Author Topic: Sky-high inflation? Blame the millenials  (Read 7415 times)

PDXTabs

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Re: Sky-high inflation? Blame the millenials
« Reply #50 on: July 27, 2022, 03:42:45 PM »
But seriously why the boomer hate?
Boomers have largely been in control of the USA for decades (corporate, government, etc). (Among other advantages) They had the advantages of cheap college and even minimum wage jobs which could pay for said college - and presided over the destruction of that system which supported regular folks making good with a bit of effort.

While Boomers were in charge we went from a society where a single earner, HS-educated family could own a house and raise several kids to one where dual earner (often college educated) families struggle to pay rent and raise just one kid. Plus all the ecological/climate damage accrued from the approaches largely chosen by Boomers.

Yup, the Boomers arguably got cheap college paid for with tax money and tax rates that are higher than today and then cut taxes and college.

But the thing with people buying a house and putting their kids through college and then retiring with a fat pension with one HS educated earner might be an aberration of history from the post-WWII time when the USA was the only country left standing with any industrial capacity to speak of.

EDITed to add: don't forget to blame boomers for R1 zoning. That's definitely their fault. Well, not in the literal sense like they invented it, that was their parents. But once they were the dominant economic generation they kept it to preserve their home equity.
« Last Edit: July 27, 2022, 03:48:22 PM by PDXTabs »

GuitarStv

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Re: Sky-high inflation? Blame the millenials
« Reply #51 on: July 27, 2022, 04:03:22 PM »
Boomers were instrumental in building the systems of overconsumption that directly led to the likely terminal environmental situation that humanity will be struggling with into the foreseeable future.

ChpBstrd

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Re: Sky-high inflation? Blame the millenials
« Reply #52 on: July 27, 2022, 04:27:47 PM »
IIRC, the first boomer US president was Bill Clinton, who was in his 40s when elected in 1992. Members of Congress trend older, so let's pick a reasonable year and say that's when the Boomers took over government. How about 1994 or 1996? Is that reasonable?

I suggest that the following factors were entrenched or in progress long before the boomers took over:

1) A structural federal deficit and growing national debt
2) Globalization, automation, and the decline of US manufacturing jobs
3) Subsidized mortgages, encouraging houses to become bigger and bigger, and for there to be fewer "starter" homes
4) Universities becoming bloated resorts offering many useless degrees that were increasingly unaffordable
5) The shift from more affordable cars to luxury SUVs
6) Suburban sprawl, a lifestyle design which manages to increase both transportation and infrastructure costs simultaneously
7) Crime actually peaked just before the boomers took over
8) The American middle class was in decline since the early 1970s
9) Healthcare inflation was already becoming a major issue.
10) Consumerism as the dominant cultural value
11) Deteriorating quality of journalism
12) The shift toward processed foods and fast food

So it was really the self-described "Greatest Generation" and the "Silent Generation" who were in charge when whatever policy or cultural changes occurred that precipitated these issues. They retired from their leadership roles in the 1990s when the crises we now face were at an embryonic level. Sure these generations did some important things, such as not letting the cold war get hot, enacting public health improvements, promoting civil rights and women's rights, improving education, defeating inflation, removing lead from gasoline, discouraging smoking, and starting to think about environmental protection. But they also authored many of the policies and cultural norms which led to the problems on this list.

TL;DR: It's your dead grandpa's fault.

PDXTabs

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Re: Sky-high inflation? Blame the millenials
« Reply #53 on: July 27, 2022, 04:37:37 PM »
IIRC, the first boomer US president was Bill Clinton, who was in his 40s when elected in 1992. Members of Congress trend older, so let's pick a reasonable year and say that's when the Boomers took over government. How about 1994 or 1996? Is that reasonable?

