Baby Boomers

[tasha66]

Well I used to drink from garden hoses - that's what you just did. We used to ride our bikes everywhere, and make camps out bush - we were out all day. We used to 'play' & feed the kangaroos jumping around in the bush and in our street - no joke. My parents never locked their doors during the day, only at night. My Dad didn't even lock the car in the driveway & the windows were open, cos cars getting broken into or stolen was rare, in our area at least. We rarely got sick as we were always exercising and out in the sun. We didn't know any different.

 

[morefaithrequired]

But I do think labelling people and generations creates sometimes false & often negative impessions, even before you meet them, or you might never meet them.

Yes I know what you are saying Tash. We have to be careful putting people in to boxes and forgetting they are human. Young and old, male and female, Black or white, disabled or not, gay or heterosexual and so on. But if we avoid labels altogether, we cant communicate. I'm a 61 year old male Aussie, who calls himself Christian. Those labels. are useful for people understanding who I am. Even though I am more than my labels. Much more.

 

[tasha66]

Well I used to drink from garden hoses - that's what you just did. We used to ride our bikes everywhere, and make camps out bush - we were out all day. We used to interact with & feed/water kangaroos jumping around in the bush and in our street - no joke. My parents never locked their doors during the day, only at night. My Dad didn't even lock the car in the driveway & the windows were open, cos cars getting broken into or stolen was rare then. We rarely got sick as we were always exercising and out in the sun. And everyone had a job, a car, and seemed happy. We didn't know any different back then.
A student said to me not long ago "How did you cope without mobile phones??!" She couldn't imagine growing up without them. I said most people had landlines - we weren't dinosaurs! - but we went over our friends houses to see them. We were more sociable in those days I guess.

 

[tasha66]

Yes I know what you are saying Tash. We have to be careful putting people in to boxes and forgetting they are human. Young and old, male and female, Black or white, disabled or not, gay or heterosexual and so on. But if we avoid labels altogether, we cant communicate. I'm a 61 year old male Aussie, who calls himself Christian. Those labels. are useful for people understanding who I am. Even though I am more than my labels. Much more.

Oh are you Aussie, I didn't know. G'day matey!
I wasn't talking about labelling us as either Aussie or not.
I don't think we need to label people in general - I don't think it's necessary.
But if we continue to use labels in general for people, then we will start to tread down a dark road. Also, kids pick up on it and learn that behaviour too.
When I was young, anyone over the age of say 35 was an 'old fogey'. I haven't heard that term used in ages. Are people really old fogey's over the age of 35? Of course not. But because that term was used, we believed it.
Remember that footy player, can't remember his name or the team he played for - the Aboriginal guy - that got annoyed during a game, when someone said something racist to him? (I never saw the whole story myself). But I think it was a child, and the footy player got annoyed at the parents because they were letting their child use racist taunts. He started that whole 'ban racism in sport' campaign. His whole point was that if we continue to let our kids use racist or 'labelling' langugage of people, then they grow up with certain pre-conceptions of people, then they pass it onto their kids, etc.
And to me that's dangerous and degrading.
I guess we will just have to agree to disagree.

 

[morefaithrequired]

Non binary thinking. Is something that concerns me. The tendency to prefer vagueness to distinct labels is gaining currency in the modern world.
I'm probably sounding argumentative and obsessive but it is a topic I feel strongly about.

 

[tasha66]

Hello Tasha My understanding of social security (in the Sates, though I am in Canada) is that people put their own money into it like a pension plan, but then the government used the money for something else (in other words, they stole it) and then acted as if people were asking for hand-outs when they were not. Here we do have OAS (Old Age Security) which anyone who is a citizen/landed immigrant(?) over 65 can collect, whether they contributed to the economy or not. We also have CPP (Canada Pension Plan). Some people here have fabulous pension plans which they have paid into... working for the government seems to pay the most in that regard. Anywho… I am glad you found the video interesting. I did too Though I did not agree with all points, especially the part about our parents' generation making their lives all about their children. My parents had eleven children, and our lives as children revolved around looking after everybody else. My mother was also the disciplinarian because my dad was so busy providing for the family, working a full time job and having other money-making enterprises on the side, such as owning rental properties and selling produce a farmer's markets, something I voluntarily joined him and my brothers in doing as an eight year old to escape the never-ending dullness of women's work

Yeh Mag my Mum had to look after 6 wild kids - a whack across the back of our legs with a belt or her hand was a good way to keep us in control! She tried other methods first, but resorted to that & I don't think it did us any harm. Believe me, I think we were better human beings for being disciplined so strictly. It's funny, cos she never hit her grandkids or great grandkids. She was probably waaay stressed is my guess, as she didn't work out of the home.
11 kids, wow. Are you all close cos we aren't - we all went our separate ways now. My Mum came from a family of 12 I think, but one of the kids was fostered out as my granny had her out of wedlock, and we think a few died (unsure re that). No wonder the women in those days died young.
SS is very hard to get here now down under. Everybody used to go 'on the pension' as it was called, but the govt toughened up all the rules. I don't even know how people survive on a pension TBH.
My Dad was going to accept a job in Canada years ago, then changed his mind at the last minute. I remember crying & feeling so disappointed that we weren't going. We might have been neighbours!!
That is awful re people's pensions being stolen. I've heard of that happening down here, but nobody seems to do anything about it, as nobody wants to offend the high flyers who contribute to the politician's campaigns, or offend the big banks.
I'd like to visit Canada but flying for more than 2 hours gets me antsy. It's bad enough flying around Australia for work. I heard Canada has a health care system similar to ours - Medicare or something offering free health care for all.

