The comments on this earlier post were nothing short of spectacular. So much so, that several deserve repeating. While portions of them were specifically directed at women who feel entitled, most everything could equally apply to men of the same ilk.
I’m a stay at home dad, my wife holds a senior position of responsibility at a large company, she’s senior management. She says herself that most of the women at her company are unwilling to do the extra things that are necessary to get ahead, be promoted. That doesn’t stop them from feeling entitled to a promotion based on their years of service. When one of the girls does show determination and initiative she is often ostracized from the others. Excuses are made as to why ‘SHE’ gets ahead without ever once acknowledging effort OR competency!
I think the biggest hinderance to getting ahead is that we’ve taught our youth that there’s no need to win or lose, everyone is equal, no need to stand out from the crowd. You get a trophy for participation, not for achieving. The problem is that the real world keeps score and rewards only success. The self-esteem movement’s chickens have come home to roost and many simply can’t deal with it. They don’t even know how to achieve their goals, they have little to no perspective of life’s real challenges and no effective way of overcoming these issues.
It’s sad and difficult having to come to grips with disappointment for the first time when you’re in your 20’s rather than when it should have been learned, as a child and youth. Until we stop insulating, mollycoddling and achieving FOR our kids this won’t change.
Now go tell your kid to Occupy a Library.
Red Jeff
Articles such as this show up regularly in the Globe and Mail. Self-indulgent and narrow-visioned. I suspect that those who are having trouble with the whole idea of career, would also be having trouble with marriage or raising a family. When you feel entitled because you’ve structured your life around fulfilling yourself, you’re bound to meet some disappointments along the way.
Rita
From the article: “It sucks and it’s hard work.”
What never say so!!!!!! Those women on sex in the city have wonderful lives where they meet friends for cocktails at brunch every damn day. Life is a whirl wind of parties, dressing fabu and having folks hang onto to every witty word and flick of your finely coiffed hair..
Life is about choices, don’t like the choices you made? Suck it up buttercup.
The Grey Lady
Three quarters of the way down the page we have this gem: “Also, while earlier generations may have opted out of the workforce through marriage or motherhood, these paths aren’t viable for these self-sufficient women, who either are still single or unwilling to be fully supported by men.”
Pure feminist claptrap.
A “self-sufficient” woman who has spent “[her] childhood developing a well-rounded resume” (i.e. her 20s if we go along with the author), but is now 30 and still single, is keenly aware of her gonging biological clock telling her that her childbearing years are dwindling all the while the pool of eligible men is shrinking.
She’s waking up to the fact that she has been sold a bag of sand by the feminist “you can have it all” movement. They’ve been duped and they know it.
That’s the source of their angst.
And those married women who “aren’t willing to be fully supported by men”? They have a viable path but refuse to go there. So shut up already.
Mark
this should be printed and pasted on the entrance to every park in the country….
http://hillbuzz.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/ows.png
In 1999 Danielle Crittenden wrote “What our Mothers Didn’t Tell Us” or Why Happiness eludes the Modern Women”. I suggest that all young women read it. Ms. Crittenden happens to be David Frum’s wife.
Poor girls getting burned out – so much for my plan to marry a rich woman:(
Competative ethic and persuit of excellence have been bred out of several generations by progressivist ideals which celebrate mediocrity. This was instilled in us at school, in media and in pop culture over decades as progressivist regression advanced in society.
The result are the foul mouthed foul smelling spuds we saw defecating in our parks to make a political statement about their entitlements.
Further to my comment on that last post, I think it’s important to keep in mind three things. First, the main reason most women leave biglaw, bigaccounting, i-banking, etc. is not because they are lazy or feel entitled to success, it’s cause they want kids and it’s very, very, very tough to do both.
Second, there is a high burnout rate at most professional jobs. Always has been. When I was a trader I would regularly forget which day and week it was cause I rarely saw daylight or slept. The firm I worked at churned through people like you change socks. Again, this was never a big societal issue until it started happening to women. Now, “something must be done”! No one gave two craps 10 years ago. Then, you just went out and complained amongst yourselves while you recognized these jobs weren’t for everyone (or had short life spans) and you moved on – if you were sane.
