Posted on 11/14/2011 9:11:04 AM PST by Publius804
Talkin’ about my generation”: the Who song once expressed the hope and self confidence of the Baby Boomers as they reached biological if not emotional maturity. It was an attack on the older generation, a defense of the young, but it includes an ominous refrain: “Hope I die before I get old.” Already, perhaps, the shadow of generational failure hung over the twenty something Boomers. Those shadows have darkened considerably as the Boomer sun moves past the meridian and an unmistakable air of twilight infiltrates into the declining hours of the long Boomer day.
Talking about our generation is not going to be as much fun for the Boomers as it was in those long distant days of infinite promise. My generation has some real accomplishments under its belt, especially in the worlds of science and technology. And we made important progress in making American society a more open place for people and groups who were once excluded. In every field of American life, there are Boomers who have made and are making important, selfless contributions: in hospitals, in classrooms, in government, in business, in the military. You name it and we are there.
But at the level of public policy and moral leadership, as a generation we have largely failed. The Boomer Progressive Establishment in particular has been a huge disappointment to itself and to the country. The political class slumbered as the entitlement and pension crisis grew to ominous dimensions. Boomer financial leadership was selfish and shortsighted, by and large. Boomer CEOs accelerated the trend toward unlimited greed among corporate elites, and Boomer members of corporate boards sit by and let it happen.
(Excerpt) Read more at blogs.the-american-interest.com ...
It was mostly the young people of this nation who elected Obama and the Democratic Congress. You fell for the “Hope and Change” which in reality was nothing but “Hype and Lies.” You have tasted socialism and seen evil face to face, and have found you don’t like it after all. You make a lot of noise, but most are all too interested in their careers or “Climbing the Social Ladder” to be involved in such mundane things as patriotism and voting. Many of those who fell for the “Great Lie” in 2008 are now having buyer’s remorse. With all the education we gave you, you didn’t have sense enough to see through the lies and instead drank the ‘Cool-Aid.’ Now you’re paying the price and complaining about it. No jobs, lost mortgages, higher taxes, and less freedom. This is what you voted for and this is what you got. We entrusted you with the Torch of Liberty and you traded it for a paycheck and a fancy house.
Your brilliant Freeper isn’t all that brilliant.
“They bought the “it’s natural” story from Kinsey and tolerated the sexual revulsion.”
I assume that’s ‘sexual revolution’. The sexual revolution began with the contraceptive pill in 1962, not the Kinsey reports of 1948 and 1953. And it definitely wasn’t embraced by the generation that was married and raising families at the time.
“{Some} parents had five divorces between them, wasting what they might have left us on lawyers. “
Kids from divorced families were a rarity in my grade school classes of the late 50s early 60s , rare enough that you knew who they were.
“They bought what they needed all on a credit card the interest on which was tax deductible.”
Boomer’s parents had charge cards that required full payment monthly, not credit cards. They bought on lay-away or using a revolving credit line from a local merchant. Credit cards as we know them were created in 1966.
“They borrowed for the Great Society, they borrowed to send us to college, and they expected us to pay for their retirement and medical care while ALSO paying for day care because they wouldn’t help with our young children while we were working two jobs to pay for their cushy entitlements”
Those sound like the personal failings of your friend’s family rather than a valid indictment of the WWII generation. My parents used their savings for my sister’s college. They worked and saved for their own retirement. They took care of their own elderly parents. They took care of my sister’s young children.
If there’s any people I know who do not feel entitled it’s my parents and what’s left of their friends at 90.
“Yes, it was the so-called Greatest Generation (and their parents) who put into place the Great Society entitlements and the expansion of the federal government that has brought us to the brink of public bankruptcy.”
I must have missed the part where every administration and Congress after 1965 was prevented from rolling back the Great Society programs they inherited but wanted to repeal. Did someone take away the vote?
“Neither did the greatest gen get rid of the war time practice of taking the “taxes” owed straight out of their pay checks.”
This practice was introduced to the government by an executive of the Montgomery Ward corporation, which used to be one of America’s major retailers.
That is the first I have heard of that.
The alliance between corporations and government goes way back.
Any generation that can produce a triple knit lime green leisure suit (with bell bottom pants for bell bottoms) has to be respected, even more so if the white patent leather shoes are worn with it.
So watch your comments folks or we check the back of your closet for bump toe shoes!
Fixed.
I can’t argue with that!
bttt
You will often hear the left complaining about corporations “running the government” and they call that fascism.
In reality, fascism is where the government “allows” private/corporate ownership but controls the business so tightly that there is no discernible difference between “just” controlling the business and government ownership of the business.
This upside down vision of “fascism” by the left is simple to take apart. “Who has the legal ability to use deadly force to impose its will on the other, the corporation or the government?”
Familiar leaders from both entrenched parties favor legalizing the crop of illegals here. They want new young workers paying in who will help to kick the social security scam can down the road farther before it detonates.
