"Gen Z are over having their work ethic questioned: ‘Most boomers don’t know what it’s like to work 40+ hours a week and still not be able to afford a house’," per FORTUNE:
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Fuck every single one of you for laying this all on boomers. People from every generation had a hand in it.
GTF outta here with your generational generalizations.
Who hogged the money? Who’s STILL the most economically prosperous generation in history? Who voted extreme conservatism to maintain the status for folks specifically in that generation?
Sorry, more things lead to boomers than not. I don’t even have the full list 😭
They think we had an easy life. I’d love to show them my autobiography, especially the parts where I had 25 cent pot pies for dinner 5 nights a week, the rundown homes while we tried to catch that American dream. Voting blue the whole time, marching, active. We were more than keyboard warriors, then
Most boomers aren't billionaires. Billionaires are ruining your lives. Stop ducking worshipping them. Boomers are literally not your problem. Stop being stupid whiny bitches. -Gen X
It's the relative pay. I'm old enough to need to do math to figure out how old I am. When I was in their shoes a dollar was worth so much more. That's the screw job, it's nearly slave labor. Bring back the middle class.
The concept of the middle class was created to divide the 99%. Ik this sounds like semantics, but we need to put the power in this country back in the hands of the WORKING class. Things make a lot more sense when you view things under the lens of the working class vs the owner class.
Just wanted to acknowledge that your terminology of "working class" is, indeed, superior to the "middle class" that I used. It's clearer and it doesn't home with historic biases.
This boomer has worked 60+ hours many, many times to keep the lights on. There’s been times I’ve worked more than 1 job to keep bills paid. That’s what single mothers do no matter what generation they’re from.
Boomer men. Excuse you. Women had minimal rights at the height of Boomism. These women fought for equal rights - which is still not the law of the land.
Raping your wife was legal.
No credit.
No equal job rights.
No birth control.
No renting.
So. Boomer white men is who you are referring to.
That's a fair point but society is quickly moving back in that direction and even zoomer women have to worry about losing all of the rights women fought for in the 20th century.
There's no "but" about. And Everyone should be worried. I don't think I've said different.
I'm saying: I think boomer men had the luxury of good pay entitlements which includes retirement.
I think you might just have a more optimistic outlook on the future than I do. I think there's a very good chance young women will be worse off than even boomer women as we descend into fascism. That list of important rights women fought for could very well become a distant memory for gen z women.
So if you agree that boomers largely had it better than gen z, why the need to clarify the obvious fact that older women, like all women, are much more oppressed than men? I don't disagree with your point I just don't you're refuting anything that was said.
Absolutely. Women's rights to participate in society on anything even approaching a level playing field have been, and still are, hard fought. And even now, the men who put themselves in charge are continually trying to reverse them.
Also, I don't indulge in generational stereotyping.
Most of us Boomers didn't vote for Trump, most of the posts i see on social media fighting Trump for the past year have been boomers and females. Where the hell was gen Z? Lastly why divide us even further when there is a major fight in front of us? What's your end game here?
Completely unnecessary to deny young, hard working people the right to homeownership in this era of high flying billionaires that are numb to the peoples needs.
I’m not even Gen Z and I can’t afford a house. In fact a few years back I had saved up enough of a nest egg for a down payment. The market wasn’t great so they ran numbers and I only qualified for a 300k loan but needed about 350k for a place around here. So I told myself I would save some more/1
Just last week after a few years I went in again having saved more money and they’d told me I’d only qualify for 200k because of interest rates. I was fucking livid. They said to save more and hopefully interest rates would go down. Have you SEEN who’s running things right now?! 🤬
Why blame the boomers? Of course we know that as we have gone into our retirement funds to give our kids money for houses, cars, education and rent. Blame the corporations who think that a body needs to work 60 hours a week for or be fired and be grateful to have a job at all.
Also drives me nuts to hear "everyone is hiring!" and be told I'm lazy and not trying hard enough when like, what more am I supposed to do? Kidnap and torture recruiters until they hire me? Because I'd love to but that doesn't seem like a good plan that'll have a happy outcome.
Folks like you are why I make such a big point of not generalizing entire generations of people. The old hate the young, the young hate the old, it's a continuously repeating cycle and it's nothing but dumb and harmful.
