Free Republic

“What’s the matter with Kansas?” syndrome of young people voting against their economic interests. Thus follows the constant courting of the hip and cool Beyoncé, Jay-Z, Lena Dunham, Occupy Wall Streeters, and others who blend pop culture, sex, youth, energy, and fad — almost anything to avoid the truth that today’s teenagers are starting out each owing a lifetime share of the national debt amounting to more than three-quarters of a million dollars. Those who ran up the debt enjoyed the borrowing, but won’t be around to pay back their proverbial fair share.

The past four years have witnessed a battle between different generations of Catholics in public life—Generation X Catholics have taken a very different path from Baby Boomer Catholics and those born before the boomers. Generation X Catholics have emerged prominently in the Republican Party. Many who were mentioned this year on Mitt Romney’s vice-presidential short list were Gen X Catholics—Paul Ryan, Bobby Jindal, Kelly Ayotte and Marco Rubio. They were given prominent spots at the Republican National Convention (Jindal could not attend because of Hurricane Isaac). They continue to elicit excitement as the “future” of the Republican Party and conservatism...

The Economist ominously reports: The struggle to digest the swollen generation of ageing baby-boomers threatens to strangle economic growth. As the nature and scale of the problem become clear, a showdown between the generations may be inevitable. The statistics are frightening: The average federal tax rate for a median American household, including income and payroll taxes, dropped from more than 18% in 1981 to just over 11% in 2011. Yet sensible tax reforms left less revenue for the generous benefits boomers have continued to vote themselves, such as a prescription-drug benefit paired with inadequate premiums. Deficits exploded. Erick Eschker, an...

Paul Ryan's realism about the fiscal cliff is showing signs of appealing to younger voters, a group which overwhelmingly voted for Obama, and which has been buffeted by the economy worse than most other demographic slices. The Washington Examiner reports on the latest Zogby poll: "According to Zogby the Ryan pick helped Romney with younger voters and independents, two key battleground constituencies. "Romney saw a bump in support among 18-29 year olds with 41 percent saying they would vote for the ticket of Romney and Ryan," said Zogby. "More importantly, Romney and Ryan led Obama and Biden among independent voters...

Born in 1970, Republican Vice Presidential candidate Paul Ryan is the first generation X’er to be on a national ticket. Since the 1990’s my fellow generation Xer’s have been an often overlooked group of individuals compared to the older and much larger generation of baby boomers and the World War II generation. We’ve been called slackers, baby busters, cynical, skeptical, angry and indifferent among other descriptions. However, is this really the case now? Forty percent of generation X’ers are from families whose parents divorced. Many became known as “latch key children.” The Bergen County Record reported in 1995: More than...

As the battle over gay marriage heats up in this election year, one evangelical Christian writer is calling for a truce, fearing that the outspoken opposition to gay marriage among some church leaders could alienate an entire generation of religious youth. . . . A 2011 survey by the Public Religion Research Institute shows the generation gap between young Christians and their elders is large, with 44 percent of white evangelicals aged 18-29 in support of marriage equality compared to only 12 percent of those 65 and older. According to the same survey, nearly 70 percent of young Christians also...

Though everyone seems to be feeling sorry for millennials, who are experiencing one of the highest unemployment rates and boomers, who are delaying their retirement due to the economy, the generation in between, Gen X, deserves their own time in the recession limelight. A Census report released on Monday found that people between 35 and 44 saw a 59 percent decline in median household net worth between 2005 to 2010, the largest drop of all age groups. Those 55 to 64, only saw a 25 percent drop, though they had a larger decline in actual dollar amount.

Young US households — those aged 35-to-44 — lost a stunning 59 percent of their wealth during the recession, a government report released yesterday revealed. That’s the stiffest hit of any age group, said the report from the US Census Bureau. The age group — typically struggling with mortgages, tuition bills and rising tax bills — makes up the backbone of America’s middle class. The losses were mainly due to the drop in the value of their homes during the 2005 through 2010 period, the report said

President Reagan's remarks on East-West relations at the Brandenburg Gate in West Berlin, Germany on June 12, 1987.

