Ok. I am going to rant because a part of me is just plain pissed. So many of my generation got a raw deal. All the promises of our parents and grandparents, the societal contract, it's all been a lie. "Work hard, be smart in the system and you'll do well." But what do we get? Another Great Depression caused by greed of the previous generations, civil unrest caused by the lack of the previous generations to deal with the social inequalities they created. Worst inflation in more than a lifetime. Global pandemic which could have been handled way better but for, you guessed it, these old people who won't take the hint that their time has passed.
Even jobs...we wait and wait and wait for people to retire after holding seats into their 80's, who then retiring and take another job to which they contribute the same outdated thinking that got us here.
I know people, in their 80's again, who are fully retired enjoying the benefits of their stable housing market and good pensions, who still remain vitriolically involved in public policy, as if they have a dog in the fight! It's been 40 years since they had to work a wage-earning job, let alone minimum. They aren't the ones having to live with the consequences of war, unrest, climate, etc. But they won't release their death grip on the American economy and policy for nothing. Gone are the days of polite dialog, they spit words like 'idiot' and 'stupid' with hatred in their breath over people who simply have a different perspective from, I don't know, actually trying to find jobs and houses that these dust coughing has-beens won't vacate!
I just visited a rebuilt pier in St Petersberg, Florida. The previous collapsing one was a concrete monstrosity of the 20th century. So in the redesign, they had architects compete for innovative designs. I was on a board that saw them in the process. I saw the amazing winner. It was a fabulous, forward-thinking multi-use, environmentally-friendly homage to the countless hours of work to restore the bay it overlooks. It facilitated an active lifestyle with walking and boating paths, etc. But one old lady who could barely walk anymore took it upon herself to rally her cronies against it because, as she told me directly, she wasn't going to sit on a tram to get out there and couldn't walk that far. She was going to drive! And being a former politician, she got what she wanted. Tossed the design, got something very similar to the original, with at least a bit more multi-use grudgingly thrown in. And guess what...she died. So now we're stuck with this mess and she isn't even here to gloat on it! Why won't we tell these people to shut up and go clog up a golf course!
Similarly at my workplace the oldest person who is about to retire in "a year, or maybe two, who knows..." is the single biggest thorn in everyone's side, giving no peace unless he gets his way. And for what? He won't even be here soon and can quit at any time! But the rest of us have no where to go and need work to keep up with his generation's dumb myopic inflation.
We're sandwiched between this impossible assheaded generation and the millennials who hate us all, though I quite like them, if there weren't so frickin' many of them. No voice, no power, just screwed as we knew we would be from childhood.
So yeah, this is bitter and angry. But the best thing you all, my abusive parents, and your whole out-of-touch, long-lived lot can do is shut up and enjoy what you have. Leave the running of the future to the people who have a stake in it.
The only comfort I have is that in about 29 more years, when I'm reaching that age myself, I might get to live to see it start turning around. When housing prices collapse because all of you have finally died, and climate change has become so bad no one can do anything but groan at the memory of your stupid cow farts argument.
So, I hope that legacy is what you want. Because you won't be remembered fondly. You'll be remembered as the generation who effed their kids for a buck. No kidding, most of us are just too polite to say, we can't wait for you all to die. Congrats on that epitaph.
