Generation-X culture vs Boomer culture

[John]

Generation-X culture vs Boomer culture

I have frequently written that the financial crisis has been caused by
a deadly combination of greedy, nihilistic Generation-Xers, combined
with their bosses, greedy, incompetent Boomers. For a long time,
I was puzzled by how this worked, since there was no particular
reason to believe that Gen-Xers themselves were more dishonest
than Boomers.

I finally found the key to understanding this cultural difference.
The Gen-X culture is different from the Boomer culture because
Gen-Xers refuse to blame each other for anything, even serious crimes.
In the case of the financial crisis, this has been illustrated by
several books written by Xers on the financial crisis, where specific
crimes are described, but no one is blamed. In the Boomer culture, by
contrast, any minor infraction can be targeted for outrage and blame.

These posts were moved here from the following topic:

** 18-Nov-11 World View -- MF Global bankruptcy claims victims
** viewtopic.php?f=4&t=1044

The topic was created as a response to this web log posting:

** 18-Nov-11 World View -- MF Global bankruptcy begins to claim victims
** http://www.generationaldynamics.com/cgi-bin/D.PL?xct=gd.e111118#e111118

John J. Xenakis
December 2, 2012

[Tom Acre]

I agree w/ "News site 'Politico' approves fraud by lawmakers", except last time I looked most of the congresscritters are Boomers, most of the leaders of these fraudulent financial institutions are Boomers, and darn near 100% of the bosses who've over the past 20 years pushed out the honest employees from these houses of fraud are BOOMERS. Does that absolve the Xers who've gone along to get along to 'sweet smell of success'? Absolutely not! But its like focusing on hitmen and forgetting who ordered the killings.

The Xers at Politico are doing what all Xers who've coveted success above all else have done over the past 20 years, namely they're kissing the @$$3$ of their Boomer superiors even when they're engaged in immoral and what may be (and certainly ought be) illegal activity. But they are quite despicable, and no one hates this type of Xer more other Xers who've been marginalized simply for being honest while watching these moral midgets get promoted.

[John]

Dear Tom,

> I agree w/ "News site 'Politico' approves fraud by lawmakers",
> except last time I looked most of the congresscritters are
> Boomers, most of the leaders of these fraudulent financial
> institutions are Boomers, and darn near 100% of the bosses who've
> over the past 20 years pushed out the honest employees from these
> houses of fraud are BOOMERS. Does that absolve the Xers who've
> gone along to get along to 'sweet smell of success'? Absolutely
> not! But its like focusing on hitmen and forgetting who ordered
> the killings.

> The Xers at Politico are doing what all Xers who've coveted
> success above all else have done over the past 20 years, namely
> they're kissing the @$$3$ of their Boomer superiors even when
> they're engaged in immoral and what may be (and certainly ought
> be) illegal activity. But they are quite despicable, and no one
> hates this type of Xer more other Xers who've been marginalized
> simply for being honest while watching these moral midgets get
> promoted.

If your logic were carried forward, then we should expect to see lots
of Boomers in jail. But we don't. Why?

Because all those Boomers have Gen-Xers on staff, and in many cases
it's the staff that implemented policies. You may call this "Gen-Xers
kissing the asses of Boomers," but I call it "criminal activity by
Gen-Xers condoned by Boomers." And to turn your argument around, both
the hitmen and the men who ordered the killings should go to jail.

I'd be perfectly happy to see the Boomer bosses go to jail, as well as
Gen-Xer criminals. In the 1980s savings and loan crisis, it was
mostly Boomers who went to jail, and that's fine with me. What isn't
fine with me is that NOBODY is going to jail today.

Your comment is typical of the problem. You imply that the
Xer criminals are just kissing asses, and so these criminals are
innocent victims. It's because of that type of reasoning that
bankers and politicians can freely commit all the crimes they
want.

The Gen-X culture change is not that Gen-Xers are criminals but that
Gen-Xers condone and excuse crimes committed by other Gen-Xers, making
them "victims" of the Boomers. This is an attitude completely devoid
of ethics and morals, and that's why criminal activity and corruption
are rampant today, since the Silents have disappeared.

