Reply #6: We haven't all had self-indulgent years.

[mcscajun]

And many of us ARE getting tossed aside.

In my own case, it was only in the Clinton years that I finally found my head above water for a while, and managed to see my way clear of debt and look forward to really benefiting from my new, hard-won place in the middle class.

Then came the Bush years, and the economy tanked, my work went to India, and the Peak earning years in which I expected to fix my home, buy some decent furniture, travel a bit, and really sock away the bucks for my old age went POOF in an instant. I'm working part-time now for a fraction of what I used to earn and using my savings to pay my mortgage. I'm early retired not by choice, but to keep my medical benefits, and I'm way UNDER-employed. I missed out on my "self-indulgent years".

Don't buy into the myth that all Boomers were/are spoiled indulgent whiners.

I came from nothing, worked hard, got an education, and did what was necessary to get what I had. Now, I'm going to have to struggle to keep it, and live in markedly reduced circumstances than what I'd hoped for. At least I'm used to nothing, so I don't fear it quite so much.

Outsourcing and offshoring are a relatively new phenomenon, the social contract between employers and employees was broken on our way up...so I think "Kleenex generation" is a pretty apt one.