Are the baby boomers the most selfish generation in history?

WHOOPS MSG WENT TO SOON REPLYS TIME TO IGNORE THEM NOW

COME ON GRANSNETTERS....... THEY'VE DONE WHAT THEY INTENDED..... THEY GOT 68

Go to the local Accident and Emergency department from Thursday through Sunday evening and you find yourself rubbing shoulders with drunks and drugged up pensioners who have got themselves into fights as a result, costing the NHS an absolute fortune and stretching resources.

Lol. I think not.

Erm, does anyone know who this "Allyoungpeople" post is from, and why on GN?

Agree with Smithy. Appears the OP has made no further comment, and we have run with it now for 3 pages. I could (but I wont) put my pennyworth into the debate and would agree with most of the GN posters. However it is of concern there seems such ageist antagonism in shed loads at present.

My niece, who lives in Australia, has just completed two degrees whilst at the same time buying a house with her partner. Of course, it did mean working two jobs and studying into the early hours but she knows that if you want anything you have to get off your arse and work for it.

As I have said before on here- if you google "Intergenerational Foundation" you will find this is a think tank which has been founded purely to highlight the imagined unfairness between generations and stir up hatred of the Baby Boomers. I wouldn't be surprised if one of their lot started this thread.

I agree with view that AYP's post was deliberately planted. Some great replies from Gransnetters, but probably the best reply would be to have ignored it completely as it's a load of b------s.

AllYoungPeople
I'll bet your parents are incredibly proud that their offspring turned out to be so polite, charming, and well informed!
If they had been less conscientious, you may have become a rude, ignorant, spoilt, ill informed, obnoxious little brat!
Enjoy your school summer holidays; you know, the time you get off when you should be working, paid or voluntary, but would rather sit anonymously at your computer proving beyond all doubt that you are, in fact, a moron!

This site does not have posting status for members, so it might just be a troll post.

We had one similar on a wildlife site trashing the animals we were watching.

So maybe the mod can remove the post if it's a one-off? It serves no purpose.

We were all young once. This reminds me of that cult movie.. Wild In The Streets

Agree totally with the above comments. I, too, was born during WW2 and had a 'Saturday job' to help out with finances at home. I earned 10 shillings for a 10 hour shift. Although I went to Grammar school, and therefore did not leave school until I was 16, there was no question of going off to Uni. It was straight into the workplace, where I stayed until I was 47, at which time I realised my ambition of going to Uni. Of course I travelled daily (a 4 hour round trip), as I still had family responsibilities. As my husband was working, my grant was minuscule, and by the time I paid travel costs I was well out of pocket. To cover this, I started a small business venture, which I could run alongside my travels/studies. My day began at 5.30a.m., and ended whenever.
Yes, we did own our house, which we had worked hard for, but we still supported our DDs in any way we could.
After graduation I returned to the workplace until my retirement.
Selfish generation? Grow up and get real!

@AllYoungPeople - I find your comment a touch condescending and slightly contemptible. Just because you and the other 48.1% did not succeed in getting your choice, it just seems very immature to question the intelligence of the 51.9% winning voters. Perhaps it is they who should be questioning yours?

To label the Brexiters (and I am not one of them by the way!) as having made “arrogant mistakes and stupid voting” is just showing what a bad loser you are, and actually showing your own intellect as questionable. You really need to do some more research before blaming the pensioners for all your woes...!!

Also you seem TO IGNORE THE FACT that more than a third of 18-24 years old did not bother to vote, so frankly, if you do not like the result of the Referendum, you only have yourselves to blame...!! Time to stop blaming everyone else and realise what happens when you are too lazy to get your butt out of bed to go and make your voice count. Far too late now to cry that democracy did not deliver what you wanted. Learn by your mistakes and accept you and only you are to blame.

As for calling us “selfish idiots”, I think it’s quite ironic really. If your generation had not behaved in such a selfish and idiotic way, and had bothered to vote, then you would probably not find yourselves in such a mess. Very easy to always blame someone else, when in actual fact you are even more accountable for the Brexit situation we now find ourselves in...!!

Like most of the kids at Glastonbury who forgot to vote and are now moaning about the result, I wonder if you even got off your backside to make it to the polling station.

Incidentally, nearly all of the young people I know who did vote chose leave.

The OP is just a troll trying to get a reaction out of us. As they say 'Don't feed the troll'

I'm a grandmother in my fifties and I voted Remain. I'm not sure who the remarks are meant to hit. My retirement age currently set at 67, and I fear that it will increase even further. I went to university and I have worked my whole life; started working when I was at school at the age of 14. My working life - always been within the European union so I have no knowledge of what it was like before we were in Europe. I noted that Wales was predominately Leave with the Remain areas coinciding with where the Universities are located. I could not understand the thinking as Wales has benefited greatly from EU money; I've witnessed the changes because living out of Wales but visiting regularly I could see. Lack of information and knowledge prior to voting is my only conclusion. However, my belief - no shame in not knowing but wholly unacceptable to prefer to be in the dark!

Is AllYoungPeople for real or a straw man to stir the 'intergenerational envy' pot?

Ill informed and intemperate views purporting to be the voice of 'All' young people merely stir up spiteful emotions and the most useful thing is to ask in whose interest is this'setting the dogs on each other'.

Envy serves those the interest of those who would tax away the assets of the older generation to serve those of the younger. Only governments can tax assets and it would indeed minister to their interest to have another jampotful to squander. Who really believes that money taxed to help the young would reach the young? it would be lost in the leaky sieve of administration, bureaucracy, middle men, agencies and other interested parties.

