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Thanksgiving is the holiday that pulls families together, squeezing them around a table for a feast of turkey, tradition and togetherness. We encourage conversations meant to be personally relevant, but sometimes they turn into a horizontal Babel, with each generation speaking in a different tongue. It's a stretch to identify an entire generation by its tastes in fashion and music, but such tastes offer strong clues. You can separate boomers from Generation Xers and millenials by who prefers the Beatles, Michael Jackson or Lady Gaga. Seniors who came of age during World War II still groove on Glenn Miller and...

A number of student organizers in the US have unveiled what they call an 'Occupy Student Debt' campaign, urging borrowers across the country to default on their college loans. The campaign was made public Monday afternoon in New York's Zuccotti Park, where the national Occupy Wall Street (OWS) movement emerged, the Huffington Post reported. “Since the first days of the Occupy movement, the agony of student debt has been a constant refrain,” said Andrew Ross, a professor at New York University and an active OWS member, while addressing a crowd in the park “We've heard the harrowing personal testimony...

Talkin’ about my generation”: the Who song once expressed the hope and self confidence of the Baby Boomers as they reached biological if not emotional maturity. It was an attack on the older generation, a defense of the young, but it includes an ominous refrain: “Hope I die before I get old.” Already, perhaps, the shadow of generational failure hung over the twenty something Boomers. Those shadows have darkened considerably as the Boomer sun moves past the meridian and an unmistakable air of twilight infiltrates into the declining hours of the long Boomer day. Talking about our generation is not...

Generation Y is more likely than older generations to support clean energy and environmental protection and to believe climate change is happening and is caused by human activity, according to new Pew polling and analysis. Generation X is close behind. Boomers aren't so bad either. It's the old folks, the so-called Silent Generation aged 66-83, that are the big problem. There's long been talk about how gay rights will continue to advance as homophobic old codgers die off. Looks like the push for a cleaner, greener society will get a boost from that same cohort replacement effect.

Will Baby Boomers be the last generation to enjoy the modern concept of a leisure-filled retirement? It's a worthy question to ponder in light of a new Pew Research Center report showing a growing wealth gap between young and old in the United States. Using government data over the last 25 years, Pew found that households headed by those over 65 have made "dramatic gains" in economic well-being, while those headed by younger adults have fallen steadily behind. In 2009, elderly households possessed 42 percent more median net worth than their same-age counterparts had in 1984. Young adults veered in...

NEW YORK -- In Tiffany Spaulding's 12 years in the pharmaceutical industry, she has worked for three companies, two of which no longer exist, and relocated to four states. Now 39 and living in Brookfield, Conn., she hasn't had a promotion in five years and says she sees no chance to advance, stuck behind a wall of baby boomers. She would quit and turn her hobby of jewelry design into a business, she says, if not for the home and school loans that eat up half her salary. Spaulding, according to a new report, is a typical member of the...

chicagotribune.com Generation Vexed: Young Americans rein in their dreams Amid so much economic uncertainty, many are rethinking career plans, putting off marriage and avoiding the stock market like the plague. By Tiffany Hsu and Shan Li August 14, 2011 Alicia Thomas, 20, had it all planned out: career at a nonprofit, married by 24, mortgage by 26. Then financial markets went on a wild roller-coaster ride, portending that high unemployment and the stalled economy won't be rebounding any time soon. "I don't want to invest in something I can't afford, given the economy breaking down," said Thomas, who is majoring...

Generation Xers and Gen-Yers like me have a hard time showing interest in what goes on in Washington. But we had better end our apathy -- and soon -- or we'll spend the rest of our lives paying for it. Members of the generation that came before us -- the Baby Boomers -- are trying to pull a scam under the guise of "protecting" Social Security. If they succeed, we -- and our children -- will be the poorer for it. Everyone knows Social Security is in trouble (and President Bush's Commission to Strengthen Social Security released its report on...

