The Shallowest Generation 276 comments
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The Baby Boom Generation will never be mistaken for the Greatest Generation that survived the Great Depression and defeated evil in a World War that killed 72 million people. I hate to tell you Boomers, but putting a yellow ribbon on the back of your $50,000 SUV is not sacrifice.
Our claim to fame is living way beyond our means for the last three decades, to the point where we have virtually bankrupted our capitalist system. Baby Boomers have been occupying the White House for the last sixteen years. The majority of Congress is Baby Boomers. The CEOs and top executives of Wall Street firms are Baby Boomers. The media is dominated by Baby Boom executives and on-air stars. We have no one to blame but ourselves for the current predicament. Blaming Franklin Roosevelt or Lyndon Johnson for our dire situation is a cop out. Baby Boomers had the time, power, and ability to change our course. We have chosen to leave the heavy lifting to future generations in order to live the good life today.
Of course, not all Baby Boomers are shallow, greedy, and corrupt. Mostly Boomers with power and wealth fall into this category. There were 76 million Baby Boomers born between 1946 and 1963. They now make up 28% of the U.S. population. Their impact on America is undeniable. The defining events of their generation have been the Kennedy assassination, Vietnam, Kent State, Woodstock, the 1st man on the moon, and now the collapse of our Ponzi scheme financial system. They rebelled against their parents, protested the Vietnam War, and settled down in 2,300 square foot cookie cutter McMansions with perfectly manicured lawns, in mall infested suburbia. They have raised overscheduled spoiled children, moved up the corporate ladder by pushing paper rather than making things, lived above their means in order to keep up with their neighbors, bought whatever they wanted using debt, and never worried about the future. Over optimism, unrealistic assumptions, selfishness and conspicuous consumption have been their defining characteristics.
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Boomers are currently in their prime earning and spending years. A Baby Boomer turns 50 years old every 7 seconds. The older Boomers had a fantastic run from 1989 through 2004. Median net worth for those between the ages of 55 and 59 rose 97% over 15 years to $249,700 in 2004. Median income rose 52%. The younger generation between the ages of 35 and 39 saw their median net worth fall 28% to $48,940. Their median income dropped 10% over the same 15 year period. It is clear that all Baby Boomers are not created equal. Based on calculations made by the Federal Reserve, at least 50% of Boomers will not have a happy retirement. The bottom 30% will reach the age of 65 with net worth of less than $100,000. They will try to subsist in poverty, dependent upon social security and part time Wal-Mart jobs until they die penniless. The top 30% will retire to lives of luxury and leisure. The middle 40% will muddle through with social security payments the only thing keeping them from an old age in poverty.
We have become a have and have not society. Our economy favors education, entrepreneurship, and creativity. Those benefitting from a good education will make dramatically more money than the uneducated laborers. The top 20% of households make 12.5 times the lowest 20% of households. This ratio was 7 to 1 in 1982. The top 1% of households make 20% of all the income in the U.S., the highest rate since 1928. Does this statistic portend a decade long depression? The difference between now and 1928 is the huge household debt burden of Americans. This usage of debt by the poor has masked the gap between haves and have nots for the last 20 years.
As I drive to work every day in my fully paid for 2002 CRV with 110,000 miles, I have plenty of time to observe my surroundings. Sitting in traffic on the Schuylkill Expressway, I have noticed that the number of luxury Mercedes, BMW, Cadillac and Lexus vehicles seems out of proportion to the number of wealthy people in the Philadelphia population.
When I see an older gentleman, wearing a suit, driving one of these automobiles, I assume that he is a wealthy executive who has put in his time and rewarded himself with a luxury vehicle. But, most of these vehicles are being driven by Joe the Plumber types. As I take a shortcut through some of the more depressed areas of West Philadelphia, I see people talking on their Apple (AAPL) iPhones, Direct TV satellite dishes attached to dilapidated row homes, and Cadillac Escalades & Mercedes parked on the mean streets. This is not exactly the world that Henry Fonda’s character, Tom Joad, described in The Grapes of Wrath:
I'll be all around in the dark - I'll be everywhere. Wherever you can look - wherever there's a fight, so hungry people can eat, I'll be there. Wherever there's a cop beatin' up a guy, I'll be there. I'll be in the way guys yell when they're mad. I'll be in the way kids laugh when they're hungry and they know supper's ready, and when the people are eatin' the stuff they raise and livin' in the houses they build - I'll be there, too.
When I see “poor” people appearing to live a more luxurious life than myself, I don’t feel jealous. The thought that goes through my head is: Which banks or finance companies were foolish enough to loan these people the money to live this lifestyle? These foolish financial institutions will never get their loans repaid. What does bother me is that the Bush-Paulson-Pelosi Bailout of Stupid Banks will use my taxes to buy these bad loans from the foolish banks.
So, who is the fool in this scenario? The “poor” person got to drive a Cadillac Escalade for a period of time, the foolish banks got bailed out, the bank CEOs took home $30 million, and I lived within my means and footed the bill for the reckless actions of others. It appears that the fools are the Americans who lived their lives according to the rules. The anger is building. I don’t think the politicians running this country realize what true anger looks like. They are used to Americans being herded along like passive sheep.
I’ve heard many Republican ideologues blame the current crisis on the people who took the subprime loans for home purchases. I’ve also heard many Democratic ideologues blame the crisis on the regulators. The ideologues are wrong, as usual. If a poor person has no home, no vehicle, and no prospects; then a bank tells them that they can buy a $300,000 home, drive a $55,000 Mercedes SUV, and live like people on TV; why wouldn’t they say yes? What is their downside? If you have nothing and “The Man” offers you the American Dream, you’d actually be foolish to say no. Now that they have lost the home in foreclosure and the repo man has taken the Mercedes, they are exactly where they were a few years ago with no home, no vehicle and no prospects.
The regulators were certainly asleep at the wheel. They did not enforce existing rules, foolishly waived leverage rules for the biggest investment banks, and believed that the banks would regulate themselves. They were wrong, but they never made a single loan. The commercial banks, investment banks, auto finance companies, and credit card companies made the ridiculous loans to people who could never pay them back in the search for short term profits. Greedy Wall Street executives created an artificial market for the loans in order to generate billions in fees so they could enrich themselves through stock options and obscene bonuses. They spent their false riches on $2 million NYC penthouses, $100,000 Porsche 911s, and $5 million beachfront estates in the Hamptons. Based on the estimated $2 trillion of losses that our banks have generated, the CEOs certainly deserved annual pay 500 times as high as the average worker. There is no way an “average” worker could possibly be talented enough to lose $2 trillion. You would need to be truly extraordinary to lose that much.
CEOs’ average pay, production workers’ average pay, the S&P 500 Index, corporate profits, and the Federal minimum wage, 1990-2005 (adjusted for inflation):
Source: Executive Excess 2006, 13th annual CEO Compensation Survey
The brutal necessary lesson that should have been learned is that if you loan money to people who can’t pay you back, your bank will go bankrupt. The “poor” people who made a bad decision in buying homes and cars they couldn’t afford have lost those homes and cars. The banks made a bad business decision in making those loans. The taxpayer was not involved in these business transactions. This is where Hank Paulson, Ben Bernanke and George Bush, formerly free market capitalists, decided to commit our grandchildren’s money to bailing out the horribly run financial institutions.
Our government has chosen to allow these banks off the hook for their bad business decisions at the expense of taxpayers. Rewarding bad decisions and bad behavior will lead to more bad decisions and more bad behavior. The government has made a dreadful decision that will haunt our country for generations. Now the Federal Reserve has lowered interest rates to 1% again. This is where this horrible nightmare started. The massive printing of currency throughout the world will ultimately lead to a hyperinflationary bust. The law of unintended consequences can be devastating.
Early in the 1st Reagan administration, Americans saved 12% of their income and household debt as a percentage of GDP was 63%. In 1980, the oldest Baby Boomers turned 34. They entered their prime earnings and spending years. This is when something went haywire with our great country. Deficit spending became fashionable for government, corporations and individuals. Dick “deficits don’t matter” Cheney was probably in his glory as the country ran up deficits of money, morals, and brains. The Boomers and our government chose to try and borrow and spend their way to prosperity. As we now know, Mr. Cheney’s advice about deficits not mattering was about as good as his belief that you can fire a shotgun in any direction without implications. The Boomer generation has freely made choices over the last quarter century that has brought us to the brink of a second Great Depression.
During the current Bush administration, Americans’ savings rate actually went below zero, while household debt as a percentage of GDP soared above 130%, a doubling in 25 years. These figures prove that the apparent prosperity of the last 25 years was an illusion. Beginning in 1982, Baby Boomers chose to take the easy road. Saving, investing and living within your means were cast aside as “Old School”. Boomers were handed a better future through the blood, sweat and tears of the “Greatest Generation”. Through their hubris, they’ve squandered that better future, the future of their children and imperiled our entire capitalist system. Between 1989 and 2007, credit-card debt soared from $238 billion to $937 billion, a 300% increase. Household liabilities that are in delinquency or default totaled $775 billion at the end of June, according to CreditForecast.com data. This is equal to 7.5% of all U.S. household debt, up from 3% just two years ago.
In the last five years, our live-for-today Boomers sucked over $3 trillion of equity out of their homes to fund their selfish lifestyles. At the end of June, there were 2.72 million mortgage loans in default at an annualized rate. For all of 2008, defaults will hit 3 million, up from approximately 1.5 million in 2007, and 1 million in 2006.
