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Guest Post: 10 Things Baby Boomers Won't Tell You
Authored by Catey Hall, via Jim Quinn's Burning Platform blog,
The aging 'me' generation is still putting itself first...
1. “Paws off, Junior. This cash is mine.”
Children of boomer parents shouldn’t expect a big inheritance, even if their parents are rich. Only about half of high-net-worth baby boomers — those with more than $3 million in investible assets — say they consider leaving money to their kids a priority, according to a 2012 U.S. Trust Survey. In contrast, nearly three-quarters of people older than boomers say it’s important to them.
Even boomers — typically defined by demographers as those born between 1946 and 1964 — who do plan to leave an inheritance may do so with strings attached. Indeed, nearly seven in 10 high-net-worth boomers surveyed by U.S. Trust said they were not fully confident that their children could handle an inheritance.
“More often than not, clients leave inheritances in trusts,” says John Olivieri, a partner at New York law firm White & Case who works with a lot of boomer clients. With a trust, a third party manages the money and doles it out at intervals that the parent has specified. “Some parents have concerns about how their kids would invest and spend the money,” Olivieri says.
2. “Make room, kids. We’ll be living with you when we’re old…”
Boomers are expected to live longer than any previous generation. At the same time, many haven’t saved nearly enough for retirement. More than 44% of early boomers (whom the Employee Benefit Research Institute defines as those born between 1948 and 1954) and 43% of late boomers (born between 1955 and 1964) may not be able to afford basic living expenses in retirement, according to a 2012 analysis by EBRI. The result? Kids could be supporting mom and dad well into their 80s and 90s.
One of the biggest drains on boomer retirement savings will be health-care expenses. Medicare pays for only about 60% of the cost of health services the typical retiree will face, estimates EBRI. A couple that is 65 today might need nearly $300,000 to cover health costs. “People who haven’t saved enough for health-care costs may deplete their assets,” says Michael Markiewicz, a partner at New York-based Fogel Neale Partners. “A lot of them may have to live with their kids or depend on them for money and care.”
If parents do move in, their kids should expect to spend an extra $6,000 to $10,000 annually on food, clothing and other basics, says Andy Cohen, CEO of Caring.com, a website that provides resources for caregivers. Add thousands more for big-ticket items like wheelchair ramps or home health-care aids. Expensive as that sounds, it’s still often less than what it would cost to move a parent into an assisted living community, about $42,600 per year, on average, according to 2012 data from the MetLife Mature Market Institute.
3. “…and we blame you for that.”
Nearly one in six people ages 45 to 64 say that paying for their kid’s college tuition got in the way of saving for their own retirement, compared with just one in 20 who say that buying a home did, according to a 2012 study from Capital One ShareBuilder.
That’s not surprising, given that the typical middle-income family will spend more than $230,000 to raise a child from birth to age 18, up 23% (in today’s dollars) since 1960, according to data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture. When you add paying for college to the mix — for tuition, fees and room and board as of the 2012-2013 school year, you’d pay an average of $17,860 per year for a four-year in-state public school, $30,911 per year for a four-year public out-of-state school or $39,518 per year for a private four-year school, according to the College Board — you could easily spend upwards of $100,000 on the basic’s for your child’s education. This means that retirement savings can really take a hit. “A lot of parents prioritized saving for their kids’ college over saving for retirement,” says Dan Greenshields, the president of CapitalOne ShareBuilder.
The reason? “Parents often equate paying for college with helping their child become successful in life,” says Deborah Fox, the founder of Fox College Funding, a San Diego-based college-funding consulting firm. That’s something they feel they have a duty to do, whether or not they can afford it, she adds.
4. “We can’t face reality.”
What boomers think retirement will be like and what it actually is like are two very different things. A case in point: The forever-young generation just can’t deal with the idea of growing old. Only 13% of pre-retirees (people over 50 who have not yet retired) think their health will be significantly worse in retirement than it is now, while 39% of retirees report that it actually is worse, according to 2011 research by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the Harvard School of Public Health.
Boomers are a little fuzzy on the financial realities as well. While only 22% of pre-retirees think their financial situation will be worse in retirement, roughly one-third of retirees say that it is worse. Along those same lines, only 14% of pre-retirees predict that life overall will be worse when they retire, but a quarter of retirees report that it actually is worse. “There’s a real disconnect because your life pre-retirement is much different than your life post-retirement,” says Hal Hershfield, a professor at NYU’s Stern School of Business who conducts research on judgment, decision-making and social psychology with an emphasis on how thinking about time can alter decisions and emotions.
5. “ ‘Til death do us part’ doesn’t apply to us.”
Boomers are untying the knot at a record pace. The divorce rate for people over 50 has doubled in the past 20 years, says the National Center for Family and Marriage Research at Bowling Green State University, compared with a slight decrease in divorce overall. More than 600,000 individuals over 50 divorced in 2009, and if the rate continues to grow at the current pace, that number will hit more than 800,000 by 2030.
What’s fueling this trend? Empty nesters find they are a lot less compatible when the kids aren’t around is one phenomenon, says Toronto-based psychologist Tami Kulbatski. Another might be that boomers are more likely to have married young (boomers were far more likely to be married when they were between the ages of 18 and 30, than were members of Generation X, according to research from the Pew Research Center for People & the Press). Now, a lot of boomers are in their second, third or even fourth marriage, and these marriages are more likely to end in divorce, says Krista Kay Payne, a researcher at the center.
Divorce will likely take a chunk out of the average boomer’s already inadequate retirement funds. Lawyers’ fees alone can range from a couple of thousand to tens of thousands of dollars or more, says attorney Jeff Landers, author of “Divorce: Think Financially, Not Emotionally: What Women Need to Know About Securing Their Financial Future Before, During and After Divorce.” Add to that things like alimony and having to split up assets, and boomers’ financial picture gets even murkier.
6. “We’re unhappy …”
Boomers are the least happy of all age groups, according to a 2008 study published in the American Sociological Review journal. “The generation as a group was so large, and their expectations were so great,” Yang Yang, the author of the study, told the American Sociological Association, “not everyone in the group could get what he or she wanted due to competition for opportunities.“
Another report from the Pew Research Center came to a similar conclusion: On a scale of one to 10, boomers, on average, rate their lives a 6.2, compared with a 6.7 for older adults and 6.5 for younger adults. That may not look like much of a difference, but this pattern has held steady for the past two decades. In other words, the boomers — even when they were younger — have been consistently less happy than other generations for the past 20 years.
7. “… and we eat our feelings.”
Nearly 40% of people ages 60 and up and nearly 37% of people 40 to 59 are now considered obese, according to a 2012 report from the Centers for Disease Control, compared with less than one in three for people age 20 to 39. What’s more, baby boomers are fatter than their parents’ generation, according to a study released this year by JAMA Internal Medicine, with nearly 40% of boomers reportedly obese, versus 29% of the previous generation.
Obesity can lead to serious health problems, including diabetes and heart disease. A 65-year-old person who has been obese since age 45 personally incurs roughly $50,000 more in Medicare costs over the course of his or her lifetime than a “normal weight” 65-year-old does, according to the National Center for Health Statistics. Medicare and Medicaid end up paying for roughly half of the cost of obesity, which accounts for $190 billion in medical spending annually, according to a 2012 study published in the Journal of Health Economics.
8. “And we’re addicts.”
Maybe it’s because so many grew up in the ’60s, but whatever the excuse, boomers are drinking and drugging their way into old age at a rate much higher than their parents’ generation. The number of people 50 and over who were admitted to substance abuse treatment programs increased 136% between 1992 and 2010, according to the latest data from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.
Alcohol is the most common reason that boomers seek treatment, but the proportion of admissions of people over 50 for heroin abuse nearly doubled and for cocaine use more than tripled over that period. “Because of the magnitude of these changes and their potential impact, it is increasingly important to understand and plan for the health care needs, including the substance use prevention and treatment needs, of this population,” the administration writes.
Treatment doesn’t come cheap. According to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, the mean cost per admission for outpatient substance abuse treatment is more than $1,400 without methadone (a synthetic opioid used to treat heroin and morphine addictions) or $7,415 with it; prices can run into the tens of thousands for inpatient treatment. What’s more, Medicare will only pay about 65% of an outpatient treatment program, and it will pay for inpatient treatment only if a doctor deems it “medically necessary” and the care is in a hospital. (Medicare doesn’t fund treatment at those designer “rehab spas.” Sorry, boomers.)
9. “We will bury you in debt.”
