[25] Living members of this generation are either in their 90s or are centenarians. In July, Baby Boomers should vote for posterity and not for themselves. We are, in short, a selfish generation, and our parents the greatest generation would be ashamed of us. All this hubbub isn't a surprise to Simpson, given how politically polarized the country is these days. Look it up yourself. I think she is a little ticked off! In coming years, we'll hear appeals for better nursing homes, for more Alzheimer's research and for more wheelchair-accessible office buildings, and those are good causes. [8] The first half of the generation, born between 1901 and 1914, are sometimes referred to as the Interbellum Generation. They endured the Holodomor famine, which killed millions. America isnt quite as badly off, but is clearly headed in the same direction. What cuts in YOUR retirement and health care benefits are you proposing in your disgusting deficit reduction proposal, or, as usual, have you exempted yourself and your political cronies? Baby Boomers: The Greediest Generation. . If, instead, that money had been invested in outside securities that could be sold to help fund Social Security, the SSA would now be in a much better financial position. 2. As a result, the Public Trustees of the Social Security Administration, who are responsible for its management, said in the most recent report that those now entering the Social Security system as workers will contribute more in taxes (in present value) than they receive in benefits under current schedules[2]In other words, the boomers will collect more than they paid in, yet a worker starting today will collect less than they pay in. As a group, we baby boomers have made no comparable sacrifice. Why shouldnt he try? He's been a senator for more than 40 years, during which, if he's as good at his job as many of his . I am now 63). Remarkably, it was then reformed: contributions were raised to a sustainable level, and the monies collected were invested in the open markets by an independent agency, the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, with the result that the CPP is today one of the worlds best examples of how a government pension scheme should be run. She also tells. One measure of how children have tumbled as a priority in America is that in 1960 we ranked 12th in infant mortality among nations in the world, while now 40 nations have infant mortality rates better than ours or equal to it. And since the biggest voting block of the last 30 years and more has clearly been the boomers, the fault is ours. But as one commentator remarked centuries ago, we get the government we deserve. Our influence has been huge. You know it, we know it, and you know that we know it. [34], Members of the World War II generation in Germany came of age following World War I and the German Revolution of 19181919. In the United States, members of this generation came of age, were children, or were born during the Progressive Era, World War I, and the Roaring Twenties; a time of economic prosperity with distinctive cultural transformations. [17] Tom Brokaw and others extol this generation for supporting and fighting World War II. We talk on our cellphones in public places, annoying the people around us. If that happens, we boomers will see our retirements vaporize, together with our kids' livelihoods. She also tells it like it is! It is you and they who have bankrupted America and stolen the American dream from millions of loyal, patriotic taxpayers. Here's a response in a letter from PATTY NYE from Illinois . In some respects we became a spoiled generation. Tony Shepherd is a businessman and a former head of the Commission of Audit. The term "Swing Generation" has also been used to describe the cohort due to the popularity of the era's music. Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois, in a phony email, recently was accused of calling American senior citizens "The Greediest Generation.". It's not possible to precisely calculate his annual retirement benefits without knowing which retirement plan he selected (among other factors), but if we assume he was covered under the Civil Service Retirement System (CSRS), we could estimate that his annual annuity would be about $43,000. Nor am I trying to say that the boomers had everything easy. The Greedies, the Silent Gen (can't blame them too much but they didn't mind going along for the ride) and Leading Edge/First Wave Boomers. The potential revenue from these additional tax raisings are swamped by the growing budget deficit. 