Richard Ben Kramer’s seminal work on running for the presidency, What It Takes, introduced the idea of the ‘looking in the mirror’ moment. It was the second when an individual awoke, looked themselves in the eye, and decided that running the rigorous gauntlet of a campaign was worth it. I believe we as a country, and more specifically those of us in the Gen X cohort, are looking in the mirror today. The question facing us is essentially the same: do we have what it takes? Folks should be forgiven for asking, “For God’s sake, what’s next?” For any number...

Gideon Hyacinth, 28, joined Dell ... two and a half years ago. He noticed quickly that there were a lot of young people, right out of college, working in their cubicles pretty much in isolation. “There was no way for us to connect with each other. We didn’t know how to network or have an impact on the company,” recalls Hyacinth, an HR business generalist. With two of his 20-something peers, Hyacinth formed GenNext, an employee-resource group. The goal was professional and leadership development, an increased sense of community and the ability to help the company reach younger consumers. They...

Many of the GOP freshman class elected to the House last year are members of Generation X: Their average age is 47, and many of them formed their political notions during the Reagan presidency. Reporting from Washington The thing Rep. Scott DesJarlais remembers most about the energy crisis of 1979 is collecting extra gas money from his buddies. The Republican from Tennessee was 15. When President Reagan was renominated by his party in 1984, Rep. James Lankford (R-Okla.) was outside the Dallas convention center with his friends, wishing he was a few years older so he could vote for the...

You know “Ca Plane Pour Moi”, that wacky punk song Chevy Chase and his family inched through the Louvre to in National Lampoon’s European Vacation? That tune’s been the calling card of one-man Euro New Wave act Plastic Bertrand for decades now, his ace in the hole if he ever got a parking ticket or met a cute young intern. Alas, “Ca Plane” is Plastic Bertrand’s ace no more—today the singer was forced to admit he Milli Vanilli’d that shizzle. It turns out record producer Lou Deprijck sang the version of “Ca Plane Pour Moi” we all know and love....

The entertainment industry is in the full throes of the changing of the generations; films and television are beginning to reflect the visions of Generation Xers like Jason Reitman, (Up in the Air), Judd Apatow, (Knocked Up), Brad Byrd (Up, The Incredibles), and other young artists who dare to buck the tired irony-cool cynicism that has shaped and stifled too much of the culture. Suddenly, after decades of being shut out, minimized, or mocked, film characters have room in their lives for optimism, and even something almost like faith. The Church, if it seeks to be relevant in the future,...

Summer of 1985: Fidel Castro sits behind a transmitter and broadcasts a national radio address of monumental proportions: Cuba’s great American enemy to the north is in a state of decay. Though this statement came during the paranoid final years of the Cold War, Castro’s claim was not based on some clandestine CIA document smuggled by a double-agent. No, the proof of America’s decay, was that Coca-Cola tasted kind-of different. A few months earlier, before an audience of 700 reporters seated in New York’s Lincoln Center, Roberto C. Goizueta, Coke’s president and CEO (and, fittingly enough, a Cuban ex-patriot) made...

Young adults in the United States are being squeezed out of the labor force as older workers either delay retirement or seek jobs to rebuild nest eggs destroyed by the recession, a study showed on Wednesday. The size of the labor force fell 6.3 percent for young workers, but increased 8.5 percent for workers 55 years and older between December 2007 and January 2010, according to the study by the Washington-based Economic Policy Institute (EPI).

NEW YORK -- Music videos are still valuable content for MTV, even though viewers' evolving tastes have required an expansion into reality and other shows, Van Toffler, president of Viacom's MTV Networks Music and Logo Group, said here Thursday. Asked about how good a business his firm's "Beatles: Rock Band" video game is, he said: "I believe it will sell forever, and it will be a good deal." The game has so far sold about a couple of million units, he said. Toffler made his comments during a keynote interview at the Billboard Music & Money Symposium here Thursday. Asked...

