The 3 Biggest Myths About Generation X
Warren Kinsella is the Canadian James Carville: that is, an extremely well-compensated, high-profile Liberal Party consultant and insider.
(It’s surely just an unlucky coincidence that since he started working for them, the Liberals went from “Canada’s Natural Governing Party” to placing an impotent third in the last federal election.)
Some of us had another great laugh at Kinsella’s expense recently, after he praised a rival party’s “innovative” campaign commercial because it starred, and would presumably appeal to, members of “Generation X.”
Except the young people in the ad were just that: young — all in their twenties.
And Generation X hasn’t been in its twenties for twenty years.
I know, because I’m a member of that cohort. As is, hilariously enough, highly paid, powerful and influential Liberal Party consultant Warren Kinsella. (See: “third place,” above.)
See, being a Gen-Xer means my irony detection meter is always switched to “ultra sensitive.” And Kinsella’s gormless mistake almost broke the damn thing.
You’d think that being Canadians of a certain age, he and I would be on the same page on this matter, if nothing else.
After all, the term “Generation X” was popularized by our contemporary Douglas Coupland’s titular 1991 novel. (And Coupland swiped his title from the name of Billy Idol’s old pop-punk band; my fellow ex-punk Kinsella should know that, too.)
There are lots of things “great minds” got wrong about Generation X since they started writing and worrying about them. (I mean, us.)
After Coupland’s novel — about over-educated, underemployed pop culture addicts who’ve formed an ad hoc “family” of friends – swept the planet, countless “consultants” (including, briefly, Coupland himself) started marketing themselves as experts on my demographic.
These consultants made a whole lot of money, keynote-speaking to job-for-life CEOs about why we Gen-Xer’s were all so broke and unemployed.
And the most irritating (and yeah, ironic) thing is, none of these “experts” (“X-perts”?) even agree on when we were born.
We were also the first generation to have our education turned into indoctrination (earlier than college anyway). Maybe that is what happened. I remember our class (’93) in our district were the first to have “required volunteer hours” that included political activism.
The true teenage rebels were the ones that recognized the hypocrisy. The teachers’ pets (last generation’s “squares”) were the ones holding the signs and marching.
On a personal note, some of us (boys especially) thought we were just as likely to die in WWIII (nuke blast or on some European battlefield) as get a job. My dad (a Vietnam vet) recommended I learn German since they were either going to be the economic leaders, or the site of the next World War, so might as well learn the language. Now that threat has passed, maybe the “helicopter parent” trend is just trying to not instill the same fatalism in our kids.
“Irony” and “slacker” – two words I wish I could erase from my vocabulary. Gen-X looked like losers when they first appeared in the workplace. I worked with a few of that cohort who tried really hard to fit the stereotype. They were over-educated, under-employed college boys, of course. Talked ironic, dressed ironic, even smelled ironic. Appearances aside, they were two of the hardest-working slackers I ever saw. Today, my boss is a Gen-Xer. Other than the ridiculous shaved-head-and-goatee look he shares with at least half of his age group, he’s about as buttoned-down an executive as I’ve ever met. I’d say Gen-X grew up just fine. Thank God most of the predictions didn’t come true.
In my opinion, what we need now is a new series of generations that don’t have any generational identity at all. They won’t label themselves, analyze themselves, celebrate themselves, or go out of their way to distinguish themselves by rejecting everything that distinguished previous generations. Nor will they let any “experts” do any of those things to them. They’ll just live and be and get on with things. They’ll be much healthier and happier for it.
Born in 63. At least in NJ where I grew up, it definitely felt like the Class of 92 was the last year of the Baby Boomers. Here’s why I say that: I noticed that the rules started changing, and always for the next year. The drinking age went up after we got to drink, then it moved nationally to 21. Colleges began to crack down on all sorts of things that we’d been allowed to do: drink and drive, party where we wanted, have keg parties. The party was over, but always, after us. Nanny statism seemed to apply to those in the next year.
That said, there was clearly a gap in the Baby Boomer generation. Demographically, there’s no doubt the Baby Boom ended in 1964 and not before then. We were the last year that had school split sessions, and I didn’t realize it at the time, but the landscape was littered with kids. Kids were everywhere back then.
But there were important differences between early Baby Boomers and later ones. For one thing. those born in the first half of the Baby Boom did have far greater opportunities, you know, if they lived through Vietnam. They were clogging up all the good jobs and got the low-priced college educations and good housing prices. They got to drive the really cool cars when they came out. Pop cultural obsessions with Baby Boomers meant them. They had even more freedom.
