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The Boomer Blockade: How One Generation Reshaped Work and Left Everyone Behind

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Re: The Boomer Blockade: How One Generation Reshaped Work and Left Everyone Behind

#11

Post by jhayward »

Think about the rhetoric being used whenever someone refers to "boomers" today.

First, identify a sub-group. Begin referring to the group as "they", as "other" than "us". Make sure they are not seen as heterogenous individuals - "they" are a single, malevolent entity.

Next, ascribe to them great power, unearned, over "us".

Then, ascribe to them ill-gotten wealth, power, control. All nefarious and self-aggrandizing.

Now describe them as "the problem", as "intractable", implying that something must be done - about them - to them.

Begin to use the language of violence, attributing it to "them". A blockade is an act of war, committed by an aggressor.

What do you think the outcome of this kind of rhetoric will be?

Re: The Boomer Blockade: How One Generation Reshaped Work and Left Everyone Behind

#12

Post by plussed_reader »

jhayward wrote: post #11

Think about the rhetoric being used whenever someone refers to "boomers" today. First, identify a sub-group. Begin referring to the group as "they", as "other" than "us". Make sure they are not seen as heterogenous individuals - "they" are a single, malevolent entity. Next, ascribe to them great power, unearned, over "us". Then, ascribe to them ill-gotten wealth, power, control. All nefarious and self-aggrandizing. N…

A conflict in pursuit of the demise/revisioning of atrophied systems?

Re: The Boomer Blockade: How One Generation Reshaped Work and Left Everyone Behind

#13

Post by SketchySeaBeast »

jhayward wrote: post #11

Think about the rhetoric being used whenever someone refers to "boomers" today. First, identify a sub-group. Begin referring to the group as "they", as "other" than "us". Make sure they are not seen as heterogenous individuals - "they" are a single, malevolent entity. Next, ascribe to them great power, unearned, over "us". Then, ascribe to them ill-gotten wealth, power, control. All nefarious and self-aggrandizing. N…

In this case that group is, in fact, our parents. It's not an abstract group - it's people we know in our life. In order to make it an abstract "other", the people need to stay abstract. I don't begrudge my parents their success, I just know that I may not share the same.

Re: The Boomer Blockade: How One Generation Reshaped Work and Left Everyone Behind

#14

Post by JoeAltmaier »

geogra4 wrote: post #4

Interesting article - but it's even worse than that. I had a friend of mine who is a lawyer at a large hospital system. When the boomer head of the legal department retired they gave him the same job she had with half of the salary. Even when the boomer blockade stands down, what's left isn't what it used to be.

Its all too common to lose a VP and hire a director.

Re: The Boomer Blockade: How One Generation Reshaped Work and Left Everyone Behind

#15

Post by topkai22 »

Great article. I'm very suspicious of attempts to "blame it on the boomers", but this has some very good analysis that should be built upon.

There are some confounding factors - the baby boom's sheer relative to the preceding and succeeding generations means that at least some of the noted effects would occur even if the "age you got promoted" probability distribution remained the same.

The specific complaints about the consulting and legal industries expansion of the career path have the issue that the size of those firms have grown massively over the time period indicated- McKinsey had 88 staff in 1951, 7700 in the early 2000s and 27000+ by 2018. That’s simply not the same company/industry and not really due to demographic trends.

Overall though, it makes raises some good points (particularly the implication that there is/was positive ageism toward boomers in the selection of executive roles) that are worth reflecting on.

BTW- it’s really Gen X (and the younger boomers) that got hosed here. The boomers really are retiring now and millennials will have plenty of career ahead after that.

Re: The Boomer Blockade: How One Generation Reshaped Work and Left Everyone Behind

#16

Post by jhayward »

plussed_reader wrote: post #12
jhayward wrote: post #11

Think about the rhetoric being used whenever someone refers to "boomers" today. First, identify a sub-group. Begin referring to the group as "they", as "other" than "us". Make sure they are not seen as heterogenous individuals - "they" are a single, malevolent entity. Next, ascribe to them great power, unearned, over "us". Then, ascribe to them ill-gotten wealth, power, control. All nefarious and self-aggrandizing. N…

A conflict in pursuit of the demise/revisioning of atrophied systems?

