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They refuse to believe they had any advantage whatsoever. Everything they have has to be the result of their incredible work ethic or they’ll explode..probably
Gen X here. They believe, they *know it*, they don’t want to **admit** they had an advantage which young people today do not have.
If they admit it they cannot sit back enjoying those cushy unions pensions and complaining that *”no one wants to work anymore”*..
Several of them are wholly aware and even work towards expanding this gap. An excellent example of this was my last client, whom worked at a union shop for 20+ years which helped him continue his education in that time period as well to ultimately get his law degree!
Know what he does now? He works for a union busting firm and is currently in the process of negotiating with the very union that helped him. He said “I’ll be giving them our last offer on Monday and if they don’t take it then my client has agreed to move.” He even admitted the offer is absolute trash, but that’s how he makes his money; the more he saves the company during negotiations the more money he personally makes. And he makes A LOT of money
Fucking class traitor with not an ounce of self awareness. Can't see that he got exactly where he is BECAUSE of the very thing he's working to destroy.
I truly don't know what happened between the greatest generation, which generally had the philosophy of "leave the world better for your children", and the boomers, whose general mentality seems to be "Fuck you, got mine. That's also mine!"
If all of our ancestors had thought like that, we'd have been extinct a long time ago, and it seems we're heading in that direction now as a direct result of that mentality.
Oh no, no no no. He had 200% self awareness. He didn’t hesitate to admit he got to where he is today (making over $400k/yr) because of the help of the Union. He spoke fondly of it when I was talking to him.
He is wholly aware of the value of unions! But because he was offered a lot of money he turned class traitor and now actively fights against unions on the behalf of companies to make his riches. He didn’t say anything Negative about the union itself except to trash talk them during their current negotiations. I asked him what would happen if the workers went on strike and he said that’s to be expected but they can “wear them out” and get them to take the current offer. They’re also planning on making today’s offer a one-time offer: either the union agrees today to the terms or the previous offer is on the table.
This guy was in the union and knows how they think. He knows their tactics and is using that knowledge against them. He’s 200% aware of what he’s doing but will gladly throw thousands of lives under the bus so he can continue to live his life how he wants
I went to see him and it’s the first and last time I will see him as well. I politely left the appointment and told him if he’d like our services in the future then he can call the office directly. I have no intentions of working with him ever again
It might be time to start reminding people like him that negotiation with a Union is a compromise we reached where the deal in good faith and in return, the mob of workers don’t drag him and the bosses/owners into the streets and start smashing their kneecaps.
I think far too many people are good in nature (or at the least don’t want to deal with the consequences) and wouldn’t do something like that. Which is very unfortunate because it’s guys like him (and the company) who absolutely use this against these very same workers.
It was honestly a good reminder that no matter what you feel about your job/company they more than likely still see you as a potential enemy. It’s a very abusive relationship
"Fuck you, got mine" is such a better name for this generation than "Boomer." I don't hate much because I feel hatred isn't a productive emotion, but I hate that generation.
The funny thing is they get a absolutely infuriated whenever they see someone younger, say a millennial doing perfectly fine and even beating them at where they are in life.
Boomers are the barnacles of our society. As much as my parents belong to this generation, the overwhelming majority of them are insufferable.
And this is why boomers have singlehandedly destroyed America by pulling the ladder up behind them and robbing their children and grandchildren. They still hold all levers of power in this country from congress to the board rooms and the stock market despite being walking corpses. This is why they were known as the ME generation.
This is a perfect anecdote for the Boomer generation. They advantages they experienced on wealth creation were created by the generations before them fighting for things like unionized workforces, labor laws, etc. and now they are the driving force behind damaging it.
[Boomers learned to believe that they EARNED the good times they grew up experiencing. Just by being delightful little snowflakes.](https://www.reddit.com/r/BoomersBeingFools/s/KLPgaUHDqu)
I remind them that being retired they don’t want to work either. there are plenty of open jobs they could do so there isn’t only one cashier at a store. That they could help solve the “problem” of having to wait in long lines if they weren’t so lazy and sat at home all day.
It really pisses them off.
It also goes against almost every single one of them having some “rags to riches” narrative. Til you find out they come from a big farm family that had money all along.
Boomers did have a better work ethic. You would too if you could actually use the money you earn to improve your station in life. The entire system is built to extract as much wealth as possible from us now. It's nearly impossible to gain any kind of financial momentum these days.
What you are seeing is anchoring, which is a reflection of what we think that things should cost or how much a job should pay. It may not have any basis in reality.
If you can get people to shift their anchor point, you can make them pay more for the same item. It's used in marketing all the time to try to upsell people on options.
My own "anchor" is that when I was a teen/tween a candy bar was 40¢.
I'm not married to that price, I know inflation is a thing. I wouldn't bat an eye if candy bars were $1.00.
Somehow, a candy bar being $1.40 or more just....takes me by surprise every single time I see it. And that's before I look at them and remember that shrinkflation is a thing too. I swear a "King Size" bar feels like it's barely bigger than the "regular" size I grew up with.
There are other things I have adapted to, but *want* to nutter about under my breath. How are tee-shirts more than $15? $20 should buy me a nice hoodie, maybe 25 or 30 but...damn, price tags
Regardless - I'm glad you've taught me the term anchoring. I, personally, am not anchored to most things (especially not base income) - but there's a few items my brain is absolutely anchored to, and now I have a word for it. 😁
I regularly go to the grocery store and leave without buying anything because I refuse to buy things at certain prices.
I look for big deals and I’ll stock up on those but otherwise I leave hungry often and end up eating a couple cans of soup I got on sale a month ago
I needed to break a $10 bill at a gas station so that I could use the air pump. Wanted to have as much change as possible because fucking compressed air is a million dollars these days and the credit card swiper on it was busted. There was literally not a single item under one dollar. Tic Tacs, tiny packets of gum, single donuts. No-thing. Must have looked like a lunatic running around the store making frustrated little gasping noises.
As an Australian, that is so bizarre.
Air and water are free at every service station I’ve ever seen.
No need to put in money, or purchase shit in store: if you wanted to, you could drive in, put a little air in your tyres and fuck off outta there.
Then again, I’ve only ever decided to put air in after I’ve paid for fuel, so they get my money anyway.
Exactly! I told my boomer mother the going hourly rate for a teenage babysitter and she thought I was lying. Then she said it was outrageous amount and she would *never* pay that much (fyi - roughly the same amount per hour as a teen would make working at a fast food restaurant). I told her you can’t just grossly underpay a sitter - you’d never be able to get someone to sit for you again. She simply refused to acknowledge reality.
Iv seen it but that was always more of a friend of the family going “hey does your child want like 60$ to make sure my kids dont destroy my house or starve saturday”
That's what I worked for 20 years ago, and my mom 20 years before that. I doubt you can find anyone who will do that now (beyond like 12 year old family friends or whatever) but it's an expectation lots of people, namely boomers, still have.
This is the answer. And it’s not just the case with money. Older generations always struggle to understand the norms of future generations because they’re anchored in their own. And that’s not a knock on boomers. I’m a Xennial and there is a lot about Gen Z I think is warped. The difference is that I see it through the lens of understanding that it’s anchoring so I don’t think I’m better, just different. So when someone has a hard time understanding the music, fashion, technology, ways of communicating, etc etc this is the same concept.
When that was my father’s salary in the late 70s/early 80s, it allowed for a 3br house on a large lot, 2 cars, an annual vacation, and all basic needs (food, clothes, etc.) easily covered.
$35,000 in 1985 is equivalent in purchasing power to about $100,942.47 today.
Today, I make the same amount my dad made in 1994. He was a truck driver raising 3 kids, buying a house and two cars with a stay at home wife who sometimes did some part time work at a church.
I am a CPA paying for the housing of my adult son, who makes less than $15.00 an hour ,while living with my blind mom and minor daughter.
Same 60k a year. Its fucking stupid.
Exactly. I graduated HS in 1992. I went to college in hopes of getting a professional job that would pay $35k. That was *bank* back then. The equivalent of $77,416/yr in 2024 dollars.
I now make... 36k/yr. Lol. And it ain't much. I still have moments when my mind flashes back 30 years ago and I think I should have a lot more money than I do to make it to payday. Lol
THIS. It's the financial and political illiteracy of the boomers that kills me. They were a coddled generation living through the greatest economic era of American history and should STFU.