In some ways, we had that sense that we’d arrived very late to the party, but we still caught it and once we beat up the guys playing disco, we had some fun. But we saw the party end after we got in. Some of us caught the (pardon the pun) tail end of the sexual revolution, back when sex couldn’t kill you.
Or maybe it was just me. There were also 80s trends at stake — crackdowns on DUIs, DUI check points, seat belt laws, shrinking cars, asset forfeiture laws, militarization of local police forces, crack/cocaine, AIDS, revolution in liability laws that scuttled personal responsibility and made normal fun against insurance laws and thus not allowed. Just a lot of lot of crap that crimped freedom in all sorts of little ways. Plus, it was while we were in college that tuitions began to go up big time.
Where I grew up, you could go down to the local high school or a local church on a weekend and find dozens of kids playing pick-up football. The lawns were muddy and torn up. Now they’re manicured and I haven’t seen a football tossed there in decades. None of that spontaneous organization shit any more — someone might get hurt and might get sued. You’d have been ridiculed if you rode your bike around with a friggin’ helmet on, unless of course you were actually training.
Ah, I sound like an codger. Shit. All I know is we born in 63-64 caught the tail end of it all and the kids the next year had to deal with new rules. Then we all did. So I think that’s part of a generational difference.
Oops. Typo. Make that class of 82, not 92. I didn’t take 14 years to finish high school, no matter what anyone tells you.
So, it’s YOU who ruined it for the rest of us and whose mess we were stuck cleaning up! (Well, maybe the Baby Boomers in general… ) Dand it!
You hit the nail on the goddamn head. I’m class of ’81, Hastings on Hudson High School. When I was in tenth grade, I grew a nice beard, drove a cab for money, had my way with whom ever I chose, and drank in the bars in this former factory town.
Just a few years later, the drinking age was 21, tuition was climbing like an F-104 and fun was becoming illegal. But interestingly enough, I opted out of the yuppie thing. Had kids, got a great trade and great job. Still have kids, wife and job. I think our generation were totally realistic compared to the Boomers. We knew and know we’ll never get social security.
The Boomers burn all their bridges. They did Woodstock, then made that type of behavior illegal. They burned up Wall Street and Housing, and now are complaining. Wait until they’re all in their adult diapers, their white pony tails getting stuck in the tape. I keep saying at parties to my fellow Gen Xers that David Crosby is coming for your liver!
The Boomers never want to fade. It’s going to be glorious watching it happen!
Fed up with hearing how “evil” the baby boomers are! As though we were all exactly the same and living the same nihilistic sort of life-style. It’s a wonder we aren’t all blamed for global warming and black holes in outer space.
Is there an envy of sorts behind the “lets dump all our trash on the boomers?” I believe so,from those among you who think we had a “better time” than you. That is if you think we were all doing “drugs, sex, rock’n'roll” and making money hand over fist. There were no real laws or implementation of the ones we had back then to protect kids. Some of us came from horrifically abusive backgrounds, violent parents, we had no “school counsellors”, if you got beat up on the way home from school everyday as a little girl by a gang of boys (as I was) then beaten every evening by your father (in case you had done something he didn’t know about), you just had to “suck it up.” That was not uncommon among my peers back then. Perhaps some of the backlash was the rebellious life-style that some adopted. But there were plenty of hard-working tax-paying “squares” like myself whose life was no different back then, from that of the current generation, except none of us had all the “mollycoddling” of this one-the counsellors and “youthline” and “anti-bullying” campaigns, and so on. Each generation has its difficulties, and nothing is achieved by whining about the previous one.
But it’s so easy to dump collective guilt on the people who came before us!
I’m 75 and I love watching the loonie boomie’s with their burnt out brains crash.
Just too bad you have to contend with their political delusions until they are all gone.
Agreed,Gen X and Boomers do not overlap. This matters to me in part because I do not want Gen X saddled with Obama as our generations’ first president. We’ve got enough crap on our plates without having that dubious distinction. As he showed in his books, Obama had that “late to the party” feeling which motivated his idealism of Boomer radicals like Ayers and those who helped launch Obama’s career. Gen X saw the hypocrisy of those radicals having been let down by so many teachers and parents who had been among them.