John

[Tom Acre]

Dear Tom,

> I agree w/ "News site 'Politico' approves fraud by lawmakers",
> except last time I looked most of the congresscritters are
> Boomers, most of the leaders of these fraudulent financial
> institutions are Boomers, and darn near 100% of the bosses who've
> over the past 20 years pushed out the honest employees from these
> houses of fraud are BOOMERS. Does that absolve the Xers who've
> gone along to get along to 'sweet smell of success'? Absolutely
> not! But its like focusing on hitmen and forgetting who ordered
> the killings.

> The Xers at Politico are doing what all Xers who've coveted
> success above all else have done over the past 20 years, namely
> they're kissing the @$$3$ of their Boomer superiors even when
> they're engaged in immoral and what may be (and certainly ought
> be) illegal activity. But they are quite despicable, and no one
> hates this type of Xer more other Xers who've been marginalized
> simply for being honest while watching these moral midgets get
> promoted.

If your logic were carried forward, then we should expect to see lots
of Boomers in jail. But we don't. Why?

Because all those Boomers have Gen-Xers on staff, and in many cases
it's the staff that implemented policies. You may call this "Gen-Xers
kissing the asses of Boomers," but I call it "criminal activity by
Gen-Xers condoned by Boomers." And to turn your argument around, both
the hitmen and the men who ordered the killings should go to jail.

I'd be perfectly happy to see the Boomer bosses go to jail, as well as
Gen-Xer criminals. In the 1980s savings and loan crisis, it was
mostly Boomers who went to jail, and that's fine with me. What isn't
fine with me is that NOBODY is going to jail today.

Your comment is typical of the problem. You imply that the
Xer criminals are just kissing asses, and so these criminals are
innocent victims. It's because of that type of reasoning that
bankers and politicians can freely commit all the crimes they
want.

The Gen-X culture change is not that Gen-Xers are criminals but that
Gen-Xers condone and excuse crimes committed by other Gen-Xers, making
them "victims" of the Boomers. This is an attitude completely devoid
of ethics and morals, and that's why criminal activity and corruption
are rampant today, since the Silents have disappeared.

John

I don't absolve any criminal of any generation, and I would love to see each pay according to their crimes. But from a generational standpoint, every problem we see has Boomer fingerprints all over it. Boomers are the ones who pushed honest people out of the financial industry over the last 20 years. They were the gatekeepers. It was their responsibility to protect the integrity of finance and business. But honest Xers came along and were marginalized in favor of dishonest Xers.

I started in what was one of the Big 6 accounting firms and worked with Fortune 500 clients all during the late 1990s. I was there; I saw it. I lived it. If you weren't a yes man, if you didn't cut each and every corner, if you didn't fall in line and sign off on whatever the partner wanted, you were passed over. The honest Xers like me eventually got other jobs in obscure places and raised families while the dishonest Xers were promoted by Greedy Boomers and became the very wealthy and powerful captains of industry we see today.

You can call it being victimized or whatever you want, but those are the facts.

[shoshin]

I posted this almost 3 years ago, but I will re-post as it seems the same "thread" has re=emerged - Boomers vs GenXers as the cause of the financial collapse. This is a facile explanation, but, I think, close to the truth. The Boomers didn't understand what the Xers were doing, but they were nevertheless in charge...

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/14/opini ... illin.html

[Higgenbotham]

I don't absolve any criminal of any generation, and I would love to see each pay according to their crimes. But from a generational standpoint, every problem we see has Boomer fingerprints all over it. Boomers are the ones who pushed honest people out of the financial industry over the last 20 years. They were the gatekeepers. It was their responsibility to protect the integrity of finance and business. But honest Xers came along and were marginalized in favor of dishonest Xers.

I started in what was one of the Big 6 accounting firms and worked with Fortune 500 clients all during the late 1990s. I was there; I saw it. I lived it. If you weren't a yes man, if you didn't cut each and every corner, if you didn't fall in line and sign off on whatever the partner wanted, you were passed over. The honest Xers like me eventually got other jobs in obscure places and raised families while the dishonest Xers were promoted by Greedy Boomers and became the very wealthy and powerful captains of industry we see today.

