This millennial reckons baby boomers have had it 'too easy"

Wow - I had it good then. My starting pay was $100/wk - $20 to mum for board - $30 for bus fares to get to work - frittered away the balance on silly things like work shoes and lunch

 

There's actually a book written about that which resonated with me by Robert Kiyosaki.
Why 'A' Students Work for 'C' Students and 'B' Students Work for the Government : Robert T. Kiyosaki

I actually hire 'A' grade students as part of my team or if I require certain specialized knowledge, yet I wouldn't say I was 'C', perhaps in between 'B' and 'C'. The main idea is that 'A' students tend to specialize and become very good at their skills hence they become leaders in their specialized knowledge and maybe unwilling to take unnecessary risks as they may become comfortable at what they do.
Personally, I also found that out too as no leader wants to listen or become a follower or they are just unwilling to take the risk to try. I have many professional friends who cannot make that first step.... Many property investors IMO are followers as I know I was a passive investor first then I became active as my passion and knowledge grew.
I realize this sentence represents just generalization point of view so it doesn't apply to all people but I would agree with this generalization though....at least in my personal life.

 

isnt kiyosaki bankrupt or something ?

this is because traditionally going back to the time where china is still rule by an emperor,
the only way for you to get out of poverty and enter the upper class (out side the marrying option) is to graduate as a scholar and work for the government, the only way to get in is to get pass the imperial exam which. for the poor to middle class. This is Everything. and this tradition of education is the most important thing until today. hence they sent their children overseas to study for a better education. its hard for the "parents" to move away from this mentality, but if your in an asian society, it still matters,

Chinese dont make up majority of leadership position, because this is a white majority country, even white women cannot hold leadership position let alone asian people or any non white.


anyways back to the topic.
Its not easy for both,

different generation face different challenges,

previously is more physical
now days is mental.

 

random comment about changing times... my grandad walked to school with bare feet - living in West End Brisbane, early 1940s

my little son wears crocs in the back yard

 

Grand dad - too poor to afford shoes

Grandson - not bogan-enuf to wear thongs.

 

My Mum (born 1929) used to tell us that, as a six year old, she would walk across frost-covered paddocks in bare feet to round up the dairy cows and then milk them BY HAND.

Yep, we thought she had it so easy .

 

I often don't wear shoes, even walking the streets with my dogs. Nothing to do with not being able to afford them, I find it forces me to walk more on the balls of my feet which significantly reduces a knee issue that I have. Gives you a free pedicure too, especially when walking on bitumen

 

1973 - I started primary school and we walked to school barefoot in a NZ winter - breaking the ice on the puddles with out toes for fun. Lived in the country. It's what all us kids did. Started wearing shoes for high school.

And if the toilet paper ran out (in the outside bucket loo setup) you just used newspaper. Washing went thru the old roller wringer. Clothes used to be made from a roll of blue corduroy combined with itchy hand knitted jumpers.

It just was what it was.

 

I remember having to park the car, find a public phone booth and hope you have the correct change to phone the office, that was before people got those clunky Gordon Gekko (wall street reference) style mobile phones. You were cool if you had one of those, that was way back when.. I think the 1990's

Sure the boomers had some demographic tail winds behind them compared with us Xers and younger but I still think we are living in a golden era, amazing times! Have we ever had it this good if you adjust for all of the positives modern science and tech has delivered?

 

im born in the 80's and i remember public phone.. then again i grew up in a 3rd word country.
while my mom didnt, her brothers and my grandparents all lived through war. *not vietnam*

For me, thats enough indication they had it harder xD.

 

Why Generation Y Yuppies Are Unhappy - Wait But Why

 

Everyone that does self help books deserves to be broke but I believe he had a company go under but he is still worth $100 mil+

Despite our white majority Indians are very well represented in leadership positions in Australian company’s

 

true, and u can include silicon valley into that,

but Indian race's over achieving dont mean that other race is not underachieving.

 

Generations who didn't have it better than those before them:

• Australians who fought in WWI versus those growing up beforehand (applies to most wars actually)
• Many Hong Kongers who argue life was better when British=i.e. the yacht people
• Most Eastern European places that fell to communism
• Jews who fought for Germany in WWI versus...yep
• People who grew up in fishing communities when there still was fish
• Some who are conservative in political views haha
• Persia before the regime change, particularly for women
• etc.

 

On all this that people are discussing in this thread, there is a joke a British comedian made about how people complain of putting plates in the dishwasher. He says in 30 years time in the future people will be saying: 'back in my day we used to have to put plates in the dishwasher' to his kids.

