Thank you Judy. As a BB and sometime BBB, I concur with what you said. In my mid fifties in a challenging management position, I am contemplating retirement in about 5-10 years. As you also reflect, it will be best to spend the retirement years doing something useful and rewarding. Some charity work perhaps - there are plenty of opportunities. Put something back into the society that I have benefitted so much from. Some part time paid work might be the go, and it would be nice to think employers would consider that my experince and training will give me something to offer them.

To make the most of the rest of my life I will need my health & fitness, and I am working hard on that as I notice many of my generation are. I don't want to squander my good luck by dying unneccesarily early.

Interesting that you come from the WW2 generation. It has always struck me, the contrast between the ease of things for the BB generation compared to the difficulties of preceding generations: 2 world wars, the great depression, a lack of universal secondary, let alone tertiary, education; major disease epidemics like polio, influenza, diphtheria and so on. We really are the lucky ones.

I agree with you, PK.
I was born, as WW2 was declared, to parents who had lived through WW1 and the Depression. They were lower middle class, and resolved that their children would "have a better life" than they.
Luckily, they gave us an appreciation of lifestyle and economic cause and effect, for which I was grateful as I stepped straight from school into the very job in the media I wanted.
I had a vast choice of employment in 1955!
I have recently turned a young 68, started a new business, and am looking forward to many more years of happy, healthy work.
I agree that BBB's, approaching "retirement", need to evaluate just what they can return to the society which gave them so much.
Perhaps they could study objectively the work and social prospects of today's young adults, then become more aware of their own fortune.

My oh my, Judy sure is bitter. I wonder what fairy land she comes from, silver spoon land. I only never knew a BB's who got everything handed to them on plate. But I grew up in a housing estate full of ex servicemen, 99% were poor, finding it hard to put food on the table and overcome their war trauma. When I started work, sure there were heaps of jobs to choose from, but it was still hard to get enough to save for a house or car. My mother was still paying for her house when she died, as were most living in that area.

From my experience, its the BB's who gave their children what they didn't have, its their kids and subsequent generations, that are sitting round saying, I want it and I want it now. What we wanted, was freedoms from sexual stereotyping, inequality, hunger and living from hand to mouth.

Then again, I may not know anything, not having grown up in the middle classes with their silver spoon mentality. Its those people are running our country at present, need we say anything more, to see the results. Either that, or Judy and co, are jealous because they missed out being free souls. As for retirement, I operate a hospitality business and can tell you, all the retired BB.s are loving not having to working and continue slaving to support the elite of the world. Its not on their agenda.

They're saying bugger you to those those not satisfied with having people slave to support their elitist attitudes. Most had father and family killed during WW2 and grand parents, uncle killed during WW1. Most f those were murdered by the middle class officer elite, sending them into places with the only result, being massacred.

Who cares if thing collapse, the real BB's have known its going to happen for the last 3 decades and they're prepared. Still you can try to eat your silver spoon.

Thank you, the alchemist!
Of course you, Judy are not one of these awful people. Why do people have to do this? why do they have to say "YOU got this...na..na..na..so YOU should do this..."
Each generation encounters a different set of challenges as does each individual. Less knocking please, it puts people off any sensible argument one may have.

As an original baby boomer (b 1946) I wonder who Judy is talking about. Certainly not me or my wife (same age). The problem is when you start to generalise to a whole group some perceived attributes of a few in that group. Baby boomers are as diverse in their experience, attributes and expectations as any other group in society.

Judy

Phew! I can't remember reading so much bulldust for a long, long time.

I am a baby boomer (1947). I have not met any of the people to whom you refer. I have never expected instant gratification for anything. I have worked hard all of my life. My parents could only afford to buy me one pair of shoes when I entered high school, so that I had to wear my laceups everywhere. And there were lots like me.

The Alchemist, Tillietee and Rossco - thank you for your posts.

I can't believe that a so-called experienced journalist can get published writing such rubbish. I found the entire article highly insulting. What was your goal Judy? How will your article have a positive influence on society?

