One of my fellow bloggers here on Patch is wondering why there isn't any outrage from the younger generations about the national debt. The three short paragraphs raise good points; however, they barely scratch the surface of the larger issues of our national debt and so-called "entitlements." The large amounts of public debt added to the Federal credit card over the past decade wasn't caused by the social service benefits for those on the lowest rungs of the socio-economic ladder; however, that wasn't my problem with his opinion. My issue is that this isn't the time for Boomers to co-opt the younger genreations into the same old arguments and false choices.
Here is what I'm looking at as a Gen-Xer:
1.) I may only get 75% of my Social Security benefits. This isn't an entitlement because I've been paying into it for you, and I'm expecting those behind me to pay into it for me. How about instead of sticking us with the bill, the 55+ crowd takes half of the cut while the rest of us take the other half of the cut? The better questions are: why do we need to take the cut, and who is forcing us to make this choice in the first place?
2.) Maybe unemployment for the younger generations would go down if those who are past retirement age retire to free up jobs? But that isn't the problem, is it. The questions should be, why aren't people retiring, and why aren't companies hiring?
3.) A great deal of the older generation loves to go on about how entitled the younger generation is. Wasn't it the Boomers that parented those kids that are entitled, had their problems solved by helicopter parenting, and spared the emotions of failure because everyone gets a trophy? Where were the values of the "Greatest Generation" that raised the Boomers? Where are the values of sacrifice, winning and losing, hard work, earning a place in society and being content with what one has? What ever happened to "use it up, wear it out, make it do or do without"?
The root of our problems can't be boiled down to simple this or that, young or old, red or blue arguments. There is outrage in my generation, but we aren't complaining because we are too busy raising our kids and entering the prime of our careers. We are also too busy trying to figure out what to do with our school systems, underwater mortgages, our parents who are getting older, costs rising faster than our paychecks, rising health care costs, sending our kids to college with tuition prices that are skyrocketing, basic infrastructure that isn't being maintained, our jobs that are disappearing to lower cost countries, and government at all levels that is caught in paralysis by analysis at best or deadlocked in a partisan divide at worst. I don't have time to be outraged. Not only am I dealing with the debt that is being passed down, but all the other bucks that are being passed.
The older generation can't simply say, "We are worried about you in the younger generations." From my point of view it feels like I am being told, "Well, we are getting ours. We are worried about you, but here's the bill and good luck finding a job." The Boomers need to remember what it was like on this side of the equation. The big problems here cannot be foisted on to any one demographic in this country - the problems belong to all of us.
I'm not complaining or getting outraged because it serves no greater purpose. I, and many like me, are full of quiet determination. We are tired of listening to the same arguments, and we are simply starting new conversations and moving on from the same old arguments. We are finding solutions that are simpler and cheaper than ever. We trying our best finding solutions to big problems, and we are doing it in ways that weren't even conceivable in the "Age of Aquarius." We are also solving our own problems locally by looking back to the basic values and methods of our grandparents and great grandparents in the Greatest Generation and the generation that survived the Great Depression. I believe that Generation X, despite our apathetic start in the 90's, has and will continue to rise to the occasion, and we will bring everyone along with us.
My Generation made the Internet what it is today, we are more focused on family, we are doing the best we can despite the hand we have been dealt, and we are having fun along the way. Stay tuned. We aren't even close to being done yet.
1. Regarding driving to business, I don't see who would build and maintain an organized system of roads for me to travel on and for my customers to travel on. I was not referring to a license, registration or insurance. However, a lack of an insurance requirement would certainly be an added cost to many businesses - to self-insure against those that don't insure (which would likely go up if there were no insurance requirement) would likely increase my premiums. 2. Regarding the police, I don't see how else to have safe roads without some enforcement. Again, the more dangerous the roads are, the higher my insurance would be and the more money goes out of my pocket. 3. Regarding defense, I was talking about defense - I never referred to our role as global police man which I agree should be scrapped. Instead, I was talking about defense against international criminal groups, terrorists and the like. A country with no means to defend itself would be a sitting duck. 4. Gold and silver? Do you have any idea how hard it would be to conduct a business in gold and silver? 5. Of course my business is not essential to a community's survival - very, very few are. Are you suggesting that any such business go under? That would lead to incredible chaos! You clearly know little about business or what it takes to earn a living. 4. 2.
2. When someone goes 100 MPH on the highway, the police chase them, effectively doubling the number of people travelling at unsafe speeds. That’s not safer. 3. Who the heck is going to invade a country with this many firearm owners? Let people with concealed carry pistols carry on a plane….lets see how many hijackings we have after that. 4. Ever heard of BitCoin? It’s a storage system of silver that you can pay for things with a “credit card” With the ability to have competing currencies, things like BitCoin would be able to spring up……..its called innovation. Same thing could happen with a free-market system of roads and transportation. 5. We are all micro-businesses in a way…..my customer happens to be a corporation that I have a contract with to work. I imagine that even without government, you and your business would survive if you had to.
