Meet the Greedy Grandparents

Slate ^ | Dec. 10, 2003 | Steve Chapman

[Atlas Sneezed]

They can pay me off in one lump sum and I won't bother them again.

---

Unfortunately, they have spent or stolen all those contributions. Like all Ponzi schemes, there is no money to pay off the victims. The older generation didn't get stolen from as badly, and is happy to stick it to the younger generation even worse, even though they know that those whose earnings are being transferred to them will never enjoy comparable benefits.

[buwaya]

Of course - most European economies are stagnant, as a result of this problem. But European unemployment rates are not all the result of their social insurance systems, but mainly of their rigid labor markets. A separate problem, which hopefully will not affect the US.

[buwaya]

Not stolen, the whole thing did not make sense as an investment scheme in the first place.

It was an exercise in government finance. This was pointed out in my first macroeconomics class over twenty years ago.

[wasp69]

bumped for later reading

[genefromjersey]

Oh my gawd !!

Skywalk has blown our cover !!

All of us "greedy grandparents" (It has a nice ring to it,doesn't it ?) who collect social security are not only idiots, we are Secret Socialists (And you know them's the worst kind !): out to steal Skywalk's money,trash his SUV,and impregnate his livestock.

Dagnab it, Skywalker !
What gave us away??

Was it our (sigh!) Bilderburg Decoder Rings ????

[duckbutt]

This thread is a corker!

Bump for later reading!

[genefromjersey]

Oh my gawd !!

Skywalk has blown our cover !!

All of us "greedy grandparents" (It has a nice ring to it,doesn't it ?) who collect social security are not only idiots, we are Secret Socialists (And you know them's the worst kind !): out to steal Skywalk's money,trash his SUV,and impregnate his livestock.

Dagnab it, Skywalker !
What gave us away??

Was it our (sigh!) Bilderburg Decoder Rings ????

[superloser]

I wonder if all of the little whinie-hinies who are cursing "old geezers" can even remember how hard their folks worked...

*snip*

Cars we had to have? I built my own with my own money.
$100 pair of shoes? Never owned one.
$500+ on graduation night? I *worked* on prom night.
Computers? Video tapes? I got a job and bought them myself.

I can get away with cursing the old geezers all I want because my parents curse the greedy bastards as well -- and they ARE the 'old geezers' and they are continually apologizing to me for their generation's antics.

*WE* are happy to curse YOUR greedy old geezer relatives for you if you're unwilling to do so.

All generalizations are false -- please remember that!

[Orange1998]

And today I hear the adminstration backs giving Social Security payments to Illiegal Aliens.

[Orange1998]

I agree this article is full of crap.

[superloser]

Anyone who wants to call us so-called "rich" baby boomers 'selfish, self-centered, etc.' better watch their mouths around me!

Why?

Not everyone is the same.

That is something most people forget in their myopia and anger.

Please calm down and look at what you're saying.

[wtc911]

"WILD IN THE STREETS".... last line...."Don't trust anyone over sixteen"....

The genuinely sad aspect is the couple of Xers who laid their tragic childhoods out for all to see then use their misfortunate parentage to condemn anyone their parents' age.

[Siamese Princess]

Another wrinkle in the story is the meager fertility rates. Social security was originally based on assumptions that families would continue to have more children. More children means more workers and more GDP.

Why have kids? The government will take care of you in your old age. Actually, government old age pensions encourage childlessness. You can spend your money on yourself and then in your old age expect other people's children to support you.

[m18436572]

BUMP!

[Siamese Princess]

I agree. I have enough faith in this country's pragmatic, nihilistic outlook and moral relativism to realize that Junior is never going to be burdened by the Me Generation -- if they start to cost him too much, he'll simply have them euthanized.

I think that likely. The Baby Boomers have set many bad moral examples to their children. For one thing, to many Boomers, selfishness is a virue not a vice. Another reason is what goes around comes around -- every good reason for abortion is an equally good reason for euthanasia. Remember too, that for various reasons, such as divorce, many Boomers (especially men) have little or no relationship with their children, if they have children at all. Huge numbers of elderly Boomers will have no one able or willing to look after them and can easily be disposed of because no one will care. I think that it is likely that some form of euthanasia will be widely practiced, even if not legal.

Pat Buchanan predicted in his book The Death of the West that involuntary euthanasia will be practiced in Europe.

[BraveMan]

This thread is pretty entertaining . . .

Look's like we've come full circle!

[Siamese Princess]

The boomers support the subsidies to seniors only because they expect to cash in on it themselves. So the boomers have in fact been stealing the money of the generations after them already, in order to pay for their own parents' retirement, when historically this is their responsibility and not their childrens'. For some strange reason the boomers are the only generation that assumes no responsibility to support their parents in their old age.

That's the welfare state in a nutshell -- avoiding responsibility for yourself and your own.

[Siamese Princess]

I'm solidly pro-life, but when it comes to euthanasia for baby boomers I will be conspicuously absent from the opposition.

Stangely enough, you may be right -- and I am a Baby Boomer myself! There would be a certain rough justice if euthanasia was widely practiced (even if not strictly leagal) and many of my generation, especially the liberals, feared their own children. What goes around comes around.

[wtc911]

"We hate your guts you greedy sons of b*itches"

Endorses euthanasia for boomers.

Holds all boomers responsible for 40million abortions.

Can't wait for his revenge when we are old and weak.

Attributes his own emotion to his "entire generation", which is symptomatic of grandiosity.

Rational or dysfunctional talk?

My suggestion that there are more personal underlying issues at work here that should be dealt with was genuine.

[Siamese Princess]

Memo to the baby boomers from Gen X: We have known how you are bankrupting us for a long time already. We already hate your guts, you greedy sons of b-tches.

Your opinion is common among the children of divorce -- many have a grudge against one or both parents.