Boomer here, divorced mother who worked more than one job..I worked 90+ a week for years to buy a 2 br/1 bath cabin & a used car. There were a lot of women who were just like me..divorced w/ children who wanted stability for our families. We shared resources & garden produce & babysat ea others kids
I had to fight in court to get my home in my divorce in 1993. I knew I'd never have the money to buy another one if I let this one go. I gave one home to 1 ex, and I'd be darned if I was going to give another one to 2ond ex. Boomer here.
lumping generations into classes disgusts me. It's rich vs poor, period. I'm a manager in my field and I still can't afford a house, let alone rent. It's one boat and we're all in it. Your Dollar is Your Vote. Stop buying from companies that don't suppport you. Learn who hurts you.
Boomer here. My generation inherited its wealth and the benefits of the American post-war economy. The subsequent boomer economy of the 80s and 90s was sustained by money boomers never earned. That said, please don't lump us all together. Many of us get it.
My father is of that generation, and he did both. While I understand some did not make the choice to do these things, it does not make them impossible.
College tuitions for community college were, on average, around $350-$400, and for state College $1500-$1700.
I will amend to say he wasn't making minimum wage when he bought his house, college was cheap enough to get him access to a higher paying job & his house cost was $32,000 for a 3bed/2bath
While largely, yes, Republicans hold the lions share of the blame. The Democrats have seen plenty of majorities of inaction as well. We can't forget that they oversaw a supermajority at the beginning of Obama's first term and failed to seize the moment for whatever reason.
At least Boomers were at work on time, came back from lunch on time, worked until it was quitting time ( or longer) and gave the job their 100%! And we didn't have our personal phone in our pocket or face!
Boomers were taught to get an education, work, marry, SAVE for a house - in that order - & it took time. Gen Z wants the house right away cause that's what all the other trendy, duck-lipped pouting uneducated Kardashians have & they are now crying because they've had to put down their phones & work.
Try following that order today and you can’t get past education and work at the same time. Marriage is irrelevant, it’s just a tax saver since most of your gen can’t keep a marriage together let alone a family. Not everybody even wants a house.
Maybe if you didn’t sniff your own farts you’d see it
Many of us (which is the problem with this entire discussion) have learned to adjust. One decade doesn't define an entire generation nor does it erase the good many had done during that time. One evolves & if you don't then yes, you will become someone else's cliche.
Bought my first house at 38 years old. I’m a Gen Xer, so it seems to me the Gen Z crowd has 7-8 more years to be where I was.
Oh, and I had 2 jobs for years.
Had 4 people living in a 2 bedroom condo for years. All in an effort to get a down payment.
sure but here you are name calling them so you clearly dont have respect for their experiences. your vote doesnt mean anything in regards to how you treat others.
It’s almost like you think Gen-X “had it made” 🤣
You do realize we’re the children of those Boomers, right?
You’re aware we’ve been shit on by them our entire lives, right?
Yet here you are, completely disregarding the Gen-X experience, and IRL it was just as freaking bad for us, likely worse.
Ya know dude, I had my power shut off before, too.
Twice.
Multiple roommates, multiple jobs.
It’s funny you think we had the advantages of the Boomers, yet IRL, we are the 1st generation in the history of the nation that will earn less in our lives than our parents. Same can’t be said for you guys 🙄
So have I! The fact you had to struggle doesn't give you the right to look down your nose at everyone else who is struggling. And we aren't making more than are parents if the money isn't even worth half as much. And houses cost a king's ransom.
I don’t “look down my nose” until they start complaining about how hard it is, and lump us with the Boomers. We had it just as fucking hard. Maybe harder, since we’re the children of those Boomers.
They felt they had to go out of their way to make it hard for us. “Builds character” and shit.
My parents are also boomers. And I'm sorry to hear people have been talking shit about your generation, too. None of the Zoomers I know have been saying anything negative about Gen X.
Not a Boomer. Not Gen Z. I bought my first house at 33. I worked and saved my money. I never went on vacation from 22-33. I rarely went out. You don’t have to do what I did. Point is this buying a house thing wasn’t as easy at it looked.
We only live on earth once. We’ll never exist here again. We’re trading hours of our limited existence for minimum wage. It’s not ethical when we have so much technology today and access to so many resources.
