The ‘Me Generation’: A Generation of Thieves
by Evan SayetMy generation – the “Me Generation” – and those like us have stolen every last penny from our parent’s savings accounts (Social Security). We’ve used that money to make ourselves appear successful and to vote ourselves more and more things we claimed to be “entitled” to.
When that money ran out, those of us who followed the mantra we were taught in the Leftist run public schools, “If it feels good, do it,” simply stole our children’s money, mortgaging their future for our personal comforts. We’ve borrowed so much against their account that the numbers now are written in trillions – with each child born burdened with tens of thousands of dollars in debt – money we spent on ourselves — the moment they enter the world.
Now, with no more to steal from our parents or our children, many of us are demanding that we receive deeply discounted health-care services. It’s something, we argue that we’re entitled to (for no other reason than that we’ve graced the world with our presence. )
The problem is that, forcing insurance companies to write bad policies – to take in in premiums far less than what they’ll have to dole out for the aging Boomers’ growing medical conditions – is untenable. In fact, it is exactly the same formula these same Leftists used to force banks to make bad loans because they felt that everyone of their generation was “entitled” to own a house.
But the Boomers have a plan!
Their scheme is simple – if they can force their grandchildren to pay for premiums for services they don’t want, don’t need and won’t use for decades, that money can then be used by the insurance companies to subsidize the cost of insurance to the aging Boomers. In effect, the grandchildren will be paying for their irresponsible grandparents’ while themselves being deprived of the money they would otherwise use to further their education, start a business or make a down payment on their first home (if they can get a loan from the banks their grandparents destroyed. )
Make no mistake about it, this generation is a generation of thieves and the people who stole their parents and their children’s money to make their own lives cushier are at it again. This time the target is their grandchildren.
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115 Comments
A decline in population is imminent, so lets just save time and tax our ancestors too, see I've more than increased the tax base, it's all their fault anyway.
As a baby boomer, among other things I did right, was to pay (100%) for the college educations of two children, save as I worked (so did my wife) and retire with no change in lifestyle at age 62. My wife and I did this by living within our means and using credit very wisely. The only debt we have now is our house and we could pay that off from our investments account but have decided not to.
Yes, baby boomers have a plan: to live responsibly and leave no debt for our children. If you need "someone" to blame, go pick on congress. After all, we have the enormous national debt because of their irresponsible actions. But then we put the turkeys in office so it may well be our fault. But again, my wife and I did it right and many other baby boomers have also. Age does bring wisdom … if you live long enough. Too bad the "gemme" generation are so lost in what they feel they deserve as opposed to what they need to actually work for.
It's not the "boomers," as a generation, it's the illiberal philosophy of more than 100 years of trying to get Socialism to work. It's just that while the industrious were out building prosperity, the footling dilettantes we call politicians were organizing the easily-led and easily-fed mewling class into an army of parasites.
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It's not the "boomers," as a generation, it's the illiberal philosophy of more than 100 years of trying to get Socialism to work. It's just that while the industrious were out building prosperity, the footling dilettantes we call politicians were organizing the easily-led and easily-fed mewling class into an army of parasites.
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A sense of entitlement is, by far, the most wide-spread anti-social personality disorder in the world today.
A baby is born helpless, and as such, is naught but a bundle of well-deserved demands and entitlement. As that child grows they lose their claim to others uncompensated time, bit by bit, until they enter adulthood — a time of zero entitlement. In fact, if one feels entitled, one cannot be considered an adult at all.
We live in a time ruled by the Politics of Mewling.
Would any of you give up Social Security? Would anyone forgo Medicare? How about Disability Payments, which I am on? How about Unemployment Compensation? We have all paid into the system but it was always a ponzi scheme from the beginning. The benifits I now recieve from Disability and Medicare were not paid for by my lifetime of contributions. The payments I made were used for the outalys at the time the payments were made. There were surpluses but the Govt. spent those surpluses and wrote an IOU. The trouble is the Govt. never pays up on the IOU's.
Yes we have a plethera of Govt. programs and most are either out of control, inneffective, or just plain wrong. Getting the Govt. to change thier ways is akin to trying to stop continental drift. We are all at fault because we elected the very politicians who created this mess. We only get the Govt. we deserve. If we ant better Govt. we need to change the entire permanent political culture. Vote the Bums out, all of them. There can be no keeping the good ones. Everyone thinks congress is bad but they also think thier own Congressman or Senator is OK. It is always the other guy. The permanent political culture is the problem. The system is broken. The only possible fix is to destroy completely that self serving political subculture that only has its' own self interest at heart.
Vote All the Bums OUt. Keep repeating this for about 12 to 20 years and the problems will self correct. If We the People do not take control by this last and best mechanism control of our own destinies, such as it is, will be forever lost with no hope. We have very little time. I do not care if you vote for a Democrat, Republican, Independent or whatever just vote for somebody who isn't there and never has been.
If only you represented 'baby boomers at large' we wouldn't be in this mess.
'We've' raised consecutive me-generations. Individual freedoms, which come with responsibilities and risks/rewards, are being replaced by a contraction of choice, so politicians and leftist ideologues can consolidate their power. Congress, elected by voters, hand us what we asked for through our votes. But just as the economic meltdown has many players, including over-extended consumers along with derivative-bankers, this govt is indicative of wide-spread folly.