What “essentials” do the Boomers invest all this borrowed money in every year? The U.S. Census bureau provides the answers:
- $200 billion on furniture, appliances ($1,900 per household annually)
- $400 billion on vehicle purchases ($3,800 per household annually)
- $425 billion at restaurants ($4,000 per household annually)
- $9 billion at Starbucks (SBUX) ($85 per household annually)
- $250 billion on clothing ($2,400 per household annually)
- $100 billion on electronics ($950 per household annually)
- $60 billion on lottery tickets ($600 per household annually)
- $100 billion at gambling casinos ($950 per household annually)
- $60 billion on alcohol ($600 per household annually)
- $40 billion on smoking ($400 per household annually)
- $32 billion on spectator sports ($300 per household annually)
- $150 billion on entertainment ($1,400 per household annually)
- $100 billion on education ($950 per household annually)
- $300 billion to charity ($2,900 per household annually)
The priorities of our Boomer led society are clearly born out in the above figures. We spend more eating out than we give to charity. We spend as much on big screen TVs and stereos as we do on education. This may explain why 37 million (12.5%) of all Americans live in poverty and our high school students trail the students of 25 other countries (including Latvia) in science and math knowledge. Our school system processes many more clueless morons who don’t know the candidates for President, versus intelligent, thoughtful, hard working, driven young people. The $160 billion spent on gambling is indicative of the get rich quick without hard work attitude of the Boomer generation. Even worse, households with income under $13,000 spend, on average, $645 a year on lottery tickets, about 9 percent of all their income. Our government feeds this addiction by siphoning off billions in taxes from these gambling revenues to redistribute as they see fit.
What the data proves is that Boomers love to shop and eat, whether they have the money or not. The top 100 retailers in the U.S. have 250,000 stores that generated $1.7 trillion of sales last year. How could America function without 31,000 McDonalds, 35,000 KFCs, Taco Bells, & Pizza Huts, 15,000 Starbucks, 7,000 Wal-Marts, 2,000 Home Depots, 4,000 K-Marts/Sears, and 8,000 Blockbusters? There are 91,000 shopping centers in the United States. The Advertising industry spends $275 billion per year to convince you to spend money you don’t have for things you don’t need. This generation lacks self control, morals, a work ethic, and savings ethic. Based on the recent actions of our government and corporate leaders, we seem to lack any ethics at all. It is immoral for the Boomer generation to run up $53 trillion in unfunded future liabilities in Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid to leave as our gift to future generations, while we live it up today. Optimists like to point out that Europe and Japan have much worse unfunded liability problems than the U.S. That is like taking pride in being the best looking horse at the glue factory. In the end, we’ll all still be glue.
The 25 year Boomer borrowing and spending binge is coming to an end. The hangover will be really bad. The Federal Reserve and Treasury are trying to keep the frat party going, but everyone is passed out on the floor. The Case Shiller housing data shows that the 20 largest cities have experienced an average 20% decline in price from their peaks. The futures index predicts a further 10% to 15% loss in value. There are 75 million owned homes in the U.S. One in six, or 12 million homeowners, owe more than the house is worth. With further expected losses, 20 million homeowners will eventually be underwater on their mortgage. In California, where home price declines will be 40% to 50%, half the homeowners in the State will owe more than the house is worth.
If you are one of these homeowners and can afford the mortgage payment, time will eventually bail you out. If you can’t afford the mortgage payment, you should lose the house to someone who can make the payment. This is the failure side of the creative destruction that is true capitalism. If the government steps in to subsidize and eliminate failure, the system will ultimately collapse.
Part two of the great Boomer credit contraction will be the collapse of credit card companies who have mailed out 27 billion credit card offers in the last five years. They are now reaping what they have sown. As Boomers could no longer borrow from their homes, they switched to credit cards to make mortgage payments and car payments. That well is running dry. The losses to card companies will make the losses in 2000 to 2002 seem like good times. Losses in the 1st half of 2008 soared to $21 billion. Losses are expected to total $55 billion in the next year and a half. This brings me to the latest outrage perpetrated upon the U.S. citizens by Hank Paulson and his Treasury cronies.
The credit card industry, which collects 23% interest and $12 billion in late fees from consumers, is lining up to get their piece of the $700 billion bank handout. Capital One (COF) has just received a $3.6 billion injection from the American taxpayer, one week after projecting that their write-offs will be $7.2 billion in the next twelve months. This will allow them to send another million offers to more people who shouldn’t have a credit card. Why not? The taxpayer will pay, if the losses are too high. Why aren’t the pundits on CNBC outraged at this misuse of taxpayer money? Would the bankruptcy of Capital One hurt our country in any way?
The Great American Empire has begun its long slow decline. It may take a few generations to reach its nadir, but the poor decisions already made and crucial decisions postponed in the last 25 years by our Boomer dominated leadership has put our country on a path to a declining standard of living. The U.S. is like a punch drunk ex-champion boxer who still thinks he has what it takes, but is living off his old press clippings. He lived the good life, got fat and didn’t do the hard work required of a champion. A slew of young brash fighters are itching to take him down. It is just a matter of time.
In our heyday during the 1950s, manufacturing accounted for 25% of GDP. In 1980 it was still 22% of GDP. Today it is 12% of GDP. By 2010 it will be under 10% of GDP. Our Government bureaucracy, which contributes nothing to the advancement of our society, now is a larger portion of GDP than manufacturing. Services such as banking, retail sales, transportation, and health care now account for two-thirds of the value of U.S. GDP. We have become a nation of bureaucratic paper pushers. Past U.S. generations invented the airplane; invented the automobile; discovered penicillin; and built the Interstate highway system. The Baby Boom generation has invented credit default swaps; mortgage backed securities; the fast food drive thru window; discovered the cure for erectile dysfunction; and built bridges to nowhere. No wonder we’re in so much trouble.
Now that I have laid out our bleak future, I can tell you that, like Dickens’ Christmas Carol, this is only a vision of what might be. There is time to change our course before our ship wrecks on a jagged reef. David M. Walker, former Comptroller of the United States, at a recent Fiscal Wake Up Tour at the University of Pennsylvania, described what has been happening in this country for the last 25 years in one word – laggardship. The last six months have been a perfect example of laggardship. Our leaders have floundered from crisis to crisis, overreacting and blustering rather than leading. True leaders are proactive, not reactive. After not addressing our energy policy for decades, as soon as oil reached $140 a barrel, Congress lurched into action so their constituents would think they were leading. As our financial system has imploded, government “leaders” have flailed about with one rescue package after another and Congress looks for scapegoats. Meddling, tinkering, and non-enforcement of rules by Congress and other government bureaucracies caused the crisis that they are reacting to. Government creates the problems and then assumes even more power over our lives with their ridiculous “solutions”.
No one in Washington has shown an ounce of leadership in decades. True leadership requires strength of character, clear vision to see the future as it is, the bravery to make unpopular decisions, and the honesty to tell the public the unvarnished truth based on the facts.
The facts are: we have a $10.5 trillion national debt; $53 trillion of unfunded liabilities; a military empire that has U.S. troops in 117 countries and has spent $700 billion on a pre-emptive war that has killed over 4,000 Americans; a $60 billion trade deficit; an annual budget deficit that will exceed $1 trillion in the next year; a crumbling infrastructure with 156,000 structurally deficient bridges; almost total dependence on foreign oil; and an educational system that is failing miserably. We can not fund guns, butter, banks and now car companies without collapsing our system.
I truly hope that President Obama can rise to the occasion and become a true statesman and leader. David Walker lays out our dilemma:
The regular order in Washington is broken. We must move beyond crisis management approaches and start to address some of the key fiscal and other challenges facing this country if we want our future to be better than our past. Our fiscal time bomb is ticking, and the time for action is now!
Ultimately, it is up to the Baby Boom generation to change our country’s course. The oldest Boomer is 62 years old and the youngest 45 years old. It is time for Boomers to take a hard look in the mirror and rethink their priorities. It is time to cast aside the $88,000 Range Rovers, $1,200 Jimmy Choo boots, $5,000 Rolex watches and daily double lattes at Starbucks. It is time to live within your means, distinguish between needs and wants, reduce debt, save 10% of your income, make sure your kids get a good education, not try and keep up with the Joneses, show compassion for your fellow man, and possibly pay more taxes and get less benefits, for the good of the country. We must support true leaders like [former Comptroller General] David Walker and get rid of the old time corrupted politicians who want to keep the status quo. Texas Congressman Ron Paul gives the blunt truth that a true leader is willing to give:
Our government has lived beyond its means for decades. We now face a crucial juncture, at which we determine whether to continue down the path of debt, inflation, and government intervention or choose to return to the economics of the free market, which have been ignored for almost a century. Increased debt leads to higher taxes on future generations, while increased inflation diminishes the purchasing power of American families and destroys the dollar. No society has ever been achieved prosperity through indebtedness or inflation, and the United States is no exception. We cannot afford to continue our current policies of monetary expansion and unending bailouts. Unless we return to sound monetary policy, sharply reduce government expenditures, and realize that the government cannot act as a lender of last resort, we will drive our economy to ruin.
The Baby Boom generation has one last chance to change the course of U.S. history, keep us from wrecking in a storm of debt on the approaching jagged reef and shed the title of “Shallowest Generation”.
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This article has 276 comments:
I believe it may be. We are seeing the joints coming apart, the beams sagging and about to crack under the weight of massive debt and enormous corruption. Paulson is just trying to steal a few billion more for his beloved financial organized crime rings, before he retires to a life of wealth and luxury, under very heavy security.
Many hail Ron Paul as some sort of visionary, but I would argue differently. He espouses "Free markets" but made all of his money as a doctor. As anyone who bothers to examine the facts knows, doctors bill enormous fees to patients (and Medicare/Medicaid) in a system that in no way resembles a "free market."
Rather, it is a rigged market that controls the number of available doctors, and legislates their financial advantage, to an extraordinary degree. The A.M.A. is the most powerful and mercenary union in this nation's history, and is sucking the country dry.
