What Did the Baby Boomers Ever Do for Us?

by Francis Beckett

Light wear to cover. Shipped from the U.K. All orders received before 3pm sent that weekday.

Genres: Nonfiction

218 pages, Paperback

First published March 1, 2011

Reviews

[Simone · Rating 3 out of 5]

So a professor was talking about this book in class, and when I asked her about it, she loaned me her copy. This has a very pointed and argumentative style to it. The evidence and the argument is mainly anecdotal. It also deals almost exclusively with British history. I found that refreshing as my British history knowledge is a little thin on the ground. I think parts of the argument would certainly translate to the U.S.

He's upset that the baby boomer generation was the beneficent of stunning post-War state welfare reforms, specifically schools and health care in Britain. And after they moved through the system they summarily moved through and shut down access to the those same services for their children. he accuses them of being youth obsessed, with not conception of history, and selfish. A baby boomer himself, he often returns to the idea that they pulled up the letter after they got up it. It's an interesting book. I hadn't quite thought of it like this before. I'm not doing a good job articulating this, but I don't think anyone will go out and find a copy of this.

"The generation war has started. Out parents knew they were bringing us into a new and better world. My parents, and many other, would often say, 'I want him to have the opportunities I never had.' Our parents many have begruged us our freedom, but they never begruged us their money, even though they had little of it. Now the children of the 60s are parents and grandparents, there seems to be a special venom in the loathing they show to their young. A popular car sticker around the turn of the century read triumphantly, 'Spending the kids' inheritance'....At some level we have squandered the inheritance our parents worked to give us. It as though the sixties generation decided that the freedom from humiliation and worry that they enjoyed was too good for their children. The baby boomers kicked away their children's legs, and now they sneer at them for being lame."

[Luke · Rating 3 out of 5]

An elegy to the Attlee Labour government and its work, in a similar vein to Ken Loach's recent Spirit Of '45. And an extended tirade against 55-65 years olds who dismantled it all.

~ Babyboomers are all selfish consumers, who ignored history and believed they were so much better than everyone else just because they were, nothing to do with the welfare state that was built by the Warbabies and which birthed, schooled and housed the ungrateful little sods. If they did well in life purely because they were amazing then all this welfare stuff can just be sold off, right?

In the end the rumours about how to kill them off are false. A stake to the heart, silver bullets, crosses and holy water all have no effect. There are too many of them to fight. They vote en masse, in one giant block, with only their own interests in mind and we can't stop them from tilting everything in their favour. The only hope is that they might turn out to swing towards their activist side rather than their individualistic side in their old age. It's either that, or we just have to wait till they all die off and hope they haven't destroyed and sold off everything that was built for them in their youth. Though there is a good chance they will develop ways to stay alive forever by feeding off everyone below the age of 50. They especially prey on youth.

They are all around us, they rule everything and if one pops off, there are 10 more to fill that place... ~


(Some useful information and covered up history. Welcome iconoclasm. Pops the 60s myth, including digs at Princes Mick Jagger and Bob Dylan. Pretty sexist in parts, blaming 70s feminists for bringing down the unions (?)... Bit too pro government. Ignores class quite a bit. Doesn't really like radical left politics. Is it really all of them or just the shit heads who got wealth and power? Bit too personal and loose. Would have preferred more damning facts and figures than just a long shout at the generation.)

[Joseph Stec · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm always down for some baby boomer bashing, but the book is at times unfocused, picking very specific things to talk about. It is also written by a British author, so I did not understand the full impact of every reference, and by a lefty, so I often strongly disagreed with his arguments. He was very superficial in many of them, and I don't think he thought much deeper past, "the baby boomers had X, they later got rid of X (which happens to be a core facet of socialism/Labour), therefore they are bad," ignoring the vast differences in Britain and the world between the 50/60's and now that may have led to such changes.

I really wish this book was better because it is a pretty important topic.

[Keith Neville · Rating 4 out of 5]

Brings home how much we have failed future generations. Deeply interesting read, but definitely not for people who are easily depressed by the opportunities missed or spurned by the BB generation.