I was talking to a boomer here in Canada. When I asked him why he stayed in the same company for 30 years he said, hey they kept giving me promotions and increasing my salary from the first year. As well as having a work pension plan. Just with a bachelor's and no beginning experience.
MFs be asking masters and years of experience from new grades.
Two people had unprotected sex forcing my existence. I owe nobody anything let alone spending the majority of my unconsenting existence as a wage slave.
Wow, that kind of self-agency is sooo entitled! Just be a good little wage slave until the boomers die off. They've had a comfy life. Can't let them lose any of that comfort now! /s
Re-title this article as "Lazy, Tired Workers Are Mad At Youthful Workers Like Lazy, Tired Workers 60 Years Ago Were Mad At Them 60 Years Ago".
Another "Don't mind the billionaires getting richer and fight each other for the scraps instead" article.
Let's talk about suburbs. These generations left the city because they couldn't afford it. Now suddenly living 5 mins from work is expected but then the an entry level job can't afford it and it's a generational difference? Can you afford to buy a house within 45 mins to your work? Hell ya where I live but you don't have immediate access to all city amenities.
Demand for human labor is declining, and as a result, wages are declining.
Which is precisely why wages shouldn't be decided through market mechanisms
Or maybe we get rid of the "wages = living" bit.
We could all negotiate for the full value of our labor a lot better if we didn't have a noose around our neck forcing us to work.
I have nothing in principle against people earning a living through dignified, honest, collective labor, with the basics being guaranteed such as housing, healthcare, education, nutrition, energy and a few others.
But that's socialism!
Yes, I'm what you would call a communist. Or a tankie, depending on your mood!
Filthy communist wanting healthcare, security, and better society. Think about the billionaires' children, how will they become neop babies?
Let's get over the idea that it's a generation war and not a class war. Thinking all boomers are rich and own houses is like thinking all gen z are lazy. Neither is true by a long shot, but this is what the oligarchs and corporations want us to think about each other so we get distracted and don't notice that they are the ones buying up all the housing so we can't and they can rent to us at whatever price they want. Let's stick together against them instead.
edit to add: And BTW don't forget the next gens are growing up in an even worse situation and will face the effects of living under an autocracy and the effects of unaddressed climate change, while you get old and boomers are gone. Who do you think they're going to blame? You, that's who, while those in power laugh at all of us.
Damn. Well said.
Let's also stop using terms like Gen Z or Boomers altogether. They are often used by the media to make articles seem more interesting to certain target groups. But from a scientific point of view, they are about as meaningful as zodiac signs.
"Here's why Cancers can't keep their money together and why Scorpios nevertheless are constantly jealous of their standard of living."
They were originally created by the advertisement agencies to know how to tweak their products and advertising. It was never supposed to be an all knowing way of separating people. It was just supposed to help sell products.
Adding to this that, between Boomer and Gen Z, there is a generation that equally hate both of them 😂
Something else: even boomers who own houses can still be poor and struggle to make ends meet.
"Oh, why don't you just sell your house then!" 'cause then they and their family have no place to live. "But you could rent!" Yeah, that will work for a while and then they'll be poor again.
Preaching to the choir but I'm singing Amen right back at you.
its not the 40 hour work week thats the issue.
Its how much productivity is demanded in that 40 hours. and the compensation for it.
and theres a LOT more productivity demanded from workers today, than there was in 1950.
Because all the technologies that were supposed to make life easier... didnt. They just increased the amount of things we can/have to do in a day.
People working today are doing more labor, producing more effort per hour than 70 years ago, but are being paid less in purchasing power for it... and if thats not a recipe for violent upheaval i dont know what is.
Back before the clock was invented, agricultural workers had about 160 days of the year to themselves. (Admittedly, to do intensive chores.) Also, employers gave free breakfast and lunch, with a bit of beer. Workers might also do as low as 4 hours of work IIRC, depending on the day and season. Below is a video on the subject. Civilis also covers topics, such as the fall of the Roman republic...which feels awfully relevant, nowadays.
I love Historia Civilis. I wish he'd also discuss the Roman leaders that came after Gaius Julius Augustus. A lot of historians and books stop there after the fall of the Republic, but from what I understand a lot happened within the Roman empire since then. It would be nice to learn more about it all.
One of my absolute favorite subjects! Check out "The History of Rome" podcast by Mike Duncan (dont let the audio quality of the first few episodes dissuade you, it gets suddenly better very quickly). Mr Duncan goes deep on details and provides sources if you want to dig deeper. It's a great listen that covers the mythical period all the way to the fall of the eastern empire.
The amount of time that corporations feel entitled to is ridiculous. I've quit my last two positions because these billion dollar companies feel that they own you for every second when you're on the clock. It feels exploitative and gives you the sense that you're just some beast of burden. We're humans, not machines to push production to the maximum. But all the higher-ups see is bottom line pushers.
My last job at a call center was staffed in such a way that they were basically on the phone continuously for their entire shift with no downtime between calls. This meant anytime something happened to increase call volume all the metrics the bean counters cared about went to shit. Their solution was to tighten the screws and demand lower handle times and better adherence from their already burnt out staff and cracking down on anyone who wasn't logged in when they were supposed to be. Meanwhile the supervisors were leaving to go run errands and shit whenever they felt like it. Turnover quickly got ridiculous.
