Posted on 03/05/2011 10:04:19 AM PST by Wanderer659
I have often said to my mother, who is a baby boomer and liberal, that my generation (Gen X), would have to clean up the mess that her generation left behind. As time wears on, that statement rings more and more true.
(Excerpt) Read more at conservativehideout.com ...
You’ve got a point. The decline in middle class morals began in the 1960’s and 70’s. We set up a system to help the poor and it wound up destroying the poor family structure. Then, it bled over into the middle class. But the welfare programs of the 1930’s-60’s were written by The Greatests, not the boomers. The Greatests also took us to Vietnam, which gave the young boomers a reason to create a counter-culture and reject Christian morals.
Then, credit got easy and out of control materialism pumped up the economy for a while. The poor started seeing the good economy and demanding, “I want the same stuff that the middle class has”. The economy was good and the government could always borrow more, so no one had a reason to tell them no. The entitlements went from an emergency handout to get you back on your feet to a way of life for a sub-culture. Even today, the entitlements are never enough because someone always wants “mo stuff”.
Add to that the fact that automation and outsourcing has significantly reduced the need for workers, and you now throw a lot of the middle class into the entitlement class.
If you want to pare back entitlements now, you better be prepared for civil war. I’m not saying that we can’t do it. I agree with you that its essential to our survival, but we are all to blame for this and we’re all going to have to give up something to move forward. Blaming it all on the generation that is about to start dying off is the easy way out. The Greatests earned that title because of the sacrifices they made over a 4 year period. If we all face our current situation with honesty and a sense of shared sacrifice, we will be rememebered as the real Greatest Generation(s). If we don’t, there won’t be much of a nation left to curse us in the future.
“The Greatests also took us to Vietnam, which gave the young boomers a reason to create a counter-culture and reject Christian morals.”
Blaming moral laxity on Vietnam is an excuse.
“If you want to pare back entitlements now, you better be prepared for civil war.”
There’s simply no other option. There are not enough of us to pay for everything that is being given. This means that entitlements need to be pared back, starting with public employees. If you want to look at blame, start with abortion and contraception. The whole Ponzi scheme only works with perpetually increasing demand.
“I’m not saying that we can’t do it. I agree with you that its essential to our survival, but we are all to blame for this and we’re all going to have to give up something to move forward.”
Agreed. I have enough problems fighting with MY generation, let alone annoying Boomer hippy idiots. Makes my job a difficult and lonely one when I get undercut by them. I have no problems doing without entitlements. I agree that pension benefits need to be scaled back.
However, what we are seeing is the consistant response of cutting wages and benefits for new hires only. What does that tell me? The entitled boomers will do all they can to hang onto their benefits and damn everybody else.
Everybody has to give up something. Not just young folks. Boomers too.
The boomers may be the largest voting block at the moment and can force the electorate to their will. But that won’t always be the case and they are slowly losing their influence as we speak because they are getting older and dying.
If they don’t wish to be part of the solution, they will be seen to be as part of the problem and they will be made to be part of the solution.
Not clear on what the charges are against me. What did I do wrong?
Perhaps the worst characteristic of the Selfish Left is in how carefully they insulate themselves from the policies they force the rest of us to suffer. ‘I live in the city, so who needs a dirty, poluting car when you can get others to pay for our light rail?’ ‘I chop wood for my designer $25K stove, so why should anyone be allowed to burn oil or coal for heat?’ ‘I have a $3500 bike to commute two miles to and from my job, so why is anyone allowed to own a car?’ ‘I love watching pretty dolphins from the porch of my $1.2M summer home in Seattle, so we have to stop all commercial fishing that might injure one.’ ‘Only the insane and Southerners want guns. Take them away before they hurt someone. Besides, our wealthy community’s private police force will protect us.’ Yuch.
