What about Korea, Bay of Pigs, Vietnam and the fact that ptsd was treated with electrical shocks or drilling holes in your brain

I don't blame old people, they lived the best of times, their lives were comfortable because they were in a boom. They had high hopes, had kids with a bright future in mind for them, but things change, some see it, others are oblivious to it.
- It's still fair to blame them. Old people blame young people for everything afterall.
- I 100% blame them for pulling the ladder up behind them.

Would have been nice if younger folks had voted in their own interests.
- Always someone else’s fault, never yours
- Why should they vote? No one is actually representing them.
  
  Because they don't vote...
  If your demographic is (correctly) viewed as being made up of nonvoters, then politicians are never going to pander to you no matter how much you whine online.

I'm at least relieved to not have lead poisoning, for my gay brother to be safely out, and for my interracial marriage to not be scorned by the community.
- Yet.
- Kind of shows that time is a circle
  
  I see it more as a muddy hill. Only in the US some people have now shat upon that hill with the greasiest, nastiest shit so the slide is even worse on this length.

Stating the raw value of the house will only make naysayers throw inflation into your face.
The better way of saying that would be,
buy a detached SFH for only 4× annual minimum wage
Like, really drive it home how absolutely unaffordable homes are these days. In my corner of Canada, the median detached SFH is going for 28× minimum wage, and it’s 32× if it’s new construction. My own 1972 split level sold brand-new for only 4× the 1972 minimum wage.
- Jesus in today money that's 60k for a house. For a nice hours our parents bought
  
  A quick way of estimating annual wage for a full-time position is to take hourly, double it, then move the decimal point to the right by three spots.
  So for example, the BC minimum wage is $17.40. Double that is $34.80. Annually in a full-time job, that’s about $34,800 before taxes.
  And 4× that is $139,200. Current median SFH prices for used homes sit at just under $1M in my podunk tourist town. All detached SFH, $1,200,000. New construction, $1,500,000.
  I mean, really - who under 50 can actually afford those prices without intergenerational wealth to give them a leg up in life?
- You can throw the inflation right back at them. Boomers were born into the Bretton Woods system, started borrowing from us in the 1970s, and then kept voting for lower taxes on the wealthy.
  Old people used to complain about inflation frequently because they experienced a stable dollar for decades... until the Nixon Shock.
- Just shows you how low minimum wage is.
  
  It’s not just low minimum wage, although BC’s is currently the third highest in Canada.
  No, the problem is also “investors” that buy on spec only to sell at a much higher price just before completion, as well as “investors” that buy up 5, 10, 15 or even more homes for rental income. Both of these goose home values into the stratosphere and massively constrain the supply of homes that are affordable to those wanting to stop being renters.
  Were it not for “investors”, homes would likely be half or even less than what they currently are.
- "single family home" means more than "detached sfh"

And then bitch and moan when anything doesn't go absolutely perfectly in their favor.

What I like about this is that it doesn’t pretend boomers are uniquely evil, just the generation that got lucky.
- Except that's not really the full truth either. The generation got lucky AND systemically burned every thing down so that they were the only ones left with all the benefits that luck provided.
  
  Any other people would have done that. Boomers are no different than anyone before or since. It is 100% Random Chance and anyone who disagrees is a liability.

I would still take my life over my mom's. Things were not good for women back then.
- Things can always backslide
- Did she starve to death? Because that’s our current timeline
  
  It’s getting comparable… women are being charged with murder for totally natural miscarriages. Imagine ending up in prison for decades for something you had absolutely no control over.
  And women are also dying from preventable issues with pregnancy, because it is illegal for doctors to remove fetuses even when they are a direct threat to the mother’s life (ectopic) or even totally dead in the first place.
  America is becoming exceedingly hostile to anyone not white, cis, and male.

peace out
Spend their retirement calling the cafeteria staff at Luby’s racial slurs and saying trans kids and drag queens are evil.
- And voting for people that will make everyone's life hell and ensure that no one else will ever get to experience the quality of life that they did.
  