Gen X is also subdivided. There’s a demographic population nadir of “the pill generation” which is where I fall just before the “Baby Busters” were born iht ei 1970′s. Those of us from that stratum feel even more alienated from Boomers than later Gen X-ers. Our experiences in underfilled classrooms was so starkly and suddenly different from the self-celebratory teen nostalgia shows and movies like Happy Days and American Graffitti. Even updated films that passed for teen culture in the mid 1980′s and most pop songs were written by Boomers. We didn’t have our own voices then and we really shouldn’t let our voices be co-opted now, especially by a political establishment that wants to make us their property.
Born 1946 , graduated 1964. l & i’m sure others of my age never accepted the definition the “experts” tried to place on us. But then , back then the reality wasn’t so much defined by a marketing scheme. That changed with the younger end of the boomer wave. My children (3) , are all Xers. One thing always struck me with the Xers. You bought into the definition of you by the “experts” much more readily. Your misfortune was being the 1st generation mostly bathed in pop culture & media. You pretty much then , as now , are still playing the same role. l didn’t see many of you at the rallys 3 years ago. l don’t see alot of individuals with unique thought patterns developing among you. l say this not as criticism ,simply an observation.
Actually, the whole Gen-X thing was part of my political journey to the right side of the spectrum. The Baby Boomers had the rallying cry of “never trust anyone over 30″. Then, as soon as the Clinton administration (our first Boomer president) took office, we started hearing all these 40-something Baby Boomers start to say “never trust anyone under 30″ and lament the “slackers”. My 25-year old self saw the hypocrisy pretty quickly. C’mon, THIS coming from the generation who prided themselves on riding out the 60s in a drug-induced haze? Like with any generation, there are plenty of exceptions, but I’ve had a low regard for the Boomers ever since…
I always try to point out that the dynamic is a little more complex that ‘this generation vs. that.’
It’s more like ‘which generation raised whom?’
As a Gen-X with Silent Generation parents, I find little in common with Gen-X who have Boomer parents.
I think this is precisely the problem with helicopter parents today.
My parents were Depression Kids that taught me independence.
Boomer parents were lousy parents. Now their kids are parents.
Of course, I generalize.
No, I’m sorry, but you’re wrong as to the dates. You are a baby boomer, much as you might wish you were not.
The first GenX-ers were born in 1965. Just because a lot of tail-end boomers are embarrassed about that label and wish to disown it doesn’t mean you can appropriate a generational category which does not apply to you, does not include you.
Rubbish. There’s no sharp dividing line. A lot of people born in the early 60s simply have nothing in common with the Boomers or with the X-ers. When we were teenagers, the Boomers were the grownups who had fought in Vietnam and produced all the cool music we listened to. When we were in our late 20s, X-ers were these weird teenagers who seemed inexplicably depressed and talked about how “ironic” everything was. We – the 1960-1965 cohort – were stuck in the middle somewhere. At the most, we may be responsible for early-80s pop culture. If that’s the case, I apologize.
Bugs, that’s just how I feel. The boomers are older than I am but I don’t really identify with Gen X. I always thought that was because I spent my young adulthood working in a conservative profession. Also, in the eighties I more or less worked so hard I wasn’t really even exposed to pop culture at all.
But to be honest, once I made it to the point where I had control over my working environment, I ended up working less that my boomer colleagues. Though I don’t think any doctor can really be qualified as a slacker!
This site claims that the group from 58-68 should be called “baby busters” http://www.babybusters.org/
We were too young to be hippies. We missed out on the love.
And that’s the main problem with the whole generational theory thing – the time frame for the “cohorts” is too long. (Not to mention too irregular, ranging from 16-32 years depending on which one is involved.)
Add in how it is all too commonly used as an excuse for overt generational warfare as a replacement for class warfare, and the whole thing is just not that useful for serious analysis.
Some of the demographers have taken to calling theose born from 1960 or so to 1968 or so “tweeners”, not quite boomer, not quite x-er.
FWIW.
#5. Michael – I was born in second calendar quarter of 1964 – I have absolutely Zero membership with a demographic group that includes people born in the late 40′s and 1950′s – Two of the most culturally significant moments in the lives of real baby boomers include the assassination of JFK and the arrival of the Beatles in America (Feb 1964), when baby boomers were old enough to absorb these events – Not only am I “too young” to remember these events, I had not even been born at the time – people who study demographics and claim that baby boomers were born in 1964 are simply intellectually lazy
Yep. You are a Boomer. I’ll second the the claim that Gen-X started in 65. Ended somewhere between 75 and 80. I think generations get smaller as pop culture moves faster. Since it’s the touchstones of pop culture that identify a generation.
