MB, enjoying your posts. Sharp as a tack. Your generation has...

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    MB, enjoying your posts. Sharp as a tack.

    Your generation has been thrown to the wolves. Is it the boomers fault? NO. It was orchestrated worldwide through neoliberalism. As a generation are they being selfish or just not educated/aware? Depends on the individual but too many of them have indulged in their political power with little care for others, not just the following generations. Many care deeply about the younger folk, the state of our society/inequality and I feel empathy for all those boomers who are struggling.
    .

    "Sea-shift to the right" (1972-1995)

    In the 1970s, the IPA and IPA NSW cooperated to establish Enterprise Australia. This organisation had as "an immediate target … the removal of the present Labor Government in Canberra", while the IPA ostensibly stayed at arm's length in an attempt to be perceived as above party politics.[16]

    From its founding to the late 1970s, the IPA had been associated with anti-socialist Keynesian economics and protectionist industry.[14][21] The appointment of Rod Kemp (CD Kemp's son) as executive director in 1982, along with other administrative changes that had occurred in the late 1970s and early 1980s, marked a shift to neo-liberal ideology that continues to this day.[21]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Institute_of_Public_Affairs


    They were advantaged at every step and then when neoliberalism came with the Hawke government it was a sedate Labor version which tried to do it in a way which brought the bulk of the people with it. Public assets, not just government but credit unions etc, were sold usually at great discount to underlying worth to please "Mums & Dads" (voters) and sophisticated investors who grew fat rich. This was at a time when they were in their 30s and 40s with settled lives, houses and disposable income to invest. Cha-ching!

    Then their Uncle Ho(ward) was elected in 1996 and the game supercharged as he knew the power of rewarding the swinging middle with easy money, the boom provided the $ and if it wasn't nailed down it was sold.

    Private Health? Are you aware that in 1996, Howard to undermine our 'socialist' public health re-birthed private healthcare offering everyone lifetime private cover at the price of a 30 yr old. That was a gift to all those boomers and older who took it up and it has undermined the economics of the system ever since. Everyone else picks up that tab by way of higher premiums, etc.

    You say,
    "My generation are better educated than the boomers" -
    certainly by education level but just know that the university system changed a lot as neoliberalism rolled through. People used to study philosophy and humanities just because it really interested them and that was perfectly ok because a university education was a good thing and they would get a reasonable job, house, family regardless. The financial imperative has led to a distinct loss of education and knowledge where it really matters in a democracy. There was a decade or so from 1996 when we would talk of 'Dumbing Down' as the rightwing worked hand in glove with media to de-intellectualise our public discourse. They won, by and large what we read and talk of now is distinctly inferior to pre-1996. It's the best thing your generation is getting switched on.

    "we are more productive and work longer hours" - but that doesn't necessarily mean they didn't work harder before the productivity improving tech in workplaces with far worse standards.
 
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