I would never vote for Ron Paul on purely moral grounds - he was part of the problem, in my opinion. If you are a wealthy doctor (one of the limited number allowed to be 'licensed' that is) then it is easy to throw stones and criticize others for debt. These jokers live in a fantasy world, just like the IB types shuffling paper around and committing fraud for million-dollar bonuses. Their sense of true economics is deeply distorted by their own self-manipulated and outsized pay package.
i hope there is room in the life raft for people that are ambitious and hungry enough to push the dead weight that caused this issue into the water to meet the fate they deserve.
I would be a little more optimistic. Based on my reading of history, the last time we had a hugh boom and bust was in the roaring 20's followed by a great depression in the 30's, which was followed by a World War. We are no where near a great depression and a World War --- thanks goodness. The time will get better. Our lives will continue to improve, living longer and playing with the latest gadgets. Both rich and poor will enjoy the advancement of the society: medicine, labor saving devices, be able to travel and entertain.
This is not going to end well. One would not choose to live in the last throes of the Roman Empire. I suspect our lot will be little different.
Or, as the old Chinese curse goes, "may you live in interesting times". How much more interestinger could it get ? I shudder to think....
The meek, by the way are not us - they are the Chinese.
Keep up the good work.
-Dave
So, essentially he ran his clinic the way clinics used to be ran before the health insurance industry became so overbloated.
Specifically,
1. IMHO, it is incorrect to blame the banks and CEO's for the calamity. They did not set the course, just followed what Capitol Hill told them to do and offered incentives for. Before we start fixing blame we must do a proper investigation and hold responsible the folks actually at fault, not the ones that are popular to blame.
The author (never signed the article, I wonder why??) seems to forget that we are guided by Common law, not Napoleonic law.
2. It is absurd to generalize behavior of a generation same way like it is incorrect to generalize and stereotype behavior of a race or nationality. The author refers to Baby Boomers and shallow behavior as specifically American phenomenon. He or she seems oblivious to the situation elsewhere in the world and why the problems in Asia and Europe are more severe and deeper than in the United States even though this generation supposedly is not shallow.
3. The simple check of the voting record (public) shows that Mr. Obama in Illinois and Washington legislatures has voted by party lines over 90% of cases. Based on publicly available documents this is the same party that pushed for the laws that led to the current financial situation and actively protected the same unpopular Wall Street CEO's they are blaming now. To expect that Obama and his crew (if elected!) to fix something is like believing in Santa Claus of Eater Bunny ... same shallow behavior the author is assigning to our generation.
I take my hat off to you James.
No country or society can sustain economic prosperity and growth by borrowing money to finance consumption.
Unfortunately, this problem has now spread to RUSSIA, INDIA and many other countries also. The current generation in many cities around the world want air conditioned schools, air conditioned school buses, cell phones, designer clothes and expensive sneakers not to mention the iPhone, the iPod and other gizmos.
Today children play video games rather than real sports, cannot go to school unless provided with an iPod just because everyone else has one and are simply growing up pretty spoilt.
You have to earn your money through hard work and learn to save it and invest it wisely. However, as you have said that the CEOs and Congress have made a mockery of hard working Americans who lived by the right thoughts, right standards and rules of the previous generation which fought two world wars and survived the Great Depression.
This article is a wake up call. Every reader needs to send this to his/her Congressman.
This article is an outstanding first step. The next is to understand that the problem won't be "fixed" by those at the top, but rather by each person individually living in a manner that reverses the poor lifestyle choices of the past.
America must rebuild the solid financial standing of a bulk of its citizens before things will get materially better.
The other logical approach is to be an eternal optimist, that human ingenuity and survival instinct will somehow pull us through this unexpected storm like us going through the tumultous 1930s, 1970s, and a better world at the end of it.
Anyway you look at it, tough times and re-adjustment lies ahead for countries and individuals. In future people will come to realise the shallowness of living on excessive debt and creating false prosperity on things of no value like CDOs.
P.S. Still laughing at the tough guy words.
I have noticed that a tremendous amount of CIA money is spent bad-rapping China. The Dalai Lama has been paid $15,000.00 per month by the CIA since the 50's to be a China irritant. The cause of the Dali Lama exile from Tibet revolved around his passing documents smuggled out of Russia through Tibet for the CIA.
Before the Olympics, The AP was full of negative news about China. Their favorite sources to quote were Reporters without Borders and Human Rights Watch, both heavily funded by the CIA.
I am not asserting that anywhere is perfect, but, if your view of China is supplied by the US media, you are clueless.
I believe the US decline in education began in the 60's. Perhaps Nixon and Kissinger noticed that the S.W.I.N.E. (students wildly indignant about nearly everything) were too well educated, liberal arts, history, all that stuff. In the 60's, technical education came along, no need to really educate people about the world, no need to convey the lessons of history, just teach them sufficiently so that they can work and consume.
Strangely enough, at about the same time, intergration of the school systems diluted the system. (Not that I don't think it was appropriate but It did lower the quality output of public schools and it is interesting that both occurred at that time.)
My autos are paid for, as is my house and property. I have no credit card debt. I have lived 59 years within my means. I have no sympathy for people whose financial behavior resembles "drug addict behavior."
If you're waiting on punishment of wrongdoers associated with our financial mess, regulators, Wall Street, the Burning Bush (as opposed to the Barfing Bush), congress, McFossil, or whomever, stop waiting, you do not understand the concept of honor among thieves. There will be no repercussion.
Happy Holidays to all, and good luck.
In my opinion, this financial situation - a clear symptom of the collapse that lies ahead, is the beginning of the long overdue torment North American's deserve for simply negating the rules of life as they had been until we found cheap energy and combined it with capatilism.
You simply cannot maintain exponential growth in a finite system. Humanity, in its technological infancy, must have said "...well, we can try it out...if it goes badly it'll be up to later generations to fix it." - a US president, guaranteed.
The empire is burning and all you can do is create more debt and call it a "bail out" to hold the fire back a little longer...Yes, money is debt in North America. In the US, oustanding debt & GDP has a correlation coefficient of 99%. I think when this system was created, they meant to name it "cannibalism" but mispelled it as "capatilism".
With this in-tow, my generation is also faced with these challenges:
- reversing the environmental damage caused by unsustainable growth fueled by the exploitation of every resource available
- invent a new economic model
- finding new energy technologies that can attempt to replace fossil fuels
- invent new city development methods, suburbia is over...
It seems impossible and it may be, because all of the time and resources we should have spent on these challenges went to building Wal-marts, SUV's and MacDonalds...not to mention raising useless children that lack integrity of any kind, they were too busy listening to their iPods, watching TV and admiring role models like Paris Hilton to even pick up a book or have a real conversation with an elder. How will this future generation even be able to define the problem(s)? Their youth was fueled by the very same addictions that created this situation in the first place.
Its always going to be someone elses fault; that's the root of humanity's short-sightedness, greed, selfishness and ultimate self destruction.
Every empire in the past has displayed these exact same systems, the only difference this time is that globalization made this a "global" problem which has never occurred before.
On the second point, while, yes, many blithely used their credit cards and home equity to live beyond their means, just as many, and I suspect more, did so out of sheer necessity, as their wages failed to keep up with prices (or productivity for that matter) and millions of good-paying manufacturing jobs were off-shored to exploit cheaper labor - or as their health insurance was lost due to loss of job due to the very illness that bankrupted them to pay medical bills. A transfer of wealth of monumental proportions happened, and the beneficiares - however deservedly - were to a large extent the Greatest Generation whose Social Security and Medicare came to a higher percentage of my income than I was able to save for myself.
When labor was granted a fairer share of the wealth it created from the late 40's through 60's (thanks in great part to the labor movement), our economy thrived and savings were healthy. The so-called neo-liberal Thatcher-Reagan Washington Consensus of smoke-and-mirrors debt-propelled prosperity that gutted the middle class of this country is equally at fault.
When you point your finger, free-market capitalist, there are three fingers pointing back at yourself.
If we weren't "shallow, greedy, and corrupt," not to mention "adulterous, mendacious, covetous, murderous, and all those other good things" then Christ would have nothing to forgive us for and there would be no need be a Christian nation because we would have heaven on earth.
But having heaven on earth implies socialism and socialism is evil.
Therefore, we are forced go on sinning to create hell on earth so we can be saved in heaven and fight against socialism which is heaven on earth.
Everyone knows that heaven is in heaven and not on earth and that is the explanation for the massive deficits of past administrations (in case you hadn't noticed.)
The truth is either funny, sad or insulting. Don't ask me why.
The US was able to sustain high wages in the 40s, 50s, and 60s, because we were the last developed country left standing after WW2. Those days are gone for good. Now we live in a globalized world for better or worse, and the value of unskilled labor is low.
So what do you propose, trade protectionism and tariffs?
Banking was a business once true
that borrowed from me, lent to you.
But some bankers got greedy
and stole from the needy.
With fractional reserves they do screw.
The "greatest generation" learned a hard lesson living thru the depression of the 1930s and subsequent generations are about to learn that lesson now too.
You must also stop saving more than you need. I also speculate on anything that moves. Up or Down - I don't care. The Gov. will run the printing presses night and day forever. So I slowly buy gold coins and with the rest, I speculate. Puts, calls, currencies. I don't care, as long as it moves.
All this recently printed money will be forced into an economy with nothing to buy. That means it will end up in stocks, gold, oil or some other speculative game. I used to be a big saver and very frugal, but starting in 2003 I gave that life up after rates went to 1%. I realized then that the spenders shall inherit the earth, the savers get screwed. I had bothered to save 50K over 10 yrs and realized that it would be worthless in 10 more.
Since then I have lived in huge homes, had great cars, great vacations and I don't pay for them, you do. I have loaded up on debt and maxed myself out to 1.4M in total debt (house included). I will file BK soon. (Thats why you buy gold coins, they are hidden from BK)
I want to thank all the tax payers for my latest fling to Australia, it was awesome. (16 days in NZ and Aust., 4-5 star hotels. Total bill - 18K.) Credit Cards all the way. I don't feel bad for Capital One, they got my payment check from Henry. Long live the printing press.
