Generation-X culture vs Boomer culture

[Higgenbotham]

Just one small question....Has one of the major Hollywood studios cobbled up the production rights to all this yet?!? (Or, at least one of those low-budget ones "in the Valley"??) —Best regards/Cheers, Marc

Oh, this is pretty tame, and I think you guys know that. Maybe with the exception of the "bezzler" but she didn't hang around long.

Overall, though, we're talking about motivations here and while I can throw out some things I saw in the workplace it's very tough to know what exactly the motivations are. I will never know precisely what "Jen" wanted but the passage of time and the fact that she never contacted me after leaving employment tells me something. Did she also want me to get her pregnant if her husband didn't heal from the radiation exposure or whatever was going on? I don't know, but I do know she desperately wanted to have a child and once she was going to have one, we were done. In reading John's supposition in the case he related in his workplace of a game of "Rapo" (which I hadn't heard of), I've offered a few alternatives. She might be on the ropes financially and perceives that an older guy might be more likely to be able to help out or want to help out. It's possible she's being sexually harrassed and wants to attach onto a guy she feels she can trust as protection to stop the harassment. In my travels, I never tried to figure out the reason. For the most part, I just enjoyed the show. With a few exceptions, as there are some women who truly are dangerous.

In my past life as a landlord, one of my pet phrases was "Girls need places to live." Oh yes, they do! I always took payment exclusively in US dollars though (refer to the Financial Thread). Oh, but the stories I could tell about the beauties who preferred non US dollar terms! Likewise, there were many good women who wanted assurance that I only demanded payment in US dollars and told me stories of men who demanded otherwise, which was truly sad and tragic to hear. I should hasten to add, once again, these are "a few exceptions". It may be 1-2% of the population referred to, and probably under 5%, but the reality does exist.

[peaceandlove]

Is Gen-X loathing directed equally at Boomer men and women? Or is it
directed only at Boomer males?

I'm Gen-X and Boomer men and women are both to blame the failures of modern society. You can't just blame one gender and not the other. I know that I am blessed to live in a society where women have the rights and opportunities that we have; however, some of those opportunities come with a big price tag. So many of my friends think that they can wait to have kids and biology won't catch up to them. It's really sad to watch - especially when you know that they want kids. Modern feminism isn't all that it's cracked up to be. A lot of boomer women still think they are fighting "the Man" and a lot of boomer men seem to just want to keep their head down and get out of their way. My generation isn't much better, but I can't change that either.

Also, political correctness doesn't do anything to further political dialogue. I'm not "vertically-challenged". I'm not going to be offended if you call me short because I am. It seems like Boomers like the sound of their own voices more than they listen to others - especially when people want our leaders to actually solve problems....

[John]

I came across this as I was searching through some old material. In
2007, I posted an article on Gen-X nihilism. A number of people sent
responses to me. Here's one of them:

> As an Xer, I actually enjoyed reading your perspective on this.

> I found your computer industry experiences enlightening. Thanks
> for sharing that. I read The Soul of a New Machine 25
> years ago and enjoyed it immensely, as it described the kind of
> workplace where real work got accomplished and rewarded by real
> managers. As you point out, such an environment no longer exists
> anywhere due to the generational configuration that is present.
> And a good question to ask would be: What generation was not
> present in the workforce at that time? The Xers, of course, so
> that does validate your point to some extent.

> I dropped out of the workforce 5 years ago, as it appeared that
> things were getting and would continue to get worse, much worse,
> as the Xers were beginning to move into management slots and the
> rest of the Silents got pushed out by the Boomers. That turned
> out to be the case in my former workplace and I got a lot of
> phone calls for 2 or 3 years after I left. Leaving was for the
> best.

> As far as Xer managers go, it's also been my experience that they
> are particularly insidious as managers, even worse than the worst
> of the Boomers. The Boomers will promote the most incompetent
> and despicable Xers they can find, as they are only comfortable
> supervising individuals who are even more incompetent and
> despicable than they are, and there are plenty of Xers to pick
> from who fit that description. This then feeds the fury and/or
> fears of the remaining competent employees, particularly the
> Xers. The best Xer employees don't want or even bother to aim
> for promotions anymore. ...

> Anyway, your article helped me see the dynamic that is really
> present. The Xers are just as much to blame, maybe more. But
> the sad fact is that the Xers who have power are a more
> despicable subset of Xers as a whole.

[Trevor]

I have to admit, I was a bit skeptical when you mentioned that X-ers hate all Boomers, but after doing a bit of reading about what they said, along with some of the responses, I think there's something to it. I still don't think all of them hate every one of them, but it's definitely present.

