On the Retirement of the First Baby Boomers: Gotcha
When I was sixteen and back from Woodstock I was told never to trust anyone over thirty. We were the Love Generation and they were just too uptight. The Man was about war and death we were – hey man, don’t let that go out — about Love.
That was a mistake. Sure, my parents’ generation yelled at us and spanked us, before my generation defined that as abuse and outlawed it. My parents’ generation also drank highballs too often and smoked cigarettes too much. But even drunk and pre-cancerous they gave us real guidance, real love and real protection from the Nazis, the fascists, the Stalinists, the Maoists, and THE BOMB.
Anyone under 30 today, however, who is foolish enough to trust anyone of my Love generation is simply a fool. And that is not a mistake, embarrassing as that may be for me to say. Never trust a Baby Boomer. Really, never do.
We moralizing Baby Boomers have primarily given the generation entrusted to us the joy of victim politics and an enormous price tag for it too. We Boomers standardized divorce, fatherless families, Ritalin, atheism, extortionately priced higher education, inadequate public education, government programs and the pornography net. We Boomers traded traditional religions for armies of social workers, legions of psycho-babblers and innumerable platoons of professionally outraged quasi-militants of all stripes and varieties. But God (who we know does not exist!) knows we Boomers are far from done. We are now working assiduously hard to make sure our kids --YOU-- foot the bill for our Social Security while we make absolutely sure you are not allowed to save for your own social security. Ask AARP their position on allowing Social Security savings plans for you whippersnappers. “No the youth simply are not enlightened enough to save effectively without government aid.”
Article comments
— go to most recent comments1 - Mark Schannon
Great, great post! It needs a little sarcasm to make it nastier (;-) but well argued, beautifully written, and, alas, speaking as a Boomer, all too true.
In Jamesons Veritas
2 - John Spivey
Talk about broad brush strokes. Why all the spleen? As a boomer I know people that might fit your description, but far more who don't. I know people of all generations who I cringe to be around. I know people of all generations that I want to be around. There are many reasons for the mess we're in, but we are all part of the problem and we all have to figure out the solution.
P.S. In the ranting against the culture of victimization you're using your entire post to validate that present generations can claim victimization by us as their excuse.
3 - Brian Sorrell
Maybe the brush is broad, but the point is well taken and well articulated. (May I say that I checked out your blog first and see that you're a philosopher: so am I).
I don't see this as a justification for laying claim to victimization, as #2 suggests. Rather, I see this as a quasi-dystopic warning. The suggestion is that any generation is susceptible to the corruption and (what I call) "entitlement egoism" that our author has found in his peers -- even though they zealously rejected these same things in their respective youths.
Additionally, the point made is a general one. One cannot legitimately reject the point by adducing specific cases. This, in effect, redefines (or restricts) the population from which the generalization was drawn. To say "I know people who don't think this way" is far simpler than "your generalization is flawed", but specific cases are not evidence against generalizations.
The emerging gadget-obsessed generation(s) would do well to read this piece twice.
4 - Bliffle
Very poor article. For example, did the AARP really say: "No the youth simply are not enlightened enough to save effectively without government aid."? As you assert by putting the remark in quotes? Or was that rhetorical hyperbole? What is one to think of your other assertions?
I don't care to defend boomers, being a pre-boomer myself, but I think this article is not only malevolent against seniors in general, but wrong in fact. Knowingly wrong, I suspect. Where did you go to school, the Geo W Bush School of WMD Salesmanship?
5 - Ruvy in Jerusalem
I -- uh-- enjoyed this article. It is painfully true of too many boomers, though having waited a bit before inflicting my defective genes on some poor thing as my shot into the future, I watched some of the pathetic mistakes my generation has made.
What is the sign of my boomerhood? Did you see the first word in my comment? That should say it all.
I - I should properly say my wife and I - she carried the kids and fed them when they were two and I couldn't stand to watch them do what standard two year olds do when eating (she did a lot more, but I don't have all day to write) - have tried hard to isolate our sons from the poisonous boomer culture of me! me! me!
We want to give our sons a future in the land. We want to give them hope of something better than just the next x-boz, i-pod or ecstasy pill that is hustled by the corporate world.
And we both know that there is justice in the world. The younger generations will kick out the boomers before their retirement pensions come due. The boomers will discover how coldly business can be done when you are just to damned old to work a fourteen or fifteen hour day.
We also did something else. We taught our kids to honor their parents. I only pray it sticks.
6 - Bliffle
There are a lot of greedy people around aside from boomers. In fact, I'd venture to say I've met more greedy post-boomers than boomers in the last 20 years.