  Not to sound ageist, but I firmly believe voting privileges should be revoked when you retire.
  
  They didn't just pull up the ladder behind them, they have a ladder propulsion system that will launch it into space

We're a 1950's 91% top-tier tax rate away from the same.
- It's amazing how often this gets mentioned. In truth almost nobody paid that tax rate because it applied only to salaries. Rich people have always gotten most of their income from capital gains (which were taxed at a low rate in the 1950s, just like today).
  
  It applies to income, not salaries, and it applies to corporate income as well as personal income. Nobody needs to pay it for it to achieve its purpose. Indeed, nobody should be paying it, ever.
  You have a choice. I'll give you $900 for you to do anything you want with. Alternatively, I'll give you $10,000, but you can only spend it on something that you can convince me is something you need for your business.
  You can buy $900 of GOOG, or you can spend $10,000 on a bunch of electronics. You can buy $900 of AAPL, or spend $10,000 "entertaining clients" at a strip club.
  You can buy $900 worth of stocks, or purchase goods and services produced by workers.
  Nobody is taking the $900 here. Everyone is taking the $10,000. Nobody is paying 91% on $10,000 over the line. You can get much more value from your large "business" spending than you can get from your small investment.
  Now, if the numbers are $6300 on anything, or $10,000 on business, a lot of people are going to take the $6300. This is a top-tier of 37%.
  $7500 on anything, or $10,000 on business, most people are going to take the $7500. This is a top-tier of 25%.
  The 91% tax rate isn't for the government to spend more money. The 91% tax rate is to ensure the richest among us get greater value from hiring workers than they do from buying securities.
- EXACTLY! I found something so defeated and defeatist about this thread UNTIL I read your comment.
  This was once a reality!
  Why do we not have it now?
  Obviously an extremely nuanced question but clearly part of that is that even the obscenely wealthy were forced to realize that obscene wealth destroys more than it builds.

Also flying to Vietnam for a government paid vacation when they were 18 years old.
- Shhhh, the primary social media population wants to believe life was a breeze until they came along.
  
  Life has always been a struggle, but it truly feels hopeless being 20 something given the current state of the world. There's some days where I spend 80% of the day consumed by suicidal thoughts.
  
  There was no oil crisis, no cold war, no economic crash in the 80s, no housing shortage in the 80s, no rampant crime!
  The 70/80s where glorious!
  /Sssss
  
  It was kind of a breeze in comparison to now, no? My dad bought his first house for $37,000 when the average salary was $15,000. I just bought a house and couldn't find one within an hour for under $420,000... The average salary around here is apparently $55,000
  
  It's also forgetting the Korean war, and several smaller wars in between (Panama, Honduras).
  Vietnam was bad, but don't forget so easily that we only just got out of the longest running war the US was ever been in, and it wasn't Boomers or Gen X fighting in it. It spanned two generations. Now, because there US just can't not be involved in a conflict, we're casting about trying to find a good enemy; I think the next one will be with a developed country. We've realized that we don't do so well with insurgencies, so maybe Russia or China. Or, maybe India and Pakistan will finish everything for us! They both have nukes, and China isn't just going to sit there while they trade nukes across the border.
  Anyway, it's a little depressing that y'all have already written off the 800,000 veterans who fought in Afghanistan as being unworthy of notice.
- A lot of boomers missed Vietnam as even in 1975 some boomers were only 11 years old
  
  Those from the actual baby boom right after WW2 weren't
  
  Those would be gen X.

https://www.census.gov/data/tables/time-series/demo/voting-and-registration/p20-370.html

https://ropercenter.cornell.edu/how-groups-voted-1980

Boomers weren't the ones who elected Reagan, they were at most 35 at the time.

That's the president that started to fuck things up and it was just the same as usual, older people being more conservative, younger people not showing up to vote.

