Baby Boomers didnt left the economy in better shape

[Erick Estrada]

Originally Posted by _Q_

It's not Gen Y's Fault most older folk have no idea what they're talking about.

"hey son, what's the memory on the motherboard of this microwave. My friend Jim told me to make sure it's over 30 kilowatts."

That stuff usually pauses our brain

/half joking

Is that before or after the kid says;

"Hey dad my car's turn signal light isn't working any more. I think it's out of blinker fluid."

/half joking

[Erick Estrada]

Originally Posted by CaramonLS

Instead of teaching them, you spend an hour in line on Saturday AM at Mr. Lube. Pure laziness.

Not me. My boys are free to watch me do it to my car. That said I wouldn't say people getting dealer or Mr. Lube doing it is pure laziness. While an oil change is relatively simple some people simply aren't mechanically inclined and shouldn't be touching their cars and that applies to any generation.

[WCan_Kid]

Originally Posted by nik-

I'm not saying I do it. I'm saying as younger generations grow up, I feel they'll be more and more likely to care about things like this because they won't be raking the benefits like the boomers did. My young cousins care more than I do, I'm sure their children will care even more ... and so on.

I think the point is that every generation is going to save the world when they're young...

[nik-]

Originally Posted by WCan_Kid

I think the point is that every generation is going to save the world when they're young...

Ahh, well maybe that's the case.

Honestly though, as much as Occupy turned out to be a bunch of bull####. When wealth distribution gets really bad, there will be a revolution. Not anytime soon, and I think we're a far way from it, but it will happen. The US is headed there sooner than Canada though.

[CaramonLS]

Originally Posted by Erick Estrada

Not me. My boys are free to watch me do it to my car. That said I wouldn't say people getting dealer or Mr. Lube doing it is pure laziness. While an oil change is relatively simple some people simply aren't mechanically inclined and shouldn't be touching their cars and that applies to any generation.

Oh that's fine. I was more poking fun at Cheese for saying his kids don't know anything about cars - I'm saying they probably don't know if he didn't teach them.

[crazy_eoj]

Originally Posted by nik-

I'm not saying I do it. I'm saying as younger generations grow up, I feel they'll be more and more likely to care about things like this because they won't be raking the benefits like the boomers did. My young cousins care more than I do, I'm sure their children will care even more ... and so on.

I just think it's a matter of perspective. Before the Baby Boomers people were much more concerned with surviving world wars and terrible diseases. Then the Boomers were more focused on winning the cold war and increasing national living standards and employment. Today we are much more focused on global environmentalism and general wellbeing. The next generation will be focused on other issues that will astound them we didn't consider. But it's not the case that generations before 'didn't care' about things, it was a different world then.

[Cheese]

Originally Posted by CaramonLS

Oh that's fine. I was more poking fun at Cheese for saying his kids don't know anything about cars - I'm saying they probably don't know if he didn't teach them.

Ha...well Im no mechanic, but I have done many an oil change, tire change, and assorted other part replacements on my vehicles over time...my kids have stood watching and I have explained, to the best of my ability....but they would rather play on their X-Box...a game called auto mechanic or something like that LOL.
Now I just pay Gen XYers to fix my car for me...its more fun and I can yell at them like a grumpy old coot when they #### up fixing the computers in my car.

[puckluck2]

Originally Posted by Cheese

Ha...well Im no mechanic, but I have done many an oil change, tire change, and assorted other part replacements on my vehicles over time...my kids have stood watching and I have explained, to the best of my ability....but they would rather play on their X-Box...a game called auto mechanic or something like that LOL.
Now I just pay Gen XYers to fix my car for me...its more fun and I can yell at them like a grumpy old coot when they #### up fixing the computers in my car.

Do you still drive your Ford model T?

[Cheese]

Originally Posted by puckluck2

Do you still drive your Ford model T?

maybe.

[billybob123]

Originally Posted by Cheese

Um ya..the 1950s are the Boomer years! No more measles, mumps or whooping cough either thanks to the Boomers....but wait is that a Gen Yer suggesting vaccines are bad? Yup.

Polio vaccines developed by Jonas Salk (b.1914) and Albert Sabin (b.1906). Routine vaccinations started 1955 (Salk) and 1961 (Sabin).

Measles vaccine (Edmonston strain) was isolated and perfected by John Enders (B.1897). Vaccinations began in early 1960s.

Mumps vaccine was originally developed in the late 1940s.

MMR vaccine developed in 1971 by Maurice Hilleman (b. 1919).

Pertussis vaccine (part of the DTP) made up of killed B. pertussis bacteria was developed in the 1930s. The acellular version was developed in the 1980s.

Smallpox vaccine was originally discovered by Edward Jenner in the 1800s. The "modern" vaccine was developed by Leslie Collier in the 1950s.

I suppose I'm a Gen Xer but let's be honest here about who developed vaccines. Boomers and Xers have improved the safety and efficacy of the vaccines, but neither of us invented the ones you're talking about.