We’re a nation in record debt — an estimated $16 trillion — and the sheer number of boomers is expected to significantly add to that in the coming years, as more begin to receive Social Security and Medicare benefits. (Social Security and Medicare spending represented 38% of federal expenditures in fiscal year 2012, and “both programs will experience cost growth substantially in excess of GDP growth through the mid-2030s,” according to the Social Security Administration.)
But in many ways, boomers have been less willing than other demographic groups to support policy changes that could trim the debt. Fully 68% of boomers oppose eliminating the tax deduction for interest paid on home mortgages, compared with just 56% of all adults, according to the Pew Research Center. Furthermore, 80% of boomers (vs. 72% of all adults) oppose taxing employer health insurance benefits and 63% of boomers (vs. 58% of all adults) oppose increasing the age one qualifies for full Social Security benefits, the study shows.
Many boomers are more opposed to these plans because “they would feel the impact more than other groups,” says Kim Parker, the associate director of the Pew Research Center’s Social and Demographic Trends Project. But without some sort of deficit reduction, future generations will be left with the dire economic consequences a massive deficit can cause, she says.
10. “We’re obsessed with (not) aging.”
Sagging skin, crows’ feet, a dull complexion — these used to be the inevitable signs of aging. But if the boomers have anything to say about it, that’s going to change. Revenue for so-called cosmeceutical companies — which manufacture cosmetics with pharmaceutical capabilities, some of the most popular being wrinkle-reducing moisturizers and creams that even skin tone — is expected to hit $5 billion this year and is expected to grow 7.5% each year through 2018, according to data from market research firm IbisWorld; people over 50 account for more of cosmeceutical companies’ consumers than any other age group.
And it’s not just lotions and serums that they’re into. People 51 and up had 24% of all surgical cosmetic procedures, like face-lifts and tummy tucks, and 30% of all cosmetic “minimally invasive” procedures like cellulite treatments, Botox injections and laser hair removals, in 2012.
It also appears that boomer men are one of the fastest-growing segments of the population going under the knife. While overall cosmetic procedures in men increased just 9% in 2012 compared with 2011, face lifts, which are typically performed on the over-50 set, increased 21%, according to data from the American Society of Aesthetic Plastic Surgery. And this will become more popular, says Jack Fisher, the president of the society, as many boomers want to look and feel young.
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Good point!
Looks like the "boomers" just went "BOOM"!
I'm a so called "baby boomer" and none of the negatives that you describe apply to me.
I agree that there are a lot of baby boomers that are "scum", but you find that in all groups.
My advice is to try to learn from any wisdom that a baby boomer may offer.
The baby boomers will have to deal with their Karma, whatever you do comes back to you.
You got it correct, not Boomers but narcissists who reinstated slavery
Don't know about the rest of you boomers but our retirement went to pay for kids college educations, their expensive marriages, and their divorces. And we have had endless requests for more money to get them out of hock with pay day lenders and other bills that they couldn't pay when they lost their jobs. They know we would pay anything to keep them out of our house. We get by with a lot less, thanks to our kids. Let's hope that when we really need their help, they will be there for us - but I sincerely doubt it. To be fair, we were happy to do what we could and they have said "thank you" so all's well that ends well, so far.
Go and fuck yourself. I just paid off my house yesterday and both my parents and my wife's parents response was "when are you paying off mine."
I never got a dime for college from my parents. I worked my fucking ass off and earned everything I have. Perhaps you need to look in the fucking mirror. Maybe you'll figure out why your kids are so entitled.
And bitter as I am about how the boomer's, as a group, have totally fucked me and my children's future... Guess what, those selfish fucks raised someone smart enough to survive the coming shitstorm.
You are what is wrong with this country. You blame other sheeple instead of looking at our corrupt government and two tiered system of justice as the source of our economic problems. So much easier to point your greedy little finger at those who have it worse than you. Asshole. If you think you'll be spared, just wait. You may last a little longer, but unless you're part of the 1%, in the end it will be the same for your sorry ass, and you'll feel bitter and miserable all the way down, since its obvious you are a joyless human being.
Fuck you. This subject in particular strikes a nerve because most boomers I speak with, don't have a fucking clue and are willing participants this country's demise. I have every right to be bitter. Fractional reserve banking and a corrupt government are root causes of our decline in our standard of living. Too bad most boomers are so narcissistic, they could care less.
Great post- have not had a mortgage in 15 years( paid cash for all my shit- now 42Y.O.) and my boomer dad is sitting on a house he can't sell that he bought in 2005 and has a mortgage to boot because my mom figured she "deserved"a big house- I love them- but fuk 'em. They are surrounded by pampered boomers in same fucking canoe with no paddle and I'm surrounded by their kids who are even bigger spoiled, broke babies and whiners. You took the words out of my mouth with your posts- thanks.
Have lived in the same house for 25years. Paid off. Cars....paid off. Credit cards....paid off every month. Savings....check. Metals....check. Guns and ammo...check. Property with a garden and fruit trees....check. Food stores.....check.
Damn, and I'm a boomer. How the hell did that happen?
Good on you, Worker. We could be neighbors. The generational divide is another smoke screen that hides the truth. It's always collectivists vs. individualists. There are more collectivists in every generation than individualists, and they vote that way because the people orchestrating the charade have them convinced the party will never end. No generation has the franchise on that.
I am a GenX dude and I have met collectivist assholes from the Greatest Generation to the Millenials. My desire to choke any of them out when they open their yaps about what they are "owed" and "fairness" is fierce and equally spread.
I have also gotten to know some of the hardest, meanest, intelligent, kind, and most squared-away bastards who have taken the red pill and are taking the steps to survive the impending implosion, and they too come from the same range of generations. They love this country (as it was orginally designed) and are not going to surrender it to the maestros of the orchestra and their collectivist locusts. That latter crew is the one that I am buidling networks with, for it contains a wide array of wisdom, experience, vitality, and energy that was - and will again be - the core that a free country will build itself from.
No quit in here, brothers.
>>>>> I love them- but fuk 'em
The ones that gave you life. Best case for abortion I've ever heard.
Surely, Number 9, burying “you in debt,” is the author’s bottom line. Finally we understand what’s bothering Catey; she wants the boomers to keep on paying her and Bob Rubin’s way… And now that it’s time for boomers to start getting Social Security, it’s time for them to start listening to Bob and Catey, forego their retirement and help the bankers keep buying the politicians.
Why, after a hundred years of central bank inflation, thievery and lying, does someone like this author have the nerve to blame the whole thing on the boomer generation?
Never mind, of course, that as David Stockman relayed this week on Zero Hedge, "the jobs market and Main Street economy are structurally broken." Never mind that the malaise “can’t be explained away by the baby boomers going on Social Security,” because as Stockman noted:
No, Catey is going to join in with the propagandists for the banker economy who are trying to squeeze the last drop of value from 85,000,000 baby boomers and drive wider the “Brown vs. Gray divide” - the claim that the election results reinforce the divide between the 95 million Millennials born from 1982 to 2002, mainly brown, and the Baby Boomers born from 1946 to 1964, mainly white; and that Obama’s win makes “clear that two generations of Americans – one minority-heavy and the other largely white—have conflicting ideas about government’s role” and income redistribution.
No doubt what Catey really wants is to sit back, like Bob Rubin, and enjoy someone else’s property.
J.R,
Packing for Queensland. Remember May 2010?
I remember it well, Yen.
Bon voyage, my friend, and save a place for me in Queensland. I'll talk to you soon...on Zero Hedge.
J.R. I've had land in Queensland for 2 years. I'm not going Simon Black.
I see Queenslanders have made (Australian) National News again - 42% pay rise for their MPs, whilst there have been major pay cuts (and job cuts) in "rather more essential" services . . . . .
Those of us other States are starting to wonder if the Medicare Flood Levy might turn out to be such a good thing, the Feds will just have to keep it going . . . . .
Articles like this are bullshit. They validate those who are ignorant and/ or intelectually lazy. Don't buy into it. The only fucking thing that matters is what an individual stands for and how hard they are willing to work to achieve their goals. I don't give a shit if someone is 18 or 88. Do they have a shred of integrity in their body? Can they be trusted? What do they fucking stand for? What do YOU stand for? Stop and think about it. Frankly I'm sick of the finger pointing that has become a national past time. Losers always blame others. Take responsibility for yourself, regardless of whatever dumb ass "generation" you claim to be in. Get your own shit in line before you worry about someone else.
hurr durr!
Ya kids! Just don't be born into poverty, you irresponsible little cunts!
It sure is a good thing that nobody born into poverty has ever raised themself up to achieve a better life. If that ever happened your way of thinking might be proven wrong.
