At any given moment there are several generations living contemporaneously. At this moment in time there are two which I will discuss who have gotten the short end of the stick more than any other.
Firstly the ones who fared the worst have to be the “Great Depression Generation” or the “World War Two Generation”. The two most defining events of the Twentieth Century which caused the most bloodshed and anguish they had to bear. But they showed their mettle and came out as examples for the rest of us. Their accomplishments are staggering but the mere fact that they survived these two events is achievement enough but they were and are defined by their experiences and the manner in which they came through their adversity. But today I feel a great deal of sadness for them because they are still getting the raw deal. Just how they are on the receiving end came to my attention only last week when I was reading about how so many had been victimized in the “Bernie Madoff Scandal”. One story was of a 90 year old man who had lost every nickel he ever made to this low life scumbag – and by calling him that it is an insult to scumbags – and his $50 billion pyramid scam. This poor neptuagenarian had to go out and find a job just to survive. The Great Depression and World War Two weren’t enough for him to get through. Now when he only has a little time left he has to go back to work.
The second group that has found itself on the short end of life’s dealings has to be the “Baby Boomers” of which I am one. On the one hand it is true that we enjoyed the benefits of the affluence of the 1950s and 1960s - not to mention the hard work of our elders - but just look at what we had to deal with. First it was Vietnam and all the divisiveness that presented us with. No matter if we were in favor of the war or stood up against it, we all got a raw deal. If we spoke out against it we were demonized by the “Silent Majority”. If we went to war 59,000 were killed and so many of us were maimed (Vietnam, due to the ability for quick evacuation, produced the largest number of amputees not to mention survivors of shattered spines), and even those who came back with a full inventory ended up psychologically crippled for life with DSS and its related drug and alcohol abuse problems. When they came back they were called baby killers and war criminals and even the Silent Majority preferred to ignore them.
Once that had run its course we were presented with the mini Depression of the 1970s when inflation reached double digits and stayed that way for over a decade, double digit unemployment so protracted that even if you had an education you couldn’t find work. This was further exacerbated by the fifteen percent interest rates. Then at last things seemed to look up thanks to Ronald Reagan’s economic policies, then the Cold War was solved, and we could finally start making a decent living and saving for retirement. Then comes the new century and all that slipped away culminating in what we have today where our retirement plans are evaporating with every passing day and man of us may never be able to retire much as that 90 year old man I referred to earlier.
I feel sorry for the upcoming generations because they will have to deal with this now that the Boomers are nearing the end of our most productive years. Our time of influencing the economy and public policy is nearing its end. I, for one, am so glad I never had kids because the guilt I would feel for bringing them here and placing them in this position would be more than I could bear.
One big difference between the Boomers and the World War Two generation is that we Boomers never got to celebrate our achievements and what we did achieve was cut short. Actually it was more like a bad joke since just as we thought we were about to enjoy the fruits of our experiences, fate once again intervened to snatch it away.