So we should let everyone else in your generation off the hook because you live responsibly? While I agree there are problems with blaming generations for anything, asking people to assume that all Baby Boomers are living responsibly and leaving no debt for their children because that's how you live is like asking people to assume that all Baby Boomers in prison are innocent because you've never committed a serious crime yourself. The logic just does not follow. I suppose I should add that the Baby Boomers didn't create themselves. They were created by The Greatest Generation who tried to shield their children from the hardships of their own youth during The Great Depression and WW2. And the younger "gemme" generation didn't create themselves, either. They were created by the Baby Boomers who felt that childhood should be for play, perhaps well into a "child's" 20s or 30s, because they enjoyed their own youth so much and regret that it ever ended, so now parents pay tens if not hundreds of thousands of dollars to put their children through college instead of expecting them to pay some or all of the bill themselves. The problem, which you touch on, is that so few people learn much wisdom until they get into their 40s, 50s, or even 60s because they are sheltered from reality for so long by their parents who pay for their college, let them live at home after college, catch them when they get divorced, leave them money to pay their debts, etc. It's not surprising that people who always live life with a safety net never learn that making mistakes can get you hurt.
Nice article!! However, it seems to have touched the sensitivities of some. I don't take your article as one directed as specific individuals who may have been responsible, but rather directed at an entire generation that has not been responsible.
The fact is all of voting age are responsible for the condition the nation is in. The national debt has rocketed skywards for decades and the electorate has allowed it. They found other government actions worthy of a massive debt. They played a role in that debt every time they pulled a lever for a congressman or president.
Governments worldwide derive their power from the people. The power is either given via activism or via apathy. One having empowered the government vi apathy has no right to wring their hands and say they played no part in the outcome.
Social Security as a "savings account" is a myth, because Social Security itself was a scheme to borrow money from future generations. The reality is that there isn't a big pile of social security savings sitting somwhere in "an ironclad lockbox," as Al Gore liked to say – all of the revenue from social security taxes each year is spent immediately.
Great article that brings to mind what James Madison meant when he said…..Each generation should be made to bear the burden of its wars, instead of carrying them on, at the expense of other generations.
Speak for yourself. I'm from the "Blank Generation" that graduated into the horror that was the Carter Administration. Today's kids would be "Blank Generation II: The Misery Continues." Heaven help them. And oh, yeah, I blame the '60s and the overabundance of narcissistic, fashionably Left teens it unleashed on the world, who then infected every level of education and entertainment and paved the way for the narcissistic, fashionably Left teens of today. I'm from the '70s. It's hard to be a narcissist when nobody cares about you.
Nah, It's YOUR generation. Perhaps not you directly, and congratulations on not burdening us any further. You boomers (as a class) lived like assholes when you were younger: Free drugs and no chauffeurs, yet now want US to pay for your live now attitudes. Your generation has been the WORST for the nation and the WORST for you own children. Gimme Gimme Gimme was your legacy and now those of you who wormed yourselves into government are holding everyone to account. Thanks a million.
That exactly the problem. We let these programs get passed in congress and NEVER have the balls to reverse the tide when we see how much they REALLY cost. Of course, I'm willing to scrap EVERY program you mention and start fresh. There used to be safety nets through family, church and community, but the Boomers saw a better way through government, now we're all screwed. The programs you mention are not rights, but government paola to placate the weak the dim and the lowest common denominator. While were at it, lets turn these gifts to the great wave of illegal immigrants washing over the land…oh wait…
Yeah, we're screwed.
One more thing. Do you realize how selfish your answer above is? Pure stereotypical Boomer. Hey I didn't live that way, I did it right, me, me me…
Many of us have done that, and acted as responsible citizens. Many others have not, living off their credit cards, and the equity in their homes, the homes acquired with the help of congress, who wrote laws that all men must have a home irregardless of ability to pay. It was congress who ignored the unfunded Medicare liability, and who spends like drunkin sailors, never being held accountable for their irresponsibility.
It is the likes of Pelosi, Reid, Frank, Dodd, and countless others like them that are to blame. And congress, is at it again, being championed by a boy king president with nothing to guide him but his mixed race prejudices and as a youth being mentored by subversives and communists.
[...] Me Me By quikhit Evan Sayet writes an interesting piece on Big Hollywood The ‘Me Generation’: A Generation of Thieves. This is a well thought-out, rapid and savage indictment of our parents selfish generation. [...]
give it up?, that won't even be a choice. It will never be offered.
I'm resigned to working until I'm 70+. And quite honsetly that is the way it should be. Retirement and enjoying it are new ideas. Social security was never meant to be paid to so many. People were supposed to die before getting it.
it may seem harsh but some of us live about as long after paying in as we did paying in.
Evan, this is a subject that I've been debating with myself and my parents for YEARS…
I was born on Cary Grant's birthday in 1966, making me one of the first "Gen X'ers." I was brought into this world by two formerly bleeding-heart liberals, who are now staunch conservatives. My father, who has become something of a blind disciple of Rush Limbaugh, divorced my mother, who fancies herself something of a Goldwater Conservative and aficionado of Ayn Rand's Objectivism, when I was 7 years old.
As a result of shuttling back and forth between these two people for most of my childhood, I was an observer to their increasing disillusionment with the post-60's liberal establishment, and the ridiculously infantile self-absorption of their contemporaries. Along the way, I was fortunate enough to be given the intellectual freedom to form my own worldview, and am today quite satisfied with the outcome.
