27 Replies to “US Home Prices 1890 – Present”

  2. Love it! Now if I can wait to the bottom of the next wheee! then I can buy my retirement place.

  3. …nuts here in Calgary, homes that were 167K 9 years ago are now approaching 400K – I know I live in one.
    Me thinks this will go on for another two years then major crash following in the housing market as the baby boomers start retiring by the numbers.
    And I don’t think it will never recover. Not enough people to replace all the homes being sold over the next 5 years as people will see this as a source for their retirement income.
    A few may stay in their homes, but with the price of gas, electricity, taxes and so on, most will move out or downsize to smaller out of town homes or gated community condo’s springing up all over the place. No lawn to mow and so on.
    Or just buy a camper bus and travel to Arizona like the snow birds.
    That’s what we’re gonna do.

  4. Canadians are a broke-assed people.
    Nobody in Canada really makes money the old fashioned way anymore (a job); income gets taxed too much. Canadians want to make money off their houses.
    80% of Canadians’ net worth is in their houses, so it is said.
    That’s a big reason why immigration is so high, so the price of homes can artificially be inflated. And that explains why baby boomers love open immigration. It’s a pyramid scheme.
    Canadian governments restrict the supply of housing and artificially increase housing demand via open immigration. The result of this market distortion is that people who already have homes (baby boomers) benefit and many young people are effectively unable to afford a home.
    More gist for the coming class action suit against the baby boomers 😉

  7. Cut the boomers a little slack…
    Just remember we were the first television/mass marketing guinea pigs.
    Our brains were fried on TV test patterns and only a handful of stations.
    Cheeze,whadiya expect!

  10. That graph reminds me of the infamous “hockey stick” graph of global warming – something smells rotten.
    Sure, real estate prices are high, and I have no doubt that prices will flatten or drop for the next five years or so, but no more than 20%.
    The worst drop in this period was from 1895 to 1920, when prices dropped by about 50%. Assuming inflation at 3% a year during this period, you would have sold your house for about what you paid for it 25 years earlier.
    So, assuming that 2007 is the absolute worst year to buy real estate, and, 25 years from now, in 2032, is the absolute worst year to sell real estate, the house you bought for $400,000 in 2007 will be worth around $400,000 in 2032.
    Sure, that’s a lousy investment, and $400,000 will be only worth $200,000 in inflation-adjusted dollars, but you’ve paid off the mortgage during this period, and you can be sure that rental prices haven’t dropped 50% during the same period.
    Compare that to buying a new car, where you drop 20% of your investment the moment you drive off the dealer’s lot.

  12. I agree with LL. There is a real estate bubble but what’s the cure?
    If inflation heats up commodities go up in price. This includes real estate. If the economy stalls interest rates will be slashed and real estate purchases will continue. And with the US population expected to reach 400 million by 2043, or so, 90 million additional housing units need to built in the next 35 years. The last I checked Canada’s population was just over 30 million.
    Something is going to happen but what? It will be interesting to watch.

  13. I agree with LL. There is a real estate bubble but what’s the cure?
    If inflation heats up commodities go up in price. This includes real estate. If the economy stalls interest rates will be slashed and real estate purchases will continue. And with the US population expected to reach 400 million by 2043, or so, 90 million additional housing units need to built in the next 35 years. The last I checked Canada’s population was just over 30 million.
    Something is going to happen but what? It will be interesting to watch.

