Posted on 07/30/2011 10:32:57 PM PDT by rabscuttle385
Baby boomers -- those born between 1946 and 1964 -- have been described as "the pig in the python" and the "sandwich generation."
They lived well, grew up in relative abundance and, some say, expected their Social Security, health care and government support to be there as they grew old.
Now, as the future of the country's economy is up in the air, is this group of 80 million aging Americans -- many of whom are sprinting toward retirement age -- the ones to blame for the nation's shaky economic system?
(snip)
Thomas Firey, a senior editor at the conservative Cato Institute and member of generation X, said it's unclear as to what's going to happen to Social Security.
"Under current law, what's supposed to happen is once the trust fund runs dry, the benefits are to be cut by roughly 25% to bring it back into balance. Each year's income will equalize the outflow," said Frey..."But no one expects that to happen. (So) are we going to raise taxes on current workers? Are we going to get rid of the tax?"
But criticizing baby boomers is not necessarily a politically wise thing to do, especially when it comes to their voting behavior.
(snip)
Jerry Shereshewsky, the self-described "chief grown-up" at the firm GrownUpMarketing, is a baby boomer. The 65-year-old said it's not his generation group to blame, it's Congress'.
"It was not a secret that this largest cohort in American history was going to get older every year," he said. "The fact that Congress has not done a very good job of keeping up with what is really happening in the world: life expectancy, better medical care. You give people a lot of cake and ice cream, they're going to eat it."
(Excerpt) Read more at articles.cnn.com ...
That is worthy of a tee shirt, a bumper sticker and a coffee mug.
I have a couple of decades to go before 65 so I’m not counting on Social Security. The retiring boomers are not to blame. IF the money had been saved and invested like the great and all powerful mamma-sow with ten thousand nipples of a government told us, more would be there for the retirees. But, like all good governments, our great nippular sow has, through the generations, helped itself to as much of that money as it wanted, and then some. The money should be there - but it isn’t.
I recall such luminaries as ‘Tip’ O’Neil, Claude ‘Red’ Pepper and multiple others who saw the benefit of raiding the public purse. The schemes were simple and numerous, this group wanted more supplemental Social Security, this group wanted more MedicAid and on it went. Each of them was able to trot a convincing case of needing more taxpayer money and each had the implicit promise of more votes to the party that gave them these ‘gifts’. Every entitlement started small but that is only at the start and now we look at this monster that cannot be cut without loud screams from all who are effected. Yes it was both Dem & GOP but remember History PLEASE, this structure was built at a time when the GOP had Presidents but Congress was RULED by the Dems.
You nailed it, Rowdy! I’ll second that “thank you” posted by peggybac.
I’m sick and tired of these young gen-X pups bashing us ‘Baby-Boomers’ for all their problems.
Bullshit!
I was born in 1961. When I first became aware of term “Baby Boomers”, I was probably 11 or 12. It was defined between the years of 1946-1960 and maintained that span through the 1980s up until the early ‘90s.
It was about 1993 or 1994 when the date span started to creep to 1961, then ‘62 to ‘63 and ended at the current 1964. My age group 1961-1964 were considered “Tweeners”, not Boomers, not Gen-X.
These terms are nothing more than sociological claptrap designed to pigeonhole.
Oh, I don’t think so. 1946-1964 are the baby boomers whom the youngest were eligible to vote at 18 in 1982.
Perfect rebuttal. Many of us "baby boomers" will get little in any SSI, because congress has seen fit to help all the needy as they see voters. I'm glad I saved for my retirement in a Roth IRA, just don't tell dingy hairy and the dims about it.
You responded: "You - and the rest of your generation - voted for them. Reap what you sow."
Exactly. bttt
Thursday, July 28, 2011
The Worstest Generation: Hope They Die Before I Get Old!
"....Obama is simply the final fruition of that retrograde impulse. If he prevails in 2012, it certainly won't be a result of the post-boomers whom he treats as his personal piggy bank. Rather, he'll need widespread support of the greedy and entitled Worstest Generation. ....."
Never got picked on for being the smart kid, did you?
My ideal 2011 ticket: Sarah Palin / Marco Rubio
“This kind of reporting is disgraceful. Seriously, how can people actually think like this?”
I’ve been reading a couple of these “boomers at fault for the economic mess” threads this morning, and I’m pretty disturbed by the ease with which even those of us with similar values and opinions are separated and turned on each other by a specious argument.
Wow, it sure doesn’t take much.
“I do not blame the boomer or most Americans. It as been the insidious “Progressives” of both parties, but primarily in the MSM, the Universities, and the education establishment that are to blame.”
So true, but I think our religious leaders over the last 100 years have failed us as much as the secular education system and the press. But why? My guess is the general loss of faith in God and the values of Western Civilization.
Now you're thinking. Let's roll. There are thousands and thousands of socialist collectives that we are FORCED to give money to via taxation/confiscation. Examine them. DEFUND them.
I’m continually amazed how exercised people get over SS, a program boomers have paid into their entire work lives, and yet we hear not one word from those same complainers about the now $950 billion annually that goes to welfare recipients and others who aren’t working at all, Medicaid being the biggest of the programs.
It is the monstrous growth in programs that are a disincentive to work, for people of working age, that has made it almost impossible to ever balance our federal budget, not SS. One in seven Americans now on food stamps, etc.
SS can can be fixed by raising the retirement age based upon life expectancy and some means testing, and other reforms.
Exactly
More than 30 mil possible tax payers killed.
So we import 20 mil+ worker mainly from South of the Border to fill the gap. Both Parties look the other way.
Many of these workers live off the government teat, exacerbating the problem.
Add deleting the 'lock box' and you've got a prescription for trouble.
Where I went to school there sure seemed to be more hippies ( that went into teaching and government) that conservatives.
You can’t blame the boomers. They didn’t create the system. They have paid into their whole lives and we can’t break the promise to them. It is going to be the duty of the X’ers to pay into the system to take care of the agreement to our parents even though the agreement was forced upon them by corrupt politicians.
There are people that have introduced plans in congress to “fix it” but we can’t even get a budget out of them. You really think we could get something constructive?
I think we as a generation (genX) are going to have to pay into it our whole working lives and not recieve it later in life.
I know myself and many others would be willing to do this so our children don’t have to face this problem. Not something I want to do, but you can’t pick your challenges just how you handle them.
You’re right; another gift from baby boomers.
So, remind us which Boomer SCOTUS justices made up the majority in the Roe vs. Wade case decided in 1973?
(Hint: oldest Boomers were 27 in 1973.)
The American People.
For the past 150 years plus we have voted more and more ass-hats into federal offices who set about to subvert the Constitution in the name of getting reelected.
Now understand many of those folks really were not aware they were actually subverting the Constitution many thought they were actually doing something good. Of course there were many like FDR and the Progressives who knew exactly what they were doing!
The government of the United States was never intended to be a Sugar Daddy. When we started passing out money and services in the name of social equality we started down the slippery slope.
The problem is now we are all unlucky enough to live in the era when are going to hit the bottom of that ride down the slippery slope.
However, there is one good thing about hitting bottom. You can only go up for there!
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