[Cheese]

Originally Posted by billybob123

Polio vaccines developed by Jonas Salk (b.1914) and Albert Sabin (b.1906). Routine vaccinations started 1955 (Salk) and 1961 (Sabin).

Measles vaccine (Edmonston strain) was isolated and perfected by John Enders (B.1897). Vaccinations began in early 1960s.

Mumps vaccine was originally developed in the late 1940s.

MMR vaccine developed in 1971 by Maurice Hilleman (b. 1919).

Pertussis vaccine (part of the DTP) made up of killed B. pertussis bacteria was developed in the 1930s. The acellular version was developed in the 1980s.

Smallpox vaccine was originally discovered by Edward Jenner in the 1800s. The "modern" vaccine was developed by Leslie Collier in the 1950s.

I suppose I'm a Gen Xer but let's be honest here about who developed vaccines. Boomers and Xers have improved the safety and efficacy of the vaccines, but neither of us invented the ones you're talking about.

hmm..I dont see the word developed in my post. The Boomers were the first to use them in a widespread fashion...hows that?

[missdpuck]

I'm a very tail-end boomer and no idea I exerted so much power in the world!!

That being said, yes, it's a pretty screwed up world.

[bizaro86]

Originally Posted by Cheese

hmm..I dont see the word developed in my post. The Boomers were the first to use them in a widespread fashion...hows that?

Yeah, the boomers were a big part of the decision to vaccinate themselves as infants/children. The boomers were the first beneficiaries of vaccines, a breakthrough that should be to the "greatest generation" not "the me generation."

[Tinordi]

Alberta itself is the embodiment of the Age of the Baby Boomers. People spend thrifting their non renewable resource so they can buy crap, saving none of it, lumping debt of all things on future generations because the boomers don't want to pay higher taxes. If and when Alberta goes bust you'll have your grandparents to blame.

[flamesfever]

The Boomers were one of the most successful generations that has ever existed. They were influenced, to a large degree, by their parents who sacrificed their lives in order to preserve all that we hold dear, and their grandparents, who suffered through the depression.

More educated than previously, they were hard working, risk takers, and benefitted from a growing economy. I think the sudden affluence, drugs and new morality seemed to take it's toll on many in the generations to follow.

It's very easy to criticize with the benefit of hindsight, but I believe that each generation tries to do it's best under the conditions prevailing at the time.

[missdpuck]

Thanks for posting the film link, gladaki. I'm going to watch it again.

There are corrupt jerks in every generation, obviously.

I'm reading "Broke is Beautiful" by Laura Lee. The title sounds over-simplistic. There are plenty of interesting anecdotes in it about where our attitude towards money (US especially) comes from.

Yeah, there are tips on dumpster diving in there,too. That's not the best part of it.

[Dion]

Baby boomers not to blame for youth unemployment

But most economists tend to frown on what they call the labour lump fallacy.

Wu points to what was happening in the 1960s and '70s when women entered the workforce in greater numbers. There weren't fewer jobs for men. The economy simply expanded.

"So the fixed career ladder of the 1950s and '60s has really given way to more varied career patterns where people don't stay in a workplace."

Organizations don't hire the army of entry-level labour they use to and have fewer layers in the corporate hierarchy, says Venne, who teaches at the University of Saskatchewan's Edwards School of Business. More companies are using technology, direct data entry and robotics.

Venne, who has written papers on demographic effects on the labour force and careers with Canadian economist and demographer David Foot, says young people of today are taking "longer to launch into adulthood," but it's not simply a numbers game of pitting one generation against another.

"I don't see it," she says. "One of the reasons why youth are having trouble getting established — and they always have trouble; there's always higher youth unemployment — is they're not as job ready as young people were maybe 20 or 30 years ago, because career patterns have changed, organizational hierarchies have changed, they've flattened. There are not as many entry level positions.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/baby-b...ment-1.2492240

[Devils'Advocate]

Okay, so the boomers had good jobs, good salaries... those still in the workforce are making good money... they have flattened organizational hierarchies making the younger generations work harder, longer hours, for less money, cut down on entry level positions within their organizations, used technology and robotics so that they make money and the younger generations do not, and thus they are not to blame for Gen X, Y and Z having higher unemployment and in general a lower standard of living? Okay.

I really can't blame the Boomers for two reasons:
(1) Most have no say whatsoever in how the economy is run. When 85 people have as much wealth as half the planet's population combined, it really is a fixed ball game.
(2) We would have done the same thing if we were in their shoes. Getting the maximum pleasure out of life, damn the consequences down the road, is human behaviour.

[starseed]

I have been really sick lately, so I watched the 'documentary' in the op. Holy ship! We are all watching the superbowl! The romans watched the gladiators fight before they fell! Western civilization is doomed!

[Red]

One guy's opinion.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0JW1tJLRtsk