Having said that, I am inclined to agree with you; the Boomers have historically made everything about THEM at the expense of US. They were given everything by their parents, and in turn spit upon the sacrifices that were made to make that sense of entitlement possible. Today, they're singularly convinced that their delusions of moral superiority and omniscience places them in the position to thrust their decisions down our collective throats, regardless of our protests to the contrary. The Boomers, having spent decades looting and pillaging for the sake of their own desires, are now beginning to retire, and are soon to become the largest group of non-contributing recipients of handouts in human history. They took what they wanted, ensured that such would continue once they retired, and are now laying it at the feet of their children, a great number of whom never survived post-Roe v. Wade. While I personally find abortion abhorrent, I have never been the sort to point out the splinter in another's eye, given the plank that has always been in mine. However, I find it somewhat ironic that the Boomers, in asserting "a woman's right to choose," have effectively killed off a great number of the offspring who may have been able to ensure the continuation of their entitlements.
If nothing else, the Boomers are singularly responsible for the ideological civil war this country finds itself in. A great many Boomers have strayed off the reservation and find themselves at odds with the very same people they found themselves huddled next to in the rain at Woodstock. Coupled with the increasing number of veteran senior citizens who've finally been roused from their apathy and the great many Gen X'ers who now see the writing on the wall, the majority of Boomers are now being seen for what they are…a virus with shoes.
Thanks to the late, great Bill Hicks for the apt description.
Hey-I paid into the system(Medicare) for 44years-now you want to change the rules-give me back the 60 years of taxes-I also paid the employee portion and employer portion-(we were a small mom and pop store-also personal income tax and bisness income tax-and raised 4 children-
Ahhh… Evan, the burgeoning egalitarian utopia promised so many years ago is here. What blows me away is how so many didn’t grow out of the ‘60s -‘70s gobbledy-gook, and worse we’ve allowed this radical group of spoiled brats to gain the reins of power, what the hell did we expect? …duh! As a member of the I, me, mine generation it’s incumbent upon us to identify the truth for our kids, and grandchildren, and send the ‘60s and ‘70s back into the “Purple Haze” from whence it came.
Everything you said is true of me and my husband and I resent being constantly lumped in with a bunch of lazy, self-involved snots who managed to convince others like them to vote in insanity while the rest of us were working.
Precisely. The feds have been robbing me since I was 15 years old and I can't see any reason why I shouldn't expect them to give it back to me.
OH Yeah this whole Health Care reform is about locking young people into the same Ponzi scheme which was used to steal our Social Security money.
It may work because the young don't vote, they are easily decieved with Socialist nonsense because they have yet to get hammered with taxes, and still think Obama's "cool" because he has melodic name.
so am I getting it right?:
WWII surviors wanted to shelter and protect thier kids so much (hold on to the death the things that you cherish) that they provided for their every desire. Is simple life lead these kids to think everything was and should be easy. So by winning the war we ultimately will lose the country? man what a downer.
but some of the policies that we have Social Secuirty were imposed before WWII. I don't think we can blame it all on the boomers. We can trace alot of it back to depression. How is it that the depression era children grew up to fight WWII, and the Boomer kids went to Nam, that the two wars had such dramaticly different outcomes for the nation?
the government made promises it will not be able to keep. Plain and simple.
Sacrifices will have to be made. Upon whose backs will it be? The working class.
We will have to work well in to our seventies, contribute more and recieve less than ever intended. You might as well get used to disappointment.
Hey, at least you have a choice about whether to take the money or not … My husband and I will be screwed. As two people in our 30s, there is likely no chance that those same security blankets will exist for us by the time it might be nice to have them.
The giant Ponzi scheme known as "entitlements" has left this nation morally and fiscally bankrupt and we have no one to blame but ourselves. The chickens haven't come home to roost; they brought all their dysfunctional friends, baggage in tow and have grown fat and insolent, refusing to budge, citing "rights" to whatever to keep the gravy train going. And our public servants, in a quid pro quo, aid and abet this abomination to keep in office, securing for themselves as well. We have become a nation of panhandlers, pickpockets and petty thieves. What to do? Start with telling the "elected" officials "NO, and get your hand out of my pocket!"
The ones who want those "deeply discounted health-care services" are the ones who don't work in the first place. The ones who don't pay taxes, the ones who collect welfare, the ones who suck the system dry EVERY chance they get, the ones I love to hate.
Unfortunately there is now a Generation Me 2.0. From quite a few conversations, I can say that many of the young people today are just as greedy, grasping and nonappreciative of the ideals that this country was founded upon. Way too many do not understand how those ideals, if followed, would allow them to maximize their potential and enjoy an overall greater standard of living than anyone in the world. Many are content with doing the bare minimum in life and seem to expect that as they enjoy endless summer days, their needs should be taken care of by someone else. They speak approvingly of socialism and criticize the older generation for mindlessly following the free market philosophy. It is going to be a long, hard road back.
many take the stance of "Good enough is good enough" but that is why i worry about the government being incharge of everything. I want better than good enough. Am I greedy, yeah. But I want to maximize my potential. Will I be a Billionaire? probably not, but I can still dream and try.
If you have no aspirations because someone has withheld knowledge from you and you know nothing better, that is the ultimate slavery.
JSBurke, I'm sorry to say I think you are all too correct..
I'm working on a hypothesis to take my dog Wolfgang's savings.
I just need to figure out how to start a commodity exchange for bones, chewed up dog toys, and really slimy tennis balls.
I'm doing my part to break the cycle. My daughter either works or she gets no allowance. And she knows it.
