Now I understand why you Gen Yers are so unhappy and jealous of boomers.

[CosmicCowboy]

Entitled little bitches...:lol

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/wait-but-why/generation-y-unhappy_b_3930620.html

[FuzzyLumpkins]

The article is stupid.

He makes up a hypothetical individual. Uses a vague semantic argument off of a single phrase and cherry picks from a single psych study.

One example of why boomers are reviled is Obamacare. How better to pay for boomers health care than by forcing young people to buy insurance they do not need so that boomers can get more free shit. Nevermind that a person born in 1945 has seen on average $1m in government payouts as opposed to what they have paid in. How else do we have a multitrillion dollar debt?

Yet another boomer hit piece where innuendo is used to deflect from the empirical evidence of your failure. Lets look more at relative economic conditions, voting records, policy decisions, and less at made up names and grandstanding on google's counting the use of "secure career" versus "fulfilling career." Just saying.

[CosmicCowboy]

The article is stupid.

He makes up a hypothetical individual. Uses a vague semantic argument off of a single phrase and cherry picks from a single psych study.

One example of why boomers are reviled is Obamacare. How better to pay for boomers health care than by forcing young people to buy insurance they do not need so that boomers can get more free shit. Nevermind that a person born in 1945 has seen on average $1m in government payouts as opposed to what they have paid in. How else do we have a multitrillion dollar debt?

Yet another boomer hit piece where innuendo is used to deflect from the empirical evidence of your failure. Lets look more at relative economic conditions, voting records, policy decisions, and less at made up names and grandstanding on google's counting the use of "secure career" versus "fulfilling career." Just saying.

:lmao

Yet you voted for Obama and I didn't. :lmao

[The Reckoning]

it's because self entitled boomers who leached off of the production and pumped up the investment bubble (knowing it will burst) paid for by the blood, sweat, and tears of the GOAT generation. they teach their children that the world is theirs and that they're better than everyone - meanwhile gorging themselves, not taking care of their bodies, setting bad examples by inflating serial monogamy practices and advocating wage/living disparity.

kids grow up feeling entitled then hit depression when the real world stops by because of the massive fuckups of their parents. it's no surprise that gen Y has the first lower standard of living growth than any other generation prior. gen Y is also realizing that in the age of information, the work force is more fluid, work is more flexible and they no longer have to slave to the MAN (baby boomers). enough is enough. highering the standards across the board will result in nothing but growth across all classes. it's the boomers who are entitled, and i'm happy to know that gen Y learned from their mistakes.

https://fbcdn-sphotos-h-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/1230096_10103579115944830_517551697_n.jpg

[FuzzyLumpkins]

:lmao

Yet you voted for Obama and I didn't. :lmao

I didn't vote for Obama. Either time. He is a Chicago politician and I pay attention to history. If I voted major party I would have voted for McCain the first time. I have a tremendous amount of respect for how he handled the SNL crisis back in the 80s.

[boutons_deux]

I didn't vote for Obama. Either time. He is a Chicago politician and I pay attention to history. If I voted major party I would have voted for McCain the first time. I have a tremendous amount of respect for how he handled the SNL crisis back in the 80s.

SNL? he was guilty of corruption with the Keating 5, and got some strings pulled to escape barely, extremely poor judgement. As we saw in 08, he's senile and emotionally unstable, and worse now.

[FuzzyLumpkins]

SNL? he was guilty of corruption with the Keating 5, and got some strings pulled to escape barely, extremely poor judgement. As we saw in 08, he's senile and emotionally unstable, and worse now.

He was cleared if wrongdoing unlike some of his colleagues.

He admitted to making a mistake and got behind the reregulation that was passed a couple of years later. It seems pretty obvious to me considering his actions following the SNL scandal that he felt like he got fucked by the banksters and hes been openly against them since. He and Warren seem to be the only two people in the Senate that give a shit about banking regulation. He has also been going hard at overseas tax shelters and avoidance by US firms. I like them both.

[FuzzyLumpkins]

Oh and I forgot. Its too damn bad that McCain-Feingold got struck down. Ever since Keating tried to hang him out to dry, he has been on a mission regarding campaign financing and political influence of firms. If you fuck something up I like to see people try and make right by it.

[Clipper Nation]

:lmao at the Boomers - a.k.a. the "Me Generation" - calling anyone else entitled....

[Clipper Nation]

If I voted major party I would have voted for McCain the first time.
:lmao Sorry, I can't take anyone seriously who would have voted for that neocon shill McCain and fucking Palin, tbh....

[Rogue]

Boomers inherited the world's wealthiest country from their parents and what they're bequeathing to their children is nothing but an astronomical figure of debt that will never be paid off. I'm jealous of their rights to live their lives in an abusive way while being able to maintain a bourgeois life style.

[FuzzyLumpkins]

:lmao Sorry, I can't take anyone seriously who would have voted for that neocon shill McCain and fucking Palin, tbh....

I think you may want to look up what a shill is. I guess you could call all politicians shills but as politicians go McCain is more forthcoming and direct than most. You don't shill by passing campaign finance laws, pushing through banking regulation and going after corporate tax shelters. Who is he shilling for anyway? His ties to the military are pretty obvious.

And I will take old school neocons over the current brand of GOP every day and twice on Sundays. More Buckley please.

I wouldn't have voted for Palin. I would have voted for McCain over Obama. There is no good choice in that circumstance and I am more than fine with McCain over Obama. VP's are largely irrelevant in terms of actual policy although they are influential in internal party politics. I don't give a rat's ass about the GOP though. If you prefer Obama over McCain then you go with your bad self.

I don't vote major party so it doesn't matter either way.

[boutons_deux]

McLiar shills for the neocon MIC, "bomb bomb bomb Iran" is his idea of a joke when running for President.

