Time to Suck It Up
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| Toon by "Bones" Yaakov Kirschen |
Most of the members born at the beginning of the generation were in fact very much like their parents - hard working and conservative and not looking to the government for anything and often did without many of the things that later baby boomer had immediate access to or experienced.
Also, by the time the baby boomer generation moved into the workforce, the biggest government ponzi schemes in America - Social Security - became mandatory on them and not optional as first designed. Heck, there were lots of them and they could therefore pay-in lots of money. Also, the males in the first third of the baby boomers were the last generation to be drafted into the military and many were sent to War in Vietnam and never returned -- 58,000 Americans were killed and another 350,000 with combat casualties. Americans became discouraged with the Federal government. The prior statistics do not count the untold numbers of suicides by Vietnam Veterans after they returned home to an unwelcoming and unkind America. It does not identify the subsequent deaths from Agent Orange or other factors and the numbers affected by PTSD or otherwise permanently discouraged victims of the war.
Also their were the social aspects back home where people sought to avoid the War by going to college even when not interested in college. Some colleges and universities conspired to keep men from by being drafted through grade inflation. Bill Clinton (D) and others went to Canada to avoid the draft and were pardoned by Jimmy Carter (D) making Clinton eligible to become president. College campuses became a hot bed for a reactionary fever during the Vietnam War was hedonism flourished as mentioned by the authors other descriptions applicable to the "make love not war" or "free love" movement.
And the legacy of hedonism continued into Post Boomer / Generation X, Millennial Generation, and the New Silent Generation. However, members of all these various generations have been rudely awakening to the effects and consequences of Big Government which has and is continuing to assault liberty, freedoms, American prosperity and even individual responsibility. The question being debated is the corrective actions needed.
Feelings are running deep in America as evidenced by the author's article. However, not addressed by the author, is the following about the military and even other employers. Those whom stayed in the military obviously had their pay and retirement determined by the Federal Government. They were promised if they lived to retirement they would receive certain pay and benefits - one of which was Social Security. What is not realized by the general public is that the Government opted to keep military pay low and forced military to pay into social security and then thereby keep military retirement lower because the military member would also draw social security in the future. The Government used actuarial tables and determined that a majority of military retirees would in fact die and that they could avoid the retirement social security payout to the military retirees. Also, unlike most other retirement plans, when a military member dies, his retirement ceases and is not available to the spouse. To strip present military retirees of their social security pay would not be right.
Also, further research may evidence that even private employers having been forced to pay into this government Ponzi scheme (recall the lock box theory), adjusted retirement plans or provided no retirement plans to career employees because these employees would be receiving social security. While the Ponzi scheme payout must come to an end, I do not agree with the author's pre-baby boomer time line.
Some perspective about the author, John Allison. Although not a Baby Boomer, he is not some post modern radical. He respects and respected his parents and grandparents generation, especially his father's and grandfathers' service to our country. He is a father, a teacher, a Marine who has served his country, a Christian, and a conservative.
by John Allison, Opinion Editorial: Unless they're from the generation that won WWII or earlier, I am sick and tired of hearing people say, "Don't cut my Social Security or Medicare. I paid into that." Though most of us did pay into it, the simple fact is there is not going to be enough money to pay all the promised benefits without squeezing every drop of blood from future generations of Americans. We're mortgaged to the hilt and, almost in unison from the American people, all we hear is, "Don't cut my stuff. Cut the other guy's!" It's time to wake up and understand that we don't have a choice, we've bled this country dry and it's now time to pay the piper.
I realize that there are exceptions to the generalizations I'm about to make, but by and large, this is the way it is.
Our country is in the shape it is because of the Baby Boomers and subsequent generations, including my own. The Baby Boomers made up the generation that started our country down the precipitous decline that has left us where we are today, well on our way to the bottom of the abyss. It was the dope-smoking hippy Baby Boomers who decided morals and decency were no longer fashionable, personal responsibility for one's actions was an archaic concept, and the only allegiance they owed was to themselves.
While the Baby Boom generation got wasted and bred everything that would lie still for a few minutes, the fabric that so many previous generations had woven to make our country great began to fray. Rather than continue the tradition and make that fabric stronger, their live-for-the-moment mentality left little room for consideration of the future of the country. Unable to see the danger to the American way of life posed by the spread of Communism, their protests and marches undermined the efforts of valiant men and women who tried to preserve our traditions and freedom. But their disdain for all things American didn't restrict itself to the Vietnam war. It extended into the very heart of what carried the US from a ragtag collection of British colonies to the most powerful country in the world in less than 200 years.