My parents did. They're comfortable now, albeit still not retired and likely never will be (2008 alone wiped out a lot of what they scrounged for). I think my dad slept like 6 hours a night - he grabbed every scrap of overtime, was up at 4 am to handle his share of chores, and was there for his kids
And that's nothing compared to the work ethic of some of the immigrant families I worked with when working manual jobs through school.
I don't think people should have to work that hard or budget that closely, but you're shooting yourself in the foot if you don't develop some discipline.
Their parents emigrated after WW2. My grandad busted his ass making bricks for literal pennies until he scraped together a down payment for a farm. Luckily they knew how to survive off nothing and dandelions from their experiences in Europe.
My dad brought me into the factory as a kid, and pointed out how shitty it was, showed me a young man making nothing an hour for back-breaking labour, said I should do everything I could to avoid this sort of life, but that if it came down to it, it was still way better than farming.
Imagine the delta in information flow during a single work hour: 1955 vs 2025. It's probably close to 100X. Neurons have to process it all. Work is much harder now.
Simpley not true. We couldn't afford what we wanted, when we wanted. It's called a real estate market for a reason. Stop complaining and keep looking for solutions.
BS. I am a boomer and I could not afford my first house until ai was in my forties. Since graduating from university in every job and every step of my career I worked 40-60 hours a week and continued until I retired. Most Gen Z don’t want put in the long hours required to be successful
That's because the boomers' relentless efforts at building a fair workplace and a fair society, with a darn good social safety net, have been annihilated by the predatory capitalism the following generations have allowed to roam free.
But it wasn’t the boomers who relentlessly worked towards fair labour practice and social safety nets, it was the silent generation. The boomers got to reap the rewards of those policies and then pulled the ladder up behind them beginning in to 80s…
Gen Z should boycott the economy until they get treated like the Boomers did. Cheap houses, cheap cars, cheap food and all the Boomers do is bitch still. Boomers are out of touch and never had to work in a modern economy like this one.
I'm a boomer and bought my 1st house in my 40s. I worked 2 jobs my husband was a Marine. I have seen my Gen Z kids struggled to buy their own house. They had to learn the lesson of wants versus needs.
Gen Z lives in a world where 66% of Americans live paycheck to paycheck. They work 2-3 jobs 6-7 days a week & still can't buy food & pay rent. Gen Z are stuck in fight, flight, freeze & fawn. Basic needs aren't being met. You can't rest & digest until you have a stable home & enough food to eat.
I was working at a grocery store a few years back, and ppl who had worked there for 20+ years complained that the new ppl didnt work as hard as they did. Well.... the newbs aren't making as much as you are. Some of those guys easily made triple the salary
I'm Gen X.
I currently work 80-90 hours a week (12-14 hour days).
Yes, times are tougher now.
Yes, there are certain advantages that boomers had over Gen Z.
Each generation has had its pain and there is no monopoly on who had it easiest.
We play the hand we have been dealt.
Fight to make it better.
This is so short sighted and seems like opinion and not based on facts. It also feels like it was meant to trigger people. I am not saying people are wrong to feel a certain way, however there are many factors to consider that cannot be contemplated in a handful of characters.
A lot of these posts and discussions are created by troll farms from around the planet and bots. Most posters don't have but a few followers. This in another rule and divide tactic.
The problem is that the Gen Z's who says this only see the successful boomers. They should visit their closest garden apartment complex. I guarantee that you'll find it populated with boomers who've worked their entire lives yet could never afford to own a home.
Boomers had their own difficulties. While homes were more affordable, less earning power and less access to $$$ meant that down payments were the primary barrier to home ownership.
Of course it wasn’t ALL boomers. But it’s unequivocal that the current generation is not better off financially than previous ones. Societal promises matter.
Just because it is still possible to lose the game on an easier difficulty, that doesn't mean the people playing on a harder difficulty don't have a point about how it's harder.
It starts when you're born. Millennials and Gen Z both became more educated because they were told it was a path to success, but they were told that by people for whom that education was available almost for free, and who changed the rules about becoming successful as soon as they graduated.
The data is clear: more recent generations are statistically worse off than older generations were at the same age, which is the first time that's happened since we started keeping track.
Every parent wants their children to be better-off than they, but how do we define that? Purely financial? Overall happiness? Better earning potential? Better educated? The answers may differ depending on the chosen definition.
Sorry I missed this comment earlier. Education is the path to being educated, not to success. Sure, it can be but it is not always so. Regardless, statistics tell us that earning with a college degree is still far more lucrative than not.
