feh, you missed a GREAT opportunity to keep yer yap shut...
Posted on 02/07/2016 7:54:04 AM PST by DeathBeforeDishonor1
"This is the real reason Washington can’t create a long-term deficit reduction plan. The boomers love their safety nets."
Wow, so it looks like we have a budget deal in Washington. A debt ceiling and spending crisis has been averted. It’s good news. But let’s all calm down. It’s only temporary. The agreement does not address the long-term fiscal problems we have. Problems that were mostly created by none other than the “baby boomer†generation. Yeah, you know who you are.
You’re tanned and healthy and living way past average life expectancy. You’ve got a defined benefit pension plan from a large company or government that was created years ago when people didn’t understand how horribly these plans can go wrong and now can’t afford to meet its liabilities, but you don’t care as long as you get your check which you don’t really need anyway. And your social security check. And your Medicare reimbursement check. You once hated the government. You smoked pot and protested against Vietnam and President Nixon. That was a long, long time ago.
Life has been good for you. You’re a baby boomer. You were born between 1946 and the early 1960’s. You had Woodstock and the Stones in the ’60s, discos and coke in the ’70s, Wall Street in the ’80s, Bill Clinton in the ’90s and now you’re retiring to Arizona and Florida on the backs of your stressed-out kids whose own children stay at home with them into their 20s because they have no jobs. Tom Brokaw once wrote a book about the greatest generation, those brave people who survived the depression and fought in World War II. Unfortunately that great generation spawned a generation of narcissists: the baby boomers.
The boomers have created liabilities that will take generations to pay off. Our national debt is now at around $17 trillion, larger for the first time in recent history than the size of our entire economy. And it’s projected to continue to significantly grow over the next few decades unless something dramatic is done to reduce it. Boomers don’t like to talk about fiscal responsibility or living within their means. They like their credit cards and government secured mortgages on overvalued properties. They enjoy their malls and their cars and their houses and as long as someone’s willing to lend them the money to buy this stuff they don’t seem to care much about how it will be one day paid. They still represent an enormous voting block and have no intention to have this lifestyle threatened. This is the real reason Washington can’t create a long-term deficit reduction plan. The boomers love their safety nets.
Trending: 11 Things You Might Not Know About Philly’s 1793 Yellow Fever Epidemic These safety nets were created over the past few decades by boomers and for boomers, with little regard to the future. One of the major reasons our national debt is so high is because 40 percent of our government’s spending goes to some type of insurance: social insurance, retirement, health benefits, Medicare, Medicaid, etc. These systems are bankrupt. But they’re needed to pay for the boomers’ healthcare and pension plans. People that were born after 1965 are working hard to make sure that the boomer generation gets their retirement and disability paid for by the government. But it’s still not enough. So our government has to borrow and print money. And our debts balloon. Who will pay these debts? Ah, who cares says the boomers. Not my problem.
They are the source of one of the biggest problems with Obamacare. Whether you support the Affordable Care Act or not (and I think there are lots of great things about it), one undeniable fact is that the cost of this new system is being put squarely on the shoulders of the young. People in their 20s need less health care than the boomers in their 60s and 70s. This is not only because younger people today have healthier lifestyles but because many boomers spent most of their young lives smoking, drinking sugary sodas and engaging in risky, unprotected sex. There are 34 million mostly young and uninsured people who will be required on January 1, 2014, to pay for health insurance just so the boomers can take advantage of the added benefits that health insurance companies have to now legally provide.
SPONSORED CONTENT Suggested: How CHOP Helped a Family and Their Baby Tackle a Rare Birth Defect They are, thank God, the last reminders of our racist, homophobic, sexist past. When you look at those “white only†diners and drinking fountains in those photos from the 1960s you just can’t believe it. Or how women were treated. And gays. But many of our beloved boomers were teenagers back then, living with parents who watched Ozzie and Harriet and were raised to believe that people who weren’t white weren’t to be trusted, women were meant to stay at home, and gays were sinners. Over time, these attitudes have changed, mainly because people in their 20s and 30s are smarter, better educated and more open-minded. Unfortunately, and although we now have a black President, the last remnants of the boomer generation who still wield power in their churches and companies are doing their best to keep women out of the corporate suite, protest against gay marriage and fight immigration reform.