The Frenchman, Alexis de Tocqueville, traveled the US in the 19th century and remarked, "America is great because America is good." That goodness wasn't a result of government regulations and entitlements, but the goodness of the individual Americans who gave of themselves to help those in need. The Baby Boom generation stood by, watched, and even encouraged as Lyndon Johnson initiated the transformation that replaced the goodness of so many Americans into the rampant culture of crime and evil so prevalent today.
The bong-hitting, sandal and bead wearing, free loving Baby Boomers decided that living in the moment and having fun just took up too much time and didn't leave any spare minutes for doing good deeds and taking care of one's neighbor and the like. So they decided that should be the domain of government. It became the government's responsibility to feed the homeless and orphans, clean the streets and highways, care for the elderly, and so on. Authority to provide what had always been the duty of ordinary citizens and churches was handed over to a government so the Baby Boomers could worry themselves with important things like getting another fix or bedding down with another partner. Personal responsibility for making the world a better place became a thing of the past.
When the Baby Boomers began to get a little long in the tooth, their wanton selfishness didn't subside. Those who had married placed little or no value in the oath they had sworn to stick together for better or worse, in good times and bad, in sickness and in health. They divorced their spouses for little, or even no, reason at all. Men left their wives and children feeling no compulsion whatsoever to provide for the families they abandoned. Those who had bred without having married felt free to leave their mates and offspring as well. A generation of kids raised by single mothers came of age with few responsible male role models.
In the wake of this divorce epidemic surged all sorts of social programs to assist abandoned mothers and their children. The plague now known as welfare was born because of the irresponsible actions of the Baby Boom generation. This canker became malignant, trapping those it infected into a vicious cycle that destroyed any semblance of work ethic they might have otherwise developed. By absolving themselves of their responsibility to care for their families and neighbors in need, by shifting that responsibility to the government, Baby Boomers initiated the erosion of initiative to work hard and make something of oneself in America. All of these travesties are symptoms of the selfishness that defined the Baby Boom generation, replacing one of selflessness that existed prior and resulted in the ascendancy of the United States to super power status in such a short time. Rather than take the time to help a neighbor, they passed by those in need. After all, that was the government's responsibility and they didn't have time to help them anyway.
And the Baby Boomers raised my generation. My generation grew up with some government agency or another regulating virtually every aspect of our lives. Too many don't realize it's not supposed to be that way. The dope-smoking hippies that raised them instilled their anti-capitalist agenda deep in their hearts through parenting, entertainment and education.
My generation was raised BELIEVING the government is responsible for taking care of everything, and personal responsibility was a term practically removed from the English language. Now as our children come of age, we have spent our country into oblivion. $14 TRILLION in debt and growing at a rapid pace, predicted to reach $24 TRILLION before our kids turn 30!
How do we expect them to repay it?!?!?!??!?!? Are we really willing to place that impossible burden on their shoulders so that we can enjoy cable TV, smartphones, high speed internet, multiple cars, boats, motorcycles and 3000 sq ft homes?
I'm not. The Baby Boomers and my generation have marched us to the edge of this cliff and now they're telling us the only way to survive it keep marching past the edge...into thin air...and telling us we can keep going the way we are and everything will be okay.
It won't be okay, and it's not okay!
Now is the time to accept responsibility for the mess we've created, tighten our belts, and suffer the consequences of our actions. I'm not for cutting SS and Medicare benefits of the WWII generation. They didn't create this mess. But for everyone born after 1945, it's time to make cuts and hold our generations accountable for their decades of irresponsibility.
As for me, I've resigned myself to the fact that I'm never going to retire. I'll go to my grave working. But if that's the price I have to pay so that I am not responsible for passing off an unbearable burden to my children, then so be it. If you're in the Baby Boom generation or mine, and you don't feel that way, your willingness to enslave your descendants to a debt that we created is unconscionable.
It's time we who created this mess suck it up and bear the consequences of the mess we have created. Cut Social Security, Medicare, and every other government program for those of us in the Baby Boom and subsequent generations and let's get our country back on track!
Tags: baby boomers, social security, ponzi scheme. federal government, opinion editorial, John Allison To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. Thanks!
Posted by Bill Smith at 11:17 AM - Post Link
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