Gene Healy sees the Millenials as the new statists

Washington Examiner ^ | 7/14/09 | Gene Healy

[Rodebrecht]

Kids today are a credulous bunch. The 2007 Pew Political Values survey revealed "a generation gap in cynicism." Where 62 percent of Americans overall view the federal government as wasteful and inefficient, just 42 percent of young people agree.

No wonder, then, that GenNext responds to President Obama's call for "public service," roughly translated as "a federal paycheck."

[US Navy Vet]

I think that we should raise the Draft and Voting ages back to 21.

[Rodebrecht]

A draft won’t fix them. Taking away their federal education grants would, though.

[kittymyrib]

Indoctrination in the government school system is paying off, just as statists hoped it would. And financed with your tax dollars. Parents never bothered to see what was being taught because school was a “free” babysitting service.

[Yankee]

Wait till they start getting a paycheck and ask “who is this Fica dude and why does he get so much money from my check?”.

[mysterio]

How did we expect them to be anything but statists? There are two major parties in America, and both have statist platforms.

A couple things have to happen if we want to fight statism :

1. The "two party" mindset has to be broken. Those two parties might differ on some hot button issues, but they agree completely about consolidation of power.

2. An end to withholding. Everyone gets a bill for their taxes monthly, quarterly, or yearly, and they write a check for those taxes.

Enacting #2 alone would accomplish a lot.

[Rodebrecht]

An end to withholding. Everyone gets a bill for their taxes monthly, quarterly, or yearly, and they write a check for those taxes.

But, then people might not send their checks! OMG! What will the Feds do without their tribute?

[mysterio]

But, then people might not send their checks! OMG! What will the Feds do without their tribute?

They would be forced to send agents to collect. See how much people enjoy that.

Additionally, I would support an amendment to force the federal government to balance the budget each year. That means when their spending is out of control, taxpayers' monthly bills get bigger.

I think you'd see an increased opposition to new spending. It would be the best thing that every happened to the small government movement.

[iopscusa]

Agree that we need to:
1.Dump the 2 party system of collusion
2.Stop making business collect gov taxes
3.Discard all tax exempt organizations

[Le Chien Rouge]

Parents never bothered to see what was being taught because school was a “free” babysitting service.

A lot of the Gen Y’s parents were liberal baby boomers who agreed with what the schools were teaching.

[MichiganConservative]

What will the Feds do without their tribute?

Just print more. Actually they don't need printing presses any more. It's all electronic. Think about this: scientists have estimated the total number of atoms in the universe. That's a number that can be represented on a piece of paper or in a computer.

[Rodebrecht]

IIRC, Bernanke did an interview where he told the reporter that if the Fed needed to help out a bank, they just added a few zeroes to their account.

[Dahoser]

Wait till they start getting a paycheck and ask “who is this Fica dude and why does he get so much money from my check?”.

They will not care at all. They're used to lining up like drones at the school nurse's office to get their midday Ritalin dosage and going back to staying in constant electronic contact with their friends. So whether it's Ritalin or money that keeps flowing, and provided they can twitter their friends that they're having a burrito or taking a dump, they'll ask no questions about that Fica dude or any other dude.

[RinaseaofDs]

Agree completely.

[US Navy Vet]

Yep!

[MichiganConservative]

The Millenials are generally useless.

[MichiganConservative]

The Millenials are generally useless.

[Dahoser]

If only they would consider the same about voting for statists.

[SaraJohnson]

Yes, good idea.

These people grew up in an age after Republicans spent decades getting the government out of people’s lives and making bureaucrats behave or lose their function to private industry. Those who grew up after that, have no idea how awful the government is at handling real life.

They could know if we had real history and teacher and a real media to examine the truth about Canadian and British “health care.” They should know about the Soviet Union, Cuba, etc.