<<sarc off>>
yeah- the founding fathers should have sucked it up and not blamed old king george and the assholes in parliament for fucking them over-fucking whiners.
Are you arguing for your limitations otto? You're merely a poor victim? Zero debt (a form of liberty), self dependency and personal responsibility are what it's about today. You can pursue all of those or YOU can whine. Don't pretend to understand what was in the minds of the "founding fathers". From what I can tell, it appears that at least a few of them stood for something in their day. Wake the fuck up and don't be a clueless tool for your overseers.
>>>>>Losers always blame others.
Well said Hoss.
You folks are thinking way too much. The Bernank giveth to all who follow his way. Just buy The F'g Dip, be happy and prosper. In this way you might actually have something left when you die to to pass on to your descendants (or, if you're a boomer - you might just have a really good time while you're here. :)
Boomer scum nailed to the wall in this article. There are many things I wish for the boomers, but nothing such as good health and old age.
If, AND I'M questioning IF, this is the real Bill Shitener? I won't even go into your "price line" crapola.
You exorcised those price line options well Mr. Shatner. I'm fairly certain you'll avoid any direct contact with Z/H contributors.
Just like the family member you let drown in a swimming pool several decades ago?
To quote the immortal Ronald Ray Gun, I wish for you reciprocity.
The multi-decade ponzi never allowed hard lessons to be learned, never allowed wholesale failure so as to clear the deadwood, human and corporate, (banksters included). And it kept the same politicians in power, (which was the point of the ponzi). La La Land has shaped the culture, all of us, every last one of us. We should have had another Great Depression in the 70s and 80s after the first oil shocks.
So here we are with multigenerational rot, cursing and fingerpointing on the deck of the Titanic.
The ponzi not only destroyed our economy from top to bottom. It destroyed US.
We had a depression in the ag sector in the 80'e. MOST FARMERS LOST EVERYTHING, INCLUDING ME!
Of course ya all missed that one, but now you city folk are suffering, and the Ag sector is booming!
it will crash again. why do people think we live in this utopia that shit will never crash again?
I remember those events during the 80's. Friends of our family that had farms suffered a lot during those years including one I know who lost it. Big agribusinesses were moving into regions with unlimited money to suck water from the rivers to their giant sprinkler systems and rivers ran low along with 'emminent domain' things. Some 'city folk' like me know and sympathized deeply with our friends then though were powerless to change those events.
Is the author of this a 20-something? Gen X here and the Boomers are my parents and in-laws.
1. Don't expect an inheritance.
Wasn't expecting one. Everyone has been getting bled dry one way or another.
2. We'll be living with you when we are old.
Yeah, well I lived with you when I was young. Bullish for suites and granny flats.
3. Because we spent all our dough on your college tuition.
N/A...surely N/A for many many people still.
4. Can't face reality.
Well, don't want to face it, and can you blame them? Pretty bleak for savers/fixed income folks.
5. Divorce at record rate.
Meh, so many just aren't even bothering to get married now. Need to be smart about the money though.
6. We're unhappy.
Meh again...so individual.
7. We eat our feelings.
Okay, may have a point here. Definitely seem overall fatter than I remember my grandparents being. Could also be all the fake foodlike products.
8. We're addicts.
Meh...are less younger people addicts, or are more younger people just using prescription meds, abusive, or otherwise?
9. We will bury you in debt.
Yeah, the biggest problem here is the granny scraping by on a meager income trying to afford food and medicine...not the leeches that have been sucking away at the government teat for decades.
10. We're obsessed with not aging.
Score! You all try that stuff out and bring the price down for me. Because passing for young seems to be necessary for employment most places now.
I do think that the Boomers had a good run with more opportunity than those that have followed. Certainly some members of the cohort are at the root of the rot. But the vast majority just did the best they could like most of us.
If they think the Boomer Generation is guilty of all of the above.. What in the hell are they going to write about when the 20 yr. olds grow old. My God, they are all a bunch of brain dead zombies with their heads buried in smart phones.. They are barely capable of carrying on a conversation.. I feel sorry for the people that will be subjected to that generation & they will one day run this country.. You think we fucked it up, you ain't seen nothing yet..
You would NOT be surprised at the number of people involved in road accidents (as pedestrians), where the accident was caused by them not looking where they were going (i.e. looking at their smart device instead).
Same goes for the "texting whilst driving" crowd - usually "just" fender-benders, but sometimes very far worse.Conversation in communal dining areas these days? That's right - NONE. EVERYONE (and I DO mean EVERYONE) is "plugged in" to a mobile device or something.
As you rightly point out - You think we fucked it up, you ain't seen nothing yet..
I know plenty of young people that are quite aware of what is going on and do not let their 'smart' devices rule their lives. There are those, and I know some, who let their addiction to video games steal years of their lives 'getting' to the next level and that is a tremendous waste.
There's been a war of Orientals against Occidentals for hundreds of years.
The survivors will perish in D.U.M.B.s (Deep Underground Military Bases).
Well, as a boomer, let me say this about that.
The aging 'me' generation is still putting itself first...
What? Where do you get that? Cuz they aren't handing everything to you on a silver platter? No generation does that to the next, ever.
1. “Paws off, Junior. This cash is mine.”
Haven't seen that, either. However, one factor may be the extreme wealth that some boomers have acquired. In general, that does not often travel well to a next generation. Nor is it easy to pass along without huge taxation.
6. “We’re unhappy …”
It's been a tough couple of years for everyone, in case you haven't noticed (but I know that you have), and this was supposed to be glory time for the boomers, riding off on the crest of the wave - as their parents did. We *should* be unhappy for the general case, which is made up of a lot of individual cases.
--
That is all.
The war on baby boomers | Robert Hardaway | July 08, 2012
With multiple social "wars" now being labeled as such by the media, perhaps there’s room for one more on the pundits’ pages —a war on baby boomers.
Consider the hard working and frugal worker who, over a working lifetime of forty-five years, scrimps and saves and somehow manages to save a million dollars for retirement.
In 1981, during the Reagan administration, a retiring worker could put that sum into US short term treasuries yielding a guaranteed and safe annualized return of $160,300 ($13,000 a month), or into either 10 or 30 year treasuries yielding in excess of $150,000 a year (over $12,000 month), with the principal left untouched and available to leave to family upon his death.
Now fast forward to 2012 pursuant to government policies designed to punish those who scrimp and save in order to subsidize those who do not.
A retiring baby boomer who somehow manages to set aside that same million dollars for retirement and invests in the same risk-free US short term treasuries can expect his or her retirement savings to yield a grand total of $65 a month, or, if willing to risk considerable reduction in principal if interest rates rise, $1,300 a month in 10 year treasuries.
For a retiree today investing in short term treasuries to earn the same amount as retirees earned in 1981, he would need a nest egg in excess of $200 million dollars. Which is fine for those who have a quarter billion or so to invest in short term treasuries, but not so great for the rest of us.
While the treasury yields in 1981 and 2012 obviously represent the ends of the retirement yield spectrum over the past 40 years, and yields have fluctuated considerably in the intervening years, it should be noted that as recently as five years ago that even short-term treasuries yielded over $4,000 a month in guaranteed retirement income.
While the baby boomer retiree trying to live on $65 a month plus social security will no doubt be labeled a “millionaire” by some politicians, the fact is that retiring baby boomers face few viable options in planning for retirement unless they have been lucky enough to work for the federal government (which can simply print money or impose higher taxes on hapless taxpayers), or who are otherwise entitled to the proceeds of a dwindling number of state or corporate “defined benefit” plans, many of which face insolvency in coming years.
They can, of course, invest in the stock or corporate bond market, and thereby risk an up to 50% decline in their retirement funds (as happened in 2007-08). Or they can eke out a slightly higher return by buying long term US and corporate bonds, and risk a decline of 50% or more in their principal when interest rates rise, as most believe they will in the face of mounting government spending and deficits and the pending collapse of the euro.
They may even risk their retirement or 401(k) assets by buying a so-called “annuity” investing in private companies in hopes that the private companies won’t fail, as so many did during the last financial crisis. Or they can simply spend their principal in hopes that they will die within the next 10 or 20 years before their principal is depleted.
Baby boomers not willing to risk retiring without a guaranteed income, however, are faced with the prospect of living on $65 a month plus social security even if they have saved $1 million. And many, of course, haven’t saved even that much.
Meanwhile, hapless baby boomers who haven’t saved $200 million dollars must rely on a social security system which makes it very clear, in their annual statements to recipients, that social security benefits are not in any way guaranteed, and can be reduced or eliminated at any time at the whim of Congress.