Don't feel too bad. If you repay your loans, the money will go back to thin air thus causing deflation. One of the "wonders" of fractional reserve banking.
BTW: Buying gold coins is one method of SAVING..(I like oil myself)
Ah, poetic justice.
I'm optimistic the early/mid 20's generation is removed from this infantile corruption and we'll have adults once again.
Yes you can, and every child will be above average.
Thankyou.
I think that attacks on physicians are completely unfounded (those of you who posted such) and you would have to go through the process in order to know what is fair. I am one and I can say that there is no wealth in the practice of medicine. If you want wealth, go into law. Medicine is a very unforgiving, sometimes thankless and very strenuous profession. If you truly want to understand it, go through it. The AMA is a very WEAK lobby for physicians and is centered around quality of care. For the last decade, the AMA has supported single payer healthcare, which is not in the best interest of physicians. Physicians have been getting pay cuts every year for the last 15 years.
The government cannot force anyone to work in the US (so far). Physicians cannot unionize (it's against the law). What is happening is a quick move to early retirement and concierge medicine. The void is being filled by second tier practicioners (nurse practitioners, nurse anesthetists, physician assistants and foreign medical graduates). The net result, quality and access go down. Americans want this, so no sense in arguing with it. To the NP's, PA's and CRNA's out there, I mean no disrespect, but your training does not come close to that of physicians. There are judgement differences that one should not discount or hope to learn on the job (without supervision, it will not be learned).
Medical schools across the country are starting to fail, and cannot keep the best and brightest faculty because they cannot pay them. We are not talking about exorbitant pay...but people not going through it believe what they wish.
I personally carry substantial debt and a 10 year period of unpaid training that I (nor any other physician) can get back. I take calls at all hours of the night and day for patients and am not paid for it. There are no attorneys, accountants or other professionals who work for free...especially at night and on weekends.
Take great care with decisions that affect medicine, they will ultimately affect your children and grandchildren. I am personally VERY concerned for the future of medicine in the US.
"I truly hope that President Obama can rise to the occasion and become a true statesman and leader. David Walker lays out our dilemma"
And:
"and possibly pay more taxes and get less benefits, for the good of the country."
Mr. Obama is all but a confirmed Socialist of the highest order, via his voting record and statements regarding government involvement. Hey - the Rebpubs are too in large extent - but he mentioned Obama in such a kind and 'hope'-ful way...
The 2nd quote - well, if you're an Obama supporter, as it seems the author is wont to be, raising your taxes for the betterment of the country is SOP for a socialist. After all, it's for the common good, right? Actually, can somebody tell me the difference between the government bailing out banks and the government raising your taxes for the betterment of everyone. Where is the ire for this aspect of government? Oh, I get it - don't bail out those evil capitalists, but don't worry either about burdening the taxpayer with - what? Higher taxes?
The author also mentions Ron Paul. Hmmm... Interesting.
I believe that most of the country - Repubs and Socialists alike, tossed him out on his ear as a 'kook', did they not.
But it's convenient for this piece of righteous indignation to drag him up for a quote?
How about you go back for some schooling on LIBERTY and perhaps after a few years of hard-core Socialism, we'll find the collective will to vote for a Ron Paul next time around.
Peace -
C.C.
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Now that that's off your chest too....
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Anything else you need to discuss with your self?
I'm a boomer who was born in 1947. The last time I bought a new car was in 1978. I drive a 17 year old Volvo. I have no debt. I pay off my credit card balance in full every month. I helped my parents until they died.
Am I angry? Damn right, I'm angry.
I lived within my means and footed the bill for the reckless actions of others. It appears that the fools are the Americans who lived their lives according to the rules. The anger is building.
Unfortunately, I feel like I'm in the angry minority.
P.S. I’m a baby boomer, but I’m pretty contemptuous of baby boomers in general, for the reasons you cited.
Dave
daveeriqat.wordpress.c.../
Give me a break. Social Security was put into place in the 1930's. It could have been changed at any time by Congress. Stop whining. Bush signed the Medicare Part D bill a few years ago. This program will cost more than Social Security. The Baby Boomers will get every dime plus that they put into SS. My grandchildren will have the 70% taxes. Every dime spent in deficit is a tax on future generations.
I noted that one person blamed religion. Since the response of most Baby Boomers toward God has been the raised middle finger, and the only God that most Boomers have paid any attention to is the one whose last name is DAMN, I doubt seriously that religion in any of its forms has been responsible for this.
I don't blame the previous generation. At least they had the courage and discipline to deal first with a great economic upheaval and then look tyrants in the eye and deal with them as they needed to be dealt with. My mom still has one of Dad's pictures from Buchenwald, with the bodies stacked up like wood. Those men like my dad looked all that in the face and dealt with it, and came home and tried to resume a normal life. Real tragedies played out across the entire world, with 60 million bodies, and the overwhelming majority of those died not in combat or as the result of direct military action, but singly or in small groups in concentration camps. 60 million is counting off every 5th person in this country and shooting them dead, or gassing them, or hanging them. Before you castigate that generation, tell me please how YOU would have dealt with Hitler, Stalin, and Tojo. Base your answer on the historical record of what they did, rather than your "feelings". Be sure you consider their reaction to what you do.
As far as I am concerned, that generation earned their keep. I'm willing to discuss how it's done, but that's a debt I see that needs to be paid.
The real contribution of the Boomers as a group is not just economic, though. It's moral. This is the crowd that decided that EVERY standard, EVERY convention, EVERY truth, EVERY tradition, EVERY EVERYTHING had to conform to THEIR understanding and acceptance, or they weren't obligated to accept it. And THEIR reasoning, no matter how immature, ignorant, or ill-informed, was the ONLY standard by which ANYTHING was judged. This group didn't say, "We're above the law". Nope, this group said, "We ARE the law". As a result, their standards for personal, corporate, group, and national conduct, since they entered puberty, have been based ONLY by their understanding (and, lest I forget, their FEELINGS), and they CANNOT admit that they were EVER WRONG about ANYTHING of significance.
This generation as a whole does NOT know how to do rigorous, peer-reviewed, objective scientific research, or how to review it. Instead, they even approach their understanding of science and math issues by turning to their emotions. Perhaps it's because they cannot accept the idea of objective, unchanging truth. In any case, they base even their understanding of science and mathematics on their intuition and those feelings rather than rigorously searching for the truth. This is the thing that caused the head of the Sierra Club in 1971 to scream that nuclear power was going to cause nuclear war, and in 2006 he's in the Washington Post saying, "Well, I guess I was wrong, but we were so concerned about nuclear war...". Any rigorous scientific study of the problem would have told him that the two are NOT the same, and such information was presented to him, but he was so self-wise, and so "in touch with his feelings" that he led other equally ignorant folks to protest what they didn't have any knowledge of, and here we are 35 years later with only a fraction of the nuclear-generated electricity that we could have had. France is sitting there getting 80% of their electricity from nuke plants. Who's doing a better job with carbon production??? Hint: It ain't the nation that produced the Sierra Club.
In politics, the Boomers' overwhelming sense of "I AM the law" has caused them to turn every major issue facing this country into just another front in an ongoing Cold Civil War (I know of no other way to describe it). Everything: economy, defense, education, environmental issues, labor, you name it...all are useful handles to beat up that ignoramus who dares to disagree with YOU. It's more important for a Boomer to be right than it is to solve a problem, unless the problem is solved by the other fellow surrendering what he believes. Even 9/11 was insufficient to cause the partisans on both sides to lay down their clubs and stop beating each other. Boomers also don't generally have a clue about what their responsibilties are as citizens, but they are quick indeed to insist on their rights. This should not be a surprise, since the Boomers look only to themselves as the last word in everything. Responsibilities means that I have to do something because SOMEONE ELSE decided I should, and that means that I'm not in charge.
Obviously not every Baby Boomer fails in all of these ways. A small minority may not have failed in any of these areas at all. Nonetheless, the Boomers as a demographic are just as predictable as every generation before them, and the sales and marketing types know very well that the Boomer generation is over-emotional, under-logical, and absolutely undisciplined, as Mr. Quinn noted.
I had an English teacher who summed it up nicely one fall afternoon: "Every generation has been told they were going to hang the moon. Yours has been the first one that's been stupid enough to believe it."
Again, I AM a Boomer...a middie type (born 1955). I see my generation walking away faster and faster from responsibilty, from citizenship, from sacrifice, all to chase increasingly ephemeral pleasures that grow ever more stale. But they absolutely will not give up their conviction that they, and nothing else, are the law in this world.
To those Boomers who don't fit these descriptions, well and good...just be sure that you are above all else rigorous in your self-assessment. To those like me who have some of these characteristics, and who fight them, and sometimes win, and other times lose, ratchet up the fight. It's time to win more and lose less; there's more to do than we have time to do, and we have large debts to pay. To those who are in denial, either wake up, or prepare to find that after all is said and done you AREN'T the law, after all.
Mr. Quinn: If you are counting on Mr. Obama because he's not a Boomer, you are not paying attention to the Congress. Most of them ARE, and they (regardless of party) are just as afflicted as the rest of the Boomers. If you want real change, start voting Congressional incumbents out. Doesn't matter what they've done, or how long they've been there...they are part of a system in which the Senator or Representative is effectively purchased by those "who brung them to the dance". There are sound economic reasons to believe this (some of them having to do with laws of incorporation). Presidents fit this description as well, but they have a span ot usefulness of only 4 or 8 years, and the Congress is the real power place in the country, because (a) they control the money, (b) the staffers aren't governed by civil service regulations and can therefore engage in whatever they can get away with, subject only to the approval of their Senator or Representative (in the Washington Post a few months ago was a news item that certain chiefs of staff of certain Congressmen and Senators were actually the powers in Congress, because they are the ones really making the deals...the Sens and Reps don't really know WHAT they are voting on).
