Why Baby Boomers and GenXers bug me
I've been getting so many emails about how to vote, why to vote and why
it matters that it's time for me to take my stand too.
First of all, I am sick and tired of people who only vote for their own
self interests and the rest of the us be damned. Who does this in
great numbers? Baby boomers!
I can not stand middle class baby boomers as a voting block for several
reasons:
1. BBs represents the largest demographic voting block and they don't
want to give up power. They control Congress and most levels of
government around the country because they just don't want to give up
their power base and let the younger generation take a crack at running
something. When a person under the age of 30 runs for office, the
older opponents attack the younger candidates saying they are
inexperienced and too young. Geez, we have to get some new blood in
office somehow. Even John Edwards gets criticized for looking too
young! This tactic is nothing more than reverse age discrimination
directed at my generation from our parents. However, we do have rules
against age discrimination and who do you think proposed those laws?
I'm not saying it's a bad thing, but it's not fair to use someone's age
against in order to discredit their ability to make a change for our
nation's citizens.
2. BBs have had the best of everything. BBs (generally, people born
between the end of WWII (1945) and the middle of the 60's (1965)) were
raised during the Industrialization Bubble on the mid 20th century,
where the Corporation was King, standardization and mass production
were the buzzwords. They became the pillars of our society; doctors,
lawyers, scientists and teachers. They have been raised in a society
which rewards Group-Think, and rewards it well. Sure they suffered
during the 1970s oil embargo, Vietnam and the civil rights fight in the
1960s, but they didn't suffer like their parents or grandparents during
WWII or the Great Depression. They had options and they used them.
3. BBs are selfish voters. BBs are so used to being spoon fed their
political pablem from one source; ie political satirists, watching one
news station, listening to one shock jock on the radio and hardly ever
reading more than one paper. By limiting their sources of intellectual
input, they fail to see that our independence as a country is based on
an interdependence between generations. But they don't really care
about that. What they are concerned about is having their social
security that my generation is paying for; (which we won't have in the
future), cheap health care coverage, cheap drugs, taxing the rich,
cheap food, cheap gas, cheap goods from Walmart and they don't like
welfare programs. They no longer care about educating our children
because they don't have any.
4. On the face of it, wanting cheap goods and services aren't a bad
thing. Who doesn't want a bargain? However, it's this monotrac
sentimentality that leads to many of our current problems. I feel like
BBs just want to suck up all of our natural resources and leave a
smoking hole for the rest of us to contend with as we get older. For
example, we do not need to drill in the Arctic reserves in Alaska.
One, because it is pristine natural wilderness that can offer us
unknown discoveries much like the Rainforests of South America.
Second, the area only has about 0 million worth of oil and the money
will go to big business. When the reserve runs dry we won't be able to
repair the damage and the area will be a wasteland.
We don't need anymore gas guzzling SUVs that suck up all the gas.
Whatever happened to the cars of the 1980s that used to get 52 miles
per gallon? Well, as BBs became more affluent they didn't want to
drive small cars they wanted to indulge in luxury and bigger was
better. So, the car companies spoiled their target audience and the
SUVs are now everywhere.
What about the pharmaceutical industry? The top selling drugs are
Viagra to have more sex, Plavix to control cholesterol, Fosamax for
osteoporosis, Norvasc for high blood pressure and celebrex for
arthritis. These drugs are for BBs and because they want their drugs
cheap, they order on the internet or go to Canada and Mexico to get
them. So, in the end we are going to pay more for the drugs that we
and our children need because someone has to pay for the R&D of these
drugs and well we know who isn't about to do that.
Now to be fair, I have to say why I can't stand GenXers. These are all
generalizations of course.
1. The GXs are lazy. They are the product of over indulgent parents
who give them too much money, too many material possessions and don't
teach the value of hard work. I have tried to hire a young person
18-24 to help me as a photography assistant and I've gone through about
10 of them.
They are lazy, lack ambition and motivation and have no interest in
learning to be good at something. All they want is the /hour
without working and they complain the whole time. The thing that bugs
me the most is that they are so ungrateful. They act as if they
deserve everything and don't need to do anything for it.
2. GXs have no passion. They are bombarded with the lifestyles of the
rich and famous or infamous and they think that's what their life is
supposed to be. So, when the ,000 job doesn't come knocking on
their door after reading the help wanted ads they act as if the system
is working against them. In actuality these kids lack the passion,
drive and motivation to get what they want because they were never
taught how to set goals, plan, save, work and watch for the evidence of
their efforts.
I am troubled. My generation is in a terrible situation where one
generation wants to gobble up every good thing that is left in our
world before they die and then another generation that is so apathetic
that they just don't care about anything and so they do nothing.
