How the baby boomers — not millennials

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.

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Your timeline is all wrong!

BOOMERs’ parents were not even born yet, when TR was elected president and ditto for Wilson; not to mention the fact that most weren’t even of age to vote for FDR the first time around, let alone for some or all of his following presidential terms!
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I was merely pointing out the seed was quite old. Boomers merely rode the wave of prosperity w/ little care to look-back\correct.

Then your post was very badly written, unclear to the point of being absurd, and you're still at it.

There were quite a few massive strikes and quite bad recessions during the time that BOOMERS were children which affected them too!

The "good times" were on and off all though the '50s and most of the '60s and '70s. It was NOT an unchanging, constant "GOOD TIMES"/PROSPERITY FOR ALL era! And anyone who claims that is was, is bereft of any factual historical knowledge!

Did most people, of all ages, do better in the decades I named, than in the '30s and some of '40s? Yes, but for very different reason !

Bob & Ray are still in my top 10 favorite comedians. We have the recording of their B’way play The Two & Only and tend to play it on long trips in the car. Hilarious! When I wasn’t working, I remember listening to them on the radio at home or in the car and marveling at their brilliant routines. They were perfect for radio...because they parodied radio.

Radio is a strange business. I don’t know how many times I’ve seen John Gambling, Jr. be fired. One day he is at WOR, one day he is at WABC, one day he is at 970AM Radio. Fickle, fickle, fickle!

LOL...we do the same thing, on road trips! :-)

We put on G&S, some old Country & Western ( Cash, Carter, & Cline ), BOB & RAY, and Broadway shows; a rather mixed and somewhat disjointed bag of things. hehehehehehehehe

B&R did FANTASTIC commercials ( voice-overs for cartoons )on earlyish T.V.!

Radio is a rough business and yes, I've heard stories re hired/fired/hired someplace else/fired/back to the first station etc.; such a scary and uncertain profession!

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Then your post was very badly written, unclear to the point of being absurd, and you’re still at it.
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Well, I’m sorry you had a hard time comprehending

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There were quite a few massive strikes and quite bad recessions during the time that BOOMERS were children which affected them too!

The “good times” were on and off all though the ‘50s and most of the ‘60s and ‘70s. It was NOT an unchanging, constant “GOOD TIMES”/PROSPERITY FOR ALL era! And anyone who claims that is was, is bereft of any factual historical knowledge!
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The size ands scope of govt were MUCH different during those times as well...the whole point of this topic.

Today, one can barely save $1 w/o the greedy hand of govt being first in line. That’s not even taking in the ‘living above ones means’ life-style either

Talk about an abysmal lack of reading comprehension skills...you take the cake; you poor thing.

You're either too young to have lived through the BOOMER era, or perhaps you just have one of the worst memories on record. Then again, you could have done some scut work and found out some actual hard facts. But then, that would have entailed doing do "work", which obviously you are far too lazy to do. Pity that....

Human nature hasn't changed since mankind began.

There have ALWAYS been people who lived beyond their means or yearned to, people who saved and people who didn't ( obviously you are unaware of Aesop and his fable about the ant and the grasshopper ! ), and size of government has less than nothing at all to do with any of the above, nor the topic of this thread!

Saving is a "mind-set", but can and used to be taught by their parents AND it also was encouraged and taught to first graders, in school!

There have been BOOMS and BUSTS, crazy "investment" schemes, intrusive governments/overlords, as well as times of deranged hedonism and overtly strict eras of imposed staunch "morality"/oppressive stickers ( on everything imaginable ) from time immemorial. Go do some much needed reading ( preferably NOT on line! ), should you be crazy enough to desire replying to this post/to me.

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