What if the sympathy for terrorism and the drive toward socialism, the falling birth rates and cultural bankruptcy in civilized countries, the economic decay and decline of the family all had a common cause? What if that common cause lay behind the multitude of ways that we can see civilization collapsing around us. Following that cause will require a brief journey, not into the realm of geopolitics or global economics, but into the human spirit. They say that the child is father to the man. But what becomes of the man when the child never grows up? That is the...

"Call it "a live-action 'Call of Duty.'" Call it "fast, smart, hard." Call it a remake, a reimagining, whatever. The new "Red Dawn" is high on our list of action flicks that have us pumped about the 2010 cinema schedule. And while the updated version will make some key changes to the 1984 flick's storyline, the original's red, white and blue center will stay just the same."

The majority of Baby Boomers and those of the post sixties generation are joyfully celebrating the 40-year anniversary of the Woodstock Music Festival which took place in 1969. Since then, the event has been glorified, glamorized, sensationalized and etched into the very fabric of our American consciousness and youth culture. This festival was the defining point against “the Establishment” and America’s core Judean/ Christian values. This festival was the brown acid of the radical Left’s agenda, whose goons in the reprobate (godless) music industry have steadily pushed the boundaries of morality over the past 40 years. In the wake of...

Winter 1989, downtown South Bend, Indiana. The night is snowy and crisp. Inside the bar, already humid and smoky, the guitarist lights his cigarette, takes a long, patient drag and wedges it among the strings in the head of his guitar. As the smoke drifts from his mouth he begins moving his fingers across the fret board, the distortion turned up to eleven. The opening riffs of Van Halen's "Ain't Talkin' 'Bout Love" crackle from the bending strings. Standing next to him, I watch his fingers glide effortlessly across the wood and steel. The toe of my boot taps...

Last summer, my friend Vanessa handed in her notice at work. She did not have another job to go to, and unlike thousands of people around the country, she wasn't made redundant. In fact, the online marketing company she worked for was thriving. And that was the problem. She was too busy and, at the grand old age of 34, she decided she could no longer be bothered to be busy. Vanessa is not alone. I can think of five close friends who have either quit their jobs or gone part-time in the past two years - and only one...

CHICAGO – They’re antsy and edgy, tired of waiting for promotion opportunities at work as their elders put off retirement. A good number of them are just waiting for the economy to pick up so they can hop to the next job, find something more fulfilling and get what they think they deserve. Oh, and they want work-life balance too. Sounds like Gen Y, the so-called “entitlement generation,” right? Not necessarily, say people who track the generations. In these hard times, they’re also hearing strong rumblings of discontent from Generation X. They’re the 32- to 44-year-olds who are wedged between...

CHICAGO -- They're antsy and edgy, tired of waiting for promotion opportunities at work as their elders put off retirement. A good number of them are just waiting for the economy to pick up so they can hop to the next job, find something more fulfilling and get what they think they deserve. Oh, and they want work-life balance, too. Sounds like Gen Y, the so-called "entitlement generation," right? Not necessarily, say people who track the generations. In these hard times, they're also hearing strong rumblings of discontent from Generation X. They're the 32- to 44-year-olds who are wedged between...

It’s bad enough that President Obama could not be bothered to attend the celebrations marking the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. But Hillary Clinton’s refusal to even acknowledge the role played by Ronald Reagan in the Wall’s demise as well as the downfall of Communism was highly insulting towards one of the greatest figures of our time, and reeked of petty and partisan mean-spiritedness. The Secretary of State’s remarks yesterday in Berlin completely erased from history the huge contribution played not only by President Reagan but also by the United States in confronting the Soviet Empire....

Pop group A-ha have announced they are to call it a day, just months after achieving a top 10 album in the UK. "We've literally lived the ultimate boy's adventure tale," the group, which formed 25 years ago, said. The trio added that the split would allow them to pursue "other meaningful aspects of life, be it humanitarian work, politics, or whatever else". The Norwegian band scored international hits with The Sun Always Shines On TV and Take On Me in the 1980s. Their most recent album, Foot Of The Mountain, marked a return to their synth-pop roots after a...