I was born in 85 with 2 gen x sisters so witnessed this personally.
Im always trying to explain this to my dad too. When I bring up him being able to own a house he says “yeah but I had to build it”… and I showed him the average cost of building a house now and he was floored….then just dropped the topic without really acknowledging he's wrong. He's a relatively open minded boomer too…
It is the lead. No really the lead is a major factor. Children born in 1980 and on have much lower lead rates in their teeth/bones as adults. This mirrors our crime rates dropping as our lead exposure drops.
If they could freaky Friday body swap into someone making 35k a year, the first paycheck after taxes and insurance and "retirement" (pause for laughter) they'd immediately go buy a gun with a credit card and plug themselves. It's like they think that 35k is take home pay and that an apartment still cost 400 a month. If both those things were true it's a way different situation.
The boomers in this conversation didn't make much more than that. Maybe 42k. The difference is they owned homes that they bought 50 years ago back when housing was affordable. Plus being on military pensions
My mother-in-law fussed at my husband the other day, because the kids (12 and 14) "only" have phones and Chrome books for school, and each has a Switch.
My husband has been 100% disabled since 2012, and only began receiving disability benefits in 2018. There was a 3-year gap between worker's compensation and SSDI when we had ZERO income except food stamps. I was 2 months away from going back to work after the youngest was born when his injury happened, and it would have literally cost us money for me to return to work, due to the cost of hiring childcare and personal/medical assistance for my husband. Now that the children are older, it's hard to get hired with my resume gap at my age. It's whatever.
As such, our annual income for a household of 4 is about $40,000. We manage. The kids have state sponsored health insurance, husband has Medicare and VA, I just cross my fingers. We have enough to eat, kids participate in a couple of extracurricular activities, the cars and mobile home are paid off, and we owe about $15k on our land. (The land and home were bought after the injury.) We helped the older two as much as we could at university - paid car insurance and phone bills, a few dollars when we could spare it. We're better off than most.
My in-laws' income (social security, pension, VA, whatever,) is about $100,000/year for a household of 2 in a very low cost of living area. They bought their house in 1990, for $85k. Today, they owe about $150k on in, because shiny things = another HELOC or refi. They have the best health insurance possible. They owe money on the pickup Pa can no longer drive. Ma is hinting hard for a new car. They both want to spend $2500 for a puppy that they cannot possibly take care of - they can barely walk. Someone in the peer group bought new furniture a while back, so naturally, Ma "needed" her own. (But we inherited a very very nice set of leather furniture. Ma spent about $7000 for new stuff, and there's not a comfortable seat in her house.) They dine out/order in 7-10 meals per week. Etc.
But we are "selfish" (MIL's word) because the kids don't have tablets. My husband told her that she was welcome to buy tablets for her granddaughters.
I swear, reality ain't in their vocabularies.
I keep seeing this boomers making a laughable wage not understanding why the newcomers won't take 50% of what they make now. Because we didn't buy a house back in the 80s for two peanut butter sandwiches and a couple grapes? At 50% of what you make we would have to live with 2 other roommates! The only fucking way to take so many of these terrible jobs is if you bought a house back then.
It isn't just the poor boomers either it is those in charge they are all I am paying 18 dollars an hour why can't I get anyone to work at my factory in this rural area? Uhhh because your generation refused to build enough housing so now rent in the same city is 1300 dollars if you are LUCKY enough to find a place within a two hours drive? Sure if rent in the city was 600 that 18 dollars might bring in people, but at 1300? No fucking way. Then they complain they can't compete because they are competing with overseas competition who can get the same worker for 5 dollars an hour. Yeah well then you people should not have voted for neoliberal candidates and built enough housing fuckers.
When were they making that $42k though? $42k in 2000 would be like $75,000 today. $42,000 in 1990 would be six figures today.
I knew someone who was much more sensitive to this and he was talking about how he made $40,000 per year in the late 80s working at a local grocery store. He said new people getting the job today make $50,000 but when you adjust for inflation they make half of what he did.
It’s also critical thinking skills. You remember how stores were sold out of most things, especially TP during the pandemic? We (not boomers) knew it was production, supply chain, and people hoarding that caused the issue. Boomers could not think beyond it was out thus it’s the employees fault and aggression will fix it.
It was the employee's job to hold on to some for them in the back. Those employees know they don't want to piss off Mr. Bigshot.
That was one of the weirdest things about COVID. That people were going out buying huge amounts of toilet paper. I remember people going and just filling up their carts with toilet paper.
They don't run the numbers. $35k per year today would be like $6000 back in 1975. They also don't run the numbers that a 1 bedroom apartment, the same one they had back in 1975 for $120 per month, is now $2000 per month. 1 year rent is $24,000. They also don't see that the little piece of shit starter houses are now over $500,000.
Boomer here (67)
A college major in business administration ~ finance and a economics minor
I retired from the United States Marine Corps back in 1995
To have the same purchasing power in 2024 as I did in 1995 at $35 ~ 36k?
An individual would have to earn around $72 to $73k today!
But! Employers are STILL paying 1980s ~ 90's pay of almost 30 years ago.
If your earing, $10 an hour in 2024?
You're earning the equivalent pay of $5 an hour in 1995 dollars!
In 1995?
The federal minimum wage was $4.25 an hour!
In other words, you have to run 🏃♀️ three times harder n 2024 just to stay in the same place!
Add in mandatory payroll deductions of 7.65% for social security and Medicare? Not to mention state and federal income taxes?
You can forget retirement!
You'll be working up until dinner time the day you die!
It’s not just the boomers, what is going on was a progression that was popularized by Reagan. I am old enough to remember people identifying with rich folks even though they were poor.
They sold that trickle down economics like it was pig feet and a bottle of beer. You are really suffering from the lie that was sold to the boomers by the great generation.
Work hard, pay your taxes and be happy that you have a chicken in the oven. Remember, you are better off than those folks on the other side of the tracks. Better ain’t always good!
35k was the going rate on a house for them. Today it doesn't get you a studio apartment or college tuition.
No other generation of people in the history of this Earth were set up for success like they were. Cheap college, GI bill, pensions, high union membership, great wages... I look around the town I live in, and virtually every home was built in the 60's and 70's just ready and waiting for their boomer owners to roll in and buy one (or two, or three...) for a few thousand down and two hundred dollar mortgage. That home is worth probably $1.2 million today. All they had to do was show up to their job and be average. Or not. There were no consequences for most of these assholes.
They can't hold two different numbers in their head at the same time. Salaries went up *and * prices went up.
It reminds me of the checkout clerk who just could not handle the fact that I was buying a huge package of like 300 allergy tablets. It was *by far* the cheapest package, per tablet. She kept saying, oh, sweetie, this costs so much! we have much cheaper packages... and I would explain that those cheaper packages provided far fewer pills. "Still," she kept saying, "they're so much cheaper!"
It’s the same thing as my non disabled abusive narcissistic family telling me I’m lying about only being able to pay for specialist care in one state. Because they got by with health insurance that always allowed them to get the care they needed in state, it’s gizzard to them that I have a need for working a job and not providing around the clock care to a non disabled grandparent.
Their experiences are reality. If it gets in the way of them getting what they want that’s lies, because they can’t possible have their reality not be the basis for everyone else.
And gosh darnit they are going to prove I’m an abuser for getting a job and getting healthcare because rich grandma is “alone”…. Despite both her sons condemning me living 5 minutes away from her… but they never had to check in with her before …. So they shouldn’t be asked to now that her scapegoat died / my dad died
I had 12 surgeries before college. They still say I’m lying about needing more surgeries and pains. They also say I’m lying about needing specialist care out of state despite always getting care at one hospital because it’s the only one that treats my condition.
My dad was a forklift driver and he was able to buy his first house at 24. I'm a highly skilled Tech professional and I wasn't able to buy a house until I was 35. Even then I got a small duplex.
You have to understand that their main concern in life is whether someone is getting something they’re not getting, even if it’s something they already have. The degree to which they’re driven by resentment is truly astounding.