Um, maybe because you WERE robbed. You aren't going to get it back. Neither is Elaine, neither am I. The real crime as that Madoff went to prison for running this scam, but congress is still in session.
Gee, let's let the government run health insurance too! They're SO much more honest and trustworthy than the insurance companies, after all.
As an official baby boomer – by 41 days – I apologize for the actions of the rest of the a-holes.
But it's not all of us. I paid off my house in 12 years. My truck has been paid off for 7, I've got money in the bank.
Going through a bankruptcy as a kid sets a certain perspective on "things."
You sound like a libertarian!
Sounds like another libertarian!
That's at least three of us and that makes us an official movement!
Those security blankets never really existed in the first place. You won't be missing anything. Social security was designed to cover the 6 months or so between retirement and death.
They were nothing but lies used by politicians to get themselves elected.
Eh? I'm not sure I'm a anything except a citizen and patriot, informed and concerned for my fellow countrymen.
I'm not going to knit pick here, but I think if you take a longer look at history, human civilization has been having this inter generational battle going on, basically for ever.
Look what Abraham had to go through just to Isaac to move out of the house?
No, you blame it on the statists who are absolutely convinced they can make socialism work if they can only find the right dear leader.
Boomers didn't invent that, it's been going on since the beginning of society. Though they no doubt want to take credit for it.
I have met a lot of responsible boomers, but I was also raised by a pair who figured that after they blew all their money it was time to pillage their kids' accounts. They took my brother for $100k and then looked at me and basically said "you're next in line!" They didn't take it kindly when I said no way to bankrupting my family. I wish all boomers were like you. Our whole country would be better off if they were.
I'm with you! I don't have a tri-corner hat or a musket (not really into guns) but I do have a pitch fork!
Let not your hart be troubled!
My daughter is 16, and the friends she hangs with give me hope for the future. They really are good kids, working, going to school, building their own future.
Well, the Boomers haven't worked this plan out fully. It will be the Boomers who first face the Death Panels. And yes, I know their won't be actual panels. No board to make your subjective plea. Just protocols that decide you're to old or have unsavory habits for treatment.
Of course the greatest thieves are the ones born just before the Boomers. Who were children during WWII. They were the rallying radicals in '68. They've gotten the most out of the system. They are the ones now facing their mortality with a regret of not founding their socialist utopia. Hidden by the following wave of Boomers, they've worked insidiously to destroy the countries their parents built.
Don't believe me, all the big named '60s radicals were born from about '36-'41, not from '45 onward.
1) I've paid into Social Security and Medicare for my entire working life.
2) If that money, with the employer matching funds were invested in interest bearing accounts then I'd have well over $500,000 sitting in an account right now.
3) If I drew on that $500,000 at 5% a year, which should be substainable in an income generating account, then I would end up with $25,000 a year or over $2000/month. That is more than I will, or anyone will draw from Social security
4) That would leave the $500,000 untouched as a legacy to pass on to my children.
So if you want to blame anyone blame the thieves in Washington, aka the Democrats which controlled congress for most of my working life. Not me.
Ed, I'll be the first to admit when I might be mistaken, and I think that may be the case here…
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Clyde, John Schau. John Schau said: RT madconservative The ‘Me Generation’: A Generation of Thieves http://bit.ly/B5X7w [...]
That's exactly why you sound like a libertarian to me!
If you haven't checked it out already, give Reason.com a view.
http://reason.com/
The Boomers weren't the first to clamor for entitlements–a lot of their parents voted for Roosevelt four times over–but too many apples in that barrel turned narcissism to an art form. These kids lived on average far better than any previous generation of Americans. Most childhood diseases were eradicated. They had relatively idyllic lives in burgeoning suburbias instead of having to drop out of school in the 8th grade to go toil in the factory. The popular culture slowly swung from catering to adults to catering to the youth. More Boomers went to college than any previous generation.
The problem was a generation too sheltered from the harsh realities of life wanted to keep living a life of pleasure. Drugs were once an underground problem. The Boomers made it a middle class way of life. Many Boomers rejected marriage and embraced "free love." The result were broken homes, AIDS and other veneral disease epidemics that were once limited to people who associated with prostitutes, and 48 million dead babies. Now we see middle schoolers sending pictures of their boobies on their cell phones or young people addicted to porn and wonder what happened.
Thank you Ed. I know there are a lot of young people out there like your daughter and her friends; I have a young niece with two young children who has become very active in promoting conservative values. But it is still going to be a long road back to greatness and prosperity, with many setbacks, and it will take a lot of hard work for all who still believe in American ideals.
I'm not even planning on receiving Social Security or Medicare when I retire (granted, a good forty or fifty years down the road), not so much because I don't want it but because I don't expect it to be around by then. I am fully convinced that at some point in my lifetime, the bill for all this is going to come due and everyone in my generation will get royally screwed. I only hope I have more integrity and frugality than most people my age and worry about taking care of myself rather than demanding handouts from the government or whoever.
People today in their teens and twenties do not have a philosophy–not even the shadow of one. If you even tried to talk to them about the history of Marxism, socialism, the welfare state etc., they'd look at you with a completely blank look on their face. Trying to explain to them why Obama's policies are bad for the nation is like trying to explain nuclear physics to a dog. There are exceptions, to be sure, but the overwhelming majority are more concerned about the newest VH1 series or who just got kicked off "Big Brother 148" than about the national debt or the war in Afghanistan. That's a pretty harsh summation, but being a part of this demographic, I feel it's a fairly accurate one.
