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Cliff Cosmic's avatar

Anyone else have to walk on eggshells around boomers as a kid because you never knew what was going to set them off?

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Douglas Marolla's avatar

I worked with a lot of guys like me as a cook in college. $6 an hour. Who’s cooking today?

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LockNessie's avatar

How much of boomer conditioning came from TV? In South Africa we got television much later than other countries (apartheid censorship) and it seems like our boomiest Boomers are a bit younger than USA boomers (more 60-70 with the 70+ age group generally being much less boomy)

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John's avatar

Boomers cannot comprehend that the US dollar had 6-10x more buying power in their day. In 1970 a weeks worth of minimum wage was enough to buy 1.8 ounces of gold. That would cost around $6000 today. When I graduated college my boomer parents were shocked that I couldn’t get immediately move out, by a house, and car, pay my student loans and feed myself on a $35k a year salary. They only made $25k a year when they graduated school they kept telling me.

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jim's avatar

The employment situation in Canada is so bad that even the die-hard lefties are admitting that foreigners (temporary foreign workers, new immigrants, etc) are locking up employment opportunities so that younger people can no longer find work. The days of walking into a business and giving a firm handshake ended decades ago, but these days ethnic nepotism and subsidies for foreign workers have made it impossible to find jobs at major retailers, banks, etc.

The bulk of the wealth in Canada is held by boomers, who, by and large, and not planning to pass it down to their descendants. They can't die fast enough, in my opinion.

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Arasaka's avatar

Ha, this reminds me of the time I was telling my boomer Dad how prices in an area of regional area of Sydney I was looking to purchase went up $60,000AUD in six months in 2023. He advised that I should get a second job. Sorry Dad, I can't think of any ways to $60K in 6 months after tax doing a part-time job (well, not legal ones anyway). My parents are pretty good for boomers, but they have their moments. It's like they never left the 70s/80s.

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Britt's avatar

Only $60K? Everything here doubled

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Steven C.'s avatar

Most of the boomers I know don't fit such a contrived and ridiculous stereotype, just as most of the younger people I know don't fit the stereotypes they are often described as being. Maybe this blog should beware of the fallacy of confusing the most noticeable members of any demographic with the less noticeable majority.

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Aaron Kulkis's avatar

Denial ain't just a river in Egypt.

Stereotypes exist for a reason -- they're based upon OBSERVABLE PATTERNS.

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Barbarian's avatar

I remember being very young and wondering why my boomer parents, and of course step- parents were so messed up. Then, I started to see that their retarded boomerisms were popular enough to end up on bumper stickers. We're not going to pretend to forget just so you can feel comfortable in your last days. Not going to miss you either.

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BodrevBodrev's avatar

You should see last week's article.

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a circus boy's avatar

My dad railed on me to buy homes and become a landlord like him when I turned 30.

You know, when homes prices were the same as a middle income job. Instead of ten times the cost of a middle income job today. Even at 30, it was like 5x middle income.

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Steven C.'s avatar

I'm a Boomer, and I don't fit any of these descriptions.

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Adam's avatar

And yet, the pillow will still come for you.

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DREWIEY's avatar

"But but .. what about ME!"

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Aaron Kulkis's avatar

Then don't consider any of it to be aimed at you.

Of course there are exceptions -- don't respond like a woman to GENERAL comments which, over 90% of the time are true, as if the rare exception disproves the general rule.

We're talking about people, not chemicals or manufactured objects.

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Crosstime Engineer's avatar

... said every Boomer, everywhere.

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a  valid name's avatar

Ok, boomer

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SirHamster's avatar

This is a blog for people capable of understanding the difference between their individual experience and a collective average.

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BodrevBodrev's avatar

50/50 This was satire. The thing with boomers is the satire of them is exactly the same as their actual behavior. We literally have no way of knowing if this guy's making a joke, in which case excellent job, or he's an actual boomer.

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SirHamster's avatar

Doesn't matter. Signal boost the Truth and fight the noise.

Amplifying the noise is a waste of time.

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Jimmy Neutron's avatar

My father actually had a visually disturbed look when I told him my current salary after 10 years in the workforce is on par with his salary before he retired. I could tell he felt that I was entitled when I talk negatively about the current economic situation, as if we shouldn't be doing as good or better than them. It's an issue they take with younger generations, they say they want us to do well but if we surpass them they react negatively very often and say how back in their day it was more difficult.