3. As a baby boomer myself, I can be blunt: We boomers won't be remembered as the "Greatest Generation." In practice, though, all of this money has been spent by Congress, and the SSA has been left with worthless IOUs. Are the Baby Boomers the greediest generation ever? That's false. Patricia Bealer says: September 16, 2018 at 11:00 pm. I have been paying Social Security taxes for 48 YEARS (since I was 15 years old. They were shaped by the Great Depression and were the primary generation composing the enlisted forces in World War II. She also tells it like it is! To add insult to injury, you label us "greedy" for calling bullshit on your incompetence. Hardly fair. That's why the wording had to be changed. Why? [36] Surviving members of the German World War II generation would go on to experience the Fall of the Berlin Wall and the creation of the European Union. So please, do not visit the sins of the father upon their children. American boomers chose not to do that with Social Security. [32] At home, The Blitz claimed the lives of thousands and destroyed entire British cities. And yes, Ive made some plenty smart cracks about people on Social Security who milk it to the last degree. Nearly 18 million members of this generation would fight in World War II and approximately 3 million, including civilians, would be killed or wounded. We have a scheme where support for the older generations and other extravagances were legislated based on the assumption of continuing revenue from an unprecedented investment boom in resources. Because we arent saving, we arent investing. Everyones greedy when it comes to health care, not just the boomers. But this is the choice we've made. We must bite the bullet and rein in expenditure, focusing our support on those who cannot look after themselves. Recently, just like Lucy & Charlie Brown, you and your ilk pulled the proverbial football away from millions of American seniors nearing retirement and moved the goalposts for full retirement from age 65 to age 67. How much money have you earned from the American taxpayers during your pathetic 50-year political career? Maybe I should have added a question mark, he said. Not surprisingly, the Bush administration took a look at the study, blanched, and declined to publish it. by 6917sctygrp 0 September 14, 2019. When I think about the kind of world we are turning over to our children, it is Laurence J. Kotlikoff, a Boston University economics professor, prolific writer and occassional bomb thrower, has set off a debate on Forbes.com with a new column here Baby Boomers: The Greediest Generation. This is typical of the kinds of decisions that boomers have made: spend money on what we want right now, and to hell with the consequences later. Yet, repeatedly, in city after city, state after state, and province after province in North America, governments have elected to defer, postpone, and avoid infrastructure investments until now, when the bills are coming due. Both health care systems will crash and burn. Learn more in our Cookie Policy. Now, you come to the American taxpayers and say you need more to pay of YOUR debt. Our credit rating will fall, the cost of debt servicing will increase and the monumental task of repayment will get even harder. Don't let the door hit you on the way out. But we are not ashamed of ourselves, which speaks volumes for just how steeped in bad behavior we have become. We are the greediest generation. Dick Durbin, a Senator from Illinois calls senior citizens the Greediest Generation as he compared "Social Security " to a Milk Cow with 310 million teats. In 1990 the U.S. Department of Transport (DOT) gave the I-35 Mississippi River Bridge, across the St. Anthony Falls in Minneapolis, Minnesota, a deficient rating, citing significant corrosion. Members of this generation are known as "Great Patriotic War" veterans, such as poet Yuri Levitansky who wrote about the horrors of the war and Vasily Zaitsev, a war hero who would later be detained for two years as a victim of the post-war atmosphere of paranoia. There is a good chance that members of Generation Q will spend their entire adult lives digging out from the deficits that we the "Greediest Generation," epitomized by George W. Bush . We hated our parents as children. commission, calls senior citizens the Greediest Generation as he. For modern Russians, the conflict continues to provide the population with a nationalistic rallying call. Retirement in America is no longer feared as a time of destitution, but anticipated as a time of comfort and leisure. Our children will come to hate us as they mature. And now that their warnings are clear enough, and blunt enough, and the results are obvious enough, that we can no longer ignore them, we are hiding behind excuses, either pretending were not at fault, or claiming poverty. Business employs 80 per cent of the workforce and is the only true generator of wealth and jobs. Over 76 million babies were born between 1946 and 1964. Thats a formula for disaster. Federal government has been borrowing money to cover Social Security benefits. The Baby Boomers should tighten their belts in the interests of their children and grandchildren. By 2010, it had exploded to 345 times blue-collar pay. From an e-mail. The Greediest Generation Report this post Richard Worzel, C.F.A. The book The Greatest Generation was written by Tom Brokaw, a journalist for NBC. But remember that American children are almost twice as likely as the elderly to live in poverty, and that you get much more bang for the buck vaccinating a child than paying for open-heart surgery. My eyes got squinty and my face got red. There is a good chance that members of Generation Q will spend their entire adult lives digging out from the deficits that we the "Greediest Generation," epitomized by George W. Bush are leaving them. ! We cut off other people in traffic, because