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The Happy Story of Boomers Retiring on Their Generational Wealth Is Wrong
Submitted by Charles Hugh-Smith of OfTwoMinds blog,
This happy story is wrong on multiple counts.
The conventional view of the Baby Boomers' retirement is a happy story: since we're living longer and remaining productive longer, Boomers will not be as much of a burden on Gen-X and Gen-Y as doom-and-gloomers assume.
Not only are Boomers staying productive longer, they will draw upon their vast generational wealth as they age, limiting the financial burden on younger generations.
This happy story is nicely summarized in this lengthy piece The Fear Factor: Long-held predictions of economic chaos as baby boomers grow old are based on formulas that are just plain wrong.
In this view, the only thing needed to prop up Social Security for the rest of the 21st century is a higher tax on high-income earners, in effect moving the limit on earned income exposed to Social Security taxes from about $114,000 to $217,000.
This happy story is wrong on multiple counts. Let's start with the most egregious errors:
1. It ignores the End of Work and the decline of full-time jobs
2. It ignores the Elephants in the Room, Medicare and Medicaid
3. It ignores the inconvenient reality that there is nobody to buy the Boomers' overpriced stocks, bonds and homes when they start to unload them
Put another way: the happy story ignores the changing nature of work and jobs, the unsustainable cost trajectory of Sickcare (a.k.a. healthcare) and the inability of Gen-X and Gen-Y to buy Boomer assets at bubble valuations. Take these factors into minimal consideration and the claim that 76 million people (out of 316 million) can retire with no negative repercussions falls completely apart.
1. The end of work and changing nature of jobs: I have covered this for many years, most recently in a program with Gordon Long: The New Nature of Work: Jobs, Occupations & Careers (25 minutes, YouTube).
Insert end of work in the custom search box on this site and you'll get 10 pages of articles published here on that topic. For example:
Global Reality: Surplus of Labor, Scarcity of Paid Work (May 7, 2012)
The reality is sobering: 57 million people draw Social Security benefits, tens of millions more draw Medicaid, Section 8 housing credits, etc., and full-time jobs number 118 million:
The Good And The Not- So-Good News About US Jobs In One Chart (Zero Hedge)
That's a ratio of roughly two workers for every retiree and considerably less than that for workers to the total number of government dependents. As the Baby Boom retires en masse, if full-time jobs don't rise as dramatically as the number of retirees, the system fails.
The happy story repeats the usual falsehood that Social Security has a Trust Fund it can draw down. This is a falsehood because the Trust Fund is fiction: when Social Security runs a deficit, the Treasury funds it by selling Treasury bonds, the same way it funds any other deficit spending. If the Treasury can't sell bonds, the phantom nature of the Trust Fund will be revealed.
2. Everyone who looks at numbers rather than fictional claims knows the intractable problem is Medicare and Medicaid. In Sickcare, there are no real limits on cost, and so every attempt to impose cost discipline fails or triggers blowback.
Here is Medicare's twin for under-age-65 care for low-income households, Medicaid:
As I have observed for years, Obamacare and Medicare/Medicaid do not tackle the underlying problems of Sickcare costs in America. If you haven't read these analyses, please have a look:
Why "Healthcare Reform" Is Not Reform, Part I (December 28, 2009)
Why "Healthcare Reform" Is Not Reform, Part II (December 29, 2009)
That Which is Unsustainable Will Go Away: Medicare (May 16, 2012)
Obamacare is a Catastrophe That Cannot Be Fixed (December 6, 2013)
3. As I explained in The Generational Short Part 2: Who Will Boomers Sell Their Stocks To?, the Boomers' vast generational wealth will shrivel once they start selling assets en masse. The reality is neither Gen-X nor Gen-Y have the savings, income or desire to buy bubble-level assets from their elders.
This reality has been papered over for the past 5 years of super-low interest rates, which have enabled unqualified buyers to buy overpriced assets with modest income. Once the defaults start pouring in (and/or interest rates rise), the reality will become visible: you can't cash in your wealth if there are no buyers.
