General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: It seems like there's a lot of dislike and contempt for "boomers" from "millennials" [View all]thucythucy
(8,050 posts)better off than you were?" itself begs some questions. First and foremost, who is it you're talking about?
If you're talking about entitled white men who expect the whole world to revolve around their entitlement, then definitely, the world is worse today than it was for them in 1960.
If you're talking about people of color, GLBTs, women, or people with disabilities, the world is, I would argue, in the US at least, a better place. For some people it's hugely better--for instance, children with disabilities, who today aren't locked by the hundreds of thousands into massive state institutions where they're routinely raped, beaten, castrated and otherwise mutilitated, sometimes even murdered. That right there is a HUGE improvement, in my book at least.
In 1960, a woman who was raped was told a) it's your fault and b) keep your mouth shut. There was NO support for a woman in such a situation, not anything you could count on, anyway. Way too much of that still goes on today, but at least there are rape crisis centers and counselors. Such things didn't even exist until the women's movement founded them in the late 60s early 70s. I count that as a huge improvement.
In 1960 most women couldn't even buy birth control. Condoms were illegal in some states. Abortion was a crime in all of them. As under attack as reproductive rights are today, in some parts of the country they still exist. I count that as an improvement, don't you?
In 1960 most black people in the south couldn't vote. The very idea of a black governor, let alone a black president, was pie-in-the-sky laughable. The right to vote is again under attack--but compared to 1960, even 1970...
In 1960 most women were expected to stay at home and be dutiful wives. If their husbands raped or beat them, tough shit. A woman who'd been divorced was a slut. Also a woman who had sex before marriage. And forget about being an unwed mother, you were "ruined" for life.
In 1960 very many Latino men, women and children were the virtual slaves of agri-business. No rights, no voice, no power. Check out the documentary "Harvest of Shame" sometime and you'll see what I mean. Again, not that there isn't exploitation and hardship today. But in 1960 this wasn't even seen as anything wrong. It was "the nature of things" that white people subordinated brown people. Hell, it was even in most school textbooks!
And getting back to people with disabilities--my community of heart--there were no curb cuts, no accessible transit, no ramps ANYWHERE, or hardly anywhere. A person in a wheelchair couldn't even find a place to piss or shit, once outside their own home (or the institutions where most of us were imprisoned), let alone a job, a spouse, a life. I think the Boomers did just fine by us, thank you.
I'm not saying everything is wine and roses now, especially for people who are in a racial, ethnic, sexual or other minority. But to say the world, or the States anyway, are way worse for most people is I think a gross over simplification.
Like I say, for white men, maybe. Even there, at least those who turn eighteen and aren't rich aren't faced with the prospect of having their asses drafted and sent to a jungle somewhere to fight in a war they want no part of. That alone, again, is hugely better--unless of course you're one of those folks who misses the draft.
Problems today--especially the economic problems--are immense, no doubt about it. Had the Supreme Court not botched the 2000 election, had Gore been able to carry on the Clinton legacy of budget surplusses, relative peace, and relative economic prosperity, we'd be in a vastly different place today. That's not something you can pin on this or that generation, but rather the elitists who stole that election and the judges who enabled them (most of them appointed by Nixon, Reagan, and Bush I--none of whom were Boomers).
Then again, of course, Clinton was a Boomer, as was Dim Son.
Just goes to show it's dangerous to generalize.
The struggle continues, and each of us has to do what we can with what we have. That's all we can do.
Best wishes.