You can call it being victimized or whatever you want, but those are the facts.

After the late 1990s, it got a lot worse. Instead of being marginalized, I saw cases where the honest Xers were ganged up on by the Boomer managers, disciplined under the guise of false accusations, and forced out. I know a former state government employee who was turned into a nut case after years of mental torture by Boomer led managements (from about 1998 through 2002). I personally watched him lose his mind. He receives about $2500 per month and full medical, compensation which was given to him by the state without him ever seeking compensation through the courts. The implied message is, "Don't mess with our crimininal syndicate or we will turn you into a mindless babbling idiot like Mr J over there, see him?"

I was personally approached by 2 Gen X coworkers in 2002 who were asked by a gang of Boomer managers to falsely state that I had threatened a top Boomer manager so they could put me up on a false workplace violence charge. Luckily, both coworkers refused to follow along. One of them left employment shortly thereafter. I had tape recorded the Boomer managers and then gave the tapes to a local television station, who were so appalled by what they heard that they ran an investigative report on it. Nothing happened and most of these criminals remain employed in their positions today.

Just to be clear, what I saw were Boomer criminals forcing Xers to play along...or else.

Old post:

On another similar subject, I used to work in a place where [Boomer] supervisors would form mob like groups for the purpose of harrassing and intimidating [mostly Xer] staff persons. Invariably, the reaction of the staff person was to ask, "Why are they doing this to me?" I never asked that question. As one former supervisor said to me, "Their technique was effective in getting most people to emote and ask why they were doing it. You never asked why. When you were in your cage and they were poking you with their stick, your response was to break the stick off and shove it up their ass." I told him, that's right, why they were doing it was irrelevant; the only thing that was relevant to me was the fact that they were doing it.

[John]

Dear Tom and Higgie,

I've read through your stories and I agree with you that you were
really screwed by Boomers. But your stories still illustrate
the problems that I've been describing.

Let's start with some things that I think we can probably all
agree with:

• There are criminals in every generation, including the three
  generations under discussion, Silents, Boomers, and Gen-Xers.
  
• The number of criminals is a small percentage of the population.
  In fact, for the purposes of this discussion, let's assume that
  the percentage is the same in all three generations.
  
• There's a self-selection process that brings criminals into
  banks and politics. Just as Willie Sutton said that he robbed
  banks because "that's where the money is," criminals are
  attracted to banks and politics because that's where the money
  and power are.
  
• Honest people such as yourselves are driven out of banks
  and politics by criminal Boomers and Gen-Xers who don't want
  honest people challenging them.

Now, under all of these assumptions, the obvious conclusion is
that the outcomes should be the same no matter which generation
is in charge.

The issue I'm addressing is that the outcomes are wildly different.
As I wrote in the web log article, during the 1980s savings and loan
crisis, when the Silents were in charge, thousands of people were
criminally referred by regulators, while during this crisis, which is
many times bigger, when the Boomers and Xers are in charge, there have
been almost none. This is an enormous difference that has to be
explained.

The explanation that evil Boomers drove the Xers to commit these
crimes does not ring true to me. There are social reasons for
saying this -- Boomers are not decision makes, but Gen-Xers are,
and the model that makes sense to me is that the criminal
Xers are telling the criminal Boomers what to do, and the criminal
Boomers are doing as they're told. Thus, I would suspect
that Xers had more to do with both your experiences than you're
letting on.

The second reason has to do with technical complexity. I believe that
it's well documented by now that the Boomer managers could not have
created a residential mortgage backed securities collateralized debt
obligation (RMBS CDO) if their lives depended on it. The model that
makes sense to me, and I believe has been supported by the evidence,
is that the Xers poured out of masters programs in "financial
engineering" in the 1990s, and created these fraudulent synthetic
securities, fully aware that they were fraudulent, and sold them to
their Boomer managers. The Boomer managers did not understand them,
except that they were making tons of money.

This model would be consistent with your own experiences, as your
Boomer bosses would throw you out if you were an obstacle to the
money-making fraudulent activities of the Xer financial engineers.

But we still have to explain why nobody in going to jail in the
current crisis, and your own remarks illustrate this point.

