I said boomers had hope and the fulfilment of dreams. You lived at a time when things were constantly getting better. It may have started hard but boomer time was a unique point in history where improvements to standard of living, political stability, world peace (despite the cold war) were at a peak. You’ve had a life of work but also holidays, free healthcare, some happiness (I hope) and food in the shops that over time you were increasingly able to afford more of. Although it’s not your personal circumstance I was talking about but the nurturing environment that became more protective and nurturing during the best years of your lifetime. It’s become less so for Gen X. For example many of us will have to work for many years after the old retirement age. Many Gen X did buy houses but were stuck in negative equity or sky high mortgages. Some managed to avoid student loans, others have a life of debt from early years. Yet now for Gen Y and beyond there is a huge pressure to have it all in a way that didn’t exist in the past. You can’t live without the stupid smartphones and internet and this will become ever more the case in our surveillance society.
Boomers were more able to have a simple happy life. I do feel sorry for Gen Y because they do seem to have inherited a very complicated version of the world with so many loose ends. While I worry about the future I don’t see Gen X or Gen Y living as long as our parents’ generation. Some Gen Z I know seem to already be developing health conditions previously associated with middle age, they are also very confused about life and more prone to preventable forms of mental illness. Most boomers I know are happier and more well adjusted than later generations. The fun is certainly going out of life with social media, surveillance and a reduction of in-person communication.
Perhaps people of this generation were aware of the alternative
What was life like in workhouses?
Conditions were cramped with beds squashed together, hardly any room to move and with little light. When they were not in their sleeping corners, the inmates were expected to work.
No surprise there then Annie with all the chemicals and rubbish food that comes from the other side of the world, not to mention the sit down jobs, TV rubbish and computer nonsense.
It’s like living in another world now.
The boomers are happy because they remember how things used to be, a pint down the pub with your mates, even with the local copper, a kick about on the field, empty roads, and just the gossip around the village to worry about, (whose sleeping with who ) none of this 24 hour rolling news. It’s enough to make anyone want to commit harry carry…
But I can see the point that you are making Annie, and it’s all down to progress. Nothing ever remains the same…
) none of this 24 hour rolling news. It’s enough to make anyone want to commit harry carry…