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
1) We didn't buy into socialist insecurity and the rest of that lot. Money was taken from our paychecks, at gunpoint and without our consent.
2) No good faith was involved. The government has lied about the nature of socialist insecurity and similar programs from the beginning, when Congress first considered them.
3) Yes, a big chunk of our earnings was taken at gunpoint to support these programs, and it has all been spent.
Yes. I am sure you are correct. You obviously share none of the positive attributes of your cohort.
And “someone’s” parents FAILED to teach grammar to your generation.
its not the same thing
In your case you pay half and your employer matches
If you are a sole proprietorship or sole owner of an LLC like me
You pay both halves
Roughly 20,000 year end year out as a self employment tax
Double what a max earner for someone else pays from their pocket
Great Scott!!! I wouldn’t want to be either of those people.
How old are you? Inquiring minds want to know. Are you younger than baby boomer age, or older? It would just help to put things into perspective for us scum-of-the-earth baby boomers.
Charles Ponzi: Imprisoned (federal and state), then deported.
I can think of any number of politicians who deserve prison. Hildebeeste is only the beginning.
I think the pipsqueak writer should note that North America is an Island. If they don't like it on our island, GTFO.
Cry about boomers getting social security and medicare, but we're the first generation to pay into those programs our entire lives. We aren't all rich, by any means. I spent my retirement fund raising kids and grandkids whose parents didn't bother. Selfish? I wouldn't say so.
We're the ones who cleaned up environmental messes going back a couple of centuries, because we were the ones who recognized there was a problem. Nope, not hippies or drug users, but firemen, construction workers, oilfield hands, dockworkers, steel fitters, carpenters, commercial fishermen, farmers, ranchers, scientists and doctors, who at least had the presence of mind to KNOW we stood on the shoulders of giants, who made our progress possible.
So while y'all twitter and facebook how wonderful you are and how bad we are, remember who moved the ball downfield from vacuum tubes to the gadget you hold in your hand.
Ungrateful snots. Maybe we should just burn the books and pull the plug and let you start from scratch.
My lack of positive attributes is undeniable. As wretched as I am, though, the mountebanks, scalawags, and fraudsters known collectively as “sociologists” are far worse. I make things, build things, design things that people actually want. They string together words and numbers into books and articles that don’t even rise to the level of worthlessness. The output of the entire ‘profession’ of sociology has negative value: it is actively damaging to the body politic.
And ...?
Who pays corporate income taxes? The customer, of course. It's just another expense that gets passed on in the price of goods and services.
Who pays payroll taxes? The employee, of course. It's just part of the total cost of hiring him.
The difference between you and me is that you see the cost directly, I only see it if I know where to look.
“These kids are cowards”
I couldn’t figure out if DBD1 is a kid, or a pre-boomer old guy. I guess both generations hate us boomers.
While every generation since and including the one which voted in FDR has been terrible, millenials are the absolute worst. If someone could be so kind as to create a virus which only kills millenials, our nation might have a reasonable chance of surviving past 2050.
A lot of people did “buy in” to the plan.
They thought it would work.
They though it was a good idea.
What I am saying is that people didn’t get onboard with the express intention of fleecing future generations (as the author of the article seems think).
Yes, many people didn’t like it from the get go. But even among those that did, I don’t think they had evil intentions. They were just wrong. The author’s generation is going to have done wrong things too.
They were lied to.
Sounds like your ex-wife, or her new husband is a sociologist! Ha ha.
How about Anthropology?
By the way, I make stuff too. If people did not want it, I would not eat.
Sounds like you’re a sociologist, boy, and you don’t like an honest description of your “profession”.
Either way he's a troll to drop this steaming pile and not have the decency to return and comment.
Actually I am a photographer. And wood carver.
I just like kicking the ant hill once in a while. I don’t think I know any sociologists. Not really sure why you would hate the so. That’s not healthy.
That's nice. I'm an engineer.
And I don't hate sociologists. I hold their "profession" in contempt. There's a difference.
Oohs. An engineer....
A more banal profession could not possibly exist. Probably get together with your buddies and solve problems on your slide rules?
I guess it answers why you act like a condescending ass hole.
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