General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: This, my friends, is far too typical for my generation. [View all]llmart
(15,477 posts)I would like some sympathy and understanding from you, too. I'm an older boomer - almost 65. I'm still working part time because I can't live on $1,002 a month Social Security. I have to pay for my own health insurance because as you know, part timers do not get benefits through work. I started working at the age of 17 right after I graduated from high school, in an office as a "Girl Friday" for $1.25 an hour. I raised two children and went to college full time while my children were in elementary school. I graduated summa cum laude, #2 in my college class at the age of 36. I still had to start out at a major corporation at somewhat of an entry level position in 1986 because I had been out of the work force. I understood and accepted that from the start. I did not vote for Reagan and have never in my life voted for a Republican. I now make $15 an hour with no benefits. I worked two part time jobs earlier this year, one of which was physically demanding, on my feet all day for $8 an hour on concrete floors, and I have bad feet, so I would practically be in tears by the time I got home from that job, but it was either that or not be able to pay my bills. I have no smartphone, no cable, no eating out or fancy coffee shop coffees. I cook from scratch and eat whatever I've made until it's gone so that I don't have to buy any more ingredients that week.
I have never once blamed a Gen-X'er or a Millenial for my woes. NEVER. It serves no purpose whatsoever for you to pose your post in terms of generations and constantly asking for sympathy makes some people think of it as whining.
Generations younger than mine were fed a crock of you-no-what about everyone needing a college education. When everyone or at least the majority has something, the value of it goes down, not up. I could tell you a thing or two about how and why higher education has gotten so expensive because I work at a university and prior to this have worked at another institution of higher learning. I have had conversations with professors who tell me that upper administration comes down on them really hard if they fail students, so they are told to revise their curriculum, give extra credit, whatever it takes to pass most of them so that they stay in school longer.
I am surrounded by young people every day I go to work and some of them work for me as student assistants. At both of these institutions of higher learning I have listened to the younger people talk about how they're going to make a lot of money when they graduate. When I try to talk to them about how that may not be reality, they don't want to hear it.
I don't really have any solutions, but keep in mind that some boomers (not me) are part of the sandwich generation who are taking care of aging parents and teenagers at the same time, and trying to make ends meet too.
If you want our party to end up like the Republicans of today - split in two - then just keep on posting these threads where one generation is pitted against another. As a liberal Democratic woman who came of age in the '60's, we should be working together for solutions.