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Aaron Kulkis's avatar

Numerically, yes your salary was on par with his when he retired. In terms of actual purchasing power, far less than when he was at the same point in his career.

A high school dropout working minimum wage in 1970 could afford to have a stay at home wife with a kid AND buy a two-bedroom house with only a 10 year mortgage.

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THEQUIETBEAR's avatar

"You should get a job with a good pension" is advise I've heard.

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Masked Menace's avatar

I received the same advice when I was young. Fresh out of college on my first week on the job the company announced the pension was being terminated. No joke.

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Ben Mordecai's avatar

In most of history you had to be very smart, talented, or driven in order to be wealthy and successful. The boomers inherited such easy conditions that they bumbled their way into success like Mr. Bean. They literally are not smart enough to understand that their success is completely an accident.

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Aaron Kulkis's avatar

The two prior generations set them up for success, regardless of how drugged out any particular Boomer might have been -- all they really had to do is not get sent to prison and not kill themselves.

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Alan Alexis's avatar

Heck, I just 'em the money, if I have it.

NO need to do "back in my day" bit.

The world has changed.

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GAHCindy's avatar

I have an uncle (who my mother intelligently banned from our lives as early as she could) who would grab my arm and use my hand to hit my face. "Why are you hitting yourself? Stop hitting yourself!" He thought it was funny. Boomers are doing this, laughing all the way to the grave.

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Kevin Schumacher's avatar

One of my three boomer brothers used to do that to me. I couldn’t stand it. The day of his pillow has already come. Nobody was at his funeral.

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BodrevBodrev's avatar

Had a boomer uncle throw me out of one of the family apartments because he was selling it. I wasn't squatting or anything, had money, had job, but had just come home from abroad, it was 2020 and I couldn't find a place because covid and I was quarantined. He didn't come to me directly, had my mother do it. Then he had his wife badmouth me behind my back to the family for a 25 euro electric bill I never knew about. When I paid him back literally the day my mother told me, he acted like my best friend.

Total gamma. Always had a problem with my father for marrying the most beautiful woman around. And me for taking after him. His fat daughter hates my guts, his wife tells everyone she knows I'm a delinquent and a criminal. Just to be clear, I'm not. When she sees me "Oh, I'm so glad to see you!" Fucking boomers.

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ImperialistCanuck's avatar

Sounds like a Gamma Uncle as well. Good on your mom.

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GAHCindy's avatar

He's so far past gamma, right into psychopath narcissist.

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Aaron Kulkis's avatar

Psychopathy + Narcissism = Borderline Personality Disorder. All of their characteristics really come down to a complete lack of emotional self-regulation.

Nothing has a higher correlation for murdering someone.

ALSO

Nothing has a higher correlation for being murdered.

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GAHCindy's avatar

I wasn't trying to diagnose him, of course. But he does seem like both those things are a likely outcome for him.

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Okrahead's avatar

Heard a preacher in that age range a while back brag from the pulpit that the only thing his kids were going to inherit was a stack of bills.

His mindset was not just spend it all, it was to knowingly and willfully leave his children in debt.

He said this in a sermon in front of a large and apparently approving audience. His defense was that this demonstrates his “lack of a carnal mindset.”

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Aaron Kulkis's avatar

Fortunately, debt can't be inherited. It can diminish the estate left by the deceased, but debt cannot be passed on to heirs.

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Wolf J Flywheel's avatar

Doesn't it demonstrate the exact opposite? And it's his kids he's screwing over.

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Aaron Kulkis's avatar

Heirs can't be saddled with the debts of the deceased. Only spouses and business partners.

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Wolf J Flywheel's avatar

Yes, but he's starting by spending it all and leaving them no inheritance.

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SirHamster's avatar

"worse than an unbeliever"

"whatever you did to the least of these, you did to me"

I don't envy the wicked. Their end is crystal clear.

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GAHCindy's avatar

I almost said "you must go to my church". I wish it were rare enough that that would be the only way we've both heard that from the pulpit. It is the whole generation. There are an abundance of these "pastors", and we all suffer under them.

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Masked Menace's avatar

Boomers are insufferable.

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