Posted on 12/11/2003 10:48:56 AM PST by luckydevi
When Social Security was founded, offering a federal pension at age 65, most of the people born 65 years earlier couldn't take advantage of it. They were dead. For the lucky ones who lived long enough to collect, the new pension system, founded in 1935, was meant as a modest support in the brief span before they passed on to glory. No more. Since then, life expectancy at birth in America has increased to more than 77 years. For the majority of people, that means lots of time being supported by the government. A working life is now just a tedious interregnum between two long periods of comfortable dependence.
America's elderly have never had it so good. They enjoy better health than any previous generation of old people, high incomes and ample assets, access to a host of medical treatments that not only keep them alive but let them enjoy their extra years, and a riotous multitude of ways to spoil their grandchildren. Still they are not content. From gratefully accepting a basic level of assistance back in the early decades of Social Security, America's elderly have come to expect everything their durable little hearts desire.
They often get their way, as they did recently when years of complaints finally induced Congress and the president to agree to bear much of the cost of their prescription drugs. From the tenor of the debate, you would think these medications were a terrible burden inflicted by an uncaring fate. In fact, past generations of old people didn't have to make room in their budgets for pharmaceuticals because there weren't many to buy. If you suffered from high cholesterol, chronic heartburn, or depression, you were left to primitive remedies, or none. Today, there are pills and potions for just about any complaint—except the chronic complaint that many of them are pricey. It's not enough to be blessed with medical miracles. Modern seniors also want them cheap, if not free.
That's on top of everything else they get. Retirement benefits used to be just one of the federal government's many maternal functions. But in recent years, the federal government has begun to look like an appendage of Social Security. In 2000, 35 percent of all federal spending dollars went to Social Security and Medicare. By 2040, barring an increase in total federal outlays, they'll account for more than 60 percent of the budget. And that's before you add in the prescription drug benefit. Most of the projected growth is due to rising health-care costs, not to the aging of the population, according to the Congressional Budget Office. Retirees eyeing this bounty feel no pangs of guilt, thanks to their unshakable conviction that they earned every dime by sweat and toil. In fact, economists Laurence Kotlikoff and Jagadeesh Gokhale say that a typical man reaching age 65 today will get a net windfall of more than $70,000 over his remaining years. A luckless 25-year-old, by contrast, can count on paying $322,000 more in payroll taxes than he will ever get back in benefits.
Why do we keep indulging the grizzled ones? The most obvious reason is that they are so tireless and well-organized in demanding alms. No politician ever lost an election because he was too generous to little old ladies. A lot of people are suckered by the image of financially strapped seniors, even though the poverty rate among those 65 and over has been lower than that for the population as a whole since 1974. But it's not just the interests of old coots that are being served here. Young and middle-aged adults tend to look kindly upon lavish federal generosity to Grandma because it means she won't be hitting them up for help. Paying taxes may be onerous, but it's nothing compared to the cost, financial and otherwise, of adding a mother-in-law suite to the house. Working-age folks also assume that whatever they bestow upon today's seniors will be likewise bestowed on them, and in the not too distant future. It's not really fair to blame the greatest generation for this extravagance. They are guilty, but they have an accomplice.
It's surely no coincidence that the new drug benefit is being enacted just as the first baby boomers are nearing retirement age. Nor can it be forgotten that the organization formerly known as the American Association of Retired People—it's now just AARP—has lately broadened its membership to include all the boomers it can get its wrinkled hands on. AARP, to the surprise of many, endorsed the plan. And what a surprise it is that the prescription drug program, which will cost some $400 billion over the next 10 years, could balloon to $2 trillion in the 10 years following that—when guess-who will be collecting. You would expect taxpayers in their peak earning years to recoil in horror from a program that will vastly increase Washington's fiscal obligations for decades to come. In fact, they—make that we—can see that the time to lock in a prosperous old age is now, before twentysomethings know what's hit them.
Boomers have gotten our way every since we arrived in this world, and the onset of gray hair, bifocals, and arthritis is not going to moderate our unswerving self-indulgence. We are the same people, after all, who forced the lowering of the drinking age when we were young, so we could drink, and forced it back up when we got older, so our kids couldn't. On top of that, we're used to the best of everything, and plenty of it. We weren't dubbed the Me Generation because we neglect our own needs, Junior. If politicians think the current geezers are greedy, they ain't seen nothin' yet.