There are numerous other fatal flaws with the happy story that 76 million Boomers can retire on full pensions and live off their home equity and stock portfolios. Here are a few of many:
4. Pension funds based on annual returns of 7.5% will be unable to fund the promised pensions when annual returns decline to negative 5%. As John Hussman has explained, every asset bubble in effect siphons off all the future return: when the bubble finally pops, average annual returns are subpar or negative for years.
5. The ultimate buyer of all Boomer assets is presumed to be the Federal Reserve.I explain why this isn't going to happen in The Fed's Hobson's Choice: End QE and Zero-Interest Rates or Destabilize the Dollar and the Treasury Market (June 24, 2014).
6. It's presumed the Federal government can borrow as many trillions of dollars as it needs to fund retirement and social benefits as far as the eye can see. Please see the article linked above to understand why limits on the Fed's money printing and buying of governemnt bonds imposes limits on Federal borrowing.
To quote Jackson Browne: Don't think it won't happen just because it hasn't happened yet.
7. Boomers are staying productive longer and keeping their jobs longer. The reasons for this are many, but one consequence is a dearth of opportunities for Gen-Y job seekers. As full-time employment stagnates or even declines, it's a zero-sum game for the generations: every job a Boomer holds onto is one a Gen-Y applicant can't get.
A 12-hour a week low-pay part-time job will not support a wage earner or fund a retiree.
8. A Boomer who bought his home for $50,000 decades ago can live very well on $75,000 a year; it's a different story for Gen-Y. The Boomer has a low mortgage payment (presuming he didn't extract all the equity in the go-go years) and low property taxes in states with Prop-13-type limits. The Boomer who hits 65 has relatively modest medical expenses as Medicare does all the heavy lifting.
Low housing and medical expenses leave Boomers with relatively ample discretionary income. The Gen-Y wage earner who takes the same $75,000 a year job is not so fortunate. The Gen-Y wage earner is offered the Boomer's $50,000 home for $550,000, and crushing property taxes to go with the gargantuan mortgage.
The Gen-Y wage earner typically still has often-monumental student loan debt to pay off, and much higher healthcare expenses as companies offload rising Sickcare costs onto employees. Higher Social Security and Medicare taxes hit Gen-Y square in the financial solar plexus, while retiring Baby Boomers escape these taxes altogether unless they're still working.
The point is an income that offers a Boomer a middle class lifestyle does not offer a corresponding discretionary income to Gen-Yers. The entire pyramid of well-funded retirement is based on a generational continuation of massive borrowing and discretionary spending.
If that doesn't happen for structural reasons, the pyramid of well-funded retirement collapses under its own weight.
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Jesus, finally a sanguine and honest assessment of the conundrum facing tens of millions of people today.....
I up arrowed you. But this thread is mainly focussing on "handouts" and debt, both of which I vehemently abhor.
It has been fun, but there have been periods of slaughter where many were sacrificed.
I hear ya.
I am a GEN-Xer and only a couple of years younger than you.
My net worth was cut in half by the recession since 2008. Lost over $100K in sale of my primary home - which the job required - in 2009 vs the 2003 purchase price.
When the job moved me again last year I had to rent the place,out because the equity growth could not pay for the realtor and compliance costs. Not a realized loss yet, but a real loss nonetheless.
The bottom line is that you are not personally responsible for anyone's actions other than your own. You will be required to suffer for the sins of your cohort along with the rest of us.
So let the 'hate' wash over you and realize that the precise borders of generations are arbitrary. If the Boomer label fits only by date, and your actions and vocal support have not been with the mainstream boomers, then don't wear the label.
What is totally unjust is for those who had control over these policies, and those who had a voice in these policies, to ask those who had neither to pay for their sins.
I had no choice, but I had a small lonely voice for many years. I will pay for my voice's lack of success.
I will not accept the fruits of the Ponzi scheme. And I will recommend its desmantlement no matter who is gored by the horns, until they put me in the ground.