Kay

The Alchemist said:

”From my experience, its the BB's who gave their children what they didn't have, its their kids and subsequent generations, that are sitting round saying, I want it and I want it now. What we wanted, was freedoms from sexual stereotyping, inequality, hunger and living from hand to mouth.”

As a child of the BB’s (who is desperately struggling financially) I agree with that 100%!

Most of my own generation make me sick! The majority of them are elitist Howard voters and many of them are members of the Young Liberals who are undoing all the work the BB’s did by fighting for social justice. Or at the very least, don’t care about the demise of social justice.

I see my own generation over-spending and not having ANY contentment with the simple things in life like I have learned to enjoy. They need the best car with the biggest stereo, a plasma screen TV, oh…the list just goes on and on….

For this reason I am ashamed of my own generation. So much so, that I have lost touch with many friends of mine who just go on and on about their shares and the stock market. Just keep going idiots and you’ll see your rights slip away further and further.

Although I will say that I do know a lot of BB’s that fit Judy’s description of them as well.

Further to this, I'd just like to add that I hope the generation after me continues the legacy of the BB's and fights for social justice.

Heck! They're gonna need to after the damage my selfish, elitist generation is about to inflict on this country.

My appologies to the people of my generation who aren't like this. We're a rarity.

I agree heartily with Alchemist and others.

I am a BB and there was nothing handed to me on a platter, nor any of the kids I grew up with. The generations following the BB's are the ones who demand, we have spoiled them. Our parents were so frugal post war (remember, they had been through the depression and rationing, credit or the never never was still spoken about in hushed tones. We stirred our tea with spoons from Coles, the silver only came out on Christmas day.

The BB's were the ones who made the noise to change our world, gaining equality for women, becoming politically aware and enjoying the fun ride of change which we were actively creating. The problem facing us now, is that we have cruised along, changing our lives, many times changing jobs and becoming multi skilled, only to find that we are expected to sit there and shut up like the 50's plus before us.

We are not prepared to do that, and nor should we.

It is time we started another movement, and have employers and Governments acknowledge that we are a fund of knowledge, have many skills, have survived relationship breakdowns, handled full time work and raising kids, and the list goes on. We need to regain our inner strength, our voice, and make a significant difference once again. Get us into those jobs, allow us to train younger people. The only job I could find last year was one I had to create - buying a business. Use us, we have much to offer. Wanting change is not being a brat. Was the writer of the article someone who never quite fitted in?


There may never be a 'tomorrow' for baby boomers, after all, I still don't know what I want to do when I grow up! A spoiled brat? No bloody way. Too busy living.

Alchemist,tinkerbell1952, rossco and Kalweb, particularly Kalweb: you guys are displaying typical BBB behaviour: denial. Judy must have struck a nerve, and you respond with typical BBB behaviour. Listen to yourselves. "Nothing was handed to ME on a platter'. '...not having grown up in the middle classes with a silver spoon in my mouth..' 'I have worked hard all my life'.

Well, big whoop. Just have a good look at how your parents and grandparents lived. Did any of you experience a great war or great depression, where your whole life turned upside down and you were lucky just to survive? Thought not.

I too lived in straightened circumstances as a child in the 50s which if described, make me sound like a member of the Monty Python 4 Yorkshiremen sketch. Me and all my siblings, with middle of the road jobs, have material wealth my parents could not have dreamt of back then. And THAT is the story of the BB generation: unprecedented opportunity and reward for those who work. Don't deny it, we in our 50s and 60s are the luckiest generation in history.

Trouble is, too many BBs don't appreciate it. Too much of the 'me generation'. Try working in a service industry. It's the BBBs with their 'I want it, and I want it NOW'. This is not the story of other generations.

Judy is right. We BBs ARE lucky, and if we play our cards right, will keep right on being lucky. And if we are really clever, the successive generations will be no less lucky. Contemplate that.

