I can't begin to tell you how many times I heard pick yourself up by your boot straps during the 2008 crisis which didn't break for my industry for an almost solid 8 years. I bet you'll never guess what age demographic was most likely to give the boot straps advice... I also bet you will never guess who stole the god damned boots and cut the straps off...
As a Gen.X'er many of us worked extremely hard scrapping our way up over the years. This road was made even more difficult as the Boomers changed the rules in every facet of society and were notorious for slamming the door shut behind them at every level of their progression.
In the 90's I watched and personally witnessed a mass Exodus of people at retirement age still experts in their fields forced out of corporation after corporation to make room for this plague of Locusts ie boomers, many by way of using cut throat tactics. As soon as they hit majority rules it became two wolves and a lamb voting for what's on the dinner menu. Fast forward to 2008 when at times a record 750,000 jobs a month were fleeing the country. Whole industries like Auto Manufacturers and the last of our anchor manufacturing base was shipped over seas by Baby Boomer leadership taking advantage of the chaos of the Bankster's induced crisis. At anytime in the 80's and 90's this Generation of cut throat's could have experienced the same fate as millions upon millions of hard working American's experienced during 2008, but our Corporate leaders during the 80's were from a different age and Generation. Many of them WW2 and Korean War Veterans, they still beleived in family, and community, and it was a part of company culture back than even a sense of patriotic duty to keep there corporation's in the U.S. Many corporate leaders could take pride and watch their employees families thrive and live the American dream and even a sense of Civic pride knowing the economic impact their corporations had on their communities.
What sticks in the back of my mind like a festering wound is the absolute lack of empathy the Baby Boomers had during the 2008 crisis which brings me back to their infamous cliche,"pick yourself up by your boot straps. This lack of empathy as far as I was concerned bordered on sociopathic behavior. With many industries entirely vanished, and those well paying blue collar jobs like the building trades verged on over 30% unemployment. Instead of sympathy at the very least it was always,"well back in my day.... I worked two jobs and walked up hill to work both ways". "If you have to work 3 minimum wage jobs to make ends meet, repo your cars and take the bus than so be it". "People shouldn't live beyond their means." Easy to say when a whole Generation not only financially and politically stacked the deck in their favor, but the Boomers were many of them at the top when the crisis hit, and spent a small part of their life during the most prosperous times this countries ever seen roughing it. There were well educated people with masters degrees who couldn't even begin to find one part time job more less 3.
Boomers also never faced a Great Depression level crisis either that lasted as long as 2008. Not to mention their impotent, selfish leadership was responsible for this crisis through market de-regulation, revoking Glass-Steagal during the Clinton Administration and choosing globalism and slave wages overseas over there own children's future.
Another popular reply in regards to the boot straps statement,"Well I worked summer jobs and part time, and paid my own way through college",says said Boomer. And again the Baby Boomers have slammed the door in the faces of future generations by destroying those jobs that paid their way through school, which under Boomer leadership turned Colleges into major for profit learning centers creating a current Trillion dollars in student loans for today's College students, and demanding even low paying entry level positions to require a 4 year degree for a job that won't even pay you enough to pay rent and the student loan at the same time. And to this the Boomer replied with a yawn," Pick yourself up by the boot straps...
Personal note, I could write a book on this subject, there definitely is going to be a part 3,4,5,6 thru infinity. It's an issue I have dealt with as long as I have been alive. I feel I cut this a little short. I don't believe in divide and conquer which has been perfected to an art form by our government, but my observations are not exclusive to just my experience and there are countless articles on major publications. With Millennials and Generation Z the future is bright, I believe they hold a promising future for us all.