I found that pretending to throw the ball and placeing it behind the back works best, sure they sniff and look around awhile, but they forget what they were doing and then lick their genitals, which takes away your guilt because dogs are so lucky to be flexible why should they have extra stuff. Also it's a bone standard in financing, artificially high in 2008, but fell through after the election, some say it's Bush's fault. The real bones are in cat toys.
Wolfgang already has a cat toy, his name is Max, and he's a Persian long hair, and I do mean long hair.
Interesting you should mention licking genitals. He was supposed to go to the vets today and have that 'taken care of,' but last night my wife got cold feet, and now wants to breed him at least once. One of our best friends was egging her on, because he wants pick of the litter.
Speaking of which, anyone interested in hiring an AKC registered German Shepherd for stud?
Warning, he's very large. He's also very smart, and extremely lovable. Did I mention big?
ageliaus…Perhaps you are taking this perspective a little too personally.
I completely concur with Mr. Sayet's provocation. As everyone tries to explain away the financial crisis – as if to confuse rather than enlighten a reader – one very very simple culprit stands head and shoulders above the rest. The Housing ATM and the LIAR LOAN became the leverage the baby boomers needed to act like a bunch of spoiled rotten, drunk socialites. And it wasn't enough for them to 'one up' the next baby boomer they had to drag their kids into the fray. (The foundation for the Paris Hilton Deranged Syndrome) Ever wonder how much money was pissed away to the bimbos swinging on the brass pole? Who then in turn pissed it away on make-up and drugs?
LIAR LOANS. Ahhhhh the Liar Loans. Who wasn't in on it? Since 1999 the seeds were sown for where we are today. The mortgage "public option" – now "competitive option?" – was Fannie and Freddie. Boy. It was some criminal enterprise until the music stopped. And those that "managed" Fannie and Freddie knew damn well the music was going to stop. That is why they all (Raines, Gorelick, Emanuel et al) jumped off the ship safely before the 2006 Gang squashed mortgage reform.
Who is the 2006 Gang? Well Barney Frank is the rodeo clown. And who was working behind the scenes to get Frank's co-conspirators in positions of power (Read: Congress)? Team Soros and the Acorn Imbeciles and Big Union. Many RNCers had their hand in the cookie jar to so let's be clear about that.
Goldman Sachs probably couldn't imagine how cheaply they could buy Congress and how far they would be able to ride the LIAR LOAN scheme. A casual drive from the S.F. Valley all the way down into North County San Diego in December 2006 and the manifestations of the LIAR LOAN scheme were there to see with the naked eye.
"Hummers For Housekeepers" was one program they preferred to maintain anonymously.
Mr. Sayet. The good news for the baby boomers is that those who perpetrated the (still to be resolved) crisis are the ones entrusted with 'fixing' it. The bad news? Just ask your great great grandchildren. Their popular nursery rhyme won't be about Humpty Dumpty. It will be all about the LIARS LOANS, The THIEVES and the Spoiled Rotten Brats.
We must have a fresh start. Throw the bums out of Congress 2010.
How about the old people and Medicare now? Or social security? There's plenty of blame to go around. Try to change (shrink) either one. Truth is politicians of both parties have bought their offices by giving way the future's money.
Unfortunately the "grandchildren" who will bear the burdens are also startlingly filled with a sense of entitlement. There is no "to whom much is given, much is expected" anymore. I cannot see these children bearing anyone else's load since they cannot seem to manage their own. I speak in generalities of course.
Most know what happens when everyone has their hand out and there is no one to fill it. Politicians want their subject beholden slaves . The "freebies" are a form of graft – but the "freebies" are neither free or to our advantage.
I am with you. Self reliance and ingenuity or quashed by government. They know better than you and they will do anything including running our country into the ground under the burden of debt to keep their power.
I think our country might be in better shape if we could pay back those who put in then disband this sinkhole we call entitlements.
Their plan now is to rely on immigration (legal and otherwise). They are turning a blind eye to the burdensome load those folks put on other social services. They want you to ignore that part.
Also that revenue from SS tax is not necessarily spent on SS payments.
The Baby Boomers, of which I am one, are the most self absorbed, self centered generation to ever hit the demographics of this country. At the end of the day, they will destroy the economic systems in this country to squeeze out more benefits. The numbers are simply unsustainable. There will be a day when it all freezes up. Reminds me of a novel I read few years ago called A Distant Crossing.
We have an awesome shepherd mix. shepherds are the best dogs. I guess you know that you don't hire out males, the female's owners get to pick and may never pick your dog? No offense. Just the system.
The liberal education system started long before this generation. We are already seeing the results.
Now if only we could get those receiving the entitlements to reject them. Ah, the tricky part… especially when there are more of them than us.
Because some have paid in for so long and are at or nearing retirement and some are younger and never expect to see any social security is why there should be a plan to phase it out. It would be as cruel to jerk it away from older people, some who would have nothing to retire on, as it would be to keep making young pay for something they will never see. Of course, at this point govt wouldn't think of any such plan.
I don't really know anything about the system. I never had any intention of breeding him. All I wanted was a lovable mutt for a family dog. And that turned into a nightmare.
I had two requirements, I wanted a big dog, to let the neighborhood know there was a big dog here, that alone cuts down on about 80% of issues (our last dog was 1/2 rottie), and I did not want pit bull in the mix. I know dogs reflect the way they are raised, and pit bulls can make wonderful pets, I just don't like the way the look. Something about the shape of their skulls.
