dayman Posted March 29, 2012 Share Posted March 29, 2012 1) Yes, this link is from "Esquire" haha 2) It's still something worth thinking about given the "entitlement mentality" is a popular thing to talk about for many aging baby boomers who comprise the tea party. The War Against Youth The recession didn't gut the prospects of American young people. The Baby Boomers took care of that. Twenty-five years ago young Americans had a chance. In 1984, American breadwinners who were sixty-five and over made ten times as much as those under thirty-five. The year Obama took office, older Americans made almost forty-seven times as much as the younger generation. This bleeding up of the national wealth is no accounting glitch, no anomalous negative bounce from the recent unemployment and mortgage crises, but rather the predictable outcome of thirty years of economic and social policy that has been rigged to serve the comfort and largesse of the old at the expense of the young. Since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution, human potential has been consistently growing, generating greater material wealth, more education, wider opportunities — a vast and glorious liberation of human potential. In all that time, everyone, even followers of the most corrupt or most evil of ideologies, believed they were working for a better tomorrow. Not now. The angel of progress has suddenly vanished from the scene. Or rather, the angel of progress has been sent away. Nobody ever talks about generational conflict. Who wants to bring up that the old are eating the young at the dinner table? How are you going to mention that to your boss? If you're a politician, how are you going to tell your donors? Even the Occupy Wall Street crowd, while rejecting the modes and rhetoric and institutional support of Boomer progressives, shied away from articulating the fundamental distinction that fills their spaces with crowds: young against old. http://www.esquire.com/features/young-people-in-the-recession-0412 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DC Tom Posted March 29, 2012 Share Posted March 29, 2012 In 1984, American breadwinners who were sixty-five and over made ten times as much as those under thirty-five. The year Obama took office, older Americans made almost forty-seven times as much as the younger generation. Before I can even begin to entertain taking that article seriously, I need a question answered: What the !@#$ does the above even mean? I can interpret that at least three different ways, and for each show that the "War on Youth" premise doesn't follow from that utterly meaningless "statistic". Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
3rdnlng Posted March 29, 2012 Share Posted March 29, 2012 Before I can even begin to entertain taking that article seriously, I need a question answered: What the !@#$ does the above even mean? I can interpret that at least three different ways, and for each show that the "War on Youth" premise doesn't follow from that utterly meaningless "statistic". Esquire--where I get my news. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GG Posted March 29, 2012 Share Posted March 29, 2012 For starters, the tables are not sourced properly so there's no way to check the data. Secondly, the author uses wealth statistics (unsourced) to cry about incomes. No use taking it seriously. The only war on the youth is the declining birthrate in the US which naturally means you won't have enough workers paying into the social utopia to support the aging population. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OCinBuffalo Posted March 29, 2012 Share Posted March 29, 2012 (edited) Data....crap. Whole thing crap?...maybe not. Here's one thing that isn't. Let's do a timeline...like we did in 5th grade history class: 1960-1979 Boomers demand education, child care, welfare, Medicaid $ from the government. Kennedy, LBJ, Nixon, Ford Carter, pass successive bills and respond. More people go to college than ever. Now, they need the government, and of course it should do things that the baby boomers need. Who cares if it starts the first budget deficit? 1980-1990 Now that Boomers all have jobs, and are starting their careers/families, they don't want to pay taxes. Reagan is elected, followed by Bush. Taxes are cut to record lows. Now, they don't need the government, and of course it should stay out of our lives, but, we should win the cold war, even though we were against the Vietnam War, because now we have kids/money/something to lose. Budget deficits increases...but they don't matter, right, baby boomers? 1990-2000 Now it's time for the Boomer's kids to go to college, and/or it's time to invest in things(like the internet) because now they have money and/or now I'm divorced and in a dead end job. Boomer needs more government education money to get out of this mess. Amazingly despite low moral character(remind you of anyone there, boomer?), Clinton is elected, education spending, especially ADULT education(ahem, Boomer education), is massively increased, and all sorts of financial regulation is removed. Deficit is still a problem, and nothing is done, because our internet stocks are doing well. Oh, and we don't mind if your taxes go up...until, wait now WE have become rich so.... 2000-2007 Bush is elected. Even against all expectation, and political sanity, Al Gore doesn't get the nod he should have gotten. You can blame cigars, but, really? The baby boomer's kids are now out of college. And, it's time to cut taxes again, because "we don't need the government in our lives"(anymore). We are trying to save up for retirement. Now cut taxes and keep them that way, despite 2 wars and Medicare silliness. 2007...uh, oh, pee pee hurts...getting old...time to beat the weakened President into giving me free scripts at Rite Aid, and elect a guy who will give me even more health care stuff, or whatever else I want. And yeah, I remember being a hippie....so yeah....the government should "help" people....even though I have have made everything I have based on Capitalism...we owe it to ourselves and "the movement" to elect a black guy because he's black...it's our last "sacred" good deed before we die, because we remember the 60s! Deficit isn't our fault, it's those damn Gen X kids(who have basically endured our awful parenting, decisions, and behavior, and have been able to thrive in spite of it). Oh wait, we can't talk schit about Gen X because the facts don't support any of it. Soooo, let's get on somebody else! Gen Y! Millienials! Anybody to deflect attention off of how crappy our stewardship of this country has been. When boomers were in school, JFK talked about going to the moon, and when we got there it was all they could talk about. Now that their grandchildren are in school, we don't even have a manned system, and all they will talk about is their Medicare. All a coincidence? Edited March 29, 2012 by OCinBuffalo Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alaska Darin Posted March 29, 2012 Share Posted March 29, 2012 Maybe the youth should form a union so they can get their "fair" share. Entitlement Fever. Catch it! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
/dev/null Posted March 29, 2012 Share Posted March 29, 2012 Data....crap. Whole thing crap?...maybe not. Here's one thing that isn't. Let's do a timeline...like we did in 5th grade history class: . . . When boomers were in school, JFK talked about going to the moon, and when we got there it was all they could talk about. Now that their grandchildren are in school, we don't even have a manned system, and all they will talk about is their Medicare. All a coincidence? Dude Did you copy/past that from somewhere? If so, where? Did you write that yourself? If so, Bravo! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dayman Posted March 29, 2012 Author Share Posted March 29, 2012 Data....crap. Whole thing crap?...maybe not. Here's one thing that isn't. Let's do a timeline...like we did in 5th grade history class: 1960-1979 Boomers demand education, child care, welfare, Medicaid $ from the government. Kennedy, LBJ, Nixon, Ford Carter, pass successive bills and respond. More people go to college than ever. Now, they need the government, and of course it should do things that the baby boomers need. Who cares if it starts the first budget deficit? 1980-1990 Now that Boomers all have jobs, and are starting their careers/families, they don't want to pay taxes. Reagan is elected, followed by Bush. Taxes are cut to record lows. Now, they don't need the government, and of course it should stay out of our lives, but, we should win the cold war, even though we were against the Vietnam War, because now we have kids/money/something to lose. Budget deficits increases...but they don't matter, right, baby boomers? 1990-2000 Now it's time for the Boomer's kids to go to college, and/or it's time to invest in things(like the internet) because now they have money and/or now I'm divorced and in a dead end job. Boomer needs more government education money to get out of this mess. Amazingly despite low moral character(remind you of anyone there, boomer?), Clinton is elected, education spending, especially ADULT education(ahem, Boomer education), is massively increased, and all sorts of financial regulation is removed. Deficit is still a problem, and nothing is done, because our internet stocks are doing well. Oh, and we don't mind if your taxes go up...until, wait now WE have become rich so.... 2000-2007 Bush is elected. Even against all expectation, and political sanity, Al Gore doesn't get the nod he should have gotten. You can blame cigars, but, really? The baby boomer's kids are now out of college. And, it's time to cut taxes again, because "we don't need the government in our lives"(anymore). We are trying to save up for retirement. Now cut taxes and keep them that way, despite 2 wars and Medicare silliness. 2007...uh, oh, pee pee hurts...getting old...time to beat the weakened President into giving me free scripts at Rite Aid, and elect a guy who will give me even more health care stuff, or whatever else I want. And yeah, I remember being a hippie....so yeah....the government should "help" people....even though I have have made everything I have based on Capitalism...we owe it to ourselves and "the movement" to elect a black guy because he's black...it's our last "sacred" good deed before we die, because we remember the 60s! Deficit isn't our fault, it's those damn Gen X kids(who have basically endured our awful parenting, decisions, and behavior, and have been able to thrive in spite of it). Oh wait, we can't talk schit about Gen X because the facts don't support any of it. Soooo, let's get on somebody else! Gen Y! Millienials! Anybody to deflect attention off of how crappy our stewardship of this country has been. When boomers were in school, JFK talked about going to the moon, and when we got there it was all they could talk about. Now that their grandchildren are in school, we don't even have a manned system, and all they will talk about is their Medicare. All a coincidence? Haha, made me laugh. Leave it to this board to sit here and talk about if the "tables are properly sourced." Jesus... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OCinBuffalo Posted March 30, 2012 Share Posted March 30, 2012 (edited) Dude Did you copy/past that from somewhere? If so, where? Did you write that yourself? If so, Bravo! All me. Been saying it for at least 10 years. Imagine my surprise that events have continued to follow this pattern. Perfect example: they have Tom Delay. We have Paul Ryan. End of discussion.....for the reasonable. EDIT: Oh, and who's our Jane Fonda? Edited March 30, 2012 by OCinBuffalo Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DC Tom Posted March 30, 2012 Share Posted March 30, 2012 Haha, made me laugh. Leave it to this board to sit here and talk about if the "tables are properly sourced." Jesus... I can't comment on something that's based on a premise so ambiguous it doesn't make sense. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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