On November 3, Sub Pop will reissue Nirvana's classic 1989 debut Bleach. The 20th anniversary deluxe edition, which will be available on CD and 180 gram white vinyl, will include a complete live recording of a 1990 gig at Portland's Pine Street Theatre. Bleach producer Jack Endino mixed the previously unreleased show from the original tapes. Now, we've got one track from it. Endino really did a hell of a job on "Scoff", which sounds about a million percent crispier than your average live recording. Kurt Cobain's voice here is even more ragged than on the Bleach version, if that's...

Entitlements: That day when Social Security pays out more in benefits than it takes in with payroll taxes is no longer years away. It's here now. Reform, alas, is not. It's widely known that Social Security is headed for deep financial problems. But mainly because projections didn't have the program running deficits until almost 2020, there's been little urgency to make changes in the system. Typical. Politicians are generally inclined to avoid making decisions on such difficult issues. When President Bush proposed a partial privatization plan four years ago, Congress deferred because most members figured they wouldn't be in office...

Remarks and a Question-and-Answer Session With Area Junior High School Students November 14, 1988 The President. You know, this is a real treat for me -- having you here and to have, in a little while, the chance to answer some of your questions. Let me also offer a special hello to those of you who are watching on C-SPAN and -- or the Instructional Television Network. Thank you for inviting us into your home or your school today. This marks the beginning of American Education Week, and I'm particularly pleased to be talking to American students in this, the first in...

Many baby boomers (Americans in the generation born between 1946 and 1964) are continuing to use illicit drugs as they grow older, causing the rate of illicit drug use to go up within the 50 to 59 year old age segment of the population. According to a new analytical publication produced by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), those aged 50 to 59 reporting use of illicit drugs within the past year has nearly doubled from 5.1 percent in 2002 to 9.4 percent in 2007 while rates among all other age groups are statistically staying the same...

[...] Perhaps as early as this year, Social Security, at $680 billion the nation's biggest social program, will be transformed from an operation that's helped finance the rest of the government for 25 years into a cash drain that will need money from the Treasury. In other words, a bailout. [...] Unlike the pigs feeding at Uncle Sam's trough, the people who qualify for Social Security old-age benefits -- the ones who'll benefit from the bailout -- have played by the rules and paid Social Security taxes for decades. It would be immoral to tell them, "Sorry, we have to...

The sad news of the death of former correspondent and newscaster Walter Cronkite gripped the entire nation last week and continues to do so. Many generations are grieving for the man who brought the truth of living history into our homes and into our lives. Each generation has its own vision of the man who became affectionately known as “Uncle” Walter. To the older generations, born during the Great Depression and prior, he first gained national attention by reporting firsthand on the struggle of World War II. His coverage of the war included North Africa and Europe, where he participated...

The Minivan Celebrates 25 Years Picture the American automotive landscape without the minivan. There was a time that no such vehicle existed here, although it's difficult to imagine. Chrysler invented the front-wheel-drive minivan that debuted in the fall of 1983 as the 1984 Dodge Caravan and the Plymouth Voyager. Here's the story that led to the creation of this entirely new type of vehicle. As much as the minivan continues to be one of the most important vehicles on the road (over 500,000 minivans are sold in the U.S. each year), it's lost a lot of luster to the popular...

CAIRO – Iran clamped down Tuesday on independent media in an attempt to control images of election protests, but pictures and videos leaked out anyway — showing how difficult it is to shut off the flow of information in the Internet age. The restrictions imposed by the government made such social-networking sites as Twitter and Flickr more prominent — with even the U.S. State Department calling on Twitter to put off a scheduled shutdown for maintenance. Iranians were posting items online, but it wasn't known how much of that information was being seen by others inside the country. And although...

