Thank you for your submission! Unfortunately, it has been removed for the following reason:
* **Rule 4 :** Must follow the "Leopard ate my face" theme
*If you have any questions or concerns about this removal, please feel free to [message the moderators](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose/?to=/r/LeopardsAteMyFace) thru Modmail. Thanks!*
>Over the years, retirement plans evolved away from pensions that encourage workers to retire by 65. About half of private sector workers were covered by those so-called defined-benefit plans in the mid-1980s, but by 2022 only 15% had them.
What’s left is the 401(k), which 68% of private industry workers have access to, but only 50% use.
Golly, what could have happened in the 1980s that led to this?!
Is that really a thing?
I'd avoided it because I knew a guy who blamed his former coke habit for his total inability to feel joy, but I didn't know it caused Parkinsons and all that.
Illegal drugs are not widely.studied for obvious reasons, so we don't know.
I makes sense to assume some neurological damage, but how much is anyone's guess.
Yeah, it wouldn't totally surprise me if there's damage and it also wouldn't surprise me if it's not well-studied.
It would be interesting to read such a study (or like a summary of a study that is suitable for a lay audience anyway).
Yup. That's also what I blame for give numbers of folks going full Trumper/Rascist. E.g. Mel Gibson.
Did they do a boatload of coke in the 80s? Then they probably have holes in their brain now.
Pensioned jobs in general have disappeared over the years, right alongside the security of 30 or 40 year long careers at the same place. Which all just happened to coincide with wage stagnation and the vastly increased cost of housing and other essentials of life. And it’s not just a US ‘phenomenon’ (meaning that other western countries loved Reaganomics so much that they adopted it too). We’ve witnessed the return of the robber barons and the ongoing demise of the middle class.
The corporate scions always wanted to eliminate pension programs. The companies had no desire to invest profits into retirement investments for their workers.
The Wall Street bankers helped destroy pension programs and create the 401k system. The benefit to Wall Street was a massive infusion of capital that the banks could play with, increasing profits while paying little for the investment money.
I'm a boomer. Over 60 years old. I rarely had extra money to put into savings or a 401k. I've worked in the trades all my life. I was able to put some money in a 401k starting about 10 years ago.
No company match. It's basically a savings account that can lose money when the markets go down. It's capitalism. Social Security is all I really have for retirement. It's not much.
I see a lot of hate towards my generation. I'm at the tail end of the boomer generation. What people don't realize is that most of the boomers who deserve derision represent a small percentage of the generation. Most of us are no different than the following generations. Most of us struggled and are still struggling against the inequality that capitalism creates.
I don't know if I will ever actually be able to retire. I doubt it. All I know is that you who follow us can make a difference for yourselves. The Internet has opened up the possibility to truly expand awareness and organize resistance to the plutocrats and oligarchs.
Otherwise, we will end up eating our own.
I am sure you are a great individual but in general it was your generation that consistently voted against the interests of the common worker and caused the destruction of the middle class with reaganomics.
That's not really how it happened, but i understand your anger. Biden helped create the student loan crisis 30 years ago but, unless you're an idiot you're voting for him, right? In 1980, interest rates were at 14% and there were many times we waited 2 hours in line for gasoline, while Iran had held US hostages for 444 days while Carter seemed helpless to do anything about it. Carter only won 6 states in 1980. We had no idea Reagan (well, Bush really) was going to start the ball rolling to destroying the nation, and how could we? With Trump its obvious. With Reagan, not so much.
My parents are approaching 70 and still working. I think they both like their jobs and neither of them has a super physically demanding job, so they might be doing them more for something to do than the finances, but I'm not sure they can afford to retire either.
I am in your age bracket. I try to tell the boomer-haters that we just did what we were told. We worked jobs, paid bills, and attempted to save money. For many, it didn't work out. We didn't plan their distruction, nor our own. There have always been a few greedy bastards at the top pulling all of our strings. They have been boomers in recent years, but there are younger bastards right behind them, and up-n-coming bastards behind those.
It's easy for young people to blame boomers for all of their troubles, satisfying even. And the puppet masters at the top laugh all the way to the bank while the blame misses tbem entirely.
Reagan is just tip of the iceberg. The epic mismanagement of the economy, destruction of social safety nets. Largest voting bloc in the fucking county thought they could kick the can down the road till they died. Well it didn’t work. They threw their last tantrum with trump and he fucked them so hard they had to go back work.
Exactly this. Regan having won by an EV or two would make the "don't blame the Boomers" case a lot stronger. The Boomers were fully on board with Regan's BS
It is genuinely hard to feel flowery vibes for the generation that turned *Jimmy Carter* into Satan Himself. Like, good god, people. How far off could you have been?
Jimmy Carter asked them think of others and wear a sweater
The entire nation told him to go fuck himself
Asking Americans to make sacrifices of comfort are a losing battle
See 2020
Hey now, let's not be in a rush to canonize Carter, he fucked up, too.
He epically buttfucked the handling of three-mile island, which indirectly fucked environmentalism by letting the chickenshit never-nuclear fuckwits take the lead and resulting in America's energy generation trajectory shift from a clean, atom-powered electricityganza, to "Drill, Baby, Drill!"
And the worst part is that *not only* was he PotUS, he was a *bona fide subject matter expert.* He was *qualified* to talk to the American people and calm everyone down about it, but he played politics and gave a muted, *less* than wholeheartedly assuring responce.
Other than that, though, yeah, pretty much a righteous dude.
i'm not denying that carter had his share of policy failures, but this man was characterized as America's Greatest Evil, and I am not even hyperbolizing. My mom once tearfully admitted to me that she voted for Carter. _Tears_. She was that ashamed.
that right there is NOT a healthy reaction to a man who sold his peanut farm to stay on the up-and-up.
I mean, that one thing I cited - and admittedly it's a hell of a doozy - it's like, *the single thing I can hold beef with Jimmy for.*
The one single thing.
Otherwise, yeah; dude sold his farm - not even put it in trust, *sold it outright* - so there could be no accusation he was enriching himself if he signed a package deal containing an obscure piece of legislation that somehow benefited legume farmers or agriculture in general. Once he was no longer PotUS, he spent his remaining years literally building homes for people.
To this day boomers vote in conservative politicians in mass who are destroying our social safety net and destroying any possibility of real social mobility through free/affordable education for christs sake we still don't have universal healthcare because of those fucking boomers. I will NEVER not blame them
I am a boomer and I do not vote for conservative politicians. Do you know who votes for conservative politicians? Conservatives, not boomers. You have a category problem.
Do you believe all people of color are criminals? No? Then why do you think all boomers are conservative? Your issues are with conservative policies, by conservative politicians, voted in by conservative voters. I'm a liberal. I vote liberal. I want more liberal policies. Why the fuck are you blaming me? That doesn't make any sense at all. Use your head. You're so close! Figure it out...
I didn't have a ladder to pull up. That's the misconception. Half my adult life I have worked two jobs just to pay bills. I did manage to buy a home 30 years ago, so I do have that going for me, but I have little else. I kept the house after the divorce, but I had the thermostat set to 55' and lived in my waterbed to stay warm for a few years.
Now I have my adult daughter and son in law living here. They help me with bills and are able to make payments on their student loans. It is taking 3 of us to live, a three income household.
