Meet the Greedy Grandparents

Slate ^ | Dec. 10, 2003 | Steve Chapman

[superloser]

Anyone who wants to call us so-called "rich" baby boomers 'selfish, self-centered, etc.' better watch their mouths around me!

Why?

Not everyone is the same.

That is something most people forget in their myopia and anger.

Please calm down and look at what you're saying.

[wtc911]

"WILD IN THE STREETS".... last line...."Don't trust anyone over sixteen"....

The genuinely sad aspect is the couple of Xers who laid their tragic childhoods out for all to see then use their misfortunate parentage to condemn anyone their parents' age.

[Siamese Princess]

Another wrinkle in the story is the meager fertility rates. Social security was originally based on assumptions that families would continue to have more children. More children means more workers and more GDP.

Why have kids? The government will take care of you in your old age. Actually, government old age pensions encourage childlessness. You can spend your money on yourself and then in your old age expect other people's children to support you.

[m18436572]

BUMP!

[Siamese Princess]

I agree. I have enough faith in this country's pragmatic, nihilistic outlook and moral relativism to realize that Junior is never going to be burdened by the Me Generation -- if they start to cost him too much, he'll simply have them euthanized.

I think that likely. The Baby Boomers have set many bad moral examples to their children. For one thing, to many Boomers, selfishness is a virue not a vice. Another reason is what goes around comes around -- every good reason for abortion is an equally good reason for euthanasia. Remember too, that for various reasons, such as divorce, many Boomers (especially men) have little or no relationship with their children, if they have children at all. Huge numbers of elderly Boomers will have no one able or willing to look after them and can easily be disposed of because no one will care. I think that it is likely that some form of euthanasia will be widely practiced, even if not legal.

Pat Buchanan predicted in his book The Death of the West that involuntary euthanasia will be practiced in Europe.

[BraveMan]

This thread is pretty entertaining . . .

Look's like we've come full circle!

[Siamese Princess]

The boomers support the subsidies to seniors only because they expect to cash in on it themselves. So the boomers have in fact been stealing the money of the generations after them already, in order to pay for their own parents' retirement, when historically this is their responsibility and not their childrens'. For some strange reason the boomers are the only generation that assumes no responsibility to support their parents in their old age.

That's the welfare state in a nutshell -- avoiding responsibility for yourself and your own.

[Siamese Princess]

I'm solidly pro-life, but when it comes to euthanasia for baby boomers I will be conspicuously absent from the opposition.

Stangely enough, you may be right -- and I am a Baby Boomer myself! There would be a certain rough justice if euthanasia was widely practiced (even if not strictly leagal) and many of my generation, especially the liberals, feared their own children. What goes around comes around.

[wtc911]

"We hate your guts you greedy sons of b*itches"

Endorses euthanasia for boomers.

Holds all boomers responsible for 40million abortions.

Can't wait for his revenge when we are old and weak.

Attributes his own emotion to his "entire generation", which is symptomatic of grandiosity.

Rational or dysfunctional talk?

My suggestion that there are more personal underlying issues at work here that should be dealt with was genuine.

[Siamese Princess]

Memo to the baby boomers from Gen X: We have known how you are bankrupting us for a long time already. We already hate your guts, you greedy sons of b-tches.

Your opinion is common among the children of divorce -- many have a grudge against one or both parents.

[Siamese Princess]

I daresay you are a damn fine person, Cupcakes, despite your parents, not because.

[qam1]

The genuinely sad aspect is the couple of Xers who laid their tragic childhoods out for all to see then use their misfortunate parentage to condemn anyone their parents' age.

Nope! I have boomers parents and I can say in raising me they did the best they could and overall while not perfect by a long shot they were darn good and I know they will be there for me no matter what. Nothing but praise here about the way my parents raised me. However I know I am the expection to the rule.

My "Hostility" towards the baby boomers comes from what other baby boomer parents did to their kids and the over all big net negative effect the baby boomers had and continue to have on my country. 

