Posted on 07/29/2019 10:32:12 AM PDT by Ulmius
After some thought on the generation gap appearing in today's society, I have decided to reach out to some of you to get a wider dialogue. Here are some basics about me:
- 24 years old (been a Free Republic member since 2014)
- served in the regular Army for five years (Arabic linguist), I've been out for a year
- one more semester of a bachelors' degree in international relations, plan to attend grad school for linguistics in spring, have a few computer science online certificates
- working for now as a rent-a-cop for $12/hr part-time, I live with my father
- I'd like to do some linguistics-related work, interested in Middle Eastern and Caucasian languages specifically. I may want to get into a consultancy role related to data science
- I'd describe myself as a right-leaning nationalist, and not as much a libertarian anymore. Socially, I am more on the conservative side
Can't wait to see what y'all have to talk about, thanks.
The current state of ownership in this country is beyond offense. Generations of robber barons’ descendants have been able to live off of trusts without needing to contribute one cent to the economy, the same ones which exert such a strong influence on our politics. Millions of dollars are stashed away in offshore banks, itself a major issue (just look at the Panama Papers to see evidence of that). Trumps tax reforms were a start, but don’t fully tackle the issue. Crony capitalism or otherwise, a democratic society cannot last with such inbalance.
Personally, I don’t think they do. If they want to give their kids an inheritance, that’s great. If they want to spend it enjoying their lives, that’s fine too.
And past generations have delivered us in sum far more good than bad. Our problems would be the envy of most people on the planet at most points in time. And yes, Millennials were spoiled with the wealth of their parents from the start, though also marred by the poor educations their parents’ generation allowed to be bestowed on them.
If we’d just send the illegals home, there would be plenty of affordable housing for our upcoming generations.
Interesting perspective. Hadn’t thought of it that way. Not sure I see that in my family’s Millennial generation.
Respectfully, I must ask these questions:
Assuming your child is not a complete deadbeat, what right does a parent have to waste away their children’s inheritance for personal enjoyment? Shouldn’t it be an obligation to provide for their well-being after the parent passes, especially when they are more likely to be more affluent than their children?
As for the legacy of previous generations, it goes beyond bad education. They helped to enact legislation which promoted our demographic dilution, our embroilment in excessive foreign conflicts, the degradation of our social institutions, and the integrity of our safety nets. Aside from their role in technological advancement (itself a double edged sword), I don’t know if the good necessarily overwhelms the bad.
Interesting, Chicken, why the second thoughts?
The Boomers grew up with artificial prosperty crap is total bunk. Older Boomers grew up in a, well, booming post-war environment, but one of much less absolutely wealth than what Millennial whiners experienced.
It is only because so many Boomers and those before them have had the ability to leave wealth to their offspring that those like you can apparently come up with some sort of entitlement sense that your parents’ property is an inheritance owed to you.
I am sorry but I find that attitude totally repugnant. It previously only was to be found among the very rich, but I take it from your perspective that it has trickled down to middle-class Millennials. Sickening.
And no, parents don’t owe it to their children to fund their adulthoods.
All that “bad” stuff was voted on by far more than a single generation. In fact, it is your Millennial generation voting further to the left than previous generations did in their likewise uninformed youths.
Really, I think you need a fundamental attitude adjustment.
When I say “artificial”, I am referring to American economic superiority following victory in WWII. I am definitely not taking about absolute wealth (living wages are stagnating anyway, and think about the quality of things that wealth is able to buy now), I am talking about relative wealth. We are in a much more competitive economic market, especially for jobs. The incentives to build businesses are not there as much as they used to be as massive warehousing conglomerates came to the fore. Automation is about to make matters worse for our wages.
The big issue on wages is illegal immigration (and really, immigration in total).
Sure, wealth has been stagnant to slightly declining in real terms for a good decade or so out of a combination of bad policies—some of which Trump is addressing. But still, you little Millennials had it much cushier than previous generations and are living in a very cushy world, while also tending to fritter it away with your casual work and spending approaches. And again you are voting for the open borders type crap more than any other generations, so there is no reason for you to point the finger upward to your elders on it.
Now, I realize that you are living your life in a thoughtful and careful way, unlike many of your peer group, but I think you really have a warped sense of entitlement that is endemic to your pampered generation.
As a student of history and (albeit less expertly) and after questioning people of many ethnic and cultural backgrounds, I’ve found that it’s been the instinct of every successful civilization to safeguard the positions of their children through ensuring an inheritance. My family on both sides came poor from Ellis Island and advanced my parents’ cause by leaving them in a better position than before. The reason it exists among the very rich is because it is in part how they attained such a position in the first place. Look how it benefits the Chinese and the Indians of this country. Even the Bible portrays the birthright of Jacob which was handed down to him by Issac.