Third, I work with a tonne of very smart, very diligent, very productive people in their 20s and 30s. They work ridiculous hours and make enormous sacrifices to succeed. The ones who whine and complain will always amke the news cause it fits with the narrative the media wants to tell about how hard done by the next generation is but the accountants, bankers, businessmen, lawyers, engineers, doctors, etc. working 100+ hours a week aren’t in the news. They don’t have time to complain.
slaw
“The ones who whine and complain will always amke the news cause it fits with the narrative the media wants to tell about how hard done by the next generation is but the accountants, bankers, businessmen, lawyers, engineers, doctors, etc. working 100+ hours a week aren’t in the news. ”
So you are saying that it is 30 something women who are whining because that’s who you say are making the news here.
And the men aren’t making the news so they must not be whining…just sayin’.
I am honoured to have one of my comments highlighted. :O)
Premire experience pour moi.
Looking after a household is a tiring yet important task, one which benefits the whole of society. If that is not a contribution to humanity but pushing paper is then we don’t deserve to be the keystone species of the cosmos.
My wife has three degrees, a non-government, high responsibility and high income job. She got there through hard work and sacrifice, night school and not taking coursework that only grants you useless credentials. Sure maybe way back in the day feminists fought for her to get there, but these days feminists are just a hindrance.
Now that she had children, I practically have to force her to go to work just so she doesn’t lose her skills. When biological clocks tick some people make lifestyle choices and others just complain.
SDA VS Entitlement Generation has been going on for a while.
Don’t forget the entitlement generation is young and didn’t have the chance to underfund the social entitlements that you (SDA or the Old Folks Generation) promised yourselves.
We’re the generation who demands more choice in heathcare options. We’re the generation who expects that there will be no social security left over after you selfish boomers take it all.
It would be really easy to make a list of how people of your age (SDA has an average age of 50 something if I remember the “Who is on SDA” posts from a few years ago) have messed up the world, but it would be better to point out just the major flaws.
-You elected Pierre Trudeau PM for 15 years.
-You failed to quash Quebec Nationalism
-You failed to prevent the NEP
-You elected Nixon as President so you didn’t have to go to war.
-You promised yourself (and your parents (my grandparents)) infinite levels of health care without ever having the balls to pay for it… which has essentially left people of my generation to expect nothing when we are old.
I used to respect a lot of the opinion that I read here, but the profound stupidity of “the entitlement generation vs the boomers” is too much to take.
Boomers have been the MOST entitled generation, taking so much and contributing absolutely nothing… everything of substance came from your parents, and you were too coddled to realise it.
I’m glad most of the greatest generation is dead now, because they would be so ashamed of what you’ve become.
Sorry I forgot your most egregious transgressions.
You’re the generation who was too lazy to parent their children, and instead opted for Ritalin or other neurotoxins to do it for you.
If boomer were bad kids the blame went to the parents because of poor childrearing… if we were bad kids the blame (and chemical punishment) went to us because we were neurologically wired wrong. You didn’t want to have to give up your television time, cheap gas and self-actualization seminars.
Seriously, look in the god-dammed mirror.
Jon, I understand you are angry (or livid) but I hardly think these accusations could fairly be applied to everyone in this generation (as this thread may attest).
My real gripe is that you didn’t do enough to stop it.
You – is the royal you of the boomer generation. Not you individually.
I work 84 hrs a week in a mine so I can afford to save money for a house. Money that is increasingly difficult to come by because your generation (not you, but You) decided that it didn’t want to pay off it’s credit cards but still wanted a big screen TV, an oversized SUV that helped you feel safe (at the expense of everyone else), and a crappy mini-mansion.
You’re right about me being livid… the leaders of my generation won’t be found in the idiot mass of Occupy, in the same way that your leaders were found in the idiot mess of Vietnam protests.
