Generation X rage against the baby boomer machine
I didn't want to get immediately involved in the friction fight last month between Gen Xers and Baby Boomers because i wanted to see what everyone else had to say on a topic I've blogged on for such a long time.
I've been pointing out this growing intergenerational tension on Tumeke for years and the thing in this current debate that fascinates me most is the utter denial of the baby boomer generation that they are to blame for anything that was repeated over and over again on the comment sections of the columns talking about the issue.
Fran O'Sullivan got the ball really moving with her post Dear John: Generational equity a must and Bernard Hickey threw more petrol onto it with his column Methinks boomers protest too much.
Baby Boomers were the first youth generation, they challenged the status quo, demanded reforms and forced their voices to be heard and counted. The Values environmental movement the anti-Vietnam war movement, the Springbok tour movement and nuclear free movement were all social activism that modernized our society.
Baby boomers demanded a more active State and benefitted most from the privileges of that active State be it the free education in a benign economic environment backed with fully funded public services that positioned them as a generation ready to speculate wildly on property.
It seems that once Boomers got a taste for consumerism they forget all that idealism and decided to never leave the taxpayer funded privilege they found themselves rolling in. Economist Brain Easton traces the venal 30 year impact of NZ neo-liberalism and how it's ability to amass wealth to the few while pretending choice for all has left the next generations following boomers with far less than they had been promised under democracy.
Gen Xers who have been trapped by student debt loan early in life have leant nothing other than selfishness as a virtue. They know what 'value' they are to society, because they have been given the bill. Turning education from a public good to a private benefit was one of the largest wins for the right during our neo-liberal revolution and with students leaving education with vast debt, the only place to clear that debt because of NZs low wage economy is overseas.
This displacement and debt either sends our students away or traps them into renting the rest of their lives as the boomer generation have property speculated everyone else out of ever owning a first home.
Gen Xers live in a NZ labour market where Boomers dominate, every Gen Xer I know who doesn't work for themselves bitches constantly about that Boomer above them who won't leave or move on so that they can climb the career ladder.. Boomers are smart enough to see the economic global tide turning and they are holding onto their positions in the labour market more fiercely than a heron addict holds onto their dealer.
Boomers dominate as an engaged conservative voting block and so will always keep their interests politically paramount. The median age for NZers leaving last year was 26, our diaspora is a generational issue.
Boomers dominate the punditry of nearly every single mainstream media news outlet, even the once glorious NZ Listener is just beige baby boomer commentator after beige baby boomer commentator (except for that delightful Toby Manhire). The Herald is full of them, the TV shows are full of them, Talkback Radio is full of them - there are no Generation X commentators because what we have to say don't mean shit while the Boomers have control of the wheel.
What's the solution for Gen Xers? It's time to fight back. Every point of interaction becomes a front line with boomers and it's time to challenge them and the bullshit legacy they are leaving us. It is time to push back on the scared cows they never want slaughtered.
Baby Boomers are acting like a petulant Paula Bennett, using state help to get ahead and then pulling that ladder of support up with them afterwards so that no one else can use it.
Perhaps Boomers need to dust off their record collections from the 60s and remember what they fought for and what they are leaving behind as their legacy.
PS - Oh and by the way, this new wave of neo liberal agenda being implemented by John Key through Private Public Partnerships will be another ideological intergenerational debt that Gen Xers will have to carry as well. As the ever brilliant Gordon Campbell points out... Private sector delivery as an inter-generational scam
FACEBOOK TWITTER
posted by Bomber @ 7:23 am
9 comments
9 Comments:
Boomers won't admit to it, because basically this whole inter-generational thing is a load of crap.
It is playing right into the hands of the Neo-Liberals to have a war between the generations, to hide the fact of the real war, the class war.
The wealthy of all generations are running off with the loot, while we are debating irrelevancies like super, benefits and inter-generational equity.
Those poor hard done by generation X and Y's are going to inherit all the assets of the boomers, cheap,and be paid more for the good jobs in time, simply because there are less of them. After a childhood with much more money, toys and access to university education than we had.
"Free" university education. for a few, was paid for by 50% taxes on the many who could not go.
Every Generation complains about the ones above hanging onto the jobs. X and Y have it better. For Boomers those hanging onto the jobs were only a few years older. We had to wait decades for promotions X and Y get within years.
We are also hanging onto our jobs because we are helping our gen X kids into houses and need the money. Besides, you cannot complain on one hand about boomers hanging onto jobs and want to deny them super (so they can afford to stop working) on the other.
The majority of boomers vote against the destruction of society that is Neo-liberilism and austerity, because we remember the 80's and 90's and what happened to our country.
Pitching generations against each other is a stupid distraction from the real battle.
Boomers won't admit to it, because basically this whole inter-generational thing is a load of crap.
It is playing right into the hands of the Neo-Liberals to have a war between the generations, to hide the fact of the real war, the class war.
The wealthy of all generations are running off with the loot, while we are debating irrelevancies like super, benefits and inter-generational equity.