Though few doubt that social security benefits will indeed have to be reduced as the demographics change, politicians perversely and puzzlingly reject any and all calls for private accounts in which social security payments could be used to buy US treasuries, backed by the full faith and credit of the United States and placed into private accounts which could not be reduced or confiscated in any way by the federal government without violating the due process clause of the US Constitution.
The government policy of borrowing a trillion dollars from China to fund “stimulus” programs for government bureaucracies or favored private companies such as Solyndra, rather than reducing taxes and putting money into the hands of hard pressed taxpayers who would instead use the money to demand goods and services in the private sector and thereby stimulate jobs and growth, reveals a deliberate policy which has reduced baby boomers to their present state.
If one can think of a better label than “war” to describe a policy that has led to many baby boomers resigned to working unto death, one suspects that many baby boomers would be glad to use it instead.
Robert Hardaway is Professor of Law at the University of Denver Sturm College of Law, author of "The Great American Housing Bubble" (ABC-CLIO, 2011), and eighteen other books on law and public policy.
Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2012/07/08/war-on-baby-boomers/#ixzz202sFMZAn
NOTE: Most baby boomers have had to live “within their means” on the paychecks of two wage earners. Only a tiny percentage of boomers send their elderly parents to nursing homes, parents who increasingly are being forced into reverse mortgages as their savings deteriorate from interest rates below inflation. Thus, even the boomers are losing their “inheritance.”
J.R. Just have fun with it. The complacent Jews , managed to miss the trains? I'm moving ahead.
Biographical exerpts are passe'
JR, in an interview, I heard David Stockman say that US savers have been losing approximately $500 billion annually since 2008 in lost interest due to artificially low interest rates, a massive transfer of wealth to the banks that no one voted for or could vote for.
“The modus operandi of Marxism is destruction…”, Winston, and, so, the baby boomers must be destroyed.
In fact, under Marxism, “all the actuality that has been accumulated through the ages must be destroyed—property relationships, religious belief, family ties, legal forms, the intellectual heritage, culture and civilization itself.”
Marxism is an ideology. And, thus, Catey, the Marxist evangelist, must do her work.
For, as Clarence B. Carson writes in World in the Grip of an Idea, Marx “was a prophet, not a prophet of God, but…the John the Baptist of communism, traveling hither and yon to proclaim the imminent coming of the Revolution,” to end with complete destruction, to begin again with pure man, with all men integrated, with even the rift between man and nature to be healed.
“How else, but by tyranny, can such a destruction be wrought?” asks Carson.
And so, wrote Marx, “Both for the production on a mass scale of this communist consciousness, and for the success of the cause itself, the alteration of men on a mass scale is necessary, an alteration which can only take place in a practical movement, a revolution: this revolution is necessary, therefore, not only because the ruling class cannot be overthrown in any other way, but also because the class overthrowing it can only in a revolution succeed in ridding itself of all the muck of ages and become fitted to found society anew.”
Marxist followers Catey and Bob Rubin and Barack Obama are fulfilling the dreams of their prophet, dividing and conquering, whipping up generational and racial hatred, using the variant methods of Leninism, Stalinism, Titoism, Castroism, Maoism, and all the other Marxist isms ide to fulfill their dreams.
And upwards of 200,000,000 innocents have been murdered for their Marxist philosophy.
“The appeal of Marxism lies in the fact that it justifies and sanctifies the release of the demonic urges in each of us. It justifies hate, envy, the love of power, the bent to destruction, the desire to set everything right (particularly, others), and all the vague and unfulfilled longings of man.”
Continues Carson: “The engine of Marxism is hatred, hatred for everything as it is, hatred of religion, hatred of the family, hatred of the division of labor, hatred of the state, hatred of capitalists, hatred of property, hatred of the ‘rural idiocy’ (as Marx put it) of farmers, and yes, hatred of industrial workers. The proletariat who would triumph and be transformed into true man was not, of course, the industrial workers whom we actually encounter. He must be the class conscious industrial worker, i.e., a worker become Marxist in his conceptions. Above all, Marxism is a hatred of the past….”
In short, Marxism hates man as he is and has been.
As for where we stand in America, Z.A. Jordan wrote in Karl Marx: Economy, Class and Society, that Marx in his later years was supposed to have said in an 1872 speech that in some lands revolution might not be necessary, that “there are certain countries such as America and England…where the workers can attain their goal by peaceful means…”
It is up to patriotic Americans to thwart the assurance of final victory for these Marxists ideologues that are herding we the people down the revolutionary road to serfdom.
The bullshit is piling up around Snowman like a blizzard. If Snowman were professional, he would have front loaded his dump to make the alleged villains run from their outed crimes, not him running from them, buying them time as he is. But he didn't, so he's either occluded by the alleged sinister force he opposes, or he's not real - a puppet on someones' strings - and this is all Hollywood magic, by the real sinister forces.
Their efforts to block & discredit him imply the former. But these could be faked too. We must all go to the truths we can prove to figure this out, for ourselves.
To lie is to sin. There is nothing more basic than this. From maskara to the most advanced psyops, including every university that teaches hypothesis as 'fact', every judge who legislates from their bench, you're all less intelligent than the simplest retarded person struggling to make it through the day with dignity. Are you great? What have you done? To lie is to depart from reality because reality is too much for you. Genius is the ability to recognize and then to act on reality. Zero in and report back, not make shit up to get laid. Chickenfuckers.
So to the author of this article, and all the others like it in all the medias, present the specific datum upon which you assert your many unbased claims. Before you do, know that I am able in statistics, not alone, and will demonstrate mathematically that you are all completely full of shit. I know what you're doing, I know why. Be truthful or be forever humiliated as the puppet you are.
I call you out. Show your data.
Bring it.
Those fat fucks won't last 2 minutes when the shooting starts. Gen Y and Gen X will have to free America and battle the modern day SS and the modern day Hessians.
There is no way in hell gen x or y or anyone later is going to pick up a gun to defend the current system. I for one welcome my new Chinese Overlords. Bring on the five foot tall hotties.
10 Things Baby Boomers Won't Tell You
End of story..
plus one Atomizer```````````````````````````````````````````````
The baby boomers are absolutely the worst of the worst. It's completely unimaginable how oblivious they are in to their own selfishness.
"I paid $10 thousand dollars into social security and you better keep your dirty hands off my $250 million in end of life care".
"I worked for 20 years and now it's my right to mooch off my kids for 20 years."
"It's my lazy children’s fault why I leave the country WORST off for future generations."
Bring on the age wars. Sorry mom and dad, you are fucked.
Junk all you want. Fuck you, you aren't living with me.
Asshole. You delegated your responsibility.
A sentient being can never delegate itself.
But you can come back. All you need to do is figure out what is best for you, then do it, against all assholes. Stand up brother.
This one life is your one chance. Kick it up.
You play into the hands of the kleptoligarchy.
Tear down the hegemonic structure of the beast, not your fellow serfs.
That " hegemonic structure" comment was sweet. Nice Work Ebbie
divide and use strawmen, target all, but never the elite reptile .gov & Cent Bankers group, blame well recognized evil groups of tax serfs /citizens, in the end real humans of any color, age, sex, have limited input into our society, but we all live in the result of elite reptiles like corzine. point the finger at anyone -any group-but the true power makers of the last century.
Well, you know, the banksters and the Wall Street fucks have their cut, so why should the Baby Boomers not take theirs?
You poor Millenials and Gen X'ers and AO's ("Always On") generations. We have voted left, we have voted right, and both parties have sold us out to China, Wall Street, and the FED cabal of crony capitalism/off-shoring for expediency.
We tried to do the right thing by voting and doing the "right thing"; but the only "right thing" is to tear down the current power structure and roll out the guillotines and hanging trees.
I'll help if I can, but the years are spinning by and I become less able by the year; do not tarry.
Get a concealed carry permit and all the firearms and ammo you can afford and carry.
When the time is right I will stand at your side and die for Liberty.
Until then buy Gold, Silver, Guns, Ammo, and other supplies.
Freedom isn't Free!
I wish you could all learn anything.
I spent most of my life discovering mathematical principles you don't know. For this I was regarded as a mental case. Look at my records. So now you're asking me to solve your worst problems? May I lean forward when I tell you to die, at your own hand.
Go look. Your records.
Every vehicle you see, my work.
You are definintely.....different.
It pays well.
Umm, excuse me, regarding item #9, social security will not increase the debt. The boomers paid in that money all their working lives, and now just want it back in monthly installments, as promised. That is all.
More Heglian dividing from the 9/11 truth denier.
Well at least he's now gone from collecting cats to herding the cattle, going on message.