No, but it would have helped if someone had taken away the media.
The Boomers are the first generation to grow up in an environment where all the media were spouting the same leftist line.
The insidious feature of Ponzi schemes like SS and Medicare is that no one generation has both the political power and the self interest to roll back or eliminate the future entitlement. The Boomer and near-Boomer groups with the bulk of the political power are now close enough to retirement that they now want to claim their “hard-earned entitlement.” Those who are under 45 would almost surely be better off with a private retirement fund, but then the SS “trust fund” (i.e., the US Treasury) would lose all of the revenue from the “pay-as-you-go” nature of the current scheme and would have to raise other taxes tremendously to pay the “entitlements” of the current (and next generation of) retirees.
“The alliance between corporations and government goes way back.”
This wasn’t an alliance of Wards and the government. It was more an insight from the private sector getting absorbed by the Treasury Dept. Montgomery Ward’s insight filtered through many layers before it ended up in the Tax Collection Act of 1943
Wards had been using employee withholding in their company for some time and knew that it saved time and money for recurring payments- it may have been for the company health plan, Montgomery Wards was one of the first companies to offer health insurance to their employees, in 1910.
WWII was the first time that income tax affected the public at large. It went from being a “class tax” to a “mass tax”. In 1941 only 8 million income tax returns were filed. By 1943 it had risen to 35 million.
The best method of collecting the tax was debated by Congress for a couple of years before withholding became law.
Ok, you are defending the withholding of taxes on Free Republic? So you are fan of efficient tax collection? WTH?
We had two medias involved.
The advertising and commercial media which targeted ‘boomers as a demographic for which to create products. IIRC the advertising world invented and popularized the very terms “baby boom” and “boomers”.
And then we had the news media. They were based almost entirely in New York City, the center of American cultural and commercial life as far as they were concerned. Every national news broadcast and all magazine publishing came through a NYC filter, and that was as far to the left of the American mainstream then as it is today.
No, and you should read more closely instead of making unfounded accusations.
You may rephrase it, the end result is the same.
More people being taxed, for the benefit of the government.
To the detriment of the people and their sense of responsibility to keep a check on government spending.
They went from 8 million to 35 million people being taxed, and it STILL wasn’t enough.
>>“They bought the “it’s natural” story from Kinsey and tolerated the sexual revulsion.”
I assume that’s ‘sexual revolution’. The sexual revolution began with the contraceptive pill in 1962, not the Kinsey reports of 1948 and 1953. And it definitely wasn’t embraced by the generation that was married and raising families at the time.<<
LOLOL!!! Go back and watch the movies of the time, my FRiend. Start with “Rear Window”. What do you think Princess Grace was implying when she was leaning into Jimmy Stewart? This was the same generation that had “Peyton Place” and “Lolita”? Oh no, they were as pure as the driven snow.
>>“{Some} parents had five divorces between them, wasting what they might have left us on lawyers. “
Kids from divorced families were a rarity in my grade school classes of the late 50s early 60s , rare enough that you knew who they were.<<
Yeah, they waited until after the kids were out of the house, let’s talk about how many broke up in the 70’s. Those in their 40’s.
>>“They bought what they needed all on a credit card the interest on which was tax deductible.”
Boomer’s parents had charge cards that required full payment monthly, not credit cards. They bought on lay-away or using a revolving credit line from a local merchant. Credit cards as we know them were created in 1966.<<
My parents had credit cars from Sears and May Company LONG before that. You’re thinking “Mastercharge”. And did all the “Greatest Generation” die off in 1966? No, they continued to charge on.
>>“They borrowed for the Great Society, they borrowed to send us to college, and they expected us to pay for their retirement and medical care while ALSO paying for day care because they wouldn’t help with our young children while we were working two jobs to pay for their cushy entitlements”
Those sound like the personal failings of your friend’s family rather than a valid indictment of the WWII generation. My parents used their savings for my sister’s college. They worked and saved for their own retirement. They took care of their own elderly parents. They took care of my sister’s young children.<<
Actually, it sounds like you lucked out.
I personally remember my mom and a bunch of her friends giggling “I raised my kids.” and refusing to watch grandchildren. (she was born 1928) They passed around my Grandfather (born 1907) until he had no clue who’s house he was in when he died. My parents refused to pay for ANY of my sister’s nursing school. I worked my way through college.
My husband’s grandparents ran rum and hired a “country girl” to raise the kids. To this moment, his parents are worth a cool mil and whenever we have asked for help, they have told us that they will charge an interest rate higher than the banks. (born 1921 and 1926)
The Greatest Generation is NO better than anyone else and they certainly didn’t help with raising the boomers to be what they are either.
>>If there’s any people I know who do not feel entitled it’s my parents and what’s left of their friends at 90.<<
You must hide in your home on Senior Day at the grocery store. I know I do on Wednesdays.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.