Those poor hard done by generation X and Y's are going to inherit all the assets of the boomers, cheap,and be paid more for the good jobs in time, simply because there are less of them. After a childhood with much more money, toys and access to university education than we had.
"Free" university education. for a few, was paid for by 50% taxes on the many who could not go.
Every Generation complains about the ones above hanging onto the jobs. X and Y have it better. For Boomers those hanging onto the jobs were only a few years older. We had to wait decades for promotions X and Y get within years.
We are also hanging onto our jobs because we are helping our gen X kids into houses and need the money. Besides, you cannot complain on one hand about boomers hanging onto jobs and want to deny them super (so they can afford to stop working) on the other.
The majority of boomers vote against the destruction of society that is Neo-liberilism and austerity, because we remember the 80's and 90's and what happened to our country.
Pitching generations against each other is a stupid distraction from the real battle.
http://kjt-kt.blogspot.co.nz/2012/06/on-new-zealands-retirement-income.html
""Egged on by the neo-liberals who prefer the elderly, the unemployed and the sick to starve in the streets, as an incentive to scare working people into accepting starvation wages, while they continue to get 17% increases in wealth, the finance industry is dreaming of getting more of their sticky hands on our wealth, with private super funds.
Since the 70's they have been constant in the meme that we cannot afford super. A meme that has been driven entirely by the self interest of those, who are too wealthy to need super and too mean to pay taxes, and a greedy finance industry.
Unfortunately, it is true, that if you repeat bullshit often enough, even those who should know better come to believe it.
We cannot afford super is code for, "we should leave our elderly to beg on the streets". So that wealthy people can pay less tax and the finance industry can again lose our savings for us"".
Have you watched Penny Red in this debate Bomber?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0WrEB3Amh6E&feature=results_main&playnext=1&list=PL812C8728D8CC8595
Focusing on Boomers is a distraction, how about all those "Boomers" in Avondale, Henderson, Pakuranga, Whanganui, Whangarei, Invercargill, in Council flats, medicated, unemployed...
What about those of that generation who didn't loose their ideals and continued to fight for them. Don't people also evolve with the prevailing winds, or new information, the understanding crisis can bring?
The problem is neo-classical economics (the versions espoused by both the Left and the Right ) and it's bastard child (as endorsed by both Left and Right) Neo-Liberalism.
The Trojan Horse of the "Free Market" has brought us rather a Corporatist Neo-Feudalism, this is a byproduct of a concentration of power and wealth which is the goal of this rigged system of fraud, it seems a pity to lay all the blame at the feet of those who as a byproduct prospered, rather than at those who orchestrate it.
Remember, a house is only worth as much as a Bankster will lend you to buy it.
Mmmmm....I am a baby boomer who deplores the culture of greed and self interest of the baby boomer generation. However, please note, not all boomers are rich property speculators. Many of us too, now elderly are disadvantaged by present day neoliberal policies. I have never voted for the likes of fellow baby boomer Roger Douglas. This begs the question: How many of Generation X have voted for National and Act?...How many of generation X, motivated by self=interest, support the right wing policies of John Key's government? I certainly do not!
Unfortunately it is true that all "commentators" like Bomber, Hickey and the rest are simply selling more of ther leader's crap. It is the function of the neo-liberals to generate any societal conflict that will avoid a class analysis. It is fascinating to me that the Bomber Hickey crowd moan on about the parents who hug wealth - which says a lot more about the class that they each were spawned by than the actual generation they abuse, many of whom are worse affected by Key economics than Comfy Commentators. This is a class war; why does Bomber think that a substantial portion of the Boomers have consistently voted against their own interests - voted for capital gains taxes, voted for tax increases, voted for tenancy protection even (most of us) worked hard for these things - yet a substantial proportion of his generation have voted for the neo-liberal dream? The Bomber Hickey grouposcule would be taken a lot more seriously if they said that in this sociey everyone should have what they need to survive, no one will be left out, but no one needs more than that - then the "old" would happily retire, happily divest themselves of the one spare property they bought to house their unemployed chidren at free rent! But the Comfy Commentators work for the Right, so of course their brief is to pull us apart, not to bring us together.
I call bullshit on your theory Bomber. There were no student allowances when I attended varsity (early 70's)oh and I worked part time to support myself. We were the first to experience large scale unemployment( the boomers created the Punk movement)Yes we were able to earn a living wage and if we inherited or worked in ozzie were able to buy our own homes. We have paid for our children's education ourselves to save them from the utterly amoral student loan generational debt enslavement.We have worked our guts out , we are now told we won't be getting Super! Fuck them! So property is all we have to support ourselves inour old age. No world travel after raising a family and running a business that created employment and being honest and community minded. I have always regretted raising my family here instead of in Australia.
I won't be looking at this blog again, thank you very much. If the best you can come up with is to blame boomers for the woes of the country, you are attempting to lead people down a very dangerous path. Class is more than just something you sat in at school.
That bee in your bonnet ain't real Bomber.
Truly.
i t ' s n o t r e a l
Post a Comment
<< Home