We’re scrambling to fix the environment because of their excesses. For years, and despite warnings, the boomers refused to recycle and ran companies that spewed ozone-destroying chemicals into the air. There are countless plots of land that are unusable because of chemicals and pesticides dumped by this generation. I’m no environmentalist, but even I have to shake my head at the destruction laid upon the planet over the past 40 years alone: decimated forests, extinct species, smog filled skies, islands of plastic floating in the ocean. Only recently are steps being taken by younger generations to attempt to reverse this trend.
The good news is that the baby boomer generation is quickly getting older. Ten thousand boomers are retiring each day. We can’t ship them all off to an island, unfortunately. But I’m optimistic that the next generation of leaders will not make the same mistakes. Governments will take care of people who are truly needy — not just because they turned 65 and have a car payment — and this will help fix our deficit problems. Racism will continue to decline as the world becomes smaller and more social. Our environment will improve because kids in elementary school are being taught to care about the planet. Ultimately, these generations will fix the problems that the boomers created. And we can soon bid farewell to that horrible generation.
Read more at http://www.phillymag.com/news/2013/12/13/baby-boomers-worst-generation/#svLVB6LDLuTFH87c.99
Obozocare is The boomers doing. I kinds recall bozo getting a few votes from.VERY enthusiastic young people...you know...not for nothing as we say in NY.
“Also, the younger generation grew up with luxuries that we did not have, and now feel entitled.”
—
You have GOT to be kidding.
I’m from the generation before you and the Boomers had it made compared to what we had.
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We went from the Greatest Generation to the Greediest Generation.
Articles like these are just click bait. The boomers vs ? makes for some fun finger pointing between age groups, but in the end technology has the biggest impact. The boomers were in a way the last industrial age generation that got to influence and control how the information age and age of automation came into existence. Their influence was so dramatic because of their size.
As a member of the much smaller Gen-X group, I keep trying to explain to the millenials that they better get ready to take over when the boomers do retire. The Gen-X group is like a baton between two racers in a relay race. Demographics and technology will continue to dominate the future, society is not static and rapidly changes in our time. It will be hard for the boomers to let go of running things, and it will be hard for the millenials to take over and do a good job. The next 20 to 30 years are going to be critical.
Uh huh. Real think piece you just posted there, Skippy.
It doesn't really work to say that you despise a group of people in toto and expect its individual members not to conclude it applies to them personally. Certain of us tend to be sort of sensitive about that. Others just try to block out the tantrums coming from the playpen. Full diapers will do that and I've changed enough for a lifetime.
There's one thing, though. That nick of yours. You just crapped all over a lot of people who earned it. If you were worthy of it yourself you'd have apologized to them a long time ago.
The Boomers generation did not start until 1945. You had to be 21 to vote back then. Boomers could not vote until 1966, not 1963.
Social Security, Unemployment “Insurance,” Head Start, The GI Bill, Food Stamps, farm subsidies, Medicare, and all manner of social programs began LONG before the first Boomers took their first breaths on Earth.
The media talks about the gender gap. When the ground game goes door to door we find two types of women, especially boomer women.
1. One type of woman is angry...angry that they thought they could have it all and yet don’t have it all. Angry at their ex-husband, angry at their boyfriend, angry that they are in a dead-end job. They dont want a man to support them. They dont want to depend on a man.
Thus, they see the government as their safety net, their savior.
Republicans are mistaken in thinking it is all about abortion as these women are pro-abort. But abortion is just a small part of their world view where they don’t want nothing that obligates them to a man.
