Baby Boomers and the Promise of the Future

 What were the promises of the future when you were growing up? I was born in 1950’s, so the 60’s were my guide star for what life would be like in my adult life. The main promise of adults then was that their children would be better off than them. The next generation would minimally have a home, a good job, and security. Hard work would be rewarded, but robots and computers would make work easier and more productive. Science would give us better health, faster transportation, more mechanical aids, and military weapons to keep us safe. We would explore the planets and space.

There were things that were pushed off though. Pollution, waste, finite resources were left for the future as they weren’t seen as current problems needing attention. Foreign relations included the nuclear threat of annihilation. Wars and preparation for wars sucked enormous amounts of the nation’s treasure in money, manpower, and brain power.

And now that I’m in my 70’s, what of these promises and delays from the adults in my childhood? Did we get more leisure time? A 32-hour week maybe? No. Computers and robots made work much more productive, but the benefits flowed to the corporations and business owners, not to the workers. So we work more efficiently, but then more work is piled on to adjust. Leisure time is not considered.

Has science given us a better life? Indeed. Health care has made incredible leaps. Cars, trains, and planes have made great strides in speed, safety, and efficiency. Our military in the US is more capable than any other country, keeping us safe. Robots have explored other planets. A space station orbits the earth. Satellites give us weather prediction, communication, and telescopes.

How about having a home, a good job, and security? Those things, unfortunately, are getting harder to obtain. Homes and even apartments are financially out of reach of more and more people. The federal minimum wage in the US is $7.25 per hour, unchanged since 2009. Changes in student loans and university entries have made getting higher education more and more difficult. Security requires the ability to afford food and a place to live. So security is suffering as well.

I don’t think that we are better off than our parents, in general. Science has produced incredible strides, but society has let us down. The promised leisure has been stolen. Security is much more difficult to maintain. Life is more stressful than in the 1960’s, in my opinion. There need to be many important changes. Unfortunately, our current politicians are distracted by smaller or even unimportant things. Society needs a huge reorientation.