Posted on 03/07/2013 5:44:14 AM PST by Kaslin
One thing nearly everybody agrees upon is that the "sequester" is a silly sideshow to the real challenge facing America: unsustainable spending on entitlements. Ironies abound. Democrats, with large support from young people, tend to believe that we must build on the legacy bequeathed to us by the New Deal and the Great Society. Republicans, who marshaled considerable support from older voters in their so-far losing battle against Obamacare, argue that we need to start fresh.
Perhaps it's time for both sides to consider an underappreciated fact of American life: The system we are trying to perpetuate was created for the explicit benefit of the so-called greatest generation, the most coddled and cared for cohort in American history.
I don't mean to belittle or demean the heroic efforts and sacrifices of those who served in World War II. But the idea that a whole generation deserves credit for what only some did is little more than an attempt to buy glory on the cheap. One of the egalitarian precepts that all Americans are supposed to subscribe to is the idea that one citizen isn't more worthy than another, simply by accident of birth. If you stormed the beaches of Normandy, you are due praise and honor. If you were simply born the same year as those who stormed the beaches, you're no more deserving of praise than someone born of any other generation.
Moreover, government was bending to the needs of the greatest generation -- for good and ill -- long before they did anything great. Historians William Strauss and Neil Howe made this argument in their famous 1991 opus "Generations." Before Tom Brokaw dubbed them the "greatest generation," Howe and Strauss called them the "GI Generation."
"The initials GI can stand for two things -- 'general issue' and 'government issue' -- and this generation's life cycle has stood squarely for both," they wrote. "The GI life cycle has shown an extraordinary association with the growth of modern government activity, much of it directed toward whatever phase of life they occupied."
When GIs were children, the White House held its first Conference on Children, and Congress created the first U.S. Children's Bureau and passed the first federal child labor law. They benefited from government-run schools in large numbers, and after the war from the aptly named GI Bill. And when the first wave of GIs approached old age, Howe and Strauss noted, the White House held its first Conference on Aging. Congress created the National Institute on Aging and passed the first federal age discrimination law.
"The entire modern growth in government spending has coincided with the duration of their adult life cycle," the authors noted.
Also, the GI Generation was deferential to authority long before anyone was asked to fight the Nazis. It was the most "uniformed generation" in U.S. history, the historians wrote. Nearly all the scouting organizations -- Boy Scouts (1910), Girl Scouts (1912), 4-H Clubs (1914) -- were launched to accommodate the GI.
Despite nostalgia for the New Deal, people forget how militaristic it was. President Franklin D. Roosevelt conceived of the New Deal as a "moral equivalent of war" effort and promised to use the tactics of World War I to fight the Depression. Nearly all the New Deal agencies were modeled on the war agencies of the Wilson administration. The Civilian Conservation Corps turned 3 million men into a paramilitary "tree army."
The National Recovery Administration, run by former general Hugh "Iron Pants" Johnson, aimed to organize the economy along the lines of war mobilization. On Sept. 13, 1933, he organized the largest parade New York had ever seen. Tens of thousands of workers marched in military fashion celebrating the mascot of the NRA, the "Blue Eagle." Similar militaristic pageants were held across the country.
FDR explained the purpose of the Blue Eagle in a fireside chat: "In war, in the gloom of night attack," he crooned, "soldiers wear a bright badge on their shoulders to be sure that comrades do not fire on comrades. On that principle, those who cooperate in this program must know each other at a glance. That is why we have provided a badge of honor for this purpose."
I have neither the space nor the inclination to pronounce on what was good or bad about all this. But as Washington grapples with the legacy costs of the "greatest generation" -- including the unsustainable burden of paying the retirement bills for the GIs' supremely entitled children, the Baby Boomers, perhaps it is at least worth recognizing that the government and the culture designed to benefit one generation has come at the cost of those that come after it.
Read post 79, and every one of my posts to you.
There is something weird going on in your head.
Post 79 is irrelevant, as are most of your posts.
The Greatest Generation, with all its power, prestige and numbers, should have spoken up about the need to save Social Security and Medicare. If that group had defended Republican reformers like Newt Gingich, just as the Marines defended their country at Iwo Jima, Clinton would have run for cover. The scared female voters would have voted for the Republicans as the true saviors of entitlements.
You really don't care who votes republican and who votes democrat, something weird is going on in your head.