[Higgenbotham]

> As an Xer, I actually enjoyed reading your perspective on this.

John,

I wrote that.

Some followup.

The worst Xer they promoted (at age 30) was advertised as a rising star in my former workplace. She spent most of her time talking on the phone while chewing gum, keeping the office supplied with junk food, and harassing employees who were the preferred targets of the Boomer managers while running around in a polypropylene skirt that was way too tight. She was the subject of most of those calls I received. After I wrote that message, she got a managerial position at a power company. If I have it right, she was supervising engineers. They fired her after a year or two. She moved out of state and now works as a lab tech.

There were some other Xers in that organization who were being moved into management slots at that time and are still there so far as I know. One of them was one of the Xers who had one of the serial affairs with the Booomer, which I previously described. I had also described some of these Xer women he had affairs with as "bad news" and she was bad news in general and as a manager.

[John]

In 1992, I worked for Fidelity Investments for a few months on a
Windows application for stock trader telemarketers. One day I wrote a
long memo detailing all the reasons why this project was going to slip
6-12 months. My Gen-X manager was absolutely furious, and he fired me
right after that. But my memo was right. The project was a disaster,
and it was canceled a month later.

One thing I've learned about working for Gen-Xers is that it doesn't
matter whether you're right or wrong. If they want to do something
stupid or unethical or immoral or illegal, then a Boomer had better be
willing to go along with it, or he'll be screwed and fired. The
Fidelity story is just one of several examples I have of that.

This certainly applies to the financial services industry, where
Gen-Xers continually blame Boomer bosses for the massive fraud
from sales of tens of trillions of dollars of fraudulent
synthetic securities. And yet, the circumstantial evidence
shows clearly that the Gen-Xer financial engineers were the
perpetrators, and they would have kept what they were doing
from their Boomer bosses.

Let's take this step by step:

• These fraudulent synthetic securities (CDOs) were taught to
  Gen-Xers in the 1980s and 1990s in masters and PhD programs in
  financial engineering.
• These Gen-X financial engineers were the world's leading experts on
  synthetic securities, and must have known that they were fraudulent.
• Their Boomer bosses could not have understood how CDOs worked
  because they are extremely complex and technical, and they were taught
  in colleges long after Boomers had graduated.
• The "slicing and dicing" process transmuted B-rated securities into
  A-rated securities of equal value, something that's mathematically
  impossible. The Gen-X financial engineers must have understood that,
  and understood that it was fraudulent. See the following:
  
  ** Financial Crisis Inquiry hearings provide 'smoking gun' evidence of widespread criminal fraud
  ** http://www.generationaldynamics.com/cgi ... king100414
• If anyone in the financial engineering organization had raised an
  alarm or tried to tell the Boomer bosses, he would would have been
  screwed and fired.
• Once the Gen-X financial engineering models started falling apart
  in 2006 and 2007, the banksters sped up the sales of these fraudulent
  securities.

I believe that these descriptions could be verified and proven if only
the regulators were willing to investigate what happened. But as we
know, the Gen-X regulators have only encouraged continued fraud, and
the Justice Department and FBI are refusing to investigate anyone,
rather than risk prosecuting other Gen-Xers.

Nonetheless, this means that these crimes were perpetrated by the only
experts who could have perpetrated them, the Gen-X financial engineers
working in these organizations. These Gen-Xers are criminals, and
they should be sent to jail. They should not be allowed to get away
with blaming their bosses any more than Adolf Eichmann, from Germany's
Lost Generation, was allowed to use that excuse in his slaughter of
Jews in the Holocaust.

The Boomer bosses did not understand how the CDOs worked. All they
knew is that they were making huge amounts of money. However, they
could not possibly have been entirely ignorant of the fraud that was
going on. At the very least there were grave suspicions, and they had
a fiduciary duty their clients to investigate possible fraud. Failing
to do that makes the Boomer bosses also criminally guilty, and they
should be sent to jail as well.

All this was possible because of the Gen-X culture, which permitted
illegal, immoral or unethical acts with no retribution whatsoever, so
that even honest Gen-Xers who committed no crimes themselves were
complicit in the crimes by refusing to condemn them.

John

[Marc]

In 1992, I worked for Fidelity Investments for a few months on a
Windows application for stock trader telemarketers. One day I wrote a
long memo detailing all the reasons why this project was going to slip
6-12 months. My Gen-X manager was absolutely furious, and he fired me
right after that. But my memo was right. The project was a disaster,
and it was canceled a month later.