Sometimes the only thing you can do is to walk into the guns of fate with a resolute smile. At least you will die with your self-respect and set an example of character and fortitude that your children can be proud of.
phew! yeah,
if you're going to extend "boomer" ages to include the 50-somethings here, you'll find a LOT of rage in that demographic - a lot of finger pointing, much hate-labeling, a lot of scapegoating certain "others" etc.
folks in their 50's are simmerin'
Oh, it's so good to be a Boomer, oh yes: you pay for your kids in college, or living at home, and you pay for your parents' nursing care as they age to infinity, draining your resources. All that while you worry about are you going to retire, worry about keeping your job or finding one, and see the value of your home, supposedly your main asset, the one you worked for all your life, dwindle by the minute. What's not to like?
Good point. We boomers may nominally make a lot o money, but after taxes, bills, kid expenses (of all kinds) there is very little left over. And if you are lucky enough to save some money for retirement, the purchasing power of that money is being systematically stolen by the Fed so it can be shoveled to the 0.1%.
So, the moral is get out early?
To what?
You have to use the system to make money. There are no more CDs or savings that make 3-8%. We're trapped.
For the most part, I agree.
IMO, family and community building are the greatest asset. For instance, my grandmother passed and no one in the family was interested in her farm. I ended up selling my house (Austin, Tx.), for a substantial profit and bought my Grannies place, 8 acres of farm land in the Appalachians. I thought I was going to purchase another home here in Florida and realized prices were way out of line... ended up paying off my parents house and waiting to see where things go.
May purchase a sailboat...
I qualify for Irish citizenship, need to acqurie documentation, I think that is a worthwhile investment.
Parked the majority of balance in PMs (physical) and have plenty of cash on hand and still work.
What else, oh yeah, I was going to go to graduate school but, I bought a guitar instead ...by the time I learn to play well, I'll be rich!
Like the guitar part, you have to enjoy life. Not kidding.
The last few years have opened my eyes to what is really important in regards to my time spent on the planet. No regrets, but I am enjoying watching values start to creep back in.
I think the Irish citizenship could be a great investment. Problem is unless you have direct technical skills, there are huge amounts of Irish moving around the world who would be your direct competition for work, but still being able to work in the EU might be very useful.
This become doubly or triply true (?) if the US corporate machine keeps investing in the world for future growth... You could find work with them internationally. Just dig up that great Irish accent...
aye, best lose the amrkn drawl, begorra - not so sure "euro-peons" will be looking to pay amrkns for anything when "the future" shows up. . .
I've thought about all this a lot in the recent years. For more than 30 years my wife and I both worked our tails off and lived like monks. We bought our condos/houses/cars for cash. We bought a 60K condo when our friends were spending many times that for their houses. We have no kids - we figured everyone else was having enough already. We have never paid a penny in credit card interest.
In the 70's when we both graduated college things were kind of like they are now in the US. There were not many jobs (especially for what we studied). There were long lines for gas. I had a college degree and if I was making $200/week that was a lot. I'm not complaining - if anything it made us stronger, wiser and we promised ourselves we would never spend beyond our means.
My last job was for an S&P 500 tech firm. I'm quessing but perhaps 85% of the employees were from India - many here on visas, many more working in India. The US based executives were pulling in millions each year on stock options. The little guy went years with no raises because the company had enough cheap labor to pull from.
Now we live in Mexico. We now have 1 car instead of 2. We pay perhaps $300 per year for auto insurance. We pay $550 per year for our joint health care (every bit as good as what we had in the US for $12K per year). Our property taxes are about $2K US (down from $9K). We currently earn about 3.5% on our CDs (but Mexico takes .6% and we have to pay US taxes as well).
But - perhaps we will be lonely in our old age.
Good for you. At least you will survive.
There is no hell like growing up behind the Boomers. What a bunch of screaming locusts.
And how much have you contributed?
What do you mean by that exactly?
Contributed to this cr*ppy flawed system your generation came up with?
Right now it seems the younger lot are having to work x5 as hard to sustain the Utopia you guys were sold many decades ago, and still can't get over that it was a load of bollacks.
You just go on about this wonderful welfare system you've built and contributed to... only looking at FORMAL taxes etc.
Yet do not consider for instance the rise in tuition and cost of living.
Homeownership under the age of 30 is pretty much unheard of, all debt slaves.. usually those lucky few who are not living with their parents are paying off some other boomers mortgage via rent.