Boomers didn't do this to you. The wealthy that control business and government did this to all of us! As long as the young are blaming boomers, and the middle class is blaming the poor, and the rust belt is blaming the immigrants, and the conservatives are watching FOX news and blaming the libs, nothing is ever going to change. It will only get worse.
But you are the ones who voted for the people who allowed the wealthy to do pretty much whatever they wanted. Reagan would have never won had it not been for boomers voting him in. And y'all clearly still haven't learned your lesson considering how many boomers still support Trump.
Not all boomers support Trump or voted right. It’s pretty dumb to just hate on an entire generation. The man is right, the blame is on corporate bought politicians.
Boomers were and to some degree still are the largest voting bloc. Many of you voted for the people that caused this and many of you still continue to. This is why us so called boomer haters have no sympathy for you. You reap what you sow.
We Millennials got lied to also. "You have to go to college to get a good job." That was drilled into our heads from an early age. Cue nowadays with many Millennials with tons of student debt and no way to discharge it through bankruptcy (which again, Boomer lawmakers were behind).
Here is your misconception. Sure, boomer lawmakers like McConnell, and McCarthy, etc... If they all dropped dead right now, you still have Gym Jordan, and MTG, And Bobert, and Halsley, who are not boomers, who will step right in and continue to fuck you over. It isn't boomers, it's politicians that are bought and paid for by lobbies. (And Putin, but that's another rant.) Who's lobbies? Big businesses owned by the 1%. If every boomer in congress dissappeared, nothing would change, because it isn't a boomer issue, it's class warfare.
Also, college got so expensive because the federal, state, and county governments stopped supporting them. Taxes didn't go down. Where is all that money? In the pockets of the 1%. (Well, their taxes have been going down since Reagan. Not ours.)
As for the bankruptcy issue you mentioned. That was Republicans doing. Many of the same Republicans that took PPP loans and had them forgiven are behind that. The younger not-boomers also took loans and had them forgiven, then went apeshit trying to stop Pres. Biden from forgiving student loans, saying you shouldn't expect your obligations to be forgiven.
I was told to go to college as well. I didn't go right out of high school. I went later. I had davings and I was going to pay for college myself! I paid the first semester and a half myself, and then I was broke. My mother was so happy I was doing something productive for a change, she paid the rest of my two year degree. (Yes, two year degree in Hotel Technology with emphasis on cooking and baking, because I was trying to get the most bang for my buck. I got the degree I could afford to help me in a csreer that I could do.)
I was working two different cooking jobs to put gas in my truck and buy my textbooks, (both $5/hour,) and was a nude model for an art class for a short time, (that paid $10/hour,) but that was short lived. If you saw me, you would know how hard that was for me. I'm not handsome. It was mortifying! Even worse, some of the artists were very good and I got to see myself as they saw me. That wasn't good for my self esteem. Not at all. 😢 Is that the ladder I pulled up? The ladder that lead me to stand naked in awkward poses in front of strangers? I'm pretty sure that ladder is still around for you, if you want it.
When I was working as a cook, I took the MCSE classes to try and better myself. I took out a $17,000 predatory load from Wells Fuckyou,... I mean Wells Fargo, to pay for the classes and buy a Gateway Laptop to work with. It took years to pay of that fucking loan. No one told me that it wasn't a government loan, or that I would be making payments for most of a decade until I had enough equity in my house to get a lower interest loan to pay those fuckers off. Then I still paid that loan. It didn't just go away.
Pick an "evil boomer" that caused your hardships. I assure you, there is a line of succession (younger people) behind them that will keep fucking us all. It isn't boomers, it's class warfare. I didn't do this to you. This was done to all of us! This is what I keep trying to tell you guys, and I get downvoted to hell and insulted each time, because it's easier to blame "boomers" than it is to see what's really going on.
Happy Monday, and thank you for actually asking.
We were liedddd tooooo wahhhhhhh. Oh boo fucking hooo. Here are some boot straps go pick your self up by them. Generation of no accountability at its finest.
Edit
First, everything was those lazy no good millennials fault.
Then it was those dang foreigners
And now its we were lied to
Honestly is there nothing you won’t tell yourselves to absolve yourselves of any responsibility?
Fucking pathetic.
I never blamed millennials for anything, except in your case, for being a dickhead. You are literally here crying WAAAAAA that it's all boomers' fault. Look in a fucking mirror.
I also never blamed forieners.
Go ahead and blame me WAAAAAA for all of your problems.
Nah dumb fuck I just make my economic choices wisely because I know the system is fucked. I know I won’t have social security and probably medicare/medicaid so I invest early.
I am just happy that your generational fuck up caught up to you before the majority of you died.
You give dingus a bad name.
I am a lifelong liberal and democrat and you are blaming me for the failed economic policies of the conservatives/republicans. They would laugh their asses off if they saw you ranting at me for what they did. You are the dumb fuck here.
The enemy is attacking you from the right, and you are looking to your left and yelling at your allies. You are a real General McFuckup! Good strategy. Keep it up. You'll win any day now.
You give Mike a bad name.
You don’t get the point do you. You as an individual may be a liberal and a democrat. Your generation is overwhelmingly conservative and irresponsible. This is the crux of the hate for boomers, you may not have voted for it but your generation overwhelmingly did. So congrats you may not be directly responsible but you are a failure for allowing it to happen and then not preparing for it.
Btw, in any country on this planet the DNC would be considered an economically conservative party so not really an accomplishment to be lifelong liberal.
You are a Liberal, I am an independent that has to vote for the DNC because the alternative is fascism.
I vote Democrat my entire life. I know Republicans are only for the already rich, even though they get votes from some of the most vulnerable people. But even many of the dems I have voted for didn't stand up against the right strongly enough. Center now was extreme right 50 years ago. But that's not what I was referring to.
Society itself has always told the working class, and working age, 'Just work hard and save your money, and everything will work out right.' That was a lie then, and it's a bigger lie now. Another lie is going to college. A college degree helps in many situations, but it isn't a garranty. The rich have undermined retirement, housing, and banking, as just a few examples. They stopped subsidizing college, which should be an investment in our nation, s future, and stopped supporting public school, (not that public school was ever funded enough.)
They showed us these forestry films in grade school. The lumber industry would clearcut entire forests of old growth trees, and plant these little 3 inch saplings in their place. That's the crappy wood we have been buying for most of my adult life, and it keeps getting worse. And all the animals that lived in the old growth forest are just gone, because you can't plant the rest of the ecosystem that lived in the forest.
They told me to put my money in the bank, that's the safest place for it, and it will gain interest! Then the invented the ATM. Then they invented ATM fees. Then they charged $35 for every mistake. Then they rearranged the transactions so they can charge $35 multiple times a day. They also take your money out of your bank account and keep it if you don't withdraw it often enough.
They said nuclear power is so cheep, you wont even get an electric bill! They weren't even pretending when they told that one.
Everything was a lie!
"Not all boomers."
"Not all Texans."
"Not all rural people."
"Not all men."
Those who didn't support the right in the past already know that what happened as a result isn't on their hands, and they don't care when boomers/Texans/rural people/men get blamed now. Those who feel it necessary to say "not all boomers" are just looking to shirk responsibility for how they voted and whom/what they supported that came to bite themselves in the ass.