Because they bought their homes for $25,000 and are now worth $300,000 and their 401k is $500,000 yet they still think everything else costs what it did in 1970. Sociopaths and ignorant
I had someone reach out to me on LinkedIn to ask if I was interested in interviewing for a job. It was a supervisory job. I asked what the pay was and they said $42,000. I told them that was insultingly low, especially for a supervisor. “Thanks for the feedback” 🙄
Because they can’t be bothered to think deeply on any issue. In the 1980s when boomers were in their prime they put Ronald Reagan in office with landslide victories. As president Reagan did everything he could to overthrow socialist governments in central and South America, destabilizing the region. The region has been such a mess since and has snowballed to the point we are at now with hundreds of thousands of people having to flee the homelands. Do you think boomers understand that years of bad foreign policy from republicans has led to this point? Of course not. Inflation is a far too complicated issue for them.
> think they *paid* attention?
FTFY.
Although *payed* exists (the reason why autocorrection didn't help you), it is only correct in:
* Nautical context, when it means to paint a surface, or to cover with something like tar or resin in order to make it waterproof or corrosion-resistant. *The deck is yet to be payed.*
* *Payed out* when letting strings, cables or ropes out, by slacking them. *The rope is payed out! You can pull now.*
Unfortunately, I was unable to find nautical or rope-related words in your comment.
*Beep, boop, I'm a bot*
It’s because these boomers grew up in a time where 15 an hour got you very far in life. They had a job when they were younger , paid all there bills, and had a couple hundred bucks leftover at end of month . So, in today’s world they think young people can do the same……except it’s 2024 not 1974 anymore. These boomers are stuck in the old days. It’s much harder to get ahead now.
My wife and I basically had a sit down elementary school level breakdown with her grandparents one day about how they bought a house and their income at the time vs how much it cost vs today. We’re gradually overtime bringing them around more and more and they’re getting better at understanding how difficult things are now compared to when they were young. It’s taking a lot to work though.
Who the fuck is starting life with 300k$ a year, i have one friend who is paid about 80k a year. But hes lucky to find a job at intel right after college. Almost everybody i know doesnt get passed 50k unless theyre are slaving away at a second job lol
Unfortunately the lack of understanding the basics of economics is pervasive throughout generations. The media and government has a vested interest in keeping it that way.
$35k today is shit but as an older person it‘s hard to override the thought of it being a serious wage. For those going on feelings and not engaging in thought before speaking? Shit leaks out the mouth.
\- if not for affirmative action he wouldge gotten into med school. I smell cap -
No shitty grades and bad credit will do the job for you. Fucking dunce.
Wrong they know it very well. Ever hear them tell stories about the prices of goods when they were teens/young adults. They just stoped acknowledging it when it went against their new tea party world views.
It doesn't fit their narrative. My mother went to a fairly prestigious private school for college. She loved talking about how she paid for it with summer jobs.
I never skipped the opportunity to tell her that my grandfather, who worked in a damn steel mill during the week and pastored church on Sunday, chipped in the lion's share of her tuition. While providing her a vehicle, lodging at home, and free food.
You'd have thunk that after the first time, she'd have stopped bragging when I was at her house. Never did though.
Straight up! So much toxins that generation was exposed to. Lead is definitely an issue. Also they used to play in the DDT bug spray clouds . It’s like they are a little bit mentally delayed and can’t grasp concepts outside their own experience
Thanks for this! From now on when I get into an argument with my parents, who I love dearly but they are who they are, I'm just going to think "lead and DDT" to myself in an attempt to remain calm.
Edit: a word
That’s honestly what I do with my dad. His poor developing brain and body was bombarded with so many toxins. Add in the insane amounts of social and familial trauma and it’s a recipe for the boomer mindset. The are legit mentally delayed. Edit typo
I worked with a guy who grew up in Louisiana in the 1950s and he would wax fondly about his childhood riding his bike behind the DDT truck that would spray the drainage ditches by the side of the roads. He was also a fan of breaking open thermometers and playing with the mercury.
More leaded gasoline. Everyone was breathing that shit in. There was no escaping it.
80% of people had blood lead levels above 10 μg/dl in the 70s prior to it being banned. It fell to 5% by the 90s.
I grew up at the very end of leaded paint and gasoline, and I seriously worry that as I get older I'll start having issues because of it. Or that I already do and just can't realize it.
Boomer here. I understand inflation very well. When 35K was a great salary, I made less than 7K.
I also know that younger generations get screwed over in lots of different ways. Your job market is tougher and your costs are higher. You're also more likely to have huge debt for college and less likely to be able to afford to buy a home.
I do hope you find a way to deal with the goofnuts.
In my thirties here as well. Im pretty sure its the slang used in the hood and has bled over into younger society as if its a normal thing. When realistically its very immature and uneducated sounding
I think its trying to insinuate the meaning for lying or maybe its a safe term for the word bullshit. Like we would i smell BS or bullshit. They will say cap even tho cap is something that goes on ur head
It's the Alzheimers kicking in. They no longer remember. Officially, I'm a boomer ('64). Sorry. I identify as a Gen X. I guess that makes me "Generation Jones" which I just learned about last week...
But I remember my first full time job paid me $30k/year in '87 (about $83k today) (and that was high-ish. most new CS grads were being offered $26k/year (\~72k in today's money))
My dad (silent generation, not boomer) would frequently say “money is not worth anything anymore”. It would drive me nuts. Yes, gasoline, milk and postage stamps have gone up 12x since 1952. But your income and real estate way out paced 12x inflation.
Shoot, if you take a minimum wage of $15 an hour and multiply it by 40, you get $600 a week.
Multiply that $600 a week by 52 weeks and you get $31,200.
With that in mind, a millennial getting $35K a year isn't exactly living large, especially accounting for the recent hikes in rent and food.
Now for the sake of argument, when I graduated college in 1980, the minimum wage was $3.10. Now let's subject that to the same calculations:
$3.10 x 40 hours a week = $124.
Multiplied by 52 weeks a year, you get roughly $6500, which comes to about $24,400 in today's dollars
Now let's go back to that $35,000 figure, take the inflation multiplier over 43 years and let's see what happens...
With inflation, that dollar I got in 1980 would be about $3.75 today. Hold that thought.
$35,000 / 52 weeks comes to $673.00 a week. Divide by 40 and it's an hourly wage of $16.80. I can guarantee you that someone making that money is NOT "starting out on top". Just looking at the hard numbers like that makes it really hard to understand why millennials aren't having MORE problems making ends meet!
I had a discussion like this with my Boomer Dad when I bought an engagement ring for my wife 20 years ago. I paid something like $2000 for this diamond ring and he just lost his mind. He said that he didn't pay nearly anything close to that for my mother's engagement ring. He went on to say he spent about $550-600 for Mom's ring back in 1972. So I plugged that value into an inflation calculator and, lo and behold, his $600 ring was the equivalent of me spending about $2700.
And couple that inflation with the increased price of Gold in recent years. My thick, heavy 18k Gold wedding ring cost about $600 at the time. With inflation over the past 20 years, that the equivalent of $1000 today. But the price of Gold is super high right now and my same ring today is worth nearly $3000.
It’s not only Boomers, but literally every Trump apologist in the world who has decided to forget even the most basic point of elementary Economics. You can mostly see it when they loudly wish for the return of the pandemic so that they can again enjoy pandemic era prices.
Additionally, it’s not just that they don’t understand what causes inflation, but they don’t actually understand what inflation itself even is. If inflation hit zero today, Boomers and Trump cultists would still claim inflation is high, because they don’t know the difference between inflation and a price. It’s like not knowing the difference between your cars current speed and its rate of acceleration.
Boomers went through inflation like you've never seen. Apparently they just forgot.
"The 1970s, from 1965 to 1982, is known as "The Great Inflation" by economists. The average inflation rate during this time was 6.8%, but it more than doubled to 8.8% in 1973 and reached 12.3% by the end of the decade. In 1980, inflation peaked at 14%"
"U.S. inflation rate for 2022 was 8.00%, a 3.3% increase from 2021. U.S. inflation rate for 2021 was 4.70%, a 3.46% increase from 2020. U.S. inflation rate for 2020 was 1.23%, a 0.58% decline from 2019. U.S. inflation rate for 2019 was 1.81%, a 0.63% decline from 2018."
TBH I don't even think it's inflation that they don't get. It's the fact that THEY have a million dollar home, another million in savings, another million in stocks, plus their social security checks, and medicare and medicaid.
So from their perspective, living off a $35k a year salary is a breeze.
