How did boomers become this way? - Buy whatever you see on TV and spend all your money before you die

[PaleTay]

It seems like until very recently people would leave their kids and grandkids a significant amount of their assets, but now you see 80 and 90 year olds buying luxury cars, going on many vacations, and trying to find the most expensive nursing home money can buy. Not to mention the spending at casinos, and on lottery tickets. However, most won't even co-sign for their kids or grandkids or will try to get them to live in a shithole for the theory it will be cheaper because it isn't as nice (even if it's actually more expensive). They seem to hate buying long-term assets too.

Many cities have the largest building being a seniors' home, or a massive 65+ community blobbing up most of what should be downtown. Not to mention the lockdowns to "save Grandma", or the mass immigration to save social security. It's not sustainable and accelerate the collapse of many cities.

Even many older Conservatives will buy CRT, and other progressive politics and get upset if you criticize the royal family or elites. They'll buy gift cards for Amazon or Wal-Mart as gifts instead of money.

Did they just watch too much TV? Or did they pre-emptively buy into "You'll own nothing and be happy"?

 

[Chen Stirner]

There are many reasons why they're like this, but one of the main ones is that they grew up during a time of unprecedented prosperity and they assumed it would last forever.

 

[DumbDude42]

they were the first generations subject to widespread mass media (in the form of TV) and commercialized pop culture

 

[Fetish Roulette]

Throughout their lifetimes, the sheer size of the Baby Boomer demographic has resulted in the commercial sector catering to their every whim, from children's toys advertisements in the 50's to an infinite number of hucksters shilling shitty old people products in the back of Reader's Digest today. To a degree, this has even infected the academic consensus over recent history. When the Boomers were college students in the '60s, the student protest movement/ counterculture burgeoned, and the Reaganite neoliberal consensus 20 years later was driven by Boomers joining the corporate world as young professionals. All of this has given them a generational case of main character syndrome, exacerbated by the fact that they control nearly every lever of power in the modern United States. This is why the lockdowns, which punished the young to benefit the old, were accepted by nearly every American center of power simultaneously. It's also why Social Security reform isn't going to happen for at least another 10-20 years, why the leadership of both major political parties is geriatric (even to the extent of some party leaders being late Silent Generation), and why burgeoning, disgruntled youth movements centered around the redistribution of the Boomers' amazing wealth and power have arisen in the form of democratic socialism on the left and national conservatism on the right. Ultimately, there's not much that can be done about the problem besides letting the swell on the population pyramid ripple through its last stages and making plans to pick up the pieces after they're all dead.

 

[Maurice Caine]

Throughout their lifetimes, the sheer size of the Baby Boomer demographic has resulted in the commercial sector catering to their every whim, from children's toys advertisements in the 50's to an infinite number of hucksters shilling shitty old people products in the back of Reader's Digest today. To a degree, this has even infected the academic consensus over recent history. When the Boomers were college students in the '60s, the student protest movement/ counterculture burgeoned, and the Reaganite neoliberal consensus 20 years later was driven by Boomers joining the corporate world as young professionals. All of this has given them a generational case of main character syndrome, exacerbated by the fact that they control nearly every lever of power in the modern United States. This is why the lockdowns, which punished the young to benefit the old, were accepted by nearly every American center of power simultaneously. It's also why Social Security reform isn't going to happen for at least another 10-20 years, why the leadership of both major political parties is geriatric (even to the extent of some party leaders being late Silent Generation), and why burgeoning, disgruntled youth movements centered around the redistribution of the Boomers' amazing wealth and power have arisen in the form of democratic socialism on the left and national conservatism on the right. Ultimately, there's not much that can be done about the problem besides letting the swell on the population pyramid ripple through its last stages and making plans to pick up the pieces after they're all dead.

At this rate, I don't think they'll have the decency to die, as Longevity efforts are concerned.

 

[Fetish Roulette]

At this rate, I don't think they'll have the decency to die, as Longevity efforts are concerned.

You've got a point there, honestly. They're going to die someday, but advances in medical technology threaten to prolong our demographic hell into the 2030s' and beyond. You've reminded me of a novel I read on the topic a while back. It was written in 2011, but I think that nearly every problem the author takes aim at has gotten worse since then.