It's fun when it is extended beyond work hours, too. Email/IMs/texts/Teams/Slack/whateverelsethefuck from people round the clock and on the weekend. Calls when on vacation. People asking if you could cancel your vacation just before going on one planned months in advance because of some contrived milestone. Stuff like that.
Oh, and I'm Gen-X - this kind of thing has been around since I started work, but it does seem like it's increasing as a "norm". People doing performative shit in public, and now others assuming this is expected - like how many commits you are doing FOR FREE on Github, or fake internet points on Stack Overflow, as an example. I honestly feel sorry for people that fall for this, thinking it's a way to break into a job, or that they must do this to maintain one.
Though I do think that Covid did a modicum of a reset on some of the grindset nonsense. Of course, I think all the really big tech companies colluded with one another to then start doing massive layoffs to make sure that everyone still knew who was calling the tune (even if it made no sense to cut staff). Lots of managers have a real xitter envy - they'd love to cut their company to the very bone and run the place like absolute tyrants like they see fElon doing. Thing is, it is obviously a stupid way to run a business - xitter is just a Nazi bar with questionable business fundamentals at this point. But it doesn't stop useless copycat monkeys in the C-suite from thinking he's great.
What, are not grateful that they trickle down a tiny bit of money from what is left after the shareholders and CEO take their hard earned cut? Just because you did all the work and earned all of the money? How gready can you be? I mean they graciously let you be sick 6 days a year, and let you frolic for another 10. Don't you realize how much effort they had to put in worrying that the small smidgen of their enormous wealth that they had inherited and invested in your company was not earning them greater wealth at a rate that was grossly unhealthy for the company or the economy?
I've gotta say i admire Zoomers a lot. Im a 1990 millenial and most of my generation simply put their heads down and pushed through and tried to emulate their boomers parents while not living their boomer parents reality, destroying themselves in the process. It seems that almost collectively your generation has said FUCK THIS SHIT and made moves to end it.
Its really impressive.
I don't know about that. I'm a 1990 millennial and the vast majority of ppl my age collectively said fuck giving the extra effort for no return. I remember reading in my 20s that millennials pretty much gave up on retirement and started traveling.
Literally the poorest condition house would cost 100% of 8 years of take-home pay of my engineer salary where I live. That's before accounting for loan interest on 20% down payment (I have 5%) which would push it up to 18 full years of my labor.
A single-family house is simply not worth 15+ years of my life, and I'm actively looking into cheaper options.
Ever wonder how "work ethic" became a trait that defines the quality of an individual? You can probably guess. Religion. Which of course needed people to work hard so they could donate more money to them.
My dad worked two full time jobs for a while to help the family get ahead while we were little. I think spending time with his young children would have been time better spent for everyone. He did stop when we got to school age. And he did spend a lot of time with us. Was a scout master, tball coach, all that. So I know he probably would have rather been with us than working that extra job. But from a young age it was drilled into him that work came first.
Now with younger people less into religion. We see more and more who realize that working hard for someone else doesn't need to be a defining characterist of a person's quality.
I think they see the boomers doing nothing, but having everything, and the dream of having a house, two cars, and 2.5 kids was not something they were ever told they could have. They grew up with depressed millennials close enough in age to still be friends, who tell them “I’m fucked, so you don’t have a chance in hell!” And they’re right. With prices going up and wages stagnant or going down, they don’t ever get to save anything. And why should they? At the rate houses are climbing, that down payment keeps running away from them. And still, the only thing they will ever be able to pay for is a dump in a shitty part of town.
Until we bring back hope for the future, we will keep seeing people give fewer fucks.
‘Most WHITE boomers don’t know what it’s like to work 40+ hours a week and still not be able to afford a house’ FTFY
People have been working 40+ hours a week for CENTURIES with no hope of affording a house. The housing that non-whites have been able to secure is always tenuous, subject to the racist whims of the ruling class. They could be rezoned, subject to a new law that strips them of their property, or even what happens in Palestine the racist ruling class just bulldozes your house with no compensation.
This is definitely not about Gen Z vs Boomers, but the ruling class wants you to think it is so we don't unite and make heads roll.
Watch out the propaganda of government and ruling class trying to divide the public and turn people against each others. Boomers are idiots but owning a house is peanuts compared to billionares expenses or the money being spent on military weapons.
Me and my fiancee both work full time to just barely survive each month with no savings because the CoL is so fucking high it's unmaintainable. And if you reply with "just move", first: I'm in the midwest, it's not AS bad out here, and second: Moving is a privilege, it's expensive, time consuming, and often times you end up in a worse spot than you were before
Hey Gen Z, first time being gaslit by boomers? Heh, yyeeeaaaahhhhhhh.......they do that. Now imagine having them as your parent, and you're 5, and you have to just live with their bullshit.
~Sincerely, Gen X and the older millenials.
I'm Gen Z and my fathers are boomers... Making fun of our situation as a "First time? We had it much worse than you!" just feels horrible, I'm sick of this kind of conversation were we are being more divided because of "differences between generations" when the problem is a bunch of assholes who had a great time in a great economy making present look like hell and then blaming us for that, it's not about "generations", it's about abuse.
My parents holding fast with "well, it's always been like that" made me realize how big this generational divide is.
There are good boomers who get it, yes. There are also some really dumb ones who have literally no clue what kind of world they helped create. Full stop.
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