[FuzzyLumpkins]

As I said, his ties to the military are pretty obvious. That's like saying Sean Elliott is shilling for the Spurs.

You guys don't seem to understand what a shill is. A shill tries to hide his connections to what he is advocating. It's should be obvious that McCain is buddy buddy to the DoD.

[FuzzyLumpkins]

If you want an example of a shill then you have Obama. He talked up transparency, banking regulation, and corporate interest running up to elections. What did we get? Not that.

Hate on McCain's policy fine but at least you know what his policy is. He does push banking regulation and special interest reform. It's not as if he has in action any different position than Obama regarding being a hawk. It's evident that in fact Obama is a hawk isn't it?

So what's different between the two? McCain actually pushes for banking regulation and interest reform instead of talking about it but not doing shit if not the opposite?

[scott]

Dumb article, great illustrations

[AntiChrist]

Hilarious article. Very surprised that was on HuffPo.

[ChumpDumper]

CC was entitled to his Obamacarts.

[LnGrrrR]

I guess wanting a decent wage, good healthcare etc etc is whiny. But hey, we have iPhones and the Internet so why should we be complaining, amirite?

[symple19]

http://aweinstein.kinja.com/fuck-you-im-gen-y-and-i-dont-feel-special-or-entitl-1333588443


Fuck You. I'm Gen Y, and I Don't Feel Special or Entitled, Just Poor. (http://aweinstein.kinja.com/fuck-you-im-gen-y-and-i-dont-feel-special-or-entitl-1333588443)

A bunch of you people on Facebook and Twitter keep sharing a Huff Po stick-figure thing about how Gen Y is unhappy because they’re unrealistic delusional ingrates.
You know, this thing (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/wait-but-why/generation-y-unhappy_b_3930620.html).
If you wrote that, or you liked that, carefully consider these thoughts:
1) These are weirdly contrived generational categories, too weird for such black-and-white reasoning. I’ve always thought myself more tail-end-of-Gen-X in temperament, age, and outlook. But '77-'79 is a sociologically ambiguous no-man's land, and we typically get lumped in with the millennials, especially when it comes to money matters.
2) Go f**k yourselves.
You have no idea about student debt, underemployment, life-long renting. “Stop feeling special” is some shitty advice. I don’t feel special or entitled, just poor. The only thing that makes me special is I have more ballooning debt than you. I’ve tempered the hell out of my expectations of work, and I’ve exceeded those expectations crazily to have one interesting, exciting damned career that’s culminated in some leadership roles for national publications. And I’m still poor and in debt and worked beyond the point where it can be managed with my health and my desire to actually see the son I’m helping to raise.
Younger journos see me as a success story and ask my advice, and I feel like a fraud, because I’m doing what I love, and it makes me completely miserable and exhausts me.
Last weekend my baby had a fever, and we contemplated taking him to the ER, and my first thought was - had to be - “Oh God, that could wipe out our bank account! Maybe he can just ride it out?” Our status in this Big Financial Game had sucked my basic humanity towards my child away for a minute. If I wish for something better, is that me simply being entitled and delusional?
There *are* delusions at play here, but they are not our generation's. They play out as two contradictory lectures that we are told, simultaneously, by our monied elders:
1) This is AMERICA. Everybody does better than their parents!
2) This is AMERICA. Suck it up and quit bitching that you're not as well-off as your parents!
The latter maxim lurks in the heart of every critique of millennials. It assumes that if we're worse off than previous generations, the fault is ours, and our complaints are so much white whine. We should shut up and be content, because we do work less than our forebears, and spend more time enraptured by our own navels, trying to divine some life-affirming creative direction in them.
But there's nothing for us to suck up, really. As a rule, our parents did end up much more dedicated to their careers than we have. But as a rule, they were laid off less. They didn't intern or work as independent contractors. They got full medical. They were occasionally permitted to adopt magical unicorn-like money-granting creatures called "pensions." Or, barring that, they accumulated a huger 401K to cash out before the Great Recession, because they saved more. And they saved more because the costs of college, of kid care, of health care, of doing business and staying alive and buying groceries and staying connected, were far less than they are today. They could raise a family on one salary if necessary.
They had room to advance and buy things. Yes, even the creatives. I once listened to a professor, who is in his sixties, read us the first published piece he'd been paid for, in the late 1970s. A thousand words or so. The rate, he says, was something like two bucks a word. That's four times what the Village Voice pays today, even for an award-winning investigative cover story. It's geometrically greater than what most writers can earn today writing daily brilliance for nationally renowned publications online. And writing daily brilliance, which many of them do, is hard goddamned work.
If I had a dollar for every older writer or editor who confided to me that "I don't know how young writers do it today; I certainly couldn't," I could buy every property that publishes them.
So no, we shan't be doing as well as our parents, and no, we shan't be shutting up about it. If anything, those of us who have been cowed into silence because college-educated poor problems aren't real poor problems should shed our fears and start talking about just how hard it really isout there, man.
This state of affairs does not exist because we're entitled and have simply declined to work as hard as the people that birthed us. American workers have changed from generation to generation: Since 1979, the alleged Dawn of the Millennial, the average U.S. worker has endured (http://www.epi.org/publication/a-decade-of-flat-wages-the-key-barrier-to-shared-prosperity-and-a-rising-middle-class/) a 75 percent increase in productivity...while real wages stayed flat.
Those changes are blips on a timeline compared to the massive, psyche-altering vicissitudes of American Industry, its self-Taylorization to the point where profit-making and shareholder value have been maximized in ways that Morgans and Carnegies and Vanderbilts couldn't even have conceived — in ways that have stiffed workers and the families they can no longer afford. Since '79, the top 1 percent of earners in America has seen their income quadruple.
So take your “revise your expectations! check your ego!” Horatio Alger bullshit, and stuff it. While you’re at it, stuff this economy. Not this GDP, not this unemployment level: this economy, this financial system that establishes complete social and political control over us, that conditions us to believe that we don’t deserve basic shelter and clothing and food and education and existence-sustaining medical care unless we throw our lives into vassalage and hope, pray, that the lords don’t fuck with our retirements or our coverages. (Maybe if we’re extra productive, someday they’ll do a 4o1K match again, like our ancestors used to talk about!)
Take the system that siphons off our capacities for human flourishing in hopes that we get thrown a little coin of the realm in return. Take that system and blow it up, you cowards.
Oh, and also, stop thinking that you’re special.