I was born in 1970 so there was a split between kids my age that had parents that were baby boomers and kids that had parents that were of the silient generation. The difference between the two was easily seen. The baby boomer parents were never around and lot of the time their kids were being raised by their grandparents for they were out doing their own thing and couldn't be bothered. At "Kiddie" functions before I knew any better I used to feel a little weird because it always seemed that my parents were always so much younger than the other kid's parents, Of course the reason for this was because the parents of kids my age who were baby boomers my parents age or younger couldn't be bothered doing anything with or for their kids.

[JoeSixPack1]

Excellent find!! I remember when and where I saw it!!

Full circle or are we looping???

[qam1]

I am the expection to the rule. I am the exception to the rule

[RamingtonStall]

The Current Day Politicians are every bit as bad as any we have had for the past 60 years.

Let them pay first by forfeiting their Pensions and then I will be happy to retire later and do without Social Security.

RamS

[Siamese Princess]

I think what the boomers don't get about abortion is that it is the ultimate expression of how they view all other human beings - as objects to manipulate or destroy at their pleasure.

Be fair, thoughtomator, many people in their 20s and 30s have the same attitude and are every bit as bad.

[JoeSixPack1]

How does one go about correcting 12 years of victimology 101??
2-4 years of sociology 101,
and 2 years pre-K of "The building blocks of how to be offended"?

[qam1]

This whole thread is amusing as a all get out. Gen X hating BB's isn't even a new idea. They stole it!!

Remember back in the 60's when we 'lived' the phrase - "don't trust anyone over 30"? All the same words on this thread.

No, Because unlike the Baby Boomers whose hatred of past generations goes as far back as the founding fathers for the most part Gen-X & Y doesn't hate all Generations before them. We just dislike the Baby Boomers, Hell many Gen-X and Gen-Y were/are raised by their Silent/WWII grandparents because their boomer parents are out putting their career first or doing their own thing first and couldn't be bothered. While yes the WWII & Silent Generations did dabble in socialism they never conceived of taking it to the extremes the baby boomers did and unlike the baby boomers they still believed in strong American and Family values.

[adx]

Load Social Security with more obligations than it can bear, and our precious offspring will be squashed under the weight. To fund all the obligations of the Social Security system, payroll taxes will have to more than double by 2040—on top of whatever it costs to buy all those prescription drugs. At that point, our children will realize the trick we've pulled and start to hate our guts.

They'll probably do more than that. Involuntary euthanization for those that cost too much to fix, or those above a certain age, anyone?

PS: Not saying I support that, but it wouldn't surprise me if it came to pass.

[thoughtomator]

Pointing out that it is personal to me, which I will not hesitate to confirm, means nothing. It is personal in the same way that the War on Terror is personal to me, having been inside the WTC the first time it was hit. Are you going to argue that the War on Terror is wrong because it is personal to me? Neither is a rhetorical war against the destruction the boomers have wrought.

I don't see a lot of people in the boomer generation who fought hard against it. I see a lot of feminists and husbands who went along to get along.

If you think I am taking a huge leap by claiming that these sentiments are broadly held, you may want to avail yourself of GenX literature. I have a funny feeling I know a lot more GenXers than you do. And if you need more proof, witness that at least 4 other GenXers have confirmed what I have said, on this very thread. My experience, rather than an isolated personal trauma, is common theme to the GenX generation.

This is what they mean when, for example, there's a 50%+ divorce rate and you do nothing. Where were the boomers then? Well, if more than 50% of marriages fail, you're going to end up with more than 50% of the kids of those marriages who feel like this. Thus was born GenX, the first majority-alienated generation. And divorce was but a single of the immensely varied tools with which the boomers shredded the moral, social, and spiritual fabric of this nation.

[thoughtomator]

I agree. There are those people in our generation... but they are not a majority and the percentage is shrinking as our unwillingness to be silent about it begins to burst open the pro-death propaganda barrel handed down to us.

[Siamese Princess]

The Day-Care Generation is not all that bonded to their parents. They learned to survive pretty much on their own with not all that much emotional attachment to anyone, since all they saw was a long succession of minimum-wage "providers" from an early age. All those chickens will come home to roose when they also decide that they have to be "practical," just like their parents were when they needed them as babies and toddlers.