  14. I’m a baby boomer. In order to afford university, I lived at home with my parents, and worked full time every summer, and part time during the school year, while carrying a course load of 45 hours a week
    of classes and labs, with an equal amount of homework. I became accustomed to working 16 hours a day or more very early on, and was grateful to be able to take just one week off of work a year for a personal vacation.
    After 5 years of studying I received a Bachelor of Engineering degree, and a good job, earning $691 a month. While working full time, I continued to take courses. After 4 more years I earned a Master’s degree. I continued to work for the next decade, and finally, at about age 35 I was able to afford my first house, a small townhouse, with some help from my parents for the down payment.
    During the next 20 or so years, I changed jobs many times,sometimes to a better position, but also losing several jobs and even changing professions during difficult economic conditions over which I had no control, doing whatever it took in order to survive financially and provide for my children’s wellbeing. My wife also earned a Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees, but since she couldn’t afford to go to school full time, she did it over a period of about 15 years, taking night courses while working full time, in order to better her life and career.
    For many years we set aside many personal desires and delayed personal rewards in order to make extra payments on the mortgage, until finally at around age 55 we owned our home outright. Now, at this time of our lives, we have a measure of comfort, but we are by no means wealthy, and we still have to work part time to maintain the lifestyle that we achieved, and earned, and which took the consistent and often strenuous efforts of two people over a period of nearly 40 years.
    It’s become fashionable for 20-, 30-, and even some 40-somethings, to bash ‘baby-boomers’, as if we are undeservedly privileged, and that our lifestyles were gained at the expense of these younger generations.
    It’s true that I do consider myself privileged. I was privileged to have learned from my own parents the importance of taking personal responsibility, and to have learned the value education, hard work, and especially, patience. Qualities that appear to be in short supply these days.
    But, undeserved? And, gained at the expense of this younger generations? Not likely!
    On the contrary. The most vocal critics of ‘baby-boomers’ are themselves the children of boomers, who grew up in our homes and shared our lifestyle, apparently without much understanding of, or contribution to, the effort it took to provide the home, the luxuries and the lifestyle that they took totally for granted. Now that mommy and daddy have stopped paying their bills, they are merely getting their first taste of reality!
    So, instead of envy and spitefulness towards their elders, it would be more beneficial for them stop expecting the world to instantly dish them up the home and lifestyle that they covet, and go out and earn it themselves. The smart ones will respect their elders for their hard won achievements, and consult them, perhaps to learn from their experiences, and get some insight as to how they might achieve their desirable lifestyle faster than the usual 40 or so years of work. The bitchers and complainers are more likely take end up taking the long route. People tend to get what they deserve.
    For anyone feeling the need to bash boomers, I would advise you first to go to the nearest mirror, look in your own eyes for about 5 minutes, reflecting on what I’ve written here, and then ask yourselves the following questions: ‘Am I willing to spend the next 20-30 years of life working hard in order to have the lifestyle that I perceive boomers to have?’ ‘Am I willing to continually upgrade my education and skills in order to improve my circumstances?’ ‘Am I willing to work at a job that I may not enjoy, for long periods of time, so that one day I won’t have to do that anymore?’ Am I willing to delay personal gratification in order to achieve results that I may not see for many years?’ And finally, ask yourselves ‘What have I done in my life to date that gives me the right to criticize my elders?’
    Your responses are most welcome. I’d love to hear the answers that you come up with.

  15. “‘What have I done in my life to date that gives me the right to criticize my elders?'”
    Ummmmmm…not a damn thing,EXCEPT serve my country in the Forces,serve on SAR missions,actually perform life saving actions,and vote Conservative.And guess what? MY service allowed college-educated twits like you to carry on,unlike the nice NAZIS or COMMIES. I would ask you to get a life,but you have no conception of the idea of a life.Blame your kids? But didn’t you raise them?

  16. I find the graph fascinating. It took until almost 1979 for prices to get back to the 1895 levels.
    And, in absolute terms, prices have only doubled since 1890.
    It would be interesting to see corresponding graphs for cost of living, although those would be tricky since cost of living components have changed so dramatically in the last 117 years. Heating and electricity costs might be easy to graph, but transportation or entertainment costs would be comparing apples to oranges (i.e cost of a horse and buggy vs the cost of a minivan).
    Still, the graph was an eye opener to me. Things are so dramatically more expensive than they used to be at first thought. And yet, in many (most?) cases they aren’t. For instance, I replaced my 20 year old UK Road road atlas last month with the same brand and style. It was GBP 2.99 in 1987 and GBP 2.99 in 2007.
    As a ‘baby’ baby-boomer, I’ve benefited from the boomer ride so far but will likely get hit on the housing end of things since my timing will have me sell after the bust. I’ve seen the bust coming for years (I once told a real estate agent I was thinking of selling and moving back into the city when we get to retirement age and she said, “you and everyone else, buy your retirement place now and rent it.”) but, emotionally I’m not ready to sell yet.
    And economically, it makes no sense. To sell my 3200 square foot house now and move to 1500 – 1800 square foot condo will *cost* me an additional $100,000. So I’m staying put for now and looking into turning my house into 2 units which would suit our current lifestyle. Unfortunately, our semi-rural location is not a prime one for people looking to rent since you need a car to live out here. And with the coming oil supply problems (either through ‘green’ crap or wars or simply running out of oil), that might make our home really unattractive as either a rental or to sell.

  17. Interesting, but not easy to “track”. (Sorry.) Does anyone know where to find the graph or data in a readable/studyable format?