 

[JULAY]

they were the first generations subject to widespread mass media (in the form of TV) and commercialized pop culture

They're also the first generation to have a better life than both their parents and their children. And we've had nothing but boomers running the US since Bill fucking Clinton 30 years ago. Their faggot generation is the very definition of good times creating weak men, and then weak men creating bad times.

A pox on all of them.

 

[CDWLTY]

There's a post about how they're "john wayne in their own minds", the "last of the true american cowboys" who have bested both their forbears and their descendants, and that's how they'll go out.

They think they're self made, and the only honorable thing for their kids to do is to make themselves, even if it's as simple as putting in a good word at work to help them get a job sweeping floors. They're constantly inundated with messaging that you shouldn't leave anything to your kids, celebrities and quadrillionaires bragging that they'll "leave nothing, the kids would get lazy" without mentioning the 'foundation' they established that will guarantee the punks 1 million a year for salary.

They listen closely to what they want to hear, and the system tells them what works best for the both of them. Why would they budget, save, be responsible? The banking system is ready to swoop in and pay for their property to ensure no more of this pesky middle class home ownership gets in their way. Why worry about new blood, new money disrupting things when you can make sure no one can get in on the ground floor? "Hey, did you know you deserve to enjoy your life? Let your kids make their own way, just like you did mr. self made man!"

Also, if you talk to them, it's a fun treat to compute the current value of the pay they got as a kid using the silver value of quarters. You hear stories of them complaining about how hard they had it for making four bucks an hour, until you realize it's something like $80.

 

[Maurice Caine]

There's a post about how they're "john wayne in their own minds", the "last of the true american cowboys" who have bested both their forbears and their descendants, and that's how they'll go out.

They think they're self made, and the only honorable thing for their kids to do is to make themselves, even if it's as simple as putting in a good word at work to help them get a job sweeping floors. They're constantly inundated with messaging that you shouldn't leave anything to your kids, celebrities and quadrillionaires bragging that they'll "leave nothing, the kids would get lazy" without mentioning the 'foundation' they established that will guarantee the punks 1 million a year for salary.

They listen closely to what they want to hear, and the system tells them what works best for the both of them. Why would they budget, save, be responsible? The banking system is ready to swoop in and pay for their property to ensure no more of this pesky middle class home ownership gets in their way. Why worry about new blood, new money disrupting things when you can make sure no one can get in on the ground floor? "Hey, did you know you deserve to enjoy your life? Let your kids make their own way, just like you did mr. self made man!"

Also, if you talk to them, it's a fun treat to compute the current value of the pay they got as a kid using the silver value of quarters. You hear stories of them complaining about how hard they had it for making four bucks an hour, until you realize it's something like $80.

Well at least think of it this way, when they invent realistic VR we assholes can finally see what the 1950s were all about.

 

[JULAY]

There's a post about how they're "john wayne in their own minds", the "last of the true american cowboys" who have bested both their forbears and their descendants, and that's how they'll go out.

They think they're self made, and the only honorable thing for their kids to do is to make themselves, even if it's as simple as putting in a good word at work to help them get a job sweeping floors. They're constantly inundated with messaging that you shouldn't leave anything to your kids, celebrities and quadrillionaires bragging that they'll "leave nothing, the kids would get lazy" without mentioning the 'foundation' they established that will guarantee the punks 1 million a year for salary.

They listen closely to what they want to hear, and the system tells them what works best for the both of them. Why would they budget, save, be responsible? The banking system is ready to swoop in and pay for their property to ensure no more of this pesky middle class home ownership gets in their way. Why worry about new blood, new money disrupting things when you can make sure no one can get in on the ground floor? "Hey, did you know you deserve to enjoy your life? Let your kids make their own way, just like you did mr. self made man!"

Also, if you talk to them, it's a fun treat to compute the current value of the pay they got as a kid using the silver value of quarters. You hear stories of them complaining about how hard they had it for making four bucks an hour, until you realize it's something like $80.

I'd post a bunch of Old Economy Steve memes to illustrate your point, but there really is no need. You nailed it.

I repeat, a pox on all of them.

 

[Maurice Caine]

What do you think about this doc? Real interesting insight of the early boomer era.

 

[ToroidalBoat]

The evil that runs this world screwed many of them over?

