Tag: intergenerational politics

SubscribeStar Saturday: Social Contract

The Portly Politico10 Comments

Today’s post is a SubscribeStar Saturday exclusive.  To read the full post, subscribe to my SubscribeStar page for $1 a month or more.  For a full rundown of everything your subscription gets, click here.

A few weeks back I wrote a post entitled “Boomer Rant,” the inspiration for which was a piece by Erin over at Existential Ergonomics called “The Boomer Mentality,” which detailed the grasping materialism and petty shallowness of the various Boomer caricatures she and her boyfriend experienced during a visit to Yellowstone National Park.  Both Erin’s lighthearted post and my more strident polemic about that larger-than-life generation generated a stream of comments from outraged Boomers, all of whom played the part of victim well.  As I noted in my post and in multiple comments, “Boomers are either the heroes or the victims of their stories—they are never the villains.”

What was interesting in the resulting discussion was the lack of any concept of a social contract existing between one generation and the next.  That broken and/or missing social contract was the heart of the complaint both Erin and I brought in our respective posts:  where is the sense of obligation—and even just empathy—to the plight of Millennials, et. al.?  Not a single Boomer commenter—even the ones that do not fit the negative Boomer stereotypes—would come out and say, “You know, you’re right—the Millennials and Gen Xers and Zoomers have had and will have it harder than us.  We had our own struggles, but we enjoyed pretty good economic conditions for most of our lives.”

That failure or unwillingness to acknowledge the struggles of younger generations makes any sense of social contract impossible for the Boomers.  Remember, these are people who are gleefully boasting about how they will not leave their children anything, taking out reverse mortgages and blowing their fortunes (and pensions and Social Security payments) on RVs and casinos and luxury vacations.  Meanwhile, they’re the same people that complain about how expensive spaghetti noodles have gotten and will penny-pinch on stupid things, like the water bill—the living embodiment of “penny wise and pound foolish”—or their own children.  They’re the generation that tips 10% on a $500 tab.

Again, my point with this hyperbole is not to Boomer bash, per se, but to note the very concept of a social contract between generations—an implicit understanding of the obligations of each generation to the other that has existed in some form in every society in every age—is dying, if not non-existent.  That does not bode well for the future of the nation.  Indeed, it breeds radicalism and desperation.

To read the rest of this post, subscribe to my SubscribeStar page for $1 a month or more.

Boomer Rant

The Portly Politico38 Comments

Erin over at Existential Ergonomics wrote a great piece called “The Boomer Mentality,” in which she details the grasping, materialistic, selfish nature of the various Boomers she and her boyfriend encountered on a trip to Yellowstone National Park.  It’s a post worth reading, and Erin handles the contentious subject matter deftly and with humor and grace.  It is clear she does not hate Boomers, but she certainly recognizes their idiosyncrasies and hypocrisies for what they are.

I, too, do not hate Boomers.  My parents and most of my aunts and uncles are Boomers.  Many of my colleagues are Boomers.  Boomers have been among the kindest, most supportive people I have ever known.

I also do not like intergenerational politics.  They seem like another way to divide us and to pit us against once another.  It also seems like a game that is targeted specifically towards Americans and other people in Western countries.  You never hear about Vietnamese kids complaining about their Boomer parents, for example.

All of that said, the Boomer generation—those born between 1946-1964—are a difficult bunch.  Both stingy and lavish, they horde housing, blow their wealth on frivolous luxuries, and seemingly refuse to help their struggling Millennial children, a generation (mine) that really got screwed economically.  At the same time, the Boomers as a group refuse to acknowledge how easy they had it from an economic perspective, and are baffled that the rest of us can’t just make a fortune in sales overnight (or what have you).

Of course, it’s not their fault, exactly.  They are the product of their parents’ choices, the so-called Greatest Generation.  That generation faced a major world war and a devastating Great Depression before that, so they overcompensated and created one of the most spoiled generations in the history of the world.  They also lavished this generation with high-paying jobs that required few skills, coupled with generous healthcare benefits and fat pensions.

So, in response to Erin’s very mild and humorous post, the Boomers came out of the woodwork.  Boomers are either the heroes or the victims of their stories—they are never the villains.  Remember, this generation grew up believing they were going to change the world (and, in many ways, they have) for the better, and that their self-indulgent lifestyles were some manner of high-minded idealism.  We all know the aging hippie Boomer who refuses to believe that the 1960s are over.

One of the comments was from a woman who has this picture for her Gravatar:

Jane Fritz

Can’t you just feel the smug self-righteousness oozing from that tiny picture?  It looks like she carries lemons around in her purse so she can maintain her pucker all day.

Her comment was no better, and written with the subtlety of a rant on Facebook:

This comment goes against the excellent advice that if you don’t have something good to say, don’t say anything. However, as one of the oldest Boomers living, I’m going to make an exception to that advice. Boomers are currently between 60-78 years of age. The reason so many are travelling is because at least in the 65-78 group many/most are retired and finally have the time to travel. Fortunately, everyone younger than 60 is pleasant, drives perfectly, and is committed to working well together. As soon as we Boomers have kicked the bucket the world will be a better place. Or … is the problem with having old people around that they’re old? As post-Boomers grow old, how much do you want to bet that they annoy young people just as much as (some) current old people annoy you?!

So, dear readers, I offered up my own scathing critique to this smug old lady:

Read More »