But responsible middle-aged sorts may yet be brought to their senses when they realize that their usual impulse to get all they can will sooner or later collide with another boomer obsession: the insatiable desire to furnish our kids with every advantage known to humanity. Load Social Security with more obligations than it can bear, and our precious offspring will be squashed under the weight. To fund all the obligations of the Social Security system, payroll taxes will have to more than double by 2040—on top of whatever it costs to buy all those prescription drugs. At that point, our children will realize the trick we've pulled and start to hate our guts. That would be a cruel blow to a generation that thinks of itself as the most wonderful parents in history.
To avoid that fate, boomers need to recognize the need to stop writing checks that today's youngsters will have to cash. With the eager help of our own parents, we've created an entitlement that is fast becoming unaffordable. To bring Social Security into conformity with reality, we'll have to resign ourselves to a higher retirement age reflecting our prospective vigor and life expectancy. We'll have to accept more stringent controls on Medicare spending and take more responsibility for our own medical needs. We'll have to abandon our assumption that the point of the health-care system is to keep each of us alive forever. At some point—don't worry, not anytime soon—we will have to embrace a duty to stop functioning as a fiscal burden on our children and start serving as a nutritional resource for worms.
However, despite the fact that my birth was in a certain 'era' that doesn't diminish what I, and most parents, truly hope for their children:
a life better than they[the parents] had
Though I am around fifty and was lucky enough to have had a talent that enabled me to earn a fairly large sum of money in the eighties, which has since grown considerably, I am continuing to work though I could 'retire'.
There are a couple of reasons for this.
First, the output of the trust funds that I had to participate in, virtually all track and field athletes of that time had to, is paying the room, board and costs of my kid's graduate and post-graduate degree in college. Also, I want to work...although the field I'm in currently is boring and distasteful (corporate in nature and cya in practice).
But not all boomers are bad, evil, greedy people who deserve to be put to death as soon as legally possible.
So, get a grip!
This is the dirty little secret - I've heard that most retirees run through everything they put into Social Security within 7-8 years. After that it is just welfare.
My thoughts exactly. There are many BB who are hard-working, good parents, and living decent lives and paying their bills as well as paying taxes and ss.
There are also many "old geezers" whose homes have become refuges for their adult children who are divorced (often w/children of their own), or who are unemployed and can't afford rent/food/etc., or who have dumped THEIR child/children (often "illegitimate") and left grandparents to raise a second generation of children, or who are "helping out" w/ their own children's "economic shortfalls" or w/their grandchildren's college expenses.
Painting either generation w/a broad brush is both inaccurate and dishonorable.
Wow, that's an uncomfortable truth.
I would be hard pressed to give a better recommendation than this. We forget, though, I think, that it IS up to us.
The arrogance of baby boomer never ceases to amaze me. Yeah you are right Gen-X and Y are nothing but slacker, Screw ups and the previous WWII generation is full of nothing but a bunch of uneducated simpletons.
mmmm. Let's see we have a whole generation that will probably leave us with a more than $10,000,000,000,000 deficit by the end of the decade that with the interest just to service it along with Social Security, medicare, and God knows what other entitlement coming down the pike you baby boomers are going to demand I am going to be stuck paying at least 65% of my income in taxes just to cover those things, Never mind other important things like defense. I suppose you agree with this guy that we should be thanking you for that. Plus throw because a bunch of baby boomer elitist decided they can live my life better than I can so now I can't smoke in a bar in some places, I can't ride my bike without being mandated to first put on body armour and I can't drive down the block without being stopped at a checkpoint to see if I am wearing a seatbelt and everyday it seems like some Boomer politician or judge alters/ignores the Constitution to fit their needs.
And that's just the tip of the iceberg, All and all we've got a generation who has and continues to attempt to undo the Constitution and freedoms and institutions that made this country great and people of my and younger generations are not supposed to be a little ticked off about it?
Please enlighten me, Tell me why us Xs & Ys should be grateful of you? In 100 years when we are all gone do you really believe history is going to look kindly on the baby boomers (Especially since they will probably still being paying off the debt you've run up).
Even though you say that your sense of victimhood is common for your age group I don't believe it. I know too many in their 20s and 30s who are real adults and are focused on living like adults and moving forward. Maybe it's just you and your circle who are effed up and looking for someone to blame.