Post 79 tells you the facts, women, Catholics, and the under 30 were Clinton's support group.
Judging by the hate and rage and dishonesty of your posts, my guess is that you might fit all three of those categories, no wonder you want to ignore the facts.
So you agree with my point that the Greatest Generation should publicly support reforms in entitlements? How do you feel about raising the retirement age?
If you support republican efforts for reform, then learn to attack the democrat voters, not the republican voters.
Post 79 tells you the facts, women, Catholics, and the under 30 were Clinton’s support group.
Judging by the hate and rage and dishonesty of your posts, my guess is that you might fit all three of those categories, no wonder you want to ignore the facts.
yes, what you say is quite true. They do resist knowing it and that is a great fault of theirs. Did you know that the woman who created it, and was sec of labor at the time, was made a saint of the Episcopal church ? Not for any degree of union which is generally why saints become saints, but because she created social security. So, for them, it really was a kind of religion. Maybe that's why it is so difficult to let go of it.
Anyway, I think the truth does need to be said, over and over, but the animosity towards that generation is what I cringe over. If our country and our culture is to come out of this, we must speak the truth in love, and not in animosity.
Well stated, Red Boots. I’m sure ansell2 agrees, too.
As for the disreputable Episcopal Church, it is a travesty of the faith (what’s left of it) to canonize the founder of Social Security. Entitlements are bankrupting our nation, and could bring us all down, saints and otherwise.
Well stated, Red Boots. I’m sure ansell2 agrees, too.
As for the disreputable Episcopal Church, it is a travesty of the faith (what’s left of it) to canonize the founder of Social Security. Entitlements are bankrupting our nation, and could bring us all down, saints and otherwise.
Evidently you don’t even read my posts.
If you support republican efforts for reform, then learn to attack the democrat voters, not the republican voters.
Post 79 tells you the facts, women, Catholics, and the under 30 were Clinton’s support group.
Judging by the hate and rage and dishonesty of your posts, my guess is that you might fit all three of those categories, no wonder you want to ignore the facts.
It’s called telling the truth, my friend. Tell the truth both sides. Tell the truth the dimwitted Dems who oppose entitlement reform. But also tell the truth to you and your elderly buddies. Deep down you feel guilty for living high on the hog for so long.
Our nation is drowning in entitlements. The cost of Social Security and Medicare are astronomical. Why don’t you and the rest of the Greatest Generation recognize that?
It is called you being a nutcase.
A good sign of that is you thinking that you are posting to a member of that age group.
Another is you being absolutely ignorant of how the age groups actually vote.
Don’t attack the age group that votes republican, attack the ones that votes against them.
The “greatest generation” is dying now. WWII vets are all on their last legs. My father was 16 in 45 when he joined and would be in his eighties today. Not many left.
The GG did not want to pay for things that needed paying and instead let SS turn into a disabilty system.
I am not sure they were the greatest, but frankly the boomers are the worst yet.
Don’t you think reform would be a lot easier if the Greatest Generation admitted the truth about themselves? Both sides, Republicans and Democrats, must admit the truth about entitlements.
Reform would be easier if everyone voted with the old people, not like the young Catholics, and women.
When the boomers (the Reagan Generation) finally emerged in politics, they checked the left, and started moving the country right, I hope you enjoy your restored second amendment rights, and the revived conservatism of the last 30 years.
I'm surprised that you prefer the generation that voted 66% for Obama and who is the most liberal in history and who will never vote republican.
So you think the old people would vote for reform?
I dont prefer either one of them. Boomers also have dismantled the public school system and have built the dysfuctional system that encourages parasiteism. They have developed horrific university systems, and have helped move all our manufactoring off shore. I am a boomer and I was there.
So, I am forced to sadly conclude that none of our politicians have any desire to attempt to change Social Security or Medicare. Yes, the seniors are in charge and as their numbers grow it will only get worse.
Social Security and Medicare are both totally unconstitutional, but none of our politicians are prepared to tell the truth about that or the necessary consequences (repeal). Not one.
America is second in manufacturing, I think that happened in 2011, they were always first before that.
You really just have no idea of how the different age groups vote do you?
For the umpteenth time, the over 65 vote is the most republican vote in America, the under 30 vote is the most anti-republican vote in America.
If you support reform, then make an effort to find out who votes with you and against you.
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.