Whaaaahhhh!! Whaaaaahhh!
Another "Whiner Generation" douche bag checks in..
I'm so glad I'm "Pro Choice" !
Social security should be investing in primary residential mortagages and nothing else. There is no better collateral than future social security benefits. It will allow SSA to earn an income that isn't a direct tax on the people.
And why the Gen Yers vote for all the socialists still boggles my mind....they are just stealing from them...
you don't have socialists. not a friend of socialists, me, yet I firmly believe that if you did have real socialists, you'd be better off
you have caricatures of socialism. cartoonish caricatures of "let's throw money out of the window for votes"
remember that throwing money at problems is capitalism's knee-jerk reaction
What we have isn't capitalistic either. The US government owns/controls (through guarantees, subsidies or just outright decree/regulation):
1. the mortgage market
2. the healthcare market
3. the higher education market
4. big chunks of the energy business
what folks "have" is a blindspot
with regards identifying with a
fictive "nationstate" that someone
taught you was a HomeLand.
fix THAT, and a lot of what's going down
makes more sense.
This article is simply wrong on one point:
THE FEDERAL RESERVE (The Fed Reserve Banks if not the board) ABSOLUTELY WILL BUY BOOMER ASSETS.
The presumption that Reserve Currency Status is more important than the Banking System is wrong.
If the Banking System falls then so does the Reserve Currency status and the Federal Government.
There is no Hobbsian choice here. There is simply no choice here. The Dollar Reserve System IS THE RESERVE CURRENCY SYSTEM and vice versa.
These pinchers of Catastrophic Inflation (Monetization of Boomer Assets) vs Catastrophic Deflation (Mark Down of Boomer Assets to save PetroDollar Reserve) were precisely why Mises stated over a century ago that there was IT IS IMPOSSIBLE TO AVOID A COLLAPSE IN A CRACK-UP BOOM.
In the last CENTURY only the Volker FED opted for deflation. And he opted for inflation BECAUSE HE COULD.
The options have since narrowed. If the FED truly tapered deflation will take hold. Who will be left in that case?
- Bankers? No. Asset markdowns will destroy the banks.
- Financiers? No. The yield on nothing is nothing.
- Manufacturing? No. Pensions alone would kill them. They would also have no means to pay for raw materials.
Everyone who did not hitch their wagon to the Fed was forced out of business long ago.
From the elite's perspective the process of hyper inflation, when it comes to that, will simply provide an opportunity for them to trade depreciating dollars for appreciating assets.
Inflation is a reverse-Robin-Hood wealth transfer. They know it. And they will fare worse in deflation than inflation.
And, they reason, that just because in Germany's hyperinflation total power was eventually transferred from the former elite to the Nazis DOES NOT MEAN that they will not be able to retain power.
But as debtors, ALL THE ELITE will be destroyed by DEFLATION.
The REST OF US are destroyed by INFLATION, and benefit from DEFLATION.
Yup. It's like the people making "the FED won't buy" arguments haven't noticed the FED buying everything the last few years (Belgium my ass!).
Now, a "FED CAN'T buy" argument, be it political or collapse or "other", that would be possible.
"...There is no Hobbsian choice here. There is simply no choice here. The Dollar Reserve System IS THE RESERVE CURRENCY SYSTEM and vice versa."
Absolutely, invest in the future you are most confident in!
I am more aligned with some of what JC is writing: http://philosophyofmetrics.com/
And Chris Martenson...
The people working will produce the goods and services consumed the people who are working and the people who are not working. It has always been thus. As the boomers retire, they will be reliant on the people who are not retired to exchange their labor for various things that the boomers have to sell, be that stocks, bonds, real estate, gold or anything else. Alternatively, their labor can be confiscated by the state in taxes. The rest follows.
