Hippies are Terrible

The baby boomers have done nothing but leave destruction in their wake. Flower power turned into a corporate slogan.  

This was the generation that came into political and economic power in the '80s and '90s. Once in power, they managed to deregulate businesses, banks, power companies, etc. These results are still being felt today. This is the generation that started off with the ideals of Woodstock, but by the '90s, those ideals had become the soundtrack to a “greed is good” mantra. And greed became their overwhelming desire. Stock options became more important than quality of products or the humans that created them. The Big Three started churning out terrible automobiles. Somehow this was (and still is) blamed on the unions (despite the fact that I’ve never seen the guy installing windshields also design a car). So the baby boomers destroyed the unions. They cheered when Ronnie broke the air traffic controllers.  

Then in the year 2000 they went in droves and elected George W. Bush. They sent him money, they put bumper stickers on the back of their cars, and they sat and listened at their mega churches with electric guitars to their preacher about how G.W. was a good and honest Christian man. Well they weren’t able to get enough people because enough old people were still around who didn’t want to see their social security privatized and enough college kids had learned critical thinking skills and knew better than to vote for the guy. It didn’t matter. W lost the popular vote and he still became POTUS.  

And then 9/11 happened. A tragedy.

That tragedy was then exploited by the administration for the good of themselves. And while the baby boomers stock portfolios started to tank, they were distracted by two wars. Two wars that would leave the young men and women coming home from those wars without proper access to medical care. Huge rates of PTSD and no mental facilities to treat it. The wars were hugely expensive but the troops were given outdated and broken equipment that didn’t protect them from IED’s. The troops came back physically and mentally scared.  

And then since we deregulated the banks, the houses which they had bought were foreclosed on. They couldn’t get jobs in the private sector because there were no jobs. Their spouses had massive student loans to repay while the government collected massive amounts of revenue off of them. Their civil rights had been stripped, and if they were Latino in Arizona and elsewhere they were profiled and made to show I.D. If they were black, the cops shot them.  

I’m not sure about calling my grandparent's generation the “Greatest Generation.” But I think my parent's generation absolutely left this country in disarray for Generation X and the Millennials.

Here’s the good part. We are fixing it. A little at a time. Hopefully, we can get this country straightened out for our children. The ACA, strides in LGBT rights, and the strengthening of our economy are all good starting points. But we must do more to overturn the disastrous policies of the Baby Boomers.