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War Against Youth?

ProfessorDeac

ProfessorDeac

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http://www.esquire.com/features/young-people-in-the-recession-0412

David Frum, former George W. Bush speechwriter, had the guts to acknowledge that the Tea Party's combination of expensive entitlement programs and tax cuts is something entirely different from a traditional political program: "This isn't conservatism: It's a going-out-of-business sale for the Baby Boom generation." The economic motive is growing ever more naked, and has nothing to do with any principle that could be articulated by Goldwater or Reagan, or indeed with any principle at all. The political imperative is to preserve the economic cloak of unreality that the Boomers have wrapped themselves in.
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Nobody wants this. The Boomers did not set out to screw over their kids. The wind just seemed to blow them that way. But no matter what their motivations, a painful truth grows truer with every passing year: Through its refusal to act, the generation in power is willing to do what other generations before them would not — sell their children's birthright for a mess of their own pottage.
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Very well written, with a lot of painful truths. I had given some thought lately to questioning how much of our current state is attributable to the baby boomers. This answers a lot of that.
 
ProfessorDeac said:
http://www.esquire.com/features/young-people-in-the-recession-0412
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It ain't just the tea party. I had this very same conversation with my father and his golfing buddy three days ago. When asked what people in their early 40's think of the fiscal mess that has become our country I replied we're all PO'ed at the generation immediately ahead of us. They'll vote themselves security and leave the rest of us holding the bag. And the ones who should be the most po'd are the folks in their early 20's.

Fiscal reform has to come sooner rather than later. There has to be meaningful progress to reform entitlements, get a hold on the debt and stop pretending we can continue to live way beyond our means.
 
RJ is not gonna wanna read this. His beloved boomers have done nothing wrong...

BOOMERS OUT
 
"Across the board, the money flows not to helping the young grow up, but helping the old die comfortably. According to a 2009 Brookings Institution study, "The United States spends 2.4 times as much on the elderly as on children, measured on a per capita basis, with the ratio rising to 7 to 1 if looking just at the federal budget."
 
BillBrasky said:
"Across the board, the money flows not to helping the young grow up, but helping the old die comfortably. According to a 2009 Brookings Institution study, "The United States spends 2.4 times as much on the elderly as on children, measured on a per capita basis, with the ratio rising to 7 to 1 if looking just at the federal budget."
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that is seriously fucked up
 
I do agree with the article's premise, but there are other factors contributing to this problem. One that came to my mind is how our expected standard of life has gotten more expensive as compared with previous generations.

I'm trying to imagine how the first ten years after high school were different for baby boomers. First college (and more of us go to college). For us, one of the reasons college is so expensive is that it provides (and we expect it to provide) what I consider an unreasonably high standard of living for 18-22 year-olds who are supposed to be studying. Too many fairs, clubs, university-sponsored parties, too much fancy food, fancy living arrangements, fancy grounds-keeping, and yes, too much money spent on athletics. I recognize this is how universities compete with each other, but it's gotten out of hand. Compare with the baby boomers' college experience: typically one dining option (cheap cafeteria food), cheaper housing, fewer costly frills (like the Barn :rulz:), etc. And as the article says, they learned more. Same problems apply to grad school. (Obviously, this is not the only reason school is too expensive; they are definitely overcharging.)

After college, our expectations remain too high. It seems to me that, in addition to saddling us with monstrous debt, the pampered college experience also makes us accustomed to a quality of life that we shouldn't be purchasing in our twenties. I'm 26, and I expect to have cable TV, central air, high speed internet, healthy food, quality medical insurance, a car to get to work, the ability to save money to buy a house, the ability to take trips and stay in hotels, etc. I'm resisting a smart phone, but I'm close to expecting that as well. Whereas at 26, baby boomers certainly didn't spend as much on themselves. They might not have had central air, cable TV, stayed in hotels, may have ridden the bus, etc. I mean, I got married last year, and for our first place we got a nice, two-bedroom apartment. Our grandparents' first places were (1) taking the upstairs in an uncle's house and (2) company housing on a coal mine. Perhaps I heed the BKFs of the world a little too much, but I do feel that we're a somewhat pampered generation.

I'm definitely not trying to absolve the people who are screwing our generation. There's plenty of money for everyone to have a good, 21st Century lifestyle without bankrupting ourselves or the government, and old people making that impossible by being greedy. But I think we should recognize that we live expensive lives, without which we'd have a good bit more money left over.
 
- no health insurance after 80
- no voting rights after 90
- legalize euthanasia

:shrug
 
"The biggest boondoggle of all is Social Security. The management of entitlement programs, already weighted heavily in favor of the older population, has a very specific terminal point that coincides neatly with the Boomers' deaths. The 2011 report by the Social Security trustees estimates that, under its current administration, the fund will run out in 2036, so there's just enough to get the oldest Boomers to age ninety."

Move along, nothing to see here. Social Security is doing just fine!
 
Death panels!!!!

But to be serious, medical ethicists need to take a hard look at whether the profession should focus more on improving quality of life from ages 0-80 than extending life from 80-100. I know which I'd rather spend money on.
 
Sometimes I have a myopic view on things, but after reading the article I find it difficult to argue with the conclusions of the author. The goal of independent thinkers, such as myself, is to continually examine his or her beliefs with a critical eye, always open to the possibility that there is another way to view an issue.

Thank you for sharing the article.
 
not that I'm not grateful for the US being a superpower and all the computers/internets and what not, Boomers, but seriously. WTF
 
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