[The Reckoning]

CC getting his shit pushed in per par. Go back to lawn bowling on money you borrowed from us, old timer.

[Clipper Nation]

:lol Baby Boomers
:lol Ruining the economy, voting yourselves a cut of our money and then blaming us for it all
:lol The most entitled and delusional generation in American history
:lol Low-information Boomer voters electing the Boomer career politicians who perpetuate this bullshit

[leemajors]

http://aweinstein.kinja.com/fuck-you-im-gen-y-and-i-dont-feel-special-or-entitl-1333588443

Just saw that :lol He is destroying in the comments too

[CosmicCowboy]

For ALL of you guys that fall for this inter generational blame game let me break it to you...every generation has it's winners and losers. It's up to you to decide how bad you want it and how much you are willing to work for it.

There are plenty of guys in your generation kicking ass, my kids included.

Scott's a great example...he's gonna be a wealthy guy some day because he is smart, works hard, sets goals, balances risk and reward, and then goes after what he wants. He is not sitting back waiting for someone to take care of him and is willing to risk great failure to achieve great success.

Do y'all really think you are the first generation of Americans to think the previous generation made mistakes? Hell, We were the "draft" generation for a Vietnam War that we hated and made no sense. No "volunteer army" bullshit. I graduated from college into a Jimmy Carter stagflated economy with wage and price controls and double digit inflation and interest rates. That was immediately followed by the S&L crisis that devastated the Texas economy for years. None of that was my generations fault but I don't remember anyone whining about it and blaming our parents. We just (at least my peers that I hung out with) worked harder and fought to break out and get ahead.

[johnsmith]

For ALL of you guys that fall for this inter generational blame game let me break it to you...every generation has it's winners and losers. It's up to you to decide how bad you want it and how much you are willing to work for it.

There are plenty of guys in your generation kicking ass, my kids included.

Scott's a great example...he's gonna be a wealthy guy some day because he is smart, works hard, sets goals, balances risk and reward, and then goes after what he wants. He is not sitting back waiting for someone to take care of him and is willing to risk great failure to achieve great success.

Do y'all really think you are the first generation of Americans to think the previous generation made mistakes? Hell, We were the "draft" generation for a Vietnam War that we hated and made no sense. No "volunteer army" bullshit. I graduated from college into a Jimmy Carter stagflated economy with wage and price controls and double digit inflation and interest rates. That was immediately followed by the S&L crisis that devastated the Texas economy for years. None of that was my generations fault but I don't remember anyone whining about it and blaming our parents. We just (at least my peers that I hung out with) worked harder and fought to break out and get ahead.

I don't think from an individual point of view that anyone is arguing that a gen y'er should be able to get ahead without working hard (except maybe in the hypothetical op article). What everyone seems to be saying is that the boomers fucked up the entire world...and I don't see how you could deny that. Global economy, politics, and business are all pretty fucked up and the people that have been in charge of leading the world down the shitter has been the the boomer generation.

[boutons_deux]

"I don't see how you could deny that"

... because you're fucking stupid.

the 1%/VRWC strategy to reverse the progress of the 1930s (kill Glass-Steagal, bust unions, kill social security) and 1960s (kill ERA, VRA, Medicare, Medicaid), and suck wealth from the 99%, all got going in the early 1970s when the first boomers were years away from the peak of their careers. Who was running the country in the late 60s and in the 70s? The Greatest Generation, not boomers.

It's always the 1% vs 99%, not generation vs generation.

Like the 20 and 30 year olds now, plenty of 99% boomers have been fucked badly, lost good jobs, homes, incomes as the 1% gamed the govt policies to enrich, protect their wealth.

After 30 or so years where the US middle class was strong and growing after WWII, the US has now reverted to the historical average of extreme World Champion USA Number One! inequality.

btw, the top secret TPP is a 1%/VRWC/Corporate strategy to fuck the 99% much worse, placing global capital and global corporations completely beyond the reach of nations.

[2centsworth]

I just don't get how boomers can be deficit hawks while at the same time be the biggest drivers of deficits. Then the boomers have the audacity to blame their kids for all debts the boomers created. btw, I think there's some truth to that article.

[CosmicCowboy]

Do you guys not get that most of us are just as pissed off at Washington as you are?

[TeyshaBlue]

I just don't get how boomers can be deficit hawks while at the same time be the biggest drivers of deficits. Then the boomers have the audacity to blame their kids for all debts the boomers created. btw, I think there's some truth to that article.

When contemporary demographics show that Boomers as the dominant population set, it's not surprising, tbh. Doesn't matter which set of humans you plunk down in that period..none would have emerged unscathed. The Vietnam war, the counter-culture, the establishment of the science of marketing, the hurricane of tech advances, the nascent secular movement, all these forces and others molded the boomers into what they are perceived to be today.
It's laughable to suggest that Gen X or Gen Y or Gen what-the-fuck-ever would've walked a different path.

[boutons_deux]

"deficit hawks while at the same time be the biggest drivers of deficits"

The 1% are the deficit hawks since they know tax cuts and breaks FOR THEM, plus the Repug wars they benefit from, are a huge cause of the deficits.

