Gen Xer Blaming Boomers Just Gets It All Wrong
I try not to rant, and if I do I try to keep it light. When I read this today, I was going to comment on his blog, but I closed my account at Myspace.com. Since he is blaming all baby boomers, I decided I am qualified to correct his errors.
A Letter to My Parents
To my parents and the Baby Boomer generation,
As a child growing up, I remember my Mother teaching me many things about life. She taught me to do the right thing, believe I can be anything I want, to work hard, to always pay for what I use and not borrow too much money.
Your Mom’s probably a boomer too, right?
Apparently this last lesson is something the generation that came before me was never taught. Every day I open the newspaper I read about another record deficit that my generation as a young adult under 30 is going to have to pay for.
The government budget has been in surplus for a while, thus the national debt has been going down. We are paying off the debts we can. Do you know the difference between national debt and budget deficit?
I guess I need to look at it from the Baby Boomer’s perspective. Want tax cuts? Sure lets let our kids pay for them. Tax cuts during a war sure make sense the baby boomers say. Makes pefect sense to me if I was on another planet. Want to have a ridiculous never ending war in the Middle East that is going to cost over 1 trillion dollars? Sure why not, our kids can pay for it when they grow up.
Of course the majority of Americans (including boomers) realize the war was a mistake and now want to get out. The war will end, they always do.
Want to have unlimited medicare when you retire? I do not see why not, we deserve it for being American.
There is no such thing as “unlimited medicare.”
Plus I do not see why our kids cannot pay a 70% tax rate on their salaries when they are older (yes this is the estimate with no changes to Medicare and Social Security).
Yep! We paid in and we want it out. If you want it fixed, mobilize your generation to demand the fixes. Unfortunately GenXers are politically active, and hardly anybody in any generation votes anyway.
Want to receive enough Social Security it bankrupts our country. Why not right as long as I get my tax cuts.
Boomers have been hit by more taxes than any other generation. For example, you don’t remember this, but credit card interest used to be deductible now we have to take a second mortgage on the house if we want the interest to be deductible, no thanks. Federal taxes on gasoline were raised twice in the ’80’s.
Want to destroy the ozone and the environment for your whole life and then refuse to do anything meaningful about it?
We didn’t mean to! Boomers were the ones that discovered the effect of emissions. Boomers (eg: Clinton, Gore, and others) are trying to present solutions.
I for one am not willing to shoulder your excesses and your out of control spending and your obsession with tax cuts.
Oh yeah? Whadda ya going to do about it punk? Stop paying your taxes?
You want Social Security and Medicare than start paying more than 7%.
You going to pay more too? And don’t forget my employer also pays the same amount. Ummmm, isn’t this a tax increase?
You want to destroy my air then show me when you will fix it.
We’re working on it. We just discovered that Wooly Mammoth poop may be contributing.
Your generation is ridiculously irresponsible. Seeing as how my grandparents generation is called the “Greatest Generation”, I sure hope great generations run every other one. The mess you Boomer’s are leaving for us young people is going to take a great one to fix it. I just thought I would say thanks guys for ruining everything my Grandparents created for my generation.
Well now that’s just hyperbole to round out your post. Have a nice day.
Sincerely,
Oh! the sarcasm! Ouch.
Christopher Parra Age 28
You seem to be pretty chilled out here, maybe you should go back to that happy place.
Oh, it’s an age-old tradition to blame everything on the generation that came before. I remember back when I was young enough to think it was all my parents’ fault . . .
True: and we didn’t have the innerwebs to grouse to the world about our woes.
Yvan Cournoyer!
Did you see that USA Today article about Ms. Kirschling?!
http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2007-10-08-boomers_N.htm#Close
Did you see the picture of this lady on her freaking boat?!
A BOAT!
I work my butt off 80 hours a week and I can barely pay my rent in this economy. Does she really need Social Security?! NO!!!
She has a freaking BOAT and she’s going to collect!
This whole baby boomer thing is going to be a disaster. What kind of people steal their own kids retirements away from them? Baby boomers, that’s who. Well, we’ll see who has the last laugh when all of us Gen-Yer’s get into office and cut all of these Senior handout programs down to nothing.
I’m going to refuse to pay the taxes on the greedy baby boomer bums that want to spend my money on BOATS!!!
You’re not going to get my money!
Baby Boomer Thieves!
How is that woman going to pose on a BOAT and try to tell us that she needs her Social Security?!?!
Hi, Just wanted to show some love in here!
What am I going to do about it? I’m getting out of this debt-ridden country and you can try to pay down your generations debt on you own.