When it comes to being selfish entitled drains on society… we’ll never come close to you guys. Mostly because you gamed the system so badly that it will never provide the same unearned largess again.
Entitlement Generation indeed.
Jon, I am confused, are you sure you are talking about the boomers and not gen x…Yes they voted for Trudeau but they were hard working and own the little homes that the next generation is tearing down to build McMansions….The boomers may have been naive (some) but I never saw them as self serving….And they were very much involved with their children, i am just curious because I never thought to blame the boomers.
Jon; I am a pre- boomer by a few years and my life, though I had to make first base on my own, was significantly made easier when I recognized Society was being planned for the privileged boomers.
This is quickly recognized now, but was not part of the ordinary citizen’s awareness forty five years ago. There is a great deal of truth in your rant and you and your cohort are entitled to state your claims.
The depth of the entitlement damage in my thinking extends to various “economic bubbles” we have experienced over the last twenty years. The “I want to be on board thinking and who cares what damage is brought to others as long as I get mine”. After all we boomers are part of the educated elite.
Was this the legacy of the greatest generation? I don’t know, but as a parent who struggled to educate and indeed forced his children to move beyond a graduate education, am now convinced North America was not pyschologically ready for the outcome of “superior intellects” for which society changed the rules.
I was able with hard work and night school to move slowly up the “ladder of success”. Jon; you and others of your generation now have to be certified by society through education to move into a position of authority or innovation. Unless you are a Steve Jobs or Bill Gates having connections; skills and timing and removed themselves from the guidance of those who teach but do not do.
I do not know how a younger person today can escape the certification box, except for people with hiring authority to recognize the educational system can only provide a process for check offs to reduce the number of people to be interviewed.
When these people hire individuals who have shown they can think for themselves rather than people who have the necessary societal certification.
Then the discrimination and lack of opportunity Jon has described will diminish and I think we will see increased innovation at all levels of organizations. Cheers
Jon:
Chill, buddy. I’m sure you’ll find a lot of people here, if you engage them, agree with you. Let’s not forget that the Boomers were once dubbed the “Me” generation, and even though I’m a part of it, I agree that “we” are the most selfish, self-centred generation ever. My parents grew up with the Depression and WWII, and they thought debt was awful. I remember my dad telling me that, after he’d bought our first house in Don Mills in 1961 for $15,000 (!!) with a monthly payment of $114 PIT, he literally couldn’t sleep for a week, wondering if he could afford it. Skip forward a few years, and read Wolfe’s “Bonfire of the Vanities”, where the protagonist whines about his monthly “nut” of $100k/month to keep himself, his wife, children, and mistress, in the style to which he’s become accustomed.
Part of it is the hangover from the immediate post-War years. So many people thought that the US and Canada emerged on top of the world due to some innate superiority, not realizing that the oceans were the major factor that let us escape with our factories and homes intact, unlike Europe and Asia, where the land was mostly smoking ruins. The Boomers grew up with the idea that they were on top because they were naturally “better” than those smelly Europeans and sneaky Asians. Foreign competition was sneered at, and our complacent unions and politicians thought our companies were golden geese that would supply endless riches for them to redistribute.
The Occutwits™ are resentful that their lives are harder. They no longer have a huge leg up on the rest of the world, and have to compete much harder than their parents did. It doesn’t help that they were mistreated and uneducated by our union-dominated educational establishment. And they realize that many of the bills that government will present to them over the next fifty years will be to pay for benefits their parents will receive, which they either will not get, or what they do get will have been inflated into irrelevance. I understand why they’re angry, but I don’t agree with either their methods of protest, or their proposed solutions.
I think these last two are what make so many here angry. Drum circles, fluttering fingers, and unfocused invective are neither helpful nor productive. I watched one Occutwit™ being evicted from the Toronto park this morning; this disheveled, dirty lunatic was practically foaming at the mouth as he hurled insults at police, at one point calling them “inhuman”. You have to forgive people here who are derisive when they see such scenes. They (and I) know that such people aren’t going to change anything (least of all their clothes), and we think the massive amount of media attention paid to these losers is a symptom of exactly what’s wrong with society today.
