An Open Letter to all Baby Boomers,
We’ve received your complaints, bookmarked and sorted by the designated minion meme you’ve elected to share it to Facebook with. You’re upset about avocado toast and the failing napkin industry. You spoke, and we listened. Millennials are to be blamed for the slow demise of many time-honored traditions; golf, chain restaurants, marriage, babies, diamonds, breakfast cereal, fabric softener, movie theaters, cruises, doorbells, the 9 to 5 workday, and even the suit, apparently. The list goes on. Generation Z isn’t devoid of your attention either, surpassing millennials in the damnation of the music and cable television industry in one sweeping blow, never mind the plans they have for Facebook. It’s a massacre of capitalistic proportions, and it’s all Millennials and generation Z’s fault.
We hear you. We’re also ignoring you.
“But when I was your age…”
When you were our age, the cost of college per year, including inflation, was $3,000- $15,000. The cost of college now? $10,000- $35,000. Cost of homeownership and rent? Doubled. Comparatively, the average annual income in today’s dollars in the 1970s was $20,000, while today it’s about $34,000. So while costs for college and living went up approximately 129%- 213% and about 39% respectively, income un-proportionally increased by only 67%. So diamonds and cruises? Not as important as that electric bill, grandma. (Insler, 2018)
You see, the oldest of us entered the job market after college right alongside the Great Recession. You know, that little financial crisis that stemmed from improper lending standards and international trade imbalances that shares breath only with the Great Depression? Yeah, wonder who was responsible for that one. It turns out, that’s not exactly the best way to become a stable member of the economy. Who would’ve thought? With a lack of jobs or unstable employment, menial or non-existent health insurance, compounding student debt, unaffordable housing (not helped by the ever longer-living residences not vacating them), its a wonder us youngsters didn’t feel secure enough to start popping out money-devouring children as soon as possible! So while you’re living off of your social security checks and scrolling through Facebook critiquing the products of which you created, we’ll be watching the clock for when our own social security runs out.
So thanks for leaving us with nothin’, Boomers,
-Every person born after the 1980s.
Sources:
