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The young tend to keep blaming us Babyboomers for all the problems with Social Security and the lack of planning for having enough money to live on in retirement.
What they don't consider is the fact that most of the boomers had parents that grew up during the depression. Those were tough times, and most people that came through it, became extremely frugal for the rest of their lives. When the boomers of today were children, their parents, being so frugal, could not or would not provide their kids with much more than what they needed to get by. Even if they had it, they would not use it, for fear that it wouldn't be there if and when it was needed.
Most of the kids who grew up to be Babyboomers, made unconscious or conscious decisions to do better for their children than their parents did for them. So they often sacrificed their futures for the betterment, so they thought, of their children. Bigger houses so their children can each have their own bedrooms. A bigger yard so they can play outside without having to go to a nearby park. A college education for kids who, in some cases, should never have gone to college. You name it. We did a lot more for our kids than our parents did for us, because they could not bring themselves to spend more than they considered necessary, due to what they had gone through. Did we spoil our children?
The real reason to blame the Boomers is their lousy birthrate. If they'd maintained a high enough birth rate, there would be plenty of Millennials entering their prime earning years to fund the 30% gap in Social Security cash flow.
The United States actually looks pretty good compared to northern Europe and Japan/South Korea where they're seeing declining populations. Social Security is only a 30% gap, not the debacle many of the other rapidly aging first world countries are experiencing.
I'd suggest a read of Lyndon Jones' Great Expectations; a social history of the baby boom in America, (up to its publication c.1982);. It could be argued that the baby boom was the first generation brought up in a fully-developed welfare state with a mixed economy; also the first in which demographers were fully aware of the consequences of a bulge in with the age ranges of the population, and of the stresses within a society created by that aberration.
The problem is usually laid at the feet of aging boomers who want someone to do all the unwanted jobs which are a by-product of a "mature"(?) de-industrialized, service-oriented economy. Personal service is something everyone loves to get, and no one wants to spend his/her live providing at low levels of pay. So the "politicians "solved" the problem by opening the immigration floodgates, and a clandestine economy developed -- mostly because economic realities couldn't match the unrealistic expectations of the politicians who created the Frankenstein, and their clientele.
The problem seems likely to worsen, as most Americans simply refuse to recognize that the incredible prosperity of 1953-65 was a one-time event, and can't be restoerd without sinking back into the mercantilist thinking that spawnwd the two World Wars. We are likely to face more and more hard choices as both the boomers and their offspring confront the realities of advancing nge and other dilemmas central to the human condition.
Last edited by 2nd trick op; 07-10-2016 at 08:46 AM..
I would have to disagree that the baby boomers were brought up with welfare. If anything the welfare state came up in the 70's and 80's, after the 60's revolution stabilized.
The real reason to blame the Boomers is their lousy birthrate. If they'd maintained a high enough birth rate, there would be plenty of Millennials entering their prime earning years to fund the 30% gap in Social Security cash flow.
The United States actually looks pretty good compared to northern Europe and Japan/South Korea where they're seeing declining populations. Social Security is only a 30% gap, not the debacle many of the other rapidly aging first world countries are experiencing.
If the Boomers had maintained the birthrate of their parents, there would be a whole other set of society ills we would have to contend with today. JOBS?
If the Boomers had maintained the birthrate of their parents, there would be a whole other set of society ills we would have to contend with today. JOBS?
Not to mention that, if the boomers had more kids that they wanted to do better by than their parents did for them, they would have less retirement funds available for themselves.
It all gets back to the fact that boomers may have spent too much on their children and did not hold back enough for themselves.
While the original post of this thread is reasonable, sensible, and entirely void of invective, it is interesting how intense the feelings can get when it comes to generational discussions. In fact the word "hatred" would not be too strong. Right here in the Retirement Forum, there was a fairly recent thread in which one poster ended several different posts with this statement directed to Boomers: "Thanks for destroying America". The Economics Forum has two stickies, the first one of which is entitled "Generation wars will not be permitted". Having read a few of the "generation wars" there over the years, I was stunned by the extreme hatred directed against us Baby Boomers.
While the original post of this thread is reasonable, sensible, and entirely void of invective, it is interesting how intense the feelings can get when it comes to generational discussions. In fact the word "hatred" would not be too strong. Right here in the Retirement Forum, there was a fairly recent thread in which one poster ended several different posts with this statement directed to Boomers: "Thanks for destroying America". The Economics Forum has two stickies, the first one of which is entitled "Generation wars will not be permitted". Having read a few of the "generation wars" there over the years, I was stunned by the extreme hatred directed against us Baby Boomers.
I guess that's the eventual outcome when you spoil the children.
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