7 - zingzing
and where do greedy post-boomers come from? the crotch of a boomer.
i don't think this article is saying that boomers are bad people, they aren't really; but it may be saying that if every boomer gets what they expect, the burden will be too much for the post-boomer to bear. the boomer horde is barely holding social security together as it is... imagine what happens when they claim their own. where does it come from?
8 - Michael J. West
The Onion said it best with their "historical" article about the end of World War II: "Returning GIs Vow to Spawn Whiniest Generation Ever."
9 - John Spivey
It's painful to see all the vitriol pointed at my generation. It's akin to a whole race of people being blamed for the woes of a nation. We Jumped into the Peace Corps and VISTA and we helped to end the evils of outright segregation. Is this narcissism? Is this whiny? Where does this social consciousness exist now? In a video on some slacker's IPod? My father was an alcoholic but I don't blame his generation for breeding him. Every generation plays the hand that they are dealt. This is still a giant blame game. We didn't create Social security nor did we steal from it or hijack it. We didn't create our numbers. Might as well blame our overbreeding parents.
As far as logic goes, I don't see the correlation of the cost of college and my generation. I don't know if you're a logician, but statement A does not lead to statement B.
10 - gonzo marx
well now...i'm going to need some time ot parse this bit more carefully...but the baseline i can see right off the bat comes down to a one word reason to "not trust boomers"
hypocrisy
as a group, they have sold out just about everything they ever professed to believe in , and turned Idealism into fashion trends...at the very least
bah....i could go on and on...but you get the drift
Excelsior!
11 - Loren
I think its all relative. In 1983, social security was months from collapse. It was rescued by increasing witholding slightly and creating its first surplus to take care of the pig in a python babyboomers. This fund is now being used by the government for general revenue while cutting the taxes of the well healed and depleting what we have built up. But back to 1983, at the time I never thought I would get a check from ss but felt it would take care of my parents/grandparents. My concern was how am I ever going to get a home, what the WW2 generation paid under 10k for a typical suburban home would cost me around $100K, an unimaginable figure! Now that home is worth over $400k and I am 10 years from social security. I am just a working guy and hope the next generation does not pull the rug from under me. We are not all greedy, the current climate is for self but there is good from the original concept of SOCIAL security. It was never meant as a golden parachute to old age just enough to keep people from being hungry or cold. And to those who planned well and had the fortune of no misfortune a deserved rest. If life's decades are days of the week, usually the 6th or 7th should be a reward. Besides Walmart will only hire a certain number of people greeters who else will take on a 70 year old?
12 - CC
I think you forgot the national debt on that list. Maybe you mentioned it, but I just missed it.
Also, although this RX drug coverage really can't be blamed on the boomers b/c the first of them is still a year or two away from retirement(except the legislators who passed the law), but on the last of the 'Greatest Generation'- why do they get prescription drug coverage when there are thousands of children (who can do nothing to help their situation) who don't even have health insurance. But not all of that generation is oblivious to others' suffering, the Gray Panthers are getting the word out on the plight of the uninsured. Although their is the CHIPS program (children's health insurance program), it is a statewide effort and tend to be drastically underfunded. I do sympathize with not having RX drug coverage, but I think its extrememly unfair & even greedy to want more and more when others have so little.
Why the illusion of 'self-reliance' and 'picking yourself up by your bootstraps' when there is so much reliance on social programs? note: I do not necessarily disagree with social programs.
Also, why include atheism in the list? Are you trying to claim athesim=lack of morality? They are not one and the same. Also, atheists do not claim unequivocally there is no god, they just have a lack of a belief in any god- again, not the same.
I agree with the SOCIAL security comments. In edition, why the heck are rich seniors & millionaires allowed to claim it when they so obviously don't need it. Putting into the social program, it becomes society's money & you are taking from society. I am the furthest thing from a conservative, but I agree with Rush Limbaugh when he says taking from social security is 'gobbling up the public trough' when you don't need it. Why can't it be means tested (as well as the RX program) instead of an entitlement program?
My message to TGG & Boomers- don't worry about us too much- we'll just pass the problems onto your grandchildren! problems solved...
Therein lies the dilemma, with all our school debt(even though we working the entire time we went to school), my fiance and I are seriously considering not having children, although we want them- because of the burden of previous generations. We also may never be able to afford to buy a house. Bitter- your dang right!
13 - CC
#9 [As far as logic goes, I don't see the correlation of the cost of college and my generation. I don't know if you're a logician, but statement A does not lead to statement B]
Part of the reason is the public funding for college education has gone down drastically since the 1960's & 70's, saddling more of the debt onto the student.
