Why not just accept that both have different struggles. Why not be positive?

I think that Chloe’s point was for Boomers to stop misguidedly criticizing what they don’t understand.

To Boomers: Yes. There are many dropkick lazy Millenials. But the majority are actually pretty hard working. It’s not easy. I don’t know about other countries, but last year the NZ Minister of Education made a speech which was (for a politician) very honest. He basically said that they are trying to create a force of workers of higher education. Which is fantastic. But he also said that the jobs for them aren’t likely to be created until about 20 years from now. That means that more highly educated people are competing for a shitty job with a huge student loan to the boot (the fees for university have gone up by over 30% just in the few years that I have been studying).

In your time, you could go into an aprenticeship or start work with a relatively low level of education and work your way up into the management. Nowadays there is no chance of high position without education. It is not easy.

My point is that things are different now. People with degrees who flip burger patties aren’t lazy or stupid. They are simply struggling to get something better.

Criticism is not helpful in any way. Telling kids who are trying that they aren’t working hard enough is not helpful.

Be encouraging. Cheer the kids on as they fight the corrupt governments and fight to further equality and rights. Support them and be proud of them and perhaps be reminded of yourselves.

To Millenials: Be grateful to Boomers. They have worked hard and they have had it tough in a way that you could not begin to understand. They deserve nice comfortable retirements. They were brave and hard working and they have laid so much groundwork for the future that we want.

To everyone: stop being keyboard warriors and picking on each other. What is the benefit of fighting others to prove that your life sucks more? It’s stupid. Choose your fights better, you’re all special.

To critics of what I advocate: Yes I am optimistic. No, I am not blind to current and past problems. You don’t like what I say? Well, you are welcome to your opinion.

You’ll probably find most students are too overloaded with work to protest these days

I didn’t say that you shouldn’t make an effort to change the system, just that protests and blogs won’t get you there. Think of how hard it is to change yourself – just to lose 5 pounds or quit smoking or keep your bathroom clean. What makes you think if you can’t change yourself that you can change several billion people? Be realistic about your goals and be strategic about them – few things are sadder than huge amount of time and energy wasted when the goal could have been achieved with smarter tactics.

Ridiculous to imagine that any generation has a claim on the politics of resistance. It wasn’t the boomers who wrung the welfare states out of our overlords, it wasn’t the ‘greatest generation’ who toppled the Tsars, it wasn’t the um, centennials (?-1900ers) who took on slavery and suffrage and the 8 hour day. I could go on. Generational griping is silly. The ‘99%’ can’t be anywhere near 99% if it doesn’t include the boomers. There’s so damn many of them, and they are at the apex of the life expectancy graph. The bulge will be with us for another 40 years! I know those oldsters can be difficult, with their awful ‘music’. We’ll just have to learn to tolerate the “Beatles”, and the “Stones” for the sake of inter-generational solidarity.

The baby boom was a developed country phenomenon tied to the end of WWII and otherwise declining birth rates.

You have apparently “adapted” well to the rather selfish society we have, that is not what I would recommend, as I have such as you in my family. The conformists usually determine the trend of society, sadly, but they are also usually very short of ideas, shy of true responsibility (apart for their own immediate well-being and interests), and they have too little wider social conscience. They are about THEMSELVES, and THEIR immediate family and whatever, they do not tend to look beyond the tip of their noses, they usually have no comprehension of the greater picture.

No, this advice you give is NOT what I recommend. We need a new social order, a new awareness, a new sense of community, not career, business and self protection above all else. We may as well sign off and let Key and gang carry on, and do the rest. I am sure you will recommend people will “wisely” consider and “adjust”. NO thanks.

This from the generation at the very top of the ponzi scheme that is our residential property market.

It sounds like you were at university at a time when student unions were compulsory, and much more politically aware and active.

Add to that the focus of university education now, to get a career to get you money, the change in the diversity of those attending and you start to see how the cards for students are stacked very differently.

Also, it has been reported that some of the student unions have been stacked with Young Nats and likeminded people, and so – invitations to visiting lecturers and presentations have had a decided narrow viewpoint.

And then they have grown up in a culture of celebrity worship and consumerism that we failed to challenge in visible ways.

Students and young people now – who are politically knowledgeable and active – have had to delve through a morass of misinformation and ridicule to even become informed. (By the way, I don’t consider the Young Nats politically knowledgeable – just well schooled).