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
In fairness, I think Code Toad is one of us BBers who
was addressing Death Before Dishonor.
Later
Your post is amusing. The reason is that you are correct in passing the blame onto the generation prior to the boomers. But you are missing something: there is an entire generation born from 1924-1944 who did not (generally) participate in WWII. But they had to deal with the depression as very young children. This is called the Silent Generation.
They are the children of WWI vets. They were Korean War vets. They liked IKE and JFK. That is the group that was generally in charge of government and business from the mid sixties to the mid eighties. Their most well known people were MLK, Neil Armstrong, etc. many fought in Vietnam Nam. They are the ONLY generation in American History not to elect a President. That tells you how ineffective and weak they are.
These things go in four gen cycles. The Millenials are the start of another cycle. Those in the first cycle are the “heroes” who deal with economic hardship and major wars: the Revolution, The Civil War, WWII, etc. they are responsible for hardships and significant upheaval.
For everything there is a season.
It was the Boomers who went to Vietnam that were betrayed by those of “The Greatest Generation”. We would never know real victory again.
Oops you are right! I posted a lot of articles today and now I’ve gotten mixed up which ones I posted.
However, my point still stands. You could just politely notify the original poster that he/she left off the author and I bet they would get a moderator to add the information.
Generalize much? There are losers in every generation. And it sometimes seems like the percentage of losers goes up a little each generation....
Anything using generational terms to describe behavior is sociology. And that is a demographic term...not a social worker” or “socialist.” It is the study of interactive and environmental behavior between and amongst people of common cohorts.
I like boomers, but its simply a fact that all the entitlements they’ve voted for themselves are going to bankrupt me, and the country.
Actually, we have several defined benefit pensions from defense contractors, so that is not a generalization one can make. However, you other points are valid. What did America in is when the “Greatest Generation” let the leftists get away with taking God out of the Public Square. By not reversing the 1963 School Prayer decision with a Constitutional Amendment, the “Greatest Generation” started us Slouching Towards Gomorrah.
The name has been added. I was just using the oversight of the original poster to subtly address the very well known perception of younger Americans as “slackers,” as one of them gleefully points the finger of blame for all of the world’s ills at the members of my generation.
They were betrayed by the Silent Gen.
These were the younger members of the LBJ and Nixon administration. Think about the d-bags in the movie Animal House. Those guys were not boomers. They were the tail end of the Silents. They always new the Pax Americana world. They thought they could do anything and the prosperity would grow forever.
Writing “Boomers suck” is sociology? Well okay then. But you don’t really expect to be taken seriously, do you?
This is the problem with HUGE government run systems like Medicare, SS, Medicaid etc. Once they get started they are very hard to get rid of. Especially if you REQUIRE people to pay into them.
The best thing to do now is to slowly wind them down and then don’t start any more of them.
Most people who are in the system now did not start the system and, though they use it, they don’t understand the unsustainable nature of it. IOW they use it in good faith, not understanding that it is a bankrupt unsustainable system. They were lied to by the people who set it up.
In any case, it may fail on its own and then the problem will be solved ... unless we start more HUGE government programs of a similar nature.
Hussein has been leading from behind for nearly two terms. It’s like Rush says, Hussein cant be seen to be in charge of anything or else he’d have to be accountable. You drank the koolaid and now you want to blame someone other than the person who is responsible. Epic fail on your part.
You were robbed by the government. The government gave that money to your grandparents. Now you rob your children via the government because youre mad at your grandparents. The people that robbed you are dead and gone. Stop robbing your children.
Screw you and the article’s author
The wife and I are Boomers...and proud of it. While we’re not rich, we’re comfortable. We’ve worked hard and achieved quite a bit in life. The only debt we have is a mortgage...and, at 3.375%, we have no interest in paying it off...even though we could Monday morning. We have two hard-working, high-achieving kids. When the wife and I leave this world, we’ll leave a nice nest egg for the kids. I have every confidence they’ll handle it responsibly. We respected our parents and took care of them as they aged and passed on. I’m comfortable my kid’s will make the same effort.
Oh...to the original poster...if you’re going to start a thread, use the correct article title and publication date (Baby Boomers: Five Reasons They Are Our Worst Generation, DECEMBER 13, 2013.
I despise humans. No offense, nothing personal. Just despise all of humanity.
Which entitlements, exactly, did Boomers vote for themselves? Can you name them?
The Social Security Act was signed into law by President Roosevelt on August 14, 1935
Medicare was signed into law in 1965 which means it was winding is way through Congress for several years before that ... by people who were voted into office much earlier than 1963 when the oldest boomer could vote.
The largest chunk of Boomers are not even retirement age yet. The media has successfully convinced people that Boomers are all older retired people. The vast majority of Boomers are still under age 65!
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