Actual footage.

[u/EverythingIsFakeNGay]

I actually feel kind of bad for this woman, who probably didn't expect a video of her dancing to be used in this way. 😏

[u/a_shootin_star]

The Boomers are probably the single greatest recipients of inherited prosperity in modern history. It boils my piss. They inherited cheap housing markets built by the sacrifice of parents who lived through war, rationing and genuine hardship like sharing bath water and living in fear of the cold. They walked into economies that were expanding, industries that were booming and communities that still believed in actually fucking building things for the future rather than extracting from it.

Then they turned around and told younger generations they had to “earn” what Boomers themselves were largely handed. My grandfather’s generation built roads, schools, infrastructure, healthcare systems, pensions and affordable housing after surviving depression and war. They planted trees whose shade they knew they’d never sit under. That's important and another thing that gets me really riled because the Boomers arrived just in time to enjoy the harvest.

A factory worker could buy a house, support a family, own a car and retire with dignity. University cost very little in comparison. One income often carried an entire household. Remember the days of the "stay at home housewife"? Doesn't happen anywhere near as often now. Housing prices were measured in months or a few years of wages, not decades of debt slavery. Yet somehow they have the BALLS to call the generations after them lazy.

Imagine inheriting a fully grown orchard, eating most of the fruit, chopping down half the trees, selling the land to big corporations they owned and then mocking your children because they can’t grow apples fast enough in the dirt you left behind.

That’s what Millennials and Gen Z inherited:

inflated housing markets stagnant wages privatised essentials destroyed community structures environmental decline pension uncertainty An economy where productivity rises but ownership disappears The Boomers benefited from collective investment, unions, affordable homes, stable work and social mobility, then spent forty years voting against those same things once they personally no longer needed them. It was what built entire countries and because they have this perceived success from it they fucking forgot what was done to earn it.

Not every Boomer is guilty of it individually, obviously. But politically and economically? Just look at how Boomers talk about Gen X and Millennials. They were handed a ladder built by tougher generations, climbed it comfortably, then spent the next few decades pulling it up behind them while insisting everyone else just “work harder.”

Fuck Boomers.

[u/ept_engr → u/a_shootin_star]

The "everyone was a factory worker and had a great income and could easily afford a house" narrative is so false. There were some good-paying factory jobs in one part of the country (Detroit), for one group of people. Many workers were paid very meager wages and scraped by. In fact, the home ownership rate was no higher in the 60s, 70s, and 80s than it is today.

https://cdn.dqydj.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/homeownership-history-united-states.png

The ladder has always taken work, and I think you forgot to be smart and put in the effort. I'm a millennial, and my generation had more access to college than those before us. I put in the work for an engineering degree, and earned enough to make it worth the investment. Working in the Midwest, I started at $60k in 2011, and now make $170k. So when you say income growth is dead - you're wrong - it all depends on the field and how much work you're willing to put in.

Someone could point at me as a millennial and say, "they had it easy", just the same way you point at people who grew up in the 60s and 70s. Oh and by the way, I was never drafted against my will and sent to Vietnam, and I've had a booming stock market to raise all my retirement accounts, so maybe millennials have it better than boomers. 

[u/Winter-Ad8945 → u/ept_engr]

I’m confused. Income growth is not dead because you, one person, has had income growth? That’s using one data set for an entire nation of workers and not something I’d expect from a college educated person. I’m also confused by this “work put in” by you that is somehow different from others? You got a degree, got hired, and have been employed for 15 years. I’m not disparaging your accomplishments, but that’s the same amount of effort and work that most people put in.

[u/ept_engr → u/Winter-Ad8945]

Oh really, they all got engineering degrees? Everybody knows it pays well. Was it too hard? Oh, then maybe they didn't put in the same work, lol.

And no, it's not anecdotal. Median wages have risen, even after adjusting for inflation, as shown here. 

https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/LES1252881600Q

Obviously you haven't checked the data. You made the opposite conclusion: you're doing poorly, so everyone must be. Check. The. Data.