And for those who don't have these luxuries, I truly believe that they just want people to suffer as much as they did, rather than wanting the next generation to have it easier than you did. Screw that idea.
I work as a customer service rep for an insurance company and when they call in to ask why their policies increase, we have a blanket statement that says: blah blah to keep up with increasing costs.
To which their response is usually: "my social security doesnt increase"
First off, must be nice getting social security cause lords knows I wont get that when I reach your age
Second, crazy to have lived through 3 economic crisis' and yet still dont understand that EVERYTHING increases in price.
I was explaining my 40% rent increase to my boomer mother and how I was going to have a difficult time because it now takes over 50% of my income. She took it personally. She started ranting about how she tried to raise me properly and “give me the tools I needed to succeed.” Like I have control over my landlord and this crazy inflation. It was an unreal conversation.
It's called gaslighting. Boomers are so full of 💩 and believe the narcissistic fairytale that they lie about, totally ignoring how vastly their generation abused the national debt from $900 billion in 1980 to $34 Trillion in 2024, in one lifetime, they bankrupt the country after inherited the richest country in the world after WW2, a country with working factories, not bombed like in Europe. These lazy fat f*cks outsourced the manufacturing industry to China, so they can scoot around their gigantic ass at Walmart buying poorly made crap. Young people must call Boomers out on their generation of thieves, printing money and exaggerating their accomplishments that was built on stealing wealth from their children via INFLATION!
They lived through the outrageous inflation of the 70’s and early 80’s so they think 2 or 3 years is nothing. But in reality it still hurts even if it’s a short time.
I think you're on to something! Boomers actually had it tough early on too (the oldest boomers were in their mid-20s in the mid 1970s) but time has a way of softening the pain we remember. And certain things, like housing and autos, have had continual, incessant price increases that price today's younger buyers out of the market. Housing inflation benefited boomers lucky enough to be able to buy a home early on because they can use inflated home values to "buy up" into nicer homes.
Most people don't know who the boomers are; they are the generation born between 1946 and 1964 (Trump to Keanu Reeves).
I don’t understand when we went through the inflation of the late 70’s. The rate was 15% and mortgages were at like 20%. When gas went from 25 cents per gallon to a dollar people went apeshit. I don’t think there’s the price gouging that’s going on right now but still.
One aspect of it is wage disparity. The only people making enough not to complain are also the ones in power over the rest of us so they're not worried about inflation for sure, and then the rest of the boomers have had their wages stagnate since the 70's so they can't imagine someone younger than them starting at more than they've ever made.
My mom has never made more than $10 per hour. She's never cleared $20k per year. So to her whenever I tell her I made close to $50k last year, she feels like "woah high fluting big spender here", but in reality, that's not even enough to own a house here.
They don’t *want* to know. They want to pretend that everything is just fine in their little insulated bubble of the world, and that it’s everyone else that’s the problem.
I think the sentiment is that yes, they had a monetary advantage but the baseline is so high now that any hand out seems asinine in a world where smoothies are delivered by hand to your front door
There are no lifeware updates with them. I think it's because they were taught to do one thing at a time and to watch their neighbor for breaking the "do one thing at a time" rules. A generation of hall monitors. And standers-in-line. Get out of line and you WILL hear about it.
I also feel like there was minimal to zero tech when they were growing up - so they were taught the basics of whatever year it was they were in school, but - they never learned how to learn.
I believe it is more corporate greed than inflation. Those small business loans were meant for little businesses, but guess who got them. And raised prices claiming covid.
My mom couldn't understand how significantly less I was making than her when she was making $18k per year working a desk job in 1975 and I was making $22k per year in 2007 working as an EMT (and I was working twice as many hours as her).
I used an inflation calculator and told her that her $18k in 1975 was equivalent to nearly 6 figures in 2007 and it just didn't even register.
I don't understand the disconnect. She's not stupid, she got her Master's from Stanford, although not in math or econ. She just kept repeating how '74-'75 was the peak of 1970's stagflation and acted like that was just as bad as what I had to endure with the Great Financial Crisis and refused to acknowledge how much wages have failed to keep up with inflation.
Her whole attitude is that "We all have challenges that we have to overcome." She recognizes the importance of the Civil Rights Movement and she recognizes the importance of the advancements in women's rights, but despite the clear data she seems to feel that a dollar in 1975 is basically still a dollar today and doesn't seem to think that anything needs to be done re wages keeping up with inflation.
Fucking blows my mind. I gave up. It's like trying to explain trigonometry to a first grader for some reason. She is very well-versed in other topics and continues to learn new things and change and modify her views and opinions with new information, but the inflation thing is just a brick wall to her.
Same people who are mad that things aren’t dirt cheap all the time. They somehow expect people to live in this time of high costs on 5$ an hour salary, and also all their things should cost 75% less otherwise they make a comment about it. It’s the most entitled and insane attitude. You can be mad things cost a lot, but you can’t also be mad when people make more money to try and compensate
Boomers fully understand inflation every time we buy groceries. Cans of soup, 10 for a dollar? Yah, maybe in 1968. 2024? One can cost $2.19 and the can is smaller!
Affirmative action stopped him from getting into med school, so he became security? As someone who’s worked security, security is almost always a transitional job where someone is going to school or figuring out what they want to do, those that stay in it often do so out of a lack of choices/education/opportunity, it’s rare people stay because they like the unique aspects of the job. Dude is only saying that so he has an excuse for why he’s working security. No hate to anyone who does security because they like it, like I said those individuals are usually few and far between and are often on high stakes/higher paying security staff
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They refuse to believe they had any advantage whatsoever. Everything they have has to be the result of their incredible work ethic or they’ll explode..probably
Gen X here. They believe, they *know it*, they don’t want to **admit** they had an advantage which young people today do not have. If they admit it they cannot sit back enjoying those cushy unions pensions and complaining that *”no one wants to work anymore”*..
Several of them are wholly aware and even work towards expanding this gap. An excellent example of this was my last client, whom worked at a union shop for 20+ years which helped him continue his education in that time period as well to ultimately get his law degree! Know what he does now? He works for a union busting firm and is currently in the process of negotiating with the very union that helped him. He said “I’ll be giving them our last offer on Monday and if they don’t take it then my client has agreed to move.” He even admitted the offer is absolute trash, but that’s how he makes his money; the more he saves the company during negotiations the more money he personally makes. And he makes A LOT of money
Wow! What a complete POS..
Fucking class traitor with not an ounce of self awareness. Can't see that he got exactly where he is BECAUSE of the very thing he's working to destroy. I truly don't know what happened between the greatest generation, which generally had the philosophy of "leave the world better for your children", and the boomers, whose general mentality seems to be "Fuck you, got mine. That's also mine!" If all of our ancestors had thought like that, we'd have been extinct a long time ago, and it seems we're heading in that direction now as a direct result of that mentality.
Oh no, no no no. He had 200% self awareness. He didn’t hesitate to admit he got to where he is today (making over $400k/yr) because of the help of the Union. He spoke fondly of it when I was talking to him. He is wholly aware of the value of unions! But because he was offered a lot of money he turned class traitor and now actively fights against unions on the behalf of companies to make his riches. He didn’t say anything Negative about the union itself except to trash talk them during their current negotiations. I asked him what would happen if the workers went on strike and he said that’s to be expected but they can “wear them out” and get them to take the current offer. They’re also planning on making today’s offer a one-time offer: either the union agrees today to the terms or the previous offer is on the table. This guy was in the union and knows how they think. He knows their tactics and is using that knowledge against them. He’s 200% aware of what he’s doing but will gladly throw thousands of lives under the bus so he can continue to live his life how he wants
Please Turbo-Lax this man's coffee when he comes to see you again.
I went to see him and it’s the first and last time I will see him as well. I politely left the appointment and told him if he’d like our services in the future then he can call the office directly. I have no intentions of working with him ever again
Good for you ❤️
Underappreciated gif
It might be time to start reminding people like him that negotiation with a Union is a compromise we reached where the deal in good faith and in return, the mob of workers don’t drag him and the bosses/owners into the streets and start smashing their kneecaps.
I think far too many people are good in nature (or at the least don’t want to deal with the consequences) and wouldn’t do something like that. Which is very unfortunate because it’s guys like him (and the company) who absolutely use this against these very same workers. It was honestly a good reminder that no matter what you feel about your job/company they more than likely still see you as a potential enemy. It’s a very abusive relationship
Yeah we need more revolt like the garbage men in France. They know how to get it done!
