Tony Auth had an interesting cartoon today

[sasquatch]

[Warpy]

1. The greatest generation oversaw the destruction of public transit

all over the country in favor of the passenger car, along with massive development of farmland into tract housing.

Boomers, especially the older boomers, have been warning about environmental issues for over 40 years. Who the hell do you think started Earth Day to get people thinking about living so carelessly?


I think Auth needs to think things through a little more carefully.

[sasquatch]

2. But didn't most boomers support even more subdivisions and McMansions

[RobinA]

4. Only Once They Have

their own subdivision, then they don't want any more.

[omega minimo]

5. No, the boom in the 90's was younger families, the Gen X non-slacker/breeders

[Warpy]

7. Like everyone else

we found our choices dictated by family and availability of work.

However, we have warned that the whole mess is unsustainable.

It's not our fault if the second cohort didn't listen.

[intheflow]

6. Dubya is a boomer.

I doubt he ever thought about Earth Day, ever. Not even when (if) as president he participated in Earth Day events. Just sayin'... I wouldn't canonize the Boomers as environmental stewards as only a small percentage ever particpated in evironmental activism. And after the No Nukes stuff in late 70s and early 80s, even fewer did anything, choosing instead to follow their parents' worker drone models as they encountered the economic challenges of parenthood.

[SoCalDem]

8. He's bought into the myth we've been sold for decades

The "greatest" Generation were just doing what had to be done, as would ANY generation in the same circumstance would have done.

They DID get the Greatest benefit package of all time..I'll give them that!

People who fought in WWII were children or teens during most of the depression, so their PARENTS were the ones who probably suffered most.

Once they made their FOUR YEAR sacrifice, they came home as national heroes, got union jobs with pensions & regular raises (when money was worth something,

they got free (or nearly free) college, which was something that most of the poor rural men they were before the war would never have been able to do

they got super cheap houses & cars, and the ability to have Mom raise her own children, since one income could easily provide for a family....

FDR saw to it that THEIR parents now had social security, so they did not have to take in their parents as they aged, or to have to send them tons of money....

and when the GG got old, we gave them medicare .. and their children & grandchildren paid extra to see to it that they got more benefits & more money.

[MissMarple]

3. All generations have good and bad points. I never bought into "the greatest" label.

Their parents won WWI, but then we had the depression. They did pull off WWII, saving the world from fascism, but many of them came home and became McCarthyites and fully embraced the conservative movement that rejected FDR's accomplishments. We are now dealing with the pathetic remnants of whatever viability they had. If we had a "greatest" generation I vote for the founders. Our constitution is probably the best piece of political genius, ever.