  18. …in no way am I blaming baby boomers, what I’m saying is all these retiring/near retiring baby boomers may not opt to stay in those big 3000-5000sqft “ME generation” homes. Plus a lot will move into condo’s because, no more kids in home – if they had any being DINKS (dual income, no kids)and high property tax, high utilities will force a few to consider relocating to smaller towns. Forget BC, that’s too expensive.
    So a lot of homes will be coming on the market, forcing prices in a downward spiral, and there is nothing on the horizon to fill the vacuum.
    Immigrants? Maybe, then again, maybe not.
    Oh by the way, I remember the 18% interest on a house and hopefully we’ll never see that again, or the 80’s NEP mess where houses were selling for $1.

  19. Hey, I’m a boomer, served in the military and the first house I could afford was all of 900 sq ft, so don’t assume all boomers are those high wage university professors living in those mini mansions. It took me until my fifties to get debt free and a lot of my contempories will never break even so please don’t lump us all together with your vision of seniors driving BMW/SUV with more money than sense. Some boomers are even starting to have to move in with their children.

  21. Teddy:
    A well-thought and interesting post. I too am a boomer (a later entrant than yourself), and I note that the attitude amongst many of the 20-something crowd is fraught with “I’m entitled” and “I deserve”, without any accompanying thoughts of “and this is why I’ve earned it”, or “this is how I’ll achieve it”.
    I wonder if this isn’t the proverbial chickens coming home to roost for the open-parenting, “I’m OK you’re OK”, give-your-kids-everything attitude of the last 20-30 years? Face it: if a kid receives nearly anything he or she wants with little need to earn it, small wonder he or she will emerge from college thinking the world owes them a living, a new car, nice house, etc.
    The thing most missing from kids these days is a sense of personal accountability and responsibility; my experience is those with the least amount of both tend to whine the loudest when they can’t get what they want.
    Justthinkin, why are you railing against Teddy’s post?
    Did he force you to join the CF, or did you enlist on your own? Did he denigrate our Forces or servicemen anyplace in his post, or disrespect your service to your country in any way?
    Although this might be a stretch, but from reading Teddy’s post, I’d take odds that he’s a supporter of our Forces, those who enlist, and their current mission(s).
    As, most certainly, do I.
    You enlisted and served your country, JT; I respect that – truly – and you should feel deservedly proud of that. It’s an honorable profession, especially in this day of limp-wristed politicians and supposed Canuck foreign policy.
    However, don’t you think it’s a bit presumptuous – if not unfair – of you as an ex-serviceman to denigrate civilians who’ve not opted to put their careers with our military and proceeded in an alternate path? Until this country legislates mandatory service for its young men & women, then military service is indeed optional, then you’ve no right whatever to deride Teddy or anyone else for not enlisting and choosing a civilian lifestyle over the military. Period.
    If you want to rail against anybody, focus your vitriol at those “pacifists” who’d use the system to their advantage and speak out against our military, while at the same time enjoying the freedom and benefits gained by the blood and sacrifice of our servicemen, now and from the past. Trudeau typically comes to mind, with the likes of Layton & the NDP and most of the liberal caucus not far behind.
    But slurring non-serving Canadians with gems such as “college educated twits” and “you have no conception of the idea of a life”; this makes you look a bit jealous (rightly or wrongly), more than a little self-righteous, and I think you’ve missed the point of Teddy’s post.
    mhb23re
    at gmail d0t calm

  22. Tex: Granted it sounded like I was paintbrushing all boomers as big home owners, my apology, but the point still remains about a glut of houses coming on the market, just like your last statement:
    “…Some boomers are even starting to have to move in with their children.”
    Move in from where?