In many ways, it’s like watching Atlas Shrugged unfold in slow motion. The people the media turn to for solutions – the protestors, politicians, and professors – are exactly the people who DON’T know what to do. The people who might be able to solve them – the engineers, entrepeneurs, and businessmen (and Ron Paul) – are either ignored or vilified. That makes a lot of people here (including me) angry as well.
Does that help you?
Gen X is a nothing generation, there aren’t too many of them and their cultural significance is at best a placeholder between the Baby Boom in the 50s and the echo of the 80s.
The Boom was a big, selfish, everything built for me generation. All the dilapidated schools I went to were built for the boomers, with nasty mold filled portables “built” to accommodate a larger new generation (typical of lazy boomers and their band-aid solutions). I remember being in a class with 33 other kids in a trailer/portable that had occupancy for 20…
The boomers didn’t want to pay the taxes required to support the schools and teachers unions (that they demanded!), so we had large class sizes, in terrible facilities… we had work to rule, teachers strikes, sports cancelled, no field trips to round our education.
GenX will be known for their overbearing parenting (helicopter parenting), the boomers are known as the generation who drugged their kids so they would “behave”.
It’s easy enough for old people (you boomers are old people now) to find one or 2 examples of lazy youth expecting the world to be given to them. Perhaps if you looked in the mirror you’d see that those lazy POS are nothing but reflections of their parents.
KevinB,
I understand that it wasn’t all boomers… but if you look at the leg up you (the collective you) were given, and the mess that has been made from it, it’s pretty hard to “blame the entitlement generation”.
I’m an engineer for the precise reasons you said… to help solve the problems. I withdrew my services from my last company (dominated by aging boomers who didn’t want to get cold or dirty at a mine) because the management (aka Boomers!) expected everyone but themselves to cut back. I was John Galt, I ran out of money, now I’m a slave to the government so that you (the collective you) can get free pharmaceuticals to help you eventually live to 84 rather than 82… a benefit I most certainly won’t get.
Isn’t life grand for the so called entitlement generation?
Actually jon you sound like you are pissed off that you missed the gravy train. You missed the days of independence before the nanny state rose to prominance and made all the decisions for you. The boomers never wanted anything except to be left alone to make their own future without a lot of government intervention. A fair days work for a fair days pay. Buy a house and maybe sock some money away for the future. If the work ethic the boomers had would have rubbed off on the following generations we wouldn’t be in the mess we are today. The boomers thought that everything considered a entitlement was paid for by the heavy taxload they endured and politicians ensured them it was so. Then came the next generation and they were coddled and the new mentality was “I want it all and I want it now”. Social engineers by the thousands confirmed that right and easy monetary practice allowed every citizen to borrow up to their eyebrows to have what the boomers took 30 years to aquire. The boomers paid off everything required but had the gall to live longer than expected and you are now pissed off that the fruits of their labor are not being passed on as quickly as your generation had hoped. You feel you missed the gravy train. Tough shit. Work for it like they did.
Not sure why I am investing my energy Jon – but I will.
I was born in the 1950’s; my younger sister was diagnosed with polio in a leg shortly after she was born – the government told my mother to give her up since she already had three children under the age of four. Mom refused. Two more children – Mom & Dad had six kids to raise without any government help; social agency or anything subsidized by taxpayers.
Lumpy powdered milk every day, porridge every morning, egg plant, squash or any inexpensive vegetables were our food. We would play Cowboys & Indians – the gun was a broken hockey stick; the bow was actually cut from a sapling. I was given a stick to play X’s & O’s in the sand. Looking at old family photos showed the timeline – every shirt / pants / dress was passed down to the younger child – the curtains in the photos would appear as clothes a few years later since Mom sewed our clothes. My haircuts were a plastic bowl over my head as the trimmers cut around it. And I still remember my sisters yelling when the wringer caught their fingers as they were drying clothes.