I will not stand for this Nixon erasure

Both your links gave me 404 errors

They were almost all able to vote in 1980 at 16- 34, and made up a large portion of the population then in 84 they were all able to vote and saw what actions he took the previous election and voted for him more…

Copypaste for you:

How Groups Voted in 1980

	1980	Group	Carter	Reagan	Anderson
TOTAL	All Voters	Pct.	41%	51%	8%
SEX	Men	51	38	55	7
	Women	49	46	47	7
RACE	White	88	36	56	8
	African-American	10	83	14	3
	Hispanic	2	56	37	7
AGE	18-21	6	45	44	11
	22-29	17	44	44	11
	30-44	31	38	55	7
	45-59	23	39	55	6
	60 & over	18	41	55	4
INCOME	<$10,000	13	52	42	6
	$10 -14,999	14	48	43	8
	$15-24,999	30	39	54	7
	$25-50,000	24	33	59	8
	>$50,000	5	26	66	8
UNION HOUSEHOLD	Yes	26	48	45	7
	No	62	36	56	8
REGION	East	32	44	48	8
	Midwest	20	42	52	6
	South	27	45	52	3
	West	11	36	54	10
PARTY	Democrat	43	67	27	6
	Republican	28	11	85	4
	Independent	23	31	56	13
POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY	Liberal	17	60	28	1
	Moderate	46	43	49	8
	Conservative	28	23	73	4

Notes: Survey by CBS News and the New York Times. Sample of 15,201 voters as they left voting booths on Election Day, November 4, 1980. “Don’t know” and “other” responses not included.

Don't know why the links don't work 🤷
If you look at the actual numbers you realize that it's the people that were older that voted in majority for Reagan and the % of registered electors and voters was higher for older populations.
Voting and Registration in the Election of November 1980
Within Data April 1982
Report Number: P20-370
Table 1. Reported Voting and Registration, by Single Years of Age and Sex [<1.0 MB]
!Table 2. Reported Voting and Registration, by Race, Spanish Origin, Sex, and Age, for the United States and Regions [<1.0 MB]
Table 3. Reported Voting and Registration, by Race, Spanish Origin, and Metropolitan-Nonmetropolitan Residence, for the United States and Regions [<1.0 MB]
Table 4. Reported Voting and Registration, by Race, Spanish Origin, and Age, for Divisions [<1.0 MB]
Table 5. Reported Voting and Registration, by Race and Spanish Origin, for States [<1.0 MB]
Table 6. Reported Voting and Registration, by Race and Spanish Origin, for 30 Selected Standard Metropolitan Statistical Areas [<1.0 MB]
Table 7. Reported Voting and Registration of Primary Family Householders, by Race, Spanish Origin, Age, Tenure, and Presence of Own Children Under 18 Years [<1.0 MB]
Table 8. Reported Voting and Registration, by Race, Spanish Origin, Age, Sex, and Marital Status [<1.0 MB]
Table 9. Reported Voting of Husbands and Wives in Primary Married-Couple Families, by Selected Characteristics [<1.0 MB]
Table 10. Reported Voting and Registration, by Race, Spanish Origin, Age, Sex, and Years of School Completed [<1.0 MB]
Table 11. Reported Voting and Registration, by Race, Spanish Origin, Sex, Age, Employment Status, and Class of Worker [<1.0 MB]
Table 12. Reported Voting and Registration, by Race, Spanish Origin, Sex, and Major Occupation Group [<1.0 MB]
Table 13. Reported Voting and Registration of Primary Family Members, by Race, Spanish Origin, Age, and Family Income [<1.0 MB]
Table 14. Reported Voting and Registration of Primary Family Members, by Race, Spanish Origin, Age, Duration of Residence, and Tenure [<1.0 MB]
Table 15. Reported Voting in 1980 and 1976 of Persons 22 Years Old and Over, by Race, Spanish Origin, Sex, and Age [<1.0 MB]
Table 16. Reported Voting in 1980 and 1976 of Persons 22 Years Old and Over, by Race, Spanish Origin, Sex, and Years of School Completed [<1.0 MB]
Table 17. Reported Reason for Not Voting, for Persons Who Reported Registering But Not Voting, by Race, Spanish Origin, Sex, and Age [<1.0 MB]
Table 18. Reported Reason for Not Voting, for Persons Who Reported Registering But Not Voting, by Race, Spanish Origin, Sex, Employment Status, Class of Worker, and Major Occupation Group [<1.0 MB]
Table 19. Reported Reason for Not Registering to Vote, by Race, Spanish Origin, Sex, and Age [<1.0 MB]
Table 20. Reported Reason for Not Registering to Vote, by Race, Spanish Origin, Sex, Employment Status, Class of Worker, and Major Occupation Group [<1.0 MB]
Table 21. Reported Voting for a Presidential Candidate and Method of Voting, by Race, Spanish Origin, Sex, and Age [<1.0 MB]
Table 22. Reporting on Voting and Registration, by Race, Spanish Origin, Sex, and Type of Respondent [<1.0 MB]