Though, to be fair, generation are like decades in that the end of one and the beginning of the next are rather fuzzy.
I’d consider 1980 to be the final year of Gen-X, because as a 1980 birth myself, I’ve seen a sharp divide between my acquaintances who are older than I, and ones who are younger (even just one year younger).
Almost all the 1980 (and even 1979) births I’ve known personally are sort of a ‘lost’ demo with no real identity. Pop culture passed them by, the high schools (in my area, at least) weren’t full-on Progressive Propaganda Factories yet, and hardly any (of the ones I’ve known personally) have been able to become wild financial successes, unless they were the heir to a family business.
The 1981s (and later) I’ve known just seemed like they had been part of a total paradigm shift, attitude-wise.
Those of us born between 1958 and 1965 have been given another name ‘Generation Jones’ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Generation_Jones We never got what the Baby Boomers got and I don’t really identify with them. I remember seeing those Baby Boomers when I was a child, even then I wish they would grow up. By the time I reached adulthood, there was a recession on.
“We blamed those damn yuppie Baby Boomers. They’d beaten us to all the good jobs and were never gonna give them up.”
Unfortunately, the blame didn’t fall on those actually responsible for the malaise. That would be, of course, Richard Nixon and his vast expansion of the federal government, Gerald Ford for being utterly and completely useless, and Jimmah Carter for the first term of Barack “The Destroyer” Obama. However, it would be wrong to blame Gen-Xers for not recognizing the benefits of the Reagan Revolution because as the economy improved the Boomers with experience who had been laid-off were hired first, new graduates with no baggage were hired second, and Gen-Xers who had been out of work since graduating either high school or college were hired last because they had baggage – namely experience in not working (i.e. the slackers) and a sense of entitlement that they deserved better.
Sadly, the Gen-Xers did deserve better… the entire country deserved better but we were all failed by a miserable, thieving, conniving, power-mad political class intent on destroying the very things that made the country a “Land of Opportunity” in the first place. Prosperity is not for the masses, it’s the prerogative of the elite and the rise of Middle Class America had to be stopped. And how did we respond? We threw away the Reagan Revolution and hired George W. Bush to further expand the government and cripple the private sector, and then re-elected Jimmah to finish the destruction of the country.
Forget about the Gen-Xers, they’re ancient history; pity instead the Millennials who will either never have jobs or will pay 90% of their gross wages in taxes if they do find work.
The baby boomers have always been defined as being born between jan. 1st 1946 and dec. 31st 1965.
That definition is based on the fact that those years saw extremely high birth rates in almost all western countries.
Gen Xers are far less numerous, and were born during the bust years ( late 60s and 70s ) when the number of children born to women dropped below 2.1 …the replacement rate.
The baby-boom reached its height, in terms of absolute numbers of births, between 1957 and 1963, with the peak year being 1961.
There were still tons of babies being born between 60 and 65.
The term “Gen-X” was coined merely to distinguish between a lush, profitable demographic, and a meager, slim-pickins’ one.
It isn’t a term that denotes a particular outlook or opinion, generational orientation, or politics.
That said , later boomers DO tend to be more conservative.
I’m sorry ahead of time for my boomerness, but it’s all astrology: where the heavy planet Pluto was malingering. For ‘generation x” it was in Virgo from June 1958 until July 1972. All your listing, nit-picky critical vegggie-loving, anti-romantic, waspishness is from that influence. Also very hard working, saving the world through nanotechnology, service unto self-sacrifice and inventing the internet.
The Greatest Generation (Pluto in Cancer July 1913-June 1939) were patriotic, loved their mothers and babies and knew how to save their money.
Boomers (Leo July 1939-May 1958) are self absorbed blowhards who are overly concerned with their hair.
Pluto is not a planet – it used to be but astronomer’s changed its status a few years back – and it’s certainly not a heavy planet. Unlike it’s neighbours Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune which ARE heavy planets, Pluto is only 1/500th the mass of Earth.
As for being involved with atrology, Pluto was only discovered in 1930 (AD) whereas astrology has been in existence for far longer.
I’m not sure what you’re smoking but you should cut back. It’s messing with your head.
