Boomer-Millennial Wealth Gap

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I was very aware of the “Poor People’s March” and Martin Luther King when he was alive. They called him the Reverend Doctor Martin Luther King Jr. back then.

And, of course, King’s assassination.

I remember there were always 10 times North Vietnamese and Vietcong killed than American troops every day.

I remember lots of Vietnamese place names and the DMZ and the Ho Chi Minh Trail.

I don't know which country is yours, but here, my generation is definitely wealthier than my parents' generation was at this age.
This is why I don't really identify as "Millenial". My generation here is defined by growing up after the collapse of the Eastern Bloc. It's a totally different collective experience than that of Millenials in the US.

This reminds me how America-centric some discussions can be. The 20th was the American Century. The 21st not so much. When I was in France in the early 1970s, they were still recovering from WWII and often expressed resentment at the "undeserved" comfort of Americans' lives. Today I see similar resentment expressed toward China, and few people in France envy Americans, even French Jews who face a great deal of prejudice are mostly not eager to emigrate.

I dated a young woman who was born in 1959 and she once suggested I was perhaps too old for her as I had casually mentioned the Vietnam War in conversation and she was too young to remember it. I can claim to remember the Cuban revolution as I remember hearing it reported on the radio in our kitchen when I was about 5.

I'll be 69 this year and I'm old. I may still be good at my job and got promoted a year ago, but I'm old. I don't know what I'll do when I turn 70 and start getting old age benefits, as the project I am assigned to will still be going on if it's not canceled. I don't think most of my coworkers realize just how old I am and WFH is most likely a factor.

Compared to the USA, Norway's millennials have more after-tax income than American boomer's pre-tax income.

Unlike American millennials, Norway's are rich - BBC Worklife

The cost of living is higher in Norway, though. They get taxed up the gazoo.

Even getting McDonald's costs about the equivalent of US$15.

Iceland isn't that much different. I got a burger, fries, and a Coke there for the equivalent of US$22.

Last edited by kraftiekortie on 16 Apr 2021, 8:36 am, edited 1 time in total.

I'm flabbergasted that a person born in 1959 in the US doesn't remember the Vietnam War; she must have had a very sheltered childhood.

I was born in 1961, and I remember it like it was yesterday. My older brother was in some of the antiwar protests; he had long hair and tried to be a hippie then; later, he became a Trump-type conservative.

Sometimes it's interesting to realize the world is full of other countries

I do think having an older brother who was involved in those things is one reason you remember. In my house the local and evening news was turned on every night so even though I am the oldest that is why I remember those things.

I am not only the oldest in my family but the oldest of all my cousins. So I guess my parents thought my autistic behaviors is just what kids do.

In retrospect, I guess I remember many of the events of the late 60s because I was really into watching the news every night back then.

My generation here also grew up during a period of political readjustment back to democracy, after two decades of military rule, around the same time as the end of the Cold War. The main theme in everyday life throughout the 80s and early 90s though was economic instability. In my childhood, slashing a few zeros from the currency and renaming it every couple of years or so was what "normal" looked like. People ten years younger than me grew up in a completely different economic reality. On the other hand, there was no Great Recession here in the 2000s. The economy was going pretty well and it kept going pretty well. It crashed in 2014 instead, for complicated reasons unrelated to the subprime mortgage crisis, and hasn't really recovered since.

When it comes to my relationship with technology and the role it had in shaping my worldview though, I'm squarely "millennial". The concept of life without digital devices feels like "historical times" (even if they weren't part of my early childhood). As a young adult, I've also been surrounded by attitudes (in my age group) toward life goals and work and marriage and society and so on broadly aligned with what's generally associated with "millennials".

"Baby boomers" would be a total misnomer for my parents' generation here, because there was no baby boom (the concept of named generations in general isn't something people normally use here anyway). There was an increase in population growth around the same time as the baby boom abroad, but it was sustained for decades. The country had some participation in WW2 but it didn't involve many people. There has been no involvement in wars since then. The heyday of the hippie movement coincided with the early years of the military regime. It had cultural impact but not much political impact. It was also never a culturally divisive thing here afaik, just a general set of trends.

On the other hand, the Cold War in general really was a big part of what shaped my parents' worldview, directly or indirectly. So they have that in common with all other "boomers" worldwide. The country stayed (theoretically) non-aligned though, and I guess the general sense was that it was perpetually a potential pawn for either side, and significant events unfolded accordingly (like the US-aligned coup in the 60s, with communist-aligned labor unions then having a significant political role in the 70s and 80s). Those events keep echoing loudly in our politics to this day, with bizarre twists and turns.

"Millenials" here are not defined by new technologies any more than they are defined by
free elections
market economy
advertisements
affordable cars
international trade
international travel
supermarkets
European Union
NATO
immigrants
mortgages and loans
bicycle lanes
beer instead of vodka
dishwashers
suburbs
...and so many other things that were here when I was growing up but not when my parents were.
It's just a totally different world. Smartphones and social media on a top of it are feeling like just another aspect of becoming the first world.

I think my country's history is just too idiosyncratic for named generations to make sense, especially considering how socioeconomically divided the country is. History isn't necessarily synchronized across classes. Events that are significant for middle-class families might have little significance to lower-class ones (or opposite significance sometimes), and vice versa. As a middle-class person here, it's often easier to identify with middle classes elsewhere than with lower classes here, and this is sort of a defining trait of middle-class culture here. Far away and somewhat isolated, but perpetually looking outside anyway. The fact that I'm even here in this forum is partly a reflection of that.

Another thing about it is that history here tends to happen in strangely fuzzy and gradual ways. Even the return to democracy was gradual (it was so weird and complicated that I don't even understand it). I think the one event in recent history that was actually not fuzzy or gradual and did have an immediate and simultaneous impact on everyone's lives was the stabilization of the economy in 1994. I think the fact of having or not having witnessed that transition is probably more significant than anything else in determining and defining someone's "generation" here. In another decade or two though, I think the main defining event (besides the pandemic, of course) will be the rise of the far right. Yay, we're in sync with the world now.

That's where Poland differs - our "social classes" are largely defined by things different than wealth, so it's hard to talk about "middle class" in Poland. I've been about the threshold for "poverty" and about the threshold for "wealthiness" and my lifestyle didn't change much, I had exactly the same social circles, hobbies, holidays, etc.
In a socialist state, money was worth very little but things like education, social connections and ethos meant a lot... and politics. Here, politics can have more impact on your life than money.