Julian Assange does the same age divide meme.
One big mistake was letting the state get involved in education. In the process, a whole line of reasoning was lost.
Hey! Good news!!
I just went to vote and see no one is smoking your bs. Nice.
Tyler, you are a douche bag. Every boomer knows that 90 percent of the wealth in the US is held by those born before 1946. Every boomer knows social security and medicare are toast in their lifetimes. Every boomer knows the greatest generation is the one who got out of the Ponzis first, walked out with big defined pension plans before they all evaporated. Even the UAW Ponzi had 4 retirees/surviving spouses per worker in 2007. How many of those retirees do you think were boomers? The greatest generation was retiring at 55, boomers are trying to hold onto jobs until they are 66 or 67 and not having much luck. Every knows at this point in the Kondratiev cycle cash is king and the rest of those "assets" will soon be deflated toast. Not to mention this time the bubble Tsunami will make Fukushima look like a bubble bath.
Guest Post!! Tylers know better than to put Brad Pitts persona on anything so contentious.
In his offence, the original article is over on market watch. One of those 10 slide things with gobs of advertisements about, something.
The boomers are nothing more than narcissistic cretins who think the world was given to them carte blanche. While I'm technically a boomer, I'm at the very end of the age range (b-day 1964) so I don't lump myself into their gang. But I can tell you that group have been spoiled from day one with because of idiots like Dr. Spock; they have learned that "me" trumps "us." Too bad the "greatest generation" had to spoil their children because of WWII. Maybe this world would be a whole lot nicer place today.
Sorry we didn't leave you a Socialist Paradise.
It's almost here though. It IS coming.
How do you like it so far?
You're wrong on Dr Spock. I inherited from my dear departed mother, the razor strap, she used for her straight razer and our dancing asses.
Massive Debt: Makes you a Slave to the Lender We are all individually and collectively dependent on our Masters
Nothing like ageism to divide and conquer "we the plebes" further from the true bastards who are cratering the SS Merica. Keep fighting amongst yourselves you dumb fucks. That's exactly what they want.
Well said Iridium..
On a lighter note;
Patient: Can you get pregnant from anal sex?
Doctor: Of course. where do you think politicians come from!
According to CIBC World Markets:
The world remains a place where enormous amounts of debt just keep stacking up. Paying this debt back is constantly believed to be less of an issue given the crucial assumption that economic growth rates in the order of 3% to 5% will return AND will be sustainable. Even if it does, it must be noted that “total payback” of the debt could be unlikely to ever be achieved. At some US$18 trillion of total debt in the U.S., it would take 14,400 million ounces of gold or some 160 years’ worth of annual global gold mined supply (at the current price of some US$1,240/oz. and at current global output of some 2,800 tonnes per annum) to pay this down. At the same time, gold production is about to take an almighty knock and we won’t be surprised to see as much as 25% less gold output in the next five years.
Still, much of this precarious (let’s just stop the debt load from growing) position is critically dependant on very low interest rates being maintained – once rates start moving higher, debt repayment schedules quickly blow out, while the value of bonds, in particular government bonds, starts to decline. The current dramatic decline in the value of government bonds will already see banks’ balance sheets shrinking again, with possible resultant liquidity squeezes across the globe. Euro sovereign debt costs are already up dramatically and Italy is seemingly also sitting with an apparent +30 billion euro loss in the derivatives market…
This could very quickly turn out to be a very bad scenario, but the point, as far as we are concerned, is really that it does not even need to get to this for the markets to start realizing that currencies will have to depreciate much further – we believe this to be a crucial mechanism for delivering lower sovereign debt levels long term. Gold will be the currency that continues to benefit in the longer term. So, making a positive case for the gold price is not too difficult – particularly if inflation becomes a problem much sooner than everybody currently expects.
The real problem, unfortunately, is that all of this argument is dependant on data that will only become apparent much later down the line. Right now, nobody is willing to go against the Fed. That simply means bonds and gold are both getting the “chop” because the Fed is signaling a return to stronger economic growth – leading to a stronger U.S. dollar.
http://money.msn.com/bill-fleckenstein/post--bernanke-uses-his-words?ref=bfv
The predicament the Fed is in is that it is in the process of "losing the bond market," and it is trapped. It can't even hint about reducing its buying by a measly $20 billion (which used to be a big number but is a rounding error nowadays, when it comes to monetization) because of how bonds -- and, at some point, stocks -- misbehave whenever the subject comes up.
As far as the eye can print
The takeaways of what our Fed chairman had to say were that "highly accommodative monetary policy" would be needed for the foreseeable future, and that he finally made a point that I think many of us could agree with, which is that the unemployment rate of 7.6% might "overstate the health of the labor market." Bernanke also made it clear that the Fed would not raise rates for some time, even after we hit 6.5% unemployment.
In short, Bernanke corroborated all of the points that have been espoused by those of us who have felt that we understood the DNA of the Federal Open Market Committee doves. They really don't want to stop printing unless the employment gains are very strong. Which means fretting over taper talk is silly, for two reasons:
However, I don't want to lose sight of the fact that while Bernanke (and many others) thinks the bond market is declining because the Fed appeared to talk tough, some of us believe that the bond market is actually in the early stages of taking away the printing press from the Fed. If market participants finally get it through their heads that tapering, let alone any sort of tighter money conditions, is off the table and bonds can't make a substantial rally back near the old highs, then we will probably be able to conclude that the Fed has "lost" that market. (If bond holders begin to discipline the Fed, we will be on our way to the funding crisis I have long warned of.)
It's his way or the high-yield way
This is all very subjective, and we will have to see how it plays out. But what Bernanke made clear is that if the Treasury market doesn't cooperate with him (or the stock market, for that matter) he will respond.
This is the Bernanke quote that I think really got people's attention: "And I guess the final thing I would say in terms of risks of course is that we have seen some tightening of financial conditions, and that if, as I've said and as I said in my press conference and other places, that if financial conditions were to tighten to the extent that they jeopardize the achievement of our inflation and employment objectives, then we would have to push back against that."
So there you have it. The Fed is essentially trapped. If the financial markets don't continue to go higher, or if the bond market doesn't stay where the Fed wants it, it will fight that. Therefore, down the road, if interest rates move higher and the Fed thinks they shouldn't, it will take action (i.e., "push back against that"), which will only reinforce the idea that the Fed has indeed lost control of the bond market, and the ramifications of that will be quite ugly. Said differently, the Fed will conclude that any rate rise against its wishes is unwarranted and resist that, which will make matters worse.
To be sure, taking action premised on that outcome is not today's business. For now, markets are joyous and, at this point, stocks have really set themselves up for disappointment as we go through earnings season. Of course, now that Bernanke has promised stock bulls that he has their back again, the response to negative news will be that much more informative.
The two points I think we want to take away are that the Fed can't even talk about tapering, and the question of at what interest rate will the bond market really fail.
They won't stop printing on lower unemployment. Lower unemployment just means business is maxing out but it is not the trigger point. The only thing that will make them raise rates are higher wages. That is what made Greenspan raise. The only thing these banksters hate is labor and when wages start to increase, that is when they will act
Do I really need to open the "note pad"?
Oh boomers, please hurry up and die. Sure, there are some "good ones" out there, but all in all they are horrible and need to be put down.
Here's the only good thing you boomers contributed:
When we were growing up in the 80s, you boomers got obsessed with your own childhood and had the money to attempt to rebuy your toys that were long since thrown away. Making your worthless trinkets magically "valuable". And so many of you thought "hey, if I start preserving and hoarding the toys and trinkets from the 80s, I'll have my retirement sorted when the next generation has demand". Well, you glorious idiots failed to realize that doing such things negates any value something might eventually have. And because of that, I can rebuy all my old toys, not for my own selfish posterity, but for my own kids. In most cases, for even cheaper than they were when they were new. And this is the best revenge, as you worked your way to the top, cheapened everything over the years, and the current childhood toys are absolute junk. I can go spend about half as much to get what I want, new, sealed, untouched for 30 years... and it's cheaper than the current options.
Of course, the faster you die, the cheaper it will be as your kids sell all your junk for even less. You are the generation that was born to those who actually suffered through the depression and scrapped and saved to stay alive. The last generation which actually knew hardship and community... and what did you do? You rejected it all. The so-called "Greatest" and "Silent" Generations, you ignored them as well, rejecting all their life knowledge, rejecting those who built the entire foundation for what you consider society. All in the name of personal greed.
Hurry up and die please, so we can forget about you... and rebuild the world you destroyed in an image that is in absolute rejection and defiance of your failed ideas.
Thats not nice.