All of my life, I have been a hard worker. I've done everything I
could to get ahead and make a better life for me and my family. Today,
all of my nuclear family members own houses or are buying one. I
helped them get to college except my mother and they are all working on
saving for their future. I know what it is like to live in poverty and
to be on welfare. I know the pain of being classified as poor and
therefore unworthy of college by my high school counselors. I know the
shame and struggle of too much debt. On the other hand, I know the
pride of walking across the stage to get my college diploma, the joy of
buying a new car after years of paying off bad debts. I have lived the
emotional moment of opening the door of my first house and the
admiration for my family members who have done the same.
Knowing that I am blessed with a wonderful husband who takes care of me
and wants to spend time with me is a gift that I never thought
possible, but always wished for. We can all have these things if we
plan and work for them. Nothing great is ever easily attained.
So, what are we going to do? For starters we need to wake up to the
clanging gong that is telling us to take responsibility for our actions
and think about the big picture. We need to reach across the
generations and help each other.
The BBs need to realize that the world does not revolve around them and
that life will go on after they die. We need to stop sending my
generation off to fight wars that are based on economic factors to
bolster a dying way of life, ie use of fossil fuels. We need to think
globally and act locally, by taking steps to conserve our resources and
reserve our countries might for instances that really call for it. We
need to stop lying and justifying our lies for personal gain. Lying is
so pervasive in our culture that it's perfectly acceptable to lie for
personal gain. But, lying is bad because it undermines the fabric of
our society in many many ways. Finally, it is imperative that we all
work together to become stronger as a society, a nation and
international neighbors.
For these reasons, I'm going to vote with my conscience for John Kerry
and John Edwards because they are positive, honest, they have a plan
for most of the major issues (read their website only if you can read
for longer than listening to a canned sound byte) facing our country
and they don't have a preconceived agenda to overstretch our resources
to conquer the world. It's time to think about making sure the world
is a better place tomorrow for the generation behind us.
And that's what I think about that!
it matters that it's time for me to take my stand too.
First of all, I am sick and tired of people who only vote for their own
self interests and the rest of the us be damned. Who does this in
great numbers? Baby boomers!
I can not stand middle class baby boomers as a voting block for several
reasons:
1. BBs represents the largest demographic voting block and they don't
want to give up power. They control Congress and most levels of
government around the country because they just don't want to give up
their power base and let the younger generation take a crack at running
something. When a person under the age of 30 runs for office, the
older opponents attack the younger candidates saying they are
inexperienced and too young. Geez, we have to get some new blood in
office somehow. Even John Edwards gets criticized for looking too
young! This tactic is nothing more than reverse age discrimination
directed at my generation from our parents. However, we do have rules
against age discrimination and who do you think proposed those laws?
I'm not saying it's a bad thing, but it's not fair to use someone's age
against in order to discredit their ability to make a change for our
nation's citizens.
2. BBs have had the best of everything. BBs (generally, people born
between the end of WWII (1945) and the middle of the 60's (1965)) were
raised during the Industrialization Bubble on the mid 20th century,
where the Corporation was King, standardization and mass production
were the buzzwords. They became the pillars of our society; doctors,
lawyers, scientists and teachers. They have been raised in a society
which rewards Group-Think, and rewards it well. Sure they suffered
during the 1970s oil embargo, Vietnam and the civil rights fight in the
1960s, but they didn't suffer like their parents or grandparents during
WWII or the Great Depression. They had options and they used them.
3. BBs are selfish voters. BBs are so used to being spoon fed their
political pablem from one source; ie political satirists, watching one
news station, listening to one shock jock on the radio and hardly ever
reading more than one paper. By limiting their sources of intellectual
input, they fail to see that our independence as a country is based on
an interdependence between generations. But they don't really care
about that. What they are concerned about is having their social
security that my generation is paying for; (which we won't have in the
future), cheap health care coverage, cheap drugs, taxing the rich,
cheap food, cheap gas, cheap goods from Walmart and they don't like
welfare programs. They no longer care about educating our children
because they don't have any.
4. On the face of it, wanting cheap goods and services aren't a bad
thing. Who doesn't want a bargain? However, it's this monotrac
sentimentality that leads to many of our current problems. I feel like
BBs just want to suck up all of our natural resources and leave a
smoking hole for the rest of us to contend with as we get older. For
example, we do not need to drill in the Arctic reserves in Alaska.
One, because it is pristine natural wilderness that can offer us
unknown discoveries much like the Rainforests of South America.
Second, the area only has about 0 million worth of oil and the money
will go to big business. When the reserve runs dry we won't be able to
repair the damage and the area will be a wasteland.
We don't need anymore gas guzzling SUVs that suck up all the gas.