Absolutely right. Someone once said, "if you stick your child in a day care center when he is little, because you want a life, don't be surprised when he sticks you in a nursing home when you're old, because he wants a life!"

Also, divorce tends to hurt the parent-child relationship. As a Baby Boomer myself, I think that few in my generation realize the widespread anger many young people feel towards one or both parents, because of divorce, daycare, etc. I've seen it and there will be hell to pay.

[wingnuts'nbolts]

Go suck eggs. When SS was founded all those 65 or older couldn't take advantage of it. Oh, Well. What about those who since 1935 when they were all of 10 yrs. old and have been paying into SS ever since 1955, when they went to work,
who are receiving meager benefits for the investment? It is not charity or an entitlement it is their money. Their life's saving in most instances. I know pure conservatives are going to scream "Unconstitutional". Again, oh well, it is and it has been since 1935. Tell it to the mountain.

[wtc911]

You are right about one thing...I had no idea you guys were such whining poor-me types. About the rest...well, as I noted before, you clearly have issues.

[wtc911]

I wonder who will be the Jesse Jackson in this bunch, the one to rise up and lead these poor victims. The more victimization rhetoric I see here, the more I appreciate the way mine, and the others I know, turned out.

[wtc911]

Joe, don't you love it when some stranger tells you whom you hate, heck whom everyone your age hates? One gets the strong impression that these spite filled folks got their concepts of what life was like before their light graced our world from Hollywood and That Seventies Show?

It's funny, no, it's pathetic that these posters are in their thirties, not their teens.

Q, since so many of your friends are so messed up because their parents were messed up, upon whom do you place the blame for those parents being that way?

[thoughtomator]

If the boomers are as determined to ignore the sewage they've left at the nation's doorstep as you, then they will have much more serious issues than I might have, in about 15-20 years. A generation growing senile while gorging itself at the public trough is going to be in for a rough fall when the money runs out. How many years past 2013 do you think this Ponzi scheme is going to hold up?

Moreover, the question of euthanasia will be raised, as it seems it is at least once a generation. With GenXers at the peak of their political power, and by that time a mature GenY generation with very similar, if not worse experience with family matters, the boomers will be in extremely poor position. Having brutally destroyed all respect for family ties most by their words and deeds, to whom will elderly boomers plead? To the GenXers and GenYers they use as pawns to indulge their narcissism?

It will be very difficult to make a credible moral case against euthanasia for the boomer generation, given the boomer generation's overwhelming support for AND practice of feticide, AND which dumped the problem for ending the holocaust on the next, AND which abhored the Word of God by which they would otherwise know that to murder is forbidden.

Since you're so into issues, why don't you work out the issue of why boomers are so scared of God that they won't even tell their children that God forbids them to murder? Is this rampant deiophobia indicative of some deep psychological urge to self-actualize their own mortality?

[liberallyconservative]

This is only food for thought, but I hope all here on this thread will take the time to look at a real-life scenario: my mom.

Mom is 76 years old, widowed, and living entirely on SS. (My father had no retirement plan & left her in some financial straits that took me several years to pay off after his death.)

Her monthly check is not quite $900. She is a cancer survivor, but still has other medical problems which require nearly $300 in meds monthly. Due to numerous hospitalizations (and the inherent co-pays that Medicare does not cover), she pays $130 monthly for supplemental insurance. So nearly half of her money is "gone" before we even begin to address the issues of normal living expenses.

Needless to say, my brother and I supplement her income as best we can just so she can continue to to lead a fairly comfortable existence, but it's HARD on all involved.

There are no easy answers. I know that it won't be long before she will have to move in with me, but she wants to remain independent as long as she can.

Please don't think I'm complaining; Mom has sacrificed all her life to provide for her family. It's the least I can do to see that she is provided for in her advancing years.

[thoughtomator]

Of course you had no idea. It is not in your nature to take into account anything but your own self - this is the defining trait of the boomer generation.

