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?

Agreed with you actually. My grandparents lived through this generation, my grandfather had double pneumonia, Spanish flu and another deadly flu and on top of that Nazis took everything from his family in both world wars because though his mum was German his dad was dual national French/english but lived and worked in Luxembourg and later Germany.

This.

Living through a world war

@Alexandra2001

Please don't assume my family is from London or England. I might have been born here in the late 70s... But perhaps my parents were not..
And I'm saying no more than that.

Silent. DM was in occupied Italy being bombed by both sides. Lost a lot of friends. Came to England at 17 as a war bride and everyone was racist towards her. She and my Dad lived with his Mum for a while. Rationing and 1950's were pretty grim and they had three children. Much better from then on. Dad fought through Africa and up Italy in the tank regiment. Lost lots of friends. Fires in tanks were not a good way to die. Visited their graves every year until his death. He didn't talk about it much.

Some of us had it easy. 80% of those going to uni today wouldn't have got grants because they wouldn't have gone to uni. The 11-plus was still universal, and many of those who failed left school at 15 with no qualifications.

Housing was affordable, but not that affordable when equal pay for women was not enshrined in law, and it was very difficult to get the childcare to be able to afford to work full time -so if houses required two incomes, few people could have afforded them. On the other hand social housing was more abundant, and there were rent controls. The state of the rental market today is scandalous.

But I wouldn't go back to the prejudice of those days (I was well into my 20s before I even saw a female doctor), the sexual harassment and groping at work - and no point in reporting it, it was up to you to deal with it.

We have of course benefitted from all the improvements that have happened since - drugs like hydrocortisone, improvements in heart and cancer treatment, things like microwaves and smart phones, just as later generations will benefit from improvements to come that we can't even dream of.

@NeverDropYourMooncup I agree that the previous generation had it much worse, but being part of the Silent Generation wasn’t a picnic either in the UK.

My parents remember/remembered (my Mum’s died) nights spent in air raid shelters, thousands lost at least one parent during WWII, food rationing wasn’t fully lifted until 1954, no reliable contraception until the 1960’s, racism, sexism, classism on a massive scale, the Cold War with the possibility of nuclear war always looming….

I appreciate that this is just a UK perspective, but that’s the one I’m familiar with.

Silent and baby boomers. War was dreadful and destructive and the recovery was hard work.

The worst ( or best bit!) is, people were a lot kinder to each other, stepped up more and moaned loads less. There was no instant gratification, less self entitlement and less laziness, probably less misery in those horrible years.

All those generations did for us and here we are. Moaning. Wanting everything instantly. Horrible to each other. Still starting wars over the same stupid things. Ergh.

Silent Generation so far.

But Z and Alpha have worse to come. They're growing up cushioned in cotton wool, no idea what it takes to build and protect a democracy or welfare state, or experience hardships. No idea about the evils of communist, socialist states and actors in other parts of the world all too willing to destroy what they have and no concept of the difficult painful lives they could end up living when older if they forfeit what they have now. It's frightening to watch their parents teach them to criticise and reject one of the best societies the world has ever known, or as a minimum to take it for granted. They won't be tough enough when they need to fight for it.

Opposite answer to what you’ve asked for but I’m late Gen X and I personally feel so fortunate to have been born when I was. Of course for us all there is an element of skimming over the bad things but we had freedom, 90s we’re ours and weren’t they great, free or very affordable education, good chance of getting onto the property ladder, tech free nights out where we could just enjoy the moment, ahh take me back…

Depends what you mean by hardest.

In terms of physical hardships and deprivation. Definitely the silent generation.

In terms of being sold the lie they can be anything but finding out the world isn't like that and then developing crushing self-blame as a result, probably the current young generation. They seem to have so much in their reach but so much of it causes them problems instead of solutions. Social mobility is worse now IMO than it was when I was young.

I'm gen x. It wasn't without its issues (single parents really suffered) but for many it was a tie with many opportunities.

The Silent Generation had life far worse than others who came after them. My Dad was a gunner in the war and his best friend who he had been through school with and signed up with was blown up a week before the war ended. Dad lived with the guilt for the rest of his life because he talked him into signing up with him.

Silent followed by Z. Let’s not pretend Z are buying their homes ever without family help.

The reason the silent generation were so awesome was because they were raised with a stoicism and elevated regard for the greater good of society you don't see as much today. It's a big loss on many ways but also responsible for a lot of abuse and exploitation being unchallenged.

Because that 🙄wouldn't cause any trouble at all.

Can you spell disingenuous? This is yet another "hey everyone let's have a good old bash at a Certain Generation. Yes, all of them, because we love generalisation and ageism"

Definitely the Silent generation, mainly because of WW2.
However women were definitely second class citizens and had little or no rights.
Today's women are so lucky by comparison.

Generation Z and Alpha will have a harder life than what my generation (Boomers) had! everything was quite attainable but not nowadays

This 100%.

But in answer to the question, Silent def had it hardest all around.

Oh don't be so chippy

Silent from the list
But
Climate crisis is going to have devastating effects the world over so young people now and going forward are in for a very tough ride 😔

I think the 'Silent Generation' had it hardest. I think the Boomer Generation had it easier. But I think wealthy white men have mostly (wartime apart) had it much easier than the rest of us.

Is this another boomer bashing post?

Definitely Silent Generation. I’m mid Millennial married to an early millennial. We haven’t had it hard at all and I see plenty of my generation in similar circumstances to me.

I also don’t recognise the computer literacy point made by PP. This might be true of Gen X, but definitely not millennials.

Yet most posters here seem able to muster thoughtful, empathetic answers and there are a range of opinions.

But by all means try to shut down any and all conversation by attaching an ‘ism’ to it 🙄

Silent without a doubt.

But who knows what is to come for the younger generations.

My kids are young gen alphas and I worry about their future. Will there be an NHS and social care for them? Will they still have functioning antibiotics? What effect will climate change have on their health and way of living? How will they ever afford to move out, to go to university, or buy a home? How can I keep them safe online as they get older? And with so much conflict in the world, how safe are they from threats like nuclear war?

The generation pre silent generation - the ones that lived through both wars and the depression as adults. That's suffering. Not to mention pre-antibiotics so common infections were horrific killers.
After that Z/Alpha - basic medical care that I could access as a child- young adult is no longer available. Lots of people I know can't even register with a GP or a dentist. Most eligible will never get social housing. The basic standard of living is going backwards