~~ Frank Zappa
he was great...........you, not so much
@Waterford Guy. Your trust in the free market is almost as scary as some people's trust in government. Your openness to rolling the dice and seeing what happens, and assuming that what happens will be an improvement, seems a bit "pie in the sky" to me. For example: 1. Your idea about the gas station is just that - a guess. No one would know whether a transportation system would develop that would allow for the movement of goods and people. Say 50 homes are on a street - who then owns that street? who pays for upkeep? 2. Pointing out one flaw of the police is hardly evidence that the police don't make the streets safer. Without laws, rule or enforcement, I see chaos and you've yet to suggest otherwise. 3. I own firearms too, and anyone who thinks a crew of citizens with firearms is going to defend this country is out of their mind. Haven't you heard of chemical weapons, figther jets, bombs and missiles? You really think that few rifles will suffice? 4. Bitcoin could function now if there was a market for it. Competing currencies would be a huge hassle for business. How would a business efficiently sell its good with an unlimited number of currencies out there? Commerce and investment would be severely burdened.
Congratulations to the Democrats and Young People who voted for Obama's Socialism. You now own it. The next terrorist attack you own it. Can't get a job after graduation, you own it. Sky rocketing energy prices due to Obama's EPA shutting down the energy producing states, you own it. A nuclear Iran, you own it. Another severe recession, you own it. A volatile border with Mexico, you own it. Higher heath insurance costs and health care costs, you own it. No budget, you own it. Another trillion of debt, you own it. More Benghazi situations, you own it. More dependency on food stamps, you own it. Trouble finding good employment, you own it. A World Government, you own it. The UN governing the United States instead of ourselves, you own it. A Senate that will not bring any legislation to the table rather it is "Dead on Arrival", you own it. China controlling our world trade trampling all over us, you own it. Loss of our freedoms as we have known it in the past, you own it. A dictatorship instead of a democracy that follows the Constitution, you own it. More government corruption and lies, you own it. More toleration of extreme and fanatical Islamists, you own it. Terrorist attacks called work place incidents, you own it. President George Bush is out of it now, and there is not another good man for you to vilify and lie about. In a way I am relieved that another good man will not be blamed when it was impossible to clean up this mess you voted for. God bless....
Everyone under 21 will be FORCED to pay all this debt. They never voted. This is Taxation Without Representation.
Of course you can holiday in India and get the work done for 1/10 the price for some odd reason. The moral of this story is that you should start saving your money, stop watching the media whore egomaniacs in hollywood and start thinking about yourself 20 years from now. Get active with your state reps that have 100% medical coverage after just one term and drill them. Let's start with the congress's $220,000 per quarter bill for bottled water..................
I think I am a lot more optomistic about the co-operative nature of humans than others are, and that is why I trust the free market so much. I believe generally people want to co-exist peacefully and better thier lives and the lives of those around them, without government's coercive and forceful iron fist. and just as my suggestion to your number 1. was a guess.....your answers to my 2-4 are guesses on your part.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-02-20/why-should-taxpayers-give-big-banks-83-billion-a-year-.html
For example, I ship alot of my products and I have little faith that, in the abscence of a government, my goods would be able to efficiently ship (or ship at all) from CT to CA. I don't see how roads/airports/bridges would be built, maintained or operated and I have little faith in the kindness of people all the way from CT to CA to let my goods pass on their roads or through their property.
GM is proposing to pay about $82 million to its highest 25 employees in total compensation, up from the $65 million it paid them in 2012. This 20% raise increase has to be passed through the treasury department which lent the $49,000,000,000 to gm in the first place. We will lose over $12 billion from that loan. Lets talk uber egomaniac Rick Wagner, GM CEO that drove the nail in the coffin at one of the greatest companies in the world and was fired and had no charges brought against him by the shareholders. Of course Obama payed back Super Uber egomaniac Ed Whitacre for his awesome campaign donations by giving him CEO and approx $9 million in tax payer salary.
so they conceive of myriad means to game the system, play the shots, even tweak the rules (interpretations) to ensure they gain advantage before their sham actually is discovered and thence find themselves with populace at their door with Rakes and Hoes demanding a fair share. so Off to some distant retirement retreat, with their socks stuffed with money carefully excised from the system as to evade detection, even with a retro-concealment method to cover their actions. down on the planet, where those 'commoners' act like errant children, emitting cries of economic pain, offending the eardrums of the elite sensitivities and 'needs', most who already know this, have become sadly beaten into submission by superior logic and application of clearly defined criminal conspiracy. not that they themselves have not either done much of the same, at least to ward away the oppressive and arrogant scent of corruption (Change?) that was triggered from 'above'. follow the leader, or be lead by your own peril, fully deceived and ungraciously discarded when worn beyond use.
The younger generation has it better than any previous generation in where it economically starts out. The older generation has more benefits coming to it than any other in history. The rich are richer, the poor are richer. The middle, as always, is under attack. Nothing new there.
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