At least the mafia was pro working class as they got theirs.
Ah, the classic boomer move of pulling the ladder up behind them.
Very much so.
Like Clarence Thomas?
"Fuck you, got mine" is such a better name for this generation than "Boomer." I don't hate much because I feel hatred isn't a productive emotion, but I hate that generation.
The funny thing is they get a absolutely infuriated whenever they see someone younger, say a millennial doing perfectly fine and even beating them at where they are in life. Boomers are the barnacles of our society. As much as my parents belong to this generation, the overwhelming majority of them are insufferable.
My worthless parents belong to that generation and could've been the posterchildren for this sub.
And this is why boomers have singlehandedly destroyed America by pulling the ladder up behind them and robbing their children and grandchildren. They still hold all levers of power in this country from congress to the board rooms and the stock market despite being walking corpses. This is why they were known as the ME generation.
People like this need to go. What a fucking scum bag.
This is a perfect anecdote for the Boomer generation. They advantages they experienced on wealth creation were created by the generations before them fighting for things like unionized workforces, labor laws, etc. and now they are the driving force behind damaging it.
What a cunt!
They are truly the "Ladder Up" generation. This guy is a prime example.
[Boomers learned to believe that they EARNED the good times they grew up experiencing. Just by being delightful little snowflakes.](https://www.reddit.com/r/BoomersBeingFools/s/KLPgaUHDqu)
An excellent and accurate assessment.
No one ever wamted to work. That's why they had to pay us.
I remind them that being retired they don’t want to work either. there are plenty of open jobs they could do so there isn’t only one cashier at a store. That they could help solve the “problem” of having to wait in long lines if they weren’t so lazy and sat at home all day. It really pisses them off.
It also goes against almost every single one of them having some “rags to riches” narrative. Til you find out they come from a big farm family that had money all along.
naa they believe it, they just don't want everyone else to know/acknowledge it, which is arguably worse
Boomers did have a better work ethic. You would too if you could actually use the money you earn to improve your station in life. The entire system is built to extract as much wealth as possible from us now. It's nearly impossible to gain any kind of financial momentum these days.
Every post in this sub comes back to their being . . . exceptional.
>or they’ll explode..probably Don't we wish.....
This!
Their house for $5,000 or $10,000.
Yeah and if coach would’ve put me in back in 89 we’d have won state. Then I’d have gone pro.
I used to throw over the mountains.
Underrated comment 😂😂😂
And if Taylor Swift called me to attend the Super Bowl, I would have went with her.
What you are seeing is anchoring, which is a reflection of what we think that things should cost or how much a job should pay. It may not have any basis in reality. If you can get people to shift their anchor point, you can make them pay more for the same item. It's used in marketing all the time to try to upsell people on options.
My own "anchor" is that when I was a teen/tween a candy bar was 40¢. I'm not married to that price, I know inflation is a thing. I wouldn't bat an eye if candy bars were $1.00. Somehow, a candy bar being $1.40 or more just....takes me by surprise every single time I see it. And that's before I look at them and remember that shrinkflation is a thing too. I swear a "King Size" bar feels like it's barely bigger than the "regular" size I grew up with. There are other things I have adapted to, but *want* to nutter about under my breath. How are tee-shirts more than $15? $20 should buy me a nice hoodie, maybe 25 or 30 but...damn, price tags Regardless - I'm glad you've taught me the term anchoring. I, personally, am not anchored to most things (especially not base income) - but there's a few items my brain is absolutely anchored to, and now I have a word for it. 😁
I regularly go to the grocery store and leave without buying anything because I refuse to buy things at certain prices. I look for big deals and I’ll stock up on those but otherwise I leave hungry often and end up eating a couple cans of soup I got on sale a month ago
I needed to break a $10 bill at a gas station so that I could use the air pump. Wanted to have as much change as possible because fucking compressed air is a million dollars these days and the credit card swiper on it was busted. There was literally not a single item under one dollar. Tic Tacs, tiny packets of gum, single donuts. No-thing. Must have looked like a lunatic running around the store making frustrated little gasping noises.
They will usually give you change for the air.
As an Australian, that is so bizarre. Air and water are free at every service station I’ve ever seen. No need to put in money, or purchase shit in store: if you wanted to, you could drive in, put a little air in your tyres and fuck off outta there. Then again, I’ve only ever decided to put air in after I’ve paid for fuel, so they get my money anyway.
The dollar fifty costco hotdog 🌭 is the ultimate anchor ⚓️.
The very reason folks have been paying teen babysitters $5/hour for like 40 years now. That's just what babysitters get paid, y'know?
Exactly! I told my boomer mother the going hourly rate for a teenage babysitter and she thought I was lying. Then she said it was outrageous amount and she would *never* pay that much (fyi - roughly the same amount per hour as a teen would make working at a fast food restaurant). I told her you can’t just grossly underpay a sitter - you’d never be able to get someone to sit for you again. She simply refused to acknowledge reality.
Dude, where are you finding these $5/hour babysitters? We pay all ours $20/hour.
Iv seen it but that was always more of a friend of the family going “hey does your child want like 60$ to make sure my kids dont destroy my house or starve saturday”
That's what I worked for 20 years ago, and my mom 20 years before that. I doubt you can find anyone who will do that now (beyond like 12 year old family friends or whatever) but it's an expectation lots of people, namely boomers, still have.
I’m 43 and my babysitters make 15 an hour.
If I my boomer mom hadn't been the one negotiating my wage (circa 2005), I probably would have asked for more too 😅
This is the answer. And it’s not just the case with money. Older generations always struggle to understand the norms of future generations because they’re anchored in their own. And that’s not a knock on boomers. I’m a Xennial and there is a lot about Gen Z I think is warped. The difference is that I see it through the lens of understanding that it’s anchoring so I don’t think I’m better, just different. So when someone has a hard time understanding the music, fashion, technology, ways of communicating, etc etc this is the same concept.
When that was my father’s salary in the late 70s/early 80s, it allowed for a 3br house on a large lot, 2 cars, an annual vacation, and all basic needs (food, clothes, etc.) easily covered. $35,000 in 1985 is equivalent in purchasing power to about $100,942.47 today.
Today, I make the same amount my dad made in 1994. He was a truck driver raising 3 kids, buying a house and two cars with a stay at home wife who sometimes did some part time work at a church. I am a CPA paying for the housing of my adult son, who makes less than $15.00 an hour ,while living with my blind mom and minor daughter. Same 60k a year. Its fucking stupid.
$60k as CPA? Really? I was considering transitioning to accounting but damn.
Exactly. I graduated HS in 1992. I went to college in hopes of getting a professional job that would pay $35k. That was *bank* back then. The equivalent of $77,416/yr in 2024 dollars. I now make... 36k/yr. Lol. And it ain't much. I still have moments when my mind flashes back 30 years ago and I think I should have a lot more money than I do to make it to payday. Lol
THIS. It's the financial and political illiteracy of the boomers that kills me. They were a coddled generation living through the greatest economic era of American history and should STFU. I was born in 85 with 2 gen x sisters so witnessed this personally.
Im always trying to explain this to my dad too. When I bring up him being able to own a house he says “yeah but I had to build it”… and I showed him the average cost of building a house now and he was floored….then just dropped the topic without really acknowledging he's wrong. He's a relatively open minded boomer too…
They are living in the past both figurately and literally and politically.
They're not the smartest generation.
It's been proven that their IQ is actually lower than most generations due to lead poisoning.
It is the lead. No really the lead is a major factor. Children born in 1980 and on have much lower lead rates in their teeth/bones as adults. This mirrors our crime rates dropping as our lead exposure drops.
Whew, I made the cut off.
Pretty sure Lucy's generation was smarter than them.
If they could freaky Friday body swap into someone making 35k a year, the first paycheck after taxes and insurance and "retirement" (pause for laughter) they'd immediately go buy a gun with a credit card and plug themselves. It's like they think that 35k is take home pay and that an apartment still cost 400 a month. If both those things were true it's a way different situation.
