Posted on 01/25/2007 7:12:35 AM PST by qam1
Unless they act, the baby boomer generation has a rendezvous with ignominy.
Two reasons: the bungled prosecution of the present war, and the coming collapse of Medicare and Social Security.
If the boomers — who pretty much run everything now — don’t act, these stunning twin failures will come to define the generation in American history.
Long after the boomers are dust in the wind, historians will ponder: How did this generation of Americans so badly misjudge the threat and screw up the pursuit of their enemies?
They will wonder: How did brainy Bill Clinton, the first boomer president, fail to understand the rising ideological struggle of his time? Even as the Islamists declared their plans and bombed Americans around the world?
After the catastrophe of Sept. 11, 2001, why did George Bush, the second boomer president, stick with a war strategy that led to stalemate abroad and bitter division at home?
How can it be that two Ivy League-educated commanders in chief of the greatest military force the world had ever known, could not quell a fairly small, poorly equipped, force of jihadists who operated on a shoestring budget?
The comparisons to ragtag Germanic tribes staring down the Roman Republic from across the Danube will be irresistible.
If Bush’s latest strategy fails (and I hope it succeeds), he will simply punt the war to another administration.
What, yet another baby boomer president dealing with war? No thanks. Two is enough.
Meanwhile, back home, Medicare and Social Security are set to go broke on the boomers’ watch.
Historians may ponder how a generation so proud of its own social conscience was fairly untroubled to bankrupt the nation’s two most popular social programs and then stick their kids and grandkids with the bill.
The leading edge of the boomer generation is moving into its early 60s. The Grayest Generation will begin retiring by the millions soon.
They will demand their cut of the Social Security fund, which will begin running huge deficits in 10 years. In 33 years, the system will pretty much collapse, according to a 2006 report by the Trustees of Social Security and Medicare.
Fixing Social Security requires one of two measures: a 16 percent payroll tax increase; or a 13 percent reduction of benefits — today.
Otherwise, financial disaster approaches.
All those cute little kids who surrounded Nancy Pelosi on her elevation to Speaker of the House might not feel so warm and fuzzy about the moment when, in 30 years, they realize they are forced to fork over eight or 10 thousand bucks a year to support boomers who didn’t bother saving enough for retirement.
But this pales, compared to Medicare.
Medicare, which pays medical bills for millions of elderly Americans, will go broke in 11 years. Keeping it solvent will require — catch your breath here — an “immediate” 121 percent tax increase or an “immediate” 51 percent cut in services, according to the ’06 trustees report.
Have you heard any baby boomer politician or pundit mention these grim facts? It’s an open secret. We mustn’t tell the Gen Xers.
If the war is lost and nukes spread, and if two vital social programs are allowed to be bankrupted, the baby boomers will be the first generation to see America cease to be a great world power as intergenerational resentment consumes our politics.
Some legacy.
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus
Ping list for the discussion of the politics and social (and sometimes nostalgic) aspects that directly effects Generation Reagan / Generation-X (Those born from 1965-1981) including all the spending previous generations are doing that Gen-X and Y will end up paying for.
Freep mail me to be added or dropped. See my home page for details and previous articles.
They will print more money to pay this or enact mandatory euthanasia.
World power is a function of comparative power, not absolute power.
With all due respect to our demographic and financial problems, our prospects look great compared to our rivals. See EU, Russia, China, Japan. All have much greater problems looming in these same areas.
From Americas 'Greatest Generation'
To Americas 'Most Ungrateful Generation'.
Don't count on any foriegn nations allying
themselves with a Democratic run America
either. With the Democrats again betraying
our friends and allies, what nations would
dare count on us?
I clicked on this thread cause I thought it was going to be about submarines.
Hence most Gen Xers utter loathing of the Baby Boomers.
The Boomers will be remembered as the most selfish, self-centered, self-absorbed, self-important, self-aggrandizing, arrogant, sanctimonious hypocrites the world has ever seen. I wish I'd been born 20 years later so that I could actually enjoy some portion of my life WITHOUT the Boomers around to screw everything up for my generation. As it is, most of them will still be around when I retire... oh wait, I won't be eligible for retirement until I'm at least 72, so maybe some of the Boomers will have died by then.
