schu's basic life advice: lolol at ever being in credit card debt

That's the thing. You probably didn't grow up wanting to teach music. Probably saving yourself a ton of projecting about your future life. But by following a natural path given your interests, you've happened upon something that isn't work, but an extension of life.

so basically they had poor foresight in writing the spending laws? I mean, I agree but I don't think any generation of politicians is selfless enough to throw away their careers to do what should have been done with these.

I don't know what they did that screwed us over on social issues or the environment. The whole civil rights movement and anti-war movements for Vietnam were pretty big social wins I think.

There are a lot of specific tangents you can go down, but basically the Baby Boomers caused an unnatural state in the demographics of our country, greatly affecting the ability to predict future outcomes of public policy and many other things.

They started out as dirty hippies. They smoked like chimneys. They were the first generation (I think) to really rack up credit card debt as a way of life. They all got maried at 20, bought a house at 21, and had like 6 kids by age 27. They didn't have to have a college education to work.

Then they don't listen to our generation for advice even though we're more educated. And they legit don't understand that it's normal nowadays to be 30 and not yet married. Our generation has already gone through 2 brutal recessions (2003) and then ...2008+

Baby-boomers think they know everything but really they don't know **** but are such a large % of the population their whole life that they've been "in power" without having to know anything. Their voice has always mattered, even if their voice is ill-informed and stubborn.

cdl really? theres the late 60s and then there is like 30 years snail like growth in social issues. The christian right is just now losing a stranglehold on these issues this decade, which also coincides with our generation reaching their 20s-30s.

Environment I mean dunno even know what to say. We've basically reached the GG phase of the planet while people spent 20 years arguing if global warming was made up or not.

I don't have a trust fund, for some reason this is some running joke in Skype.

Weird how the same generation that brought us the civil rights movement is so vehemently anti-gay-marriage

yea, but a lot of people my age seem confused as to how they are supposed to buy the 4 br house in the suburbs and new car every 4 years while taking 4 vacations a year and eating nice meals out once a week. since no one is willing to pay them $60k per year and also make sure they have 4 weeks off to travel, never work past 5, and can call in sick one Friday every month they assume thats just normal in a bad economy. I am convinced that many people in their 20s think that that is what white collar jobs used to be and the economy is the only thing that is ****ing them and it will be fine when the economy gets better.

If only I had realized this 15-20 years ago

On the political front, I would consider everything Reagan and on to be "baby-boomer influenced" as they were a huge chunk of the voting populace during that time.

No matter what Politards-type arguments you can try to have to refute this in very small and specific examples, the public policies we have had in the last 30 years essentially amount to taking on a ****-ton of debt, and splitting that wealth between our national government and big corporations. Unfortunately, I don't see that changing anytime soon.

Mom only has a HS education and made prettay good money. Just wouldn't happen if she went down the same path today.

Remember she was shocked when it took my brother 6 months post college to find a gig in his field. Lol.

same with my dad.. ford paid for some of his college but he never graduated. Walked into the plant at 18 and made six figures for the last 30% of his time working there

pretty much impossible today

Yeah are the boomers really to be credited with civil rights change?

Boomers are 1946-64. So they were aged like 0 to 18 when this period started.

meh. people who have careers planned at 18-20 aren't gonna get stuck. If I wanted a career change, I could do it, and I'd have an easier time than most who haven't had an actual career for the 10 years post-college.

fair point. I think F60's point is more geared towards people who are like "lol jobs" and they end up being super overqualified paper pushers for most of their 20s.

to expand slightly,

as happy i am that I have a great career, and love what I do, karma has balanced that out by having me make some stupendously awful financial decisions.

and no, i don't really blame karma. I did this all to myself.

Here's how I know I'm getting old because my advice is bust your ass working

fwiw, I think boomers are partially to blame for this as well. "just go to college and life will be super easy after that. Even if you gotta take on 30+k of debt." lol.

re: making bank with just a HS degree. Still possible. Just not in the white collar world. Some trades still do very very well.

agree, but if anything those demographic issues were caused by the people giving birth to them and not them for being alive.

-there is nothing wrong with credit card debt. in fact, debt is pretty essential to economic growth in almost all scenarios.
-the baby boomers barely exceeded the replacement level for reproducing which is more or less ideal demographically
-almost no older generations seem to have taken much advice from younger ones over the course of history
-the baby boomers had their share of economic hardships too (1987 was far more severe than what we've dealt with, but the recovery was much quicker)
-in general, older people know more than younger people
-older people also tend to hold more political power as well as power in business due to their experience and the ability to build credibility over a long period of time


the US has become more socially liberal far faster than most societies in world history of the past 50 years

I doubt the planet it doomed from anything the baby boomers did. We will do more damage at our current clip over the next 30 years than anything that happened in the previous 50.

politards

ya I mean just the overall idea that "you go to college, and then you get a good job!" where tons of people just went to college and ****ed around and then got out and was like "ok now about that job?" with a dime a dozen degree, huge debt, no real training, and a collapsed job market.

Skilled labor/trade is where people should be steering their kids more often. Become an electrician or something useful.

maybe those were just bad parents/teachers/mentors?

My parents and teachers said that nothing would ever be given to me and that even when I proved I deserved something or could do it there would still be people who wouldn't give me a chance.

None of this would be a problem if we abolished all government and let the market determine the proper course of history

I think this is going to be happening much more, probably as a reaction to what you described happening to many of the middle class kids who are now 23-40.

That is despite, not because of the baby boomers. I mean seriously they don't get credit for the civil rights movement. 70s/80s/90s/00s is not the social issues butterfly you seem to think it is. [/quote]

lol, do you see people in their 20s arguing that global warming is a fad? There is a pretty huge difference between ignoring a problem you can fix and not being able to fix a problem you can't ignore.