To ask - Which living generation do you think has had it the hardest?

[catsinpinkhats]

• Silent Generation: Born 1925-1945.
• Baby Boomers: Born 1946-1964.
• Generation X: Born 1965-1980.
• Millennials: Born 1981-1996.
• Generation Z: Born 1997-2012.
• Generation Alpha: Born 2013-2025.

I think each generation has had varying degrees of things that are hard, socially, financially, politically etc.

My grandparents were of the silent generation and there's no doubt their childhood and young adulthood was hard during and after the war. Plus many men still did national service.

I am a millennial and most of my generation is old enough to remember life pre-internet but also young enough to embrace it. Things are hard for my generation and younger due to house prices etc, but society is more open generally with more possibilities.

We all think our generation has it harder, but what do you think if being objective?

The generation which lived through, and fought in, the Second World War, without question. Nothing that any generation has experienced since, including the pandemic, comes close to the danger, privations & grief suffered between 1939 &1945.

Apart from that, all generations have had challenges to face, opportunities to take advantage of and benefits gained from the work of their parents & grandparents.

Having said that, Generation Z and their successors are definitely the most indulged & pampered generation ever, having grown up shielded from so many of life’s nasty things and in a world of safety, convenience & material comfort unimaginable by their predecessors.

The war generation, obviously, number 1 on your list

Well who knows whats ahead, for those that are young.

The silent generation had a really shit start but presumably things got better and better.

The youngsters mught have terrible wars and climate change issues ahead, plus a collapse of the welfare state. Or a sun lit utopia.

Millennials only get 15 by the above reckoning.

I think the 'generation' boundaries are set by significant changes in the world, rather than mathematics - e.g. end of WW2 signified the 'Boomers', Gen X were the last to reach adulthood before the widespread adoption of the internet etc.

What to say they had it best?! I think to raise children in the 80-90s was the luckiest

Generation Alpha: Born 2013-2025

Will 2026 herald the start of 'Generation Beta'? If so, what a lousy generation name to have.

*Gen Z

Yes. There seems to be resentment bordering on hatred for boomers on some threads I've read.

Silent Generation

I'm surprised at your comment. BBC Micro appeared in 1981. At that time, computers were mainly either mainframe or mini = the size of a wardrobe and used for mathematical or numerical work only. Word processing wasn't a thing. People still used typists. The requirement for general computer literacy didn't come in until the second half of the decade. So unless you're a very late Gen X, I'm surprised you can't remember those early days.

Silent generation. One of my grandmothers was bombed out of her house, my grandfather was a pow , his maltreatment resulted in an early death. They had a child with learning and physical difficulties and banded together with friends with disabled children to provide care and recreation as part of the non pc named "spastic society". At one point she looked after her parents , her adult disabled child , her grandchildren by herself. We all wore clothes from jumble sales but we would go on holiday to the seaside by train at a time with no provision for wheelchairs and people on crutches , all on public transport. She worked evenings typing to keep things going . I do not know how she did it . I am awed every time I think of her.

My other grandmother lost her husband and young baby within two months at the end of the war. She had no running water , no electricity and when she gave birth to her final child the other children had to stay in the local mental hospital as no one could take care of them . I have a picture of her aged 36 , looking about 60 because she had had all her teeth taken out and couldn't afford dentures. She worked as a housekeeper until she was 74 when she had her first home of her own , a council flat. She only enjoyed it a few years until she passed away peacefully.

She only ever earned a pittance but every grandchild got a gold present for their 21st and she left money for her great grandchildren on their wedding days.

We have first world problems compared to these people and if I had a fraction of the resilience of these women I would think well of myself.

The biggest thing was both of them never moaned , they took joy in small delights , they took on community responsibilities as well as their own enormous home responsibilities . We have lost a magnificent generation of people.

Silent Generation

That generation is largely too young to have experienced much of WWII - it was the generation before them that did the majority of the suffering (in the UK/US/North America/Australasia at least, which is where things like this tend to be fixed - on the wealthy English speaking countries). Except for those who weren't the right colour for the US to treat as human beings there and for the Empire on the whole in terms of those suffering colonialism. They and their preceding generation had it really shit, no matter what their age.

ETA: and other European colonial powers were utter arseholes as well. But like I said, these discussions normally focus upon English speaking countries.

I considered myself a computer expert when I could find the right volume on the cassette player to run Paperboy on my spectrum. Does that count?

Silent generation spent their child and young adulthood dealing with the Great Depression and wwii. It’s no contest.

2nd place goes to Gen z. They lost a large portion of their key developmental or very young adulthood years to the pandemic. It’s obvious it has impacted them as people.

other generations all have their burdens, but those things really just rise above everything else.

Agree on the silent generation. But then millennials have it better in that we had more opportunities to go to university, travel, work abroad and literally grew up with the majority of the major tech advances vs the older generation. We also didn't face the major threat of climate change our kids need to deal with.

I don't think property prices are a massive issue considering how mobile the world is now especially with WFH. You can always move if you desperately want to own. The other option is to own on a BTL when young and rent in the city for the social life. Tho within 30miles of London 200k gets you a flat which is less than the average mortgage.

Silent Generation
War & rationing until 1950s (still spoken about by that generation today)
Not much independence or freedom for women
Not many labour saving devices

Bur-wurble-wurble-bur-bur-wurble-dooop-dooop-wurble-bur-dooop ...

I do think some people are getting the Silent Generation confused with the generation before that, who I think actually had it even harder - living through WW1, the flu pandemic, the Great Depression and either fighting or doing something for the war effort in WW2.

Some of them will still be living, as well.

I'm older gen-z I call myself a zillenial.

I went to primary school and Tony Blair and was sold a dream I was told I could aspire to be anything I wanted to be which is true in a way but now I'm an adult I can't get on the property ladder. Renting is expensive, the NHS is on its knees and low wages, and I just think society is degrading

I was at school and by early eighties we had an acorn atom which preceded bbc micro and we were taught programming in basic . My very expensive Christmas and birthday present in around 1982 was a zx spectrum .Quite radical for an all girls convent school.

Silent generation. No antibiotics and other illnesses killed. Recession in countries like Germany contributed to WW2 starting. They were still suffering from after effects of WW1. No NHS or social security.

My mum born in 1934, relatively well off, nr bombed area, her mum took in kids from London, dad in Navy.

She found the war very exciting, rationing wasn't so bad, so she would very much disagree with you, the UK wasn't Belgium or France, we weren't invaded, my mum didn't live through what Ukrainians are living through now... most people were not bombed, the blitz was relatively short lived, London wasn't Dresden

She worked as nurse in London in the 50s and 60s, shocking poverty, neglect, poverty is the biggest burden anyone can face.

My parents (long dead, so not quite within OP's remit) were both born slightly earlier than the silent generation above.
They (particularly my mother's family) lived through real poverty in the pre WW2, pre welfare state world. Both my parents served in WW2 and my father was a Japanese POW for much of that time.
Their lives were incomparable with anything that people born in the UK after WW2 have lived through.

I started work in 1983 and we had a computer system. The monitors extended 2ft at the back and all we could do on it was put a name in, and the computer might tell us what aisle of the file store to find that person's records.
Our office obtained its first word processor in 1989, our first laptop in 1991. Both of these offices were govt depts.

My dad had a car phone as they were then called around 1985/6. If he squeezed it into his pocket his trousers fell down it was so heavy.

My first ever job was temporary at the local council, typing up the Electoral Register in 1983. We used electric typewriters and Tippex...lots of Tippex. Eight of us were employed full time for three months for £52 a week to type it up.