Everything else you generalize without being clear -- you treat boomers as a personality disorder or racial-type. It ain't.
My thoughts are:
There will be no change until people in this country - of all generations - begin taking responsibility again for their own actions.
What was the term used? And not that I'm a huge fan of Herbert Hoover's policies, but I think we need to see a return of "rugged individualism".
I wish I could say I was more hopeful for the future, but with this current election - our choices, again (wtf), the state of the economy, and the general mindset of those around me, I find myself quickly losing faith.
What's next?
This will end in civil unrest. It is a pre-armageddon event. We have been brainwashed by positivism and the promise that if we believe things will be OK they will. I don't pretend to know how it will end but I am afraid.
Of course life is too complex to cover all issues in any article and as many have responded, some of us have lived reasonably appropriately. I have also complained that those who have paid down loans and saved have been: discriminated against by Government policy, mocked by investment companies who have encouraged everyone to borrow and borrow against their homes for a better lifestyle and sadly been mocked by those we sometimes loosely call for not jumping on the bandwagon.
I have spent a fortune educating my kids but I have also lived far better than those before me and therefore do not pretend to possess the mettle of my ancestors. I hope, however, it is not too late learn how to be strong as God knows a time is fast coming that will test us all.
Yeah time to buy commodities.
Our countries dollar is inflated and is only going to get worse.
Not my dollar though.
It just got crazy strong.
thank you
Exactamento.
You glossed over the fact that Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton were also along for the ride. And that we have done much more over these past 20 years like continuing to be the world’s builder of airplanes, inventor of wonder drugs, dozens of which are obscure and do not get the headlines of Aspirin or Penicillin, designers of the PC and its operating system and software applications that have essentially powered the greatest improvement in productivity and distribution of knowledge since the printing press.
And yes we are also the world’s power plant. We have the capital and knowledge to find the oil that powers the world. We don’t own that oil anymore, but we find it and dig it up for the rest of the world and then get told how much we will get paid for it at ROI’s that are nothing greater than average.
We are also involved in defending ourselves against people who hate us for no reason other than our religion and our success and our support of their enemy, Israel. Our volunteer army has cost us a tiny pittance over the past six years. We spend less on national defense as a % of GDP during this war than any other war in history! By far!! And BTW, this is OUR war, not some abstract alliance defending Europe or Southeast Asia. We were attacked!
But we have a hard time with it because we have hundreds of billions in off shore tax cheats even though we have the lowest marginal tax rates in the past 50 years! Now that’s obscene and no one is really talking about that. If you want a revolution, get that one started.
If Obama gets in he needs to worry if he can keep George Bush’s legacy of safety for the past seven years.
You also did not mention that three of the richest people (two boomers) in this country have now dedicated themselves to giving away most all of their wealth and supervising it during their lifetimes. Ted Turner, Bill Gates, and Warren Buffet. And they are not giving it to art museums. They want to solve big problems like Malaria which is not even a US problem!! How much does Carlos Slim give to his poor country? Hugo Chavez?
We also still GIVE AWAY about 1% of our tax dollars to both our friends and ENEMIES. And in exchange we get complaints from countries like little children saying it’s not enough, give me more. Greed is not a unique American thing.
Your article was very well written but the world is a big place and America still does most of the heavy lifting that is making it a better place. We’ve just become a little too full of ourselves, a little too comfortable, and in some cases way overpaid.
A few random thoughts -
Back in the late 60's, the guys at the gas co. told me they felt sorry for me because "all those women going to work - you're gonna need 2 incomes to live on" - I guess they foresaw the inflation coming. Mrs oldGoldBug thinks a lot of Gen xers and Yers grew up on their own cause Mom and Dad were too busy working to spend much time parenting.
Its all pretty much bull**** from the "Nifty Fifty" to the "TARP". The biggest companies are WMT, XOM, MCD, KO, PEP, GE. Only XOM and GE make anything we really need and GE getting pounded as it is at least half bank. Can we live without chips and Pepsi - I sure think so. What do we really make that the rest of the world wants???? Movies and TV shows? Airplanes? We need to get relevant - solar, garbage recycling, water conservation, etc etc etc
XOM could buy GM with net income from 1 month last quarter.
Mom - member of the Greatest Generation - still going strong at 86+ - (no good genetics for me unfortunately) - has been calling for the Greater Depression for years. If someone in your life is in their 80's or older and still able to communicate - LISTEN - Hear about walking to the milk store at age 9 to buy gallon of milk for 10 cents and loaf of bread for 5 cents and having milk and bread and sugar for dessert at night. Dad working 1 day a week to feed 7. Hear about having 3 dresses for 3 girls and washing them each night so other sister could wear it the next day.
I watched Youngstown OH, Steeltown USA, crash and burn because the companies refused to reinvest in new plant and equipment, unions got unbelievably greedy, and lots of workers thought working meant a 3 hour nap after coming to work stoned, drunk or hung over. The managers who oversaw the devitalization of America were part of the Greatest Generation. Unless you were a white Anglo Saxon Protestant, you "weren't capable of running a steel mill", and they ran it right into the ground. Whenever you cut out huge amounts of talent due to gender, race, ethnicity etc., you are going to lose.
I find the Republicans disingenuous at best. Who has had the power for 6 of the last 8 years?? Nobody was watching the store, performing the duties of the Executive Branch. My gosh, you got so many scandals it boggles the mind - and those are only the ones we know about.
What do you expect from a loser coke head alkie and a couple of 70's retreads? The fact that poor John McCain is even in this race is a testament to the racist, provincial attitudes that still are maintained by almost half of the population. You Republicans probably did far more harm than good by giving us W as a choice instead of McCain back in 2000. How could you fall for the fighting gay marriage crap and the racist rumor campaigns against McCain, especially in South Carolina?
Why not give Obama a chance? At least the world will see that you don't have to have generations of Senators in your family to be President. That didn't get us too far. Maybe he will be a disaster, and maybe he'll be a new Harry Truman - wouldn't that be refreshing???
Some of Quinn's info needs modification. First the Boom generation runs from 1943 to 1960, because the high birth rate boom was not the event that defined the generation. This comes from analyzing polling data and market research. The net effect is that the popular notion of a 1946-1964 Boomer generation looses people, taking in the low birth 1943-1945 group and loosing the high birth rate 1961-1964 kids to GenX (or the Thirteenth Generation of Strauss and Howe).
More importantly, The Fourth Turning describes an ongoing cycle of 4 generation types that appear successively in the US since European settlement (with a single exception). A generation instance (GI, Silent, Boom, X, etc.) lasts from 30 to 16 years, with a trend of declining length (say 26 years long ago to 19 now). The order the types appear never varies: Prophet (Boomers), Nomad (Xers), Hero (Millennial or GIs) and Artist (Silents). The single exception in our history is when the potential Hero's of the Civil War Era didn't become Hero's, ending up as the Artist Type of Teddy Roosevelt's Progressives. The Prophet and Hero generations tend to be dominant, larger generations than the Silent and Nomad generations.
Strongly related to the generation cycle is a social cycle that from start to end lasts the time of a long natural life (which also is getting shorter from 100+ years to 80 or so now). Again the extreme crisis of the Civil War shortened this cycle to only 71 years (a not-so-long life). These are called Saeculum (from Latin) and are composed of 4 Turnings. These Turnings are: the High, the Awakening, the Low and the Crisis. They have always arrived in this order. Today, with the financial mess and political gridlock it seems safe to say that we are about to enter the Crisis Turning. Past Crisis periods are Great Depression and WWII (1929-1946), Civil War (1860-1865), Revolutionary War (1775-1794).
During a High, society feels good about itself and continues to build civic structure started in the previous Crisis. The Hero generation rules, with some old Nomads in the top jobs. The new Prophet generation is born at this time. People feel safe and positive.
During an Awakening, the Prophets and some of the Silents (often as leaders) rebel against authority and try to remake society. The old Hero's call the shots and are shocked by the irritating young Prophets. The new Nomad generation is born at this time. People worry about change and direction. A great rebellion against the status quo occurs. Kids are not wanted or cherished, to the point of abuse.
During a Low, the previous Hero generation gives up elder control, and control is shared between the current Artist generation and Prophet generation. The new Hero generation is born at this time. Morals continue to weaken for adults but the new kids are protected and adored.
During a Crisis, the Prophet generation has gained control. The Nomad generation is solidly become our middle leadership (they make a large proportion of famous military leaders). The young Hero's are the grunts. The new Artist generation is born in this time. Things become overtime extremely intense. The kids learn to not be a burden, keep quiet and watch.
I would guess that James Quinn is either a young Boomer Prophet (like myself) or an oldish GenX Nomad from his comments. It's easy to criticize boomers for their excess, but they have a role to change society. It's a necessary role. Without this process, I suspect that society would look the Dark Ages. No static perfection has been obtained yet by mankind (at least since we gave up hunting and gathering). At this stage I believe that cycles of opposing swings is our only option.
The best thing about the works of Strauss and Howe for me is that the larger context that they put history in, and the revelation of the many forces and alignments that are in play makes it all seem much more reasonable and somehow more correct. Like the Byrds' Hallmark Card version of Ecclesiastes, the Strauss and Howe writings calm and reduces angst. Anyone who gives The Fourth Turning a thoughtful read will subsequently have a very busy mind and hopefully will also realize that todays situation isn't really that extraordinary.
I've made a PDF chart of the Strauss and Howe information, if you'd like a copy, send me an email at djluedtke@gmail.com and I'll reply with a biggish PDF attachment (gotta get it up on a website one of these days).