I, on the other hand, know quite well the psychology of boomer denial. What you don't seem to understand is that the world you take for granted - one in which human life is respected - is not the one you passed along. I have been giving you a heads-up on an inevitable and extremely rude awakening.

But of course it is not in your nature to even consider the possibility - the cargo-cult nature of the boomer-parented family simply doesn't permit it any more than it permitted a Pacific Islander to understand factories, airplanes and supply lines.

I *should* know better than to imagine you would react in any other way than you have, but if you've found your way to FR then the probability was greater than average that you'd get it. Hope you will before it's too late.

[Axenolith]

Remember that stupid *itch Pat Schroeder from CO? She proposed levying an across the board 10% taking on everyones 401K and IRA when she was in office!

I hope she's having an uncomfortable retirement...

[bc2]

.

[qam1]

So you are painting the Baby Boom with Liberalism?

That's what this forum is about. Lots of us grew up, lots of them didn't. The previous generation before the BB was responsible for the creation of Communism and Socialism. Are you saying they are all Communists and Socialists?

Yes and no. The Baby Boomers are Communist, Socialist, Fascist and Capitalist depending on whatever serves your selfish needs. When it comes to entitlements, Lawsuits and health/safety regulations you are very Socialist, Communist and Fascist, However when it comes to things that effected you directly like abortion and divorce laws then all of a sudden you became very Libertarian.

You can't win that particular argument since all you have to do is grab the bad examples. The Baby Boom also was responsible for an end to racial barriers

No you didn't. Racial Barriers started to break down right after WWII and would have continued with or without the Baby Boomers. Plus all the big civil rights leaders like MLK were not baby boomers. With baby boomers you replaced leaders like MLK with Jesse Jacksons and Al Sharptons. In fact with your Affirmative action, Welfare state and dumbing down of the schools (especially those of the inner city) it can be argued that the baby boomers if anything are the cause of the racial barriers/problems remaining today.   

and inroducing concepts of justice for all, not just a select few.

Give me a break, You have to be kidding, No Generation has and continues to piss on the Constitution as much as yours.

By justice for all baby boomer style you mean criminals have more rights than their victim. Murders and pedophiles instead of being held responsible for their crimes instead have their actions excused away by blaming society and evil America or whatever other Psycobabble that baby boomer lawyers can think of.  

The problem is after the battle was won too many of soldiers liked the power it gave them. We are fighting that monster now.

Another words they became self-serving baby boomers like the rest of you.

And there are more Boomers involved in the WOT than Gen-Xers. The WOT is not seen as "belonging" to Gen X (in fact most soldiers are Gen-Y).

No from http://www.defenselink.mil/prhome/poprep2001/chapter4/chapter4_4.htm

The mean age of all active officers was 34 years, while that of enlisted members was 27 years clearly puts them in the Xer category. Also it should be pointed out that the people running WOT and the previous Gulf war Donald Rumsfeld, Tommy Franks, Paul Wolfowitz and Norman Schwarzkopf are not baby boomers

I will tell you this, There are more baby boomers out there on the current Anti-American protest marches than Generation X-ers.

And Gen-X did NOT invent the Information Age. I have been part of that my entire adult life. Gen-x just hopped on to the train the baby Boom created.

Oh yeah, How silly of me it was that great shinning example of the baby boomer generation Al Gore who invented the internet.

Computers were around before the baby boomers. Compare a computer of the 1960s to the computer of the early 1980's. Now compare a computer of today to a computer just 3 years ago. There were bigger breakthroughs and more applications derived in the later time period. The X-ers may have not invented computers but we were the ones who found all the new applications for them and brought them into the mainstream while when you were our age you were doing Blow in the bathroom of Studio 54. 

Your assertion that the great artists from the Boom were from the precious generation is patently false. As much as I like the music from the 40's it has not passed the test of time like the music of the 60s and 70s (except disco).

Re-Read what I've said. Most of the musicians like the Beatles, Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, The Doors, etc were not themselves baby boomers.

