The Good Villain

I wrote this as a commentary on a blog about integrating the generations. Her post talked about how she expected the X’rs to start up a bunch of new businesses in response to the economic meltdown. I think I am going to come back to this theme regularly. Thus, Boomers vs. Gen X- Part I:

“The thing is that X’s want some measure of security, but we never really believed in it in the first place. We’ve seen the mom-and-pop stores be over-run by mega-chains, dot-com start-ups wither and die, and our old venerable institutions scam and bilk the innocent. Never forget that we grew up on junk bonds and junk food. We expect to pay more and get less every single year. None of this is a surprise. Boomers grew up fearing Communists and Big Brother. We grew up fearing Boomers. And you can bet that we won’t put our necks out so they can get chopped off by their banks and non-competitive practices. We will work for the Boomers in their companies, on their payrolls, under their insurance, until they implode. If the Boomers were smart, and most aren’t, they would make partners out of the X’s as fast as possible. That is the only way to get us to care. Until we are treated as peers and equals by the Boomers, we will find new and devastating ways of show you how wrong you are. But if you give us a seat at the table, we will make geniuses out of you and allow you to go off and enjoy the retirement you expected. BTW, we never thought we’d be able to retire so we aren’t going to be disappointed by the late invitation to join the grown-up table.