General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: This, my friends, is far too typical for my generation. [View all]llmart
(15,476 posts)Well said. I am really tired of the meme that the Boomers are all greedy. I know very few Boomers my age who have a pension any longer. Reagan and his administration allowed corporations to skirt their pension responsibilities by just filing Chapter 11 if their company wasn't profitable. It happened to many, many people who had worked at a place all their lives. (Think Pan Am airlines) I was personally affected by this and Reagan's mantra of deregulation. The 100+ year-old company that my husband worked for filed Chapter 11 in the early '80's and all of the employees were told good-bye; no pensions. The employees filed a class action lawsuit and eventually after 10 years employees received a payout check equal to a pittance of what they would have gotten if they had received a pension. Many people had worked there all their lives and were close to retirement age. Can you imagine working at a place for 40 years thinking you'll get a monthly check for life only to have to wait 10 years and then get something around $6,000 as a payout? Good luck living on that in 1994 when the checks were finally distributed.
My younger, boomer brother had a decent job as a Teamster, but after Reagan busted the air traffic controllers union, the handwriting was on the wall that other unions were next in line. All of the truck drivers took a cut in benefits and pay and to this day, some 30 years later, he's still having to drive a truck, nonunion, low pay at age 61.
We have all had to adjust to our expectations, hopes and dreams being turned topsy turvy, but some of us adjusted and just put one foot in front of another and did whatever was required.
A long time ago some older and wiser person said to me, "The greatest thing you can have in life is the ability to be flexible and adapt to change." You can still continue to fight and vote and hope for change, but it has to be done en masse.