We may be luckier than our parents, but I have not known many BB's to demand they want it NOW! My comment on not being served life on a silver platter is just that, a comment to say that there was no abject wealth with money flying around, getting anything we wanted. None of my comments were in the vein of me feeling I missed out. You have interpreted what you wanted to see in our comments. Defending BB's is not being in denial. I know what I lived and I know that what was in the article was not something I have seen much of in other BB's. Many BB's made their money through hard work,. Not many parents, post WW2, had a zac left over for us to even begin to demand. Maybe it was the circles I mixed in socially and in the workforce - but I met more BB's who had a great work ethic, than I met of those who demanded more and more and being a ME generation. Possibly those of us who fought for equal rights are still seen as being unreasonably demanding?

Possibly the demand for rights and equality, and those who strived to achieve this, is really the issue that burns bright in the article writers soul?

All this was before the Liberals took the fair go out back and shot it.

It beggars belief that people who received free university educations and affordable houses are the first to tut-tut about the lazy generations which followed.

Fair labour for a fair share is reasonable, but the spirit today is "never give a generation of suckers an even break". If you want to get off the ground floor: study by day, work in a minumium-wage service industry by night, then spend the first decade of your professional life paying off the HECS fee.

People under 45 are part of the community, not a cash cow to be bled dry in pursuit of larger share portfolios.

There are good and bad, hard working and lazy in every generation, although it's worth bearing in mind that the baby boomers will still be able to collect pensions when they're old (including many who pissed all their money up against a wall), which can't be said for younger generations, who will be paying for the Baby Boomers' pensions.

Baby Boomers will tell everyone else about how hard they have worked, yet they also won't mention the fact that Australia has gone from being the Lucky Country to something else now, and that generations yet to be born are going to be saddled with massive social and environmental problems largely inflicted under the watch of the Baby Boomers.

I'm not saying that young people now will necessarily make a better fist of things, but let's neither demonise nor lionise the Baby Boomer generation across the board.

Tinkerbell, if you read Judy's article and all responding posts, the issue is not whether BBs worked hard, it is what has happened to Australian society and western society generally on the BB's watch. Panho and Shorbe are righteous. Read and reflect.

I understand what Sancho and shorbe are saying, its true to a degree. However the country has mostly been run by those who are pre-BB's. BB's, were more concerned with establishing and enjoying life and war generations were doing a good job. Then it was hijacked by the bureaucratic politically correct (pre-BB's), thats when they started charging for education and everything else.

The original plan was for society to reach a stage when we all worked less, enjoying more freedoms and leisure time. Political correctness was the ploy used to take away that goal, changing it to a politically correct economic dictatorship. Which we currently have.

Now we have the present ruling generations blaming us for a situation that none of us believed would occur, nor knowingly caused. So BB's have also been conned. The problem is everyone has allowed the dictatorship to move us away from our goals and into increased enslavement.

Privatisation was the first step, moving the assets and resources from the people to corporations. Now the only income the government receives, is from us. That goes towards subsidising the owners of what we used to own, so they make a profit and we get charged more, for less. Just like banks, and everything else they've sold off.

As long as people keep voting for political parties, we will just lose more and more. Presently you even pay for driving on the roads we either payed for, or subsidise. Where's the logic in that approach, unless you enjoy your life being en slavered, sounds pretty stupid to me.

Take oil, we get about $6-$10 a barrel for our oil, the company sells it to itself in Singapore for $72 then they refine, add costs and sell it back to us. But the oil may never leave the country.

Where do political parties get their money from, the owners of our assets. Its not a complicated thing to see.

Great article Judy.

If Australia really does have an impending shortage of labour then it makes sense to enable healthy BBs to remain in the work force and contribute to society. Most BBs have seen our parents live a quiet retirement and want something more meaningful.

However as an over 50 with a hefty nest egg tucked away I have faced unprecedented ageism from potential bosses who want to employ a 30 year old and HR consultants who decry the skills shortage, yet can't tell you what precise skills are in demand then hire in a lot of Indian graduates.