I agree that there is a difference between early boomers and later boomer
Early boomers got the age of free love, we got the age of HIV/AIDS
Early boomers were the generation of meaning, we are the generation of resentment
Early boomers are getting social security, we are paying for the ponzi scheme
Thanks for the laugh Mel, I needed that. Which should tell you that I’m an Xer (b.’66)
While most people have emphasised the negative, I would like to point out that I consider myself lucky to have come of age in a time of genuine innocence and civility. By the time my best friend’s younger brothers turned seven, they knew the “F” word and what it meant, so I’m grateful that wasn’t me.
And Bugs, no need to apologize for early eighties pop culture. It was the musical equivalent of the Cambrian Explosion, on much, much shorter time scale.
As an unrepentantant Conservative & Gen X’er [b. 1972] the questionaire I use for judging X’er or not is as follows:
1a. Did you have big hair, stretch/stirup pants and/or flourescent attire in the 80′s [ladies]?
1b. Did you have a mullet/tail, a supercar poster [Lamborghini/Porsche et al.], or He-Man action figures [the gents]?
2. In your early childhood, did the tv require an antenna for reception?
3. Were you the remote control for that television?
4. Do the words Wonderama, Great Space Coaster, Superfriends or Magic Garden conjure happy childhood memories?
5. When you finally got cable: Do you remember when MTV was a music channel in a tiny studio, and Martha Quinn & Nina Blackwood lived there.
6. Even as a child you thought Jimmy Carter was a tosser.
If you answer yes to at least 3 questions, you are a Gen X’er
Awesome question set! (also ’72)
#s 2, 3, 4 are perfect.
I have several good mid-20s friends who do not get the “pre-remote” era.
Also, was never a slacker…
Loved #6
I was born in ’58 so I’m either a late boomer or an early X-er. I think that generation X is essentially screwed regardless of the exact start date for the group. The self-centered, self-absorbed, self-aggrandizing (and oh yes self-ish) boomers have gladly taken it all.
the problem with the genXers is that they were lightweights. They couldn’t handle their booze or their drugs and it would get them in trouble. We baby boomers take pride in being functional substance abusers. We had lots of practice.
Actually, I’m more worried about the kids brought up in the 1990s. I think they’re much more selfish and insulated and spoiled than the Generation X crop of kids. They grew up in the boom years of the 1990s knowing nothing but wealth, the .com and Internet bubble, and massive spending on just about everything. And parents fed into this big time. Get the best clothes, the best electronic equipment, go to the best schools, get the best jobs, and you’re a failure unless you get out of college and land an $80,000 a year job. THAT was the 1990s. How could it not affect kids in a bad way. Once these kids start having kids, it will be interesting to see what type of reality they bring to the table. Because, if they always teach their kids that life will be like or should be like the 1990s, then their kids will be terribly disappointed after they leave school.
That’s exactly why I got such a kick out of that speaker at Wellsley high that they are not special. When everything is handed to you & you get trophies for showing up, you aren’t special. Go out & do something and become special.
I’m an X b.74. I would add a bit based on my circumstances. We were the 1st welfare as a lifestyle kids. The 1st to be fatherless and society yawn. We were the 1st abortion as a choice. Where I grew up (Detroit in 70s & 80s) we were the 1st to experience govt largess & control followed byd govt destruction of an entire city. We were the 1 st taught to look to govt to solve everything yet taught to rage against everything the govt does. Oh the “irony “. So basically we were the 1st “helpless without govt ” generation. Thankfully some of us had brains, rebelled by thinking for ourselves, and got the hell out
One of the most difficult columns to read. Why don’t you just say what you have to say without all the side bar comments and snark. The overload of parentheses doesn’t help either. The entire effort seems self conscious, contrived, and antic. Are those more Gen X attributes? Need to calm down right now.
Agreed. I know there were only 3 myths listed. Lost track of them with all the side comments. My generation Y brain can’t stay focused long enough.
Oh yes, Generation “X”. Thank Gaia that some people from the media have been able to lump millions and millions of people into some non-existent funnel, attribute to such people vague characteristics, and otherwise control the conversation as to what such people believe in. Here’s the reality: there is no Generation X. It’s Hollywood make-believe. It has never existed in reality. It’s a falsity of the adolescent mind. Millions and millions of people, purportedly born between certain years, across the great nation. All in the same group? With the same ideas as to how life should be? This is all part of the liberal hijacking of America. Want to fight it? Then reject discussions of false subjects.