I've been screwed by Xers and Boomers just like you, but my reaction
is quite different from yours. I'm absolutely furious about it, and
I've used my web site whenever I can to expose some of criminals,
including naming names when appropriate. But you express no such
outrage, and you simply revert to what I hear all the time from Xers
-- that Xes are the innocent victims of Boomers, something that I
believe is false.

And the Politico article that I referenced is a good example, blaming
Congressional insider trading on a right wing conspiracy. "Right
wing" is Xer's phrase for Boomers, so Politico is saying that the
Congressional insider traders are innocent victims of Boomers, which
is a conclusion completely devoid of ethics and morals.

And that's the point I was making. I see the Boomer culture as
amoral, neither moral nor criminal - complaining about everyone with
no reference to ethics or morals - and just doing what they're told,
first by Silents then by Xers. And I see the Xer culture as one of
vengeance against Boomers and Silents, a criminal culture that
purposely rejects ethics and morals. And even though few Xers are
actual criminals, what IS widespread among Xers is their refusal to
condemn criminal activity by other Xers, and to paint them as innocent
victims of Boomers, thus guaranteeing that neither Boomers NOR Xers go
to jail.

If you'd like to tell your stories in more detail, and name names,
then I might be willing to post them in the web log and on
Big Peace to get them more publicity. But this is something
that Boomers would do, not something that Xers would do, since
you'd apparently rather just remain victims of evil Boomers.

John

[Higgenbotham]

The explanation that evil Boomers drove the Xers to commit these
crimes does not ring true to me. There are social reasons for
saying this -- Boomers are not decision makers, but Gen-Xers are,
and the model that makes sense to me is that the criminal
Xers are telling the criminal Boomers what to do, and the criminal
Boomers are doing as they're told. Thus, I would suspect
that Xers had more to do with both your experiences than you're
letting on.

Let's use the brokerage/trading house model as a hypothetical example. A Boomer from a politically connected brokerage/trading house may call a Boomer at the CFTC and tell him to figure out a way to legally justify the improper use of customer funds. A Boomer manager would then approach an Xer who is perceived to be technically sharp and tell him to do a study of the legalities of the use of customer funds with the implied goal of "customer service" (where the financial industry is the customer, not the actual brokerage customer). The typically honest Xer will then produce a report that says there is no legal justification for the use of customer funds by the trading house unit of the brokerage. The Boomers will then form a gang and begin to threaten, intimidate and harass the lone Xer, telling him to rewrite the report. If the Xer doesn't yield, the Boomers will gin up various false accusations, threats and other forms of abuse. For example, a top "right hand man" Boomer political hack may call the Xer and ask him whether he went to anybody with his complaint. He may be asked whether he is married and has a family (I know of a case where this happened).

The second reason has to do with technical complexity. I believe that
it's well documented by now that the Boomer managers could not have
created a residential mortgage backed securities collateralized debt
obligation (RMBS CDO) if their lives depended on it. The model that
makes sense to me, and I believe has been supported by the evidence,
is that the Xers poured out of masters programs in "financial
engineering" in the 1990s, and created these fraudulent synthetic
securities, fully aware that they were fraudulent, [I agree up to this point]

and sold them to their Boomer managers. The Boomer managers did not
understand them, except that they were making tons of money.

See the above explanation. The Xers created what the Boomers forced them to create...or else. The Boomers understood them but they wanted what a Boomer manager phrased to me as "plausible deniability".

The last part you said about Xers "playing the victim" isn't really right. I would first note that most all of the whistleblowers are early Xers. Their first response to the corruption back in 2001 was to try to expose it and correct it. The Xers then figured out they were wasting their time by exposing this stuff because the Boomers who are in charge aren't going to do anything about it anyway. So many of the Xers have stopped playing the game according to the rules the Boomers have set up. The way the Boomer rules work is "this is still America and the system still works because we, the great Boomers, run it" and, for example, ostensibly the whistleblower should come forward with information and the problems will be corrected. The Boomers can then continue to do nothing about it except to torture the whistleblower and create an example out of him or her. The Xers are instead walling themselves off from the Boomers and giving them nothing more to feed on.