Their “man” of the month is more conservative than they are. But the man always votes the way his girlfriend tells him to vote as he doesn’t want any hassles.
2. The other type of woman is the woman who sees the family as the safety-net. Catholics call it subsidiarity. The nuclear family is the first level of the safety net. Then the extended family. Then the friends at church, at work, at clubs are the safety-net. Then the Salvation Army and Red Cross. Lastly local government, then state government and lastly Feds.
These women are more conservative than their husbands, brothers and men, sons.
Ok you’re right, I forgot about the age 21 voting back then.
That makes Boomers even less responsible for putting in place SS and Medicare.
In any case, the author is WRONG about which generation did that.
I’m not a Boomer but this writer is nuts.
Blaming Boomers for the following makes no sense.
From the article:
“We’re scrambling to fix the environment because of their excesses. For years, and despite warnings, the boomers refused to recycle and ran companies that spewed ozone-destroying chemicals into the air. There are countless plots of land that are unusable because of chemicals and pesticides dumped by this generation. I’m no environmentalist, but even I have to shake my head at the destruction laid upon the planet over the past 40 years alone: decimated forests, extinct species, smog filled skies, islands of plastic floating in the ocean. Only recently are steps being taken by younger generations to attempt to reverse this trend.”
That was going on long before The Boomers were born.
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The hitchhikers guide says they are “mostly harmless”.
What crock.
As far as I can tell, most major figures in government in the 1960s and early 1970s was born before that "Silent Generation." I'd include John F. Kennedy, Lyndon Johnson, Barry Goldwater, Hubert Humphrey, Eugene McCarthy, Nelson Rockefeller, Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, and every U.S. Supreme Court justice of note (Earl Warren, Felix Frankfurter, Harry Blackmun, William Brennan, and William "Zero" Douglas) among them.
The first House Speaker from the "Silent Generation" was Jim Wright of Texas, and he didn't assume that role until 1987.
Among U.S. Senators, we didn't see anyone from that generation in majority leadership roles until we had dingbats like George Mitchell and Trent Lott in the late 1980s and the 1990s.
Did it EVER occur to you that you're a product of that generation?
Just in case you're a DIM-BULB ( chances are strong that you are ) that means that without the baby boomer generation you would never have been hatched.
Don't tell me.. you don't KNOW who your parents are, or whether they were baby boomers?.. duh!
Actually, if you wee born in 1945, you were a War Baby, like one of my brothers. The Baby Boom didn’t start until 1946, so Boomer couldn’t vote until 1967.
Great riff
Here are some interesting statistics pertaining to Vietnam Veterans and Baby Boomers:
Vietnam Statistics
In case you haven’t been paying attention these past few decades after we returned from Vietnam, the clock has been ticking.
“Of the 2,709,918 Americans who served in Vietnam, less than 850,000 are estimated to be alive today, with the youngest American Vietnam veteran’s age approximated to be 54 years old.” So, if you’re alive and reading this…how does it feel to be among the last 1/3rd of all the U.S. vets who served in Vietnam?
I don’t know about you guys, but kinda gives me the chills because this is the kind of information I’m used to reading about WWII and Korean War vets.
So, the last 14 years, it seems that VN vets are dying too fast, and perhaps only a few will survive by 2015, if any. On average, 390 VN vets die a day. So, in 2,190 days from today, if you’re a live Vietnam veteran, you are lucky... in only 6 years (this was written in 2009). [2,190 days X 390/day = 854,100 total deaths and there are only 850,000 of us left as of the date this was written in 2009] These statistics were taken from a variety of sources to include: The VFW Magazine, the Public Information Office, and the HQ CP Forward Observer.
STATISTICS FOR INDIVIDUALS IN UNIFORM AND IN COUNTRY VIETNAM VETERANS:
Ø 9,087,000 military personnel served on active duty during the Vietnam Era (August 5, 1964 - May 7, 1975).
