I have to ask you if you believe we're living in a dystopian future where you're the last generation to live?
You must understand that the Boomers were the generation that saw their fathers and grandfathers and uncles and brothers go off to war against Nazism. To those who returned (and the families of those who didn't), society formed a contract that would pay for that generation's well-being from the wages of the current working class, with the promise that those paying into the system would have it repaid to them in the future. Sacrifice a little now for those who gave the ultimate sacrifice, and America will pay you back when you are no longer of working age.
It was a contract that all Americans whole-heartedly agreed to accept.
Fast-forward to today, and the Boomers are calling due the IOU that they were given. They sacrificed the luxuries of their prime years to give a percentage of their wages to care for the "Greatest Generation" who saved western civilization. Now they want their deferred income to give them some sense of luxury that they didn't receive when younger. The Boomers didn't buy Playstations or HDTV's or large cars or extravagant vacations; they lived frugally and accepted it. Think of it as a post-WWII 401(k); the Boomers paid into the government and now want those payments (with accrued interest) paid back to them as promised.
Also today we have your kind, who feels no attachment to the WWII sacrifice nor the families who willingly gave a portion of their wages to help those who sacrificed in WWII. It may be true that the dire national need of the late 1940s and the future generations that were directly impacted are no longer the focus of the world today, but the societal contract is still in place. The question for you is how you see your repayment for your contributions that you're still required to make?
Do you think you're paying into a system to support slackers and others who don't deserve the money that you earned and won't pay their fair share when the time comes that you need it?
Do you think that you're paying into a system that won't be around when it's your turn to receive the benefits from it?
Do you think the country is going to collapse and that your future is uncertain, and so the best plan is to hoard what you've got for yourself and let everyone else fend for themselves?
I can see someone in your position lobbying to phase out the social securities of a meager pension and health care for the elderly who are no longer working as future societies move further away from the incidents that sparked the formation of such safety nets, but I don't understand the hostility towards those who are simply asking for what was due to them to be given to them.
-PJ
There will be people, just not the income to pay for the dreams of liberals. The debt doesn’t shrink because the number of people paying for it shrinks. It will consume a larger portion of their income than ours. So, they will be paying the debt and very little on social benefits for themselves.
I get the reason for the war, but that does not justify socialism. Going off to war should have given every reason to resist socialism. That contract you mentioned have given very little future to the children. They will have neither socialism for themselves nor any income to build a life through their efforts. That’s what that social contract will have amounted to in the end.
It was a mistake to agree to accept.
As I said, it should have never been done. The future of AMerica is more Venezuelan than American, because socialism always robs the future until the productivity capacity of the future is spent.
It’s not that I have any empathy for those who went to war but that empathy is coming out of the future of the future generations. I can always tell how liberal somebody is by little value they place on the ensuring there is a future for future generations.
It used to be a given that people lived and sacrificed everything to ensure a better future for their children. That value is non-existent in modern society, because modern society wants all the spending for the present and don’t care what the future holds.
I’m forced to pay into a system to make life better so my elders can live as well as they can, without anybody in the future doing that for me. Aborted children don’t contribute to the tax base for their elders and 2 billion have been aborted throughout the West since Roe and Wade. We aborted enough children to populate an earth of a 1920’s population.
Yes, America will collapse under the weight of debt. That is why the socialists gave America $34 trillion in debt, to collapse. It is all but inevitable at this point as to what is going to happen. It’s a matter of when and not if.
Society survive when we build futures for the children and not support for the elderly. That’s just economics.
You don’t understand how impoverished we’ve made the future, for our present benefit, as to why some people might object? Could it be because those objecting know that everything has been taken from them and they will have nearly nothing for themselves?
You paid into a con is what you did. It was never going to work forever. As Christopher Hitchen said, “It only worked for one generation and it will work for nobody else.” That’s a paraphrase of his actual words, but the meaning is the same.