By closing the deficit by fucking over the 99% (public assistance, research, school loans, etc, etc), they want to preclude the 99% using the deficit as a reason to make the 1% pay their fair share.

[LnGrrrR]

For ALL of you guys that fall for this inter generational blame game let me break it to you...every generation has it's winners and losers. It's up to you to decide how bad you want it and how much you are willing to work for it.

There are plenty of guys in your generation kicking ass, my kids included.

Scott's a great example...he's gonna be a wealthy guy some day because he is smart, works hard, sets goals, balances risk and reward, and then goes after what he wants. He is not sitting back waiting for someone to take care of him and is willing to risk great failure to achieve great success.

Do y'all really think you are the first generation of Americans to think the previous generation made mistakes? Hell, We were the "draft" generation for a Vietnam War that we hated and made no sense. No "volunteer army" bullshit. I graduated from college into a Jimmy Carter stagflated economy with wage and price controls and double digit inflation and interest rates. That was immediately followed by the S&L crisis that devastated the Texas economy for years. None of that was my generations fault but I don't remember anyone whining about it and blaming our parents. We just (at least my peers that I hung out with) worked harder and fought to break out and get ahead.

Considering that you just semi-whined about it there, I believe it is likely that, yes, many of your compatriots whined as well.

I also enjoy how you can blithely dismiss the data that shows the wealthy are getting wealthier and the poor are getting poorer, how education costs are skyrocketing, how it is harder for a single working parent family to support themselves, etc etc.

Just saying "your generation whines too much and is lazy!" Doesn't make a lot of sense. Do you have any proof that Gen Y is singularly distinctive in its lack of effort/motivation/etc?

[Trainwreck2100]

there's only one thing i'm jealous at boomers for. They got to go to school on the cheap, while we, (thanks to them) have to pay out of our ass for it.

[TeyshaBlue]

Considering that you just semi-whined about it there, I believe it is likely that, yes, many of your compatriots whined as well.

I also enjoy how you can blithely dismiss the data that shows the wealthy are getting wealthier and the poor are getting poorer, how education costs are skyrocketing, how it is harder for a single working parent family to support themselves, etc etc.

Just saying "your generation whines too much and is lazy!" Doesn't make a lot of sense. Do you have any proof that Gen Y is singularly distinctive in its lack of effort/motivation/etc?

There is no proof. There is no whiny and lazy. These are completely subjective descriptors that should never see the light of day.

[pgardn]

When contemporary demographics show that Boomers as the dominant population set, it's not surprising, tbh. Doesn't matter which set of humans you plunk down in that period..none would have emerged unscathed. The Vietnam war, the counter-culture, the establishment of the science of marketing, the hurricane of tech advances, the nascent secular movement, all these forces and others molded the boomers into what they are perceived to be today.
It's laughable to suggest that Gen X or Gen Y or Gen what-the-fuck-ever would've walked a different path.

Very true.

Being sort of a tweeter, it was much easier to find a job and going to college was very inexpensive.

However, during the summers I worked construction while working in a lab at night. Most of my friends had one or two jobs during summers. I know this is anecdotal, but the college kids I see everyday are working in very nice conditions during the summer in jobs that do not pay much. I would have been in line for all the menial jobs in the fracking fields. They are/ were begging for drivers, etc... And the pay was quite good. But it is labor intensive and very hot. You show some responsibility and hope to get moved up. I would do very tough jobs outside if it meant more pay. But air conditioning behind a phone or keyboard or in a retail store seem popular. Well everyone wants that for the summer.

I still get the sense that the older generation feels entitled because they worked hard. Well worked is past tense. Many can still work. And many do. The loudest voices seem to be the ones that have too much time on their hands.

All from my personal experience without any data. And I'm sure it differs a bit State to State.

[ChumpDumper]

Do you guys not get that most of us are just as pissed off at Washington as you are?[shakes fist from seat of Obamacart]

[Sportcamper]

[shakes fist from seat of Obamacart]
That would be Obamacart's...
One of them is a four seater with stereo surrounds...To serenade them doggies when making the evening ranch rounds....:tu

[Clipper Nation]

Do you guys not get that most of us are just as pissed off at Washington as you are?
You're apparently not pissed off enough as a generation to do some research (cable news and Drudge/HuffPo doesn't count), stop parroting the Team Red/Team Blue talking points, and stop electing the same old Boomer career politicians :lol

Let's be honest: as long as the handouts keep rolling in from out of our pockets, the majority of Boomers don't really give two shits about the world they're leaving behind for younger generations, tbh....

[boutons_deux]

"the majority of Boomers don't really give two shits about the world they're leaving behind for younger generations"

your as WRONG with your boomer trash talk as you are in choice of NBA team

[TeyshaBlue]

Let's be honest: as long as the handouts keep rolling in from out of our pockets, the majority of Boomers don't really give two shits about the world they're leaving behind for younger generations, tbh....

Let's be honest: Gross generalizations are much easier than thinking. Good job.

[TeyshaBlue]

Aint nothing wrong with the Clips, boutons.

[Clipper Nation]

Let's be honest: Gross generalizations are much easier than thinking. Good job.
Actions speak louder than words, and it's the actions of the Boomers in power and at the voting booth that demonstrate a lack of concern for the future, tbh....

[TeyshaBlue]

Actions speak louder than words, and it's the actions of the Boomers in power and at the voting booth that demonstrate a lack of concern for the future, tbh....

Cause there are no Boomers fighting the good fight. Right. Got it.

[TeyshaBlue]

Also because boomers!!!11

[Clipper Nation]

Cause there are no Boomers fighting the good fight. Right. Got it.
Never said that ALL Boomers don't care, tbh....

[TeyshaBlue]

You're right. Just the majority of boomers. Love to see the metrics behind that statement. http://homerecording.com/bbs/images/smilies/facepalm.gif

[TeyshaBlue]

YPIYR, no doubt.

