Generational war is brewing

Tracey Press ^ | 11/10/05 | Froma Harrop

[muir_redwoods]

"Are you the only one who didn't understand that the whole Schiavo controversy was about boomers wanting the power of euthenasia over their own parents?"

Can you possibly be the only one who didn't know it was about a philandering husband who wanted to be free of his disabled wife? Amazing!

[Shalom Israel]

I am not dis-counting what you do for a living at all, but it's far from the sweat that many men had to do to take care of a wife and 7 children with little education....

You aren't discounting my work... but you insist it doesn't begin to compare...

Reminds me of the immortal words of G. K. Chesterton: "may I say that while tortures would not tear from me a whisper about his intellect, he is a blasted old jackass."

[Shalom Israel]

However, don't paint us like we are a bunch of stealing socialists.

I'll make a deal with you: don't steal my money and redistribute it, and I won't call you a socialist or a thief. Otherwise, here's my wallet, comrade, and please don't hurt me.

[RadioAstronomer]

Not everyone who dies in service for this country is in the military, and not everyone who is serving need call attention to it

Agree completely. You notice I kept quiet for years aboput my service here on FR. Just got steamed today from some of the posts about how we screwed over everyone. Sorry for getting so ticked.

[SteveMcKing]

And any man not married at 40 had no......

I'm pretty sure that was Churchill, anyway. He wrote a lot of stuff!

[Myrddin]

Here's a radical idea... make the boomers pay for their own damn retirements with all that capital they've had their entire lifetimes to build, and stop stealing from their children and their childrens' children and the generations beyond that.

Here's a radical reply: I wish I could recover the $50,000 to $90,0000 in annual TAXES stolen from me by the socialist government. I could retire VERY comfortably. I earn plenty of money, but I don't get to keep much of it. What isn't taxed away is paying for my children to park their knees under my table. The two remaining at home will eventually join the rest of the Gen X crew welcoming people to Walmart and pushing extra large orders of fries. They got the best education the socialist teacher's unions could provide.

[Shalom Israel]

Hmmm... I pay taxes. I fought for this country. I still help defend it as we speak. Yup, guess I don't care about anything but myself.

By your reasoning, if a veteran becomes a mugger, nobody had better dare criticize his behavior.

[sarasmom]

"spare me the"We won the Cold War" attitude, most of the people that did that are worm food now"

I am not yet 50, and see no worms munching on my body.
BTW, that "We won the Cold War" attitude is one I have.
Because I did participate in that one, for eight years.
It was an all volunteer force, at the time.
And no, I do not consider myself in the same category as any combat veteran of any war, past or present.
But let me clue you in on something, just so you do not insult me and my fellow veterans unintentionally.
If you think the USSR folded on a "bluff", you are dead wrong.
"We" were not bluffing.We knew the price, and prepared ourselves to pay it every day.That was our life.That is how I spent my young adult life.
And although the DOD denied me the opportunity to wear a uniform and "do what I did best" one more time,I and my peers, are still milling about, amongst the general civilian population.Lurking, for want of a better word.
I invite you to look closely into any of our eyes, and tell me/us we have no right to be proud that we "Won the Cold War" .
Especially around Veterans Day.
And as to the thread topic, the generational Social Security argument...
Make the cutoff date the day before my birth, and I will call all the taxes I have paid, sunk cost, and we will be done with socialism.
Better that I absorb the price of injustice, than pass it on to my child.
I, and all my "Cold War Veteran" peers, are supremely qualified to make that call.

[laney]

Again your opinion....
I made the comparisson based upon the sweat of your brow.

[Myrddin]

As far as the national debt, just direct the current estate tax to only go to reducing debt...by a new law.

Estate taxes are THEFT of private property. Only a damn communist would advocate stealing the private property of another person for the collective benefit of the government.

[Shalom Israel]

After reading some of the posts on this thread, I can understand why some retirees are taking out reverse mortgages. They want to care for themselves and not depend on children and, at the same time, not worry about leaving anything to children who are selfish.

Flapdoodle. Every one of us objecting to SS robbery, has parents we either do or will care for in their old age. Our astronomer friend is after something entirely different: he wants everyone else's children to be forced to take care of him against their will. The reason he's entitled to this slave labor is... that he fought to keep them "free".

[RadioAstronomer]

You mean, you were robbed, and it gives you the right to rob in turn.

No. I paid in good faith that I would get my money back (forced BTW). I would not pay nor ask to collect SS except I am given no choice.

As for paying for my education, you most certainly did not.

Indeed I did. Go figure how much I payed in school tax all these years even though I do not nor ever had children.

No wonder you're so eager to rob me and mine.

Robbery? I have no choice but to pay into SS.

For some reason socialists usually turn out to be people who didn't provide properly for themselves.

