Posted on 04/26/2018 2:43:10 AM PDT by Cronos
Everyone likes to bash millennials. We’re spoiled, entitled, and hopelessly glued to our smartphones. We demand participation trophies, can’t find jobs, and live with our parents until we’re 30.
But is the millennial hate justified? Have we dropped the generational baton, or was it a previous generation, the so-called baby boomers, who actually ruined everything?
That’s the argument Bruce Gibney makes in his book A Generation of Sociopaths: How the Baby Boomers Betrayed America. The boomers, according to Gibney, have committed “generational plunder,” pillaging the nation’s economy, repeatedly cutting their own taxes, financing two wars with deficits, ignoring climate change, presiding over the death of America’s manufacturing core, and leaving future generations to clean up the mess they created.
I’m 41, and when I was born, the gross debt-to-GDP ratio was about 35 percent. It’s roughly 103 percent now — and it keeps rising.
The boomers inherited a rich, dynamic country and have gradually bankrupted it. They habitually cut their own taxes and borrow money without any concern for future burdens. They’ve spent virtually all our money and assets on themselves and in the process have left a financial disaster for their children.
We used to have the finest infrastructure in the world. The American Society of Civil Engineers thinks there’s something like a $4 trillion deficit in infrastructure in deferred maintenance. It’s crumbling, and the boomers have allowed it to crumble. Our public education system has steadily degraded as well, forcing middle-class students to bury themselves in debt in order to get a college education.
(Excerpt) Read more at vox.com ...
“Once the hippy generation got into power, it’s illegal to smoke outside in a park. Makes one wonder who the real squares were.”
I’ve th0ought the same ting. It is the liberals that drove States to adopt no-smoking policies even in bars.
Boomer parents, the “Greatest Generation”, did the first screwing up. They raised a generation that became the hippies of the early 60’s. From there, it’s been all downhill.
Well, let's see. In 2008 the debt-to-GDP ration was still a manageable 67%. Between 2009 and 2016 it went up to 105%.
Sure, it was the boomers ... and not the assclown that was in the White House during that run-up.
“I don’t know when less than a hundred dollars a week, in NYC, paid the rent, utilities and food.”
I can’t speak for New York but in the Carolinas in the fifties a hundred a week was living “high on the hog”. By the seventies there was no longer any real money in circulation so prices were already far higher than in the fifties. By the way, in 1950 you could buy a new Ford for less than twelve hundred, the top of the line model was just over fourteen hundred. You need to make that much in a week to live somewhat comfortably now, even in South Carolina. You need double that a week to have anything to boast about.
“IMO, you forget the elephant in the room. The ‘greatest generation’ (and their parents), voted Socialism into the American mainstream: Teddy (to start), Wilson, FDR.”
Thanks, I did indeed forget. And, you’re correct to lay this one primarily on the Greatest Generation’s parents. But, I suppose we can cut them a little slack as most of them were basically starving and we’re pretty much illiterate. Consequently, they didn’t understand what was causing the depression nor what they should do about it. So, socialist Utopianism probably sounded pretty appealing to them. Also, let’s not forget that there were some severe abuses and exploitations of capitalism taking place at the time. Wealth was centered tightly within a few families, “Captains of Industry” they were referred to such as Carnegie’s, Vanderbilt’s, Rockefeller, etc, think there were about a dozen of them. However, congressional trust busters cleaned up a bunch of these monopolies. So it goes :)
this household never voted for wars, for more benefits, for more freebies for ourselves...we didn't destroy America by crashing her industry or crashing its borders...
Amen! I am one of those women.
Touche!
(And you actually read more of it than I did—the premise alone is too stupid for me.)
Well, I certainly agree with that. Lots of welfare recipients and other parasite slackers vote to receive more benefits from hardworking taxpayers. They have no skin in the game and sholuld not be allowed to vote with such a conflict of interest. So I get your point and I agree.
Lol...
Yep... a lot was fundamentally changed with the 16th, 17th and creation of the Federal Reserve..
You nailed it...
Good points, both of you.
I have written about the organized effort to ignore the lessons of history, including the design of our government. They enamor the students with the idea that all old thinking is no longer valid, so they don’t understand why their schooling is so expensive or why everything - everything! - must be bought on credit.
yes, I so realize. I also know they are a minority. The sad fact is we would have been far better off if women had never gotten the vote.
Ann Coulter: ‘Women Should Not Have The Right To Vote,’
“Janis Lane, female head of MS TeaParty, does not want women to vote.”
http://addictinginfo.com/2014/03/03/janis-lane-women-shouldnt-vote/
I do acknowledge that some of my generation were raised spoiled. I certainly was not, my parents had survived both the Great Depression and World War II and were very hard working frugal people and expected us to be the same. The people of their generation were stronger and tougher than most can imagine anyone being now. I was told times could be tough sometimes and I would have to be tough to make it through those times.
Most people I knew were raised the same. I was raised to believe no one owed me anything, not the government or any employer or anyone else. I was raised to believe I could only make it by living decently and hard work. I was only to depend on myself to even survive, especially to succeed. I was taught this even though I am female. My mother was not a feminist by any stretch but she told my sister and I that we should not depend on any man for our survival. She had known too many women left alone with children to raise due to the Depression and the War. She taught us that if we wanted to be housewives we always might need some way to support ourselves, some skill that would allow us to earn a living. She told us even the best man in the world can die and leave you on your own. She encouraged us to prepare for the job market and work for a while before marrying.
I would say the most important things I was raised with was a belief in God, a love for this country, a strong work ethic, and respect for others. I was expected to show a strong work ethic from childhood, with my performance at school and chores at home. My friends and neighbors were raised the same.
I was aware that some people that really prospered ended up giving their children fish when they should have been teaching them how to fish, but that was sure not how it was done at my house.
I think every generation has contributed good things to this country and not so good, I do not believe any of them did the wrong thing knowing what they were doing was wrong. I am convinced they all believed what they were doing was right. Hindsight is 20/20 and it is easy to say they had to know- they didn’t care- they thought they would be dead before chickens came home to roost- I don’t believe any of that. Each generation has done its best but some core values are losing their value with many. I see fewer and fewer people raising children with a core belief in God, I see few raising children with a strong work ethic. I think both of those are essential in life and if they are missing it is hard to survive, not to mention succeed. We are sadly lacking in moral values, as shown by daily events.
Social programs, and nothing else has put us where we are. From national debt to crime rates, the liberal handouts are the cause.
If it feels good, do it. F-ing hippies!
. . . which could have been close to true - if the Democrat Party had not turned outright socialist.
Because things were SO PERFECT when only men voted.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.