Posted on 12/26/2006 3:44:13 PM PST by qam1
Continuing our coverage of the next generation of seniors, this one is for the kids - men and women in their 40s or 50s.
They are our grown children, most of whom have not known privation, economic depression, a world without television or what it was like in a country that was truly at war to save democracy.
In short, it's for a generation with little or no memory of what came before. As my late colleague Lars-Erik Nelson once wrote, few of these people "can imagine why there was ever a need for Social Security, Medicare, the GI Bill, federal wage and hours laws, a federally underwritten welfare program, environmental protection, affirmative action, banking and security regulation, consumer protection and public defenders."
Maybe because this busy, ambitious generation knows little about what life was like before those protective acts of the federal government, there has been only a shrug when these laws have been ignored, weakened or allowed to die. In the past decade or so, the nation seems to have turned again to Calvin Coolidge's nostrum that "the business of America is business."
According to several polls and studies, says AARP's policy director John Rother, many adult Americans younger than 50 have little regard for the federal government and almost no knowledge about its most basic social programs, Social Security and Medicare.
"They are busy with their own lives, and they rarely speak to their parents about their finances to learn how they depend on these programs," Rother told me. "They don't think about these things until they're 64. But they ought to, or these benefits could disappear."
Social Security and Medicare are seen as benefits for "old people" and seem far removed from their lives, says Rother. The men and women of Generation X...........
(Excerpt) Read more at newsday.com ...
Just when you think the situation is hopeless, along comes a little ray of light.........
The irony is, that it is the Boomer generation who will wipe out Social Security, and who are already flexing their political muscles in that regard. That is yet another thing this year's election was about - it was a preemptive first strike by those who are getting ready to raid the pantry during their elder years.
So, the quasi Communistic FDR generation guy who wrote this article is completely deluded.
The thing that pisses me off about people like Saul Friedman is their arrogant attitude that everybody before the pre-boomer generation were great patriots who appreciated every little thing they got and didn't need Jesus Christ because they never committed a sin in their lives.This is bull,the roaring twenties had plenty of over the top "spoiled" people who lived fast lives and cared as little as lot a lot of people today do.Yes they fought WWII but before Pearl Harbor didn't want to touch it with a ten foot pole,and by the way unlike the ALL VOLUNTEER military of today a lot of those people went ONLY when they were drafted.Our society is becoming increasingly liberal but there are a lot decent Americans still living in this country !!!
Why do every one of you hard working Boomers think we're talking about you when we complain about greedy geezers? By definition we're not talking about you.
I wonder why my generation doesn't have a snappy little name? Boomers, X-ers...I want a name and a stereotype, dammit.
So tell her. These people will never find the clue bag if we don't educate them. Ask them how deep in debt she wants her grandkids and great grandkids to be.
"You are wrong, especially since you bring up the military service of the Boomers. The kids going into the military today are smarter, better educated and better soldiers than any we've ever had, and they are patriotic as all get out."
That would interest me, if it had anything to do with my post, I wasn't comparing the boomers to the small number of these generations enlistees and veterans (like my son).
I was saying that the boomer generation was the last well educated generation, and the last one to enlist and serve in such mass numbers.
If this generation's young men would enlist in large enough numbers to fill the small military needs of our present, then we would not be forced to accept the first time enlistments of boomer grandmothers.
Actually, the main reason there was a draft in WWII was because they needed to organize the entry of men into the armed forces. Virtually everyone wanted to go, they couldn't take them all at once and why create a new system when you've already got one ready? So, they took in a percentage of volunteers (mostly those who wanted to volunteer for special duty, like paratroops) and the rest were told to wait for their number to come up.
Happened that way with my grandfather. He was an art school student and treid to enlist during the week after Pearl. He was told to wait for his number, and it was called in '42. He went ashore at Anzio and fought in Italy his whole time.
You are one of these
Arthurian 1433-1460
Humanist 1461-1482
Picaresque 1512-1540
Elizabethan 1541-1565
Sentimental 1566-1587
Puritan (Righteous)1588-1614
Cavalier 1615-1647
Glorious 1648-1673
Enlightenment 1674-1700
Awakening 1701-1723
Liberty 1724-1741
Republican 1742-1766
Compromise 1767-1791
Transcendental 1792-1821
Gilded 1822-1842
Progressive 1843-1859
Missionary 1860-1882
Lost 1883-1904
G.I. (Builder, Gimmie, Greatest, WWII) 1905-1927
Silent 1928-1945
Baby Boomers (Me, Worst) 1946-1964 (Sometimes Later 1957-1964 Boomers are called Generation Jones)
Generation X (Baby Busters, Reagan) 1965-1981
Generation Y (Millennials, Echo Boom) 1982-1996
Generation Z (Cyber, New Adaptive,?) 1997-2020?
The men and women of Generation X and the youngest of the boomers tell survey takers they have little faith these programs will be there when they need them. They have more faith in the private sector than the federal government.
Gen X is more conservative!
If this generation's young men would enlist in large enough numbers to fill the small military needs of our present, then we would not be forced to accept the first time enlistments of boomer grandmothers.
Publicity stunt BS. Not that her service isn't noble and valuable, but if you really think we're falling so short on recruiting that we have to go out and find Grandma's, you're smoking something.
BTW, before the next time you lecture an X-er who served in the volunteer military about the vaunted patriotism of the Boomers, you might want to consider the reasons that many of those young Boomer men volunteered. A man who joined up served less time (2 years vs. 3, IIRC) and was far more likely to get into a technical specialty and learn a trade. Also, if one preferred a certain service it was best to volunteer rather than taking a chance. This was especially true of the Air Force and Navy, which received far fewer draftees than the Army and Marines.
In other words, many of these men signed up for the same reason that X-er and Gen Y men haven't signed up: To avoid an unpleasant term in the military and serve their own wishes.
We are a much, much smaller generation than the boomers.
We could never enlist in the raw numbers of the largest generation in history, but we have a higher enlistment rate.
Good. We don't want them you stupid gits. You can have your silly handouts, but we aren't going to follow in your slimy footsteps. We are free men not slaves.
I'm much much younger than one of these "kids" as they describe. I wish I could opt out of social security entirely. Hell, I would even be willing to 'eat' what I've paid in so far just to be rid of it!
Hold the bus,after Pearl Harbor they wanted to fight,before Pearl Harbor not a chance in hell. After 9\11 there were a lot of young and not so young Americans who wanted to go defend their country and unlike the WWII generation,these kids were NOT educated and schooled in the values of America. On the contrary most of them have grown up in a society ruled by the mainstream media and an education system that continuosly preaches how BAD our country and our system is to the rest of the world !!!
I hope your right !!!
"We could never enlist in the raw numbers of the largest generation in history, but we have a higher enlistment rate."
What are the rates?
I know there was a draft before the war started. What I am saying is that they didn't need it to recruit after Pearl Harbor but kept it in place to streamline the manpower. You were saying that the Greatest Generation was drafted. Have your cake or eat it, please.
Older baby boomers recently cheated younger baby boomers in legislation on social security. Hippie-minded people get what they want from the government. Many younger baby boomers without university degrees were put out of work during the late 1970s and early 1980s. Not many older ones were.
As for government social programs, most of them are now for breaking families and feeding anti-social efforts (feminism, romanticism,...) instead of feeding the poor--another legacy of older baby boomers.
Younger baby boomers did not lead or often participate in the "cultural revolution" (family busting). Older ones did.
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