Got to laugh at the federal minister who says that mining companies are crying out for workers, yes, skilled workers hired from Perth, not unskilled blow-ins trying to get off the dole.

BB don't want to work 70 hours per week, 4 days is just fine and don't want to do heavy manual labour either. After spending 35 years in a sedentary occupation the manual dexterity required of factory workers would bring on arthritis real fast. And some of us know our selves to well to be confident of our abilities to start and grow a business.

Could someone tell me what it is about the Baby Boomer generation, as it appears that everything they touch turns to dust as they worship the Holy Dollar.

For thousands of years, parents and the elders worked had to improve the lot of the forthcoming generations. After so much blood sweat and tears, the BBB's come along where they have created poor educational facilities where they are dumbing down children, health systems are disgusting. Hell, rural area's of New South Wales alone have less services than Third World Africa.

This generation took took took. They took their jobs and everything. Now, they tell their young, pay for your education, pay for your training, compete with imported peasants who are earning less money, be isolated and treated as criminals.

I have seen youth kicked out of shopping centres by Baby Boomer fear of youth when all they are doing is spending money. BBB's are anti youth. I have seen BBB bus drivers refuse youth because they are young. Only youth have laws saying that 3 or more youths together is a gang. Why don't you do the same with YOUR generation? Oh I forgot, you are God's.

BBB's, when your generation have all died off, watch the society flourish once more.

Spider, good post, i hope that when you get into your post 40's you'll be different from us gruppy old men.

I'm confused Judy...just which age group are you talking about? My understanding is that those born before 1946 are commonly referred to as 'mature age' and those after 1946 'baby boomers'. Certainly in my experience life in Australia between 1946 and 1960 wasn't all that easy for most. This talk about baby boomers being greedy is a whole lot of nonsense; they had nothing to start with, educated themselves and forged careers, and provided their children with a great deal more than they had when they were growing up.

Australia, indeed the world, has changed - get over it! My generation vs your generation should be confined to the celebrity pages of broadsheet newspapers - just for a bit of a laugh.

I tend to go along with what The Alchemist has to say here...unless you lived and grew up in Australia in the 50's you really can't know what it was like. My father used to talk about the depression and how he tried to support a widowed Mother with four boys. As children we had no idea what life in the depression was like and I think we listened to humour him.

Enjoy your retirement you mature agers and baby boomers - you have well and truly earnt it!..and as for putting back something into society haven't you already being doing that most of your life?

Phil Bramley

Well I have to add that I appear to differ from most respondees in that having been born in 1953 I can fully relate to everything Judy says. Yes I am spoilt. No I dont like it. Nor do I like getting older.
In fact I DEMAND someone finds a way PDQ for me to live to be 150.When of course someone would have found a way to live forever.
Travelling around Australia, renovating the house etc..are obviously things we do to fill our lifes experiences and not to NOT do them before we go.
My trouble is I dont want to wait till retirement to do them. I want to do them now (IM 53)whilst I am still able.I want to walk and swim and get as fit as I can whilst I can. I hate work it gets in the way of everything.What can I do.?

Judy,
I must admit I agree and disagree with you at the same time. I agree that Baby Boomers grew up in a relatively sheltered environment. I agree that now due to successes in medical since and improvements in general knowledge in health and wellbeing fields, the 60 year old baby boomers are actually only 40, if we compare them to the previous generations.
I disagree that we are the BBB. We are the same as any other generation approaching the autumn of our life. We face the same problems, if we are pushed out of a job due to our age: loss of identity (we humans define ourselves through work, position or profession), friends from work , etc. Transition from working life into active or passive retirement is a painful process. In our website www.babyboomerscentral.com.au we actually trying to help Baby Boomers in this transition in order to remain active.
I am sure Generations X and Y will face the same problems when their time comes to face the question: “ What am I going to do for the rest of my life”.
Baby Boomer and proud of it.