I am turning 50 this year so in my honor I am reading a book about the Fifties;
The Life and Times of the THUNDERBOLTKID
by Bill Bryson.
I twitter so about being a Baby Boomer because this demographical anomaly will never again be repeated for however long our species will be allowed to continue gumming up the works here on the third rock from the Sun.
The Boomers are obviously immune from the effects of Nostalgicide and they are now firmly in control of the mainstream media so don't expect the zeitgeist of the 50s, 60s, & 70s to disappear anytime soon!
http://www.boomerdeathcounter.com/
Bryson declares, “When the war ended the United States had $26 Billion worth of factories that didn’t exist before the war, $140 Billion in savings and war bonds just waiting to be spent, no bomb damage, and practically no competition.”
Fast forward to today and the USA borrows $3 Billion per DAY to stay in business.
This book contains the famous 1951 LIFE magazine photograph of the Czekalinskis and the 2.5 tons of food that the Average American Family consumed at an estimated cost of $1,300 per year. That's right $25 per week.
For further scrutinizing read this article: http://www.livinghistoryfarm.org/farminginthe50s/money_01.html
President George Dubya Boomer was born in 1946 one year after WW2. His daddy, George Hard Workin' Bush, was an ex Navy Pilot studying Economics at Yale at the time and his Grandfather, Prescott, was an Investment Banker who just happened to be on the board of the Yale Corporation in '46.
You know the old saying about the Grandchildren running a company into the ground, shirt sleeve to shirt sleeve in three generations. When ‘Dubya’ was born the sky was the limit. Now, not so much. OK we can't blame him for everything but he and his crew are certainly doing their best to run the business into the ground.
This nostalgic perception that those were simpler times is partially true.
It was much simpler to ignore the rest of mankind back then and now it is impossible. Unfortunately we have Nostalgisaurs in positions of power and influence, whose heads are as far up their butts as they were in 1951!
That is why every now and then I am genuinely concerned about my future grandchildren and what their world will be like when the Oil runs out in 79 years. Somehow I need to make a difference now.
Comedian Denis Miller says not to worry about the Oil running out in 2086 because the day after we run out we’ll get conversion kits that will allow our cars to run on cat farts. That is certainly reassuring but I need a little more wiggle room.
What do you think the world will be like in 79 years and will they finally stop talking about Baby Boomers?
So Dubya destroyed the family business. What are thye chances that Hillary will do the same? (Optimistic, aren't I? I'm sure there's a conspiracy to keep her out of the top job somewhere! :) The Kennedies were far too Shakespearean to have such an ignominious demise. (See? I know big words, too. Nya nya.)
ReplyDeletesigned Cusp o' the Boom
andrea,
ReplyDeleteI know you are but what am I?
What cracks me up about the US three year election race is that if and when Fred Thompson and the Goracle enter the race it is back to zero. The Goracle would probably eliminate Hilary and Michael Bloomberg would be a huge problem.
I have always been fascinated with the Kennedys and I remember how the world stopped and all of the adults whispered all day when John was shot in Dallas, I was almost 6.
Unfortunately John and Robert would have probably both been destroyed by sex scandals had they not been martyred.
Their old man taught them well, perhaps a little too well.
Thought-provoking, as per instructions on the side o' the packet;-) Nostalgia mongers are
ReplyDeleteincredibly agile, considering that
they're running both forward AND
backward, with a couple of head feints thrown in, and the whole time, thinking with heads shoved
squarely up their collective patoots. I'm sure that there were
many little slices of heaven to
gaze back upon, but it's a serious
distortion of reality, to suppose
that such 'realities' can or should
be the paradigm our futures strive
to achieve. Bear in mind, there
are only several decades worth of human behaviour, self-aggrandizement, and modern conveniences between where we are now, and the age of boundless
opportunities. Happy Days? Jeez,
talk about low expectations.
I dun care abt the rest of the post...HE ur turning 50 and that just turned me on! :)
ReplyDeleteKeshi.
btw u must must must take part in my current post.
ReplyDeleteKeshi.
You look great! :)
ReplyDelete"What do you think the world will be like in 79 years?"
I'm usually quite the optimist but I have no idea. Even the thought scares me.
And I agree with Christine above..U LOOK GOOD!
ReplyDeleteKeshi.
I am more worried about the research finding that Americans are much shorter today and the Europeans who use to look up to Americans and now looking down at them, literally. The height of a culture or society is directly proportional to their economic status.
