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He's a Millennial and like similar threads of this nature, it was started so the same old's could hop on board to bash the baby boomers. We've seen it many times in the W and E forum.
The reason Millenials, or at least the ones like myself, bash Boomers (and Gen X) is because you refuse to live within your means. Social security, for example, is running a deficit every year slowly exhausting the trust until it ultimately becomes insolvent in 2033. The attitude of Boomers is so what. I'll be dead. It's less clear why Gen X is so apathetic. Millenials, despite their general apathy of all things political especially retirement as people are shortsighted and they are no different, are the most vocal critics of the Boomer attitude happily running the country into the ground.
Not to say Millenials are perfect and Boomers are not. There's plenty of Millenials that are doing what the majority of Boomers are doing, which is burying their head in the sand. It's just fewer with Millenials and more with Boomers. The only measure that gets much support from the Boomers is raising taxes. I mean, everyone is selfish and has their hand out but Boomers as a group take the cake. Young adults are more than twice as likely to support policies for older adults than the 50+ demographic of Boomers and olders is to support policies benefiting young adults.
For all that we get a bad rap for being the Gimme Gimme Generation, we're nothing in comparison. I guess it's not really that surprising that we are either, given who our parents were. Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country CLEARLY was not something that resonated with Boomers and Gen X. I'm not saying it really did with our generation much more. We deserve the Gimme Gimme title almost as much as they do.
Location: East of Seattle since 1992, 615' Elevation, Zone 8b - originally from SF Bay Area
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I began my working career in Oakland, CA in the mid 1970s. "Gimmee Gimmee" is not something that can be associated with any particular generation. It started in the late 1960s with some of the generation before the boomers, as they discovered government welfare checks to be an easier way to make money than working. For many years these people were rewarded with larger and larger free checks as they cranked out more babies. As their boomer babies grew up without role models for financial responsibility and work ethic, they took on the same lifestyle, and many of their children and their children's children are following the same path.
The reason Millenials, or at least the ones like myself, bash Boomers (and Gen X) is because you refuse to live within your means. Social security, for example, is running a deficit every year slowly exhausting the trust until it ultimately becomes insolvent in 2033. The attitude of Boomers is ....................
You do realize that the vast majority of Baby Boomers aren't retired? That the cash flow deficit is relatively new and related to the recession more so than "extravagant" benefits? That the last of the WWII generation and the Silent Generation are who is now collecting the bulk of Social Security benefits?
I began my working career in Oakland, CA in the mid 1970s. "Gimmee Gimmee" is not something that can be associated with any particular generation. It started in the late 1960s with some of the generation before the boomers, as they discovered government welfare checks to be an easier way to make money than working. For many years these people were rewarded with larger and larger free checks as they cranked out more babies. As their boomer babies grew up without role models for financial responsibility and work ethic, they took on the same lifestyle, and many of their children and their children's children are following the same path.
I'd say it can be associated, in varying degrees, to all generations. And it's not just the parasite class. The attitude pervades far beyond that. See Millenials upset that they weren't in a position to default on their home loans wanting to default on their student loans.
You do realize that the vast majority of Baby Boomers aren't retired? That the cash flow deficit is relatively new and related to the recession more so than "extravagant" benefits? That the last of the WWII generation and the Silent Generation are who is now collecting the bulk of Social Security benefits?
Of course you do.
The deficit is. The knowledge that that there would be deficit is not. In 2000, under Clinton, the projection for insolvency was 2038. You do realize that all the recession really did was accelerate that by a few years to 2033? No, probably not. Head in sand, like I said.
I'll admit, I was in my teens then. My knowledge of social security really doesn't go back any farther than that.
The deficit is. The knowledge that that there would be deficit is not. In 2000, under Clinton, the projection for insolvency was 2038. You do realize that all the recession really did was accelerate that by a few years to 2033? No, probably not. Head in sand, like I said.
I'll admit, I was in my teens then. My knowledge of social security really doesn't go back any farther than that.
My head may be "in the sand". Yours is elsewhere.
The bolded says it all. Especially as to your "knowledge" of who is now collecting Social Security.
You're usually smarter than what you're showing in this thread. What's going on?
The bolded says it all. Especially as to your "knowledge" of who is now collecting Social Security.
You're usually smarter than what you're showing in this thread. What's going on?
You're convinced I said Boomers are mostly currently receiving social security because of your poor reading comprehension.
That's not the case. I'm blaming Boomers because they don't plan and will be draining social security because they refused to fix the problem in a timely manner preferring instead to just let it go insolvent about the time they go six feet under. I'm blaming Gen X because they're now just as guilty. In another ten years or so, I'll be adding Millenials to the list. Adult millenials are just as responsible for fixing the problem as Boomers and Gen X and only slightly less complacent about it.
In 2038 (the year it has been projected to go insolvent for going on two decades, if not longer) the youngest Boomers would be in their 70s, the oldest in their 90s. They'll either be dead or close to by the time the problem really becomes an immediate problem. Recession has sped that up a bit. But as long as Boomer and Gen X refuse to get on board with a solution, which as a generation they are not, no candidate is going to run that platform.
edit:
Personally I'd keep the Greatest Generation/Silent Generation out of any fix. Unlike the Boomers (and later) who had at least two decades of working years to adapt to the problem, they did not. I wouldn't cut benefits to current recipients as of 2000 or even ones that say had full retirement before say 2020 even. My sympathy to someone who retires in 2024, however, not "having enough time" to plan for reduced social security is non-existent as they had AT LEAST 24 years to do so. That's way more than enough time to join reality.
If they didn't get into debt, you'd be calling them "lazy" for not going to college.
One can go to college without amassing a burdensome amount of debt. Only problem is, some of those Millenials bought into having to attend a Big Name School, overlooking the less expensive state universities and colleges, while eschewing the concept of attending a community college to save money the first two years before transferring.
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