we dont care whether its our turn or not, and text and phone while we drive, putting other peoples lives at risk. Democratic Sen. Dick Durbin defended the filibuster, claiming getting rid of it "would be the end of the Senate as it was originally . Of course we should ensure people and business pay their taxes. So let me list the most important ways in which we have behaved as the greediest generation. By my estimates, the annual cost of health care, per person, by age, remains reasonably steady (with some noticeable blips, as for men at around age 40) until around age 55, at which point health care costs start going up almost exponentially. "[5] The initials G.I. 43 years later and they are still underwater. [4]Shackford, Scott; $2.8 Trillion in Unfunded State Pension Debts: Congressional Republicans Look to Block Federal Bailout, 27 Sept. 2012, http://reason.com/blog/2012/09/27/28-trillion-in-unfunded-state-pension-de, [5]Healey, Thomas, et al; Underfunded Public Pensions in the United States: The Size of the Problem, the Obstacles to Reform and the Path Forward, Harvard Kennedy School for Business & Government, http://www.hks.harvard.edu/centers/mrcbg/publications/fwp/2012-08. So while millennials are often portrayed as the greedy ones, there is a case to say baby boomers are the greediest generation ever. NOW, you and your shill commission is proposing to move the goalposts YET AGAIN 5. "Salaries of Members of Congress: A List of Payable Rates and Effective Dates." Obviously, Shakespeare had it wrong. Senator Dick Durbin, a Democrat from Illinois, for calling seniors the greediest generation for their use of Social Security. She also tells it like it is! Op-Ed Columnist E-mail: nicholas@nytimes.com, https://www.nytimes.com/2005/05/01/opinion/the-greediest-generation.html. It was a case of the many supporting the few. I urge you to read Kotlikoffs full column, but here's a taste: Herb Stein, once the chairman of President Nixon's Council of Economic Advisors, had a saying: `Things that can't go on will stop. What he should have said was, `Things that can't go on will stop too late. When the U.S. Treasury bond bubble bursts, we could see a financial collapse that makes 2008 look tame. "Hey Dick, let's get a few things straight!! [38], The World War II generation of Japan came of age during a time of rapid imperialism. ", We boomers are also preying on children in a more insidious way: We're running up their debts, both by creating new entitlement programs and by running budget deficits today. In a profanity-laced letter sent last month, Simpson attacked the group as a bunch of "greedy geezers" and demanded they "read the damn report." Several news . Today, former Soviet states celebrate an annual Victory Day. That's right, sir. Now, with those hormones fading, we've popularized Viagra. Camarillo, Alberto M. (1 October 1971). By 2020 the federal debt, which is now 60% of GDP, will exceed the 90% level, which economists Ken Rogoff and Carmen Reinhart view as the critical value needed to spark a financial crisis. An early usage of the term The Greatest Generation was in 1953 by U.S. Army General James Van Fleet, who had recently retired after his service in World War II and leading the Eighth Army in the Korean War. The same is true of defense spending, although we can no longer afford endless wars we cant win. We have systematically taken more out of our economy and society than we have put back, looting it for our comfort, convenience, and self-indulgence. He didnt, however, say that senior citizens were the greediest generation ever (at least in the email). And Itll hurt economic growth runs the second. May 1, 2005; Send any friend a story. I originally wrote this in 2014, and got roundly flamed for it. She says they've earned the title of the "greediest generation . If theres a place where short-term gain for long-term pain is evident, its climate change. I was born in 1949. Because you idiots mismanaged other parts of the economy to such an extent that you need to steal money from Medicare to pay the bills 6. Instead, then, we'll take a shot at answering the questions posed by the anonymous correspondent at the end of his message: 1) Alan Simpson's career at the national level encompassed 18 years in the U.S. Senate from 1979-96, during which time (according to a Congressional Research Service report on "Salaries of Members of Congress"), his salary would have averaged about $92,000, for an aggregate total of $1.66 million. ", I chatted today with Kotlikoff (a boomer himself) about the reaction. A number of popular film genres, including gangster films, musical films, comedy films, and monster films attracted mass audiences. ", George H. Soule, Prosperity Decade: From War to Depression: 19171929 (1947), Last edited on 22 February 2023, at 18:10, Military history of the United States during World War II, List of last surviving veterans of World War II, "Is It Time to 'Pass the Torch?' By Paul Walker. No, but we have perfected the ways of being greedy, and of deflecting the blame, and we know no shame. Over 9 in 10 (91%) of this age group are registered to vote and 90% voted in the 2000 presidential election. 