[LibertarianInExile]

"[A]ll of those since the "Greatest Generation" are full of people with their collective hands out instead of offering their hands to build our nation as our Grandfathers and Grandmothers did. Our world was salvaged by the GG and we are forever in their debt. To show our gratitude by putting our hands out in hopes of the "gubment cheese" is a slap in their faces."

Oh, give me a BREAK.

The Greatest Generation foisted SS and all this other government crap on America. Their 'sacrifice' was doing what any other generation ATTACKED BY ANOTHER COUNTRY would have done. This Tom Brokaw schtick is easy to sell to the boomer market and the self-congratulatory oldster market, but I'm not buying it. Most of those folks wanted to sacrifice no more than you or I do right now--they just had their backs against the wall, with Japs on the left and the Krauts on the right. And they came home and stuck their hands in the till with the GI Bill and Social Security right off the bat.

[phoenix0468]

Well, you have a point. Although SS had been around for some time before WWII, August 14, 1935. So to say that my Grandfather's generation was the one who passed it and saying they had a hand out because of the GI bill is really not fair.

And my rant isn't just with SS. And definitely not with the GI Bill. It is with things like Welfare, all of the money the Dept. of Ed. uses to hijak our school systems, and other agencies and entities that are bloated and overfunded.

The GI bill is probably one of the best things to happen to our military. It does two things that are quite effective. First, it gets people who otherwise wouldn't have had the opportunity to go to college in the military learning a trade. With this experience and their subsequent degree that they receive with the help of the money they EARNED from the GI bill (because to receive money from the GI bill you must first put into it) they can get much higher paying jobs.

Welfare on the other hand, does not motivate it's recipients to better themselves at all. It is purely a handout program and not a handup one like the GI Bill is.

Again, although I may not agree with some of your views, I do repect them. I still think that the last couple of generations (and of course not all of them) will be remebered for nothing more than bloating governemnt and creating dependencies on it. Outside of the War on Terror, which is being faught mostly by my generation (Gen Xers), the Baby Boomers don't have a lot of positives to show for themselves.