Excellent rant from a Millenial to GenX and Boomers

[JDPriestly]

80. That millenials have to do slave labor as "interns" is viewed as a positive thing

utterly floors me.

As for the OP:

Kindest thing my daughter ever said to me: "Mom, you told me I could do anything." Today's millenials can do everything that every other generation has done, and they will. You really have to believe in yourselves and work together.

Another thing my children have told me: "Mom, we were lucky not to have so much. We don't take anything for granted." Unfortunately, a lot of baby boomers spoiled their kids -- and the children think that life is always generous. It isn't. And it wasn't for their parents.

In fact, the OP is quite incorrect in its historical view about the baby boomers.

As one born during WWII, I remember the baby boom. Baby boomers were born to parents who had survived WWII. Many of their parents suffered from post-traumatic stress -- undiagnosed because the condition was not yet recognized. A lot of the baby boomers' parents had lost those years between 18 to 30. Their emotional development was delayed. They didn't have those lighthearted years in their late teens and early 20s. A lot of the myths about how spoiled the baby boomers were created by that WWII generation that was so bitter about the loss of their youth.

When the baby boomers were very young -- toddlers, pres-school and elementary grades, there were so many of them that there was not enough of anything they needed. There really wasn't. Not enough housing. People even lived in the quonset huts that had served as barracks during the war. Not enough teachers. Not enough classrooms. The polio epidemic that was a constant threat. Someone else mentioned cold-war hysteria. Imagine going to school and being required to hide under your desk so that you would be ready for a nuclear attack. And, especially for girls, going to college was not taken for granted. In fact, many baby boomers could not even dream of going to college. It was way beyond their means. They had to get jobs right out of high school.

Personally, I babysat from the time I was very young and even worked for one afternoon a week making deliveries of ads when I was 7 or 8 years old. Boys in the country did the work picking and planting that is now done by immigrants and illegals. Chances are pretty good that your parents worked a lot harder -- physically worked harder -- when they were in their teens and early adult years than you have ever or will ever work. That was taken for granted. It was a mark of an adult that you earned your own way.

Yes. College tuition was relatively cheaper, and tax money paid a lot of it if you went to a state school. But academic entrance requirements were stringent. You had to have a really high test score. You had to have the grades -- and this was before grade inflation.

And then, in the 1960s, it was our energy, our commitment, that changed the world or at least America. Civil rights, women's rights, rock 'n roll, political activism by young people beyond an extent previously known and, as you mention, changes in the areas of advertising and distribution.

Don't feel bad that your generation is not the target of a lot of advertising research. Trust me on this. That is a blessing. The baby boomers have been manipulated, channeled, psyched out and used from the day they were born.

I could go on and on. You have no idea what it is to type a dissertation or all your term papers in carbon copies on an old manual typewriter. We did not have computers or the internet through which to communicate with each other or our parents. The TV and newspapers told us how it was.

A few people marched in the streets and wrote letters to the editor. Those were the limited means through which we could change the world. It wasn't easy, but we older folks -- the war babies and baby boomers actually changed a lot for the better. I remember Jim Crow. I'm glad that kids today do not have to experience or watch that degree of discrimination based on skin color.

As for mistrusting the government -- that big mistake was the result of a big propaganda campaign by the 1% and their friends in the media.

I mentioned the mistakes that we war babies and boomers had to correct -- like corporal punishment for children, segregated schools, no rights for women, discrimination based on religion, ethnicity, etc. Allowing the 1% to destroy our trust in government and in working together is one of the mistakes that your generation will have to correct. That's one of your generation's challenges. I hope your generation deals with it as well as we dealt with our challenges.

One last thing. True, millennials have it tough. But you can say that of all generations. And I agree with you, Reagan was about the worst thing that any generation could do to another. (Obviously I did not vote for him.)

But thank your lucky stars that you are not having to slog your way through the swamps in Viet Nam. The baby boomers did, and many of them never made it back.