No, I am not running around all day with a big chip on my shoulder and I am living life the best I can. I am just venting and I am eternally optimistic. Our Founding Fathers put in a great system and despite your fellow baby boomers attempt to tear it all down it will survive. I know despite what baby boomers think they aren't going to live forever (Especially in light of the fact that instead of finding cures for deadly diseases Boomer scientist spent their time coming up with things like Viagra, Ritlin, Prozac and kooky studies like how french fries are addictive) and once you are all gone things will get better, It may take 20 years afterwards to clean up the mess you made but things will get better.
f I knew your parents I would feel as embarassed for them as I do sorry for you. Or, maybe I'd feel they got exactly the kind of kids they deserved. Either way, good luck working things out.
Well I know your parents the WWII generation and your kids the Xers and Ys and I even know a little bit about our Founding Father's generation, Your generation has failed and disappointed them all.
I couldn't agree more!
My parents (and grandparents) taught me two important lessons when I was growing up. First, nobody owes you anything. Second, if you want it, you go get it yourself. Third, see lesson #1 a second time.
The people who enable their children or grandchildren to adopt an entitlement mentality are a large part of the problem. Bad parenting is a huge problem in this country.
When I see people whining about their kids, I look at what I'm doing and I don't understand how they can let their kids get away with some of this stuff. I used to drive my Grandmother back and forth to my mom's house when I was in high school. Then I'd take a weekend a quarter and head up there after I left home and take care of things for her before she died. I never asked for a handout; I paid for everything including college myself.
Fast-forwarding to today, for the last six years, I've been trying to get my mom to let me pay off her mortgage, but she won't let me. I got a transfer back home, she insists I live with her until I find "the right house" and won't let me pay rent. Oookie. So I find other ways to compensate (sneaking in groceries, paying utility bills, taking her to the doctor, etc) -- the latest argument I'm embroiled in is over an inheritance. She's set to retire, I've asked her to just spend the money. I'm fine. She won't do it.
So, I just don't understand how people who raise their kids to be greedy little bastards can complain about it. They have created their own problem.
Carolyn
Thanks for your unneeded advice - LOL!
But as for SS not being demanded by the voters, nonsense. Meeting voter demands and "buying votes" are just different views of the same horse's rear end. Do you think there was no voter demand for government-financed prescription drugs? I grow increasingly tired of the old "We, the poor put-upon voters" song and dance. We allow the s.o.b.'s to be elected. Let's start putting some of the blame on our own apathy and ignorance of public policy.
The same people we call "the greatest generation" happily tucked napkins into their collars and bellied up to a government-financed feast of historic proportions after WW II. They also produced the most indulged, self-involved, greedy generation of kids in American history. They were more than happy to get rid of Eisenhower's modest fiscal restraints in favor of Kennedy's and Johnson's gluttonous welfare statism in the Roosevelt tradition. Who elected those presidents and the Congresses that enacted their proposals into law? Were the voters simply "bought?" Not in my opinion, unless getting what you demand is being "bought."
Died before you were born? How old are you? 2?
You may consider them corrupt. Millions of Americans would disagree. They have as much right to their opinions as you or I do.
As I've stated on other such threads, I am in favor of providing prescription coverage to needy elderly. You may not agree. :::shrug:::
Then do it. Don't tell Big Stupid Republican Government to put a gun to your neighbor's head, steal their money, and give it away to make you feel better about yourself.
That's what democRATs, and many RepublicRATs, do.
LOL I'm sure you were aware I meant federally provided prescription drug benefits for needy elderly.
I provided for my elderly mother for 20 years before she passed away. If she hadn't had us, she would have had to make a choice between medicine or food or heat. Or maybe a little bit of each, but not sufficient quantities of all three.
I am also involved with/donate to a number of charities. I know of none that have any type of prescription assistance offering. If you are aware of any, please let me know.
In the meantime, I hope that you, too, are caring for your elderly parents and assisting charities that help the indigent.
Yes, I was very much aware of that. That's theft. At least a trillion dollars worth of theft, which will distort the medical market yet again and raise the price of drugs because nobody will have an incentive to conserve their use. It's stealing money from your neighbors, and you, by force and giving it away to buy votes. That's stealing.
And don't give me this "needy" nonsense. Are you arguing that it's perfectly OK to steal from somebody else to help yourself if you're "needy"? Quite a rationalization. And who defines "needy", anyway? Bill Gates, Janet Reno and Rush Limbaugh will get these "free" pills (via money stolen from others).
It's theft. It's wrong. It's not my copy of the Constitution anywhere either.
And yes, I help my family and others. That's how it should work in a theoretically-free country.
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