[angrydude]

You're right. Just the majority of boomers. Love to see the metrics behind that statement. http://homerecording.com/bbs/images/smilies/facepalm.gif

Therefore they aren't?

lol.

[AntiChrist]

Gen Y has had it tougher than all previous generations. Just ask them.

[TeyshaBlue]

Therefore they aren't?

lol.

You don't know what you don't know.

lol

[FuzzyLumpkins]

When contemporary demographics show that Boomers as the dominant population set, it's not surprising, tbh. Doesn't matter which set of humans you plunk down in that period..none would have emerged unscathed. The Vietnam war, the counter-culture, the establishment of the science of marketing, the hurricane of tech advances, the nascent secular movement, all these forces and others molded the boomers into what they are perceived to be today.
It's laughable to suggest that Gen X or Gen Y or Gen what-the-fuck-ever would've walked a different path.

And then you come down and say you don't know what you don't know. Boomer's did walk that path and they did it in circumstances that gave the demographic singular control unlike what any other has enjoyed.

Obviously it's not fair to single out individuals solely on the basis of demographic information. At the same time railing against policy that was blatant in it's pandering and to the voting bloc that spurs it seems more than fair. I only go after CC because he is the poster boy of bad boomer behavior.

[TeyshaBlue]

And then you come down and say you don't know what you don't know. Boomer's did walk that path and they did it in circumstances that gave the demographic singular control unlike what any other has enjoyed.

Obviously it's not fair to single out individuals solely on the basis of demographic information. At the same time railing against policy that was blatant in it's pandering and to the voting bloc that spurs it seems more than fair. I only go after CC because he is the poster boy of bad boomer behavior.

I'm comfortable in my assertion that any population would've reacted similarly to the prevailing external forces. Although, not all were external per se (I'd say boomers had an active hand in the marketing forces), they were part of the framework of the time.
I only offered the you don't know caveat when faced with some half-assed quatitative statement of "the majority".

Boomers are what we are....a mixture of flaws and successes and a product of the rapidly changing mores of our time.

[TeyshaBlue]

At the same time railing against policy that was blatant in it's pandering and to the voting bloc that spurs it seems more than fair.

Fair enough.

[FuzzyLumpkins]

I'm comfortable in my assertion that any population would've reacted similarly to the prevailing external forces. Although, not all were external per se (I'd say boomers had an active hand in the marketing forces), they were part of the framework of the time.
I only offered the you don't know caveat when faced with some half-assed quatitative statement of "the majority".

Boomers are what we are....a mixture of flaws and successes and a product of the rapidly changing mores of our time.

You are who you are TB and we love you for it but whether or not some other group would have done the same thing given the same circumstances is besides the point. Nothing is inherent so to speak.

At the same time group behavior is what it is and boomers as a whole do vote together and vote towards specific policy. Politicians do pander to the demographic because of it. It is what it is even if it is not anyone in particular's 'fault.'

Obamacare's individual mandate underscores that pretty clearly in my view.

[TeyshaBlue]

You are who you are TB and we love you for it but whether or not some other group would have done the same thing given the same circumstances is besides the point. Nothing is inherent so to speak.

At the same time group behavior is what it is and boomers as a whole do vote together and vote towards specific policy. Politicians do pander to the demographic because of it. It is what it is even if it is not anyone in particular's 'fault.'

Obamacare's individual mandate underscores that pretty clearly in my view.

Thanks for the continued dialogue and clarity.......and I don't disagree really. You lazy, whiny child. http://www.audioandanarchy.com/images/smilies/really1.png

[TeyshaBlue]

*retracts hackles*






For now. lol

[CosmicCowboy]

:lmao @ poster boy of bad boomer behavior.

Shit, that's almost sig worthy.

[TeyshaBlue]

:lmao @ poster boy of bad boomer behavior.

Shit, that's almost sig worthy.

You do need a sig, CC. Get crackin', cracker!

[CosmicCowboy]

So what does your net worth / income have to be to be an official 1%er?

[Th'Pusher]

So what does your net worth / income have to be to be an official 1%er?
Net worth~$14M
income $345k annual

Averages ...if memory serves. Will need to verify and link later.

[LnGrrrR]

To be a 10% I think you just need to be above $70k a year or so.

[CosmicCowboy]

Net worth~$14M
income $345k annual

Averages ...if memory serves. Will need to verify and link later.

Fuck it then.

http://i.imgur.com/zD4X8.gif

[TeyshaBlue]

Net worth~$14M
income $345k annual

Averages ...if memory serves. Will need to verify and link later.

Well that's fuckin' great. I'm a -1%'er.:depressed

[FuzzyLumpkins]

:lmao @ poster boy of bad boomer behavior.

Shit, that's almost sig worthy.

Greed, disregard of others and lack of personal responsibility for your actions. But we modified YOUR behavior right?

If the shoe fits as they say.

[CosmicCowboy]

Greed, disregard of others and lack of personal responsibility for your actions. But we modified YOUR behavior right?

If the shoe fits as they say.

You confuse me in real life with the internet persona.

You, on the other hand, probably really are a fucking asshole in person.

[The Reckoning]

there's a difference between working hard and putting yourself in shitty working conditions.

what's so terrible about wanting to work in better conditions? i'd take a wage cut in an instant to be comfortable where i work and have opportunities for employment growth.

that doesn't make me lazy or entitled. it makes me think long term and not chase the dollar on the string held by boomers.

[The Reckoning]

plus i think it's funny how this thread turned from assaulting gen y'ers to trying to defend boomers. lol backpedaling.

[Biernutz]

On behalf of all the boomers I would like to thank the Gen Yers for working hard and paying your
taxes to make sure I can live a little when I retire. I'm sure the 11-15 million illegal immigrants who will
soon join us will thank you also because most will not make enough to pay taxes.

