Rocking the Baby Boomers

What’s rocking the world of the “Baby Boomers?”

In this still-unfolding “Great Recession,” many Boomers have lost their businesses, homes, life savings and retirement funds. Many have been forced to forfeit their careers and abandon their dreams—not to mention any hopes of passing on the family business.

Who’s at fault might depend on your political point of view—but, that’s not the thrust of this article.

THERE’S NO TIME TO JUST PLACE BLAME!

It’s time to get out of the rocking chair..and fight back!

As a Baby Boomer myself, I believe we were the most spoiled generation ever conceived in America. Having lost sight of the struggles and sacrifices of our parents during the war years, we partied, ate and made merry. We wasted and spent way too much, and saved too little, thinking prosperity would always be there for us. Convinced we had better answers for the future, too many of us divorced ourselves from what we called “The Establishment,” sang about free love, experimented with drugs and felt we had found true enlightenment. We were arrogant! We were...young!

Before anyone blows a gasket, I’m not saying ALL Boomers were doing drugs. I am saying many experimented with or condoned them, while many others of us just shook our heads and did little to stop what has now become epidemic in our country.

By contrast, my parents were part of what is now called “The Greatest Generation”—the World War II-era crowd. Growing up, I thought my dad was the tightest person I’d ever met, and I still smile at some of the cost-saving measures he would take. He actually tore napkins in half at the dinner table, thinking it was wasteful to use the whole thing. And I was embarrassed many times at the grocery store when he would buy bent cans in the sales bins. My dad never borrowed money for vacations or luxury items, and we rarely, if ever, ate out in restaurants. The only debt he had was a house mortgage and he paid that off early. Today, he would be seen as eccentric!