On a more serious note though & adding my 2 cents:
Some of the struggles nowadays are technology exacerbated
There is an economic story about how when factories switched from steam to electricity productivity did not immediately change because factory layouts did not. It was only over a decade or two that people realised factories could be laid out better thanks to the advent of electricity.
The idea being that some technology today is not necessarily being used in the right way.
Paradox of choice/opportunity cost seems higher today
A child coming home from school now has significantly more choice in what to do with his/her free time than one in the 1950's. Humans, at times, can't handle too much choice or they suffer from the angst of missing out doing something else-e.g. one may like playing sport & reading a book, yet one has to pick & in the process of reading the book could agonise over the lack of playing sport rather than simply enjoying the equally good book.
Job competition has changed
It isn't so much that it is harder to get X or Y job (that will always depend on the industry), but more that job switching, the availability of knowledge and more open hiring attitudes (from discrimination through to global recruitment) has made the fear and/or the actual competition much greater.
Skills are becoming obsolete much faster
Being a PowerPoint whizz used to help for certain jobs, but now the argument can be made that perhaps being able to craft videos or webinars is more important.
Or, how a games designer has to now constantly upgrade his/her skills for each new gaming console engine.
Upskilling is fine and normal, but the rate matters because education takes away time from actual production.
Fulfilment seems to be a serious problem
I love to go back at someone waxing on about the wonders of Scandinavian society with the fact they have some of the highest divorce rates in the entire world-the theory goes that humans will always find something to complain about/look to improve.
I think more broadly though fulfilment suffers from both the availability of choice & changing social attitudes (the 1 fulfilling full work life job is no longer a norm).
Social change is occurring exceptionally fast in comparison to previous history
Thousands of years of human history and in the last 150 thing such as women's roles in society, homophobia & state welfare have changed massively.
Financial education is seriously lacking
PropertyChat is evident of this=Western society in the 20th century had to adjust to the notion of now the majority of people owning their home. This was relatively simple at first, but now with the greater access to the stockmarket, superannuation & investment properties etc., combined with the complexities of technology & the bureaucracy surrounding such things as planning law, health insurance & even estate planning, is leading to a society based around the independently (self-taught), financially educated and/or highly skilled versus those who are not of either.

 

Well, I'm a baby boomer, but lived elsewhere for much of my life. Bought my first house in the UK, and have to admit it was much easier then than now. Most of my friends who often left school at 14 or 16, already had houses by 18/19, I did uni, and was considered a late starter at 24.

Regardless of this, the thing I feel deeply guilty about re my generation, is the way they screwed the economy and markets, and then basically mortgaged future generations up to the eyeballs by printing money/QE and kicking the problem down the road.

Also the propagandising of the schools and general education system with all the diversionary political correctness and social warrior bollox their heads have been filled with. Somehow I feel my classics/Latin etc education may be regarded as useless (ended up with a science degree I hardly used), but it was less damaging to society.

But regarding the economy, the inflated house prices (happily correcting), my generation can truly be accused of eating our young, and I am deeply embarrassed and sorry about it. We will die but the debt will live on.

 

Completely agree. It feels as if the baby boomers didn’t save enough for their retirement and are using property as a get out of the jail free card. Massive generational robbery which obviously can’t go on forever


The currently generation is likely to end up on government pension again despite having a super acct from day 1. For super to be effectively, people would have to have already paid off their mortgages.

What a short sighted government

 

Well I now get screwed over twice - once where I had to work harder to buy in this market and now again with it "happily correcting"

 

As above comment, why are the outcome of governments slated predominantly to the boomers when it is the responsibility of all voters. Voters put politicians in power to form governments and governments sustain programs for all using revenue/debt.

The current government is trying to bring the federal debt back to surplus, higher employment and housing affordability. Still it is marked down for removal at the next election.

At the personal level, for what it is worth, I am a boomer. I studied whatever is necessary to earn my way and made my living. I invested wherever there are worthwhile opportunities with funds and loans. My debts are my responsibilities and so are the equities. When I die, my equities minus my debt should be positive. My son should be glad to inherit such a situation.

 

thats no.2

no.1 robbery is the pension. the older generation things they "paid" taxes so they are entitled to the pension, especially in a country where the is more old people than young people.

its their own fault they didnt save enough and blow their savings.

we are paying for their pension.

their tax money has long gone.

i feel because of the "pension" mentality many middle/well to do older generation people spent all their money knowning they have pensions to fall back on.

but they didnt account for cost of living rising way faster than their pension.

so now they suffer and want more.

and we who are paying for their retirement will have non of their benefits ( i am glad. please take away the pension)