ReplyDeletegrumbolini,
ReplyDeleteYes well said. Self aggrandizement to the MAX! Naval gazing nostalgiafests are essential to distract 70 million aging boomers from realising that THEY ARE ALL GONNA DIE!
keshiroo,
C'mon kesh 50 is gettin' there I could be your Daddy..not as in whose yer Daddy? but as in old enough to be.
Hey do you know about that guy from Melbourne who is on a show called the Age Of Love. It is a dating show that has 20 yr old hotties competing with 40 yr old cougars trying to win the heart of this 30 yr old dude.
I don't kiss and tell keshiroo...
christine,
C'mon your kids might still be around to see 2086...geez that is weird eh? Nobody likes to think about their kids being in their 80s. Ha! I'll be ecstatic to see 2032.
keshiroo,
This is supposed to be a deep thinking expose on how how much Americans eat or people once spent 22% of their income on food and now it's 7% or how Bush is a silver spooner boomer or how amazing it must have been to be in an economy that was taking off like a rocket.
Thanks anyway you are very kind.
ces,
Perhaps immigration has changed the dynamics? Swedes like my grandfather, and other Northern Europeans aren't the majority of immigrants coming to America anymore.
The average american soldier was 5'5" during the Civil War and now the avg is what 5'10" I think.
Thanks to the NBA we have all noticed that those Bosnian/Serb guys are super tall! Must be something in the water?
Americans must still outweigh everybody WooHoo!
in 79 years, there's only one thing i can think of: i'll be dead. and the world would still be turning.
ReplyDeleteIn 2086 there will be no more wars, a brilliant scientist from Ghana will have discovered how to recycle just about everything, there will be no more racial division, no religions, no nationalities, the poor will be fed and housed and the rich will have learned to stop exploiting the planet in pursuit of futile sensual satisfaction.
ReplyDeleteHowever, there will still be country and western music, so I am glad I will be dead.
{illyria}
ReplyDeletePerish the thought! I'll bet that your fantastic creations will still be read out in the blogosphere.
Out here You will live forever! FOREVER I SAY!
vicus,
You are one, sick, twisted ,mutha! Surely by then country & western music ((shudders)) will be long gone and goodness will follow.
You see my good man, everybody responsible for playing or listening to C&W will have been mercifully raptured..
and I say good riddance!((ptoooey!))
50? aren't you a bit young to be a boommer? my parents are BBs and they're 60 (born in '47). How long did the boom last, anyway?
ReplyDeletechaucer's bitch,
ReplyDeleteIn the USA the BabyBoom was from 46-64 and went until '66 in Canada.
There are 70 Million Boomers in the USA & 8.5M in Canada.
The oldest Boomers are 61 and the youngest are 41.
check out the death counter on the post
..1600 American Boomers and 100 Canadian Boomers expire on a daily basis.
I don't care what happens in 79 years as long as there is NO Synthehol, and every door makes a whooshing sound as it opens.
ReplyDeleteBesides, I like Vulcans, so I'm looking forward to First Contact.
And ya, you do look good, Homey! My honey was 50 when we hooked up - and you're only as old as you feel. How is that bursitis, by the way? HA!!!
Wow! I just noticed the "You're On Notice" pic on the sidebar!~ Wahoo!
ReplyDeleteshelley,
ReplyDeleteYou are da BOMB!
I do feel sorry for all of the other demographic groups but if you don't let the Boomers go on and on about themselves they will become obssesed with DEATH and YOU DON't WANT THAT. Believe me.
Just let us brag about how we ushered in the greatest, the zenith, the acme, the apex of each and every economical, political, medical, historical, pharmacalogical, musical, sexual, philosophical, and social adavancement in the entire history of mankind!!!
We're so special.
I hope you don't mind the notice, I told everybody that you made it for me.
I would like to clarify the age thingamabob ...
Groucho Marx said that "you are only as old as the woman you feel."
Well, We Americans as everyone says are out to destroy the world aren't we?
ReplyDeleteI do not think so. I think we live in fear that we thought our country was doing the right thing and now realize it isn't.
We are so far in debt and with a president and probably a new one coming in that doesn't care becuse at the end of the day he and his family will be taken care of while the masses wait for the crisis to hit us square in the face. Lets all understand, life is what it is and there is not a whole lot we can do when we do not matter.
That said, itdoes that mean we take it lying down Hell no. Where does one begin. We can impeach, oh wait, that will never happen because well its a nasty scandal and we do not want that, right?
we could protest, oh no, no, that won't work because no one listens. They put up with it until we tire and then go away.
Okay, okay, I am rambling. I am frustrated. I am American but that doesn't mean I agree with the politics at the moment. I think a path was created long ago and it will take far more than mere talking to get the trojan horse redesigned.