370 Beech Street, Highland Park, IL 4 Bed, 4 Bath | 5,300 Sq Ft on 0.75 Acres $2,3000,000. THE BEN ROSE HOME-site of the famous movie "Ferris Bueller's Day Off", cantilevered over the ravine, these two steel and glass buildings, which can never be duplicated, have incredible vistas of the surrounding woods. This is a unique property designed by A. James Speyer and David Haid, both notable architects of the 20th Century. Estate Sale Sold -No disclosures! This is an amazing architectural treasure.

As a working American, you have paid roughly 12% of all your earnings into Social Security. Is this your money? In my opinion it certainly is. The government took it from you with the promise that it would manage it wisely for you and provide for your future retirement. Please underscore that last part: the government took your money because it deemed itself more capable than you for providing for you in your golden years. Let us begin with the assertion, then, that this is your money. Upon your retirement the government owes it to you, with interest. The trouble...

So you may have heard that ABC is doing a remake of the 80s television miniseries, "V". Trailer is at the link above. What's interesting is the angle: Devotion is the weapon, a carefully crafted message from the Visitors of Change and Hope. And a good-looking, charismatic spokeperson, with demands for a perfectly controlled image. I wonder if ABC realizes JUST how subversive it is, especially as the bloom comes off the Administration. It's even identified by a single letter. And, of course, the bringers of Change and Hope are hiding their true face, and have sinister ambitions. Sound familiar...

Isn't it high time America did less for the elderly? A politically incorrect question for sure. But Medicare has an astounding $34-trillion unfunded liability. And because of rising unemployment, its hospital-stay program will go broke two years earlier than previously predicted. For my recent ABC special "You Can't Even Talk About It", I spoke with residents of La Posada, a development in Florida that made Forbes's list of top 10 "ritzy" retirement communities. These folks are well off. And they get a bonus: You pay for most of their health care under Medicare. The retirees love it. Everyone likes getting...

Author Mark Bauerlein aims to provoke in his new book, "The Dumbest Generation: How the Digital Age Stupefies Young Americans and Jeopardizes Our Future" (Tarcher/Penguin). Do you agree? Take a look at eight reasons the Emory University English professor gives to ''not trust anyone under 30'' -- see which you think is the best. Disagree, or have your own spin? Have your say on this message board. Or see if Bauerlein answered your question directly in a chat from Wednesday, May 14. 1. They make excellent "Jaywalking'' targetsBauerlein writes: "The ignorance is hard to believe ... It isn't enough to...

I would like to share, with you, my friends and fellow Freepers, a quite remarkable, somewhat complicated, and very personal experience in hopes you will find it as fascinating as I do! Also, I would like to hear your thoughts, comments and recollections, and perhaps learn of similar experiences. The other day I awoke with an absolutely wonderful, driving, soaring pop song in my head, a song I had never before given any thought to, and which I had not heard in a very long time: Synchronicity II by The Police (1983). If you don't know the song, here it...

"HOPE I DIE BEFORE I GET OLD" always seemed to be the retirement-planning credo of Baby Boomers. It seems like ages ago, but just back in October 2007, Kiplinger's was featuring a cover story shouting, "Retire Rich," a theme favored by finance-magazine editors nearly as often then as "New Sex Secrets" or the like got plastered on the front of the likes of Cosmopolitan. Both are probably equally fictional, though I have not researched the latter. Most likely, it's doubtful there are any revelations on either score. Retiring rich requires the discipline to save along with discipline, diversified asset allocation...

Report on Social Security and Medicare could be bleakerStory By: Associated Press Updated Tue May 12, 2009, 06:44 AM MDT Analysts say today's release of a report card on Social Security and Medicare won't be anything to celebrate. Analysts think this year's trustees' report will project the two trust funds will run out of money sooner than projected a year ago, thanks in part to the worst recession in decades and resulting high unemployment. The economic downturn has resulted in a loss of 5.7 million payroll jobs since it began in December 2007 and an unemployment rate that hit a...