Yeah, my mother was able to earn a bachelor's degree (iirc? either that or an associates), paying for it by working as a cashier at McDonalds.
The fucking eighties, man.
My anger as I approach my thirties, unable to afford college even when I was working full time (before I lost my job), can not be overstated.
- You can still do that if you live in a first world country... Yes, I'm implying what I'm implying.
  
  Lemmy, every 5 seconds:
  guys are you aware the united states sucks
  guys
  \ guys
  I don't think you're aware
  the US sucks
  guys
  listen
  hey
  the US sucks
  did you know that?
  guyssssss
  like, yes, I get it, we suck, but also it's exhausting being unable to emigrate anywhere and being constantly reminded of how much suck I get to endure for the rest of forever.

Spend all of their own parents inheritance, leave nothing for their own kids, talk about how they had to work their way up from nothing.

I wouldn't call it peacing out, there's quite a lot of not-peace for that

The future looks less bleak if the goal is not to live the life of that generation. There is AI, there are mobile phones, there is solar power and many more things.
When things are expensive, it means that few resources are used. This is good for the environment.
The big difference is that communication is free. We can talk to almost anybody in the world. This is still a huge untapped potential. That generation had a good life, but ours can be better.
- Communication is not free. Check your privilege.
  
  Compared to the past it is.
  India has shown that access can be provided to almost anybody. Not every country has the same access which I ignored because the topic is the future.
- Fuck LLMs and mainstream phones OSes

Some people are taller, smarter or better looking than me. It's not fair!!!
- Is it wrong to highlight that society in the west has gotten worse.
  Sure you can’t blame boomers for just being born at the right time, but you can certainly blame them from pulling up the ladder and voting against anything that will affect them.
  Take near me in the UK, plenty of home owners protesting against adding more houses along the green belt as it might devalue their properties. Utterly selfish behaviour, yet there are some home owners in these areas that support more houses because they care about more people than just themselves.
  If you think giving more people a better chance at life is a threat to your existence then you’re a shitty person.
  
  No, it's definitely not wrong to highlight societal problems, but boomers didn't pull up any ladder, son. Billionaires and business in general did that. Normal people just went to work, came home, lived our lives. What percent of ANY generation do you think has the influence to personally affect society? I've been voting progressive ever since I was old enough to vote. I was never invited to any of the meetings where boomers sat down and decided to fuck over future generations, and no I don't think giving more people a better chance at life is a threat to my existence. I also think it's weak to put stupid words in people's mouths to justify stereotyping them. Have a nice day.
- Some people are taller, smarter or better looking than me.
  Yep. Quite a bit of people are all of these.
- Yes. He's really saying that about the generation who was factually proven to have been mentally affected by leaded gasoline.
  That's it. You're so smart. Go take your statins and nap.
- Ok, boomer

How Groups Voted in 1980

Voting and Registration in the Election of November 1980