Boomer here. We shamed Johnson I to not running, forced Nixon to resign, and ended our war in Vietnam. and supported your grandparents with a massive oversupply of SS funds. You people can't even impeach a an extremest Sunni Muslim running amuck in the White House. Would have loved to have kept working and paid your horrendous defaulted school loans for studying LGBTQ at Sara Lawrence for $50,000 a year but my American company got bought out by the POS Sultan of Brunei who gutted the place. The dwarf Sultan has since installed Sharia law in god-forsaken Brunei. So I am retired on close to the max SS benefit, my wife has her own SS benefit. I have a good pension from a previous employer, as well as IRAs and 401ks that we haven't touched yet. Would love to go back to work, but I have had my share of shit jobs as a teenager, thank you very much.
He's a Boomer extremist Sunni Muslim running amuck in the White House.
When you say that "You people can't even impeach" the President, who are the 'You People' you are referring to?
No one in the general populace can impeach anyone.
Congress is required for that.
Of the Senate, one is a Gen-X-er, and 99 are Baby Boomers.
Of the House, 33 are Gen-X-ers and Millenials, 402 are Boomers.
Your generation has the gold, has the positions of power, and therefore has the blame.
Might I add a minor correction.... the Banksters who have bought the politicians are the real ones to blame.... & almost all are of a particular religious paradigm.... (which affects their behavour)
Don't worry - you're going to be "going back to work" sooner than you think and in a much shittier occupation than any of your misspent youth. Your new title? defender of my wealth from bands of marauding youff. Have fun with that. Hope you're up to the task.....
poor trolling
Why is it that Baby Boomers get credit for things they don't deserve, and blame for things they didn't do.
Nixon took us off gold, Reagan & Thacther decided "finance" was better than "manufacturing", and Bretton Woods happened long ago and far away. The systemic damage done to the US economy was already well under way before "baby boomers" took over. As for the "bulge" in population....SOMEWHERE in mankind's path, we must hit a tipping point where mankind learns (the hard way)...that unbridled growth is not the magic key. This may be it, but if it is, it is purely an accident of timing that this generation gets to see it....and not some Machiavellian scheme by Baby Boomers to screw up everything.
Last but not least....the modern concept of "Golden Years" retirement did NOT start when the Baby Boomers got old...for that you only need look back to the "Greatest Generation" that lived thru WWII and started reaping pensions/retirements/ and winter homes in Arizona.
The problems mentioned are one of unreasonable expectations held BY THE POPULACE in large...not just one single demographic.
I rarely resort to profanity or disrespectful disparagement of other's ideas...but come on. Some of these posts about "let them die" surely can not be well thought responses to what is a broad, complex, and MULTI-GENERATIONAL issue.
Agreed.
However it's the ignorance and arrogance that still seems to persist to this day among many boomers that gets to me.
Not that they were born during a certain time period.
This is why I wish many nothing but pain and suffering, whenever the reset happens lol.
But even still, nothing will bring back ones youth.
Yes, it is a multi-generational issue.
The destruction of the Republic was accomplished in 1865. Not the Boomers fault.
The change leading to the destruction of our money was accomplished in 1933. Not the Boomers fault.
The Coup-de-Grace of the United States Dollar was delivered in 1971 by a member of the 'Greatest Generation' - 43 years ago.
The moral disintegration of the country through the explicit punishment of savings and reward of debt creating 'Moral Hazard' began in the late '60's through the '70's but didn't come into common use until the Boomers came of age.
Boomers are on the hook for that.
Reagan declared the whole SS and welfare schemes to be unworkable and doomed in 1981. His Goldwater-like views had too few friends in his generation or the Boomers to get real reform. Volker was during his administration. His efforts only resulted in a bigger regressive FICA tax.
Boomers had invested in the Ponzi Scheme in 1981, but were not in charge of it.
Volker killed inflation and saved the Dollar with raised interest rates despite his policy views being in the minority.
Remember also that Reagan recommended a return to the Gold Standard, and (naively)created a panel of experts to tell how to do it. Instead they told us it could not be done.
Pre-boomer generations had significant dissent from monentary debauchery and moral hazard, even if they were not the ones in control.
The Boomers get the blame otherwise because they've been in COMPLETE CHARGE of the country since 1992.
22 of those 43 years since the Coup-De-Grace have been with Boomer Majorities in Congress, and Boomer control of the White House.
33 of those 43 years have had Boomer Majorities in Congress.