I suggest that the following factors were entrenched or in progress long before the boomers took over:

1) A structural federal deficit and growing national debt
2) Globalization, automation, and the decline of US manufacturing jobs
3) Subsidized mortgages, encouraging houses to become bigger and bigger, and for there to be fewer "starter" homes
4) Universities becoming bloated resorts offering many useless degrees that were increasingly unaffordable
5) The shift from more affordable cars to luxury SUVs
6) Suburban sprawl, a lifestyle design which manages to increase both transportation and infrastructure costs simultaneously
7) Crime actually peaked just before the boomers took over
8) The American middle class was in decline since the early 1970s
9) Healthcare inflation was already becoming a major issue.
10) Consumerism as the dominant cultural value
11) Deteriorating quality of journalism
12) The shift toward processed foods and fast food

So it was really the self-described "Greatest Generation" and the "Silent Generation" who were in charge when whatever policy or cultural changes occurred that precipitated these issues. They retired from their leadership roles in the 1990s when the crises we now face were at an embryonic level. Sure these generations did some important things, such as not letting the cold war get hot, enacting public health improvements, promoting civil rights and women's rights, improving education, defeating inflation, removing lead from gasoline, discouraging smoking, and starting to think about environmental protection. But they also authored many of the policies and cultural norms which led to the problems on this list.

TL;DR: It's your dead grandpa's fault.

I really like your list. Of course the counter argument is that first boomer started voting in 1964 and the last boomer started in 1982 (or at least got the right to).

lifeisshort123

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Re: Sky-high inflation? Blame the millenials
« Reply #54 on: July 29, 2022, 05:52:49 PM »
The boomers were the last generation to benefit from a different quality of life.  The social contract has changed in America since then. 

Also, much of American life changed - most especially the cost of healthcare and to another notable effect higher education.  As those costs have increased, they have fallen upon families as employers have been unable to fully fit the cost themselves, and the government was unable to reign them in either.

On the other hand, we have tremendous ability to treat people and find cures that were not around all those years ago.

So who knows.

Sibley

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Re: Sky-high inflation? Blame the millenials
« Reply #55 on: July 31, 2022, 11:22:47 AM »
The boomers were the last generation to benefit from a different quality of life.  The social contract has changed in America since then. 

Also, much of American life changed - most especially the cost of healthcare and to another notable effect higher education.  As those costs have increased, they have fallen upon families as employers have been unable to fully fit the cost themselves, and the government was unable to reign them in either.

On the other hand, we have tremendous ability to treat people and find cures that were not around all those years ago.

So who knows.
I don't know if in the 60s and 70s black boomers or boomers of color,  female boomers, LGBTQ boomers, and 18 to 40 year old male boomers drafted to fight in Vietnam would agree. Legal racism and sexism and discrimination were pretty rampant back then.

But those people don't matter, and exist only to serve the important ones: white men.

/s in case its not obvious.

NorCal

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Re: Sky-high inflation? Blame the millenials
« Reply #56 on: July 31, 2022, 11:24:17 AM »
For reference, I was born in 1980, so I can be categorized as Gen X or a millennial depending on what arbitrary stereotype I’m in the mood for that day.

And I don’t really care enough to follow the clickbait link.

But in fairness to the point the article seems to be making, many economists partially attribute the inflation of the late 1970’s and 1980’s to the baby boomers entering the workforce.  The largest generation was looking for jobs, housing, cars, energy etc. all at a similar time. Demographics matter.

In addition, the long term decline in interest rates is also largely attributed to baby boomers starting to accumulate savings and assets as they aged. There is a case to be made that interest rates will take a more upward trend as they start selling those financial assets to fund retirement.

PDXTabs

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Re: Sky-high inflation? Blame the millenials
« Reply #57 on: August 01, 2022, 05:53:56 PM »
The boomers were the last generation to benefit from a different quality of life.  The social contract has changed in America since then. 

Also, much of American life changed - most especially the cost of healthcare and to another notable effect higher education.  As those costs have increased, they have fallen upon families as employers have been unable to fully fit the cost themselves, and the government was unable to reign them in either.

On the other hand, we have tremendous ability to treat people and find cures that were not around all those years ago.

So who knows.
I don't know if in the 60s and 70s black boomers or boomers of color,  female boomers, LGBTQ boomers, and 18 to 40 year old male boomers drafted to fight in Vietnam would agree. Legal racism and sexism and discrimination were pretty rampant back then.

