Hmmm... Okay, then how do you see the same propensity in yuppies, Gen Xers and millenials...?
Baby boomers were by far the least "head in the clouds" of the recent generations, IMO. My dad may be daft in terms of tech (even tho he was a programmer for the Air Force back in the day); but in terms of knowing where his place in the world is and what goes into all the stuff we need to survive, he's got a pretty good head on his shoulders.
I think maybe you have the generations mixed up; it was my generation (post-Summer of Love) of clueless self-important fuckwidgets that blew up the US economy and turned it into a multinational Ponzi scheme; his was the ones that were trying to stop them. ![Confused :-//](https://www.eevblog.com/forum/Smileys/default/confused0024.gif.pagespeed.ce.5xOqKkq0Co.gif)
mnem
*not living in the alternate reality bubble*
You mentioned blowing up the US economy right at the end of all that. What I can tell you is that things played out differently in Canada. You moved to Canada because it is different here, right? So how do I explain those points you raised? Well, like a lot of places, the generation that grew up during the great depression and then fought World War II put in place a lot of things, social programs, government policy, etc. so that their children wouldn't have to go through what they did and the baby boomers made full use of it all. That's fine because that's what it was all put in place for so, so far so good.
Early Gen-X squeaked by benefitted from that here too. Then the middle of Gen-X had the carpet yanked right out from under their feet. Then you get people around my age who weren't quite old enough for that to happen to them directly but watched it take place and knew it was going to be totally gone by the time we got there.
For one example, if you want to get a good portion of Canadian Gen-X riled up, ask about the replacement of federal student grants with loans. That would be one of the first things that fell by the wayside as the baby boomers moved along in age and began discovering that when it came time to start paying it forward to the next generation the way their parents did for them, it was
expensive. Since they'd already gotten theirs, they weren't adversely affected by scrapping it. And that's how it's gone with many things here. Previously, if you combined student grants with OSAP along with the low tuition, books, and cost of living of the time, you could make out like a bandit if you were a student and it was no wonder that OSAP got nicknamed the Ontario Stereo Assistance Program. You want to hear about that from a Canadian millennial, ask how it's been totally inadequate for getting through postsecondary education for a long time now and ask what the loan repayment horizions look like.
Another example: In the unionized places I've worked, the collective bargaining agreements have been an interesting history lesson. Read the contracts. Look at the dates of red circled, grandfathered provisions for things you don't get. Correlate that to the age of the people who voted in favour of throwing younger employees and future employees under the wheels in a way that didn't leave themselves any worse off. You want to get any Gen-X Canadian riled up in one of these workplaces? Say the phrase, "two tier contract." You want to see apathy from a Canadian millennial in one of these workplaces? They don't know what that is and they don't care because that ship got sailed before they got there.
As far as millennials go, I can tell you from talking with everyone around my age that I know, we look in one direction at the baby boomers then turn our heads 180 degrees and look at the other direction at millennials and it makes sense because look who raised them. Many of them aren't old enough to have seen and understood how Canada unravelled over the late '80s and through most of the '90s so what they've been landing in is normal to most of them except for the older ones who are also acutely aware that they're never going to have the quality of life that their parents did.
Mnem's right, but that sense if entitlement did start with the boomers. Even though I grew up in the typical white middle-class environment with never a want for pretty much anything I never had a sense of entitlement. I worked for and earned what I gained and in some cases lost. From the time I was 19 in 1973 until 2 years ago. And I was a good boy and paid into the system. So yes....now is my time and yes, I am entitled to that SSI I contributed to all those years. And I'm gonna make sure I get every penny they owe me.
The whole point - you're supposed to enjoy what you've worked hard for and earned. And you bet I'm looking forward to collecting CPP when the time comes after contributing to the Canada Pension Plan every two weeks.