Environmental hyprocrisy. Boomers started the environmental movement aimed at cleaning up the air and water and land. But this movement has morphed into an expensive hypocrisy of pseudo-green products, faux recycling, and pie-in-the-sky alternative fuels. What a joke! In the meantime as the economy languishes so will the environment.
While I don't advocate voting for McCain, I will say that I agree with his energy platform over Obama's. First, drilling for oil in California, Florida, and the Northeast, and second building numerous nuclear power plants, and third building out refineries will not only create hundreds of thousands of jobs directly, but will create millions more jobs indirectly as fuel costs fall dramatically. McCain also supports CAFE standards for automobiles. Obama's energy plan is ludicrous: plugin cars are a joke. The energy grid can barely handle its current load. Remember brown outs of late? Well, add a million cars to the grid every night and see what happens. Not only that, but wait till all those plugin owners get their first plugin electric bill. They'll wish for the good ole days of high gasoline prices.
Second, racial hypocrisy. Basically, I think a vote for Obama is another boomer rebel vote to make them feel better because boomers, after protesting in the 60s and 70s for racial equality have lived a strict apartheid in their separate McNeighborhoods and McSchools. Go to Obama's web site and click ISSUES and read everything. He is basically a 70s liberal. Tell me what white guy today could get elected with that same web page. Certainly Dennis Kucinich got very short shrift. Clinton got elected as a blue dog more conservative Democrat. Now boomers are voting for Obama?? Hypocrisy.
Have a great day,
Jolly Rancher
uh2l.blogs.com/things_...
As for your quote...
"No one in Washington has shown an ounce of leadership in decades. True leadership requires strength of character, clear vision to see the future as it is, the bravery to make unpopular decisions, and the honesty to tell the public the unvarnished truth based on the facts."
Nobody will get voted in to office by saying unpopular things! That is the problem with a democracy/republic. Any mention of raising taxes or sacrifice will lead to an assurance that the other candidate will win.
UH2L
Morality, religion and God have entered this dialogue so let's see what they have to say about economics and money.
I'm not sufficiently familiar with the Qur'an to quote Muhammad on specific issues, but remember that his initial motive was the socioeconomic injustice he perceived as being perpetrated by the wealthy ruling merchant class of Mecca. Muhammad overthrew this class and implemented what he believed to be a system serving our spiritual, Godly interests rather than the interests of "Mammon". Mammon is the love of money and material values generally as opposed to spiritual values.
Jesus didn't say "money is the root of all evil". He said, "The love of money is the root of all kinds of evils." Money itself is neither good nor evil. It's how we use it that has moral content.
Bloggers who think fractional reserve banking is the root of our ills offer commodity money like gold as the system we should revert to. I have blogged extensively on this subject and won't repeat it all here, but any fixed money supply system like gold makes business profits, in money, arithmetically impossible. Business activity can increase economic goods, but it cannot increase "money".
The same is true of our bank-debt money system, though this fact is obscured by ever-increasing new loans/debt/money being poured into the system to keep up the illusion that the system of bank-debt money works.
If business cannot make monetary profits then our whole capitalist economic model falls. This is not unthinkable. What kind of economic system is served by commodity money?
Small scale local barter, where people use money to exchange the value of goods they produce and trade among themselves. Everybody has to produce. Productivity gains are realized not as additions to your "money" but as additions to your real economic wellbeing.
As productivity rises the exchange value of your fixed-supply money rises with it. You get value inflation as opposed to price inflation. Where you used to get 6 eggs for a piece of gold you now get 12. The supply of eggs has doubled relative to the supply of gold, so now gold buys more eggs.
If an agribusiness invested 10 pieces of gold in doubling its production from 6 eggs to 12, when it came time to sell the eggs it would find there is still only the 10 pieces of gold in the system that it put into the system by paying its production costs. To get its gold back the business now has to provide 12 eggs for a piece of gold instead of 6.
The business can only hope to break even by selling 120 eggs for 10 pieces of gold. Before the investment it could have collected 10 pieces of gold by selling only 60 eggs. In any event, the amount of "money" in the system does not change, so you can't make profit by increasing money, no matter how much you increase the quantity of real economic goods.
Our capitalist economic model of business profits--in money--does not work with fixed-supply currencies.
Is this a bad thing, that everyone has to work and produce things in order to live? That economies will be small and local rather than enormous and global?
After the apple incident God told Adam, "Cursed is the ground because of you; through painful toil you will eat of it all the days of your llife." Genesis 3:17 If we believe this then it would seem we are supposed to have to work to live.
On the other hand CH Douglas, who in the 1920s and 30s thought up the social credit system of money, thinks mechanized production driven by fossil fuels has delivered us from the curse of Adam. He thinks the idea that incomes should be tied to work is obsolete.
I disagree, but read some of his stuff and make up your own mind. Google "money and the price system" and you will find a link to to the text of a presentation Douglas made in 1935 to the King and government of Norway. It's only 13 pages and gives a concise statement of many of Douglas' ideas.
Nobody in the Bible ever advocated a welfare state. The prophets, Jesus and Muhammad all advocate charity, which has a spiritual dimension as it involves simultaneously opening up your heart as you open up your wallet. There is nothing spiritual in the tax-funded welfare state, which is why Jesus did NOT say to Herod,
"Look at all these 'poor'. Here's what you do. Quadruple everybody's taxes and hire all your idiot nephew and hangers-on as tax collectors and welfare bureacurats. Then hand out free stuff to the poor. Tell them they owe no debt of gratitude to the taxpayers because consumption is their right. The poor will multiply in response to this economic incentive to become poor. You will enjoy a permanent and growing base of support for your government."
So much for welfare state morality.
The people of Biblical Israel had a practice called "Jubilee". (Leviticus 25) Every 50 years they did the following:
-freed people whose economic straits had compelled them to sell themselves into bondage
-restored ancestral lands to those who had sold them due to poverty
The Bible is not kind to capitalists. Besides making you give everything back every 50 years, Isaiah says this about the acquisitive tendency,
"Woe to you who add house to house and join field to field til no space is left and you live alone in the land." Isaiah 5:8
Then there's all the rejoicing among the righteous over the fall of Babylon the Great that John writes about in chapter 18 and 19 of Revelation. Babylon the Great sounds very much like us.
Speaking to the whore of Babylon who rides the beast with 7 heads and 10 horns (G7 and G10?), the voice John hears said, "Your merchants were the world's great men. By your magic spell all the nations were led astray." Rev 18:23 The whore is money. The "masters of the universe" were the world's great men, the money merchants, spinning untold numbers of money out of nothing and paying themselves apocalyptic amounts of that money for their own benefit.
Some Bible translations say "Money" and some say "Mammon". Mammon is more inclusive so I'll use it. Here's what Jesus had to say:
"No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Mammon." Matthew 6:24 and Luke 16:13.
Is Jesus making himself clear enough? Service to the god of materialism is diametrically opposed to service to the God of people. We cannot serve both our material nature and our spiritual nature. Giving service to our material desires starves service to our spiritual desires, and vice versa.
You cannot get rich by giving away your wealth to the poor, out of the charity of your heart. Greed is the opposite of charity. You must harden your heart against the suffering of others. We must choose one or the other, God or Mammon.
Certainly we have to work and live and we cannot totally abnegate our material needs. The issue is the focus of our values, on becoming rich in goods or rich in spirit.
Isaiah describes the kind of economy that honors both the material and spiritual aspects of our human nature. In describing what life would be like in a righteous "new heavens and new earth", Isaiah writes,
"They will build houses and dwell in them; they will plant vineyards and eat their fruit. No longer will they build houses and others live in them, or plant and others eat. ...my chosen ones will long enjoy the works of their hands."Isaiah 65:21-22
Biblical Israel's economic system involves private property, free enterprise, minimal government, and working directly to have what you need (houses, food), with restraints on monopoly and an attitude of charity. This kind of economy would be well served by commodity money to exchange the fruits of each other's efforts.
Mass society and a global economy would be unlikely to develop in such an environment. There would be no large cities, just regional trade centers. Most people would live by self-sufficiency and barter, without the need for any money at all. Is that bad?
According to Genesis, here's what God thinks about us building cities such as the city of Babel that Nimrod was working on:
"The people said, come, let's make bricks and bake them thoroughly. Come, let us build ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches to the heavens, so that we may make a name for ourselves and not be scattered over the face of the whole earth."
"But the Lord came down to see the city and the tower that the men were building. The Lord said, If as one people speaking the same language they have begun to do this, then nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them. Come, let us go down and confuse their language so they will not understand each other."
"So the Lord scattered them from there over all the whole earth, and they stopped building the city." Genesis chapter 11
None of these Biblical writings bodes well for Adam Smith's ideas about division of labor and trade, and the building of cities as centers of this commerce. Smith's system works very well to maximize material values, by minimizing spiritual values. The pursuit of self-interest advocated by Smith is the best way to satisfy our material needs, but these are not an absolute value. They must be balanced against our spiritual needs.
"Spirit" has 2 aspects, heart and mind. Loving is the perfection of heart and knowing is the perfection of mind. Both of these are goods in themselves so we can pursue either one with a clear conscience. We don't have to worry about being Faustus who sold his soul for knowledge.
Anyway, I thought I'd throw these Biblical references into the debate.
Give me a break. Social Security was put into place in the 1930's. It could have been changed at any time by Congress. Stop whining. Bush signed the Medicare Part D bill a few years ago. This program will cost more than Social Security. The Baby Boomers will get every dime plus that they put into SS. My grandchildren will have the 70% taxes. Every dime spent in deficit is a tax on future generations.
seekingalpha.com/artic...
Instead of helping the young tech companies from their "follies" and business in general for supporting the tech companies; govt decided to invest into housing from 2001 to 2006. Most business investments, likewise, went into China, India and other emerging markets.
Housing is an expenditure while business is an investment. That is the fact.