 

[Sweetpeaa]

I find this more in the boomers in their late 50's and early 60's. They are the worst for this shit. They lived their 20's in the materialistic, ''greed is good'' 1980's and they STILL have the habits they had back then. They may be way up there in age now but they still have the same mentality.

They don't even have particular interest in their adult children or even their grand kids. Can you even believe that? my Grandparents (God rest their souls) were Silent Generationer's and they were the kindest, most giving people.

 

[CDWLTY]

I'd post a bunch of Old Economy Steve memes to illustrate your point, but there really is no need. You nailed it.

I repeat, a pox on all of them.

Far from all though, I'm genuinely surprised by how many genuinely good folks I come into contact with that are wonderful. Most of the people that are willing to put their necks out for a stranger and help are late boomers, maybe early genX, because they seem to carry that memory of what a society is. They maybe make up 10% at most, but they're around.

I'm no better, I wouldn't stop my car in the middle of nowhere to help a stranger, but that's because I've done it already and learned my lesson.

Maybe the thing that really rankles me with boomers is how they interalize every bit of propaganda they've ever been fed, then talk about "fixing" everything to be just how it was in their youth, not understanding that era of prosperity inherently can't last.

Actually, okay, TWO boomerisms then: I hate it when they talk about their "black friend" who's actually someone they interact with as a paid associate. Black man running a barbecue restaraunt? Black security guard at work? Guess what! Anti-racist debra and barry are here to lecture you when you complain about a black guy stealing your car!

 

[Iron Jaguar]

They grew up with parents who'd lived through the Depression and struggled through the war, and who wanted their kids to have the lives they didn't. So, Boomers grew up with everything handed to them on a silver platter. They are a spoilt generation. Even worse, the ingrates then rejected the values their own parents and grandparents held dear, and they deliberately set out to remake society into a reflection of their own selfish natures.
I look forward to the day they are all dead.

All the current panic about Covid is mostly based around Boomers and their fear of death and judgement. Boomers have lived deliberately wicked and immoral lives and their souls quake at the thought of what awaits them on the other side. Boomers are so evil that they are more than willing to risk the long term health of their own grandchildren if there's a slight chance of them, the Boomers, living just a little longer. - There's no way they would sacrifice themselves for family!
Boomers have the same spirit as those who sacrificed their children to Moloch.

 

[Soulless4510]

I know I posted this before but Carlin was 100% right back in the '90s about the Baby Boomers

 

[L50LasPak]

Seems to me the Boomers that actually do have any kind of humility or authority are the ones who actually grew up poor or lower class even for their era. They're also the easiest to have actual conversations with and seem to have more open minds than their counterparts. I think there really is something to the idea that their generation was generally very privileged and had everything handed to them, because the few of them there are that didn't have everything handed to them and had to start out at the bottom like the rest of us actually seem to be decent human beings.

 

[Buttigieg2020]

Baby boomers are just the scapegoats, silent generation and “greatest generation” fucked this country. Federal Reserve, Hart-Cellar, etc.

 

[nigga that crab pollack]

Maybe the thing that really rankles me with boomers is how they interalize every bit of propaganda they've ever been fed, then talk about "fixing" everything to be just how it was in their youth, not understanding that era of prosperity inherently can't last.

the boomers were the first generation that was entirely raised within a school system and mass media complex that was created to indoctrinate them. there was a top-down effort after world war 2 that was basically the beginnings of globohomo, schools got standardized curriculum and basically everything on television was just reinforcing a core set of values. look up basically any show on tv from the 60s and 70s and tell me it wasn't propaganda.

if you could cram an entire generational cohort into a nutshell, they were told it was acceptable to rebel against their parents for being old fashioned, which is why the hippies happened, and fell into professional corporate lifestyles in middle adulthood as a replacement for growing up, not as a natural consequence of growing into adulthood. even the working-class boomers who still hold onto some shred of hippie-dom corralled themselves into polos and Buicks out of peer pressure. it was about adhering to a projected set of values from their peers learned from indoctrination in school and in the media, not the values from their parents.

 

[murph]

Boomers don't give a fuck about you. They're old and are uninterested in anything but making money and playing bingo and trying to not die. Suffer. Eventually they will die and you'll inherit, or not, and everyone out there dealing with the world will be angry at you, too.