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[VeryGooster]

Joel Stein? :lol pass.

 

[captmorgan]

What age is this "baby boomer" generation? All my supervisors, managers and foreman are all in their 40`s early 50`s The CEO is even in his mid fiftys.

In these conversations "baby boomer" always seems to be used to describe anyone over the age 30.

 

[Loxley]

Every Every Every Generation Has Been the Me Me Me Generation

Well, TIME, you had a point for about seven minutes there. A new record?

 

[SirButterstick]

I can see both sides of the coin. The baby boomers fucked everyone. On the other hand, when I hire freelancers who are in their mid- to late 20s, I notice the entitlement. They're late, slow at what they do, and give attitudes when you ask them for revisions. It's like, 'Holy shit, you're billing $500/day, and you can't make it in by 10:30?'

Anecdotal, but it's something I picked up on.

 

[Dragoon En Regalia]

I don't like blaming whole generations for what's happened to the Millenials' state of affairs. To me, the recession and corporate whoring of America can strictly be credited to a few super-rich, money-guzzling executives and shareholders who were either smart enough or ill-advised enough to screw everyone beneath them. They're responsible for turning a class conflict into a generational one. The baby boomers had prime conditions for self-advancement and financial reciprocation that have evaporated because of the super-rich's neoconservative policies. And my parents couldn't help reaping the benefits they had—they got what they got and used the stuff well. It's just that the newest generation's been made janitor for a whole bunch of baggage, and young folks like me don't have any mops worth a damn. So it's a sordid situation for anyone who isn't a Koch expy.

Also: my father would be an Xer according to this article, even though he's definitely more of a boomer. I can see him as a borderline exception, however. He shares his birthday year with Jon Stewart. For that matter, this is a very mediocre article from the start. I don't like The Atlantic very much (let alone Time), but it's good to see they're quick in rebutting the obvious.

 

[Admiral Bone to Pick]

I think at any time where Black people did not have full rights have no right to call themselves the greatest generation.

Well that rules out just about every generation. But at the same time you could argue that no generation could call itself the greatest if gays still don't have equal rights. Society is always getting more progressive.

 

[.la1n]

Boy, I wonder why we millennials were stuck at home without good paying jobs.

Came to post this, glad someone beat me to it. Eh but what do I care I'm a narrcicist.

 

[Loxley]

What age is this "baby boomer" generation? All my supervisors, managers and foreman are all in their 40`s early 50`s The CEO is even in his mid fiftys.

In these conversations "baby boomer" always seems to be used to describe anyone over the age 30.

Baby boomers = People born from 1945-1966 (or there about)

 

[captmorgan]

This can apply to any generation of Americans. The youth of today didnt fuck up the economy, send jobs overseas, and rack up trillions of national debt. I probably won't even get a scrap of the social security I've been paying into when I retire, thanks old people.

I can`t wait for the next generation to start using this on today's "youth."

 

[arab]

 

[Kai Dracon]

I've always found "Greatest Generation" to be a particularly ironic name. First off, if we go by the criteria that they're great because they sacrificed great things during war time, well...why not the WW1 generation? Or the Civil War generation (United States)? Or the generation that fought the Revolutionary War? Also consider for a second that the "Greatest Generation" is the Reagan generation; the one that sank the nation into huge debt while implementing economic policies that would have devastating long term effects.

With all due respect to those who actually fought in World War 2, "Greatest Generation" in the sense you're examining the tagline is part of American mythology. There were other Greatest Generations. But WWII is where America wrote (and re-wrote) a major part of its cultural narrative.

A good deal of the Baby Boomers (though hardly all) absorbed this new American self-image and saw themselves as the inheritors of the "greatest generation to ever live". But some took that as reflected glory - they thought they were as great as the virtually mythological figures of the WWII era merely by virtue of being their children.

Our current situation may be greatly exacerbated due to the exaggerated nature of the "boom" that created the boomers. America enjoyed a period of insane growth and built one of the biggest fortunes on Earth. That was a lot of power to hand over to a generation. If mismanaged, the fall that could result is horrific. Worse, the environment that the boomers grew up in conditioned them to see the world as a garden waiting to be plucked if only one strides forth and grabs for those prizes, by the sweat of the brow, etc etc. Now that the Great Taking has run its course, we have a lot of people who cannot psychologically and even emotionally connect with a new generation that will not succeed by just doing what the boomers did. I've watched a lot of people from the boomer generation stare in utter lack of understanding at anyone under 30 today, and wonder why they cannot merely follow the life path of a person in 1955 America and end up richer than a well-off boomer.

But that's part of the American narrative too - the post WWII version of "American Dream". Every generation will be richer than the last, with riches measured in personal material wealth. A bigger family fortune, a bigger house, even more kids, onward and upward. This cannot literally scale endlessly, of course. But that seems to be the cultural belief.