I agree that more than one generation voted for the “bad” stuff, that’s true. People my age are voting left in an attempt to reclaim this thing which was taken from our culture, no matter how misinformed I agree with you that it is.
Dang, thought I was done with this thread. Hope y’all don’t mind a little more commentary. (FYI - not directed at the OP, hope you don’t mind the thread clutter).
RE: Inheritance, do previous generations owe us?
That was a bit of a rant, and I was being dramatic. That said, I’m not entirely talking about wealth and worldly goods here. That’s a side effect. Okay, maybe I am, sort of.
The way I see it is like this. We’re all guilty. Previous generations, my generation, and no doubt generations to come, until (if and when) it all comes crashing down.
It’s just easy to blame the boomers, since they’re such nice, juicy targets.
It’s easy to blame the corporate fatcats for their outsourcing and closing down plants/jobs etc. in America for a quick buck. After all, a job sent overseas, or a factory shuttered is a job that won’t be there for the next generation.
Likewise, poor education is knowledge, and the freedom that comes with it denied to a future generation.
But when it comes down to it, when I go to the store and pick up a cheap t-shirt, and don’t even read the label … (remember “look for the union label”???) … I’m contributing to that future, or lack thereof.
When I buy a Japanese car because American workers are lazy and entitled union slobs … I’m contributing to that future. (I love my Pontiac, btw - it just happens to be from Australia.)
When I don’t vote in the local school board election, or raise a fuss over that textbook that’s chock full of radical ideas (and denigrates our Founding Fathers and other historical heroes), I’m contributing to that future.
It’s not just about the nation’s wealth, it’s about our true inheritance - freedom.
As President Reagan once said, Freedom isn’t something that’s passed on in the blood, it’s something that we have to fight for, every generation, or someday people will speak of that place where men once were free.
Except come to find out, thanks to the memory hole, people won’t even remember that place where people were free, it will just be that eternal now where the Party is always right.
That’s the true inheritance that has been (and is being) squandered. And it’s been going on since before the days of Woodrow Wilson.
And thank heavens, now we have a President who is fighting for us and for our freedom, and what do we discover? We discover how many of our politicians are sellouts, on the take, including in “our own” party.
And it turns out they’re at the top of the list of the ones who have been trading our futures, our freedom, our inheritance as Americans - for a quick buck.
That make more sense? I hope so.
Yes, though if everyone is guilty and responsible, no one is.
We really have had bad policies, often out of WWII and never updated, as well as all the bought-off corruption in government for generations now.
Trump is doing heroic work re: trade, currency, IP and the like, but coming up woefully short on understanding the issue of immigrant labor in the country. He is focused on the Dow and returns to investors without recognizing how policies to help that are hurting our country’s workers.
ok. So you have some different definitions/assumptions from how I am used to seeing the terms used.
There are some cases of definite note, where your point is quite well taken. Not so many as are often presented though. It is a problem, but it may not be a large enough one that it is a larger problem than the solutions. There are some very unattached wealthy, who sponsor some extraordinarily ill-conceived politics, but most of the arguments I hear on this are in the end, simple envy. Maybe there is an elegant solution, or even delineation.
Some of the common complaints in this area are also often a lack of appreciation of the function and value of investment.
Crony capitalism is not capitalism, and neither is Corporatism. I think we have vigorous agreement here. The whole idea of the government selecting economic winners and losers is anathema to classical liberalism. Corporatism just moves/spreads the flaws of big government to another entity.
He does, and then some.
the ball is in the Democrats’ court now.
The Donald took their ball and is in the process of taking their lunch money.
something needs to be done about income inequality; it’s the symptom of a sick society.
And I had such high hopes for you, youngster.
Assuming your child is not a complete deadbeat, what right does a parent have to waste away their children’s inheritance for personal enjoyment? Shouldn’t it be an obligation to provide for their well-being after the parent passes, especially when they are more likely to be more affluent than their children?
Leaving the mound of debt is irresponsible.
Parents owe their children tools for success. To be raised within functional civilization. Not so much a tangible, and especially a monetary inheritance, except narrowly where it is specifically one of the tools. I see an exception for minor children.
You say this then you complain about people living off of trust funds and not contributing to the economy.
Which is it?
I sense a disturbance in the force.
We’re mostly in agreement for what you say. Offshore banks, however, are a repository for all sorts of illicit income to government and policy.
There is undoubtedly a tinge of envy for a situation which we know will not come again during the prime of our lives. It comes with a desire to improve from the flaws of before
Let's have a parade.
Or am I mixing you up with 'Lurker'.
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