The US economy can never be able to sustain growth by investing into housing which is an expense generating asset rather than a profit generating asset such as business.
All is not lost.
There is a new "baby boomer" very few seems to be able to see.
It is the developing world baby boomers of the 1970's to 1990's. We call it population explosion or over-population back then when the developing countries were called the third world.
Now the third world of yesteryears are becoming the developing world or emerging markets of the 2002 to 2007. Developing for what? Developing for industrialization. Plain and simple.
China, India, Indonesia, Brazil, Mexico and other developing countries have "baby boomers" dwarfing the west by the billions.
Unlike the west, those used to be third world baby boomers have been forged, so to speak, in hardship and poverty.
They are young, unspoiled, resilient and have some savings and are not going to succumb to despair even if the aging western world baby boomers are trying to find which foot is left or right.
They have been able to have a brief taste of success and prosperity during the 2002 to 2007 massive rallies of the emerging countries.
But since most of them have spent most of their growing up years watching at and dreaming of the American Way of Life; they are not going to forego their burning goal of living like the Americans of the 80's and 90's.
It is time for the west to look outwards and not succumb to despair.
Who has more knowledge and experience on inventing, producing, and selling products to the "baby boomers" other than the Americans?
It will take time for US companies to be able to tailor and sell products to the billions of developing world baby boomers due to cultural differences.
Developing countries, likewise, are less likely to suffer from stock market meltdowns since a majority of their populations has little or no exposure to their own stock markets. Most of them dont even know the meaning of portfolio. Investing and stock markets are not subjects they teach in high school or in colleges except those taking majors in finance and banking.
Likewise, most developing countries have learned their lessons of 1987 and decided to save and invest most of their income into business and infrastructures with much less attention to housing.
They have billions of dollars of cash reserves and investments into the West. Those investments are in jeopardy but their cash reserves are not (unless "forced" borrowed by the west for Martial Plan Part II).
The West will have to provide leadership under the current global stock market crises.
Japan, China, India, Brazil and most other small developing countries are looking up to the United States not for financial help but for credible political leadership.
China, in particular, has already discounted the downward spiraling demand of exports to the west and have started implementing programs to develop their local markets in order to sustain existing manufacturing plants that were constructed for export purposes.
That will only increase the number of successful baby boomers in those countries. Most of which have already completed their college education and are starting to become productive members of their society.
A huge market the US and other western countries will be able to understand in due time and exploit in the future.
Aging baby boomers of the West may have already lost most of their aggressiveness and inventiveness but have gained knowledge and wisdom in the process.
The future never looks so good when viewed under those circumstances.
Is that what's happening?
First, we freeze all prices and wages, except for people making less than 30K. For them we double their wages or more. For people making more than 500K, we cut their wages in half. No one is allowed to make more than 2 Million/yr, regardless of what they do. This solves the wage problem and ends inflation.
Secondly, we take over the Fed, and then lower interest rates to a negative 3.67%. In other words, people are paid 3.67%/yr to borrow money. They qualify for the loan by finding a lender who is willing to lend them the money because they have a good idea for its use. The lenders are required to monitor the loan, and if it loses money, they eat the loss. The banks are required to loan out so much money per month, based on how the economy is doing. The days of tight money will be over.
People in default on home loans get to stay in their homes with reduced interest and/or price - whatever it takes. This solves the housing problem.
Everything, and I mean everything, is totally transparent, and by law, is put on the Web. New jobs will sprout up as entrepreneurs find ways to make fees by connecting have-nots with haves. This ends the transparency problem.
Anyone found cheating the system in any way, automatically goes to prison for 5yr. Get caught twice, and you are sent to China. This will get the beached, Dry Bulk fleets back in action, and create new prison building jobs.
All those found to have contributed to the current meltdown due to greed, will have all monies gotten from that endeavor, taken away. Their names, addresses, and faces will be published in all print media now going under. This will save the print media.
I could go on and on here, but you get my point. All problems can be solved in a similar fashion. Once this new system is in place, everyone will eventually realize how absurd we all use to think about money, jobs, economics, etc. People will realize that no one is any better, or deserves anymore than anyone else, simply because they had the desire for something big, and the luck to be at right place, at right time, and got to take advantage of the cards they were dealt. Not everyone wants to, or can be, a lawyer, doctor, financial adviser, banker, politician, scientist/engineer, hacker, etc. Some people just want to have an adequate, peaceful life, without the hassle of working their assses off into oblivion, doing something they don't like. Why should anyone make a ton of money for what they do, while someone else, who may work much harder, makes just enough to get by? It isn't fair folks.
Case closed; problems solved.
....so thanks; but we'll take it from here.
"you hit too low?" is that = H. Mac. ?
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is that what we are talking about? i went to the blog page...
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yeah its cool.
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I already know. I can take on the extra student loans.
........
But if we are talking about UH2L on someone else, then I would be sorta offended for thinking that about me. well not really at this point so many conversation lines have been crossed at this point.
If this over Nancy, yeah I do still miss her, wouldn't mind getting back with her.
but I ain't staying out of the market because of her, I'm out cause I got stuff to study and work to get done. I'd like to retire someday.
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if this is about something else... I aint even approaching it. lol
(I read financial/economics commentary daily, so it's probably the best article written this century.)
Unfortunately, as many of the comments reveal, many people don't like to hear the truth.
He live through all of that, even after being forced down in Normandy, almost being captured by Germans on several occasions, an almost being killed by US forces taking the town of Valognes in France.
He is too self-effacing and humble to claim any credit for anything. He merely views his participation in all of that as a required duty, unworthy of earning any special recognition.
He is right.
In fact, my father would be the first to accept blame and responsibility for not leaning the lessons of the 'Great War', and through blindness, selfishness and pure stupidity of an insular US, his generation holds accountability for the horrors of World War II.
Then, the 'Greatest Generation' stood by as clear, unmistakable threats grew on a global dimension. The 'America First' crowd insisted that the US keep out of 'foreign wars' not of our making. Japan invaded Manchuria, then China, then Burma, the Philippines, Thailand, Indonesia, New Guinea, an of course, Singapore. The Germans meanwhile marched into Bohemia, Austria, Poland, The Netherlands, Denmark, Norway, France, etc.
So, the 'Greatest Generation' and their fathers found themselves in a real mess.
What's my point?
You can cherry pick any time frame in history you want to fit a nice, neat argument that fits your narrative here. It is like all things in life; full of half-truths, lacking perspective but still useful.
The current generation has not waged a global war of mass death upon one another. How much GDP does that count for?
The current generation is also responsible for helping to spread democracy to so many countries I forgot them all. I did not see you mention the establishment of democracy in places like South Africa, Namibia, East Germany, Poland, Bulgaria, Romania, Nicaragua, Albania, Bosnia, East Timor, Grenada, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania ... shall I continue?
How much selfishness and lost GDP and missing savings does that account for?
Also, in being such a lost generation, who should be accountable for the generational shaking advances in pre-natal birth care, eradication of so many diseases I cannot write them all, systems that protect people from the hurricanes and disaster of a generation ago that would kill hundreds of thousands, legal systems that deliver justice to peoples that never existed 50 years ago, etc.
Look. There is a huge chunk of what you say I agree with. But you miss perspective that would add credibility to your point. You view the pre-shallowest generation world as perfect, and parse the worse of what we have wrought upon the world.
Our system has self-correcting mechanisms, brute and unpleasant as they may be, that are now kicking into gear. That is the beauty of our system and democracy ... you can run, you can hide, but in the end you will pay. There is no escape.
James, you need to collaborate with other minds to get the missing perspective you are unable or are unwilling to include. Then, you will form a more perfect option.
Thanks for your thoughts.
A proud son of exemplary father of the 'Greatest Generation'
To protect our arsenal or get it ready to go.
"Past U.S. generations invented the airplane; invented the automobile; discovered penicillin... "
None of the above statements is true. While the US played a leading role in mass producing these items, none of them were invented / discovered by US citizens. Not even the airplane (giving the Wright brothers all the credit is what I call shallow)
"The time will get better. Our lives will continue to improve, living longer and playing with the latest gadgets. Both rich and poor will enjoy the advancement of the society: medicine, labor saving devices, be able to travel and entertain."
My, My aren't we in a nice little bubble.
I am one of the scmoes that played by the rules. What has it gotten me. I don't see any gadgets nearby. No cell phones or blackberrys. No airline or cruiseship tickets laying around. My most important gadget is my little 5" X 5" heater I use to heat my bedroom, since I have no central heat. I live as cheaply as possible. I own a mobile home, and a 12 year old Dodge Intrepid. And now the day before payday, I have $16 to my name. What gadgets and travel expenses can I afford with $16??? Maybe I can fill my tank up and... Wait, $16 won't do that. Maybe my friend and I can catch a movie.. No, won't cover that either. Guess I will stay home and watch sitcoms on the local T.V. Stations, while eating whatever was on sale at the discount grocery store.
The sad thing about this is, I am a lot more well off than some of my
neighbors.
I will try not to speculate on your situation RK so if this does not pertain to you, my apologies.
It is easy to be optimistic when your sitting in you $200,000 house with your wide screen plasma T.V. and your small fortune in unused exercise equipment, while sitting in a hot tub.
Meditate on this statement for a while. See if you can understand it. Maybe if you dim the lights, light some scented candles and play some traditional celtic music it will help.
"I have no money"
No money does not mean, "I have money in my savings account that I am deciding not to use" Or "I have money set aside for my Carribean vacation that I am deciding not to use" and It does not mean "I have money set aside for my childs college fund."
It means the total amount of money available to one is ZERO. Can you imagine that. Someone having NO money. Hard to believe, huh?
>What does bother me is that the Bush-Paulson-Pelosi Bailout of Stupid Banks will use my taxes to buy these bad loans from the foolish banks.