Generally, I'd agree with what one rebuttal to the Time article mused - the next generations will not live "better" than the last couple, as those generations judged success and material comfort. They will have to figure out how to live differently, and probably with different values. Including what all this is (society) is for, and about, in the first place.

 

[Lucky Forward]

Baby boomers = People born from 1945-1966 (or there about)

Yeah, Wikipedia calls it '45-'64, but it basically refers to when the WWII generation returned home from war and picked up with their interrupted lives by having a bumper crop of babies for a long stretch.

 

[Baraka in the White House]

From a comment in the Atlantic article:

Kind of ironic, really, that the generation that was able to put itself through college without incurring crippling debt, and was able to work itself in the middle class even if they didn't have a degree, criticizes the children who grow up in a generation filled with bank scams, an ever-soaring cost of living, a glut of high-requirement low-pay jobs, and an embittered older generation that got their's, so screw all the rest.

It's great that you were able to afford rent on minimum wage in the '80s, Mom and Dad. I can't afford rent in anything but the worst part of town with a full time job, a BA in a so-called "smart" field (something marketable), and a tech career. Tell me again how I view you as a "meal ticket" and I'll be sure to put you in the very best nursing home my money can buy: a box on the side of the road.

 

[Deleted member 13876]

Who, me?

Me me me?

 

[SRG01]

And there are equally numerous articles that say that millenials are more hard working, thriftier, and optimistic than any other generation.

 

[Naked Snake]

Millenials are born after 1980 I think

I dodged a bullet there.

 

[wenis]

And there are equally numerous articles that say that millenials are more hard working, thriftier, and optimistic than any other generation.

shhh, let the old people have their time to gripe. they'll watch Columbo and we can feed them oatmeal. They'll be knocked right out after Columbo.

 

[cartoon_soldier]

Well that rules out just about every generation. But at the same time you could argue that no generation could call itself the greatest if gays still don't have equal rights. Society is always getting more progressive.

Yup, there is no greatest generation as long as we are making progress.

 

[RDreamer]

Yeah, the generation that's taking unpaid internships in record numbers is lazy and entitled... Have we just forgot the fucking definition of those words now or does it not matter?

 

[ElectricBlue187]

Yeah, the generation that's taking unpaid internships in record numbers is lazy and entitled... Have we just forgot the fucking definition of those words now or does it not matter?

Don't forget 'not ambitious' as though a single person could feel both entitled to things yet have no ambition for them at the same time.

 

[Deleted member 13876]

shhh, let the old people have their time to gripe. they'll watch Columbo and we can feed them oatmeal. They'll be knocked right out after Columbo.

We should start measuring generations by tv detectives.

Matlock generation
Columbo generation
Horatio Caine generation

 

[wenis]

We should start measuring generations by tv detectives.

Matlock generation
Columbo generation
Horatio Caine generation

haha i like this...

although I hope Horatio Caine isn't this generations anything, I'd rather watch these 10 episodes over and over again.

 

[mattiewheels]

If I was born in '79, what does that make me? Besides old.

 

[Deleted member 13876]

haha i like this...

although I hope Horatio Caine isn't this generations anything, I'd rather watch these 10 episodes over and over again.

Haven't seen Luther yet. New nominations: Patrick Jane and Jimmy McNulty.

 

[GraveRobberX]

What age is Me technically?

When twitter and facebook become your go to soapbox
Also you get all your news from it

#Hashtag

 

[ThisWreckage]

Don't forget 'not ambitious' as though a single person could feel both entitled to things yet have no ambition for them at the same time.

A person can be both entitled and unambitious at the same time. It's a lethal combination too. Expecting handouts and the easy road without no inkling to benefit themselves through hard work. I'm not saying that's the case, just that it is indeed possible.

 

[Chet Rippo]

One generation hating on the next? Who would have guessed?

 

[Boss Doggie]

So this explains why facebook is full of shitty 90's IS AWESOME posts.

 

[nailbombxx]

Yeah, every generation has been a "me me me" generation. That's just human nature. Why wouldn't ones well being and environments be the most important factor?

 

[TylerD]

I was scrolling down the page and getting worried thinking surely, someone see it. Then...

 

[Toa TAK]

Ugh. This is what my Dad is constantly reminding me on a daily basis about.

 

[Ingueferroque]

I can admit it. Compared to my grandparents I've had it like a king from day0. I could live as a jobless bum and still buy iphones if I so chose. It's fucked up beyond measure.

Because of credit debt?

 

[ViperVisor]

Trolling the people most likely to be online to get clicks.

 

[CornBurrito]

I agree. This generation is full of self-entitled non-ambitious people. The blaming of others for the problems of a generation is good evidence of it.

Why can't both generations share the blame? Or do you think the older generation of baby boomers has zero culpability?

A person can be both entitled and unambitious at the same time. It's a lethal combination too. Expecting handouts and the easy road without no inkling to benefit themselves through hard work. I'm not saying that's the case, just that it is indeed possible.