Just give up. You can't win this argument. Accept the fact that yours is a lost, shallow and slacker generation and try to do what you can to make things better so if and when you all grow up you don't have to apologize for it.

I sense extreme jealously on your part and I understand your hostility it must be hard being in a generation that has accomplished nothing and has fully or partially destroyed many great American institutions and values. You have failed your parents and you have failed your kids and you have failed your country. The Baby Boomers will go down as being the worst generation in American history, No generation comes close to all the negative effects the baby boomers have wrought. It must be especially hard since your generation is a bunch of parasites that is sandwiched between two Generations that has and will accomplish much and has had such a positive effect on the world.  

[qam1]

Q, since so many of your friends are so messed up because their parents were messed up, upon whom do you place the blame for those parents being that way?

That's a good question

I have always wondered how a generation like the WWII could produce such a monster as the baby boomers. My personal hypothesis is the WWII generation isn't very adaptable to change and new things (Just look how they can't phathom how to work a VCR while a even 4 year old can) which at the time they were raising the baby boomers the world was under going great change which they were simply unable to cope with and change their parental skills to match the time so the baby boomers just ran wild on them.

Either that or all the Atomic testing that happened during the 40's & 50's screw them up in the womb

[Axenolith]

Dude, arm-chair psychotherapy is for losers, it sounds like my sister-in-law, and she plans on voting for Hillary...

[wtc911]

You know, you and the other cry babies on this thread have done me a real favor. It's good to know well in advance what many of you children have in mind for us when we, as one of you so bravely put, get too weak. (of course you will have to wait a long long time before you can face us on even ground) I've never joined anything in my life, most of my friends haven't either. We've never hated another group before either, except the islamist killers. We certainly don't fear any group of ranting whiners who feel they have to wait for our eventual infirmity to act against us.

What you and some of the other kids have shown here tonight is a truly pathetic bout of poor me, the big bad people over there are responsible for everything wrong, everything bad, every reason why I can't grow up and stop this embarassing self pity. You people are supposed to be adults by now. Your behaviour is remarkably adolescent.

Even though you say that your sense of victimhood is common for your age group I don't believe it. I know too many in their 20s and 30s who are real adults and are focused on living like adults and moving forward. Maybe it's just you and your circle who are effed up and looking for someone to blame.

If I knew your parents I would feel as embarassed for them as I do sorry for you. Or, maybe I'd feel they got exactly the kind of kids they deserved. Either way, good luck working things out.

[wtc911]

Dude, living your life hating and waiting to get revenge on strangers for sh** your parents did to you is dysfunctional. Ranting about euthanizing a whole generation because you can't compete is twisted...doesn't take a PHD to know that.

And, Dude, I'll stack my CV against yours any way you want and see who's the loser.

[Hank Rearden]

We need to keep the 'promise' to them.

I didn't promise a damn thing. Corrupt vote-buying politicians who died before I was born did that.

Screw it. Shut down this crap NOW! Or the underground economy will continue to grow and thrive as most people tell the government to cram it.

[stevio]

Some of our friends, who are in that generation, gave a slight sneer everytime we mentioned that we're having baby. We have 3 and most of them have 1 or even none. I do mention that our kids will be paying their SS. Plus I mention that if America can allow 1,000,000+ immigrants a year into this country, our few aren't going to matter. It's going to be real hard to be sympathetic to their needs in their old age.

[Joe Brower]

Well, gee, Glenn, since you're such a top-notch activist, succeed where all the rest of us fail, and know all the answers to how to resolve this dilemma, why don't you forgo the baiting attempts at insults and share with all of us your brilliant solution.

If you have one, genius. I'm not holding my breath.

[NeoCaveman]

I agree. I have enough faith in this country's pragmatic, nihilistic outlook and moral relativism to realize that Junior is never going to be burdened by the Me Generation -- if they start to cost him too much, he'll simply have them euthanized.

Well they aborted or contracepted out half of our generation so I do suspect the culture of death, of which they've benefited (less kids more vacation money) will ultimately pull the plug on them, so to speak.

