By Evelyn Block
“In America, each generation has tried to have a better life than their parents, with a better living standard, better homes, a better education, and so on. How likely do you think it is that today’s youth will have a better life than their parents — very likely, somewhat likely, somewhat unlikely, or very unlikely?”
That question has been asked, usually every two years, by several different polling organizations including Gallup, Roper and the New Times. This April, for the first time since the start of the poll in 1983, most Americans said they did not believe today’s young people would have better lives than their parents.
Generational rift
Much blame for this state of affairs is being placed on the “baby boomer” generation, for things as varied as smothering their children to the point they are incapable of making independent lives, to gorging on government services, running up the national debt, building suburban Mc Mansions, and living longer than anyone anticipated. Blame gets tossed around and the media glorifies this supposed “generational rift.”
I think it’s time to call a stop to all the hype and blame.
I never understood as a teacher or a parent why some people feel that in order for their child to succeed, he or she must do better than the other children. I always believed that we can all succeed together and I still believe that. Today’s youth won’t have a better life than the boomers did? Maybe the polls are asking the wrong question.
Let’s take a look at some of those wonderful things boomers experienced.
We were a generation opposed to the Vietnam War. Did our leaders listen? We lost loved ones in that war, only to raise children and lose them in the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, wars many of us didn’t support. Aids and cancer killed many baby boomers; today people are living longer and better as the result of dedicated research and progress.
Baby boomers are among the early adapters of new technology…
…hybrid and electric vehicles as well as the IPad. We aren’t all rich, but the rich among us have contributed greatly to schools, hospitals, theater programs and other efforts to keep the arts alive and create learning environments for our youth that encourage creativity and thinking, not rote learning for test-taking. To quote a well-known baby boomer (Billy Joel), “We didn’t start the fire.”
There’s much work to be done and it’s time for the baby boomers and Gen Y and the Millennials and everyone else to drop the “blame game” and pull together to get the work done.
Life can be good for the next generation.
We have the time and skills to create a better world, one free of prejudice, in a healthier, greener environment. We can solve the problems generated by Social Security and Medicare without blame and finger pointing. At the moment, it seems we need to use Washington as an example of how not to get it done. To put it in Ericksonian terms, we can choose between generativity and self-absorption and stagnation.
Drop the blame game, and let’s get busy making our world a better place for everyone in it.
Evelyn Block is Managing Editor of Let Life In
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