The local animal shelter had an application several pages long, requiring everything short of a back ground check for every one in the house hold. They wanted me to grant them written permission to check my house at any time they wanted to do a spot inspection. That went in the can.
We settled on a tiny 1/2 rottie, who turned out to have a fatal liver disability, so we followed the vet's advice and put him down. So, just as we were about to give up, I saw shepherd pups on Craig's list. Turns out the breeders were from my wife's old stomping ground, they knew a lot of the same people, and they became great friends, and we got a puppy named Wolfgang.
We were all set to go to the vets today, and last night my wife decided she wanted to breed him at least once first.
So I have no idea what I'm doing, just trying to figure it out, see if we can do it, and then get him fixed before he turns into a 140 lb. mass of raging hormones.
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=141685&...
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=131588&...
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=71244&l...
I don't really know anything about the system. I never had any intention of breeding him. All I wanted was a lovable mutt for a family dog. And that turned into a nightmare.
I had two requirements, I wanted a big dog, to let the neighborhood know there was a big dog here, that alone cuts down on about 80% of issues (our last dog was 1/2 rottie), and I did not want pit bull in the mix. I know dogs reflect the way they are raised, and pit bulls can make wonderful pets, I just don't like the way the look. Something about the shape of their skulls.
The local animal shelter had an application several pages long, requiring everything short of a back ground check for every one in the house hold. They wanted me to grant them written permission to check my house at any time they wanted to do a spot inspection. That went in the can.
We settled on a tiny 1/2 rottie, who turned out to have a fatal liver disability, so we followed the vet's advice and put him down. So, just as we were about to give up, I saw shepherd pups on Craig's list. Turns out the breeders were from my wife's old stomping ground, they knew a lot of the same people, and they became great friends, and we got a puppy named Wolfgang.
We were all set to go to the vets today, and last night my wife decided she wanted to breed him at least once first.
So I have no idea what I'm doing, just trying to figure it out, see if we can do it, and then get him fixed before he turns into a 140 lb. mass of raging hormones.
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=141685&...
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=131588&...
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=71244&l...
The payback will be inflation that will cause what little SSI payments you will receive to become worthless. At some point you won't be able to pay the utility bills and buy some Alpo. Your doctors will bail out, as Medicare payments wont cover the cost of having you walk thru the door.
Inflation will be the only defense of your children and their children. They will debase the money supply so much that their inherited debt will fall in its value in real terms of what goods and services that debt amounts to. Otherwise they will be unable to pay for the burden you will place upon them.
My suggestion. Put away some money, in assets that will rise with inflationary pressures. Otherwise you are doomed.
FINALLY! Someone tells the truth about the Baby Boomers, the source of every intractable problem this nation faces.
Seems to me there's some pretty broad brushes doing some painting around here.
Every time my Grandparents slip me a $20 or $100, I think "Gee gramps, you wouldn't have to do this if you let us young-ins opt out of paying social security" We'd be able to pay our bills, thereby eliminating interest payments on existing debt, allowing us to save our money and NOT force us to enslave OUR grand children too.
On the thieving thing, I thought you were going to write about that doofus who stole the Obama image, and the Congress who steals taxes for entitlements. But I take your point.
Evan, once again your ahead of the curve and saying what most people do not want to admit and will fight to their last breath to deny. This generation, the boomers, is quite unique in its blindness of its own responsibility and cupability.
It is sad that the "greatest generation" was followed immediately by the most worthless generation in the history of human existance.
Well, it's not good to lump the entire generation together. And I'm glad that there are responsible Boomers out there. It's just a shame that the leftists of your generation took control of politics, entertainment and education. I don't know how they got so powerful (outside help?), but they did.
But thank you for being responsible. My parents were as well, but they weren't Boomers (born '41 and '43). My parents, my in-laws and others like them are and were part of a dying breed of fiscally responsible, socially responsible parents. I'm trying to live up to that with my own life and my own kids. I've made some mistakes, but I don't blame others for it – they are my own.
NO SUCH WORD IRREGARDLESS…IT'S SIMPLY REGARDLESS, THANKS good information though, and good points.
Remember what happened Bush 43 when the first thing in his presidency he tried to tackle was Social Security?
The wailing and gnashing of teeth from both sides of the aisle were disgusting.
Well, I'm a boomer, and I'm out there trying to fight with picketings and tea parties. We might just have a victory in NY 23. Come join us, rather than just pointing a finger at us. Human beings are all greedy. But now they're trying to destroy the first five amendments to the constitution.
Having graduated in 1980, I agree 100%. Sorry class of 2010, welcome to what we had, no job opportunities, no credit available and parents who can't afford to help you out with college. We also had to follow one of the most screwed up, drugged and spoiled entitlement generations whose whining can still be heard today. For people that always knew the answers, they sure screwed many things up. Be sure to thank them for the state of education, the worthiness of media and the erosion of the judicial system because many of them concentrated on degrees in those specific fields.
Baby boomers destroyed America… Then when confronted they say "but it wasn't me!!!"
http://online.barrons.com/article/SB1242054467534...
They didn't even contribute to music, what the hell was disco?!
Wow. That statement, whilst being over 100 years old, could have been uttered today.