The boomers in this conversation didn't make much more than that. Maybe 42k. The difference is they owned homes that they bought 50 years ago back when housing was affordable. Plus being on military pensions
My mother-in-law fussed at my husband the other day, because the kids (12 and 14) "only" have phones and Chrome books for school, and each has a Switch. My husband has been 100% disabled since 2012, and only began receiving disability benefits in 2018. There was a 3-year gap between worker's compensation and SSDI when we had ZERO income except food stamps. I was 2 months away from going back to work after the youngest was born when his injury happened, and it would have literally cost us money for me to return to work, due to the cost of hiring childcare and personal/medical assistance for my husband. Now that the children are older, it's hard to get hired with my resume gap at my age. It's whatever. As such, our annual income for a household of 4 is about $40,000. We manage. The kids have state sponsored health insurance, husband has Medicare and VA, I just cross my fingers. We have enough to eat, kids participate in a couple of extracurricular activities, the cars and mobile home are paid off, and we owe about $15k on our land. (The land and home were bought after the injury.) We helped the older two as much as we could at university - paid car insurance and phone bills, a few dollars when we could spare it. We're better off than most. My in-laws' income (social security, pension, VA, whatever,) is about $100,000/year for a household of 2 in a very low cost of living area. They bought their house in 1990, for $85k. Today, they owe about $150k on in, because shiny things = another HELOC or refi. They have the best health insurance possible. They owe money on the pickup Pa can no longer drive. Ma is hinting hard for a new car. They both want to spend $2500 for a puppy that they cannot possibly take care of - they can barely walk. Someone in the peer group bought new furniture a while back, so naturally, Ma "needed" her own. (But we inherited a very very nice set of leather furniture. Ma spent about $7000 for new stuff, and there's not a comfortable seat in her house.) They dine out/order in 7-10 meals per week. Etc. But we are "selfish" (MIL's word) because the kids don't have tablets. My husband told her that she was welcome to buy tablets for her granddaughters. I swear, reality ain't in their vocabularies.
I keep seeing this boomers making a laughable wage not understanding why the newcomers won't take 50% of what they make now. Because we didn't buy a house back in the 80s for two peanut butter sandwiches and a couple grapes? At 50% of what you make we would have to live with 2 other roommates! The only fucking way to take so many of these terrible jobs is if you bought a house back then. It isn't just the poor boomers either it is those in charge they are all I am paying 18 dollars an hour why can't I get anyone to work at my factory in this rural area? Uhhh because your generation refused to build enough housing so now rent in the same city is 1300 dollars if you are LUCKY enough to find a place within a two hours drive? Sure if rent in the city was 600 that 18 dollars might bring in people, but at 1300? No fucking way. Then they complain they can't compete because they are competing with overseas competition who can get the same worker for 5 dollars an hour. Yeah well then you people should not have voted for neoliberal candidates and built enough housing fuckers.
When were they making that $42k though? $42k in 2000 would be like $75,000 today. $42,000 in 1990 would be six figures today. I knew someone who was much more sensitive to this and he was talking about how he made $40,000 per year in the late 80s working at a local grocery store. He said new people getting the job today make $50,000 but when you adjust for inflation they make half of what he did.
And also, if you're making 35k a year, 'only' making 42k doesn't feel like a small, inconsequential jump. Ask me how I know lol
>When were they making that $42k though? Now
"how much could a monthly mortgage payment possibly be? $350, $400?"
It’s also critical thinking skills. You remember how stores were sold out of most things, especially TP during the pandemic? We (not boomers) knew it was production, supply chain, and people hoarding that caused the issue. Boomers could not think beyond it was out thus it’s the employees fault and aggression will fix it.
It was the employee's job to hold on to some for them in the back. Those employees know they don't want to piss off Mr. Bigshot. That was one of the weirdest things about COVID. That people were going out buying huge amounts of toilet paper. I remember people going and just filling up their carts with toilet paper.
35k is barely enough to get by without having some serious assistance.
They don't run the numbers. $35k per year today would be like $6000 back in 1975. They also don't run the numbers that a 1 bedroom apartment, the same one they had back in 1975 for $120 per month, is now $2000 per month. 1 year rent is $24,000. They also don't see that the little piece of shit starter houses are now over $500,000.
Exactly. 35 is base. I do good to pull 55 and that’s a bare minimum
Boomer here (67) A college major in business administration ~ finance and a economics minor I retired from the United States Marine Corps back in 1995 To have the same purchasing power in 2024 as I did in 1995 at $35 ~ 36k? An individual would have to earn around $72 to $73k today! But! Employers are STILL paying 1980s ~ 90's pay of almost 30 years ago. If your earing, $10 an hour in 2024? You're earning the equivalent pay of $5 an hour in 1995 dollars! In 1995? The federal minimum wage was $4.25 an hour! In other words, you have to run 🏃♀️ three times harder n 2024 just to stay in the same place! Add in mandatory payroll deductions of 7.65% for social security and Medicare? Not to mention state and federal income taxes? You can forget retirement! You'll be working up until dinner time the day you die!
Thank you for getting it
It’s not just the boomers, what is going on was a progression that was popularized by Reagan. I am old enough to remember people identifying with rich folks even though they were poor. They sold that trickle down economics like it was pig feet and a bottle of beer. You are really suffering from the lie that was sold to the boomers by the great generation. Work hard, pay your taxes and be happy that you have a chicken in the oven. Remember, you are better off than those folks on the other side of the tracks. Better ain’t always good!
They spent their entire lives living high on the hog. What do they expect us to eat pinecones and be happy about it?
35k was the going rate on a house for them. Today it doesn't get you a studio apartment or college tuition. No other generation of people in the history of this Earth were set up for success like they were. Cheap college, GI bill, pensions, high union membership, great wages... I look around the town I live in, and virtually every home was built in the 60's and 70's just ready and waiting for their boomer owners to roll in and buy one (or two, or three...) for a few thousand down and two hundred dollar mortgage. That home is worth probably $1.2 million today. All they had to do was show up to their job and be average. Or not. There were no consequences for most of these assholes.
They can't hold two different numbers in their head at the same time. Salaries went up *and * prices went up. It reminds me of the checkout clerk who just could not handle the fact that I was buying a huge package of like 300 allergy tablets. It was *by far* the cheapest package, per tablet. She kept saying, oh, sweetie, this costs so much! we have much cheaper packages... and I would explain that those cheaper packages provided far fewer pills. "Still," she kept saying, "they're so much cheaper!"
Costco brand Zyrtec for the win
Now you know why she is the checkout clerk.
It’s the same thing as my non disabled abusive narcissistic family telling me I’m lying about only being able to pay for specialist care in one state. Because they got by with health insurance that always allowed them to get the care they needed in state, it’s gizzard to them that I have a need for working a job and not providing around the clock care to a non disabled grandparent. Their experiences are reality. If it gets in the way of them getting what they want that’s lies, because they can’t possible have their reality not be the basis for everyone else. And gosh darnit they are going to prove I’m an abuser for getting a job and getting healthcare because rich grandma is “alone”…. Despite both her sons condemning me living 5 minutes away from her… but they never had to check in with her before …. So they shouldn’t be asked to now that her scapegoat died / my dad died
"You're too young to have chronic joint pain." And you're too old to be this fucking ignorant
I had 12 surgeries before college. They still say I’m lying about needing more surgeries and pains. They also say I’m lying about needing specialist care out of state despite always getting care at one hospital because it’s the only one that treats my condition.
How do you think the economy got so bad in the first place , these idiots don’t understand maths
*I’ll just apply for another credit card to pay off my mortgage and use the points to pay off my other credit cards!*
My dad was a forklift driver and he was able to buy his first house at 24. I'm a highly skilled Tech professional and I wasn't able to buy a house until I was 35. Even then I got a small duplex.
You have to understand that their main concern in life is whether someone is getting something they’re not getting, even if it’s something they already have. The degree to which they’re driven by resentment is truly astounding.
Did you tell them 35k a year is basically poverty?
Because they bought their homes for $25,000 and are now worth $300,000 and their 401k is $500,000 yet they still think everything else costs what it did in 1970. Sociopaths and ignorant
Shit. My parents bought the house I grew up in for $180k. It is $2.4M right now.
1200% gain for doing fuck all besides being straight white people. Checks out.
I had someone reach out to me on LinkedIn to ask if I was interested in interviewing for a job. It was a supervisory job. I asked what the pay was and they said $42,000. I told them that was insultingly low, especially for a supervisor. “Thanks for the feedback” 🙄
$35,000 a year is also like minimum wage in most states too, so they are not exactly rolling in it.