 

[Lanolin]

It is a myth that the govt is using the money YOU paid in tax over all the years for YOUR pension plan. The govt is using the money CURRENTLY being paid in by taxpayers for peoples pensions.

That is how it is in nz.

 

[Lanolin]

Yes I know what you are saying Tash. We have to be careful putting people in to boxes and forgetting they are human. Young and old, male and female, Black or white, disabled or not, gay or heterosexual and so on. But if we avoid labels altogether, we cant communicate. I'm a 61 year old male Aussie, who calls himself Christian. Those labels. are useful for people understanding who I am. Even though I am more than my labels. Much more.

Do you call yourself christian or do others call you a christian? Just wondering.

Cos thats two different things.

I think people just want to describe something when they talk about generations. Also people forget the sandwich generatio , those who would have been gen x (offspring of boomers) who now have children of their own (millenials) and have to deal with needs of each.

I think being sandwich is even tougher than being millenial. Basically it comes down to boomers only caring about themselves as they had the best of everything, and handing their offsprings diminishing returns.

As for being entepeneruial , that is what many millenials are now being, after trying everything else and having no job security. but also remember how the dot com bubbles didnt last. And the property investment. Also when you are self employed, you dont have an organsied pension plan at all. Its basically up to YOU where you invest, provided you make enough.

This is where one needs to trust God, because the govt is not going to help you if its only intersted in neoliberalism.

 

[melita916]

i have a hard time seeing the boomers as "only caring about themselves," but it's probably because growing up, i didn't interact with many of them outside of the local congregation, and most, if not all, were immigrants, so what i mostly saw was all of them working hard to provide for their families. i saw the same with the 1st generation Americans.

 

[IFOLLOWHIM]

 

[Ghoti2]

i have a hard time seeing the boomers as "only caring about themselves," but it's probably because growing up, i didn't interact with many of them outside of the local congregation, and most, if not all, were immigrants, so what i mostly saw was all of them working hard to provide for their families. i saw the same with the 1st generation Americans.

Also, few people are as honest and concerned about others as you are.

 

[Lanolin]

i have a hard time seeing the boomers as "only caring about themselves," but it's probably because growing up, i didn't interact with many of them outside of the local congregation, and most, if not all, were immigrants, so what i mostly saw was all of them working hard to provide for their families. i saw the same with the 1st generation Americans.

After working in a luxury retirement village you see do get to see how selfish a lot of them are. And also ive had so many people talk of having difficulties with their parents of the boomer generation. I thought maybe I was the only one with a hard case but no its common. And then you theow in the fact that boomer females often had feminist leanings. So theyve put pressure on their daughters to be everything. I dont think its bad in one sense but rleationships are strained because of these expectations placed on daughters to fuill their mothers dreams.

You soon learn to have your own dreams rather than what your parents want from you. Ive had some boomers say their children have to get on the 'property ladder' and they must have this degree, and they have to be earning and doing this type of job. When the offspring get into diffuclty because of huge compettion for jobs, they often made to feel useless because they havent found one. And then reprimanded for being lazy. Well its exahsuting hunting for a job if you dont have family support, dont have connections and dont have capital to start your own business.

 

[IFOLLOWHIM]

O

 

[Eli1]

 

[Eli1]

10 things that will vanish in the next generation (probably):

1. Physical cash
2. Keys
3. Printed magazines
4. Farming
5. Privacy
6. Landline phones
7. Alarm Clocks
8. Cable TV
9. Plastic bags
10. Charging cables

 

[seoulsearch]

View attachment 253099

This made me laugh out loud!

Lynx got me hooked on touch-screens when he helped me find a new laptop in something like 2017. At first I was like, "What do I need that for?" And now I'd be downright annoyed without it.

Whenever I go to see my parents, I always forget they don't have a touch screen on their computer and it drives me bonkers.

I am ALWAYS touching their screen thinking I can "just scroll down" on lists.

 

[Lynx]

This made me laugh out loud!

Lynx got me hooked on touch-screens when he helped me find a new laptop in something like 2017. At first I was like, "What do I need that for?" And now I'd be downright annoyed without it.

Whenever I go to see my parents, I always forget they don't have a touch screen on their computer and it drives me bonkers.

I am ALWAYS touching their screen thinking I can "just scroll down" on lists.

If memory serves you said the exact same thing about smartphones. And now you not only use but REQUIRE one that is more powerful than mine. Something about a power hungry Disney app...

"What do I need that for?" Oh you'll see...

 

[seoulsearch]

If memory serves you said the exact same thing about smartphones. And now you not only use but REQUIRE one that is more powerful than mine. Something about a power hungry Disney app...

"What do I need that for?" Oh you'll see...

Three smartphones and two laptops later, I have learned not to question The Technological Foresight of The Lynx.

Every other subject, though, is still subject to pending conclusions.

 

[Lynx]

Three smartphones and two laptops later, I have learned not to question The Technological Foresight of The Lynx.

Every other subject, though, is still subject to pending conclusions.

*shrug

I dunno. They just fit your use-case. That's all I know.

 

[Zandar]

I guess its this way with every generation but as a genX er I can look in the baby boom past gen and see stuff that dont exist and see the next gen also. an interesting time in history.