I know it was yesterday, but if I might throw two cents into the “OK Boomer” conversation, I’d like to.
As a Millennial, I’ve spent the last decade looked down upon. We’ve been blamed for “destroying” various businesses and industries, sometimes due simply to the march of progress (it’s not our fault internet commerce is replacing brick-and-mortar, for example; that was a tide that started in the early 00s, and even before that), other times because we can’t afford to support such industries anymore. We’re told we’ve been coddled. That we’re lazy. That we’re in a state of eternal childhood and can’t settle down.
In the workplace, we’re called entitled. We’re called disloyal for job-hopping, when in reality most jobs don’t offer any sort of career prospects or support, and the only way to find a wage increase that even attempts to catch up to annual cost-of-living increases is to jump ship for a place that’ll start you at a higher amount. The gig economy encourages “side hustles,” which really means taking multiple menial jobs just to make ends meet; we’re doing other people’s grocery shopping, lining the pockets of app developers and then getting the chop when we try to unionize for fair wages. We turn our cars into taxis so that we can afford gas money to get to our other job. We rent our spare rooms as hotel rooms so we can buy a ticket home for Thanksgiving.
Minimum wage hasn’t changed in ages. College is a must for most employers, thus greedy loan companies have most of us under their thumbs. I considered myself *lucky* to finally reach a 50k/year job by my 30s, yet I don’t enjoy it because most of my paycheck goes towards paying my student loans and the credit cards I’ve racked up to keep myself above water since 2008, when I graduated college and entered the workforce as the economy was tanking.
I probably will never own a house. I don’t expect to be able to retire at 65, and the social services which would ensure my health and safety have been gutted. Most people I know are one health crisis away from homelessness. I’m eschewing parenthood because our schools are both underfunded and dangerous. The environment is destabilizing fast, and the breakdown of civilization as a result is a very real prospect within my lifetime (and global warming has become politicized by the complacent ruling class to such an extent that any attempt to address it is deadlocked by lawmakers and private interests who will be dead and gone well before that happens).
All of this, and we’re told we’re the problem. That we’re complaining. That we should suck it up. We didn’t make this mess, and yes, it feels like a lot of the older generation is holding onto their wealth and riding it out because they don’t have to deal with the aftermath. Many of the problems we face were caused by the shortsightedness of voters and businesses before us, and the systems in place prevent us from evincing any sort of change that’ll improve things for the next generation.
I don’t think “OK Boomer” is meant to create dividing lines; it’s a response to a dividing line which was drawn against us a while ago. It’s not a blanket insult to all baby boomers. It’s an exhausted hand-wave to members of a generation who tell us we should be happy with what we’ve got, that we’re not trying hard enough, or that we’re not doing things the way they would. “Ok Boomer” means “you don’t understand, and we’re tired of trying to explain it to you.” I think the phrase is jumping the shark at present, but it resonated with me when it first landed: we’re fucking tired. We work so damn hard, we’re exhausted, and we’re tired of trying to prove or explain ourselves to the people who put us in this spot.
Anyway, you’re 55, so you barely get in under the wire. Consider yourself an honorary Gen X-er.