Those who created the "counter culture" and led the way in taking drugs, revolting against everything and anything, etc., were far older, for the most part, than any of the mewling morons, who followed them. The likes of David Horowitz, Abbey Hoffman, Jerry Rubin, and Timothy Leary were not even "WAR BABIES" ( those children born in 1942-45 ), but born in the mid 1930s; with Leary born even earlier. Though I'll grant you that a few, a VERY few ( Billy Ayers, Mark Rudd, and that lot ) are early BOOMERS......these folks, as well as the older lot, with the exception of Tom Hayden, were all RED DIAPER BABIES.
As spoiled as some/many BOOMERS were/are, their children were spoiled even more!
The whinging GenXers, here, make BOOMERS ( of which I am not one )look like stoic ascetics !
That would describe the PRE-Boomers, and even the generation before them. The basics of Big Government, i.e., FDR's New Deal and LBJ's Great Society, were NOT the product of Boomers (those born 1946-64).
Exactly. Why are boomers blamed so much?
Actually, if you look at the timing, the so-called greatest generation put in most of the programs that became our downfall. The welfare state expansions of the 60s were in place before Boomers could vote, by and large. And of course the Boomers were not responsible for FDR-era Big Government programs.
The "Gen X-ers" and whatever the term is for those after them, i.e., those 45 and younger, tend to be MORE liberal on social issues than are Boomers. Take attitudes toward homosexuality and cohabitation, for example. Young adults now seem to be very liberal on those issues.
The worst generation ever. They were too long on self esteem with that “Age of Aquarius” nonsense and far too short on common sense. Many of their children have had to be the adults in their families, so perhaps their is some hope for the future.
a. Those born before 1946
b. Those born 1946-64
c. Those born after 1964
My guess is that the group that voted the LEAST for Obozo and the Dems was b, the Baby Boomers. The greedy geezers and the young skulls full of mush probably voted Dem more than did the Boomers (AKA the Taxpayers).
Unfortunately, GenX is getting squeezed by both the boomers and the millennials (otherwise known as “smelly hippies version 2.0”), most of whom gave us obama.
See my post 55.
In 1994, McCorvey became a pro-lifer, and petitioned the Supreme Court to overturn Roe v. Wade. Norma McCorvey never had the abortion.
The pro-abortion movement was an outgrowth of the eugenics movement of the early 20th century. After the Nazi holocaust and other crimes came to light, the eugenics movement went underground, only resurfacing after they had donned the new garments of "a woman's right to choose." As a white male, quite a few people feel comfortable sharing their true feelings with me. These feelings are: "Well, abortion's bad, but we have to do something to keep 'those people' from reproducing so much they ruin everything." "Those people" refers to blacks.
We are on the same side concerning abortion, but blaming an ignorant, uneducated woman who was used as a prop by the purveyors of eugenics does not advance our cause. Norma McCorvey is on our side, now. In any event, re the subject of this article, none of the movers and shakers on this were baby boomers.
Miss Norma chose to forgo the abortion.
What excuse do the boomers who chose to go through with their abortions have? Vietnam? Kissinger?
You are right that they weren’t the movers and shakers on Roe, but they still consented to the abortions. Now, they want to dump the fiscal state consequences on the ones that were allowed to survive.
And people act surprised when they are called out on it. I’m teaching. I’m trying very hard to undo some of this crap that has been shoved down.
Now, let me tell you something. I have grade 8 girls. 5 of them were able to rattle off why the world was overpopulated and that there were too many babies in it? Why? Invariably boomer folks shoving garbage and fears on the kids. Then I have to fight with boomers over teaching what the church teaches on abortion.
I thank God for my young friends whom I have worked with and fought with over the years. Because of them, I’m going to teach what needs to be taught and damn the consequences. The kids will thank me 10 years from now, even if the boomers never do.
And you’d be wrong. :)
It was the echo and boomers against the greatest generation and the Xers.
Boomers actually voted in favour of Obama, despite what they are trying to tell us.
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