Ø 8,744,000 GIs were on active duty during the war (Aug 5, 1964-March 28, 1973).
Ø 2,709,918 Americans served in Vietnam, this number represents 9.7% of their generation.
Ø 3,403,100 (Including 514,300 offshore) personnel served in the broader Southeast Asia Theater (Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, flight crews based in Thailand, and sailors in adjacent South China Sea waters).
Ø 2,594,000 personnel served within the borders of South Vietnam (Jan. 1, 1965 - March 28, 1973). Another 50,000 men served in Vietnam between 1960 and 1964.
Ø Of the 2.6 million, between 1-1.6 million (40-60%) either fought in combat, provided close support or were at least fairly regularly exposed to enemy attack.
Ø 7,484 women (6,250 or 83.5% were nurses) served in Vietnam.
Ø Peak troop strength in Vietnam: 543,482 (April 30, 1968).
CASUALTIES:
Ø The first man to die in Vietnam was James Davis, in 1958. He was with the 509th Radio Research Station. Davis Station in Saigon was named for him.
Ø Hostile deaths: 47,378
Ø Non-hostile deaths: 10,800
Ø Total: 58,202 (Includes men formerly classified as MIA and Mayaguez casualties). Men who have subsequently died of wounds account for the changing total.
Ø 8 nurses died — 1 was KIA.
Ø 61% of the men killed were 21 or younger.
Ø 11,465 of those killed were younger than 20 years old.
Ø Of those killed, 17,539 were married. (30%)
Ø Average age of men killed: 23.1 years
Ø Total Deaths: 23.11 years
Ø Enlisted: 50,274 - 22.37 years
Ø Officers: 6,598 - 28.43 years (11.3% of all deaths)
Ø Warrants: 1,276 - 24.73 years (2.2%)
Ø E1: 525 - 20.34 years
Ø 11B MOS: 18,465 - 22.55 years
Ø Five men killed in Vietnam were only 16 years old.
Ø The oldest man killed was 62 years old.
Ø Highest state death rate: West Virginia - 84.1% (national average 58.9% for every 100,000 males in 1970).
Ø Wounded: 303,704 — 153,329 hospitalized + 150,375 injured requiring no hospital care.
Ø Severely disabled: 75,000, — 23,214: 100% disabled; 5,283 lost limbs; 1,081 sustained multiple amputations.
Ø Amputation or crippling wounds to the lower extremities were 300% higher than in WWII and 70% higher than Korea.
Ø Multiple amputations occurred at the rate of 18.4% compared to 5.7% in WWII.
Ø Missing in Action: 2,338
Ø POWs: 766 (114 died in captivity)
Ø As of January 15, 2004, there are 1,875 Americans still unaccounted for from the Vietnam War.
DRAFTEES VS. VOLUNTEERS:
Ø 25% (648,500) of total forces in country were draftees. (66% of U.S. armed forces members were drafted during WWII).
Ø Draftees accounted for 30.4% (17,725) of combat deaths in Vietnam.
Ø Reservists killed: 5,977
Ø National Guard: 6,140 served: 101 died.
Ø Total draftees (1965 - 73): 1,728,344.
Ø Actually served in Vietnam: 38% Marine Corps Draft: 42,633
Ø Last man drafted: June 30, 1973.
RACE AND ETHNIC BACKGROUND:
Ø 88.4% of the men who actually served in Vietnam were Caucasian; 10.6% (275,000) were black; 1% belonged to other races.
Ø 86.3% of the men who died in Vietnam were Caucasian (includes Hispanics).
Ø 12.5% (7,241) were black; 1.2% belonged to other races.
Ø 170,000 Hispanics served in Vietnam; 3,070 (5.2% of total) died there.
Ø 70% of enlisted men killed were of northwest European descent.
Ø 86.8% of the men who were killed as a result of hostile action were Caucasian; 12.1% (5,711) were black; 1.1% belonged to other races.
Ø 14.6% (1,530) of non-combat deaths were among blacks.