As teenagers, we were delivering newspapers (Montreal Gazette) at 6:00 a.m. – if we did not get up & work, we had no spending money because my parents could not afford allowance. I snared rabbits in the winter; my brother & I used to bring the fish we caught home for dinner. We did not live in the bush – we lived in Montreal.
Nowadays, homeless people are overweight, given free meals three times a day & clothing; they have cell phones; they are trained by society that if they sit back & do nothing but stand in line – they get things that senior citizens only dream of…
You are correct that electing Trudeau is probably the most disastrous event in recent Canadian history; the Liberal media runs a close second. And that Canadian society has changed for the worse.
But don’t blame me, my family or any of my friends – for decades, we opposed everything the political & intellectual elite has been shoving down our throats.
@ KevinB:
Not all professors and academics are the useless kind proposing the same old interventionalist solutions. There are some of us who have been screaming into the wilderness with no-one listening about all the things that have come to pass or are about to. And recommended solutions mostly involving free markets and personal freedoms. Let me put it to you this way, when it comes to getting awards for that in academia, good luck. People don’t like laissez faire solutions and people don’t like the doomsayers unless its the right kind of message.
@ Jon: You think the boomers are bad? Try the coming generation. I have never seen a group of students in University who work less, have less knowledge, and expect more – faster. However they can tell you in great detail the convoluted history of such greats as Amy Winehouse.
I just wanted to say that the comment Robert posted by Red Jeff was truly outstanding (except for the stay-at-home Dad bit, a concept I will never understand).
All the comments in this thread are also excellent, even if everyone is not in agreement.
What I have learned in life so far is that every generation since WWII has had some negative aspect to it. We have to understand the negative side to each generation because it helps us understand how these people think when they grow up (if they do), and God forbid, get into positions of power.
But I have often thought that there is a sort of “super-generation” that rides above the passing fads of each generation. This super-generation is usually pretty small at any given time, but they adhere to more robust and substantial ideals and approaches to life. Indeed I often find myself observing these different generations in the same way I would observe different species of animals in the zoo, and I always tell myself to stick to what I believe in. I try to teach my children to be part of the super-generation.
What I have written is probably not a very good explanation, but I hope you might understand at least some of what I am trying to convey.
“All the dilapidated schools I went to were built for the boomers, with nasty mold filled portables “built” to accommodate a larger new generation (typical of lazy boomers and their band-aid solutions). I remember being in a class with 33 other kids in a trailer/portable that had occupancy for 20…”
Let me see if I have this correct – it is my generations fault that my grade 7 classroom was a portable trailer?
That a few of my grade 8 classes were in a massive gymnasium with a divider across the middle – each side having two classes (one teacher for each class – with no TA’s) with more than 60 students in every class.
If you were a teacher in the late 1960’s – you would have a valid reason to complain. For some strange reason, our teachers never whined. They had a job to do – they did it to the best of their ability on behalf of the children they were responsible for…
Today – I have the utmost respect for those teachers. It is too bad most are not alive today – because my generation owes them our utmost appreciation. And I would love to thank my teachers in person.
Forgot to mention – grade 9 was split… Half the students went to class in the morning & had the afternoon off. Half the students went to class in the afternoon. The teachers worked both shifts.
I was in the afternoon classes – my friends & I would go to the outdoor ice rink at 10:00 a.m., shovel off the snow then play hockey until noon. Go home, change clothes – then go to school.
Not sure if this is the expected response – but life was good. Seriously…
Gord,
I think you invested your energy because you, like most rationally thinking boomers is ashamed of your generation. I’m ashamed of the idiots in my generation…
Your individual story about hardship in Montreal does not make up for the rest of your generation’s squandering of the precious position your (the collective you) parents left you.
To read what I wrote and think that I’m sad about missing out on the gravy train is profoundly ignorant. I’m not sad I missed the gravy train, I’m upset you and your ilk derailed the gravy train and in typical boomer fashion are looking for someone else to blame.