I put 20% of my pay away for the future. I don't rely one bit on SS or any other Gov dole. I also payed my own way thru school and grad school. You see the military reniged on my GI bill after serving 12 years.

The guy who scrimps and saves isn't usually the one demanding that the government redistribute his savings.

Bet I pay more in taxes than you make.

Keep me free? Apparently, you did it with the expectation of robbing me. What's so noble about that? The noble guy keeps me free and then doesn't rob me. At least, that's my idea of noble, comrade.

Comrade? I stood the front line fighting communism. If I said what I really thought of you I would be banned from this forum. I think you get the picture however.

[CompSciGuy]

Not a problem... Have been around way too many Boomers today talking about their time during the cold war. (Getting assigned at Edsel is no hardship tour.) This "slacker whiny" stuff I hear too much, and yes, I am still working doing my time before I go back. Some of us use rifles, planes, ships, and tanks to defend America, others uses bits, and phonetic sounds. I'd gladly swap a story or two privately, its amazing what people can find on a google search these days.

Cheers,
CSG

[RadioAstronomer]

Our astronomer friend is after something entirely different: he wants everyone else's children to be forced to take care of him against their will. The reason he's entitled to this slave labor is... that he fought to keep them "free".

You want to talk about me, at least have the guts to ping me. No one is going to take care of me. I take care of myself and all the freeloading welfare scum of your generation as well.

[Shalom Israel]

Again your opinion.... I made the comparisson based upon the sweat of your brow.

...which is a stupid comparison. One's marginal revenue product is not a function of sweat. I think thoughts too large to fit in the average mill-monkey's head. Only reverse elitism would argue that this is of lower value, or that one effort is less than the other. I do what's impossible for such a person, so by what reasoning do you conclude that it suffers by comparison?

[Myrddin]

Seems that the WW2 generation had its priorities in order, but sadly their success enabled the next generation to have all the wrong priorities and suffer few consequences.

The WWII generation developed an economic powerhouse in a world where there was no other competition. That produced a false euphoria where unions demanded enormous benefits and employers allowed the excesses as the pot of gold seemed to be endless. The socialist New Deal was cooked up with a ratio of 23 to 1 workers to beneficiaries. That ratio is three to one today. Today's world has cut throat competition as the rest of the world caught up with ability to manufacture. The 'golden years' of operating without competition are over. The boomers were children in the heyday of this economic boom. They didn't cause the problems that drive all the whining in this thread. The socialist policies were cooked up from the New Deal Democrats and accelerated by the Great Society Democratic welfare state invented by LBJ.

[A CA Guy]

Estate taxes have been in place for a long time. I have no problem with personal responsibility, so as long as they direct the current estate tax to repayment of the national debt, that's fine with me.

How else were you going to suggest we pay off this national debt instead of leaving your responsibility to others?
Do you suggest a one time assessment of thousands of dollars or what?

You wouldn't create a bill at a restaurant and run away without paying, it is no different here.

Once the national debt is payed, stop the tax and also have limits on spending so they stop deficits.

Lots of work, but I do believe the bottom line is self reliance and responsibility.
I do not think the dead should leave the world with their national debt unpaid to be left to others.
This seems a somewhat painless way to continue what is and to get some pay-down.

I look so forward to what you instead suggest, because budget controls and other things have yet to ever be manifested and seem an unrealistic dream at this point. Plus we are at war.

For our actual and financial future we should be self reliant and responsible.
We do not have a right to cut and run on our national debt IMO, even by death if we left an estate.

Private citizens all owe this public debt despite how desperate people want to argue for free stuff from their parents.

[Shalom Israel]

You want to talk about me, at least have the guts to ping me.

Calm down. I assumed you were following the thread. I'm content to ping you, however.

No one is going to take care of me. I take care of myself and all the freeloading welfare scum of your generation as well.

No one is going to take care of you? Oh, I apologize--I was under the mistaken impression that you were planning to receive money confiscated from me. Now that I realize you plan to refuse the stolen funds, that changes everything.

BTW, slick use of ad-hominem. I have nothing to do with the "welfare scum" you try to connect me with by virtue of being the same age. And of course, it was clever of you to insinuate that "welfare scum" are all found in "my" generation rather than yours.

[RadioAstronomer]

Getting assigned at Edsel is no hardship tour

I understand. However post 279 is not just another war story.

[laney]

Sorry you still DO NOT get it...
I am saying the Computer Generation has had much given to them Education, Technology, Freebies all the way..

Generations as in the World War II folks were not given the luxuries YOU have, and had to work long manual labor hours for little money and raise a family all by his lonesome, maybe that is why men of that generation were hard drinkers and distant father's...They had to work by the sweat of there brow!