They left out the part where education cost baby boomers and TGGers about $20,000 TOTAL in 2013 dollars. Now you can expect to pay about 5-6 times that much for a Bachelors degree.

Double or triple that for an advanced degree.

Of course when it's 5 times as expensive to educate yourself your expectations are going to be 5 times as high.

Also worth mentioning is that there was this thing we used to have in America called the manufacturing sector.

Baby Boomers had these things because THEIR parents and predecessors invested into their children's and descendant's futures. THEY took excellent care of the manufacturing sector and jobs in this country.

Baby boomers decided they were too good for this and selfishly refused to make those investments or to show that same care and poise.

We have inherited a total shit show, and Baby Boomers have the audacity to talk about how shit was "in their day".

In your day you inherited an economy and a country that hadn't been shit all over and shaken upside down by your predecessors rampant idiocy and greed.

Pat yourselves on the back for that if you'd like, but I personally find the gall your generation has to be the first to leave less for your children than was left to you and then to actually bitch about how we're turning out disturbing to say the least.

The greatest generation wasn't just the greatest generation they were the LAST great generation.

Yeah...the boomers had it SO good with that draft thing/800 boys getting killed daily in 'Nam and no right to vote whatsoever to change any of it. The only thing missing "in the day" was a computer to sit at all day rather than working (at all) for minimum wage or mowing lawns for $3 a piece...jobs the Y's are too good/educated to do. And college? It was college without computers or technology. Do you really expect the cost of an education to cost the same in these very different technological eras?

Every generation has it's challenges. Yours is no different...though through design and because your parents were such schmucks who handed you >everything< on a platter without any effort on your part and bought you the latest gaming consoles every 6 months when they came out so you could get by doing nothing but playing video games all day, you believe it is...just as the article points out (delusional/special/all about me) Not.

Nobody is bitching, they are just pointing out tendencies of a generation that are playing out before their eyes daily.

And yes we fucked up by not making you pull your weight. Now you are. Fun stuff, huh?

Holly shit!! Here we go. Blame it on the boomers...so easy to do. We had a work ethic, gen Y doesn't. When someone starts a job today they want $100,000 starting salary, signing bonus, 10 weeks vacation oh and they want a management position without any experience. The boomers worked hard for what they got. Some were successful and some weren't but we all knew we had to go out and bust our ass to get ahead. My philosophy in live was simple: "I will get ahead by out working you and never make the same mistake twice." All generations have problems, don't blame yours on mine.

Funny shit

putembk said:

Holly shit!! Here we go. Blame it on the boomers...so easy to do. We had a work ethic, gen Y doesn't. When someone starts a job today they want $100,000 starting salary, signing bonus, 10 weeks vacation oh and they want a management position without any experience. The boomers worked hard for what they got. Some were successful and some weren't but we all knew we had to go out and bust our ass to get ahead. My philosophy in live was simple: "I will get ahead by out working you and never make the same mistake twice." All generations have problems, don't blame yours on mine.

Click to expand...

Which is still possible, but ya gotta "pay your dues". My son gave six years to the US Navy and now, first real job out of the military, landed a job w/ a beginning wage of over 63K/year, three weeks paid vacation to start along with paid week off between Xmas and NY, sweet benefits, guaranteed paid raises every year.

Had a kid work on farm this summer. great kid. loved to smoke all day and work as well. he's in college, has his captian license for party boat fishing, doesn't mind working, has many interests, very smart and motivated. so there are kids out there who know what work is and are willing, eager and able to work.
had others who stated they did not want to get their new shoes dirty on farm, sent them packing....
He made me feel good when he told me I am an amazing fisherman in that I wade for hours in river moving up or down stream and not just stand in one place all day long like an old fart.........

A funny story little off topic.. We were fishing the green river on a float trip with that kid. I was casting and he was on the oars. Fish were coming up to look at dry flies but not really hitting. He got frustrated that I was missing strikes. So he started fishing and missed 6 fish. I yelled out MISS..... MISS... Miss.. a bunch of times, one time after a miss he did not see i pretended he missed the biggest fish I ever saw, must a been 4 feet long, played it up real good all day long. told him next day, he was not too pissed as I got him good in retaliation for him saying i cant set a hook.......This kid knows how to live, if more kids were like him the future would be better.......

pinegrovedave said:

Which is still possible, but ya gotta "pay your dues". My son gave six years to the US Navy and now, first real job out of the military, landed a job w/ a beginning wage of over 63K/year, three weeks paid vacation to start along with paid week off between Xmas and NY, sweet benefits, guaranteed paid raises every year.

