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So you blame the boomers for this depression ?
Like the guy living next door to you has that much power.
You're blaming people because the government allowed corporates/banks to take risks beyond what they could handle ?
I see plenty of non-boomers who bought homes way beyond their means. They fell for the "6-8x your salary" speel rather than stick to the tried and true 1.5-2x your salary. I read the stories of folks that walked away from their underwater homes and they were decades younger than boomers.
I don't think the buyers in this crash are limited to any particular segment/generation really. Young buyers got conned into these interesting mortgage products as well as boomers.
But, the Joneses portion of the boomer generation, depending on who you believe, is somewhere around 1954-1965. This is the group of people who was tapping into their home equity to build "great rooms" and do big remodels. Now, I have no problem with using equity wisely. But there was definitely some that took this too far. But I don't think this is limited to boomers by any means. And, some could probably easily argue that a lot of the "finance" folks that helped create the mess are younger than the boomers.
If they would get off their collective deadbeat asses, stop posting on C-D, and work as hard at a job as they do at whining, then they MIGHT be productive and successful. People who are terminally unhappy, who blame others for their sorry life, and who point to a single generation (boomers) as the culprits that caused the economic crisis will seldom contribute much to society.
An intelligent, wealthy man once told me that if someone with a good work ethic would work as hard for himself as he did for an employer, then he would be a successful business owner. Seems pretty logical.
Given that premise, the problem with the younger generation is that too many are too occupied with non-productive activities to recognize an opportunity. Out of the few who do recognize a personal opportunity, most are not willing to make the personal sacrifice/gamble that is necessary to start a new business. The very few who have their own successful business then must fight both the government and the political liberals because they became successful.
In short, most just want to work their 40 hours, give as little effort as possible, take as much as they can get, and then whine about someone else being more successful.
It's tougher for some younger folks to take the risks of starting a business if they have 20k - 50k in student loan debt already. But, plenty of young people are starting their own businesses and are quite successful, on small scales and large scales. I'm not sure if you've been paying attention to a lot of the new businesses out there in the past decade or not, but younger generations aren't exactly sitting on the sidelines.
Not always. At 20 years old, I was carrying a machine-gun around Quang Nam Province, South Vietnam. So were a lot of other Boomer's. Click on my screen name to see what it looked like.
What were (or are) YOU doing at 20?
Here's what some of the lazy generations are doing
Mentally Ill for not retiring sooner?! No, it's called productive and hard working. Here you are judging this electrician and yet you do not know what he does with his income. Not that it's any of our business, but he may be assisting countless other folks, and/or causes! SHEESH...
God bless him for it.
I know a couple in their late 60's ... little education, has trouble reading a newspaper and has had job stability for 40 years, Because he is in a union for a major utility in NY he get paid a full time salary for being out for FMLA for 10 months out of the year (note he drives to Lowe's so he can do repairs to his house, DMV etc) and the wife complains he is not getting paid enough money. The problem with this generation is that they are not bad people, they just have a sense of entitlement.
One more hard working American that, at 67 years of age, is still working for a living. And by doing so, paying taxes. Taxes that, among other things, pay for:
-Other people's children to go to elementary and high school, and be indoctrinated into believing that the world owes them a living
-State colleges and universities that teach what are all too often whiny azz young adults that they know everything...and that the world owes them a living.
-The student loans of deadbeats who don't pay them back can't find the stat right now, but the % of younger people that pay their credit card balance in full each month is far larger than the older people. Not sure what % of people don't pay their student loans back though.
-99 weeks of welfare, in the form of UE benefits for those not able to "find" work 99 weeks exist in very few states.
-Free school breakfasts and lunches for the children of those that don't support themselves
-Section 8 housing for those that don't want to work for a living
-The refinancing of housing for those dumb enough to borrow more than they can afford or for those who tapped into more equity than they should have, to keep up with the joneses and lease a BMW they didn't need
- Social Security taxes to fund a system that isn't appropriately funded because of decades of reduced taxes enjoyed by those who didn't care that they were driving the country further into debt
- Medicare Part D
- Bloated military spending because if we only spend $25 billion more each year, we're crippling our military and allowing our rivals to become stronger than us
.....