[Tom Acre]

Dear Tom and Higgie,

I've read through your stories and I agree with you that you were
really screwed by Boomers. But your stories still illustrate
the problems that I've been describing.

Let's start with some things that I think we can probably all
agree with:

• There are criminals in every generation, including the three
  generations under discussion, Silents, Boomers, and Gen-Xers.
  
• The number of criminals is a small percentage of the population.
  In fact, for the purposes of this discussion, let's assume that
  the percentage is the same in all three generations.
  
• There's a self-selection process that brings criminals into
  banks and politics. Just as Willie Sutton said that he robbed
  banks because "that's where the money is," criminals are
  attracted to banks and politics because that's where the money
  and power are.
  
• Honest people such as yourselves are driven out of banks
  and politics by criminal Boomers and Gen-Xers who don't want
  honest people challenging them.

I agree w/ everything except that its a "self-selection process". And this is the subtle but extremely important point; the Boomers grossly neglected their duty as gatekeepers and selected the dishonest Xers. The Boomers thereby shaped the institutions they inherited from Silents and GIs into houses of fraud.

Now, under all of these assumptions, the obvious conclusion is
that the outcomes should be the same no matter which generation
is in charge.

Again the reason for the horrible outcome is the Boomers' active selection of the absolutely worst Xers. Boomers completely ignored and in fact disdained the policies and procedures set forth by GIs and Silents and promoted Xers who flouted those rules at the Boomers' behest. The Boomers' gross negligence created the dilapidated fraudulent institutions at discussion.

The issue I'm addressing is that the outcomes are wildly different.
As I wrote in the web log article, during the 1980s savings and loan
crisis, when the Silents were in charge, thousands of people were
criminally referred by regulators, while during this crisis, which is
many times bigger, when the Boomers and Xers are in charge, there have
been almost none. This is an enormous difference that has to be
explained.

Again, for at least 20 years Boomers in their contempt for policies, procedures, practices and etiquette have shaped craven, sick organizations devoid of anyone to disagree with their boundless avarice.

The explanation that evil Boomers drove the Xers to commit these
crimes does not ring true to me. There are social reasons for
saying this -- Boomers are not decision makes, but Gen-Xers are,
and the model that makes sense to me is that the criminal
Xers are telling the criminal Boomers what to do, and the criminal
Boomers are doing as they're told. Thus, I would suspect
that Xers had more to do with both your experiences than you're
letting on.

The second reason has to do with technical complexity. I believe that
it's well documented by now that the Boomer managers could not have
created a residential mortgage backed securities collateralized debt
obligation (RMBS CDO) if their lives depended on it. The model that
makes sense to me, and I believe has been supported by the evidence,
is that the Xers poured out of masters programs in "financial
engineering" in the 1990s, and created these fraudulent synthetic
securities, fully aware that they were fraudulent, and sold them to
their Boomer managers. The Boomer managers did not understand them,
except that they were making tons of money.

The Boomers demanded it and got rid of anyone who didn't go along. its as simple as that. Boomers couldn't have, for example, created the CDOs, and did not understand the CDOs. But once Boomers saw they made money; they demanded them and got rid of anyone who wouldn't go along. Of course the Xers who participated are to blame as well, but the Boomers shaped the organizations, institutional culture, that could blithely do such horrible things.

This model would be consistent with your own experiences, as your
Boomer bosses would throw you out if you were an obstacle to the
money-making fraudulent activities of the Xer financial engineers.

But we still have to explain why nobody in going to jail in the
current crisis, and your own remarks illustrate this point.

Once the house of cards falls, perhaps law enforcement will step in, if its not completely morally degraded as well. If some sort of legal resolution isn't forthcoming, we might be at the edge of the abyss of political revolution.

I've been screwed by Xers and Boomers just like you, but my reaction
is quite different from yours. I'm absolutely furious about it, and
I've used my web site whenever I can to expose some of criminals,
including naming names when appropriate. But you express no such
outrage, and you simply revert to what I hear all the time from Xers
-- that Xes are the innocent victims of Boomers, something that I
believe is false.

