As living standards in developed countries continues to collapse, once again one of the arguments that it's the fault of the boomers gets thrown around. It got me thinking, what exactly is it people are wanting from this generation of people? Is it just to have someone to blame for not having the same circumstances, and thus results, that this generation had in their early adult life? Whether or not we blame this generation for the economic problems we're dealing with today, the reality is that the circumstances which allowed them to prosper in the long run are unique to their generation. We cannot repeat those circumstances (and probably wouldn't want to anyway) so in order to get similar results we would need to figure out a new way to achieve those results.
I should probably acknowledge that the ongoing boomer blame game is likely mostly just coming from millennials and is therefore possibly just a group of people resentful towards their parents rather than them being a generation being blamed by everyone.
We often refer to periods of time in history when the situation was the most prosperous and peaceful as 'golden ages'. Empires are said to rise and set like the sun. So you could say that golden ages are like when the sun reaches it peak in the sky, but this means that from there it can only descend towards sunset. Throughout history and generations there have always been ups and downs and each generation will experience both, some more ups and some more downs than others. I'm pretty sure this pattern will also continue for generations into the future.
Did the boomers experience a mini golden age? Quite possibly. Their parents experienced a depression followed by a war and fought for a system with a safety net so their children wouldn't have to experience the same troubles with nothing to catch them when things went wrong. The situation at the time followed a big drop in population followed by a period of rebuilding and expansion. Manpower was needed so the wealthy were in a position where it was in their best interests to give the working classes what they were asking for. The people of the post war baby boom grew up in this rapidly growing economy and benefitted from that. However, as the population expanded and the economy slowed it became an employer's market and the wealthy could take control again. This dynamic has happened throughout history and we have yet to figure out how to appeal to those with power to continue doing things in a way that benefits the many when they can't also continue expanding their own wealth and power at the same rate.
I've always maintained that if you want those in power to do something you have to also demonstrate that it would be more worth their while to do it than not to.
Something else that creates a divide is the political ideologies of left and right wing. Recently I'm seeing more and more issues that both sides agree are a problem, but they will still argue over the solution. Each side genuinely believes that their solution is the only correct one and that the problem would be solved if only eveyone else could think the same way. Yet differing viewpoints helped us evolve to where we are today. If we all thought the same and never challenged the current societal norms we would probably still be living like all the other primates. It's because we decide to try doing things differently to what we usually do that has brought us to where we are today. When people first voice those different ideas they are often feared and maligned. How many things do we accept as normal today that got people imprisoned or killed for suggesting years ago?
In each generation we will do good to try and fix past mistakes and will also do things might seem to improve things in the short term, but cause damage for future generations. With the majority of the population this damage is rarely done on purpose. Unfortuntely as we get older it gets harder for us to come up with new ideas for better ways of doing things, which is why it often falls to the younger generations to try and solve these problems. It's not really surprising that they might resent this especially when they feel they have a harder starting point.
While younger generations can learn from knowledge passed on from older generations gained through their experience they also live in different circumstances that the older generations have not experienced. So the reality is that every generation can both learn from each other and support each other as things evolve and all ideas are likely worth listening to and considering.