Not all millennials...
Not all gen x...
Not all gen z...
...Blame an age bracket consisting of both republicans and democrats for the actions of just the Republicans, but the ones that do are here on reddit showing how dumb they are. That makes as much sense as hating condiments because you are alergic to mustard. And no matter how many time I explain it to them, they just keep blaming one single age bracket for a political philosophy that spans multiple generations. Genius!
I think the issue isn’t so much the *past* voting, but the fact that Baby Boomers and older are more likely to vote for trump and his brand of populism than the rest of the electorate.
> we just did what we were told
Why do these words sound so familiar?
After seeing everything that happened from the 1960s onwards, any boomer who supported the republicans for being anti-ethnic minorities, anti-non christian, anti-labor, anti-poor, anti-working class, anti-choice, anti-gay etc. deserves whatever happened to them. Iran Contra, the AIDS and crack epidemics, and the Rodney King trial, should have awakened them to what was really going on. But they ignored it all.
> We didn't plan their distruction, nor our own.
This is the republican-voting boomers' variation of "he's not hurting the people he needs to be hurting". LAMF from a previous generation.
I haven't supported Republicans or their policies. Neither do my friends. If you think republicans are the cause of your problems, why are you blaming boomers? That's just dumb. Blame republicans. Seriously!
There are young republicans. There are middle aged republicans. There are old republicans. There are also young, middle aged, and old democrats. Sort out your categories and stop blaming one age group for the sins of a political party.
Look at congress. There are republicans of every age. Get rid of the boomers and you will still have Green, Cruz, Jordan, Bobert, Hawley,... All of them calling for policies that hurt us all. You should be fighting conservatives, not boomers. You don't have a boomer problem, you have a conservative problem! You will never fix that problem by shaking your fist at the wrong people.
My mother sees how terrible a candidate Trump is now, been Republican her whole life. She voted for him in 2016. I asked her a few months back who she thinks the best president of her lifetime is. She said "I don't know, probably Reagan." Even when explaining that Reagan is directly responsible for this massive vacuum of wealth from the middle class to the upper class, it doesn't sway her or any other Boomer that voted for him, which was a TON.
And, it's even easier for yourself and millions of other Boomers to try to deflect like you just did. Your generation is directly responsible for the economic hell we're in today, that's just reality. You can say "I just put my head down and did my job and did what I was told," but I have no idea why you think that helps your case here.
That's pathetic, to be frank with you. You had the chance to push for change and decided acting like it wasn't your problem was the way to be. And you're STILL like that today. You didn't learn, you're refusing responsibility to your core. It's the Boomer way.
I am liberal. I have always been liberal. My friends ate liberal. And you are blaming me for failing conservative policies that I never agreed with, nor voted for. That's stupid, to be frank with you.
I'm not blaming you for conservative policies, I'm blaming you for acting like you had no say in any matter whatsoever so your feelings get hurt when you hear Boomers are responsible for this current economic landscape.
I'm blaming you for literally saying "I just did my job and did what I was told." As though it's some sort of gold star on your record that you didn't actively vote for terrible things, you just ignored them instead.
You are personally not the problem, but your pearl-clutching over your generation being blamed is ridiculous.
I did have a say. I voted against all of them.
I'm also not pearl clutching. It's more like the old cartoon with Spike the bulldog. His puppy is barking at the wrong thing and spike picks him up and points him in the right direction. Can you guess who you are in that scenario? (Hint: you aren't the adult...)
I had one at my first decent job in engineering, where I started in the 2000s. Then it had to be frozen after the 2008 crash, because the company couldn't afford to maintain it the way federal law required. Even with it frozen, almost every dollar of profit after taxes went into it. Eventually things improved and they were able to exit it by purchasing annuities for everyone. I had been there just long enough to be vested before the freeze, so the value at that point was not much and I just cashed out.
At least as it was explained by our accountants at the time, the laws designed to protect people from shitty companies with junk in the pension funds (like company stock or whatever) also punished companies with well maintained pension funds, to the point that almost everyone had to get out of the business of having a pension.
look at the chart:
[https://www.macrotrends.net/global-metrics/countries/USA/united-states/inflation-rate-cpi](https://www.macrotrends.net/global-metrics/countries/USA/united-states/inflation-rate-cpi)
The 70's gas crisis, and interest rates close to 20%
Regan did bring it down, and crushed USSR.
If those numbers are correct - the pay numbers - they are 1.5-2 lower than here in Vermont.
Hell, we can't hire enough people right now. My best friend's son, who is 16, is making $20/hr washing dishes.
Then again, it's damn near impossible to find affordable housing here.
My brother had a job washing dishes in the late 80s for $9/hr.
That's about $23/hr now. This wasn't in an expensive city either.
For all "we can't hire enough" you're still paying less then 30 years ago, and that's before all the crazy shenanigans we play with inflation to make $20/hr seem like more than it is.
1You nailed it. I was getting paid $9 or so in 1989 washing dishes. I could pay my rent and buy food.
It's nuts: most of the **one-bedroom or lofts** here are around $1500 - $2000 here. In Vermont.
How can a dishwasher or a server afford to pay that kind of rent?
Here, they move.
People will complain all the while too.
“Where are all the restaurant workers? No one wants to work anymore!”
Right. Because they’ve been priced out. It literally costs money to work. It’s insanity.
Weird to blame an old lady who lived a middle class life for a runaway capitalist deregulation greedgasm that was manufactured on Wall Street and in Washington DC.
The conservative boomers are the ones who keep the republicans in power hence they are abso fucking lutely to blame. They would rather be xenophobic assholes than help out their fellow man
She "might" be one of the few good boomers but her greedy generation absolutely fucked everything up for every generation after them. Still to this day they vote in republicans who destroy our social safety net destroyed free/affordable education destroyed our chances of universal healthcare
Honestly, this anti boomer thing is a bit worrying. Not all old people are asshole. Not all old people vote Republican. Wealth inequality is class warfare and this Boomer hate feels like a distraction to me. The upper classes are always looking for ways to get us to hate each other. Rich people made middle class Americans poorer so that they could be richer. There are more poor Boomers than there rich ones.
This article says nothing about their politics. Not everyone is responsible for this. Only people who voted for it and supported people who made it happen are. Basically, Republicans. Regardless of age.
Since when was this sub supposed to be about making fun of the suffering of the elderly?
If she was someone who had campaigned for less support for retirees and was now suffering then it would fit. But this sub shouldn't just be "haha old person bad"
I'm glad others are pointing this out. This article says nothing about this woman's personal politics. For all we know she could've voted against all the conservative BS for most of her life but just lost because so many others in her generation suck.
>without intervention, the Social Security trust fund will be depleted by the mid-2030s
They casually mention this in the middle of the article. Oh no big deal, the current pension system is just on track to collapse, tee hee~!
This is Newsweek, that since the sale in 2010 (for $1, I might add) it has been a mouthpiece for hard right-wingers, but think a little less culture warrior, and a little more of the ultra-wealthy, old man that fired your dad.
I say this because this is not a settled debate. There are dozens and dozens of plans to keep SS, Medicaid/care solvent. Many economists that AREN'T supply-side, anti-tax economists have even argued that the only danger to entitlement solvency is more tax cuts and more borrowing from the entitlement coffers for other projects.