I would be (would have been) miserable my whole life, if I spent all my time furious at injustices. Where should I start, ballbusting feminist elementary school teachers? Race-norming and gender-norming in the university admissions process? Race-norming and gender-norming in the hiring process? Being called a racist and sexist, with the threat of ostracism, for complaining about unjust race and gender preferences? McCarthyism is child's play compared to this liberalism.

And the Politico article that I referenced is a good example, blaming
Congressional insider trading on a right wing conspiracy. "Right
wing" is Xer's phrase for Boomers, so Politico is saying that the
Congressional insider traders are innocent victims of Boomers, which
is a conclusion completely devoid of ethics and morals.

And that's the point I was making. I see the Boomer culture as
amoral, neither moral nor criminal - complaining about everyone with
no reference to ethics or morals - and just doing what they're told,
first by Silents then by Xers. And I see the Xer culture as one of
vengeance against Boomers and Silents, a criminal culture that
purposely rejects ethics and morals. And even though few Xers are
actual criminals, what IS widespread among Xers is their refusal to
condemn criminal activity by other Xers, and to paint them as innocent
victims of Boomers, thus guaranteeing that neither Boomers NOR Xers go
to jail.

Actually, Xers and Silents get along quite well, Grandparents and Grandchildren are natural allies. My parents were late Silents, and my grandparents late GIs. And we were all tight knit. Its the Boomers who disdain the Silents and GIs with their policies, procedures, practices, ethics and etiquette.

If you'd like to tell your stories in more detail, and name names,
then I might be willing to post them in the web log and on
Big Peace to get them more publicity. But this is something
that Boomers would do, not something that Xers would do, since
you'd apparently rather just remain victims of evil Boomers.

John

Not long after I left the Big 6, Arthur Andersen (one of the Big 6) imploded in the Enron scandal b/c of the types of institutional abuses and corruption of which I speak. However, due to professional ethics I can't go into too much detail. Nevertheless when I have time, I'd be willing to broadly outline what was going on inside the sausage factory.

[John]

Dear Higgie,

> Let's use the brokerage/trading house model as a hypothetical
> example. A Boomer from a politically connected brokerage/trading
> house may call a Boomer at the CFTC and tell him to figure out a
> way to legally justify the improper use of customer funds. A
> Boomer manager would then approach an Xer who is perceived to be
> technically sharp and tell him to do a study of the legalities of
> the use of customer funds with the implied goal of "customer
> service" (where the financial industry is the customer, not the
> actual brokerage customer). The typically honest Xer will then
> produce a report that says there is no legal justification for the
> use of customer funds by the trading house unit of the
> brokerage. The Boomers will then form a gang and begin to
> threaten, intimidate and harass the lone Xer, telling him to
> rewrite the report. If the Xer doesn't yield, the Boomers will gin
> up various false accusations, threats and other forms of
> abuse. For example, a top "right hand man" Boomer political hack
> may call the Xer and ask him whether he went to anybody with his
> complaint. He may be asked whether he is married and has a family
> (I know of a case where this happened).

I'm sorry Higgie, but this doesn't correspond to anything I've seen.
I've been around Boomers my whole life, and Boomers would not get
together and plot to commit fraud (unless they're already in the small
percentage of criminals that we've postulated).

Boomers are incompetent managers and easily led and easily duped, but
they're also highly idealistic. They would not have acted as you've
described unless they were convinced to do so by other people, and in
most cases those other people are going to be Xers.

There's a theme that I've seen in my own experience in the computer
industry, and that I've read, and it's this: Gen-Xers think that
Boomers are incredibly stupid, and they take it as a prized
accomplishment to talk a Boomer into something. The motivation is to
prove to themselves and each other that they can do anything they
want, and nobody can stop them.

The creation of the RMBS CDOs fits that theme completely. The Xer
financial engineers created the fraudulent securities, knowing that
they were fraudulent, and took pleasure in convincing stupid Boomers
to go along with them -- and also to fire or drum out anyone else in
the organization that poses a threat to the scheme.

Think back to the you own experiences, (same for Tom), and I believe
that you'll find a clique of Xers who drove the process that screwed
you. They will be a clique that act like mean teenage girls who prove
that they can get away with anything. And that would mean convincing
the Boomers to target you and do whatever it takes to get rid of you.

John