A week before the election, my dad was visiting and talked to me about his gut feeling that former President Donald Trump might win. He was clear about his choice to vote for Vice President Kamala Harris. “But what are they doing?” he asked me, exasperated.
“They need to level with people about the economy,” he continued. “I know so many people who can’t afford a place to live any more. People do not want to hear, ‘Well, actually the economy is good.’”
Then suddenly he pivoted away from Harris to liberals more generally, and away from the economy into culture.
“You know, another thing: I’m tired of feeling like I’m going to get jumped on for saying something wrong, for using the wrong words,” my dad confided, becoming uncharacteristically emotional. “I don’t want to say things that will offend anyone. I want to be respectful. But I think Trump is reaching a lot of people like me who didn’t learn a special way to talk at college and feel constantly talked down to by people who have.”
At 71 years old, my dad is still working full time, helping to run a delicatessen at a local farmers’ market. He didn’t go to college. Raised Mennonite and socially conservative, he is nonetheless open-minded and curious. When his cousins came out as gay in the 1980s, he accepted them for who they are.
Typical Boomer sentiment. "I never had to adapt or learn, despite having every opportunity, and now anytime someone doesn't cater to me, I'm offended."
Meanwhile Millennials have been riding an unceasing wave of technology advancement since elementary school, while learning all the fundamentals of Boomer educations, AND modern living AND adapting to changes in the information landscape and workplace. AND getting a significantly lower ROI for their efforts. Boomers broke the social contract. Their egg on the face bellyaching is just more evidence that the world has moved past them.
We need age caps on voting. These elderly chucklefucks are dragging us 100 years backwards.
Boomers shouldn't have to work at all. Our social safety net should be taking care of all of their needs, and it would be if our country were located somewhere in Europe. Instead, the US decided it would rather have 600-700 billionaires than take care of its people.
The bigger problem here, though, is that it's not just the Boomers. The vast majority of Americans are working their asses off only to barely survive in this country.
Our generation can’t retire. Why should boomers? Old people, who depredated this planet, should not have access to social security or any other safety nets, which they fought so hard to destroy.
Because the old people holding on to the top level jobs prevents other generations from getting a chance to control companies, and limits incomes. It's not about rewarding them further, it's about getting them out of jobs other people should now be working.