Maybe, but the US military was integrated in 1948, Brown v Board of Education was 1954, Loving v Virginia was 1967, and the Civil Rights Act was 1968 (well, one of them). The Nixon administration supported affirmative action and the Supreme court had not yet stepped in to limit it. Boomers of color got to live through a time where the rate of change was in the correct direction at least in terms of legal frameworks. People of color that I know personally went from poor farmers to middle class in one generation during that time-frame.

Also, women hadn't yet been pushed our of software by tech bros back then. Although to be fair that was because of sexism because software was women's work.
« Last Edit: August 01, 2022, 06:04:12 PM by PDXTabs »

GuitarStv

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Re: Sky-high inflation? Blame the millenials
« Reply #58 on: August 02, 2022, 07:24:38 AM »
The boomers were the last generation to benefit from a different quality of life.  The social contract has changed in America since then. 

Also, much of American life changed - most especially the cost of healthcare and to another notable effect higher education.  As those costs have increased, they have fallen upon families as employers have been unable to fully fit the cost themselves, and the government was unable to reign them in either.

On the other hand, we have tremendous ability to treat people and find cures that were not around all those years ago.

So who knows.
I don't know if in the 60s and 70s black boomers or boomers of color,  female boomers, LGBTQ boomers, and 18 to 40 year old male boomers drafted to fight in Vietnam would agree. Legal racism and sexism and discrimination were pretty rampant back then.

Maybe, but the US military was integrated in 1948, Brown v Board of Education was 1954, Loving v Virginia was 1967, and the Civil Rights Act was 1968 (well, one of them). The Nixon administration supported affirmative action and the Supreme court had not yet stepped in to limit it. Boomers of color got to live through a time where the rate of change was in the correct direction at least in terms of legal frameworks. People of color that I know personally went from poor farmers to middle class in one generation during that time-frame.

Also, women hadn't yet been pushed our of software by tech bros back then. Although to be fair that was because of sexism because software was women's work.

Things were certainly better than the 1900s, but I'm not sure they were quite as rosy as you're making out.

Sexism in the workplace was pretty rampant in the 70's.  Women were still relegated to effectively four careers - nurse, teacher, secretary, homemaker.  And that doesn't even mention the casual sexual harassment that was common place in any work environment.  Racism while hiring was the rule.  Black people simply didn't get into positions of power during this period.

Sure, Nixon supported voting rights . . . but not for the reason that you're implying.  It was part of the Republican's overtly racist Southern Strategy (which is still responsible for much of the racism that is so happily accepted by Republicans today).  As Nixon's political strategist said:
Quote
From now on, the Republicans are never going to get more than 10 to 20 percent of the Negro vote and they don't need any more than that... but Republicans would be shortsighted if they weakened enforcement of the Voting Rights Act. The more Negroes who register as Democrats in the South, the sooner the Negrophobe whites will quit the Democrats and become Republicans. That's where the votes are. Without that prodding from the blacks, the whites will backslide into their old comfortable arrangement with the local Democrats.

And if you didn't support the establishment as an American in the 60s/70s you were actively attacked by the government.  Nixon authorized the CIA to infiltrate and radicalize protest groups (like the Weathermen), under the assumption that if these groups started bombing others they would lose popular support.  I mean, when the military wasn't murdering protests directly with zero legal consequences (Kent state?).

Not exactly a golden era.
« Last Edit: August 02, 2022, 07:31:07 AM by GuitarStv »

PDXTabs

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Re: Sky-high inflation? Blame the millenials
« Reply #59 on: August 02, 2022, 09:38:09 AM »
Sure, Nixon supported voting rights . . . but not for the reason that you're implying.  It was part of the Republican's overtly racist Southern Strategy (which is still responsible for much of the racism that is so happily accepted by Republicans today).  As Nixon's political strategist said:

I never wrote nor do I believe that Nixon supported voting rights. I wrote that he supported affirmative action and to "require federal contractors to show 'affirmative action' to meet the goals of increasing minority employment":
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Affirmative_action_in_the_United_States#Nixon_administration_(1969%E2%80%931974)
https://web.archive.org/web/20130531055048/http://www.acri.org/historical.html

Which is a far cry from Reagan and Trump.

Not exactly a golden era.

I never claimed that it was a golden era. There has never been a golden era in the USA for people who aren't white men with money and/or land. I personally doubt that there ever will be.