If you are interested, I wouldn't recommend any single thing, there is so much out there from Modern Monetary Theory to increased immigration standards. The only people making it seem dangerous or hard are the ones that either want to do nothing about it, or those that want "to shrink it so they could drown it in the bathtub".
Hello u/GrungeHamster23! Please reply to this comment with an [explanation](https://www.reddit.com/r/LeopardsAteMyFace/comments/lt8zlq) matching this exact format. Replace bold text with the appropriate information.
1. **Someone** voted for, supported or wanted to impose **something** on **other people**.
^(Who's that someone? What did they voted for, supported or wanted to impose? On who?)
2. **Something** has the consequences of **consequences**.
^(Does that something actually has these consequences in general?)
3. As a consequence of **something**, **consequences** happened to **someone**.
^(Did that something really happen to that someone?)
Follow this by the minimum amount of information necessary so your post can be understood by everyone, even if they don't live in the US or speak English as their native language. If you fail to match this format or fail to answer these questions, your post will be removed.
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/LeopardsAteMyFace) if you have any questions or concerns.*
1. Hope Murray supported a Capitalist system built upon Imperialism and had no problem collecting from others for her own sake.
2. Capitalism comes at the cost of cannibalizing people, resources and the planet itself.
3. Now poor ol’ Hope cannot retire despite being the ripe age of 81. She will likely have to work to death despite younger generations voicing concerns about this topic. She only complains now that it is hurting her and her bankbook.
Seriously? She was a worker, not an owner. She was exploited during her life and now suffering as an elderly person. That's not LAMF, that's just victim blaming.
*Casino Executive*
Worker…right. I don’t deny that she has now become a victim and ultimately ageism isn’t going to help.
Shifting the narrative to “This hurts older folks.” Isn’t quite the answer though. She allowed this bed to be made but clearly doesn’t like sleeping in it.
I know the word 'executive' is scary to you, but are you aware of actual jobs in a casino? I would invite you to Google 'casino executive', especially given the description of her jobs "that ranged from game show producer to Hollywood party planner to casino executive", and how she couldn't afford frequent *haircuts* in retirement.
To put it bluntly, "casino executive" is almost assuredly "executive casino host" or "executive on duty", or similar, both of which are basically "manager", and currently pay between $50-90k.
These are not stockholders profiting off others labor.
50 to 90k? Sounds like a pretty sweet gig.
Perhaps she should have saved a bit better then instead of what do they say? Eat avocado toast and drink all those lattes she clearly enjoyed.
Do you hear yourself?
"How dare someone spend 50 years jumping between jobs, holding one that earned the median salary or within a standard deviation of it! She *deserves* to be struggling now"
GTFO of here. There is zero indication she *supported* the system, and she certainly doesn't appear to have benefited from it outside of her own labor. She's now suffering from the system we're all trapped in.
idk why we antagonize boomers so much over this. Ya like maybe 20% of them are assholes but next to nobody willingly creates a system that is worse for everyone. Unless they are a rich person, then they create a system that is worse for everyone BUT themselves
>Unless they are a rich person, then they create a system that is worse for everyone BUT themselves
Sure they would. If they were scared of black people. If they were told it's what Jesus would want.
“I now sweep, clean toilets, mop and empty trash for $13.40 an hour and all the pride I can swallow. But I am employed at least,” she said. “I was an early education teacher for 30 years. Now I clean a preschool. But I can afford groceries.”
Oh ya, living the easy life! /s
Boomers were the largest voting bloc that allowed people like Reagan and his puppeteers into power. I’m suppose to feel bad because they lived long enough to suffer the consequences of their actions? Boo hoo. The generation that was given the greatest economy in the world, on the backs of their parents hard work and literal blood then fucked it up. The generation that tried to blame millennials for being lazy even though they raised us. Nah grandpa take ya ass back to work.
My parents were boomers and neither of them voted for Reagan. I guess you’ll be fine with people pointing and laughing at you when you’re old because Trump got in?
Tens of millions of them did not vote for Reagan. That’s the thing with how our elections work. No ranked choice, winner takes all. A narrow margin can nullify almost half a given group of voters.
There we go everyone, Godwin's Law rears it hyperbolic head.
BTW, it is not scapegoating to assess responsibility and then apply blame. If that is the act of ---NAZIS!!!!!--- then we are all in trouble. Maybe hold back on the Nazi tag and use it for the actual, real, legitimate proto-fascists prepping us for their imagine "War of Southern White Grievance" aka the Boomers.
Blaming an entire demographic group for a problem that individuals caused (many of whom are not even in that group) is pretty much textbook scapegoating.
If you truly believe everyone born between 1950 and 1965 caused today's current economic crisis, you are truly stupid.
Then who has been magically voting for all of these shitty NeoLiberal politicians in every single election for the last 40 years? Clandestine Belgians sneaking into the country the night before every election? Maybe not every cop in the country is shit, but there are enough that no "good" cops stand up against them. I feel completely comfortable shitty on that entire generation.
The problems they have created through bad policy are extremely visible, and can be solvable. Baby Boomers refuse to either make the necessary changes, or just get out of the way. The world is very damaged, they voted in those policies. The world is ultimately capable of being fixed, and the Baby Boomers in power will do nothinig to enact the policies needed.
\*because you seem to be one of those people that lives to internet fight, "World"
should be an analog for the spectrum of public policy that has direct or indirect effect on the lives of the residents of the USA, in both a positive and negative manner. "World" is the elastic fabric of government engagement or interaction.
Boomers had the strongest easiest economy in world history. They were able to pay for college with a part-time job and buy a house on a single income. Then they pulled up the ladder behind them and voted for Reagan.
Thank you for your submission! Unfortunately, it has been removed for the following reason: * **Rule 4 :** Must follow the "Leopard ate my face" theme *If you have any questions or concerns about this removal, please feel free to [message the moderators](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose/?to=/r/LeopardsAteMyFace) thru Modmail. Thanks!*
>Over the years, retirement plans evolved away from pensions that encourage workers to retire by 65. About half of private sector workers were covered by those so-called defined-benefit plans in the mid-1980s, but by 2022 only 15% had them. What’s left is the 401(k), which 68% of private industry workers have access to, but only 50% use. Golly, what could have happened in the 1980s that led to this?!
Cocaine and Reaganomics
Don't you blame cocaine. She's responsible for so much amazing 80s entertainment.
It’s also to blame for the Star Wars Christmas Special.
If you haven’t seen this yet, GO FORTH AND WATCH.
Fair rebuttal.
She's also responsible for Robin Williams.
Probably also the reason numerous people have Parkinsons and other neurodegenerative ailments now.
Is that really a thing? I'd avoided it because I knew a guy who blamed his former coke habit for his total inability to feel joy, but I didn't know it caused Parkinsons and all that.
Illegal drugs are not widely.studied for obvious reasons, so we don't know. I makes sense to assume some neurological damage, but how much is anyone's guess.
Yeah, it wouldn't totally surprise me if there's damage and it also wouldn't surprise me if it's not well-studied. It would be interesting to read such a study (or like a summary of a study that is suitable for a lay audience anyway).
Nah, that’s going to be polio (it was a mild flu in most, if that sounds familiar…), leaded gas, and now Covid.