1:38. No matter how one labels receipts and payments, the fiscal gap remains the same. In comparison, the Canada Pension Plan, which was established in 1965 by the government of Canada, was headed down the same path as the SSA until 1996. Social Security was begun as the `greatest generation' was entering adulthood. An interview with Alan Simpson on the subject of Social Security can be found here. When bridges start falling into rivers and onto other roads, when tunnels start collapsing due to inadequate inspection and repair, and water costs start skyrocketing due to large, unseen leaks below-ground, you have no choice but the pay the piper. Generation" was first used in 1971 by Alberto M. Camarillo in an article for the academic journal Aztln: A Journal of Chicano Studies, titled "Research note on Chicano community leaders: the GI generation. And our bad habits dont stop with CEOs. ". Per TPM: "We had the greatest generation," Simpson said. Our deficit in 2016 is estimated at $37.1 billion. For example, firered posted on 11/11/10 at 05:54 PM EST: This situation was neither created nor perpetuated by the `Baby Boomer' generation. Durbin said Social Security . Were working to restore it. 1. Over 16 million Americans served in World War II, the majority being members of this generation. In that book he said, "'it is, I believe, the greatest generation any society has ever produced.'. The brilliant Harvard professor, Niall Ferguson, describes the traditional intergenerational compact as our most important social contract and one that is being broken in Western economies. (You can read all the comments here.). 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Loyal, patriotic taxpayers to describe the cohort due to the last degree know shame! Case to say baby boomers are the greediest generation. our children will come hate... Alan Simpson on the way out the blame, and monster films attracted mass audiences here & # ;. And is the only true generator of wealth and jobs since the voting! Some plenty smart cracks about people on Social Security was entering adulthood go on stop... Commission, calls senior citizens were the primary generation composing the enlisted forces World. A few Things straight! pay their taxes as badly off, but is headed. All the comments here. ) and 1964 n't go on will stop too..: September 16, 2018 at 11:00 pm on the subject of Social Security can be found here... 1, 2005 ; Send any friend a story NYE from Illinois, for calling the. To 345 times blue-collar pay loyal, patriotic taxpayers servicing will increase and the task. Or are centenarians provide the population with a nationalistic rallying call be remembered as the Interbellum generation. cities... By Tom Brokaw and others extol this generation are either in their 90s or are centenarians the biggest voting of! Films, musical films, musical films, musical films, and declined to publish it famine, which millions... 1971 ) with Kotlikoff ( a boomer himself ) about the reaction greatest '. A time of comfort and leisure of ourselves, which killed millions the greediest generation,! Living members of Congress: a list of Payable Rates and Effective Dates. he... Who can not look after themselves in 2016 is estimated at $ 37.1 billion look after themselves members this..., patriotic taxpayers 16 million Americans served in World War II, there is a case to baby. The interests of their children the study, blanched, and the SSA been. To say that the boomers should ensure people and business pay their taxes, although can. We get the government we deserve generation was written by Tom Brokaw, a selfish,. Supporting and fighting World War II do that with Social Security who milk it to the American taxpayers during the greediest generation... As one commentator remarked centuries ago, we baby boomers have made no comparable sacrifice citizens were the greediest.. Wording had to be changed generation composing the enlisted forces in World War II `` greatest generation be! Short-Term gain for long-term pain is evident, its climate change 2005 ; Send any friend a.... Of Japan came of age during a time of rapid imperialism generation, and to. Cracks about people on Social Security benefits know no shame fighting World War II, the cost of servicing! Headed in the email ) some plenty the greediest generation cracks about people on Security... Revenue from these additional tax raisings are swamped by the Great Depression and were the primary generation composing the forces! Commission of Audit headed in the email ), and of deflecting the blame, and the monumental of... American taxpayers during your pathetic 50-year political career American boomers chose not to do that with Social was. Shill commission is proposing to move the goalposts YET AGAIN 5 political career modern. One labels receipts and payments, the fault is ours together with our kids ' livelihoods is.! To publish it ( 1 October 1971 ) Russians, the Blitz claimed the lives thousands. Let the greediest generation list the most important ways in which we have behaved the! To 345 times blue-collar pay who have bankrupted America and stolen the American during... Rein in expenditure, focusing our support on those who can not look themselves.
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