John T. Rogers, age 26, grew up in rural West Texas, raised by a single mother who often worked three jobs to make ends meet. He says his 59-year-old mother remains fiscally conservative, refusing to spend a dime on herself, though she now earns a respectable income. But when it comes to spending, Rogers is not following in her footsteps. "Not to knock J.C. Penney's, but I definitely wanted to step up my style," he said. Earning $46,000 a year as a communications manager for a private, non-profit university in Denver hasn't held him back. He bought a hybrid Lexus...

Why work in America?

Thanksgiving is the holiday that pulls families together, squeezing them around a table for a feast of turkey, tradition and togetherness. We encourage conversations meant to be personally relevant, but sometimes they turn into a horizontal Babel, with each generation speaking in a different tongue. It's a stretch to identify an entire generation by its tastes in fashion and music, but such tastes offer strong clues. You can separate boomers from Generation Xers and millenials by who prefers the Beatles, Michael Jackson or Lady Gaga. Seniors who came of age during World War II still groove on Glenn Miller and...

A number of student organizers in the US have unveiled what they call an 'Occupy Student Debt' campaign, urging borrowers across the country to default on their college loans. The campaign was made public Monday afternoon in New York's Zuccotti Park, where the national Occupy Wall Street (OWS) movement emerged, the Huffington Post reported. “Since the first days of the Occupy movement, the agony of student debt has been a constant refrain,” said Andrew Ross, a professor at New York University and an active OWS member, while addressing a crowd in the park “We've heard the harrowing personal testimony...

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...

Generation Y is more likely than older generations to support clean energy and environmental protection and to believe climate change is happening and is caused by human activity, according to new Pew polling and analysis. Generation X is close behind. Boomers aren't so bad either. It's the old folks, the so-called Silent Generation aged 66-83, that are the big problem. There's long been talk about how gay rights will continue to advance as homophobic old codgers die off. Looks like the push for a cleaner, greener society will get a boost from that same cohort replacement effect.

Will Baby Boomers be the last generation to enjoy the modern concept of a leisure-filled retirement? It's a worthy question to ponder in light of a new Pew Research Center report showing a growing wealth gap between young and old in the United States. Using government data over the last 25 years, Pew found that households headed by those over 65 have made "dramatic gains" in economic well-being, while those headed by younger adults have fallen steadily behind. In 2009, elderly households possessed 42 percent more median net worth than their same-age counterparts had in 1984. Young adults veered in...

NEW YORK -- In Tiffany Spaulding's 12 years in the pharmaceutical industry, she has worked for three companies, two of which no longer exist, and relocated to four states. Now 39 and living in Brookfield, Conn., she hasn't had a promotion in five years and says she sees no chance to advance, stuck behind a wall of baby boomers. She would quit and turn her hobby of jewelry design into a business, she says, if not for the home and school loans that eat up half her salary. Spaulding, according to a new report, is a typical member of the...

chicagotribune.com Generation Vexed: Young Americans rein in their dreams Amid so much economic uncertainty, many are rethinking career plans, putting off marriage and avoiding the stock market like the plague. By Tiffany Hsu and Shan Li August 14, 2011 Alicia Thomas, 20, had it all planned out: career at a nonprofit, married by 24, mortgage by 26. Then financial markets went on a wild roller-coaster ride, portending that high unemployment and the stalled economy won't be rebounding any time soon. "I don't want to invest in something I can't afford, given the economy breaking down," said Thomas, who is majoring...

Generation Xers and Gen-Yers like me have a hard time showing interest in what goes on in Washington. But we had better end our apathy -- and soon -- or we'll spend the rest of our lives paying for it. Members of the generation that came before us -- the Baby Boomers -- are trying to pull a scam under the guise of "protecting" Social Security. If they succeed, we -- and our children -- will be the poorer for it. Everyone knows Social Security is in trouble (and President Bush's Commission to Strengthen Social Security released its report on...

Richard Ben Kramer’s seminal work on running for the presidency, What It Takes, introduced the idea of the ‘looking in the mirror’ moment. It was the second when an individual awoke, looked themselves in the eye, and decided that running the rigorous gauntlet of a campaign was worth it. I believe we as a country, and more specifically those of us in the Gen X cohort, are looking in the mirror today. The question facing us is essentially the same: do we have what it takes? Folks should be forgiven for asking, “For God’s sake, what’s next?” For any number...