As for turning 50, dear, you are young, understand that and then embrace it, I love the passion in your writing and that doesn't come from some "old" stick in the mud.
In 79 years, far sooner than that I hope, we better be like Brazil using sugarcane for ethanol. Finding a better way to feed the world, and manage its growth.
IN 79 years, I won't be here, but the world may not either unless we wake up 'cause the coffee is brewing and it is starting to burn!
outside our hearts,
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately the shock of an attack on American soil was too great for the people to digest after half a century of prosperity.
In my post I had mentioned that part of the American advantage was that the homeland had emerged unscathed after WW2 and it helped bolster the zeitgeist of invicibility!
The mainstream media, now safely ensconced in corporate America, really let it's customers down. Nobody questioned anything because of the neo-mcCarthyist programming of the shadow government running the White House.
The Congress and Senate failed too.
A handful of thugs hiding in a cave in Arfghanistan were havaing a pissing match with a handful of dogmatic ideologians hiding in the anteroom behind the Oval Office.
History is going to tear America a "New One" but it won't be the end. With any luck journalism will replace the evening ration of spoonfed infotainment and press releases.
If America had the resolve to actually elect a woman or a young man of colour into the 'White' (really, really, really white) House it might actually regain some of that Kennedyesque Camelotian OPTIMISM.
The big "O"!
There is a word that nobody else, and I mean nobody, on the planet associates with the USA anymore.
BUT..what if Thompson squeaks by in Nov 08 because Bloomberg siphons votes from Hillary?
Currently I am reading Bill Bryson's Notes from a Small Island. I find his writing very refreshing.
ReplyDeleteComing back, India is a land of eternal baby boomers...:D
gautami,
ReplyDeleteI know that if you are 1 in a million in INDIA there are 1100 others just like you.
India is the fastest growing country of Internet users, surpassing the US, China, Japan and has been ranked as the eighth largest in terms of netizens.
India will pass China around 2030 which is right about the time that I will be passing on.
i'm too young to worry about grandchildren, but i do worry about my darling damien...
ReplyDeleteI think we are building a better world for dogs, anyway.
ReplyDeletehave to admit i loved the thunder bolt kid. SImple life funny storys and a time we will never see again.
ReplyDeleteI work with personal debt, it is crazy out there people just transfer debt, pay credit cards with cards... Current estimate in AUs 150% debt:income ratio.. In our terms for every 10 dollars earnt we borrow $15...
War has been one of the best things to ever thappen to the US economy, in terms of bonds, investments, employment and a real distraction from it's real problems in health care and education...
Removal of the baby boomers in Aus will be a god send, people with a sence of global comunity, not just small minded bigots of vote with their wallets not their heads and hearts. (their are many notable exceptions yourself included)
hey I dunno abt that show but I aint just 20...and nah u aint a daddy ok :). I like older guys...Im attracted to men who r smart, sensible, intelligent, loving n caring like HE!
ReplyDeleteKeshi.
angel,
ReplyDeleteYou are much younger than I am and a devoted mother...but I suspect that you have a few ideas...
doug,
I would exclude any dogs owned by American football players from the deep south or North Korea, Afghanistan, oh crap pretty much eveywhere but Manhattan, Palm Springs, Hollywood, and the UK.
aidan,
I am always amazed how Boomers are somehow villified as a generic monstrosity..there are 80 million people who thanks to favorable circumstances happened to be born in such numbers that they have had a tsunamic effect on education, housing and now funerals..they could not help but affect whatever stage of life they were in, it was a numbers game.
keshiroo,
ReplyDelete((blush))
I did not start out like this believe me..few people who knew me when I was younger would have guessed that I would have lived this long never mind mellow out and be such a nerdy goober as WW says.
There certainly are some definite advantages to the December-May relationships and we can't always choose who we fall in love with...I should shut up now.
:) Ur not a nerd...ur a superb dude - a very interesting one to know.
ReplyDeleteKeshi.
and Im puttin it ON n ON n ON lol!
ReplyDeleteKeshi.
keshiroo,
ReplyDeleteYou can't seem to 'mask' your true feelings HA!
Im on a masquerade rite now...wanna be a part of it? ;-)
ReplyDeletebtw HE...Im hooked. LOL!
Keshi.
50 eh?
ReplyDeleteWell here's to the next 50 then!
keshi,
ReplyDeleteYou're hooked on feeling
Da da-da da
I'm high on believin'
oogachugga oogga oogga oogggachugga
ziggi,
Fifty schmifty eh?
No Big Deal when you are 250...unless witches lie about their ages too!
Happy belated birthday HE. 50 years old. Where has the time gone?!
ReplyDelete