Standard Disclaimer: I am well aware that not all members of the Boomer generation fit the description above (after all, the Boomers did manage to produce Rush Limbaugh).
Yup. I think the SS wage limit is up to 94 or 97K now, no limit for Medicare. It's a boatload of money with no guarantee of any return. I get furious thinking about how many extra years I'll need to work due to all the earnings the government is taking from me.
Does anyone expect anything positive from a generation named "the Destructive Generation"?
Love and peace brother.
How is it that the so-called "Greatest Generation" are the parents of the baby-boom generation, otherwise to be known as "The Worthless Generation"? The cancerous garbage and drivel of the 60's came from the kids of those who fought WW2. Were they such God-awful parents or what?
"Were they such God-awful parents or what?"
Not my parents, they were great! That's why I am great...
As to social security, he's dead on. The current generation of retirees are simply stealing from the next few generations and when the bill comes due they will be remembered for it harshly, but advance knowledge of that isn't going to change a thing.
"If the boomers — who pretty much run everything now — don’t act, these stunning twin failures will come to define the generation in American history."
They already have, in my opinion, defined themselves for history, for unmitigated greed, arrogance, and pure, unadulterated nonsense.
The rise of the Boomer has led us to:
massive debt that will take generations just to service the interest let alone the principle
complete and utter corruption of our legal system and politics
the complete and utter splintering and polarization of American politics
the complete destruction and corruption of education
the destruction of American industry and the middle class
the destruction of morality and honor in American society
fought for and enabled generations of people living off the taxes of others, let the poor and criminal from other countries invade and overwhelm ours.
Created a nanny state where they have corrupted our very language with PC ridiculousness and taken our rights away in the name of children and "the common good"
Stripped us slowly of the rights the Constitution stated wer bestowed upon us by God, that man could not take away, and the slow erosion of more of our rights to live free and to pursue happiness.
This has all happened on their watch, or is happening, and they show no interest, courage nor ability to change ANY of it.
Day by day I gorw more resentful of the generation that precedes me, as I watch our country go further and further into the abyss, and they continue to tax us to death and spend like drunken sailors, and strip our rights away, all teh while acting like children calling each other names in the schoolyard. I'm fed up and sick of people like Pelosi and Hillary, who only seek to destroy, not build, I'm tired of politicians in general with their lies and shady deals and complete ignorance of how their actions or inaction effects us working schlubs every day, I don't care what Donald Trump and Rosie O'donnel think about each other (like it matters!), I'm tired of being told Mexican nationals have ANY rights in my country, and I have less, I'm tired of not knowing how to refer to someone, or say the wrong thing and get hammered by the PC police...
I want out, or I want change. We started a revolution for far less, but I don't know it that's the answer. I'm just starting to not like this country much anymore, but there's really nowhere that's better. I have no faith in politicians, judges, or juries. It's all out of whack.
And I'm not the only one that feels that way. Most people I know my age feel unfranchised and ripped off.
Our parents did great things, but those things are overshadowed by the greed and corruption and BS that we face every day.
Something has to give. Some have turned to liberals, only to find insanity and unstable people. Some like me turned to conservatism and the GOP, only to be let down time and time again. Green Party? Libertarian? They have some good ideas, but both parties are infected with the moonbat syndrome.
I try to be optimistic, but it's getting harder and harder to not be pessimistic. I've watched the entire country get turned upside down in my lifetime, and I can't find my country anymore. I try to roll with the changes...but I don't like this new country thats been foisted off on me much.
Is there any hope?
Liberal Boomers are primarily short-sighted. It's one thing to be a self-centered, greedy, corrupt SOB, but it's another to destroy the seed corn that these morons have to rely on come the future.
By their corrosive and destructive reign, they've pretty much guaranteed that future generations will not have the societal stability, means nor motivation to support them after they've finished their stint at the pig trough.
And as for "brainy" Clinton and other would-be Einsteins, I have to say - it takes a high degree of "intellectualism" to generate the intricate networks of obfuscations and delusions that have so effectively obscured the blatantly friggin' obvious in their oh-so "refined" minds.
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