The Bishop of London, the Rt Rev Richard Chartres, a Baby-Boomer himself said that Boomers are a “fortunate generation” who have enjoyed dramatic improvements in living standards but are now “absorbing” more than their fair share of taxpayers’ money. Duh! The entire Social Security Ponzi scheme is based on the idea that those who fail to save for retirement through either bad luck or poor life choices should not suffer the consequences of bad luck and poor life choices, thus others should be forced to support them. A backwards interpretation of Aesop's fable of The Ant and the Grasshopper.
There is a biblical/libertarian doctrine that is emotionally bothersome to most Baby-Boomers. The idea can be seen in Aesop's fable of The Ant and the Grasshopper. The wisdom of this is lost because as a society we’ve adopted the idea that just because the Grasshopper made poor life choices doesn’t mean he should suffer, the Ant is so rich he can afford to feed the Grasshopper. In fact it isn’t “fair” that the Ant has massive food supplies while the Grasshopper has none. This is an emotional response to seeing suffering, Baby-Boomers would rather sacrifice their children’s and grandchildren’s property rights then suffer their failure to save for their “golden years.”
According to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development “The proportion of elderly in the population is around 15% across the OECD and on average they receive 40% of all public social spending. In Japan and Italy, where senior citizens make up about 20% of the population, public social spending on the elderly is about 60% of the total.”
OK Baby-Boomers, it’s time to let you live with the changes to the world you made. Why should our children and grand children live in debt and have to pay huge sums in taxes to allow you to continue to live beyond your means? Baby-Boomers have the wealth and as a whole can support themselves. Taking 40% of our GDP and giving it to those who have 64% if the nation’s wealth is absurd and unfair. Let the Baby-Boomers support other Baby-Boomers. They caused the Trillions of Debt, let them pay it back. The fact the vast majority of wealth is held by those of retirement age.
Those of you who remembered and learned the lessons of your parents who survived the Great Depression, and saved for the future like the Ant will on continue to live comfortably. The Boomers who so changed society that they believe that nobody should suffer because of poor life choices, including themselves may suffer as did the Grasshopper. Why should the current working generation continue to pay for the past generation who has continuously failed to live within its means? More importantly why should future generations have to sacrifice for the majority of never satisfied selfish self center Baby-boomers who put themselves and the entire country into such massive debt that we may never recover.
Baby-Boomers saw more economic growth and a greater increase in the standard of living than any generation in history, they borrowed and spent with abandon. They destroyed the idea of the extended family taking care of the elderly; they shipped their parents off to old-age-homes on borrowed money; as a whole they are spending their children’s inheritance, and leaving nothing for their kids and a mountain of credit card debt and a home with an upside down mortgage. They created a tax system so that even if they do leave something behind it gets sucked up to pay for other Baby-Boomers retirement.
The Baby-Boomer zeitgeist is that of the Grasshopper. From TinyLiving to Dave Ramsey, Generation X, Millennials and the new Silent Generation are again seeing the wisdom of the Ant and taking it to heart. Being debt free, and the liberty that accompanies it, is getting to be a bigger status symbol than shinny BMW (with a $600/month payment) or a 500hp hotrod. The current workers will not tolerate ever larger and larger parts of their labor being used to pay for past generations who refused to live within their means. Post-Boomers are going Galt. Already we see men, just not play the game, when extra work and effort results in ever greater confiscation by the government, why work. Generations of taking the surplus that resulted from Ant behavior of a majority of workers is disappearing; the Ant has learned that surplus for his extra effort is going to the Grasshopper not him or his children, so he’s not putting in the extra effort. In fact the Ant is joining the Grasshopper. With less and less working age people actually employed the fact is the future generations are saying loud and clear, “Boomers, since your leaving us debt for an inheritance, we aren’t working to pay for you luxury retirement.”
Unfortunately Boomers control current politics, their Grasshopper zeitgeist is leading to the destruction of our country. Baby-Boomers sheer numbers mean that the Post-Boomer generations don’t really have any say in government. What Post-Boomer generations can and are doing is going Galt, simply by choosing to live debt free with less stuff and do less work; the PC term is living simply. Boomers are failing to see the fact that Post-Boomer Ants have let go of their emotional distress at the plight of the Grasshopper, and again as an example for others to try and avoid, will allow the Grasshopper to suffer the fate of his choice of life style.
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