As I said before, and as Prof Langmann should have noticed, it’s easy to find a few examples of idiots in each generation, the difference is that in the boomer generation it was most of you (the collective you) and the rest of you didn’t do anything to stop it, because you were getting yours.
You stood by and did nothing while your elected officials plundered the beautiful nation your parents left. That’s my beef, and most here still can’t see it.
My generation (X) loves to complain about what the baby boom generation did to us (and will do to everyone else). It’s all true.
But that still makes us the second most privileged generation in history. And it’s not like we did much to reverse the trends. What’s more, we added ruinations of our own.
language warning: http://www.cracked.com/blog/5-ways-we-ruined-occupy-wall-street-generation_p2/#ixzz1daP3IQ5q
Of course, these are generalizations. Most SDA’ers opposed Trudeau (or later repented), resisted political correctness (Go Ezra!) and divorce culture, or are trying to start real careers with real education or real trades.
Jon kind of sums up the entitled generation’s attitude rather nicely I’d say. Whine whine whine bitch about your parents me me me me me me me me me me me me me. Screw you jon. Seriously. I’m in my 30s and people like you disgust me. Pull up your socks and get on with it.
I think we can all agree that as a group boomers have done more harm than good. That’s not to say there aren’t individual boomers who are exceptions to this.
langmann is right on.
And thanks for the nod, Robert.
O’rly? The boomers have done more harm than good? In the 50 years since they were teenagers life sure has gotten a lot worse eh?
I look around at what the boomers have built and I’m truly dumbfounded by the progress. Seriously. Sure they didn’t fight off the nazis and they didn’t win the early crucial stage of the cold war but they sure did a lot. Only an entitled jerk off would say otherwise. I’m the grateful son of a pair of boomer parents.
I have a relative who’s one of these girl world beater Big Kahuna types. Big house, BIG retirement fund, Mr. Important Guy boyfriend, the works. She’s very, very successful. She worked for it, she earned every penny, and she deserves it.
Doesn’t really look all that happy about it though when I see her. Don’t think it turned out they way she was thinking it would. Dogs don’t really replace kids, right?
The original article is complaining about “burnout” among women in business. Businesses eat people, its what they do. It takes a rare breed of human to stand in that fire and not be consumed. Take a look at the weeding process that takes place in the medical profession, of ten that start maybe one makes it to twenty years of service. That’s because the job sucks, you have to be made of freakin’ stone to do it.
They talk about the number of women who drop out at every level, as if this is some kind of problem. I notice they don’t talk about the number of MEN who drop out, if they did there’d probably be a collective gasp at the sheer scale of the carnage.
But we are supposed to just accept this as normal, because we are white, WASP men and men don’t complain. Its only mean and cruel when it happens to poor defenseless girls. Which is true really, and men mostly don’t complain about the crap that happens to us. But when women start to whinge and moan about stuff we’ve shrugged off or wounds that have healed-over, well that kinda makes me cranky.
As to the Blame the Boomers post: I’m a Boomer, I lived through the f-ing Cold War, have fond memories of going outside and sitting in the park every time I heard the air-raid sirens just in case the Commies were going to finally drop The Big One on us. I remember my old man nearly having a f-ing nervous break down during the Cuban Missile Crisis. I remember Khrushchev banking his f-ing shoe on the podium on TV.
You think your school sucked? I still can’t do long division without a calculator thanks to the New Math.
My generation has been -pillaged- of our earnings by a socialist government which has p1ssed through every nickle we ever made for them and is currently spending money our unborn GREAT GRAND CHILDREN haven’t made yet. I’m working to change it and have been for twenty years, just like most people who post here. That’s who Conservatives are, that’s what we do.
Where have you been the last twenty years, kid? We could have used some frickin’ help out here.
I’ve been a long time reader of SDA, but this post is finally motivation to stop lurking in the shadows. I’m likely in the same age range as Jon, early-mid twenties, and very much aware of the challenges our generation will have to face.