Sucks for you! :(

[CosmicCowboy]

On behalf of all the boomers I would like to thank the Gen Yers for working hard and paying your
taxes to make sure I can live a little when I retire. I'm sure the 11-15 million illegal immigrants who will
soon join us will thank you also because most will not make enough to pay taxes.

Sucks for you! :(

X2

I've got everything planned out to sell my company, commercial property, house etc. and retire in style in my late 60's somewhere like Costa Rica or Belize. Maybe Cabo. Haven't decided yet. That 3K a month you will be paying me in SS will sure come in handy putting diesel in my fishing boat.

[FuzzyLumpkins]

You confuse me in real life with the internet persona.

You, on the other hand, probably really are a fucking asshole in person.

Lack of personal responsibility for your actions is a lack of responsibility. You are just full of excuses. My behavior was modified. This is my internet voice.

Nice to see you are another one who doesn't stand behind what they say especially when it no longer seems to make you look good. You sure do measure up well to the stereotype.

[CosmicCowboy]

Lack of personal responsibility for your actions is a lack of responsibility. You are just full of excuses. My behavior was modified. This is my internet voice.

Nice to see you are another one who doesn't stand behind what they say especially when it no longer seems to make you look good. You sure do measure up well to the stereotype.

As you do to the whiny loser Y stereotype.

Sucks to be you.

But hey, you are determined to be a winner on the internet.

[Sportcamper]

Fuzzy How about we just give the new retirees the monies that they & their employers paid into the system? IMO the problem is not the working class…It’s the people collecting benefits who did not pay into the system…

[2centsworth]

Fuzzy How about we just give the new retirees the monies that they & their employers paid into the system? IMO the problem is not the working class…It’s the people collecting benefits who did not pay into the system…

I pay $0 and receive $1 in govt benefits or you pay $1 and receive $10 in govt benefits, which one is worse?

[symple19]

Just saw that :lol He is destroying in the comments too

One of the best comment sections I've ever seen online :lmao

[TeyshaBlue]

I pay $0 and receive $1 in govt benefits or you pay $1 and receive $10 in govt benefits, which one is worse?

yes.

[AntiChrist]

I can't speak for the old fart boomers, but maybe us Gen-X'ers are jealous of millenials

P-enHH-r_FM

[symple19]

http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2012/10/who-destroyed-the-economy-the-case-against-the-baby-boomers/263291/

Ultimately, members of my father's generation--generally defined as those born between 1946 and 1964--are reaping more than they sowed. They graduated smack into one of the strongest economic expansions in American history. They needed less education to snag a decent-salaried job than their children do, and a college education cost them a small fraction of what it did for their children or will for their grandkids. One income was sufficient to get a family ahead economically. Marginal federal income-tax rates have fallen steadily, with rare exception, since boomers entered the labor force; government retirement benefits have proliferated. At nearly every point in their lives, these Americans chose to slough the costs of those tax cuts and spending hikes onto future generations.
The Dow Jones industrial average rose twelvefold from the time the first boomers began working until last year, when they began to cash out their retirement. (The growth trend over the 12 years since I entered the workforce suggests that the Dow will double exactly once before I retire.) They will leave the workforce far wealthier than their parents did, with even more government promises awaiting them. Boomers will be the first generation of retirees to fully enjoy the Medicare prescription-drug benefit; because Social Security payouts rise faster than price inflation, they will draw more-generous retirement benefits than their parents did, in real terms--at their children's expense. The Urban Institute estimated last year that a couple retiring in 2011, having both earned average wages, will accrue about $200,000 more in Medicare and Social Security benefits over their lifetimes than they paid in taxes to support those programs.
Those retirees and near-retirees bequeath a shambles to their offspring. Young people are unemployed at historically high levels. Global competition is stronger than ever, but American institutions have not adapted to prepare new workers for its challenges. Boomers have run up incomes for the very wealthiest Americans, shrunk the middle class, and, via careless borrowing and reckless financial engineering, driven the economy into the worst recession in 80 years. The Pew Research Center reports that middle-class families today are 5 percentless wealthy than their parents were at the same point in their lives, after adjusting for inflation, even though families today are far more likely to include two wage earners. Another Pew report shows that those ages 55 to 64 are 10 percent wealthier today, even after the Great Recession, than Americans of that age bracket were in 1984. Those younger than 35 are 68 percent less wealthy than the same bracket was in 1984.
http://cdn-media.nationaljournal.com/?controllerName=image&action=get&id=22562&width=314
The baby boomers built an economy where young people increasingly need a college education to move into the middle class, or even to simply hold on to the middle-class lifestyle they were born into. But the boomers who run state legislatures and private universities have collectively pushed the costs of that now-requisite education into the stratosphere. Tuition has risen at twice the rate of inflation: In today's dollars, tuition, room, and board at a four-year public college ran nearly $6,800 per year in 1967; it costs about $13,300 today. Private-college tabs have more than doubled in that time. The increase has saddled young workers with more than $1 trillion in student debt--the average college student today borrows six times more from the federal government to finance her education, per year, than the average student in 1970. The boomers keep their low taxes, and their alma maters gain prestige, but the next generation of workers starts with a debt boulder strapped to its back. All for no apparent gain. Today, Pew says, men who grew up in the middle class are just as likely to earn less than their fathers did (adjusting for inflation) as they are to earn more.
Members of my father's generation reaped the benefits of dirt-cheap fossil fuels through most of their working lives, when gasoline price increases ran well below inflation, freeing up cash for them to save or spend on things their children now cannot afford. Because gas was so cheap, they burned too much of it (my father has never owned a car that averaged better than 20 miles per gallon), filling the atmosphere with carbon dioxide to levels that scientists warn will likely warm the globe by several degrees. Climate change will cost trillions of dollars to avert or adapt to. It's almost impossible to overstate this level of buck-passing.
Perhaps most egregiously, the baby boomers, led by boomer-coddling leaders in Washington, are bequeathing a runaway national debt and a gaping federal budget shortfall that their children and grandchildren will have to pay--through higher taxes or reduced benefits, or both--if they don't want the country to go broke. Balancing America's future receipts and obligations would require all taxes to rise by 35 percent "immediately and permanently," and all federal entitlement benefits to decrease by another 35 percent, the International Monetary Fund estimated last year. Shielding boomers from that pain--as most so-called deficit hawks in Washington propose--would dramatically increase the bill for everyone else. Brigham Young University economists Richard Evans and Kerk Phillips and Boston University economist Laurence Kotlikoff published a paper in January that projected a 1-in-3 chance that the U.S. economy will reach "game over" within 30 years. In their definition, "game over" means that the government's obligations to seniors (thanks again, boomers) will exceed 100 percent of everyone else's earnings. In other words, all the young workers in America together won't earn enough to pay down the government's obligations to their parents.