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Yeah I'm a millennial too. I've met lazy Gen Z, I've met more lazy boomers though 🤷♂️ they are the second most unpleasant people I've ever had to work with. Right after Gen X
I watched a movie that came out in 1980 last night and they threw around the f word (not fuck) so casually. And I was like: “Well this movie didn’t age well. Why did that word, of all words, have to be used so much back then?” It was a movie I hadn’t seen before so it caught me off guard.
Yeah that word was super duper common. Ive had similar experiences with movies I'd seen as a child. It was an awakening moment for why so much of Gen X sucks and why I suffered with so much internalized homophobia.
Sounds about right. I’d say usually the lazy Gen Z aren’t the norm and are just the ones raised by terrible, entitled people and the kids learned the bad behavior from their parents. As for boomers, I trust few, if any, of them. Same for Gen X nowadays.
Comments
GTF outta here with your generational generalizations.
Sorry, more things lead to boomers than not. I don’t even have the full list 😭
These aren’t made up sentiments btw, it’s not unfounded bashing about boomers alone bc they prospered better than any other generation in history.
I asked a 30yo tradie how things were, and he was sad because he was struggling to buy his third house. It isn't all on us oldies. Seriously.
The cost to rent is OBSCENE.
Raping your wife was legal.
No credit.
No equal job rights.
No birth control.
No renting.
So. Boomer white men is who you are referring to.
I'm saying: I think boomer men had the luxury of good pay entitlements which includes retirement.
I think you're reading someone else's posts.
Also, I don't indulge in generational stereotyping.
Not the billionaires who are sucking ALL of US dry.
I remember my first part time job also.
Minimum work week is 60 hours, standard is 76.
#EMSLife
They could buy a house on full-time minimum wage.
The buying power of minimum wage for the average boomer was about $33 in today's market.
Your first sentence is completely untrue for my generation, who graduated college in 1978, most of us the first in our family to ever go to college.
I will amend to say he wasn't making minimum wage when he bought his house, college was cheap enough to get him access to a higher paying job & his house cost was $32,000 for a 3bed/2bath
Maybe if you didn’t sniff your own farts you’d see it
“I ____ when I was 18!!!” yeah when you were able to. It’s 2025 not 1975, world’s changed. If only more boomers were able to actually see that.
All the best in your future.
Good luck.
Oh, and I had 2 jobs for years.
Had 4 people living in a 2 bedroom condo for years. All in an effort to get a down payment.
Sorry Gen-Z, you still sound like whiny bitches.
You do realize we’re the children of those Boomers, right?
You’re aware we’ve been shit on by them our entire lives, right?
Yet here you are, completely disregarding the Gen-X experience, and IRL it was just as freaking bad for us, likely worse.
saying “wow that must have sucked” is actually the direct opposite of ‘disregarding.’ in fact thats an ACKNOWLEDGEMENT of your suffering.
calling a group of people “whiny bitches” does nothing for the actual problems
Twice.
Multiple roommates, multiple jobs.
It’s funny you think we had the advantages of the Boomers, yet IRL, we are the 1st generation in the history of the nation that will earn less in our lives than our parents. Same can’t be said for you guys 🙄
They felt they had to go out of their way to make it hard for us. “Builds character” and shit.
ALL I FUCKING WANT IS TO SPEND LESS THAN HALF OF WHAT I OWN ON FUCKING RENT.
There is a movement in American to make housing more affordable. Gen Z-ers can take leadership roles & make real change!
I don't think people should have to work that hard or budget that closely, but you're shooting yourself in the foot if you don't develop some discipline.
And they voted for trump too
I currently work 80-90 hours a week (12-14 hour days).
Yes, times are tougher now.
Yes, there are certain advantages that boomers had over Gen Z.
Each generation has had its pain and there is no monopoly on who had it easiest.
We play the hand we have been dealt.
Fight to make it better.
This is TWO of my posted you’ve made MAGAt-intelligence-level comments to!
Keep beep-bopping away, bitty bitty bot 🤣
Not really anyone’s fault u gotta lay down ur insecurities on ppl and expect them to respect u since you’re so desperate for validation here 😭
Don’t come ‘at me’ you young whipper snappers 😘
https://cew.georgetown.edu/cew-reports/the-college-payoff/