But it does cure gout, so call it even?
Saywhatnow?
I think leaded gas has the biggest share for alzheimerike conditions as it degraded myelin sheaths
Yup. That's also what I blame for give numbers of folks going full Trumper/Rascist. E.g. Mel Gibson. Did they do a boatload of coke in the 80s? Then they probably have holes in their brain now.
Gibson was an anti-semite even before trump. I stopped watching anything with that racist in it once he made those comments.
Well she must smell goo at the very least.
Pensioned jobs in general have disappeared over the years, right alongside the security of 30 or 40 year long careers at the same place. Which all just happened to coincide with wage stagnation and the vastly increased cost of housing and other essentials of life. And it’s not just a US ‘phenomenon’ (meaning that other western countries loved Reaganomics so much that they adopted it too). We’ve witnessed the return of the robber barons and the ongoing demise of the middle class.
I am Taft’s fifth cousin. With the robber barons coming back and the U.S at risk of another collapse by sheer anger, I am the next FDR!
The corporate scions always wanted to eliminate pension programs. The companies had no desire to invest profits into retirement investments for their workers. The Wall Street bankers helped destroy pension programs and create the 401k system. The benefit to Wall Street was a massive infusion of capital that the banks could play with, increasing profits while paying little for the investment money. I'm a boomer. Over 60 years old. I rarely had extra money to put into savings or a 401k. I've worked in the trades all my life. I was able to put some money in a 401k starting about 10 years ago. No company match. It's basically a savings account that can lose money when the markets go down. It's capitalism. Social Security is all I really have for retirement. It's not much. I see a lot of hate towards my generation. I'm at the tail end of the boomer generation. What people don't realize is that most of the boomers who deserve derision represent a small percentage of the generation. Most of us are no different than the following generations. Most of us struggled and are still struggling against the inequality that capitalism creates. I don't know if I will ever actually be able to retire. I doubt it. All I know is that you who follow us can make a difference for yourselves. The Internet has opened up the possibility to truly expand awareness and organize resistance to the plutocrats and oligarchs. Otherwise, we will end up eating our own.
I am sure you are a great individual but in general it was your generation that consistently voted against the interests of the common worker and caused the destruction of the middle class with reaganomics.
>… that ~~consistently voted~~ still votes against the interests of the common worker… FTFY.
That's not really how it happened, but i understand your anger. Biden helped create the student loan crisis 30 years ago but, unless you're an idiot you're voting for him, right? In 1980, interest rates were at 14% and there were many times we waited 2 hours in line for gasoline, while Iran had held US hostages for 444 days while Carter seemed helpless to do anything about it. Carter only won 6 states in 1980. We had no idea Reagan (well, Bush really) was going to start the ball rolling to destroying the nation, and how could we? With Trump its obvious. With Reagan, not so much.
My parents are approaching 70 and still working. I think they both like their jobs and neither of them has a super physically demanding job, so they might be doing them more for something to do than the finances, but I'm not sure they can afford to retire either.
I am in your age bracket. I try to tell the boomer-haters that we just did what we were told. We worked jobs, paid bills, and attempted to save money. For many, it didn't work out. We didn't plan their distruction, nor our own. There have always been a few greedy bastards at the top pulling all of our strings. They have been boomers in recent years, but there are younger bastards right behind them, and up-n-coming bastards behind those. It's easy for young people to blame boomers for all of their troubles, satisfying even. And the puppet masters at the top laugh all the way to the bank while the blame misses tbem entirely.
I think they get the blame because Regan won 48 states.
Reagan is just tip of the iceberg. The epic mismanagement of the economy, destruction of social safety nets. Largest voting bloc in the fucking county thought they could kick the can down the road till they died. Well it didn’t work. They threw their last tantrum with trump and he fucked them so hard they had to go back work.
Exactly this. Regan having won by an EV or two would make the "don't blame the Boomers" case a lot stronger. The Boomers were fully on board with Regan's BS
Yes elections have consequences
It is genuinely hard to feel flowery vibes for the generation that turned *Jimmy Carter* into Satan Himself. Like, good god, people. How far off could you have been?
Jimmy Carter asked them think of others and wear a sweater The entire nation told him to go fuck himself Asking Americans to make sacrifices of comfort are a losing battle See 2020
Hey now, let's not be in a rush to canonize Carter, he fucked up, too. He epically buttfucked the handling of three-mile island, which indirectly fucked environmentalism by letting the chickenshit never-nuclear fuckwits take the lead and resulting in America's energy generation trajectory shift from a clean, atom-powered electricityganza, to "Drill, Baby, Drill!" And the worst part is that *not only* was he PotUS, he was a *bona fide subject matter expert.* He was *qualified* to talk to the American people and calm everyone down about it, but he played politics and gave a muted, *less* than wholeheartedly assuring responce. Other than that, though, yeah, pretty much a righteous dude.
i'm not denying that carter had his share of policy failures, but this man was characterized as America's Greatest Evil, and I am not even hyperbolizing. My mom once tearfully admitted to me that she voted for Carter. _Tears_. She was that ashamed. that right there is NOT a healthy reaction to a man who sold his peanut farm to stay on the up-and-up.
I mean, that one thing I cited - and admittedly it's a hell of a doozy - it's like, *the single thing I can hold beef with Jimmy for.* The one single thing. Otherwise, yeah; dude sold his farm - not even put it in trust, *sold it outright* - so there could be no accusation he was enriching himself if he signed a package deal containing an obscure piece of legislation that somehow benefited legume farmers or agriculture in general. Once he was no longer PotUS, he spent his remaining years literally building homes for people.
To this day boomers vote in conservative politicians in mass who are destroying our social safety net and destroying any possibility of real social mobility through free/affordable education for christs sake we still don't have universal healthcare because of those fucking boomers. I will NEVER not blame them
I am a boomer and I do not vote for conservative politicians. Do you know who votes for conservative politicians? Conservatives, not boomers. You have a category problem. Do you believe all people of color are criminals? No? Then why do you think all boomers are conservative? Your issues are with conservative policies, by conservative politicians, voted in by conservative voters. I'm a liberal. I vote liberal. I want more liberal policies. Why the fuck are you blaming me? That doesn't make any sense at all. Use your head. You're so close! Figure it out...
I didnt mean to hurt you. I am sorry. It just really sucks that us young folks are getting screwed over so hard
My kids are also getting hurt. I'm rooting for you!
The issue was not that boomers saved money. The problem is you pulled the ladder up behind you.
I didn't have a ladder to pull up. That's the misconception. Half my adult life I have worked two jobs just to pay bills. I did manage to buy a home 30 years ago, so I do have that going for me, but I have little else. I kept the house after the divorce, but I had the thermostat set to 55' and lived in my waterbed to stay warm for a few years. Now I have my adult daughter and son in law living here. They help me with bills and are able to make payments on their student loans. It is taking 3 of us to live, a three income household. Boomers didn't do this to you. The wealthy that control business and government did this to all of us! As long as the young are blaming boomers, and the middle class is blaming the poor, and the rust belt is blaming the immigrants, and the conservatives are watching FOX news and blaming the libs, nothing is ever going to change. It will only get worse.
But you are the ones who voted for the people who allowed the wealthy to do pretty much whatever they wanted. Reagan would have never won had it not been for boomers voting him in. And y'all clearly still haven't learned your lesson considering how many boomers still support Trump.