Shall we keep going?
And we're supposed feel sorry for the whiny 20something livng with mommy and daddy because many jobs are below them???
shall we keep going? or are we supposed to feel sorry for the whiny 50something who is going to have to move in with sonny because saving for retirement was below them?
I know a couple in their late 60's ... little education, has trouble reading a newspaper and has had job stability for 40 years, Because he is in a union for a major utility in NY he get paid a full time salary for being out for FMLA for 10 months out of the year (note he drives to Lowe's so he can do repairs to his house, DMV etc) and the wife complains he is not getting paid enough money. The problem with this generation is that they are not bad people, they just have a sense of entitlement.
and???
that ONE example makes for the whole???
I know a young lady (she is 28)..was NYPD ..on the job 5 years..got into a car crash...now collects 3/4 disability from NYPD....for LIFE...tax free...and complains how she is not getting enough as she vacations world wide, and DANCES (((had she stayed on the force for 20, she would get a 50% pension that gets taxed)))
As a generation, I'm starting to believe that boomers may be mentally ill.
Everyday I hear another crazy story or experience one myself.
Today it was a 67 year old electrical union worker who has 40 years worth of pension and already collects SS. He's still on the job. Why? Does he need the money? He's just bored and hasn't much else to do. Meanwhile there are hundreds of young guys with young families waiting i the queue for their shot.
A few days ago it was a 62 year old who made decent money up until a few years ago. Now he's working for 30k a year and complains that he gets paid too little. Meanwhile, he's kind of slow and not that great with computers and I'm sure an early 20's kid could use that job and do much better.
What'd he do with all the money he made prior? He and his wife acquired a substantial mortgage in their 50's. They could afford it, so it wasn't so bad. What'd they do next? Instead of paying off the mortgage, they've put in over 200k into upgrading the house. Upgrading for who? For their corpses? I don't know. So now he ******* and moans about still having to work and being paid too little! Picture that.
I could go on and on about greedy, self entitled, and irrational boomers but I'd never end. Maybe life was a little too easy for them in the America of the 50's-late 90's.
And now, we younger generations are still going to have to pay for them for the next 20 years since they dominate the upper echelons of government. Good luck getting them to sacrifice some of their entitlements for the betterment of younger Americans.
Rant over, thanks for listening.
You complain about a generation who has already worked for more than 40 years paying into the system of being greedy, self-entitled and irrational but you want them to give up that to which they have contributed to your generation? Seriously?
Who is really being greedy, self-entitled and irrational here?
I didn't expect this thread to go as long as it did.
I chose the above statement because it shows just how out of touch boomers are.
First off, yes you may have paid in 100k but that's not really the point. The SS administration calculates your monthly rate by taking your highest earnings for 35 (non consecutive) years. Since boomers had pretty stable and (relatively) high paying careers, most will earn toward the top end of the monthly payout range (which is $2200 I believe). 5-7 years and all of what you paid in is paid back to you. After that, that's money that you're not entitled to anymore. Will the Feds still pay you? Of course.
However, the above is besides the point. The more important cost is healthcare. One bypass surgery or knee/hip replacement and whatever you've paid in SS or medicare is spent. Everything after that is a tab that someone else needs to pick up. Therein lies the problem.
That is not sustainable without completely fiscally ****ing up the next few generations no matter which way you look at it.
You will see 100 cents on the dollar even though you should not. Why? Because my generation and the following will see 50 cents on the dollar if we're lucky.
Your generation is stealing from future generations. Do you wonder why I'm pissed? lol
If you ass clowns let my generation opt out of this train wreck, there would't be a problem. However, you've chained us to the runaway locomotive heading towards the edge of the cliff. Lucky for you folks, you're older and many will be gone before the train plunges off of the cliff so naturally you don't give a ****.
you are being excessively harsh. this is the way the system works, and with some minor fixes, it will still work for them, with us paying in, and it will still work for us, with younger generations paying for us.
It takes working together to accomplish addressing the issues though.
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