I recognize I can’t speak with any authority on the mindset of the baby boomers. I can only comment on the very unique historical circumstances the baby boomers enjoyed. Canada and the US emerged from the Second World War largely unscathed. Rather than having to rebuild an industrial base from scratch, North American industry was able to excel while offering top notch benefits. The lack of real competition from Asia and Europe allowed inefficient industries with bloated payrolls to succeed. Canadian industry could match European efficiency, and could hold its own (in some sectors) against the US.
Social programs seem to have been built on the assumption that the good times would last forever, and that we would always be able to afford generous pensions and other entitlements. I don’t begrudge my parent’s generation for wanting to enjoy prosperity, but I am disappointed at the failure to appreciate the consequences of a changing world.
The world is getting a heck of a lot more competitive, and I don’t foresee that trend changing any time soon. The companies that promised pensions and early retirement to unionized labour will not be competitive. I don’t expect CPP to be functional by the time I retire, and I can’t offer much in the way of sympathy for those who have placed their faith in a corporate or government pension.
I don’t assume that the baby boom generation has sought to screw the future, but I do believe that they have failed to appreciate why they enjoyed decades of unprecedented prosperity. Intentional or not, there was, and remains a dangerous level of ignorance.
This is the ignorance that is pushing an “A for Effort” education system. This is the ignorance that is punishing soccer teams for scoring too many goals and hurting the self esteem of the other players. This is the ignorance that is pushing thousands of youth to pursue degrees that offer little hope of real employment. This is the ignorance that says we can enjoy unprecedented prosperity without paying for it.
At a time when we should be demanding more from ourselves, and aiming to be more competitive, we are instead whining about how the other side doesn’t play fair. The baby boomers are complaining about the entitlement generation. The entitlement generation are complaining about the boomers. The unfortunate part is that neither are moving debate in a healthy direction.
The next 5-10 years are going to mean sacrifices for all of us, its time to suck it up and deal with these problems together. We have a health care system to fix, industry to redevelop, and a new vision for Canada to define. Quit bitching about the other side, take a long look in the f-king mirror, and lets do what needs to be done.
Canada is still in an envious position. We are going to have to work harder, and we are going to have to work smarter. This will mean less entitlements, longer time spent in the work force, and becoming a nation of permanent students. Most of all, it is going to require the humility from all of us to say that we don’t deserve the incredible prosperity we’ve enjoyed for generations. This next decade will be sink or swim. It is time to quit blaming each other.
Happy Thanksgiving
@ Justin
“It is time to quit blaming each other.”
True as it serves no purpose. Who could have guessed that a simple little thing like outsourcing 42000 factories since 1990 could destroy our way of life. We all loved the cheap products. We still do. We are all to blame for letting it happen. You say we should be more competitive. How do we compete with 50 cent per hour labor ? With companies that have no benefits or labor standards ? How do any of us undo a system that allows GE to earn 1.6 billion dollars that they pay no tax on and actually claim a tax rebate. Obama has Immel, the head of GE on his job creation panel. The irony is painfull.
I agree with much of what you say, but pulling up our socks and working harder will do nothing until we can reach a level playing field and China/India?philippines and other countries will not come up to our level, so we will decline to meet theirs. It’s a slow process but blaming each other for it will solve nothing. The damage has been done and since China owns most of the US debt it will be hard to undo. The US Titanic is sinking and the vortex will pull Canada in too. Most of the boomers gains were pre 1990 and no one at the time had reason to believe that the next generations would not derive the same opportunities the boomers enjoyed. Even hard to blame the unions as both sides agreed to every contract. Lets put the blame on all of us for enjoying cheap products and not having the foresight to see where that would lead . The factories that kept the middle class vibrant and insured a tax base that could support the (too) generous social safety nets are still humming along. Unfortunately they are now in other countries. We are all to blame for letting that happen.
Everything that is wrong and where the blame SHOULD go is explained here.
http://bill-waddell.com/images/CLARION_CALL_MASTER.pdf