Many more older people are very poor rather than well off and many of those with and without adequate resources spend their time and money helping their children and grandchildren. This help is of the best kind and certainly better than the scatter gun aid of governments as it is targeted, waste free and comes with invaluable wisdom and advice. No one gives their grandchildren money to pay the rent if it is being spent on mobile phone bills or mini-breaks.

Personally, I will be hanging on to as much of my assets and cash as I can to pass on to my children and their children since I have raised them to be deserving of such an inheritance.

AllYoungPeople will not be getting a penny of my dosh if I have anything to do with it. Mannerless, ungrateful and ignorant behaviour does not deserve to be rewarded.

Dear All young people poster.

Your views were interesting thanks.

Maybe you can put your energy into lobying parliament to enable young people to build accommodation in their parents gardens or onto the side of their houses with a clause that it can only be sold onto another first time buyer at a % below the market rate. This way you will get to build an affordable home and help future generations with our growing housing problems.
I never got the chance to go to Grammar school as I wished as my parents could not afford the bus fares. I never got the acting, dance lessons or music lessons I wanted.I never got a chance to go to a subsidized university either but actually not sure at 18 I would have benefitted that much but would have in my mid twenties early 30's. What I did was worked and took experiential learning into my life in many ways to improve my total education as a human being. There are many forms of intelligence and one of the highest forms all of us will benefit from is not intellectual intelligence but emotional intelligence. The greatest teacher of this is life and our relationships with others. Don't worry..just think laterally about your issues/challenges.

All the best. Maybe do some voluntary work for victims of torture, amnesty international and animal charities...also learn to meditate and relax. Above all be gentle with your mind and your good self as this will enable you to show this to others.

I genuinely feel the EU was a highly corrupt cartel and I do not wish to be in that sort of unpeaceful situation which is ultimately what corruption causes,and greed, and unhappiness and a me,me,me ethos and a... I'm all right jack... type of behavior and thinking. I am 51 and about to start my own business after loosing everything but a good lesson is...on a daily basis..always work with circumstance and be kind to others..Also remember that nothing stays the same and life is short so be as positive as you can..it will grow you a fine strong character that other s will admire.

Once again thanks for your input and expressing your views so openly.

What a misinformed rant. We Boomers worked hard for what we have and did not expect half the things that are regarded as absolute necessities now. Your generation will inherit these houses we have worked so hard to buy - most of us will have inherited nothing. As for university education - it might have been free, but most of my generation needed to go out to work - only the lucky few went on to further education. Far more people go to Uni now, and I am, sick of the whining about paying tuition fees and debt. Mortgages are a debt too - we had one for years, or perhaps we should have expected someone to give us a house free? if you want to improve your future then get a part time job while you are at Uni - only 26 weeks a year after all - and pay your way. That is called realism. We remember life before the EU - and there is life after.

Technically I am not a baby boomer, having been born in World War II. It's pretty much all been said, but just to point out an interesting statistic. We are told we have stolen the future of young people who wanted to remain in the EU and that a the majority i.e. 72% of the young voted to stay. What they don't tell us is that it was 72% of 36% - 36% of the population being the proportion made up of young voters.

That's a pretty big proportion of young people who couldn't be arsed to vote.
Perhaps OP you should be talking to them about how they couldn't care less about their future?

Oh, and grow up,

I've seen almost the same posting on the
Guardian . A troll.

Dear AYP (if you are still looking at replies to your post), it is true that politicians have been "courting" the grey vote for years. That is because they are the ones who mainly vote.

I haven't seen statistics for the age ranges of people who voted Leave and I don't know your age, but it could be (as others have said) that they include many young people of your age.

Are you suggesting the NHS should stop spending money on terminally ill people who are older so that they should just be left to die more quickly and in more pain? What is the proportion of all NHS money that is spent on end of life care (a percentage will do)?

How did we "older people" collectively stop house building"? It conjures up a picture of us collectively throwing away our cement mixers and trowels! You are incorrect abour NIMBYs only being older people. There are plenty of "younger" people who oppose new developments near them. And what about the developers who are sitting on development land? Are they all oldies as well?

I think it's a disgrace that we aren't building more homes and letting the Buy-to-Let market rip and I expect many others here agree. No recent Government has done enough about it despite all the planning rules having been relaxed to encourage development and the Government has for too long allowed anyone to buy up land and property in the UK for money-laundering purposes, driving up prices for everyone - including older people.

I would respectfully suggest that if you really want to persuade people about how public money could be saved and put to uses that would be more heplful to young people, you avoid blaming one particular group of people as if they carefully planned it all so that your generation would suffer.

This is not only bordering on the paranoid, it just comes across as insulting.

This senior citizen, like many of my generation, did have it all - an insecure childhood at the end of the war with rationing, not always enough to eat and a one-parent mother because father died in the war. At school we had classes of forty plus (not that it did us any harm because teachers didn't have to behave as policemen) and boring textbooks. Many of us had jobs at sixteen or younger because our families needed our wages and if girls were lucky, they had one best dress and not a wardrobe of designer jeans. I could go on for ever about what we had. When is ageism going to be considered a hate crime? I voted to remain and so did most of my friends. And did the crowds at Glastonbury arrange postal votes before they went?

I am also sick of hearing some young people say they can't now go and live in the EU, how many of them would actually have done that and where exactly do they want to live and work Greece?Albania?Croatia? and no they just wanted to cherrypick where they went - how shortsighted of them.

Think AllYoungPeople a bit of a stirrer who likes to sit back and watch......
Well done Gnetters some great replies too many to mention.

Anya and Daphnebroon . . . great responses!