> pursuit of the demise/revisioning of atrophied systems?

So, you see the outcome as killing off the olds?

Re: The Boomer Blockade: How One Generation Reshaped Work and Left Everyone Behind

#17

Post by okareaman »

I'm a boomer and I can think of a few things off the top of my head that made the 80's and 90' a great time for a young person to be alive. 1) The previous generation was small because of the depression and ww2 - not a lot of older workers. 2) Paul Volcker came in with Ronald Reagan and tamed the crippling inflation that was hurting everyone. 3) No one at work or at home had a personal computer on their desk - the computer revolution took off 4) The Soviet Union collapsed leaving the US once again the sole super power. 5) People became health conscious and quit smoking. Medical technology advanced and prolonged our working life. There are probably things I am forgetting, but indeed, it wasn't hard to make money, buy a house and start a family.

Edit: I don't see how anyone can blame boomers because it's harder now. I gave my millennial kids a good start.

Re: The Boomer Blockade: How One Generation Reshaped Work and Left Everyone Behind

#18

Post by plankers »

okareaman wrote: post #17

I'm a boomer and I can think of a few things off the top of my head that made the 80's and 90' a great time for a young person to be alive. 1) The previous generation was small because of the depression and ww2 - not a lot of older workers. 2) Paul Volcker came in with Ronald Reagan and tamed the crippling inflation that was hurting everyone. 3) No one at work or at home had a personal computer on their desk - the co…

It's all the millenial kids that you didn't give a good start and who are getting those 63% of new jobs that pay below-average who are suffering.

Re: The Boomer Blockade: How One Generation Reshaped Work and Left Everyone Behind

#19

Post by abathur »

jhayward wrote: post #11

Think about the rhetoric being used whenever someone refers to "boomers" today. First, identify a sub-group. Begin referring to the group as "they", as "other" than "us". Make sure they are not seen as heterogenous individuals - "they" are a single, malevolent entity. Next, ascribe to them great power, unearned, over "us". Then, ascribe to them ill-gotten wealth, power, control. All nefarious and self-aggrandizing. N…

I agree that it's important to be conscious of the rhetorical currents we create, and vigilant about what follows from carrying them to their logical conclusions. This is, for example, why we don't call people vermin or cockroaches. It's rhetoric that has obvious logical conclusions.

But inter-generational strife isn't quite the same thing. It's conflict largely between parents and their children, shaped by that intimacy. And it's a conflict that cuts both ways...

Think about the rhetoric being used whenever someone refers to "millennials" today.

First, identify a sub-group. Begin referring to the group as "they", as "other" than "us". Make sure they are not seen as heterogenous individuals - "they" are a single, entitled entity.

Next, give them trophies, unearned.

Then, ascribe to them the rise of avocado toast, end of homeownership, and lack of ambition. All overeducated and self-defeating.

Now describe them as "increasingly falling for socialism's trick", as "unpatriotic", implying that something must be done - about them - to them.

Begin to use the language of violence, attributing it to "them". Killing the date, and romance, and marriage, and golf, and the motorcycle.

What do you think the outcome of this kind of rhetoric will be?

Re: The Boomer Blockade: How One Generation Reshaped Work and Left Everyone Behind

#20

Post by sizzzzlerz »

plankers wrote: post #18
okareaman wrote: post #17

I'm a boomer and I can think of a few things off the top of my head that made the 80's and 90' a great time for a young person to be alive. 1) The previous generation was small because of the depression and ww2 - not a lot of older workers. 2) Paul Volcker came in with Ronald Reagan and tamed the crippling inflation that was hurting everyone. 3) No one at work or at home had a personal computer on their desk - the co…

It's all the millenial kids that you didn't give a good start and who are getting those 63% of new jobs that pay below-average who are suffering.

And what would you like for him to do about that?
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