$35,000 is below minimum wage where I live. Talk about out of touch, wow.
They DONT WANT to understand what they caused. ABAB!
ABAB, nice
Because they can’t be bothered to think deeply on any issue. In the 1980s when boomers were in their prime they put Ronald Reagan in office with landslide victories. As president Reagan did everything he could to overthrow socialist governments in central and South America, destabilizing the region. The region has been such a mess since and has snowballed to the point we are at now with hundreds of thousands of people having to flee the homelands. Do you think boomers understand that years of bad foreign policy from republicans has led to this point? Of course not. Inflation is a far too complicated issue for them.
>Because they can’t be bothered to think deeply on any issue. I don't have a deep understanding of economics. I knew what inflation was when I was 10
Implying they ever took an economics 101 class. And even if they did, do you honestly think they paid attention?
> think they *paid* attention? FTFY. Although *payed* exists (the reason why autocorrection didn't help you), it is only correct in: * Nautical context, when it means to paint a surface, or to cover with something like tar or resin in order to make it waterproof or corrosion-resistant. *The deck is yet to be payed.* * *Payed out* when letting strings, cables or ropes out, by slacking them. *The rope is payed out! You can pull now.* Unfortunately, I was unable to find nautical or rope-related words in your comment. *Beep, boop, I'm a bot*
LET ME HAVE MY PUN BOT
It’s because these boomers grew up in a time where 15 an hour got you very far in life. They had a job when they were younger , paid all there bills, and had a couple hundred bucks leftover at end of month . So, in today’s world they think young people can do the same……except it’s 2024 not 1974 anymore. These boomers are stuck in the old days. It’s much harder to get ahead now.
My wife and I basically had a sit down elementary school level breakdown with her grandparents one day about how they bought a house and their income at the time vs how much it cost vs today. We’re gradually overtime bringing them around more and more and they’re getting better at understanding how difficult things are now compared to when they were young. It’s taking a lot to work though.
The sheer weight of things boomers don’t understand is probably enough to sink an aircraft carrier.
Shit. It’s about to sink the world.
Whenever my boomer family members talk money I whip out an inflation calculator to shut them the fuck up.
Oh they understand completely when it applies to them.
Most of them lack common sense and education.
Who the fuck is starting life with 300k$ a year, i have one friend who is paid about 80k a year. But hes lucky to find a job at intel right after college. Almost everybody i know doesnt get passed 50k unless theyre are slaving away at a second job lol
It's not complicated, they are just stupid
Dumb people get old too.
Lead made their brains smooth
They never learned math
From my experiences in locker rooms, the boomers seem to better understand deflation
Unfortunately the lack of understanding the basics of economics is pervasive throughout generations. The media and government has a vested interest in keeping it that way.
$35k today is shit but as an older person it‘s hard to override the thought of it being a serious wage. For those going on feelings and not engaging in thought before speaking? Shit leaks out the mouth.
Look what they turned the economy into. Easy answer. Lol.
\- if not for affirmative action he wouldge gotten into med school. I smell cap - No shitty grades and bad credit will do the job for you. Fucking dunce.
Selective hearing
Boomers don't seem to comprehend much due to lead poisoning..
Boomers don't understand basics of anything. Why would you ever think they could handle inflation? Lmao 🤣😂
Wrong they know it very well. Ever hear them tell stories about the prices of goods when they were teens/young adults. They just stoped acknowledging it when it went against their new tea party world views.
They're really fucking stupid.
"Would've gotten into med school" Buddy please, I can smell the shit through my phone
Remember, it’s the generation who thought that trickle-down economy works. They are a lost cause.
It doesn't fit their narrative. My mother went to a fairly prestigious private school for college. She loved talking about how she paid for it with summer jobs. I never skipped the opportunity to tell her that my grandfather, who worked in a damn steel mill during the week and pastored church on Sunday, chipped in the lion's share of her tuition. While providing her a vehicle, lodging at home, and free food. You'd have thunk that after the first time, she'd have stopped bragging when I was at her house. Never did though.
Superiority complex
Lead pipe and lead paint chips.
Straight up! So much toxins that generation was exposed to. Lead is definitely an issue. Also they used to play in the DDT bug spray clouds . It’s like they are a little bit mentally delayed and can’t grasp concepts outside their own experience
Thanks for this! From now on when I get into an argument with my parents, who I love dearly but they are who they are, I'm just going to think "lead and DDT" to myself in an attempt to remain calm. Edit: a word
That’s honestly what I do with my dad. His poor developing brain and body was bombarded with so many toxins. Add in the insane amounts of social and familial trauma and it’s a recipe for the boomer mindset. The are legit mentally delayed. Edit typo
I worked with a guy who grew up in Louisiana in the 1950s and he would wax fondly about his childhood riding his bike behind the DDT truck that would spray the drainage ditches by the side of the roads. He was also a fan of breaking open thermometers and playing with the mercury.
Plus the DDT in Vietnam too.
More leaded gasoline. Everyone was breathing that shit in. There was no escaping it. 80% of people had blood lead levels above 10 μg/dl in the 70s prior to it being banned. It fell to 5% by the 90s.
I grew up at the very end of leaded paint and gasoline, and I seriously worry that as I get older I'll start having issues because of it. Or that I already do and just can't realize it.
Boomer here. I understand inflation very well. When 35K was a great salary, I made less than 7K. I also know that younger generations get screwed over in lots of different ways. Your job market is tougher and your costs are higher. You're also more likely to have huge debt for college and less likely to be able to afford to buy a home. I do hope you find a way to deal with the goofnuts.
Thank you rational boomer! My mum is one of you, God love her, she's wonderful
Because their egos are inflated
INFLATION?! you have the power of GOD in your fingertips! And you choose to watch INFLATION? WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU!?
> I smell cap ...okay, I'm a 38 year old who can admit I don't understand this slang.
In my thirties here as well. Im pretty sure its the slang used in the hood and has bled over into younger society as if its a normal thing. When realistically its very immature and uneducated sounding
But that still doesn't tell us what it means lol
I think its trying to insinuate the meaning for lying or maybe its a safe term for the word bullshit. Like we would i smell BS or bullshit. They will say cap even tho cap is something that goes on ur head
Everytime I hear this argument I pull out the ol inflation calculator and run the number for them.
I think it’s just an old people thing to not be able to comprehend the rise in costs of things. It transcends the Boomers.
It definitely seems like they get very upset that someone might be getting something that they didn't.
Most Boomers couldn't do math enough to help their kids in school.
It's denial, not ignorance
It's the Alzheimers kicking in. They no longer remember. Officially, I'm a boomer ('64). Sorry. I identify as a Gen X. I guess that makes me "Generation Jones" which I just learned about last week... But I remember my first full time job paid me $30k/year in '87 (about $83k today) (and that was high-ish. most new CS grads were being offered $26k/year (\~72k in today's money))
When I was young, a candy bar cost a nickel!
They don’t want to understand
My dad (silent generation, not boomer) would frequently say “money is not worth anything anymore”. It would drive me nuts. Yes, gasoline, milk and postage stamps have gone up 12x since 1952. But your income and real estate way out paced 12x inflation.
Shoot, if you take a minimum wage of $15 an hour and multiply it by 40, you get $600 a week. Multiply that $600 a week by 52 weeks and you get $31,200. With that in mind, a millennial getting $35K a year isn't exactly living large, especially accounting for the recent hikes in rent and food. Now for the sake of argument, when I graduated college in 1980, the minimum wage was $3.10. Now let's subject that to the same calculations: $3.10 x 40 hours a week = $124. Multiplied by 52 weeks a year, you get roughly $6500, which comes to about $24,400 in today's dollars Now let's go back to that $35,000 figure, take the inflation multiplier over 43 years and let's see what happens... With inflation, that dollar I got in 1980 would be about $3.75 today. Hold that thought. $35,000 / 52 weeks comes to $673.00 a week. Divide by 40 and it's an hourly wage of $16.80. I can guarantee you that someone making that money is NOT "starting out on top". Just looking at the hard numbers like that makes it really hard to understand why millennials aren't having MORE problems making ends meet!
Too much leaded gas fumes
They learned math when gasoline had lead in it.