Whatever happened to the cars of the 1980s that used to get 52 miles
per gallon? Well, as BBs became more affluent they didn't want to
drive small cars they wanted to indulge in luxury and bigger was
better. So, the car companies spoiled their target audience and the
SUVs are now everywhere.
What about the pharmaceutical industry? The top selling drugs are
Viagra to have more sex, Plavix to control cholesterol, Fosamax for
osteoporosis, Norvasc for high blood pressure and celebrex for
arthritis. These drugs are for BBs and because they want their drugs
cheap, they order on the internet or go to Canada and Mexico to get
them. So, in the end we are going to pay more for the drugs that we
and our children need because someone has to pay for the R&D of these
drugs and well we know who isn't about to do that.
Now to be fair, I have to say why I can't stand GenXers. These are all
generalizations of course.
1. The GXs are lazy. They are the product of over indulgent parents
who give them too much money, too many material possessions and don't
teach the value of hard work. I have tried to hire a young person
18-24 to help me as a photography assistant and I've gone through about
10 of them.
They are lazy, lack ambition and motivation and have no interest in
learning to be good at something. All they want is the /hour
without working and they complain the whole time. The thing that bugs
me the most is that they are so ungrateful. They act as if they
deserve everything and don't need to do anything for it.
2. GXs have no passion. They are bombarded with the lifestyles of the
rich and famous or infamous and they think that's what their life is
supposed to be. So, when the ,000 job doesn't come knocking on
their door after reading the help wanted ads they act as if the system
is working against them. In actuality these kids lack the passion,
drive and motivation to get what they want because they were never
taught how to set goals, plan, save, work and watch for the evidence of
their efforts.
I am troubled. My generation is in a terrible situation where one
generation wants to gobble up every good thing that is left in our
world before they die and then another generation that is so apathetic
that they just don't care about anything and so they do nothing.
All of my life, I have been a hard worker. I've done everything I
could to get ahead and make a better life for me and my family. Today,
all of my nuclear family members own houses or are buying one. I
helped them get to college except my mother and they are all working on
saving for their future. I know what it is like to live in poverty and
to be on welfare. I know the pain of being classified as poor and
therefore unworthy of college by my high school counselors. I know the
shame and struggle of too much debt. On the other hand, I know the
pride of walking across the stage to get my college diploma, the joy of
buying a new car after years of paying off bad debts. I have lived the
emotional moment of opening the door of my first house and the
admiration for my family members who have done the same.
Knowing that I am blessed with a wonderful husband who takes care of me
and wants to spend time with me is a gift that I never thought
possible, but always wished for. We can all have these things if we
plan and work for them. Nothing great is ever easily attained.
So, what are we going to do? For starters we need to wake up to the
clanging gong that is telling us to take responsibility for our actions
and think about the big picture. We need to reach across the
generations and help each other.
The BBs need to realize that the world does not revolve around them and
that life will go on after they die. We need to stop sending my
generation off to fight wars that are based on economic factors to
bolster a dying way of life, ie use of fossil fuels. We need to think
globally and act locally, by taking steps to conserve our resources and
reserve our countries might for instances that really call for it. We
need to stop lying and justifying our lies for personal gain. Lying is
so pervasive in our culture that it's perfectly acceptable to lie for
personal gain. But, lying is bad because it undermines the fabric of
our society in many many ways. Finally, it is imperative that we all
work together to become stronger as a society, a nation and
international neighbors.
For these reasons, I'm going to vote with my conscience for John Kerry
and John Edwards because they are positive, honest, they have a plan
for most of the major issues (read their website only if you can read
for longer than listening to a canned sound byte) facing our country
and they don't have a preconceived agenda to overstretch our resources
to conquer the world. It's time to think about making sure the world
is a better place tomorrow for the generation behind us.
And that's what I think about that!
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BabyBoomer is a real generation; you can tell from their impact on Social Security that there is a big lump of people who will all start collecting (and stop paying taxes) at about the same time. GenX is not a real generation, people are just called GenX because they fit those things you described. It's kind of circular; just replace "GenX" with "Lazy People of Any Age" and your statements are still true. I say this because Boomers are going to have a real impact on the economy; the "lazy people" will not have any more impact than lazy people ever had; there have always been lazy people. Anyway I agree.
The other thing I think of when I read this is that all of us Americans have more than we really worked for. I mean, you can see Jennifer Aniston or whoever up there saying she worked so hard for everything she has, but truthfully all of us have more than we deserve. I certainly haven't worked as hard as, say, a farmer in Poland, but I have way more money and power. So...well I don't know if you can draw any conclusions from that, but I guess just to say I feel a little like the pot when we call the kettle of Boomers on gobbling up Social Security and running up national debts. We're pots together though!