14 - Ruvy in Jerusalem
"Therein lies the dilemma, with all our school debt(even though we working the entire time we went to school), my fiance and I are seriously considering not having children, although we want them- because of the burden of previous generations. We also may never be able to afford to buy a house. Bitter- your dang right!".
CC, therein lies the sin of the "baby boomer" generation. You feel you cannot afford to have kids and you are bitter to boot. You do not deserve that.
Humanity does not deserve that either. In this country, there was no baby boom generation. Whatever troubles we have, and we have many in this country, we do not have a whole generation of old farts draining our treasury and acting like they were the best thing since buttered bread. I'm so glad to be home and out of America.
15 - mike
Boomer generation is likely among the worst generation in the west at least. They gave us the 60s and 70s that screwed up the economy with all the ensuing entitlements. They had let the government to become a monstrosity that it is at this point. The generation gave us such terrible entities as Bush, Clinton, Chirac and Schroeder overseas. Their policies had robbed the west of their future
16 - Bliffle
gonzo:
"well now...i'm going to need some time ot parse this bit more carefully...but the baseline i can see right off the bat comes down to a one word reason to "not trust boomers"
hypocrisy"
What a stupid statement! It's time to bailout on that dumb word "hypocrisy". All it means is you've changed your mind - perhaps for good reason. Aside from Sam'l Johnsons useful definition, think of this from La Rochfoucauld " Hypocrisy is the tribute vice pays to virtue".
Let me tell you about hypocrisy. When the 12 yr old daughter of a friend reported to me that drugs were readily available at her good Palo Alto Junior High and I told the father that if it were my daughter I'd rage at the principal and camp in his office until drugs were esponged from the campus, he said "but I smoked weed and that would make me a hypocrite". Great god, what values! It's more important to maintain a pose of non-hypocrisy than safeguard your child?
17 - Bliffle
mike: "Boomer generation is likely among the worst generation in the west at least. They gave us the 60s and 70s that screwed up the economy with all the ensuing entitlements."
Nonsense! What screwed up the economy is the last 6 years of voodoo economics from GWB that has wasted our wealth DEPLETED SURPLUSES INCLUDING THE SS SURPLUS on political patronage and a stupid war.
In case you've forgotten, we had surpluses when GWB took office, and since then nothing but the biggest debts and deficits in our history.
Get your facts straight.
18 - Mabon Dane
Very nice article. I am a Gen-X and I agree with this 100%
19 - CC
#14 Touche! :)
#17 I second that. At the end of the last decade our country was looking decent- at least with very little national debt. sucks...
Seems like the 1980's & the 2000's messed up our economy. I hope we are headed in the right direction though. I don't mind paying my taxes & plan to work hard until retirement, but I hope to not get as greedy as the rest and just start trying to grab and keep whatever I think is mine. I would love to continue being magnanimous and stay in the public health field, but I'm thinking in order to truely support myself & mine- I may have to 'sell out'. :(
20 - zingzing
bah... just think about it. the boomers will be dead in 30 years. we will all have gotten used to this huge drain on our economy. it will be like living in a sort of depression. then, our parents will die. and our burden will lessen. we will have forgotten what life is like without that burden. happy days will come to sherwood forest again, they will.
21 - Ruvy in Jerusalem
Boy, Zing, reading what you wrote really made me happy to have left Boomer Land. I'd hate to think of me with one foot in the grave and my kids pushing the banana peel under the other foot...
22 - Mark Saleski
so we'll go from self-involved boomers to the generation with one hand on the playstation controller, the other on the cell phone. oh boy.
23 - zingzing
ha! i wasn't being 100% serious... of course, i end every conversation with my dad by stating, "watch it or i'm going to put you in a home."
i'm not rubbing my palms together, waiting with baited breath for my parents to die, but my point does kind of hold true. after the baby boomers die off... the economy will certainly breathe a sigh of relief--if yous boomers don't destroy it on your way down... as you age, you will become a pit we throw our money into. and what for?
hahahaha.
24 - james miller
The baby boomers are greedy and want it all. I wouldn't trust a baby boomer so far as I can spit - and I don't spit, I dribble.
25 - jill
Bliffle:
"mike: "Boomer generation is likely among the worst generation in the west at least. They gave us the 60s and 70s that screwed up the economy with all the ensuing entitlements."
Nonsense! What screwed up the economy is the last 6 years of voodoo economics from GWB that has wasted our wealth DEPLETED SURPLUSES INCLUDING THE SS SURPLUS on political patronage and a stupid war.
In case you've forgotten, we had surpluses when GWB took office, and since then nothing but the biggest debts and deficits in our history.
Get your facts straight."
GW is a baby boomer is he not.