This makes no sense at all. It's a rant.
Sorry, did you say something laomei?
Z/H recycling comments? Not GOOD
I invite || X Max to get some of this summer
Boomers are a fail. Thanks for nothing...or worse.
Z/H just solidified unemployment. Fonz had a good comment, after he was hit by Sandy.
The comment was?
Well.... at least $6 trillion has been spent on war and MIC spending the past dozen years and another $10 plus trillion handed to a slew of corrupt bankers whose shenanigans turned south on them ... blame the old lady down the street if you it makes you feel better ... I personally would rather justice be administered to the ones who caused the problems ....
They all seemed so sincere when John Lennon sang..
Was that when he was beating his first wife?
Dr. Seuss
On the Golden Years
I cannot see
I cannot pee
I cannot chew
I cannot screw
Oh My God What can I do?
My memory shrinks
My hearing stinks
No sense of smell
I look like hell
My mood is bad--can you tell?
My body's drooping
Have trouble pooping
The Golden Years have come at last
The Golden Years can kiss my ass.
This is what happened.. The generation was under a spell that they had control. All those pensions, debt, housing... ect ect.. They were led into a lullaby. They think they are the system. Now 'their' system is about to implode all their wealth. If it wasn't so sadistic it'd almost be funny..
Tyler, THE " Hindenburg Omen", isn't unidirectionaljapan----
This bit 'o drivel was probably written on an iPhone that Mommy gave him after ballet practice.
The article was crap
Sorry Jim/katey but your preoccupation with blaming people of a certain age group for so many supposed ills is just a shitty attempt at redirecting blame. Why no mention of.
Fiat currency or
Fractional reserve banking and the International Banking Cartel
and their bastard children known as the
Military Industrial Complex
Mega Government
Hitting runs for the opposing team is not going to win many friends around
here.
New Tool:
Watch Your Data Traveling Through The Internet
(and how it is collected by the NSA):
http://homment.com/internet-nsa
All I can say to you boomers is if you think you are going to keep your pensions and social security then think again and Obamacare will make sure you go to the grave early, and it will be your generation that will do that to itself.
That is indeed a major concern, especially being a govt employee with pension that may or may not be there for me. Trust me, I've taken steps by taking out an insurance policy. A rather golden and silver one.
No problem. I'm prepped for loosing all govt/private pensions, and have trained the young'ns in the fine art of gardening and full metal jackets. They'll carry on as long as they have the ammo. Gonna get me a drone too. From Ebay. the internet is amazing.
"1. “Paws off, Junior. This cash is mine.”"
IMO, when a parent decides to place their inheritance to the kids in trust to be paid out at regular intervals instead of paying it all out up front upon death, this does not amount to the parents saying "This cash is mine" as the author asserts.
Simply put, when a parent has spent his/her life working hard and managing their income & expenses to accumulate some savings, they do not want to see their kids blowing the whole lot on consumer junk inside a year after they die. How many of today's younger generations have a solid understanding of sound financial management?
The parents want their inheritance to provide maximum benefit to the offspring over the years ahead, perhaps even anticipating that economic/social conditions might deteriorate in the future and their kids might become unemployed. A permanent monthly/quarterly trust income from their parents' estate may make the difference between having cash to pay the bills/buy food, or not.
A trust is the way to do that. I do not see it as boomers being selfish. "Wise" is a better word.
You are probably correct but, I ask, why they didn't teach their kids to manage money in the first place? This all leads me to believe that this is more about the boomers wanting to maintain control and insert their influence on their kid's lives. If they have raised them as economic dependents that are too incompetent to handle money then that has to fall back on the parents some. Plus, it is as if they don't want their kids to have a better life than what they have. This is just a general attitude I get from that generation when I read/speak to/hear them
Well, you might believe that it's the parents who have failed to educate their kids to be money-wise.
But the educational system today and the endless state/commercial propaganda we are all subjected to nowadays, all mitigate against that being successful. Today, kids are brainwashed and pressured into becoming "consumers". To spend, spend, spend. For many young 'uns, having the latest gizmos enhances their confidence and well being.
Not sure? Take one look at the huge numbers of people up to their necks in personal debt.
Truth is that large numbers of people simply cannot manage money. Give them an inheritance and it'll be gone PDQ. I know adults who cannot even use a calculator, let alone add up & take away in their head. And this is not always related to low IQ.
Not to mention the fact that Grandparents love their grandchildren too and hate the tax man.
You been reading my mail? You work for NSA or Google?
IMHO, after puberty the kids don't listen to anyone but the progressive educators/America haters, the music artists, the game makers, and those cable comedians/journalists. Ben Franklin was right, we had a republic, we couldn't keep it because he didn't invent msging and tweet.
That is precisely how I set mine up for my kid. He had to learn to work first with his first distribution at age 30 & at five year increments thereafter.
Sadly, he didn't live to see it.
or, one could transfer the deeds and titles except for a life estate exemption. If, one were so inclined.
I have to work hard to earn money to spend it all to feed the gaping maws. BFD. Who gives a shit anymore if the gov is basically taking it all and leaving you with nothing? I don't. It is theft and extortion and nothing else. Fuck them.
Kennedy was assassinated. After that, the silver coinage in the system was totally removed and everything turned to a huge pile of shit. Just look at it. So fuck them.
There ain't shit out there for any kind of inheritance. It just ain't there.
These inter generational posts are bull. They imply cause and effect that is not generational.
Let me give you some food for thought on what is causing a lot of grief to the post boomer generations.
- The Great Society programs of LBJ
- The immigration bill of 1965 opened the floodgates of unrestricted immigration.
- NAFTA, Global Trade Agreeements, Most Favored Nation Status for China sucked millions of jobs out of the US
- Repeal of Financial controls on Financial gamblers.
- The political class of the late 1980's to present, who gave everyone shit the country could not afford.
Yes boomers were the pre dominent generation in the decision making process for most of the above points, but not all. Its time ALL generations get off our collective butts and make some changes for the benefit of all our future.
Good but you left out war spending.
You're right, he did. I received $270 month plus room and board from 18 yrs old to 22 yrs old. Broke the friggin bank, we did. Oh, and I didn't have any say in congress or the corporate board rooms.
It was the WWII generation that brought about LBJ's nightmare. The boomers were too young to be a big part of the movers and shakers of the 1960's. Born in 45 you would be 20 in 65 hardly old enough to be an intern or receptionist for some pol.
Here is what Jim Sinclair has to say about our situation in the US and why owning gold is a winner:
1. First interest rates rise affecting the drivers of the US economy, housing, but before that auto production goes from bull to a bear markets.
2. This impacts many other industries and the jobs report. An economy is either rising at a rising rate or business activity is falling at an increasing rate. That is economic law 101. There is no such thing in any market as a Plateau of Prosperity or Cinderella – Goldilocks situations.
3. We have witnessed the Dow rise on economic news indicating deceleration of activity. This continues until major corporations announced poor earnings, making the Dow fall faster than it rose, moving it deeply into the red.
4. The formula economically is inherent in #2 which is lower economic activity equals lower profits.
5. Lower profits leads to lower Federal Tax revenues.
6. Lower Federal tax revenues in the face of increased Federal spending causes geometric, not arithmetic, rises in the US Federal Budget deficit. This is also true for cities & States as it is for the Federal government.
7. The increased US Federal Budget deficit in the face of a US Trade Deficit increases the US Current Account Deficit.
8. The US Current Account Balance is the speedometer of the money exiting the US into world markets (deficit).
9. It is this deficit that must be met by incoming investment in the US in any form. It could be anything from businesses, equities to Treasury instruments. We are already seeing a fall off in the situation of developing nations carrying the spending habits of industrial nations; a contradiction in terms.
10. If the investment by non US entities fails to meet the exiting dollars by all means, then the US must turn within to finance the shortfall.
11. Assuming the US turns inside to finance all maturities, interest rates will rise with the long term rates moving fastest regardless of prevailing business conditions.
12. This will further contract business activity and start a downward spiral of unparalleled dimension because the size of US debt already issued is of unparalleled dimension.
Therefore as you get to #12 you are automatically right back at #1. This is an economic downward spiral.
I heard all this “slow business” as negative to gold talk in the 70s. It was totally wrong then. It will be exactly the same now.
Too much sanity is depressing.
I want to go back to the inadvertent humor of the whiners.
Ten things the Boomers won't tell you. Sorry sport this is nonsence. Boomers are paying for the education and post-degrees that will (they hope) give their offspring a better chance. The only reason I slaved in the market place was to ensure my offspring had a better chance than I had. I can still remember working 24/7 and no sleep to make my childrens's future better than mine. This was my raison d'etre. That is my experience. Junk me. But do not ever imply or accuse me of not working to provide for my children's future. That is my burden, but also my joy.
