POOR, POOR PITIFUL ME
Task 39, October 24 to October 31
“You’ll never see a happy ungrateful person”.
I’ve been known to rant and rave. Excessively. To the point of “...we’re no longer welcome at the Feldstein’s…” or “...you’re sleeping on the couch tonight…” or “...Jeff, it’s HR on the line…”. But that was the old me. Since I’ve slipped into my quasi-retirement state, I’ve become as mellow as a lamb; as sagacious as Gandhi, as pleasant to be around my late uncle George, whose heart was as pure as a Balvenie 30 Year Old Single Malt Scotch Whisky.
Until this past weekend. Then I opened my digital copy of the New York Times and saw this “video opinion” titled: Opinion: How Baby Boomers Blew Up the American Dream.
Okay...I pressed play. And it started out like this: “Americans born after World War 2 were handed the world on a silver platter….cheap housing, cheap college, abundant opportunities, the vast majority of you ended up wealthier than your parents. AND LORD KNOWS IT WASN’T BECAUSE YOU WORKED HARDER, OR WERE SMARTER. It was because America was an escalator. You just had to stand on it…how about an apology?”
I stopped there and hyperventilated. Then I continued to more of it, juicy stuff like:
“When presented with a choice of protecting your interests or investing in a better future for your children, you usually chose yourself.”
Or:
–You’re the reason so many Americans sleep in their cars.
–You’re the reason that public schools are more segregated than they were in 1968.
And finally this:
–Hey. Making things cheaper for yourself at everyone else’s expense is kind of your M.O.
That nugget was smugly uttered by a prissy Gen-Zer at 2:32 of the 3:36 video–I didn’t get any further.
So here’s my rebuttal. First, I’m not going to politicize my opinion, i.e. “these lazy liberal kids…” because I am a liberal. I’m not going to fight playground style, i.e., “I’d like to kick the shit out of…” And I am not rebutting for all boomers, just myself.
I was born in Ashtabula, Ohio. My mom was a school teacher and my dad was an itinerant worker (milkman, janitor, dock worker, etc.) Yes, we had a small house and the interest rate was over 18%. EIGHTEEN PERCENT.
I started working at 14 at the Skyway Drive In. In 1967. I retired in 2024. Do the math. I worked at restaurants, factories, bars; I sold books door to door. I sold tickets at a theatre, I was a bouncer at the Whisky A-Go-Go. I didn’t start my career in tv until I was nearly 28. I didn’t own a house ‘til I was 42. I couldn’t afford a 20% down payment so I ended up with lousy adjustable loan that forced us (because I had kids by that time) to live paycheck to paycheck.
SO THERE WAS NO ESCALATOR. It was a hill and I climbed it. If housing was cheap, it sure didn’t feel like it when I was paying the mortgage. And my mother took out a loan to get me into Bowling Green State University and I worked at school and every summer.
And if there were opportunities, I made them. AND I DID WORK HARDER, AND I WAS SMARTER. I DID IT ALL WITHOUT GOOGLE.
FOR MORE OF THE RANT, CHECK OUT OUR PODCAST, OLD PEOPLE THIS WEEK ON YOUTUBE, SPOTIFY AND APPLE PODCASTS.
If I wanted to find an apartment, I went looking for apartments–I didn’t have a website to lay it all out for me. If I didn’t have a ride somewhere, I walked or I didn’t go. If I wanted to reach out to an old friend, I wrote a letter. And if I wanted to meet a woman, I went to a bar and sucked up the nerve to start a conversation with a stranger, NOT SWIPE.
Handed the world on a silver platter? The unemployment rate in Ohio in 1975 when I graduated from college was 25%. TWENTY FIVE PERCENT. The only job I could get was at a K-Mart on Rt. 20 in Saybrook, Ohio. I spend eight hours a day schlepping merchandise from the storeroom to the showroom. NONE OF THE PEOPLE ON THE VIDEO OPINION WOULD WORK AT A K-MART.
And by the way:
WE WENT OUT AND PROTESTED FOR PEACE
WE WENT OUT PROTESTED FOR WOMEN’S RIGHTS
WE WENT OUT AND PROTESTED FOR CIVIL RIGHTS
WE GAVE YOU THE COMPUTER, WHICH WE SHOULD TAKE BACK BECAUSE YOU’VE ABSOLUTELY SCREWED YOURSELVES UP WITH IT.
YOU ARE LAZY, YOUR MINDS HAVE TURNED TO PUDDING FROM GTE, YOU’RE TOO BUSY WHINING TO GET AHEAD, YOU DON’T KNOW HOW TO DATE, YOU DON’T KNOW HOW TO DANCE, YOU CAN’T COOK AND THE WORST THING IS: YOU’RE EFFING ARROGANT.
If you went to a great public school it was great because we paid the property taxes that make it great; if you went to a good college it’s because we made sure you went to a good high school so you would qualify for a good college. And we paid for it.
AND BTW, WE HAVE IT SO GOOD? CHECK THIS OUT:
Nearly 40% of Americans ages 55 and older were employed in 2024, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics — a striking shift that’s even more dramatic when you look at the oldest workers. Today, 2.8 million men over 70 are working in the U.S. — part of an extraordinary long-term transformation in which employment among Americans 75 and older has quadrupled since 1964.
To put this in perspective, 19% of adults ages 65 and older are employed today. In 1987, only 11% of older adults were employed in the workforce. By 2033, projections from the BLS show that 1 in 4 American workers will be 55 or older. The workforce has gotten seriously grayer.
WHY? INFLATION AND INSUFFICIENT COST OF LIVING INCREASES FOR THOSE OF US ON SOCIAL SECURITY.
THAT’S WHY YOU SEE BOOMERS WHEN YOU GO TO TRADERS JOES, OR AT LOWE’S OR AT TARGET. (GEN-Z: Lowe’s is a place that sells tools). THAT MEANS THAT BOOMERS HAVE NEVER STOPPED WORKING!!!!
So you can take your video opinion and shove it in the pocket of the jeans your bought because Kylie Jenner told you to, next to your cell phone that your mom and dad pay for, and go back to the basement and check to see if any of your Bumble BFFs want to go out for a virtual beer.
Task: Remind anyone who isn’t a boomer that they are standing on our neck and sometimes it gets tiring.