But the numbers on the laptop remind me how fleeting much of that progress was--and how boomers chose short-term gratification when they had opportunities to secure a better future for generations to follow. Classic example: Instead of devoting the budget surpluses of the late '90s to social programs that desperately needed them, they voted themselves tax cuts in 2001 and 2003, and an expanded Medicare benefit shortly after--a move a Congressional Budget Office study from that era suggests raised the expected tax rate on future generations from 29 percent to 53 percent. They borrowed heavily to cope with the economic sluggishness of the 2000s and, in so doing, inflated a housing bubble that, when it popped, triggered the Great Recession.
http://cdn-media.nationaljournal.com/?controllerName=image&action=get&id=22563&width=314
Median-income growth has stagnated for women and minorities over the past decade. The typical African-American today has less wealth than his or her parents did, according to Pew. Labor-force participation for women this year hit its lowest level since 1991.
And Congress? Well, Capitol Hill is where I realize I'll win this trial. Baby boomers chose the leaders currently paralyzing Washington, and those leaders are, by and large, boomers. My father's cohort has formed a generational majority in every Congress since the dawn of the George W. Bush administration. Electorally, boomers vote in dramatically larger numbers than anyone else. The Census Bureau reports there were 81 million Americans ages 45 to 64 in 2010, of whom slightly more than half voted. They made up about 43 percent of the electorate--almost as much as those 25 to 44 and those 65 and older combined.
As afternoon descends over the fir trees, I call my father over and show him this statistic. Look, I say. That government you say is crippling America? You and your friends own it.
"Shit," he says.





My emotional argument seals the case. Where I finally best my dad is on the question of why his cohort hasn't stopped the freight trains of generational woe that have been barreling down America's tracks for a few decades now. The question he can't answer is this: How could the members of a generation so willing to lecture everyone else on personal responsibility not recognize, even at this stage in their lives, their collective responsibility for ending this mess?
You used to be such an idealistic generation, I say. You were going to change the world. Yet you've known all this was coming and haven't tried seriously to stop it. You've reaped all the benefits and left the rest of us the bill. And you knew what you were doing. Why?




Only later do I notice the knife he's left in my side. We are sitting at the kitchen table. He is joking about regrets ("You raise these kids, and then they turn on you!") when he suddenly becomes serious and offers me a rare piece of fatherly advice. "We didn't stop it. Maybe someday, Max can have the same discussion with you and ask you why you didn't stop it. He'll get the article out. He'll say, 'You knew about it! You knew about it even more than [your parents] did!' "
The knife twists. I am 34 years old. I have some pretty successful friends. How have we sacrificed to balance the budget, to slow climate change, to deliver better opportunity for our children? We haven't. I own an SUV, and I don't compost my trash. We are barreling, generationally, toward higher and higher levels of carbon emissions; a demographer from the Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research estimated last year that an individual's emissions rise some 50 percent from the time he is in his 30s until the time he retires. Worst of all, we don't seem to care about changing things: Only about a third of registered 25-to-44-year-olds voted in the 2010 election, compared with half of registered baby boomers.
If my father is a leech on the future, then I am becoming one, too.
"Your generation should be thinking about how you'll step up to the plate," my dad says, brown eyes boring into mine. "And you also need to step up to the plate, learning from us about the politics. Just say no to the kind of politics that get in the way of what you perceive are the solution."


A great article that presents both sides. I've only posted the X-Y side of the debate because it's far more compelling, especially statistically.

I'd also like to say that I'm much angrier at my generation(s) (born in 79', consider myself X) for not doing anything about it, particularly the not voting part.

[CosmicCowboy]

but...but...but....I thought debt didn't matter?

[2centsworth]

but...but...but....I thought debt didn't matter?

I obviously hasn't at these levels. I like to use the topic of debt to expose boomer ignorance and hypocrisy.

[FuzzyLumpkins]

Fuzzy How about we just give the new retirees the monies that they & their employers paid into the system? IMO the problem is not the working class…It’s the people collecting benefits who did not pay into the system…

You think you have paid in more than you have gotten out or what you are expecting to get out come SS and medicare years?


More worrying is that this generation seems to be able to leverage its size into favourable policy. Governments slashed tax rates in the 1980s to revitalise lagging economies, just as boomers approached their prime earning years. The average federal tax rate for a median American household, including income and payroll taxes, dropped from more than 18% in 1981 to just over 11% in 2011. Yet sensible tax reforms left less revenue for the generous benefits boomers have continued to vote themselves, such as a prescription-drug benefit paired with inadequate premiums. Deficits exploded. Erick Eschker, an economist at Humboldt State University, reckons that each American born in 1945 can expect nearly $2.2m in lifetime net transfers from the state—more than any previous cohort.

http://www.economist.com/node/21563725

How about we get the new retirees and their employees to pay their bill?

