By age, I'm a boomer for sure. By allegiance, I'm for the millennials, 100%.
Remember a few critical truths:
1. Boomers who rag on millennials are not the successful fulfilled, happy ones. They're the retired forklift drivers who are sitting back spending their union benefits and don't have much to do except practice bigotry. They're unhappy - they never achieved anything meaningful except paying bills and raising their kids. Quietly, they know you don't want to be like them, and they know you're right.
2. Boomers who haven't yet retired and have not accumulated any real wealth, are in the same boat as you, maybe worse. They're age-discriminated out of all the good jobs going, so they're either stuck in shithouse jobs or collecting unemployment.
3. Millennials are imaginative, flexible, resourceful. You will get a great job or an opportunity to start your own thing, and you will be OK sometime in the not too distant future. The boomers who are struggling, not so much. Keep believing, and practice empathy because not all boomers are your enemy.
4. Think about it: it doesn't fucking matter what a disgruntled boomer thinks about you. What matters is what you're doing to keep hope alive until the economy tilts back in your favor.
5. Regardless what Bernie and Warren and AOC may tell you, we are never going back to union jobs for all, with benefits, 37 hour work week and seniority pay. That era is over and so it the era of the unskilled worker. We will likely end up with a universal living wage, but it won't be exciting, and once the hunger and shelter problems are vanquished, most people will struggle to find meaning. No work: no meaning.
6 Millennials will be the groups that invents the new capitalism. It will be like tech ventures, with stock options, but more evenly distributed and more accessible to people with non-tech skills. You will invent it, and you won't invite the boomers to the party.
PS - I hire millennials and we pay $50/hour for entry level Salesforce administrator jobs, once you pass your Admin 1 exam.