  23. mhb:
    Thanks for your well spoken response, both to me, and to Justthinkin. You took the words right our of my mouth! You were also correct when you supposed it likely that I support the Canadian Forces. Justthinkin, I have great respect for our military, and the brave men and women willing to lay their lives on the line for our country, and hopefully for high ideals. It takes great courage to do that, and I commend you for your commitment and achievements.
    I also voted Conservative. During the entire previous Liberal government I was extremely frustrated and ashamed of the government for neglecting to support the military, and for not truly understanding the importance of having strong and well trained military. We live in perilous times, but unfortunately there is still a large percentage of the population that is oblivious to the dangers we face. I am very grateful that Stephen Harper has the vision and the leadership to quickly reverse the neglect of the previous decade or more. He has also gone a long way towards restoring the pride in and respect for Canada’s military, both here at home and from our allies around the world. Finally, instead of pompously just flapping it’s lips, we are actually acting on our stated values and principles. So rest assured, Justthinin, that your efforts are highly appreciated!
    On the other hand there’s more than one way to serve one’s country and protect one’s fellow citizens. As a soldier, you may be at the tip of the arrow, but you could not possibly do your job without the support of countless individuals who have contributed in ways of which you are likely to be totally unaware, but which may one day save your life and the lives of your buddies. Think of the incredible logistical support required to support a mission: Transportation, communications, computing aids, air support, weaponry, cartography, intelligence, satellite imagery, …and on and on….even, perhaps especially, physical support and re-supply of essentials like food and water. All of which, if you didn’t have available to you or your team, would make it impossible for you to do your job, or would greatly increase the risk of your mission.
    Do you have any idea of the level of knowledge required, for example, to design the complex secure communications systems that you use in the field? I’d bet that a lot of people working on these and other system went to college, maybe even to university. I gather from your tone that you didn’t go to college. Well, there’s no need to be defensive about it. It’s certainly a touchy subject with you, as can be seen by your use of the words NAZIS and COMMIES in the same sentence!
    It’s not for everyone, but it’s also not for no one. People go to wherever they have to go to get the information, knowledge, skills and training to fulfill their particular interests and purpose in life. You’re right, there are a lot of twits that went to college. I even know some PhD’s that I consider twits. Some are even bozos. But I also know some twits that didn’t go to college. A twit is a twit, educated or not.
    Your resentment toward a college education is unworthy of a soldier, and is ultimately harmful. Think about this: In China, during Mao’s ‘Cultural Revolution’, as well as in Pol Pot’s genocidal rule by the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia, people were killed merely because they wore glasses, which signified that they could read. This is the juste the extreme end result of the same tendencies that you demonstrate. And yet, you are a soldier presumable because you believe it necessary to safeguard our freedom. Education is one of them.
    Try this reflection (in the mirror?): Visualize a huge network of people, smart people, working away in offices and labs somewhere, all of whom are focussed on finding better ways to protect you, having meetings to discuss ways to design and deliver better tools and information, in order to give you the best possible chance of carrying out your mission and returning home safely to tell about it. I’m sure that as the picture becomes clearer in your mind, to the point of genuine understanding, that you’ll be able to intellectually re-engineer your thinking, from an antagonistic attitude into one of comfort and gratitude for the essential service that have ultimately provided for your benefit.
    By the way, you are right about my own children. They were no different than any others who I described earlier. I wanted to provide them with certain lifestyle advantages that I didn’t have, and worked hard to do so, but they didn’t see it or experience the effort it took, so they took it for granted too. I don’t blame them. Just as I don’t blame you for your point of view. Now that they are out making their own way in the ‘real world’, it’s amazing how their philosophical position has changed. Now, they are starting to ‘get it’. I’m sure you will too, at some point. A soldier’s life builds character, and with character comes respect, another quality that is, sadly, lacking these days. But, if you want it, you have to give it. And stop blaming anyone else for any of your problems. When that happens, that is the sure first sign that you are ‘getting it’.
    Good luck…

  24. So when are the baby boomers going to start to pay the debt they ran up from 1970 – 1995? I think (for me at least), this is where a good chunk of the resentment from their kids come from.
    Outside of relatively modest amounts being committed to debt repayment over the past decade or so there looks to be no interest in tackling this. I would rather have all the surplus money go to the debt instead of tax cuts, credits or (even worse) increased spending.
    If you think that the health care system is crap now, wait another 10 or 20 years when the boomers are into their 60’s and 70’s. I’m sure they will want world class service, but not want to pay for it. As usual I expect the bill will just be given to their children and grandchildren.
    The years in which Trudeau or Mulroney were elected, I wasn’t even born, or too young to vote, but I’m going to have to spend the rest of my working life paying off debt so the boomers could live it up for 25 years.

  25. rb:
    What sheer nonsense. The increase in national debt was not done by the ‘boomers’. It was that great national hero, Pierre Elliot Trudeau, the child of rich parents, who ‘flirted’ with socialist thinking, and in doing so screwed the economy. The largest portion of the debt was due to the estalishment of Petrocan ($100B). Then there was the Peace Corp., LIP grants, etc. etc. The Public Service grew by leaps and bounds under PET. Brian Mulroney’s government just continued the trend to increase national debt. Some of that money was used to stimulate industry, create jobs, etc. etc., but it was no cakewalk, that’s for sure. The money didn’t go into my pocket. The economy went up and down as world events (eg oil prices) rose and fell, just like today.
    You are highly misinformed, boy! You are not paying the debt that I created. I am.
    You might just as well blame your grandparents or great grandparents (depending on your age) for World War II. But, with your attitude, your kids will blame you for what you did or didn’t do today. How comforting!
    But, if you think you can change society for the better, and are willing to work very hard and get involved, and come up with some interesting new policies and ideas, and GROW UP AND STOP BLAMING, then go to it boy. You have all of our support!