[Clipper Nation]

Summing up the Boomer talking points - :cry "You young whippersnappers are so selfish, jealous, and unrealistic for not working your asses off for meager pay and then using all that money to support our retirement lifestyle!" :cry

[CosmicCowboy]

Summing up the Boomer talking points - :cry "You young whippersnappers are so selfish, jealous, and unrealistic for not working your asses off for meager pay and then using all that money to support our retirement lifestyle!" :cry

Don't worry son. You'll get a participation trophy.

[symple19]

I'm not attacking guys like CosmicCowboy or TeyshaBlue. Afaik, Cosmic pays his taxes and takes good care of his employees. Teysha also seems like a good dude.

Per par, there's a lot of trolling in here. But the fact remains that it's a shared responsibility to fix the fuckups.

Imo, it starts with the younger generations getting out there and removing the scumbags via the ballot box. Let's see what happens when 3rd parties, collectively, get 10+ percent of the vote. That's when things will start to change

jmo

[Trainwreck2100]

I'm not attacking guys like CosmicCowboy or TeyshaBlue. Afaik, Cosmic pays his taxes and takes good care of his employees. Teysha also seems like a good dude.

Per par, there's a lot of trolling in here. But the fact remains that it's a shared responsibility to fix the fuckups.

Imo, it starts with the younger generations getting out there and removing the scumbags via the ballot box. Let's see what happens when 3rd parties, collectively, get 10+ percent of the vote. That's when things will start to change

jmo

Honestly the last boomers alive will be fucked cause when our generation becomes the majority we'll tear them a new one.

[CosmicCowboy]

Honestly the last boomers alive will be fucked cause when our generation becomes the majority we'll tear them a new one.

death panels?

[CosmicCowboy]

Honestly the last boomers alive will be fucked cause when our generation becomes the majority we'll tear them a new one.

Funny...when the last boomers are dying you will be staring retirement in the face and voting your ass off for those social security and medicare benefits you hate now.

[The Reckoning]

now thanks to the "pat on the head" policies of entitled white boomers who census minorities, divide the population by race, and put forth affirmative action as a feel good measure, future gen Yer white people will be persecuted at the hands of a majority minority nation.


well done, faggots.

[velik_m]

"Not The One"

I'm not the one who made the world what it is today
I'm not the one who caused the problems started long ago
But now I deal with all the consequences that troubles our times
I carry on and never once have even questioned why
I'm innocent
But the wieght of the world is on my shoulders
I'm innocent
But the battles started are far from over
We're not the ones who leave the homeless in the streets at night
We're not the ones who've kept minorities and women down
Still we grow and then the problems they become our own
We carry on without even realizing why
We're innocent
But the weight of the world is on our shoulders
We're innocent
But the battles left us are far from over
We're not the ones whose pollution blackened our skies
And ruined our streams
We're not the ones who made the nuclear bombs
That threaten our lives
We're not the ones who let the children starve in faraway lands
We're not the ones who made the streets unsafe to walk at night
And even if we try and not become so overwhelmed
And if we make some contribution to the plight we see
Still our descendents will inherit our mistakes of today
They'll suffer just the same as we and never wonder why

[TeyshaBlue]

now thanks to the "pat on the head" policies of entitled white boomers who census minorities, divide the population by race, and put forth affirmative action as a feel good measure, future gen Yer white people will be persecuted at the hands of a majority minority nation.


well done, faggots.
lol scared widdle wacist!

[Trill Clinton]

now thanks to the "pat on the head" policies of entitled white boomers who census minorities, divide the population by race, and put forth affirmative action as a feel good measure, future gen Yer white people will be persecuted at the hands of a majority minority nation.


well done, faggots.



:stirpot:

[Sportcamper]

Fuzzy that article is full of holes written by a person with an ax to grind. Boomers will receive 2.2 million dollars in benefits? Hardly. :lol I notice that the article does not mention Congress raiding Social Security to fund other projects. No mention of folks collecting Social Security who have never paid into the fund?

There are many professions in America where men work for 40 years doing stressful jobs with irregular hours and often collect just 11 social security & retirement checks and then die. The blue collar, time card punching, hard working Boomers who have paid into the system for decades are not the problem.

[Trainwreck2100]

Funny...when the last boomers are dying you will be staring retirement in the face and voting your ass off for those social security and medicare benefits you hate now.

:lol social security :lol

[2centsworth]

No mention of folks collecting Social Security who have never paid into the fund? How is this even possible? Everyone who has ever had a job ever has paid something into the fund. Unless you work for a public institution that doesn't participate, in which case you're not eligible for benefits either.

[FuzzyLumpkins]

Fuzzy that article is full of holes written by a person with an ax to grind. Boomers will receive 2.2 million dollars in benefits? Hardly. :lol I notice that the article does not mention Congress raiding Social Security to fund other projects. No mention of folks collecting Social Security who have never paid into the fund?

There are many professions in America where men work for 40 years doing stressful jobs with irregular hours and often collect just 11 social security & retirement checks and then die. The blue collar, time card punching, hard working Boomers who have paid into the system for decades are not the problem.

I will take the word of multiple college professors of economics over random internet guys incredulity. It's not difficult to determine outlays versus revenues. All of the internal accounting like SS slush fund manipulations is besides the point.

We are not talking only direct payouts. It's net transfers. This notion that it only matters if you get directly get a check is absurd.


The blue collar, time card punching, hard working Boomers

This reads like a childrens novel. Boomers have racked up shit tons of debt every since theyve reached their majority. There really is no arguing that even with fluff adjectives like the above. Working hard is not an excuse to live outside your means and then pass on the bill to the next guy.