Click to expand...

This is all very true, however, he made a very different set of choices as compared to many other kids his age--he joined the military and took the schooling to get into a highly technical field rather than going to college (tuition, etc). And it just so happened that he made an excellent choice of technical fields, many others don't. Consider how many of his former co-servicepeople are still in welding jobs now that they're in the civilian world.

I busted my ass, put myself through school, got a college education, volunteered for the military but they wouldn't take me, and now look at me! I grow POT for a living! Gen X and proud of it!

ttystikk said:

I busted my ass, put myself through school, got a college education, volunteered for the military but they wouldn't take me, and now look at me! I grow POT for a living! Gen X and proud of it!

Click to expand...

Hey Ty, how are ya. All is well....you know what I mean. Need to come and see you soon. I will be bearing gifts of green. lol

sky high said:

Every generation has it's challenges. Yours is no different...though through design and because your parents were such schmucks who handed you >everything< on a platter without any effort on your part and bought you the latest gaming consoles every 6 months when they came out so you could get by doing nothing but playing video games all day, you believe it is...just as the article points out (delusional/special/all about me) Not.

Click to expand...

I agree with some of this.

Every generation does have it's challenges to be sure, and I think that ours will come out of this one better for it (as have the other generations come through theirs).

End of the day though I think it's a bit silly to tank the economy, ruin the prospects of higher education, gut the manufacturing sector and then point the finger at a bunch of 20 and 30 year olds and tell them how much better they should be doing--or how they would be happier if they didn't feel so entitled.

One of the challenges of your generation has been running the goddamn country and keeping together long standing institutions such that they might be passed on to the next generation.

With that said, yes it is quite obvious that Gen Y has been coddled too much. No one is denying that. While I don't think it's fair to paint the entire generation with that brush (I bought every gaming console/etc. I've ever owned with money I earned from a job--not allowance, which I was not given) I do think the brush doesn't do such a bad job of painting the picture of reality. Stereotypes never tell the whole story, but as stereotypes go this is a pretty effective one.

I'm not saying Generation Y is awesome as hell. They are almost every bit what you've made them out to be. I'm just saying Boomers/Gen X'ers screwed the pooch in ways never before seen in America since it's inception and that they probably aren't the best generation to be pointing fingers.

Sure you had to work hard for what you got--but when it mattered what did you do with the country? You flushed the fuckin' thing down the drain.

Gen Y'ers aren't the best generation, not by a long shot--but there IS context as to some of it's failings which is, by and large, left out when being discussed by older generations.

We aren't the dumbest generation ONLY because of videogames--the fact that about half as much was spent comparatively to educate us also plays into that a bit, wouldn't you agree? I mean it only makes sense.

I think the article hits the nail on the head, but just leaves out some of the hows and whys. History is cumulative, it doesn't just begin all of a sudden when a particular generation comes of age.

Good post squig. I actually agree with most of what you said. Just one exception. You said "You flushed it down the drain". Meaning the country. I totally disagree with that. The Boomers and Gen X'ers didn't do that, our leaders ran the country in the ground. I was just living life and doing the best I could. Got madder and madder every day watching the direction was headed. Now your generation has a mess and it's getting worse. I feel sorry for the condition you are inheriting but put the blame where it belongs.

squiggly said:

History is cumulative, it doesn't just begin all of a sudden when a particular generation comes of age.

Click to expand...

Nor does >one< generation somehow flush it all down the toilet.....

Yup...it's cumulative. Beyond that....we are all users of the system..so trying to say only those older than you are to blame for every ill is crap. The Boomers THOUGHT they could be different than their parents...and in some ways they are...but on the whole we got sucked into the machine that was in place...that we didn't like/agree with fully....just like you don't like the machine you are getting sucked into now. (whether you like it/want to or not)

same shit...different decade.

Our generation is responsible for cleaning up the environment left us by the "greatest generation". This so called "greatest generation" was responsible for some of the worst environmental mishaps imaginable. The buildup of the manufacturing sector by them also led to a helluva lot of pollution/waste being released into our water system, air, and ground. I remember when this river, loaded with so much pollution/waste/toxic chemicals, actually caught fire...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cuyahoga_River

my my my glad i was born in the summer of 69 and i busted my ass to climb the company ladder as pute said my philosophy was to work , smarter , harder than the next guy . Which i did am went from entry level to senior management , then was dismissed after 20 yrs because i acquired heb c , thought not the reason they gave but won in court ..... so with that being said i can't get a job cleaning toilets now , over qualified yada yada .... my mistake was not learning a trade until pot growing entered my life........ live and learn but lazy i never been ........

sky high said:

Nor does >one< generation somehow flush it all down the toilet.....