  26. Teddy:
    I didn’t mean for my above comments to be taken personally by you, which i think is happening. As per your post above is commendable that you achieved your masters and have worked hard throughout your life.
    I’m not living in my parents basement blowing my pay on plasma TV’s and at the bar. I’m plenty used to paying the mortgage and bills.
    The problem is that too many members of the generation had the whole short term “gimme gimmie gimme” attitude. The Buzz Hargrove’s of the world. I’m not saying that every boomer is like that, but there sure are a lot.
    I think its human nature that a younger generation to want to do stuff differently then your parents generation. Above you make it sound like boomers as a generation on the whole had nothing but respect and compliments about their parents. I think that that is sheer nonsense. Wasn’t your generations mantra of “don’t trust anyone over 30”? Free love? Christianity is Bad? I think there were certainly lots of complaints and blame about how stuff was done before the late 60’s and there still is today. Look at how some of the punditocracy, describe Mario Dumont, and how he wants to take Quebec back to the “dark” days before the 60’s, acting like freedom started in 1968.
    I’m sure that future generations will find stuff to complain about my generation, too. Its a part of life.
    As with regards to me not paying the debt, seeing as how 1/2 my income goes to government to pay for this bloated bureaucracy that was constructed the 60’s and 70’s, I would argue that I am playing plenty for the debt that was created by previous generations, and which benefited my generation very little.
    Also, I think as a whole that the boomers had a large effect on electing PET and causing the disastrous global swing to the left in the later part of the 1960’s.
    When the boomers were kids and didn’t vote, we as a country were still stuck with Liberals most the time, but King,St. Laurent and Pearson didn’t do massive damage like PET did.
    In the US I think that the boomers are the ones who caused the decline of the Democrat party from the party of Truman and JFK to the party of clowns like John Kerry and Al Gore of today.
    Which generation did this massive expansion of the public service benefit the most? Since I think that government is highly inefficient and doesn’t provide Canadians with value for their money, I would argue it would be the actual people hired by the government itself.
    I’d think that it would benefit people who would have been starting careers in the late 60’s and 70’s, the Baby Boomers, who got hired by the public service and paid with these dollars and are still ripping off taxpayers today.
    To change society for the better, we do not need “interesting new ideas”.
    The implementation of “interesting new ideas” over the past 40 years is what causes society grief today.
    We need to dismantle the bloated Trudeaupian state, the idea that government should be responsible for everything, the entitlement lifestyle and once again encourage individual responsibility for ones actions.
    Perhaps society is changing though. Despite the crappy budget last month, I still have hope for the current resident of 24 Sussex Drive. Of all the people who have been Prime Minister in my lifetime, he has the best chance of getting it.