What constitutes hard work? There are plenty of immigrant laborers who work hard and don't really get much in life.

 

[Tesseract]

i feel entitled to quality healthcare. getting kicked out of an er because i don't have insurance sucks, especially over something that requires immediate treatment to prevent permanent dysfunction. i spent 5 months with my jaw locked shut because i couldn't afford hospitalized tmj arthrocentesis with lavage. it's fucking absurd. thank god for SSI and empathetic specialists.

 

[teh_pwn]

While I don't want to be included, I nearly run into just as many mouth breathing adults that are fucking with their phone while walking in public/work places. Instant gratification, adult pacifiers.

However I also very much agree with the criticism of the boomers bitching about unemployment and living with parents. Yeah, maybe if your generation treated politics like a science and science like a science we wouldn't have this orgy between business and state leading to malinvestment. If you kept your parents Glass-Steagall, there wouldn't have been a 2009 great recession. Just a mild one in Europe, way less severe than it is. Europe is going to have a lost decade now, US a lost half decade, stagnation for another 5 years.

On a more selfish note, I'm fully taking advantage of said great recession and investing everything into diversified stock ETFs. Riding that wave between 2009-2013.

 

[Rafa=FedKilla]

Damn that broad is fine. Gonna go listen to some Mike and The Mechanics.

 

[TheSeks]

I'm very disappointed in your generation. Something is lacking. Let's call it heart.

"No hustle either, Skip."

That's right, Daryl.

But, I see no lies in what they're saying, bb? The high-cost of living, no raise in minimum wage, the requirement of a degree to get past "minimum wage" and even then it isn't enough for a house/etc. isn't something that can be so easily fixed with "heart," though.

 

[Archer]

 

[Unicorn]

author is trying to get his " me me me generation " to stay in history before the Y generation. AH ! Battle of the words

Author is a Me Me Me

 

[demon]

Time Magazine is a joke.

I wonder how many from the baby boomer generation took out massive loans to get their education and then worked for nothing in "unpaid internships" just to gain work experience. The whole "living with their parents" point shouldn't even need to be addressed, anyone not living under a rock knows why that is.

 

[ConsumerSquare]

Every Every Every Generation Has Been the Me Me Me Generation

Sometimes you get the sense that these magazines' cultural writers have very little experience with the entire American culture, and prefer to make their grand analyses based on what people they know in the gentrified parts of cities like New York and Los Angeles were talking about at brunch last weekend. The type of young person that magazine writers come across most frequently are magazine interns. Because the media industry is high-status, but, at least early on, very low pay in a very expensive city, it attracts a lot of rich kids. Entitled, arrogant, spoiled, preening — those are the alleged signature traits of Millennials, as diagnosed by countless magazine writers. Those traits curiously align perfectly with the signature traits of a rich kid. Have you seen your intern on Rich Kids of Instagram? If so, he or she is probably not the best guide to crafting the composite personality of a generation that fought three wars for you.

Lord that's good.

 

[Agent Icebeezy]

I was born 12/14/79, I think I fall into this too technically.

 

[wenis]

Lord that's good.

i tasted that. it was like biting into a delicious brownie.

 

[~Kinggi~]

i tasted that. it was like biting into a delicious brownie.

i want a brownie

 

[Tesseract]

i like living at home, enjoying the time i have left with my parents. our relationship is more grown up these days, i talk to my parents like i would any close friend. the dependency is gone, we work together to pay the bills and all that.

i'm gonna spoil the fuck out of me moms and dads when i get me phd and cushy job. they took care of me, now i wanna take care of them.

 

[Dr.Acula]

Basically the thesis was, "Millennials are aimless and without conviction and basic skills, because their baby boomer parents were too self-involved to raise them properly." So... Hopefully Time's amazing data resources touched on the cause, and not just the results?

The combination of technological distraction and a generation raised by disengaged parents who constantly searched for shortcuts (baby genius videos, vapid distraction programming like Teletubbies) instead of solutions (swimming lessons, teaching basics like reading at home ASAP, discussions on moral and even political topics at early ages to develop a moral bedrock) has led to some very real problems. You can't just blame the kids for being aimless when they never had an opportunity.

Latch key kids are cooler than the helicopter-parent kids. This upcoming gen is gonna suuuuuccckkk.

 

[BuggyDClown]

Where are all the articles that talk about how selfish, stupid, and awful baby boomers are, and how they've basically fucked over the entire world?

Nah, let's keep bitching about these awful millenials and their cell phones and FaceSpace.

This.

 

[Tesseract]

i think a lot of late millennials will do good things soon here. it hasn't been easy getting a hold on all the converging technologies and specializations. maybe i'm wrong about that since all my friends are stem majors.

we're bombarded with more information than ever before and people wonder why we're lost.

 

[soundscream]

Made generation X by a year........phew