>So, who is the fool in this scenario? The “poor” person got to drive a Cadillac Escalade for a period of time, the foolish banks got bailed out, the bank CEOs took home $30 million, and I lived within my means and footed the bill for the reckless actions of others. It appears that the fools are the Americans who lived their lives according to the rules.
You're correct. Recall the story of the prodigal son? Particularly Luke 15:28-30:
>"The older brother became angry and refused to go in. So his father went out and pleaded with him. But he answered his father, 'Look! All these years I've been slaving for you and never disobeyed your orders. Yet you never gave me even a young goat so I could celebrate with my friends. But when this son of yours who has squandered your property with prostitutes comes home, you kill the fattened calf for him!'
The younger brother left with his money, lost it all, and ended up in debt. The good older brother, who saved wisely and worked hard, received no reward. In fact, some things that could be his are now being lavished upon the younger, foolish brother.
James Quinn, we are all fools. We are not being bailed out for our squandering, we are bailing out the prodigal son who spent it all on needless things. This is yet another reason religion is wrong.
I was going to say in UK and Europe right wing parties usually reduce deficit and left wing ones increase them, but thinking about it there plenty of example of right wing parties in Europe allowing deficits to mushroom. Right wing governments have a poor record of reducing deficits when compared to their rhetoric.
As a consequence, the Boomers were born & experienced childhood in the "perfect world." That world began to end in the late 1960s, just as the Greatest Generation was retiring... to Social Security payments that bought something & to a medical world that accepted Medicare patients... to defined company benefits.
But, our resources were in decline. Therefore, costs began to increase due to the need to import energy & raw materials. To keep prices down, our manufacturing moved overseas to benefit from cheap labor. Walmart took over... lower prices for people whose wages did not keep up. Free trade took over... with the idea that we would buy cheap products from China & in turn, they would buy our more expensive products with the money we paid them. That didn't work. They didn't buy. Instead, we borrowed.
The idea had been that our manufacturing should be replaced by other types of jobs, but the real benefit of manufacturing jobs is that it allowed people to work at jobs that require a high school or community college or trade school diploma & physical labor. They offered some stability & predictiblity. Many people do not want & cannot handle cubicle jobs. They don't want to constantly pursue more & more education that is outdated as soon as it is learned. They want a paycheck, a work life, & a family & home life.
But that is beside the point. Once our economy lost the manufacturing engine to power the economy & other things did not pan out to replace it, we became a "consumer" society. Consumerism replaced everything else as the economic engine.... Buy! Buy! Buy! Don't stop buying!... Do the patriotic thing... Shop! Consumerism replaced citizenship as the most important thing an American could be.
When we went to war, we were not told to cut back, to ration & sacrifice. To do so would hurt the economy. We were told to shop. It was the shopping that kept the economic engine running.
But it was foolishness. We literally were consuming the planet. The unfortunate part is that this is the ultimate goal of capitalism. Without comsumerism, there is no capitalism. Capitalism & even the very idea of "money" depends upon the sale of product.
Now the Chinese & the Indians will take our place as consumers.... & the world will continue to be consumed.
A new system must arise which does not requre a buyer & a seller. The consumer must be replace by the good citizen.
There are many issues in that article that are accurate, but the label of "The Shallowest Generation" is both insulting and shortsighted.
Yes, the priviledged boomers are in power, just as the priviledged have always been in power.
But Mr. Quinn ignores history in writing this article. He seeks to place blame without considering this country's past. This shallow generation, in the mean, fought in Viet Nam, in a war decreed by those he declares to be the "Greatest Generation".
This generation deserves more than shallow reporting.
When the "Greatest Generation" came home from war, they were declared national heroes, even if they were only camp cooks.
When the Viet Nam vets came home they were spit on by their contemporaries and reviled by the country at large (since we're being simplistic here) as baby killers, even if they were only camp cooks.
I'm on the young side of the boomer curve but old enough to remember these guys trying to reintegrate into society by going to college. Most were 8-10 years older than most juco students at that time and were great guys...until you gave them a couple of drinks or bong hits. Then their nightmares started coming out, didn't matter whether they were camp cooks or snipers or special ops, they'd lived with extreme fear and could withstand extreme pain.
I wasn't going to extend this story, but WTH. When I was in college, I knew this guy who was so calm, so sweet, and so caring you'd never have guessed he was a VN vet except he was 10 years older than most freshman.
One night at a party he drank too much, got into a fight (shocking, seriously. This was a calm as eff guy) and took off on his motorcycle. Predictably, he crashed it. He was 14 miles out of town in the countryside and missed a turn at 40-50 MPH and went through a triple strand barbed wire fence. I don't remember how far he went but he went through some trees too (I went and looked at the site and was frightened by the damage). He didn't call anyone for help, he picked up the bike and walked it back to his apartment...14 miles. He also showed up for his morning class two days later, limping and deeply torn up by the barbed wire.
I don't know what ever happened to him after that, I transfered to a 4Y 200 miles away soon after but the guy still haunts me and I wonder how Sandy is doing.
I donate to charities to help them, I rarely give money to individuals, but if I ever saw Sandy on the side of the road begging, I'd probably take him home.
Shallow? Maybe, but I don't think so. Brave and almost superhuman? Yes but no different than what your generation can expect in another 5-30 years from the Iraqi vets.
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Speaking for myself as a younger boomer? I have no debt, no credit cards, no car payments, and my humble home is paid for. All I have is the taxes I owe to all of the government entities, insurance on what I own, and the dispensable extras I currently choose to patronize: cable, cell, and internet.
Not all boomers are the same, James Quinn, and you should be ashamed for pushing that meme forward.
Get yer debt off my lawn!
- By using guns (Rome, Kublai Khan, Spain, England used guns)
- By using gold (Spain and England used them)
- By using religion (Spain mostly, US is atheism if that is religion)
- By using culture (US is the only one who tried and succeeded)
- By using technology (US and England)
- By using morality (US is currently trying hard)
Generally, in all the above categories, the US was able to dominate the world like no other country or generation in the past.
US maybe suffering the side-effects of its own successes. Everybody did.
The question is whether the US can keep it up for the next century?
And will it remain a Democracy or something new and better type of govt or will the US degenerate into a monster the whole world has no counterbalance of any type or form?
I thought that the generations after the baby boomers were the yuppies that were filling their garages with junk. I don't know the reasons, or who is to blame, but I feel the same as you; I resent the hell out of bailing out people that I think deserve to go down, many of which are laughing at me for being a chump. But I do realize why we are doing it; I just wish some responsible people were in charge, so the perpetrators won't be rewarded more than they should.
When I was younger, during the downturn in the 80s, I believed it would be best if the system failed. We cheered when the stock market fell. Back then, I had nothing to lose. Now I realize that a complete failure is not a good thing. I just wish I could have done something to avoid this situation earlier, but I'm pretty sure I wasn't a part of the problem.
While I think Boomers share much of the blame... our entire society has contributed to the mess that we're in.... from the Realtors pushing families into houses they can't afford to the borrowers taking on enormous debts to the lenders letting horrible loans go through to get this year's bonus to the politicians standing by encouraging it all (just keep the prosperity going until the next election)... we tried to borrow ourselves to riches without thinking about what was going to happen when we had to pay it all back. We also have a system that discourages saving (low interest rates that are taxed) and encourages debt (the holy grail of tax-deductibility of mortgage debt).
The thing that ticks me off the most about the Boomers, though, is that they'll be laughing all the way to the bank with Social Security and Medicare while I'm struggling to pay their entitlements AND pay back all of the debt that they left me with.
Politicians have long known that they get reelected by spending more than they tax, and borrowing the difference. This has been going on since before most of the boomers were born. When Reagan became president in 1981 (he wasn't a boomer, was he?), the national debt was $1 trillion. When Bush I (still no boomer) left office 12 years later, it was $4 trillion. It increased by $1T under Clinton, who at least made a decent attempt at the problem. Remember all those Republicans telling us how the economy would fall apart because Clinton raised taxes at the beginning of his first term?
And then we come to our current disaster of a President, George Bush II. Yes, he is chronologically a boomer, but in reality he is the Greatest Generation's last gift to its children. What can you say about an incompetent, shallow loser like that, except how sad it is that he was put into this office, in large part by religious fanatics who want to return to an earlier time that we have thankfully left behind. It is the Republicans' unwillingness to tax enough to cover government expenditures that has largely created our financial disaster.
The Greatest Generation deserves far more blame for this mess than their children. At least they are pretty much out the door, having enjoyed the full benefit and left the mess for their descendants. Ultimately, our current situation is the legacy of our military and economic victory in World War II.
Horrorism is not an excuse.....
Those on the tail end of the GG are sucking up their fair share of the bennies. I know, I work with a few of them. Aside from that, rather than casting generational aspersion or blame, is that the trajectory of the Welfare System was set about 1930 and demographics has a profound influence on the rise and fall of the system, independent of lifestyle and spending choices......
Incidentally, departing from the great depression and the great war, the GG had many of the same personal attitudes and habits of the Boomers. Where else would they have learned them?.......
My wife and I have always lived beneath our means. We looked at expensive homes when we moved to our current location but bought a manufactured one. I have viewed the excesses of the marketplace with the same chagrin you have, and knew a major downturn was inevitable.
So tell me again how I'm part of the problem. Painting others with a tar brush is no more acceptable in a generational discussion than it is in a political one, and shows you cannot possibly be a professional journalist. Next time, try to be more even-handed. We need more moderates in this country, not screaming finger-pointers.
On Oct 31 05:43 AM Alan von Altendorf wrote:
> Hmm. Well written. Thank you. Wish I could agree with the conclusion,
> but you were much nearer the solution when you admitted that playing
> by the rules made you a chump, an enabler, who implicitly allowed
> the grifters to snowball wildly out of control. How you believe that
> Barack Obama and a Democrat Congress can save anyone is inexplicable.