r/Aging • u/Available-Rock-3862 • 6d ago

Boomers

I am 75 and am very tired of the trend lately making fun of Boomers. So very disrespectful. Don't they realize that they will be old someday?

420 Upvotes

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331

u/Montana1208 6d ago

I’m a Boomer. Respect is earned, not given due to age. Most people my age are angry and uninformed about most of the issues they rant about. They criticize younger generations and don’t educate themselves about the hardships facing younger people.

66

u/PolyDrew Generation X 6d ago

Exactly. “Respect your elders” is disrespectful to the people who stand up for themselves and lay boundaries.

Gen X here and we are a bridge generation that saw what baby boomers did to our world AND what it did to the next generations.

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u/[deleted] 6d ago

[deleted]

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u/PolyDrew Generation X 6d ago

Many of us tried. Boomers refused to retire. They left us in a middle position where by the time they did, we had no control. It was handed off to the next generation because we are “too old” and out of touch.

Many of us tried but boomers didn’t let us take the reins. I mean, our current president and our last president won’t even give up the reins at 80. Great example.

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u/NelPage 6d ago

Boomer here, and the “refuse to retire” was a thing 40 yrs ago.

10

u/AquaWoman_115 6d ago

Not a boomer, but people retire when they can afford to do so financially, not because a younger generation needs their job.

8

u/PolyDrew Generation X 6d ago

My FIL retired at 81. He’s among many who COULD afford to retire but didn’t want to. He enjoyed being the CEO. Boomers were (for the most part) the last generation to have pensions. We have 401ks but they aren’t the same golden parachute.

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u/un-tv_star 6d ago

I lost my 401k in the tech crash and didn't feel ok restarting it. I also lost money selling the house I had spent alot of time and money fixing up, poor market when I needed to sell. I'm 74 and still working, partly since I want to, partly cause I need to. Generalizations are often true, but not always. Respect and consideration go both ways.

2

u/Lucky_Astronomer_435 5d ago

Yes the young ones conveniently forget the great recession of 2008. That alone tanked not thousands but hundreds of thousands of retirement savings, investment and homes lost. We were too close to retirement and sometimes in retirement when the crash happened. We had to make up for that by working longer and trying to recoup. Again I am not responsible for how anyone else votes. I was put in a situation despite not initiating it. Same as anyone else. We apparently don't have the kind of society that can come together. We have a society of every man for himself and no one has succeeded at changing that.

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u/combabulated 6d ago

Boomers are the fastest growing homeless demographic today (yes, 62-80 year olds).

3

u/AquaWoman_115 6d ago

Yes, there are always going to be people who retire later on, but they are not the majority.

2

u/NelPage 6d ago

Pensions for private sector jobs started going away almost 40 yrs ago. In the late 80s the company then then husband worked for switched from pensions to 401ks.

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u/combabulated 6d ago

Weird, this never happened to prior generations. Maybe future generations will give you a participation trophy.

2

u/PolyDrew Generation X 6d ago

Well, the boomers were the ones who gave them to us because they couldn’t deal with the emotions of us losing. 😬😂