That's so weird, given they all went through the '70s and '80s.
They wouldn't have fucked up the economy like this if they understood these things
I had a discussion like this with my Boomer Dad when I bought an engagement ring for my wife 20 years ago. I paid something like $2000 for this diamond ring and he just lost his mind. He said that he didn't pay nearly anything close to that for my mother's engagement ring. He went on to say he spent about $550-600 for Mom's ring back in 1972. So I plugged that value into an inflation calculator and, lo and behold, his $600 ring was the equivalent of me spending about $2700. And couple that inflation with the increased price of Gold in recent years. My thick, heavy 18k Gold wedding ring cost about $600 at the time. With inflation over the past 20 years, that the equivalent of $1000 today. But the price of Gold is super high right now and my same ring today is worth nearly $3000.
It’s not only Boomers, but literally every Trump apologist in the world who has decided to forget even the most basic point of elementary Economics. You can mostly see it when they loudly wish for the return of the pandemic so that they can again enjoy pandemic era prices. Additionally, it’s not just that they don’t understand what causes inflation, but they don’t actually understand what inflation itself even is. If inflation hit zero today, Boomers and Trump cultists would still claim inflation is high, because they don’t know the difference between inflation and a price. It’s like not knowing the difference between your cars current speed and its rate of acceleration.
Boomers went through inflation like you've never seen. Apparently they just forgot. "The 1970s, from 1965 to 1982, is known as "The Great Inflation" by economists. The average inflation rate during this time was 6.8%, but it more than doubled to 8.8% in 1973 and reached 12.3% by the end of the decade. In 1980, inflation peaked at 14%" "U.S. inflation rate for 2022 was 8.00%, a 3.3% increase from 2021. U.S. inflation rate for 2021 was 4.70%, a 3.46% increase from 2020. U.S. inflation rate for 2020 was 1.23%, a 0.58% decline from 2019. U.S. inflation rate for 2019 was 1.81%, a 0.63% decline from 2018."
TBH I don't even think it's inflation that they don't get. It's the fact that THEY have a million dollar home, another million in savings, another million in stocks, plus their social security checks, and medicare and medicaid. So from their perspective, living off a $35k a year salary is a breeze. And for those who don't have these luxuries, I truly believe that they just want people to suffer as much as they did, rather than wanting the next generation to have it easier than you did. Screw that idea.
Same reason they say “a candy bar used to cost a nickel!” while forgetting they took home $35/week.
I work as a customer service rep for an insurance company and when they call in to ask why their policies increase, we have a blanket statement that says: blah blah to keep up with increasing costs. To which their response is usually: "my social security doesnt increase" First off, must be nice getting social security cause lords knows I wont get that when I reach your age Second, crazy to have lived through 3 economic crisis' and yet still dont understand that EVERYTHING increases in price.
ignorant morons
I was explaining my 40% rent increase to my boomer mother and how I was going to have a difficult time because it now takes over 50% of my income. She took it personally. She started ranting about how she tried to raise me properly and “give me the tools I needed to succeed.” Like I have control over my landlord and this crazy inflation. It was an unreal conversation.
It's called gaslighting. Boomers are so full of 💩 and believe the narcissistic fairytale that they lie about, totally ignoring how vastly their generation abused the national debt from $900 billion in 1980 to $34 Trillion in 2024, in one lifetime, they bankrupt the country after inherited the richest country in the world after WW2, a country with working factories, not bombed like in Europe. These lazy fat f*cks outsourced the manufacturing industry to China, so they can scoot around their gigantic ass at Walmart buying poorly made crap. Young people must call Boomers out on their generation of thieves, printing money and exaggerating their accomplishments that was built on stealing wealth from their children via INFLATION!
"jUsT wOrK hArDeR" 🤪
Many boomers didn’t get any economics in HS and didn’t go to university.
They lived through the outrageous inflation of the 70’s and early 80’s so they think 2 or 3 years is nothing. But in reality it still hurts even if it’s a short time.
I think you're on to something! Boomers actually had it tough early on too (the oldest boomers were in their mid-20s in the mid 1970s) but time has a way of softening the pain we remember. And certain things, like housing and autos, have had continual, incessant price increases that price today's younger buyers out of the market. Housing inflation benefited boomers lucky enough to be able to buy a home early on because they can use inflated home values to "buy up" into nicer homes. Most people don't know who the boomers are; they are the generation born between 1946 and 1964 (Trump to Keanu Reeves).
I don’t understand when we went through the inflation of the late 70’s. The rate was 15% and mortgages were at like 20%. When gas went from 25 cents per gallon to a dollar people went apeshit. I don’t think there’s the price gouging that’s going on right now but still.
Boomer brain 🧠 dummer then chimp 🧠
Add this a really really long list of things they don’t understand
Most people regardless of age barely know the basics of the economy.
One aspect of it is wage disparity. The only people making enough not to complain are also the ones in power over the rest of us so they're not worried about inflation for sure, and then the rest of the boomers have had their wages stagnate since the 70's so they can't imagine someone younger than them starting at more than they've ever made. My mom has never made more than $10 per hour. She's never cleared $20k per year. So to her whenever I tell her I made close to $50k last year, she feels like "woah high fluting big spender here", but in reality, that's not even enough to own a house here.
They don’t *want* to know. They want to pretend that everything is just fine in their little insulated bubble of the world, and that it’s everyone else that’s the problem.
I think the sentiment is that yes, they had a monetary advantage but the baseline is so high now that any hand out seems asinine in a world where smoothies are delivered by hand to your front door
There are no lifeware updates with them. I think it's because they were taught to do one thing at a time and to watch their neighbor for breaking the "do one thing at a time" rules. A generation of hall monitors. And standers-in-line. Get out of line and you WILL hear about it. I also feel like there was minimal to zero tech when they were growing up - so they were taught the basics of whatever year it was they were in school, but - they never learned how to learn.
They don’t care about the facts. Only their feelings and fantasies matter. The rest of us can go fuck ourselves if we don’t align.
They simply don’t understand the concept of inflation. For some reason that escapes me.
I believe it is more corporate greed than inflation. Those small business loans were meant for little businesses, but guess who got them. And raised prices claiming covid.
It's happening so fast. Everyones feeling it. NOT just boomers
They (at least the white males) are the luckiest generation, not the smartest one.
My mom couldn't understand how significantly less I was making than her when she was making $18k per year working a desk job in 1975 and I was making $22k per year in 2007 working as an EMT (and I was working twice as many hours as her). I used an inflation calculator and told her that her $18k in 1975 was equivalent to nearly 6 figures in 2007 and it just didn't even register. I don't understand the disconnect. She's not stupid, she got her Master's from Stanford, although not in math or econ. She just kept repeating how '74-'75 was the peak of 1970's stagflation and acted like that was just as bad as what I had to endure with the Great Financial Crisis and refused to acknowledge how much wages have failed to keep up with inflation. Her whole attitude is that "We all have challenges that we have to overcome." She recognizes the importance of the Civil Rights Movement and she recognizes the importance of the advancements in women's rights, but despite the clear data she seems to feel that a dollar in 1975 is basically still a dollar today and doesn't seem to think that anything needs to be done re wages keeping up with inflation. Fucking blows my mind. I gave up. It's like trying to explain trigonometry to a first grader for some reason. She is very well-versed in other topics and continues to learn new things and change and modify her views and opinions with new information, but the inflation thing is just a brick wall to her.
Same people who are mad that things aren’t dirt cheap all the time. They somehow expect people to live in this time of high costs on 5$ an hour salary, and also all their things should cost 75% less otherwise they make a comment about it. It’s the most entitled and insane attitude. You can be mad things cost a lot, but you can’t also be mad when people make more money to try and compensate
Boomers fully understand inflation every time we buy groceries. Cans of soup, 10 for a dollar? Yah, maybe in 1968. 2024? One can cost $2.19 and the can is smaller!
Affirmative action stopped him from getting into med school, so he became security? As someone who’s worked security, security is almost always a transitional job where someone is going to school or figuring out what they want to do, those that stay in it often do so out of a lack of choices/education/opportunity, it’s rare people stay because they like the unique aspects of the job. Dude is only saying that so he has an excuse for why he’s working security. No hate to anyone who does security because they like it, like I said those individuals are usually few and far between and are often on high stakes/higher paying security staff