One thing I've learned about working for Gen-Xers is that it doesn't
matter whether you're right or wrong. If they want to do something
stupid or unethical or immoral or illegal, then a Boomer had better be
willing to go along with it, or he'll be screwed and fired. The
Fidelity story is just one of several examples I have of that.

This certainly applies to the financial services industry, where
Gen-Xers continually blame Boomer bosses for the massive fraud
from sales of tens of trillions of dollars of fraudulent
synthetic securities. And yet, the circumstantial evidence
shows clearly that the Gen-Xer financial engineers were the
perpetrators, and they would have kept what they were doing
from their Boomer bosses.

Let's take this step by step:

• These fraudulent synthetic securities (CDOs) were taught to
  Gen-Xers in the 1980s and 1990s in masters and PhD programs in
  financial engineering.
• These Gen-X financial engineers were the world's leading experts on
  synthetic securities, and must have known that they were fraudulent.
• Their Boomer bosses could not have understood how CDOs worked
  because they are extremely complex and technical, and they were taught
  in colleges long after Boomers had graduated.
• The "slicing and dicing" process transmuted B-rated securities into
  A-rated securities of equal value, something that's mathematically
  impossible. The Gen-X financial engineers must have understood that,
  and understood that it was fraudulent. See the following:
  
  ** Financial Crisis Inquiry hearings provide 'smoking gun' evidence of widespread criminal fraud
  ** http://www.generationaldynamics.com/cgi ... king100414
• If anyone in the financial engineering organization had raised an
  alarm or tried to tell the Boomer bosses, he would would have been
  screwed and fired.
• Once the Gen-X financial engineering models started falling apart
  in 2006 and 2007, the banksters sped up the sales of these fraudulent
  securities.

I believe that these descriptions could be verified and proven if only
the regulators were willing to investigate what happened. But as we
know, the Gen-X regulators have only encouraged continued fraud, and
the Justice Department and FBI are refusing to investigate anyone,
rather than risk prosecuting other Gen-Xers.

Nonetheless, this means that these crimes were perpetrated by the only
experts who could have perpetrated them, the Gen-X financial engineers
working in these organizations. These Gen-Xers are criminals, and
they should be sent to jail. They should not be allowed to get away
with blaming their bosses any more than Adolf Eichmann, from Germany's
Lost Generation, was allowed to use that excuse in his slaughter of
Jews in the Holocaust.

The Boomer bosses did not understand how the CDOs worked. All they
knew is that they were making huge amounts of money. However, they
could not possibly have been entirely ignorant of the fraud that was
going on. At the very least there were grave suspicions, and they had
a fiduciary duty their clients to investigate possible fraud. Failing
to do that makes the Boomer bosses also criminally guilty, and they
should be sent to jail as well.

All this was possible because of the Gen-X culture, which permitted
illegal, immoral or unethical acts with no retribution whatsoever, so
that even honest Gen-Xers who committed no crimes themselves were
complicit in the crimes by refusing to condemn them.

John

Hi, John; I think that your theory is basically on-target. I do kindly think, as reflected in some prior comments of mine, that you do still have a significant number of “cad” Boomers (and even the occasional cad Silent or Millennial) who had “tech smarts” and knew what they were doing or at least knew largely what was going on. This would be manifested in people such as Bennie Madoff (Silent Generation) or securities huckster Jonathan Lebed (the youngest person to ever be busted by the SEC, and a Millennial). I’ve also worked with some Boomers who seemed plenty conniving or self-focused, and while they likely couldn’t have created a complex synthetic security if their lives depended on it, it seems like the “Third Turning environment” opened up “opportunities” for them to “do their thing.”

Just my own feelings and experiences here; others may feel differently. But, thanks for the excellent insights. —Best regards, Marc

[Trevor]

I still don't see why it matters what generation they belong to. It amazes me that so few people have been thrown in prison when thousands clearly deserve long sentences.

Even people who weren't involved directly surely knew what was going on. Course, there were some people who tried to blow the whistle on everything and warning about the housing bubble and the two companies Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Course, any serious plan to do anything was shot down because too many people benefited.

I can't think of a group that doesn't deserve a shame of the blame for this disaster. There's plenty of it to go around.

[John]

Dear Marc,

> you do still have a significant number of “cad” Boomers

You won't get any argument from me, except that the word "cad" isn't
nearly strong enough. Makes them seem almost loveable. Lloyd
Blankfein, CEO of Goldman Sachs, testified to the Financial Crisis
Inquiry Commission that bankers are doing "God's work" in making
investment opportunities available, even though these investment
opportunities turned out to be near-worthless, fraudulent toxic
assets. He's a lot worse than a cad.

John

[Trevor]

And now they're a ticking time bomb, just waiting for the opportunity to go off.