Remember the looming Social Security crisis? If you don’t, you’re not alone. The credit crisis and economic downturn have monopolized public attention to such an extent that the Social Security crisis that was at the center of the policy debate during President George W. Bush’s second term now seems forgotten. This is unfortunate, for not only has Social Security not been fixed, but reform, if done right by tapping into the power of the market, can help provide new capital, which American businesses now desperately need. To see how this could be done, it’s worth looking at the experience of...

Here's the good news: future costs of Social Security and Medicare won't require higher taxes. Now here's the bad news: the reason these programs won't require higher taxes is that they'll be so expensive that there's no possible way to pay for them through taxes. Everything in the US (not counting people) is worth about $50 trillion and those two programs will cost $80 trillion, unless they are reformed. Wharton insurance and risk management professor Kent Smetters, a former deputy assistant Treasury secretary and economist for the Congressional Budget Office, explains that the only way for these problems to survive...

Michael Jackson’s ‘Thriller’ has topped a new poll of ‘The Greatest Albums of all Time’. The 1982 hit notched up almost one in three of all votes cast by more than 40,000 fans, and 20 percent more than its nearest rival. Paying tribute to the king of pop, DJ Trevor Nelson said there would probably never be another album like it. “Thriller was innovative, groundbreaking and is timeless. I don’t think there will be another album like it - ever,” the Daily Star quoted him, as saying. In the poll, conducted by music channel MTV, Craig David’s ‘Born To Do...

Only 53% of American adults believe capitalism is better than socialism. The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey found that 20% disagree and say socialism is better. Twenty-seven percent (27%) are not sure which is better. Adults under 30 are essentially evenly divided: 37% prefer capitalism, 33% socialism, and 30% are undecided. Thirty-somethings are a bit more supportive of the free-enterprise approach with 49% for capitalism and 26% for socialism. Adults over 40 strongly favor capitalism, and just 13% of those older Americans believe socialism is better. Investors by a 5-to-1 margin choose capitalism. As for those who do not...

Don't ask why I do it. I guess I'm just a glutton for punishment. I love to patrol the liberal blogs to get a glimpse at their thought process, or lack of which. I drop a comment from time to time, which normally kicks off a flurry of name calling, hair pulling, and all sorts of other forms of serious debate. Today's waste of time was spent on FireDogLake, where they seem to have a problem with Paul Ryan's comments regarding the future of Social Security. Keep in mind one thing: liberals love them some social security.

It's official! New Line is developing a feature film based on "MacGyver." The daughter of Dino De Laurentiis, Raffaella De Laurentiis, is producing the film through her Raffaella Prods. And Mister Laurentiis is taking the role of executive producer. According to a recent poll, "MacGyver" beat "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" and "24" as America's favorite TV action hero! So can "MacGyver" be a global franchise? New Line's Richard Brener says, "We think we're a stick of chewing gum, a paper clip and an A-list writer away from a global franchise."

Compact discs weren't always impromptu drink coasters. Once, in the not-so-distant past, they played music, contained pictures, and let people play video games with tacked-on FMV sequences. And today, the venerable CD turned 30. Happy birthday! 1979-2009.Thirty years. Pretty amazing that it's been that long since those crazy Dutchmen at Philips spun the technology off of laser discs as part of an optical digital audio disc demo in Eindhoven.Of course, the CD didn't immediately take off right then and there. It needed a little help from Sony, which worked with Philips to get the format standardized. The standard they named...

As a successful playwright this woman should have the world at her feet. So why, at 36, does she feel bitterly unfulfilled?Though I never thought I would be saying this, being a free woman isn't all it's cracked up to be. Is that the rustle of taffeta I hear as the suffragettes turn in their grave? Very possibly. My mother - a film-maker - was a hippy who kept a pile of dusty books by Germaine Greer and Erica Jong by her bedside. (Like every good feminist, she didn't see why she should do all the cleaning.) She imbued me...