Ø 34% of blacks who enlisted volunteered for the combat arms.
Ø Overall, blacks suffered 12.5% of the deaths in Vietnam at a time when the percentage of blacks of military age was 13.5% of the total population.
Ø Religion of Dead: Protestant — 64.4%; Catholic — 28.9%; other/none — 6.7%
SOCIO-ECONOMIC STATUS:
Ø Vietnam veterans have a lower unemployment rate than the same non-vet age groups.
Ø Vietnam veterans’ personal income exceeds that of our non-veteran age group by more than 18 percent.
Ø 76% of the men sent to Vietnam were from lower middle/working class backgrounds.
Ø Three-fourths had family incomes above the poverty level; 50% were from middle income backgrounds.
Ø Some 23% of Vietnam vets had fathers with professional, managerial or technical occupations.
Ø 79% of the men who served in Vietnam had a high school education or better when they entered the military service.
Ø 63% of Korean War vets and only 45% of WWII vets had completed high school upon separation.
Ø Deaths by region per 100,000 of population: South — 31%, West —29.9%; Midwest — 28.4%; Northeast — 23.5%.
DRUG USAGE & CRIME:
Ø There is no difference in drug usage between Vietnam veterans and non-Vietnam veterans of the same age group. (Source: Veterans Administration Study)
Ø Vietnam veterans are less likely to be in prison - only one-half of one percent of Vietnam veterans have been jailed for crimes.
Ø 85% of Vietnam veterans made successful transitions to civilian life.
WINNING & LOSING:
Ø 82% of veterans who saw heavy combat strongly believe the war was lost because of lack of political will.
Ø Nearly 75% of the public agrees it was a failure of political will, not of arms.
HONORABLE SERVICE:
Ø 97% of Vietnam-era veterans were honorably discharged.
Ø 91% of actual Vietnam War veterans and 90% of those who saw heavy combat are proud to have served their country.
Ø 74% say they would serve again, even knowing the outcome.
Ø 87% of the public now holds Vietnam veterans in high esteem.
INTERESTING CENSUS STATISTICS & THOSE TO CLAIM TO HAVE “Been There”:
Ø 1,713,823 of those who served in Vietnam were still alive as of August, 1995 (census figures).
Ø During that same Census count, the number of Americans falsely claiming to have served in-country was: 9,492,958.
Ø As of the current Census taken during August, 2000, the surviving U.S. Vietnam veteran population estimate is: 1,002,511. This is hard to believe, losing nearly 711,000 between ‘95 and ‘00. That’s 390 per day.
Ø During this Census count, the number of Americans falsely claiming to have served in-country is: 13,853,027. By this census, FOUR OUT OF FIVE WHO CLAIM TO BE Vietnam vets are not. In other words, if someone you are chatting with says he/she served in Viet Nam, there is an 80% chance that they are lying.
Ø The Department of Defense Vietnam War Service Index officially provided by The War Library originally reported with errors that 2,709,918 U.S. military personnel as having served in-country. Corrections and confirmations to this erred index resulted in the addition of 358 U.S. military personnel confirmed to have served in Vietnam but not originally listed by the Department of Defense. (All names are currently on file and accessible 24/7/365).
Ø Isolated atrocities committed by American soldiers produced torrents of outrage from anti-war critics and the news media while communist atrocities were so common that they received hardly any media mention at all. The United States sought to minimize and prevent attacks on civilians while North Vietnam made attacks on civilians a centerpiece of its strategy. Americans who deliberately killed civilians received prison sentences while communists who did so received commendations.
Ø From 1957 to 1973, the National Liberation Front assassinated 36,725 Vietnamese and abducted another 58,499. The death squads focused on leaders at the village level and on anyone who improved the lives of the peasants such as medical personnel, social workers, and school teachers. - Nixon Presidential Papers.
feh, you missed a GREAT opportunity to keep yer yap shut...
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