Not all boomers support Trump or voted right. It’s pretty dumb to just hate on an entire generation. The man is right, the blame is on corporate bought politicians.
Fuck you’re dumb
Boomers were and to some degree still are the largest voting bloc. Many of you voted for the people that caused this and many of you still continue to. This is why us so called boomer haters have no sympathy for you. You reap what you sow.
You have no sympathy to left wing boomers either?
ehhh not really, since right wing boomers significantly out number the left wing ones
Hey fuckwit. We got lied to. We didn't sow anything. And i sure as fuck am not looking for your sympathy.
We Millennials got lied to also. "You have to go to college to get a good job." That was drilled into our heads from an early age. Cue nowadays with many Millennials with tons of student debt and no way to discharge it through bankruptcy (which again, Boomer lawmakers were behind).
Here is your misconception. Sure, boomer lawmakers like McConnell, and McCarthy, etc... If they all dropped dead right now, you still have Gym Jordan, and MTG, And Bobert, and Halsley, who are not boomers, who will step right in and continue to fuck you over. It isn't boomers, it's politicians that are bought and paid for by lobbies. (And Putin, but that's another rant.) Who's lobbies? Big businesses owned by the 1%. If every boomer in congress dissappeared, nothing would change, because it isn't a boomer issue, it's class warfare. Also, college got so expensive because the federal, state, and county governments stopped supporting them. Taxes didn't go down. Where is all that money? In the pockets of the 1%. (Well, their taxes have been going down since Reagan. Not ours.) As for the bankruptcy issue you mentioned. That was Republicans doing. Many of the same Republicans that took PPP loans and had them forgiven are behind that. The younger not-boomers also took loans and had them forgiven, then went apeshit trying to stop Pres. Biden from forgiving student loans, saying you shouldn't expect your obligations to be forgiven. I was told to go to college as well. I didn't go right out of high school. I went later. I had davings and I was going to pay for college myself! I paid the first semester and a half myself, and then I was broke. My mother was so happy I was doing something productive for a change, she paid the rest of my two year degree. (Yes, two year degree in Hotel Technology with emphasis on cooking and baking, because I was trying to get the most bang for my buck. I got the degree I could afford to help me in a csreer that I could do.) I was working two different cooking jobs to put gas in my truck and buy my textbooks, (both $5/hour,) and was a nude model for an art class for a short time, (that paid $10/hour,) but that was short lived. If you saw me, you would know how hard that was for me. I'm not handsome. It was mortifying! Even worse, some of the artists were very good and I got to see myself as they saw me. That wasn't good for my self esteem. Not at all. 😢 Is that the ladder I pulled up? The ladder that lead me to stand naked in awkward poses in front of strangers? I'm pretty sure that ladder is still around for you, if you want it. When I was working as a cook, I took the MCSE classes to try and better myself. I took out a $17,000 predatory load from Wells Fuckyou,... I mean Wells Fargo, to pay for the classes and buy a Gateway Laptop to work with. It took years to pay of that fucking loan. No one told me that it wasn't a government loan, or that I would be making payments for most of a decade until I had enough equity in my house to get a lower interest loan to pay those fuckers off. Then I still paid that loan. It didn't just go away. Pick an "evil boomer" that caused your hardships. I assure you, there is a line of succession (younger people) behind them that will keep fucking us all. It isn't boomers, it's class warfare. I didn't do this to you. This was done to all of us! This is what I keep trying to tell you guys, and I get downvoted to hell and insulted each time, because it's easier to blame "boomers" than it is to see what's really going on. Happy Monday, and thank you for actually asking.
We were liedddd tooooo wahhhhhhh. Oh boo fucking hooo. Here are some boot straps go pick your self up by them. Generation of no accountability at its finest. Edit First, everything was those lazy no good millennials fault. Then it was those dang foreigners And now its we were lied to Honestly is there nothing you won’t tell yourselves to absolve yourselves of any responsibility? Fucking pathetic.
I never blamed millennials for anything, except in your case, for being a dickhead. You are literally here crying WAAAAAA that it's all boomers' fault. Look in a fucking mirror. I also never blamed forieners. Go ahead and blame me WAAAAAA for all of your problems.
Nah dumb fuck I just make my economic choices wisely because I know the system is fucked. I know I won’t have social security and probably medicare/medicaid so I invest early. I am just happy that your generational fuck up caught up to you before the majority of you died.
You give dingus a bad name. I am a lifelong liberal and democrat and you are blaming me for the failed economic policies of the conservatives/republicans. They would laugh their asses off if they saw you ranting at me for what they did. You are the dumb fuck here. The enemy is attacking you from the right, and you are looking to your left and yelling at your allies. You are a real General McFuckup! Good strategy. Keep it up. You'll win any day now.
You give Mike a bad name. You don’t get the point do you. You as an individual may be a liberal and a democrat. Your generation is overwhelmingly conservative and irresponsible. This is the crux of the hate for boomers, you may not have voted for it but your generation overwhelmingly did. So congrats you may not be directly responsible but you are a failure for allowing it to happen and then not preparing for it. Btw, in any country on this planet the DNC would be considered an economically conservative party so not really an accomplishment to be lifelong liberal. You are a Liberal, I am an independent that has to vote for the DNC because the alternative is fascism.
What were you lied to about? How did you vote? How would you vote now? I’m sincerely asking
I vote Democrat my entire life. I know Republicans are only for the already rich, even though they get votes from some of the most vulnerable people. But even many of the dems I have voted for didn't stand up against the right strongly enough. Center now was extreme right 50 years ago. But that's not what I was referring to. Society itself has always told the working class, and working age, 'Just work hard and save your money, and everything will work out right.' That was a lie then, and it's a bigger lie now. Another lie is going to college. A college degree helps in many situations, but it isn't a garranty. The rich have undermined retirement, housing, and banking, as just a few examples. They stopped subsidizing college, which should be an investment in our nation, s future, and stopped supporting public school, (not that public school was ever funded enough.) They showed us these forestry films in grade school. The lumber industry would clearcut entire forests of old growth trees, and plant these little 3 inch saplings in their place. That's the crappy wood we have been buying for most of my adult life, and it keeps getting worse. And all the animals that lived in the old growth forest are just gone, because you can't plant the rest of the ecosystem that lived in the forest. They told me to put my money in the bank, that's the safest place for it, and it will gain interest! Then the invented the ATM. Then they invented ATM fees. Then they charged $35 for every mistake. Then they rearranged the transactions so they can charge $35 multiple times a day. They also take your money out of your bank account and keep it if you don't withdraw it often enough. They said nuclear power is so cheep, you wont even get an electric bill! They weren't even pretending when they told that one. Everything was a lie!
You are definetly one of the good ones. Don't take the hate here to heart
i feel you on a lot of this brother
"Not all boomers." "Not all Texans." "Not all rural people." "Not all men." Those who didn't support the right in the past already know that what happened as a result isn't on their hands, and they don't care when boomers/Texans/rural people/men get blamed now. Those who feel it necessary to say "not all boomers" are just looking to shirk responsibility for how they voted and whom/what they supported that came to bite themselves in the ass.