Then you are quite the anomaly of your generation. Being the offspring of a Baby Boomer and life long critic of their choices as a generation you should be commeneded on swimming upstream against the majority of your peers. Baby Boomer's were the first generation to throw their parents in homes in old age. The first to openly tell their parents to Fuck Off, you remember "Don't trust anyone over 30?" The first to abandon their spouses as divorce rates soared. The first to out right abandon their children as they went on some search of self throught the like of EST, LSD, pot, then Cocaine. Then they found their conscience when it came to caring for the earth (noble cause in some cases until they found it a profit center). Their care for "humanity" was far reaching though it never related to their own families, parents or children. The first generation that felt entitled to free lunch, free education, free healthcare, a cradle to grave safety net. The only problem with all their noble humanity causes is the fact that the generation never once considered the financial ramifications for all of their hopes and dreams because that was just beneath them. Think about the first of the generation and what that meant for the decades of the 1960's, 70's, 80's and 90's.
Free love, drugs, sex. Tune out and turn on or some shit like that. Me, me me of the each generation. They were a creative lot, no doubt. The technological advances were astounding and enriching for society and themselves right up until it wasn't.
Baby Boomer's as a generation never grasped the notion of "The Law of Diminishing Returns". They have wagged their fingers at the rest of society since they hit puberty and have continued to do so until they are all dead and buried. The feeling of entitlement they carry along with the condescending tones they were apparently born with never waned. They have never been happy or satisified with what they had and grasped the notion of the "self" like no other in the history of mankind.
So to the Baby Boomer's who didn't swim with the stream of most of your generation I tip my hat to you as that had to feel like a lonely and isolated world and speaks volumes to your character and values and gave your offspring some sense that their is still hope for us and our children and their children. Ironically I think you guys even came up with the notion of "it's all about the children" when the need to further an agenda presented itself.
No, you really are a douche
not notadouche - You are a spoiled brat idiot. You have projected the attributes of a few losers onto an entire generation. The vast majority of the Boomer generation are as described by Deerhunter and Bu Ba. Just because your own parents act like idiots and spoiled you rotten doesn't mean the entire cohort behaves that way.
This entire article is nothing but the usual drivel out of Quinn, who also was spoiled rotten by his parents and now feels he got the short end because he has no skills other than a finely honed ability to whine.
Both douchebag and quinn need to man up and get a life!
"Idiot", perhaps, it's been known to be true on more than one occassion, but I still haven't figured out where "spoiled brat" comes from. I'm curious to know how you think my parents "spoiled" me. I suppose one could look at it that way, I mean after all my mother did stick around for 16 years. The "crime" of projecting that you accuse me of is a bit ironic coming from someone doing a whole lot of projecting themselves. Maybe your not sure what the definition of "spoiled rotten" means. When calling people "spoiled rotten" it generally means to let them have any and everything they want when they want it or something to that effect. Now if you mean "spoiled rotten" as it pertains to old meat or food left out and neglected and left to decay then I could somewhat grasp what you say but it's doesn't exactly fit for the way you mean it though the second definition would be much more accurate.
Well fuck you, NotNotaDouche. The most selfish thing your parents ever did was to have you, for which, I agree, no punishment is harsh enough.
Your right because they both abandoned me and my siblings, one before I was even born and the other by the time I was 16. I can be called a lot of things and have been but spoiled and selfish would be ridiculous.
The truth appears to hurt. Funny I praised the poster and the ones of that generation that did the right thing yet the hate came pouring out as if I had condemned every single person of that generation. Curious, "Me thinks he doth protest too much" was the first thing that came to mind as I read the responses.
I would add further that instead of intellectually debating what may be viewed as mischaracterization or misinterpretation the tactic instead was to personally attack. Interesting and telling.
Did the Baby Boomers not as a generation not live by the motto "Don't trust anyone over 30?"
Did they not "Turn on, tune in and drop out"?
Acid, pot, cocaine, Divorce, abortion, PCP, STD's broken homes and the generational need for "me, me, me" all peaked with the BB generation.
Which decade did the Baby Boomers, since they became teenagers, ever not dominate the conversation of society and demand to not only be heard but also to be in control? Never taking responsibility for their own actions but quick to pont the finger blame and attack every one else.
The most selfish generation from what I can see. Doesn't mean every SINGLE person was that way which apparently the posters took very personally like I was telling their personal life story and they felt the need to defend and attack.
Wow, really, just one anonymous opinion from personal experience really hit a nerve which is very curious to me. In my experience people that have a valid opposing view use it as opposed to "Fuck you, fuck you, fuck you, spoile brat, douch defense."
Taking someone to task intellectually would appear to be a much more compelling and valid way to make a point. I am a douche for expecting something along those lines.
What you were describing are the left leaning baby boomers. You would not find too many of these losers in a Tea Party rally.
Point taken. At the very least you came with a response that was not a vile personal attack which speaks volumes about your own character in my humble and inconsequential opinion.
Man, you had some bad luck, family experiences. I don't know anybody older or younger that has had as much. Whew. You made me feel a lot better cause I'm so much more lucky than you. Thank you.
Can't telll if your being facetious or not. Not in my nature to trust. If you are genuine I would be the first to tell you don't waste time feeling sorry for me. I worked in a warehouse in the mornings to finish up my last 2 years of high school. Went to night school after framing houses all day until I had enough credits to transfer and got my degree in Finance. I had a fast track career and met an even more successful woman and have 3 boys that I have had the honor to stay home and parent for 12 years and counting. Always sort of poetic justice I thought.
As I tell my 3 boys, "Fair" is just a made up word for loser's and whiner's and life is what it is. I always expect the worst and hope for the best. Never disappointed. I only had one prayer as a child and that was to be a grown up as fast as I could so I would no longer be "held hostage" by the stupidity or selfishness, bad luck etc... of the grown ups around me and have a chance at controlling my own destiny. Now that's a bit of a fantasy as I learned we have free will but life, or fate, has ways of conspiring to change courses in a blink of an eye and you just have to roll with the punches.
My siblings weren't so "lucky" as they didn't make it out of the gutter's that we came from. They made choices as we all do. I chose to learn from the examples I was shown along the lines of "what not to do" while they just continued on in the same lifestyle that we were shown as children. They chose to keep looking back at what happened or didn't happen causing them to miss the potential possibilities that lay ahead.
Don't get me wrong. I'm not remotely trying to say "look at me and how great I am" as nothing could be further from the truth. I suck plenty. I'm just giving context to my point of view and perceptions and why I write what I write.
And to the poster that complimented grandparents and their willingness to do anything for their grandchildren. Cheers. Right now I think it's safe to say that there are more grandparents "parenting" now than at any other time in history and they deserve to be lauded as I can't imagine having the kind of energy it takes to raise children at 65 and older but they do it with all the zeal they can muster. Now that is special!
The only thing I would say to you is to be the parent you want to be. You have the ability in your hands today and tomorrow to bring joy to your family. As you said -we all have choices. One of those choises is to NOT cause regrets for the people that love us and expect love from us. All the best to you.
Thanks, same to you.
I am still working my ass off so I can pay for my grandchildren's education.
Yes indeed. I am now doing that also. Got to see the next, next generation too. This is our watch. This is our family.
My hat tip to you. Next to children having grandchildren is a gift for all who value their family. Regardless of the generational arguments, grandparents that I know, will do anything they can for their grandchildren.
Hopefully you aren't spending money on a worthless liberal arts degree.
Your an awesome person to do that. My (and many, maybe 'most') of the 'boomer' generation booted their children when they turned 18 and expect(ed) them to swim on their own forever.