  27. rb:
    Thanks for the reply. You’ve made many good points. You are obviously an intelligent, mature and open minded person, willing to engage in a rational discussion. That’s what this medium is all about.
    You are right that I probably took the comments about boomers personally. My hot button gets pressed when generalizations are made and blame assigned. My position is that all generalizations are false, including this one (lol). So when a whole generation, or even a majority are stereotyped with a certain action or attitude, I tend to speak up. I think it is so easy to pigeonhole people, especially when much of the ‘analysis’ and characterization of the ‘baby boom’ generation has been flogged through the media, which tends towards simplistic two dimensional sound bite phrases that is easily parroted by people who have only a limited understanding of the forces at work and the complexity of those times.
    Every era and generation gets characterized as well. There’s Gen X, Gen Y, yuppies, dinks, etc. etc. and each has their ‘shtick’ , and it’s fashionable to typecast them with pop phrases. It’s great party talk, but in my opinion is much too shallow to base one’s attitude on.
    Since you are a reader of SDA, you certainly understand how mainstream media twists and distorts ideas, and often creates, let’s say, less than helpful, impressions of specific events or people, or whatever. Certain words, or concepts, then enter the language and become commonly spoken, and then are accepted as true. And then people stop thinking any further. You can see that phenomena at work in: anti-americanism, Bush bashing, the Israel – Palestinian situation, environmentalism, etc. etc. Buzzwords, buzzphrases, buzzconcepts, largely revealing limited depth of thought. It’s so rare to see real open minded thought, except here on SDA of course! (lol)
    I have a very different perspective from the norm on how to understand the evolution of our society, based on my particular life experiences. Notwithstanding Justthinkin’ comment to me (above) to ‘get a life’, I’ve had a very full and exciting life. I’ve been fortunate. I’ve traveled widely throughout the world, and have lived for extended periods of time, in the US and in Asia, and even lived uncomfortably close to the front lines during a Middle East war. I am also a serious student of culture, religion, and history, particularly of the 20th century. I tend to see the evolution of our society from a broad perspective.
    For example, let’s take the concept of ‘baby boomers’. This demographic is understood to mean the bulge of post-war babies roughly from 1945 to 1965. I’m one of the earliest of the flock, born almost immediately after the war. But it’s not a homogeneous group of people. It’s probably three or four different generations, in terms of attitudes. I have siblings who are 5 and 10 years younger than I. They are not in the same generation as I am. With the rapid evolution of society after the war, our most formative years occurred at different times and led to different life choices and attitudes. When I was young I saw my parents build a business. I saw the tremendous struggle and commitment, with minimal rewards for a long time. My brothers only saw the success and the rewards. That one little difference in our perceptual experience created a very large difference in their life attitudes and politics from mine.
    History tends to get revised as time marches on. What you’ve said about Trudeau, and the Public Service appears to be true, today, but in the 60 and 70s it was a different story. Trudeau was our Kennedy. It was a gloriously optimistic time in Canada. There’s a time for everything, and then, liberalism was it. The most dynamic movement in the western world was undoubtedly ‘women’s liberation’. Those of us coming of age at that time were immersed in previously unthinkable possibilities. Once women in our society became free to act according to their inner natures, incredible creative forces were released. We were, believe it or not, propelled by high ideals, not just for ourselves, but for people everywhere. In retrospect, it was naive, and eventually was ‘co-opted’ by other forces at play of which we were unaware at the time, but for the most part it was genuine. But at that time, we believed anything was possible. We were on the moon, literally! The music of the time serves as the most eloquent record of the deepest aspirations of that generation, in those days, much better than the media was able to express. It’s still incredibly alive, even to the grade school kids to whom I teach guitar today.
    We dared to dream beyond anything our parents could hope for. And we wanted to contribute to the world, to make it better. There was no ‘gimme gimme gimme’ at that time. Idealism was rampant. There was great vision, and leadership and dedication to be found everywhere. The reason the Public Service grew at a great rate at that time was because people genuinely wanted to play a role in serving society. It was a wonderful place to work, at least until 1985, when things changed, but that’s another story. The pendulum always reaches and endpoint, and then swings back again…..
    In general, (if one were to generalize), boomers really did change the world. The collective dream of that demographic rode on a wave of change unlike any our society has ever seen. In addition to the women’s liberation, and the consciousness movements that arose, think of the major advances in single field of study, and technology, from transportation, to aviation, to health sciences, bioengineering, computing, communications, etc. etc. We were creative, inventive, and involved. We did not control the levers of society. Remember Trudeau was not a baby boomer. Maurice Strong was not a boomer. Paul Desmarais was not a boomer. But we still made a difference. And are still doing so.
    Did we make mistakes? Absolutely! Did we fail in many of our objectives? Definitely! But there was an essential integrity, which is still there. Bono is still trying to save Africa. There’s still a large Free Tibet movement. But,now it’s up to later generations, including our children, to carry on and take it to the next level. I really hope you can do even better than we can. Great things are still possible. The times are different, certainly. This is a time for conservatism, and I’m totally grateful for, as you say, the current resident of 24 Sussex. And these are perilous times. Especially from outside threats not of our making and out of our control. We need real vision and leadership in the world, and especially at the head of our country. And we have it now. By the way, isn’t Stephen Harper a baby boomer?.
    Anyway, to wrap this dissertation up, I think that at the heart of the matter we’re pretty much on the same wavelength. Every generation has its context, and its strengths and weaknesses. But essential human nature hasn’t radically changed in eons. So, progress will be made, and so there will be mistakes as well. In my opinion, the best approach to history is to look at what has been achieved, see where the mistakes were made, suggest a different course, and act on it. But, assign no blame. It’s a waste of time and energy!
    Cheers…

Proudly powered by WordPress & Skyrocket Themes

MENU

Navigation