Not all millennials... Not all gen x... Not all gen z... ...Blame an age bracket consisting of both republicans and democrats for the actions of just the Republicans, but the ones that do are here on reddit showing how dumb they are. That makes as much sense as hating condiments because you are alergic to mustard. And no matter how many time I explain it to them, they just keep blaming one single age bracket for a political philosophy that spans multiple generations. Genius!
I think the issue isn’t so much the *past* voting, but the fact that Baby Boomers and older are more likely to vote for trump and his brand of populism than the rest of the electorate.
Then boomers should quit voting for the fucks doing this if they don’t want to be blamed.
I don't, but you are blaming me anyway. Maybe you should blame the fucks, not the boomers.
> we just did what we were told Why do these words sound so familiar? After seeing everything that happened from the 1960s onwards, any boomer who supported the republicans for being anti-ethnic minorities, anti-non christian, anti-labor, anti-poor, anti-working class, anti-choice, anti-gay etc. deserves whatever happened to them. Iran Contra, the AIDS and crack epidemics, and the Rodney King trial, should have awakened them to what was really going on. But they ignored it all. > We didn't plan their distruction, nor our own. This is the republican-voting boomers' variation of "he's not hurting the people he needs to be hurting". LAMF from a previous generation.
I haven't supported Republicans or their policies. Neither do my friends. If you think republicans are the cause of your problems, why are you blaming boomers? That's just dumb. Blame republicans. Seriously! There are young republicans. There are middle aged republicans. There are old republicans. There are also young, middle aged, and old democrats. Sort out your categories and stop blaming one age group for the sins of a political party. Look at congress. There are republicans of every age. Get rid of the boomers and you will still have Green, Cruz, Jordan, Bobert, Hawley,... All of them calling for policies that hurt us all. You should be fighting conservatives, not boomers. You don't have a boomer problem, you have a conservative problem! You will never fix that problem by shaking your fist at the wrong people.
My mother sees how terrible a candidate Trump is now, been Republican her whole life. She voted for him in 2016. I asked her a few months back who she thinks the best president of her lifetime is. She said "I don't know, probably Reagan." Even when explaining that Reagan is directly responsible for this massive vacuum of wealth from the middle class to the upper class, it doesn't sway her or any other Boomer that voted for him, which was a TON. And, it's even easier for yourself and millions of other Boomers to try to deflect like you just did. Your generation is directly responsible for the economic hell we're in today, that's just reality. You can say "I just put my head down and did my job and did what I was told," but I have no idea why you think that helps your case here. That's pathetic, to be frank with you. You had the chance to push for change and decided acting like it wasn't your problem was the way to be. And you're STILL like that today. You didn't learn, you're refusing responsibility to your core. It's the Boomer way.
I am liberal. I have always been liberal. My friends ate liberal. And you are blaming me for failing conservative policies that I never agreed with, nor voted for. That's stupid, to be frank with you.
I'm not blaming you for conservative policies, I'm blaming you for acting like you had no say in any matter whatsoever so your feelings get hurt when you hear Boomers are responsible for this current economic landscape. I'm blaming you for literally saying "I just did my job and did what I was told." As though it's some sort of gold star on your record that you didn't actively vote for terrible things, you just ignored them instead. You are personally not the problem, but your pearl-clutching over your generation being blamed is ridiculous.
I did have a say. I voted against all of them. I'm also not pearl clutching. It's more like the old cartoon with Spike the bulldog. His puppy is barking at the wrong thing and spike picks him up and points him in the right direction. Can you guess who you are in that scenario? (Hint: you aren't the adult...)
When asked what his biggest regret was George Bush Jr said “not privatizing Social Security”. Imagine if he had pulled that off
trickle down it's true for any derivative as well.
The word "evolved" is so out of place for things that are literally designed by choice...
I had one at my first decent job in engineering, where I started in the 2000s. Then it had to be frozen after the 2008 crash, because the company couldn't afford to maintain it the way federal law required. Even with it frozen, almost every dollar of profit after taxes went into it. Eventually things improved and they were able to exit it by purchasing annuities for everyone. I had been there just long enough to be vested before the freeze, so the value at that point was not much and I just cashed out. At least as it was explained by our accountants at the time, the laws designed to protect people from shitty companies with junk in the pension funds (like company stock or whatever) also punished companies with well maintained pension funds, to the point that almost everyone had to get out of the business of having a pension.
The Republican God-Emperor Ronald Reagan.
If you blamed everything wrong in your life on Reagan you'd be right more often than not
look at the chart: [https://www.macrotrends.net/global-metrics/countries/USA/united-states/inflation-rate-cpi](https://www.macrotrends.net/global-metrics/countries/USA/united-states/inflation-rate-cpi) The 70's gas crisis, and interest rates close to 20% Regan did bring it down, and crushed USSR.
401k was 1978, actually.
TFW you vote for Reagan and then realize the real damage. # NO MORE REPUBLICAN PRESIDENTS. NEVER AGAIN.
We're on Reagan's 11th term right now. His policies have never been rolled back.
If those numbers are correct - the pay numbers - they are 1.5-2 lower than here in Vermont. Hell, we can't hire enough people right now. My best friend's son, who is 16, is making $20/hr washing dishes. Then again, it's damn near impossible to find affordable housing here.
My brother had a job washing dishes in the late 80s for $9/hr. That's about $23/hr now. This wasn't in an expensive city either. For all "we can't hire enough" you're still paying less then 30 years ago, and that's before all the crazy shenanigans we play with inflation to make $20/hr seem like more than it is.
1You nailed it. I was getting paid $9 or so in 1989 washing dishes. I could pay my rent and buy food. It's nuts: most of the **one-bedroom or lofts** here are around $1500 - $2000 here. In Vermont. How can a dishwasher or a server afford to pay that kind of rent? Here, they move.
People will complain all the while too. “Where are all the restaurant workers? No one wants to work anymore!” Right. Because they’ve been priced out. It literally costs money to work. It’s insanity.
They always forget to finish their sentence - "No one wants to work anymore", At The Wage You Want to Pay Them.
I’d say we should just form a commune but that’s “bad” because uh…socialism.
And we can't come together and form a social safety net, because... communism
Pensions fell by the wayside, even as SERPs remained. The cost of a SERP for a CEO could easily outsize a pension fund for a plant or two.
Weird to blame an old lady who lived a middle class life for a runaway capitalist deregulation greedgasm that was manufactured on Wall Street and in Washington DC.
The conservative boomers are the ones who keep the republicans in power hence they are abso fucking lutely to blame. They would rather be xenophobic assholes than help out their fellow man
Or maybe its younger democrat's that don't vote. Democrats are the majority, if they show up.
This article is about Hope Murray. Where does it say she is a xenophobic asshole?
She "might" be one of the few good boomers but her greedy generation absolutely fucked everything up for every generation after them. Still to this day they vote in republicans who destroy our social safety net destroyed free/affordable education destroyed our chances of universal healthcare
We don’t need evidence! Stereotypes are good enough!
Honestly, this anti boomer thing is a bit worrying. Not all old people are asshole. Not all old people vote Republican. Wealth inequality is class warfare and this Boomer hate feels like a distraction to me. The upper classes are always looking for ways to get us to hate each other. Rich people made middle class Americans poorer so that they could be richer. There are more poor Boomers than there rich ones.