Yup...it's cumulative. Beyond that....we are all users of the system..so trying to say only those older than you are to blame for every ill is crap. The Boomers THOUGHT they could be different than their parents...and in some ways they are...but on the whole we got sucked into the machine that was in place...that we didn't like/agree with fully....just like you don't like the machine you are getting sucked into now. (whether you like it/want to or not)

same shit...different decade.

Click to expand...

I see the merit in your points for sure.

I think something that went REALLY awry mostly under BB/GenX is what's happened to the financial sector (stock market has gone from a clever way to facilitate investment in firms to a way to play a numbers game with algorithms).

Yes, your point stand--history is cumulative in this sense too--but only insomuch as previous generations had a hand in developing the technology that made it all possible. The mistakes which have been made in this area really fall pretty squarely across 1-1.5 generations.

The rest of what you said though, spot on.

putembk said:

The Boomers and Gen X'ers didn't do that, our leaders ran the country in the ground.

Click to expand...

Who elected them? Who failed to inform themselves about their leaders? Policy? Economics?

It wasn't the 20 year olds, and only recently has Gen Y been anything even remotely approaching relevant in terms of elections.

I see your point, but you can't blame the figurehead and fail to point out the disease.

squiggly said:

Who elected them? Who failed to inform themselves about their leaders? Policy? Economics?

It wasn't the 20 year olds, and only recently has Gen Y been anything even remotely approaching relevant in terms of elections.

I see your point, but you can't blame the figurehead and fail to point out the disease.

Click to expand...

Didn't we just recall two lawmakers for not fulfilling their promises in order to get elected? It's about time and I hope it continues. Again you are blaming me and my generation, you don't even know who I voted for. This is NOT the direction I want (wanted) the country to go. Couldn't change it...you are so smart why don't you. I about 20 years or so you will look back and fell the same frustration that I do.

yer a smart dude, squig. Smarter than I'll ever be...(at least in the book smart realm:D ).

Big business has always been outta control. Just the Rockefeller/oil story alone shows what a cruel and unforgiving place the "corporate" sector has been for a hundred+ years in the USA. Without a doubt...they had their own "algorithms" and ways to >funny> up the market. Again...same shit..different decade. Do you really think my generation was absent these threats and unknowns from the corporate world and the general way we are fucked in the ass as pee-ons is somehow different now? Or that we didn't try to change it? Wow.

I remember Nixon.... and this tune. Seems like it could have been written this AM...because to me....this isn't some "new" thing like the Y's wanna try to make it out as being.... it's the same SHIT we have seen from our Gov't for years on end....


Once the religious, the hunted and weary
Chasing the promise of freedom and hope
Came to this country to build a new vision
Far from the reaches of Kingdom and pope

Like good Christians some would burn the witches
Later some got slaves to gather riches

But still from near and far to seek America
They came by thousands, to court the wild
But she just patiently smiled and bore a child
To be their spirit and guiding light

And once the ties with the crown had been broken
Westward in saddle and wagon it went
And till the railroad linked ocean to ocean
Many the lives which had come to an end

While we bullied, stole and bought a homeland
We began the slaughter of the red man

But still from near and far to seek America
They came by thousands to court the wild
But she just patiently smiled and bore a child
To be their spirit and guiding light

The Blue and Grey they stomped it
They kicked it just like a dog
And when the war was over
They stuffed it just like a hog

And though the past has its share of injustice
Kind was the spirit in many a way
But its protectors and friends have been sleeping
Now it's a monster and will not obey

The spirit was freedom and justice
And its keepers seemed generous and kind
Its leaders were supposed to serve the country
But now they won't pay it no mind
Cause the people grew fat and got lazy
Now their vote is a meaningless joke
They babble about law and order
But it's all just an echo of what they've been told

Yeah, there's a monster on the loose
It's got our heads into the noose
And it just sits there watchin'

The cities have turned into jungles
And corruption is stranglin' the land
The police force is watching the people
And the people just can't understand
We don't know how to mind our own business
'Cause the whole world's got to be just like us
Now we are fighting a war over there
No matter who's the winner we can't pay the cost

'Cause there's a monster on the loose
It's got our heads into the noose
And it just sits there watchin'

America, where are you now
Don't you care about your sons and daughters
Don't you know we need you now
We can't fight alone against the monster

America, where are you now
Don't you care about your sons and daughters
Don't you know we need you now
We can't fight alone against the monster