I was born in 1962. I am NOT a “gen-X.” I am NOT a “baby boomer.” I am part of the Reagan Generation:
–Came of age when Carter was president (EW).
–Graduated into an economic morass some say was worse than today. (Unemployment was 20% in my rust-belt city.)
–Worked at whatever kind of jobs because going home to live with parents was a fate worse than death, NOT a convenient option.
–Understood the real threat of communism and supported Reagan’s efforts to combat it.
–Supported smaller government and more freedom.
Agreed.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Generation_Jones
I was born in 1963. I don’t fit in with the Boomers or the Xs. Our experiences growing up were different from what they had. Generation Jones is a better fit.
I was born at the tail end of ’65. I came of age when Reagan rose. I experienced a bad economy, saw the debauchery of those who were older than I (the hippies), but also lived in a time of more morality as teenage pregnancy was not accepted as much as it is now. I experienced air raid drills and atomic drills while still in grade school and corporal punishment was just being banned. Cable came when I was a teenager. I used to go to the corner grocery to get cigarettes for my mom (today you need an ID to prove you are 18 or more). Beer was easy for teens to get. The hardest drug available in HS was pot. There were more virgins then (most people exaggerate their sex lives to keep up with each other) and abortions were made legal. Yes, I remember Nina on MTV when MTV actually was a music video channel. No remotes then either. You changed the channel yourself. In fact, most families only had one TV and the phone actually had a cord. I know what communism is and witnessed the fall of the Berlin Wall. I am a cold war Veteran as is my husband. When I was 18, I was expected to move out of my parents house and support myself. College was a privilege you paid for yourself, not a right that you went into debt for. Do I qualify for GEN-X, or not?
Ps: When I voted for the first time, it was for Reagan.
“Reality Bites” is the movie I love to hate.
Born in the early 1970s, age-wise I match up perfectly with the annoying, obnoxious, whiny, entitled hipsters of that film, yet I feel I have nothing in common with them. I especially wish Ethan Hawke’s character would have died in a fire.
In a nutshell, “Reality Bites” is why I don’t place too much stock in the idea of a monolithic Generation X, Y, or whatever. People of a certain age may share some outlook on the world, but there is far too much variety in individual experience within any generation to make “Gen X thinks and acts this way” generalizing a useful way to understand a society. After all, plenty of Boomers volunteered to serve in Vietnam, never took drugs, and voted for Goldwater and Nixon.
You seem to be aggregating Generation Jones in with Gen X. Even going by Coupland’s ideas, as expressed in Life After God, he saw the generation as being the first raised without God–that is, raised by atheist, agnostic, secular, or Eastern Philosophy-oriented Baby Boomers. 1965 is reasonable start time for the first children of the Boomers, but prior to 1965 is largely unreasonable.
And yes, most cut-off dates are around the end of the ’70s. There are many of us only barely out of our 20s but fairly definitively Gen X.
There’s too much confusion from Linklater and Coupland, but Coupland never seemed to identify as Gen X himself. The shiftless slacker ideals of the ’70s were never part of Gen X in its own right, but Boomers made the assumption that things made by people younger than themselves and consumed by others even younger still meant they were all part of the same generation. We’re not.
As for Clerks especially, you missed the point of that movie if you think it was a celebration of slackerdom. It was the exact opposite. Dante was a character who sat around whining but refusing to do anything about the things wrong in his life. Half the reason it resonated so well with Xers is that you watch the film being critical of the mentality and recognizing it as a critique of directionless whining.
Hey, I’m “Gen” the one before you, and they still haven’t adequately defined us.
Revealed: 64 Drone Bases on American Soil By Lorenzo Franceschi-BicchieraiEmail Author June 13, 2012
http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2012/06/64-drone-bases-on-us-soil/
You cannot define what you do not know! No of labeling US allowed!
There are 9 kids in my family, born between 1946 and 1966. There are tons of differences in the oldest and the ones born after about 1955. Us older kids are still working , still paying our own way and trying to provide for our offspring when we’re no longer around. The younger ones are struggling compared to us but their troubles are self inflicted for the most part.
Drug use, alcohol abuse, lack of education, multiple divorces, children born out of wedlock, and slovenly work habits are the major reasons. They never learned any of that from their older siblings or their parents. Comparing boomers graduating high school in the 60′s to those who should have graduated in the 70′s is like comparing ducks to aardvarks. There’s as much difference as there is between early boomers and late boomers as between early boomers and their kids.