You know, that thought was rolling around in my head a couple weeks ago. Where did this all start? It could be argued that it was in the 50's when the music radically changed minds and attitudes across the public spectrum. But I tend to agree with you that the watershed moment was the demonstration movements in the 60's. The people and groups who were sequestered away with "radical" ideas about how to make this a better country, a better world, saw that the unrest of the times created a nice crisis that set the pattern to find futher crises and the need for immediate, widespread action.
Thought about breeding my dog, my wife agreed that spaying was the best bet, something about placeing tampons on a 150# mastiff or canine period everywhere.
I grew up with Bill and it always drove me nuts how knew jerk lib he was on so many issues. I wish he was here, but fear he would not tackle Obama as he should be tackled.
Evan Sayet is a brilliant political commentator and former dyed-in-the-wool NYC Liberal who used to work with Bill Maher, turned conservative with a vengance, a la David Horowitz. He is pretty funny too; do a search on YouTube for "Evan Sayet Heritage Foundation". It's _well_ worth the watch. He makes a valid point. True, the Boomers weren't the originators of this; but they (again in general) sure as hell played a huge role in slamming their collective foot on the accelerator of our country (while Generation X and younger steer) as it speeds towards a cliff.
We the people have failed utterly in our mission as drafted by the Forefathers. We have failed to be vigilant; we care more as a culture about American Idol than we do about who runs the show in DC. We consistently (as a nation) vote for the same Congress critters over and over and over again because we are too lazy to do a little research and find out that they are Corruptocrats and faux conservatives (socialist lite).
We have allowed the statists to establish and control a public education system who's stated purpose (as delineated by both Woodrow Wilson and the other actual originators of the system) is not to create excellence in the students. It is to establish conformity, homogeneity and just enough knowledge to be good little taxpayers for an ever expanding federal bureaucracy that is not only harmful to the people but un-Constitutional in its actions. Read "The Underground History of American Education" by John Taylor Gatto if you want to know more.
In short, you get the representation you vote for, and almost 60% of this country doesn't even bother to go to the polls. The apathy of the people is staggering.
Typical of you baby boomers to try and blame someone else. Blame our politicians…Nuts….They were elected by vote and delivered the promises you want. Now you are old and ailing hippies that want to push your healthcare expenses on to me. I won't pay them! Nobody wants the burden of caring for you bunch of self-centered babyboomers. I say this having taken care of my grandfather – a member of the greatest generation for two years before his death.
WOW !
The American Boomer (ME) generation is the largest generation in the world. As all other populations around will never be able to plunder the resources like this generation, I say that Sayet has got it right.
Until they are ready to ration their own living on the largess of the younger American taxpayer, I say no more entitlement debt, period!!! Yeah, they took a hit in their 401(K)s, but they have been squandering decent opportunities to leave a viable legacy for the generation that they aborted, neglected and taught that nothing was more important than fulfilling that 60's dream of the weather underground or the 'turn on,tune in, drop out'.
Yes, it is time for them to drop out of tampering with our future.
Silly for boomers to think they can reenter the job job market. Nobody is going to hire you and your something-for-nothing mentality. A younger person will get the job for a 1/3 of what you demand, worker smarter and harder, and be less of a drain. It may even be a foreigner, because the job that you want has been outsourced (by you) to save money! The party has ended, enter the suck…
When the social security system was set up, with the payout at 65, only 10% 0f the population lived that long! It was the carrot and the stick approach! Unfortunatly, there was not a rider attached that raised the age every 10 or 20 years. Now, there is an unprecedented amount of people how are living into there 80's. ooops.
What a mixed-up way of writing. It's not about the "Me" Generation, or the Boomer Generation. It's about Government stealing money from the people and lying to the people about how wonderful their future will be because the people "allowed" the theft.
Yep. The amount of debt per citizen is staggering. Look for the SSI COLA to be capped, and then the inflating will begin.
A simple rule of life: If a debt is too big to be paid, it won't be paid.
PART I: I agree with all of the above, which is why I cannot understand young people voting for this government. They can't all have been born stupid, but you wouldn't know it by their voting record. Maybe if republican/conservative clubs in campuses across the country put together a presentation with verifiable facts and figures, something like Economics for Your Non-Future, a few people would put down the bong and start to think. Perhaps they look forward to the day when they will all wear black pajamas and ride bicycles? They are enabling the collapse of their own lives.
PART II: What do young people imagine socialized health care is all about? Well, I can tell them, if they don't have the time to think it through. It is all about the boomers. Not the one-half who worked hard, made do and did without to provide for their children and themselves. No, the other half, the ones who have had two incomes for 40 years and no-one to spend it on but themselves. And spend it they did. I know these people. They are in the 60s with neither a pot, and now that the housing market has crashed, or a window. Guess what? They expect, demand, to be taken care of by other people's children. That means you. That means the college kids and their kids. Thirty years from now there will be two workers responsible for the entire social security and medicare costs of one retired person. The entire cost. Of course, that doesn't factor in the trillions of dollars of debt being racked up by this government. That debt is in addition to it. I don't understand why campuses aren't in an uproar. Maybe I'm wrong. Maybe they were all born stupid.
LOL, I qualify as a boomer (1960), but I don't think I'll be getting any Social Security. It's funny you think that will be an option. I don't hold much hope out for Medicare, either, unless it's a much reduced, rationed form of what our parents had. Personally, I'd rather pay for it myself than end up with some government run program like they have in Britain or Canada. I'm okay with that, I feel I should be responsible for myself. What I paid in to Medicare and Social Security helped take care of my parents, I don't regret that. Sadly, my children will be so saddled with other taxes, due to the ongoing out of control spending by our government, I doubt I'll get much help from them.