[Axenolith]

But the over-dramatization is a bit much. Sure, the guy may be emotional about the subject, but you know HE himself does not want to euthanize anyone. Why not just address the point?

Granted, the generational issue is pretty stupid because any given generation, given the opportunity to help others and themselves with other peoples money are going to do it. It's been the demise of every society that has headed down that road and I don't see us being particularly special and an exception to that rule...

And, Dude, I'll stack my CV against yours any way you want and see who's the loser.

You have an aircraft carrier!? COOL!

[Phaedrus]

It bothers me, a lot, when I see our politicians borrowing money that my kids and grandkids will have to repay and spending it to buy votes. The across-the-board greed is appalling. The money won't be repaid. And the Republicans are no better than the Democrats. Democracy is failing because the Takers are outnumbering the Producers and Givers -- and include in the Takers every recipient of any government dollar beginning with millions of government employees. We may be talking Civil War II. We most certainly are talking Hard Times.

[Glenn]

why don't you forgo the baiting attempts at insults and share with all of us your brilliant solution

You're hysteric. Take a deep breath. You're missing the big picture here. What's done is done. They'll tinker and toy with "the third rail" until it eventually dies.

Your desire to blame someone is a reaction and that is about all you'll ever be able to do about it -- react. Anger at those who do or will receive something from the system is not helpful at all.

[freedumb2003]

You Xers are really angry.

There is so much mis- and dis-information in your post that it is pointless to even try to set you straight. I haven't seen such a load since Hitlery's book.

Several GX posters here have accused the BB of one thing of which we are clearly guilty. Based on your posts, we clearly have many Boomers who are TERRIBLE parents.

[Joe Brower]

If that's 'hysteric' to you, Glenn, then you don't know the meaning of the word.

As for anger at what's been done, there's nothing wrong with that. I simply am recognizing what has been done before I was born, and use my displeasure to fuel my actions to counter it. You make an awful lot of assumptions about me, most of them wrong. You need to take a deep breath yourself and change that bad habit.

One wonders what you have done, other than berate others who are indeed in the fight. And I'm still wondering what answers you have. Got any?

[Phaedrus]

This is how and why democracy breaks down. People who vote are allowed to vote their self-interest and make it pay. "Interest groups" are glorified. Politicians are encouraged to buy the votes of those who don't contribute. It doesn't add up. There will always be more seemingly justifiable ways to spend money than to earn it or save it. It IS a ponzi scheme. And a Self-Fulfilling Lie. It ain't gonna be pretty. Unless we wake up and grow up. Fast.

Nasty article BTW.

[Phaedrus]

Answers? We are going to have to rethink universal suffrage. And act accordingly. Do we have the will? And the foresight? And the courage? And the selflessness?

Doubtful, in my humble opinion.

[Phaedrus]

The future is now.

[Axenolith]

I'll stack my CV against yours any way you want and see who's the loser.

If you mean that to be Curriculum Vitae then...
California Registered Geologist
Hazardous Materials First Responder
Remedial systems operator
QA/QC manager on Superfund site
Member:
American Association For Advancement of Science
Americal Chemical Society
American Geophysical Union

For the record too, my boomer parents ROCK. Pops is a retired Lt. Col with 2 tours in Vietnam flying (and being shot down in) helicopters. Their parents (all still alive) recall FRD's confiscation of peoples gold as the crime it was. There aren't any slackers in this geneology, all the way back to ~1700...

[The Green Goblin]

I wonder if all of the little whinie-hinies who are cursing "old geezers" can even remember how hard their folks worked to get them those cars they thought they HAD TO HAVE the day they turned 16; or the $100 pair of shoes or jeans they couldn't live without; or the $500+ spent on graduation night for a limo, corsage, dress or suit; or all of the video tapes and CD's and computers and TV's...all of which you had to have in your VERY OWN room; or all of the stuff (amounting to thousands of dollars) that you demanded you 'needed' BECAUSE EVERYBODY ELSE HAS IT!

I don't remember any of those things, most likely because my parents didn't do them...