20-30 year-olds are walking towards me, they deliberately refuse to make room to pass unless forced out of the way, then act offended that they had to move over to make room. It seems actively hostile and rude to me. Whether this is a result of poor upbringing, or some sort of ‘fuck the old people’ thing is anybody’s guess. I refuse to step off the walk, which has led to some surprised looks. I’ve also noticed that when people of this age bracket are standing in a cluster blocking a sidewalk, they’ll not budge even after seeing you coming. No idea what that’s about, but it seems like entitlement to me.
That’s just people in groups. I see the same thing all the time, regardless of age. Couples think they have a God given right to not have to make room for other people on the sidewalk, and families with kids are just oblivious.
I don’t see old people not retiring as necessarily a bad thing. If they have skills, and someone is willing to exchange money for those skills, then go for it. If the competition can do better by hiring young folks, then they will. Employment is not zero-sum.
I’m waiting for several older-60s people to retire at my job. They can’t and won’t do any work, can’t use a computer, won’t change for a changing workplace, and are generally useless. And probably make twice what everyone else makes. They’ve been relegated to clerk level job duties, and do poorly at that.
They won’t retire because they’re poor and extremely lonely.
They could be replaced by a bright and invigorated 30something who’s already got an advanced degree and 10 years of experience under his/her belt, and is eager to make the world a better place.
It’s even worse for the mid-50s people with no job skills or IT skills. They’re generally the first fired, and 10-15 years away from medicare and social security. And they’ll never be hired again, and can’t get a McJob because they can’t work the order screen or cope with kids today.
Then there were the people at pizza, from ages 16 to 70, who were living entire lives on a pizza job paycheck, with no hope for anything better, lacking the education to even get to be a useless white collar employee. Try 50 years of THAT. Or waitressing.
We haven’t even broached the subject of rampant mental illness, or dying small towns, or identity theft.
I can’t resent the Boomers too much. They’re fucked, and so are we. Still, I’m a product of feminism, free health care, and the lowest national crime rates ever, so it could be worse. At least my bread and circuses is 65" and HDTV, instead of fuzzy black and white three channels. And the boomers will have toilets and refrigerators in their old age, unlike outhouses and dirt roads when they were young. Panaceas have definitely improved.
Ugh.
They are shifting budgets from one system to another - DOD to SSA. You paid in to Medicare so they put you on the major system for providing healthcare after 65. Conceivably that’s more efficient for the government since Medicare has MUCH more market power (I’m not sure if the costs of Tricare vs Medicare actually show that benefit in reality.)
You aren’t really double dipping at that point since they switched you to Tricare for Life as a secondary insurance. TFL is basically free supplemental Medicare coverage which is much cheaper to provide than Tricare Standard. The military thus spends far less on your medical care at the point SSA takes over the main effort. You get the added benefit of that secondary coverage as a military retiree but it’s not like you have two policies that pay/cost the same.
If you’ve thought about spending significant parts of the year as an expat TFL can also provide overseas coverage. That’s huge. Medicare won’t cover foreign expenses so TFL becomes the primary coverage. It’s worth researching the rules if say winter in Belize is at all an attractive idea.
They are shifting budgets from one system to another - DOD to SSA. You paid in to Medicare so they put you on the major system for providing healthcare after 65. Conceivably that’s more efficient for the government since Medicare has MUCH more market power (I’m not sure if the costs of Tricare vs Medicare actually show that benefit in reality.)
You aren’t really double dipping at that point since they switched you to Tricare for Life as a secondary insurance. TFL is basically free supplemental Medicare coverage which is much cheaper to provide than Tricare Standard. The military thus spends far less on your medical care at the point SSA takes over the main effort. You get the added benefit of that secondary coverage as a military retiree but it’s not like you have two policies that pay/cost the same.
If you’ve thought about spending significant parts of the year as an expat TFL can also provide overseas coverage. That’s huge. Medicare won’t cover foreign expenses so TFL becomes the primary coverage. It’s worth researching the rules if say winter in Belize is at all an attractive idea.
Exactly. Has nothing to do age, and everything to do work ethic.
If you have a job, do the damn job. If you aren’t willing to keep your eyes and ears open and do the damn job don’t be surprised if the boss lets you join the alumni.
The difference between getting fired and getting promoted is quite often a little thing. Telling someone about the bilge pumps running full blast could easily have tipped the scale.