[...] http://bighollywood.breitbart.com/esayet/2009/10/27/the-me-generation-a-generation-of-thieves/#more-... [...]
Sorry-We didn't go to San Francisco with flowers in our hair. We don't have a drug habit. Our children have no college debt. We help my husband's parents and my husband's grandmother financially. We have helped two of our children with down payments for their houses. Otherwise, they are financially independent. We have no credit card debt. So I find it difficult to believe that I am part of the "me" generation even though I am a Boomer. We haven't had much time to think about "me." We have been too busy helping those we love and trying to insulate ourselves from having our children have to pay for us. If you want to feel guilty, however, feel free.
This argument is maddening. It assumes that the government is an entity totally disconnected with us – the people. Boomers too often make the argument that they paid their taxes and now it's their turn to be on the receiving end. The problem is that the "thieves in Washington" were elected by Boomers. I was born in 1972 and cannot recall an election that did not turn on the Boomer vote. YES…there was a surplus that was spent…EXACTLY the way the Boomers demanded that it be spent. C'mon…this is a representative democracy and the Boomers claim collective responsibility for all kinds of feel good stuff, but when it comes to their failings, it's "Oh…not our fault…that was the big bad government…we're just victims".
Oh…and FYI, I am speaking about a GENERATION, not a specific person. Realize that this is a generalization, not a personal attack on you.
Excellent article. You hit the nail on the head, as evidenced by all the hyper-sensitive types posting comments. You have moral clarity and integrity. Bravo.
While I don't blame the kids, let's not pretend our parents don't have at least as much blame as us. I'm 49 and I've been paying into the system with nary a check coming back to me. On the other hand, my parents have far exceeded the amount they put into the system. Granted, had their generation decided to "invest" their social security rather than leave it in the hands of politicians, they might have the right to live high on the hog, but they chose a different course, and working stiffs like me and my wife are paying for it.
When the Bush drug giveaway was being discussed, my Mom, who has more money than any of her seven kids, justified free and reduced cost drugs because "I worked hard my whole life". When I countered she hadn't paid anything into the system to warrant the billions it would cost, she repeated "I worked hard my whole life". I learned it's impossible to argue with a greedy, illogical old person.
My wife and I have had this discussion recently, and if the political will (some would call it political suicide) is there to tell my generation we must pay for the sins of ourselves and our parents, then we agree we are ready to work until we die to pay societal debt for electing politicians who have taken this country to the brink of disaster. No, we didn't vote for these clowns, but we did let it happen by our silence. We only agree to do forfeit our retirement if the government stops the merry-go-round and eliminates all unconstituional programs, agencies, and assorted other goodies not the repsponsibility of the federal government…off with the head of the Dept. of Education.
Let's not play games. The current crop of seniors led the greed parade marching down Main Street with batons twirling as they bought themselves easy street at the cost of the future of their kids, grandkids, great grandkids, ad infinitum. If this generation hasn't any integrity, we will pay the price and forego the gravy train before it is too late.
I agree with Evan, but also understand there are many responsible people in the boomer generation like Doug. Someone else commented that our culture now celebrates youth and that is true, but only because the boomers do so. Come on, we've all seen the retirement ads geared toward recapturing youth and patting themselves on the back. In my mind, the boomers felt they could never live up to the World War Two generation, so instead of trying to achieve in a similar way, they destroyed what they felt their parents stood for. They didn't want the responsibility, and still don't for that matter. We have nothing to thank them for other than a glorification of drug use and sex without consequences, as if there is such a thing in the real world.
Some of the kids I teach have little sense of responsibility and their parents aren't any better. Drugs on campus? The boomers dismiss the problem, and I've seen this many times, by hinting that the kids today just don't know how to handle their liquor or weed. Ridiculous. Once again, responsibility is abdicated, this time for the boomer legacy.
nailed it on the head! nice summation. No appreciation unless it is earned
I went to the polls one time in my life to vote…Ross Perot! FIgured if you want our government to be fiscally responsible with our money you need and shrewd business and honest businessman to get-er done. Give me something to vote for and i will gladly stand in line again. Until then 1 idiot is as good as the next. Would have voted for Reagan had I been old enough.
You forgot to mention George W. Bush who refused to veto any of the ridiculous spending bills that past his desk. The guy was a simpleton at best. Oh yes, and the Supreme Court that looks upon the Constitution as just a "piece of paper" as Bush himself was quoted as saying to some of his cronies. Now we have czars (what a shameful name to even use…a czar) who seem to favor Mao Tse Tung. It's going to take a strong, intellectual 3rd party to arise to change our course. The Republicans are defitely not capable of doing that…they're part of the problem to begin with.
Ponzi schemes, smoke, mirrors….that's just about all that's left from the LEFT!!!
If I see one more young person walking in Wal-Mart texting in his right hand and holding his pants up with his left hand, arms emboldened with lightning and/or barbed-wire tattoos underneath his girl friends name, showing his crack when he bends over to pick up the WIC or food-stamp card he dropped….I'm going to puke!
Fantastic summation!
[...] to make their own lives cushier are at it again. This time the target is their grandchildren." — Evan SayetThroughout American history, generations of our countrymen took pride in leaving the country better [...]
It may have started in the 50's, but I think it was enforced and stimulated by the "Dr. Spock" era where we stopped teaching our children that there were consequences for their actions.
Congress IS Baby Boomers.
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