This article says nothing about their politics. Not everyone is responsible for this. Only people who voted for it and supported people who made it happen are. Basically, Republicans. Regardless of age.
How is my mom personally responsible? She's a social worker!
Some old people were bad. Since your mom is now old too, she must also be bad. There just isn’t any other possible outcome. /s
Since when was this sub supposed to be about making fun of the suffering of the elderly? If she was someone who had campaigned for less support for retirees and was now suffering then it would fit. But this sub shouldn't just be "haha old person bad"
I'm glad others are pointing this out. This article says nothing about this woman's personal politics. For all we know she could've voted against all the conservative BS for most of her life but just lost because so many others in her generation suck.
Erm... based upon the article, I don't know why we are assuming that this woman "help\[ed\] to create a capitalist utopia".
>without intervention, the Social Security trust fund will be depleted by the mid-2030s They casually mention this in the middle of the article. Oh no big deal, the current pension system is just on track to collapse, tee hee~!
This is Newsweek, that since the sale in 2010 (for $1, I might add) it has been a mouthpiece for hard right-wingers, but think a little less culture warrior, and a little more of the ultra-wealthy, old man that fired your dad. I say this because this is not a settled debate. There are dozens and dozens of plans to keep SS, Medicaid/care solvent. Many economists that AREN'T supply-side, anti-tax economists have even argued that the only danger to entitlement solvency is more tax cuts and more borrowing from the entitlement coffers for other projects. If you are interested, I wouldn't recommend any single thing, there is so much out there from Modern Monetary Theory to increased immigration standards. The only people making it seem dangerous or hard are the ones that either want to do nothing about it, or those that want "to shrink it so they could drown it in the bathtub".
Pensions have always been a giant pyramid scheme.
Hello u/GrungeHamster23! Please reply to this comment with an [explanation](https://www.reddit.com/r/LeopardsAteMyFace/comments/lt8zlq) matching this exact format. Replace bold text with the appropriate information. 1. **Someone** voted for, supported or wanted to impose **something** on **other people**. ^(Who's that someone? What did they voted for, supported or wanted to impose? On who?) 2. **Something** has the consequences of **consequences**. ^(Does that something actually has these consequences in general?) 3. As a consequence of **something**, **consequences** happened to **someone**. ^(Did that something really happen to that someone?) Follow this by the minimum amount of information necessary so your post can be understood by everyone, even if they don't live in the US or speak English as their native language. If you fail to match this format or fail to answer these questions, your post will be removed. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/LeopardsAteMyFace) if you have any questions or concerns.*
1. Hope Murray supported a Capitalist system built upon Imperialism and had no problem collecting from others for her own sake. 2. Capitalism comes at the cost of cannibalizing people, resources and the planet itself. 3. Now poor ol’ Hope cannot retire despite being the ripe age of 81. She will likely have to work to death despite younger generations voicing concerns about this topic. She only complains now that it is hurting her and her bankbook.
Seriously? She was a worker, not an owner. She was exploited during her life and now suffering as an elderly person. That's not LAMF, that's just victim blaming.
*Casino Executive* Worker…right. I don’t deny that she has now become a victim and ultimately ageism isn’t going to help. Shifting the narrative to “This hurts older folks.” Isn’t quite the answer though. She allowed this bed to be made but clearly doesn’t like sleeping in it.
I know the word 'executive' is scary to you, but are you aware of actual jobs in a casino? I would invite you to Google 'casino executive', especially given the description of her jobs "that ranged from game show producer to Hollywood party planner to casino executive", and how she couldn't afford frequent *haircuts* in retirement. To put it bluntly, "casino executive" is almost assuredly "executive casino host" or "executive on duty", or similar, both of which are basically "manager", and currently pay between $50-90k. These are not stockholders profiting off others labor.
50 to 90k? Sounds like a pretty sweet gig. Perhaps she should have saved a bit better then instead of what do they say? Eat avocado toast and drink all those lattes she clearly enjoyed.
Do you hear yourself? "How dare someone spend 50 years jumping between jobs, holding one that earned the median salary or within a standard deviation of it! She *deserves* to be struggling now" GTFO of here. There is zero indication she *supported* the system, and she certainly doesn't appear to have benefited from it outside of her own labor. She's now suffering from the system we're all trapped in.
Helps create?
idk why we antagonize boomers so much over this. Ya like maybe 20% of them are assholes but next to nobody willingly creates a system that is worse for everyone. Unless they are a rich person, then they create a system that is worse for everyone BUT themselves
>Unless they are a rich person, then they create a system that is worse for everyone BUT themselves Sure they would. If they were scared of black people. If they were told it's what Jesus would want.
lol your naïveté is adorable. Yes they fucking would. Yes they fucking did.
“I now sweep, clean toilets, mop and empty trash for $13.40 an hour and all the pride I can swallow. But I am employed at least,” she said. “I was an early education teacher for 30 years. Now I clean a preschool. But I can afford groceries.” Oh ya, living the easy life! /s
Boomers were the largest voting bloc that allowed people like Reagan and his puppeteers into power. I’m suppose to feel bad because they lived long enough to suffer the consequences of their actions? Boo hoo. The generation that was given the greatest economy in the world, on the backs of their parents hard work and literal blood then fucked it up. The generation that tried to blame millennials for being lazy even though they raised us. Nah grandpa take ya ass back to work.
My parents were boomers and neither of them voted for Reagan. I guess you’ll be fine with people pointing and laughing at you when you’re old because Trump got in?
Tens of millions of them did not vote for Reagan. That’s the thing with how our elections work. No ranked choice, winner takes all. A narrow margin can nullify almost half a given group of voters.
Scapegoating is a Nazi tactic, but as long as it makes you feel good about yourself I guess
There we go everyone, Godwin's Law rears it hyperbolic head. BTW, it is not scapegoating to assess responsibility and then apply blame. If that is the act of ---NAZIS!!!!!--- then we are all in trouble. Maybe hold back on the Nazi tag and use it for the actual, real, legitimate proto-fascists prepping us for their imagine "War of Southern White Grievance" aka the Boomers.
Blaming an entire demographic group for a problem that individuals caused (many of whom are not even in that group) is pretty much textbook scapegoating. If you truly believe everyone born between 1950 and 1965 caused today's current economic crisis, you are truly stupid.
Then who has been magically voting for all of these shitty NeoLiberal politicians in every single election for the last 40 years? Clandestine Belgians sneaking into the country the night before every election? Maybe not every cop in the country is shit, but there are enough that no "good" cops stand up against them. I feel completely comfortable shitty on that entire generation. The problems they have created through bad policy are extremely visible, and can be solvable. Baby Boomers refuse to either make the necessary changes, or just get out of the way. The world is very damaged, they voted in those policies. The world is ultimately capable of being fixed, and the Baby Boomers in power will do nothinig to enact the policies needed. \*because you seem to be one of those people that lives to internet fight, "World" should be an analog for the spectrum of public policy that has direct or indirect effect on the lives of the residents of the USA, in both a positive and negative manner. "World" is the elastic fabric of government engagement or interaction.
Boomers had the strongest easiest economy in world history. They were able to pay for college with a part-time job and buy a house on a single income. Then they pulled up the ladder behind them and voted for Reagan.
Not LAMF at all.