re: Self-esteem & the “Crisis of the Young”

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But what you have here is a time period transitioning ...

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The 'boomers' war on poverty just decimated the Black family. /s

I have loved your posts and your friendship for so many years- I always feel like I learn something about His word from you- even when my faith was not strong- your faith inspired me. Appreciate you.

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His claim (I haven't read it in over 20 years) was to the point that people want fulfillment from their spouse, and then then their spouses fail to give them an unreasonable fulfillment they trigger a crisis in themselves.

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I haven’t gotten there yet. I just read about kids and how they process the notion that they and everyone they know will some day perish.

Backer talked about how, in their total dependency, kids experience ultimate freedom. That would explain the periodic trends and urges toward socialism. Maybe we could relive our childhood freedom if we didn’t have to spend so much mental and physical energy of the act of survival?

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She and I often compare how boomers in the South were more like the Silent generation in the north. And Gen X in the south were more like northern Boomers.

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You chat with your wife about the regional differences of Boomers, and you do this often? Is one of you an academic type doing research on the differences between generations, or you guys just weird AF?

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That would explain the periodic trends and urges toward socialism.

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Fundamentally Socialism is about envy and guilt.

The poor envy what the rich have (Rightfully or wrongly can be debated), and the rich feel guilt about why their lives are better, especially the generations that didn't earn it/only inherited it.

I just find it hard to believe that it needs more than one of the most fundamental drives known to man to say I want what they have.

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Maybe we could relive our childhood freedom if we didn’t have to spend so much mental and physical energy of the act of survival?

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Do you think socialism would give you a better life than you have now?

The 52 Trillion held by the top 1% only comes out to around $150k per person.

Assuming you took every dollar in one shot, that's not per year.

Sure $600k sounds good for a family of 4, but much of that wealth is held in stock, it would collapse if people pulled it out, and it would need to last a lifetime.

If people didn't work, inflation would eat that in a heartbeat.

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According to the Heritage Foundation, “The average poor family with children already receives $65,200 in cash, food, housing, medical care, and educational support from the taxpayer each year.”

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Probably gone up to $76k
https://www.heritage.org/welfare/report/largest-welfare-increase-us-history-will-boost-government-support-76400-poor-family

Fundamentally there is no money for any of us to not work, you have to hope Elon wins his dystopian future of robot slaves.

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You chat with your wife about the regional differences of Boomers, and you do this often?

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I am often intrigued by the conversations posters have with their spouses.

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Fundamentally Socialism is about envy and guilt.

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This isn’t definitive.

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Do you think socialism would give you a better life than you have now?

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Multiple elements of socialism already contribute to the life we all have now.

I’m not posing an argument in favor of or in opposition of socialism. I really don’t feel responsible for defending socialism, nor am I interested in defending it.

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Probably gone up to $76k

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The problem is that's the cost to administer the system and not necessarily what the people receive

So much of it gets eaten up by the systems that administer AID. We could have saved trillions and actually solved poverty if we just went to direct payments instead of "services"

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Their kids lived through the great depression, one of my grandparents was in an orphanage for years. These were tough people. Grandfather and multiple great uncles who served during WWII/Korea, 2x Great Grandfathers WWI. We used to have family reunions of hundreds of people.

But,
One of my grandfathers was a communist, (The card carrying type in the 1930s and 1940s), two of my uncles (his kids) dodged the draft for Vietnam, (also had a cousin get a purple heart in Vietnam, so not all bad apples)

But that service to God, family and country that the older generation had is totally missing from my parents generation, my parents are two of the most conservative (and poorer) people of their generation in their family, many of the rest have had divorces/affairs, went to hippy music festivals, chased wealth over family, and generally acted like the kind of selfish people who don't take care of their kids. My dad would have been there except he found Jesus.

My wife's family was quite different, in good and bad ways.

But overall her family, the boomer generation are very family oriented, in my case it was the greatest and silents.

The north definitely led the path to normalizing a self centered view of happiness.

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Grandparents on my mother's side were Volga Germans that had to escape the Bolsheviks (for America) but didn't do so until after losing a child to starvation. They lost another child on the long "road" to America. They had 11 kids total. My grandpa laid rail in the Dakotas until his back gave up on him. My uncles and aunts ran the gamut - most rose from their beginnings and found success/greater wealth, a few struggled their whole life economically and with alcohol. I think it's a fairly common story for late 19th century/early 20th century immigrants.

One thing the whole family had, however, was a deep appreciation for America and what it meant to be a citizen. To my grandpa, bringing the family to America was his greatest accomplishment and he was forever grateful. He struggled with English, struggled physically an unskilled laborer, struggled to make ends meet - but that dude would have starved himself before taking anything being offered by the government in the way of assistance.

As my family has talked about "us" and remembered our history, I've got to say that which generation (as in silent, boomer, etc) everyone fit in never came up. It was only when I started participating in these threads (2020/Covid) that I saw so much made of generations. I always considered it more a family evolution thing - like for my family - my grandparents sacrificed a lot to became Americans, which made it better/easier for their kids, and the next generation of kids (mine) had it better/easier, and the next generation (my kids) had it better/easier. That's why it's fascinating to see so many young people complaining about their lot in life. It's hard to argue, if you're being factual/realistic, that life doesn't get better and easier over time for Americans and it's odd (to me) that so many will do somersaults in logic to feel aggrieved.