I was born in 1955. Dad, machinist, non union shop, mom,,, dishwasher in a nursing home. 7 kids. We worked from the time we were 12 years old. We picked fruit in Michigan in summers. Strawberries, sweet cherries, tart cherries, blueberries. 40 cents 10 Quart pail for cherries. If you hauled ass you could pick 20 in a day. 8 bucks. 12 mile bike ride home. We had no TV in the house because folks couldn't afford it. We learned how to work. We read books. We learned yes sir and yes maam. There were no excuses in our house. 4 kids college educated all paid every dime out of pocket. I went to college full time in my mid 30's while working full time and raising 3 kids just because I always wanted to. The lefty commie/socialist professors were just ten years older than me. Mush heads. When I began to see 8 and 10 year olds with cell phones and I-toys I knew our country had lost its mind. Trophies for fifth and sixth place??? Really??? Drugs for 2nd and 3rd grade boys who won't sit still in class??? Really?? Did you sit still in class??? Tossing kids from school for drawing toy guns?? Really? I rode the city bus with a shotgun in a case to the end of the line in 1968 to the orchards I worked in to shoot the birds raising hell with the cherries. Today the bus driver would call out a SWAT team. I call bullshit on all the railing on the baby boomers. I moved out of the house the day I turned 18 and could sign a lease and never looked back. This country is fucked because now people get together to talk about how they feel. Feelings didn't build this country. Second place is first looser in a sales profession. Feelings didnt win WWII. Feelings don't teach kids how to work hard and earn what they want. Stay home in moms basement with health care coverage until you are 26 on her public school teachers salary that is turning boys into taller girls playing fantasy sports and wonder why no one will hire you when you have never worked a day in your life until you have to when they finally throw your ass onto the street. Don't blame boomers. Don't label me. Don't endeavor to talk all this shit about not taking care of your folks because they finally quit giving you stuff until you are putting ice chips on their lips while they are dying. You have not walked in my shoes and never will. The man in the mirror is the one you live with and if you have to blame a whole generation for your unhappiness and/or lack then you have never really looked at the man in the mirror and probably never will.
Same here. The only fun part is watching the free spending, big borrowing mofo's hit the end of the line. Cannot promise what you cannot borrow. Oh the HORRORS! of having to cut spending. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!
True words Deerhunter;
Hope you can enjoy your retirement when it comes. You have EARNED IT.
Excellent words hunter
Yes, what you said.
Damn sonny (bd: 1951), your post is f#$%ing succinct. Ditto, from me.
I'm a Gen X'r and son of a boomer. Thank God they taught me a work ethic. Great Post. i give kudos to these words as they are as true as true could be. Pussies blame. Man the fuck up and change shit.
You described yourself as I would have described my grandparents. They were born in 1910. "Feelings didn't win WWII" is what they would've said along with surviving the Great Depression. Your sensibilities from my experience are more of those from the generation known as "The Greatest Generation". You sir, from my personal experience are a throw back old school type of guy that did it the right way and though you will live and die anonymously to the world as most of us do , you and those of your ilk are the silent unknown backbone that has held our society together in the face of turmoil, greed, excuses, intellectual dishonesty etc... Maybe I'm wrong and all the Baby Boomer's were like you, I just didn't get to meet any but I met many like you but they were of your parents generation. You are someone I would commend as swimming against the current of your generation not that you would need or want my commendation.
All I know is someone followed Timothy Leary. Went on The Road with Kerouac. Hated their own father's for decades abandoned children and spouses in droves, dropped acid, screwed any and everyone without feeling (not sure I could blame) did coke DeLorean style, went to Studio 54 with mutton chops and bell bottoms stoned out of their minds. That alone should have been a hangable offense. (Ok I'm kidding on that one) BB's were the first to delve into psych therapy if I'm not mistaken.
Many of the things you didn't do. I think that's commendable as it wasn't the "cool thing" to do back then especially given the complexity of the times. I would say that there is a big difference in the 1955 Baby Boomer and the 1946 Baby Boomer. Not even sure they should be lumped together. Being 10 in 1965 would be vastly different than being 20 from a behavioral, expectation, view of life perspective, would it not? To my mind it would be a huge difference. How could anyone equate a person born in 1946 to a person born in 1964, which is considered the Baby Boomer years is utterly ridiculous and perhaps leads to most of the disagreements and perceptions/misperceptions of the the BB generation.
Another attempted diversion to take the focus off the FED and the Banksters Cartel.
These sociopathic bastards were taking control decades before the boomers were born, before the New Deal, before Social Security.
Stay focused on the real perpetrators and don't let these simple minded tactics cloud your thinking.
This is a well-written article containing interesting information. I thoroughly enjoyed reading it. The article is also representative of the divide in this country, and the tendency to look for someone else to point the finger of blame at.
IMO, whereever you are in life...that's your lot. If you want to change it, you will have to change it yourself. Blaming others is simply a waste of time and is particularly unproductive.
No, this is another atempt to divide us. Don't be fooled.
Looked to me as an attempt to get everybody to look at 10 pages of advertisements. I could be wrong, though. I couldn't begin to tell anyone what the advertisements were for.
We already know they leave their money to the drug dealers and the advisors,lawyers, attorny's, councilors, and judges who are in good standing amonst themselves. The 1%.
I'm more worried about the Gov't and health care system taking my wealth.
What a bunch of drivel. As a boomer I would like to address some of these points....
1. Inheritance? Are you kidding me? The best my kids can hope for is if my wife and I don't go through the precious metals we have saved up. The "off the books" wealth that can't be seized by the gov't unless they employ divers ;-) Other than that there is our paid off house but I suspect at some time we will have to use that to pay medical or nursing home care. I hope not but have seen it happen to alot of older people already.
2. “People who haven’t saved enough for health-care costs may deplete their assets,” says Michael Markiewicz, a partner at New York-based Fogel Neale Partners. “A lot of them may have to live with their kids or depend on them for money and care.”
LOL! Are you kidding me? The system is set up to where the average person CANNOT afford medical care later in life. Medical costs are exhorbitant and if you're a member of the lower or middle class you better plan on having your assets confiscated for your care. Me, I hope to shoot myself before moving in with either of my kids or end up in a nursing home crapping my pants.
3. “Parents often equate paying for college with helping their child become successful in life,”
Really? People can afford to send their kids through college? There's another area that has become just ridiculously expensive mainly due to the Gov't subsidizing and encouraging kids to borrow $100,000 to get a worthless liberal arts degree. Yeah, we paid our daughters way through college, in form of a loan. She graduated, finally got a good job and is now paying us back, interest free. We're doing the same with our son who is about to become a junior. He agreed, as his sister, to pay us back, again interest free.
4. “We can’t face reality.”
Oh bullshit. We've always lived within our means and fully expect to when we retire and are fully cognizant that we'll have to live within our means when that happens.
5.“ ‘Til death do us part’ doesn’t apply to us.”
The wife has put up with me for 37years now and hopefully she used to me now.
6. “We’re unhappy …”
Oh boo fucking hoo. If you're unhappy do something about it.
7. “… and we eat our feelings.”
Not in this household. We know that growing old means you damned well better be in good shape. We both exercise regularly and eat mainly meats, veggies, and fruits. Screw taters and bread, and other carbs. Just a second.....ok, I can still one armed pushups so I figure I'm good for a few more years :)
8. “And we’re addicts.”
Ok, got me there. I do enjoy my merlot and occasional puff of pot.
9. Fully 68% of boomers oppose eliminating the tax deduction for interest paid on home mortgages, compared with just 56% of all adults, according to the Pew Research Center. Furthermore, 80% of boomers (vs. 72% of all adults) oppose taxing employer health insurance benefits and 63% of boomers (vs. 58% of all adults) oppose increasing the age one qualifies for full Social Security benefits, the study shows.
LOL! Really? Who here supports the present tax system?? If the govt is going to tax you at least do it fairly. Something along the lines of a national sales tax or just a flat rate tax. Screw all the deductions and loopholes!
10. “We’re obsessed with (not) aging.”
The only thing I want to improve on is my teeth. Getting crowns while I can afford to. Other than that I'm a pretty good looking old man :-)
Good points, all. The dissers don't care and will not be dissuaded from the vilefication of us BOOMERs. But you made some good points.
That is really well written.
Concerning point 9 and the opposition of eliminating the tax deduction for interest paid on home mortgages. Wouldn't it be a bit shocking if 97% of all homeowners didn't oppose the elimination with a +-3% error? Not sure how relevant that stat really is. If you bought a house and your just a regular guy then you count on that deduction.
Eliminate tax deductions sometime after they eliminate 70% of the BS spending and waste and fraud. Why send billions in aid to any other "less fortunate" country when we can't even pay for our own mess. How many times is the government going to raise taxes for a failing infrastructure before they actually use the money to fix our crumbling structures? I thought that $800 Billion Tarp had a fair portion to fixing this infrastructure and all I really ever noticed was signage telling us a project was underway due to the Recovery Act... The sign guy made out the best. I wonder which company did it and how any congressional investors bought into the sign company prior to the awarding of the sign making contract?
The Check Mate moment has arrived.
They raped the country for 30 years.
And now you're pissed that you didn't even get a reach around?
No not at all. I have enough.. They never have enough
I'm a they, and I have enough if it isn't taken away. And if it is, I'll still survive.
It's was/is good for me. Have a smoke, you deluded, low information, sheeple minded moron.