Where was the Boomer generation's dissent? During this period even the Republicans have become tax-and-spend-Democrats! All we heard about was 'Age of Aquarius', 'Peter-Pan syndrome', and 'The "ME" Generation'.
Boomers are now fully invested, and have been in charge of the Ponzi scheme for a long, long time.
So no, Boomers do not own ALL the blame. Boomers did not own the system when they took over.
But Boomers own it now.
And amongst those who are to blame, Boomers are the ones who are still alive in numbers.
If there is a crime it is not in giving Boomers the blame. It is in the Boomers attempt to pass the blame and the costs of the bad policies they have supported in overwhelming numbers on to those who inarguably are not in control (X-ers) and absolutely not to blame (Millenials).
Boomers have for their entire lives bought the house round after round while saying, "I'M BUYING!!! BUT THAT GUY OVERY THERE IS PAYING!!"
I only regret that I have but one vote to give your post..
Because Boomers have been in political power since '94 and look at what the parties have passed since then. With the exception of BBA in '97 and welfare reform, it has been an orgy of red including the largest spending bill (Medicare Part D) without a single dedicated funding source, 2 massive and prolonged wars fought for the first time in American history while lowering federal taxes, massive and unpaid tax cuts, and the financialization of the economy. This coming from a guy who leans left too especially socially.
There is nothing Boomers in either party have to stand on and when Boomer politicians lecture younger generatons it gauls and perplexes me.
It's all the boomers fault!
It's those damned millenials!
Screw the Republicans!
Fuck the Democrats!
Liberals are a scourge!
Conservatives are nothing but Nazi's!
It's our politicians!
It's the stupid sheeple voters!
It's the guns!
It's the drugs!
Doesn't this ever get old, people? I'm thinking "it" is probably a little of all of the above, and then some. The point is that too many people are still in the mind-set of finding a scapegoat...the crops have failed, and SOMEBODY is gonna have to burn...
And really, when you strip away all the tech and modern trappings, this is really no different than those scenes from Papua, New Guinea. The ones where the locals, upset and angry about some unexpected event, choose one of their own and gang up on them, seize them and burn them alive on a pile of old tires for 'witchcraft'. They get the poison out of their system, and get rid of an unpopular person...killing two birds with one stone.
What a miserable, pathetic species we are. ALL of us, not just 'boomers', etc. A girl I used to work with was very religious, always talking about God "rapturing" Christians in the last days. I wondered out loud if this 'rapturing' was to save His people from the Great Tribulations taking place on Earth, or if He had just become so disgusted with the lot of them that He decided not to wait for them to die before dealing with them..."He wants your ass NOW!"
I also suggested that if she believed Christ was coming again she might want to lay low somewhere. Because I'm thinking He's probably going to be really pissed. I mean SERIOUSLY pissed.
I get a bit tired of it all as well. Sometimes in the midst of all this I remind myself the only thing I have control over is myself. Otherwise you descend into the whining of a petulant child.
The simple truth is Life is Unfair and it always will be. There will always be Chelsea Clintons as well as crack whores working the streets. There will always be those who give more of themselves and those who take more than their fair share. The key is your response to all this and what you do in your life is what ultimately matters.
Miffed;-)
The boomers still have the bulk of political clout. The Fed will have to buy their assets to ensure that they can retire.
The young will want this at first as well. They still need to get checks from their parents to survive.
Eventually, the young will turn on the old, and mass euthanasia will be done.
Probably better off long-term moving East..
Boomer here, born in the peak of the boom. 41 years in the private sector work force. Financially conservative, have money stashed away, but dollar debasement has squashed any illusions of retirement. Will work until I drop or until I can't find anything to do. Take flak for continuing to work because I'm preventing younger folks from getting a job. Would take flak if I tried to retire for being a leech. Damned if I do, damned if I don't. Maybe society will be lucky and I'll keel over at my desk soon.
My grandfather from the silent generation use the say the damned if they work for stealing other peoples jobs damned if they don't work for being bums thing about minorities when he worked in the mill.
I guess boomers are going to be the scapegoat for this period in time.
I'm indifferent at this stage of my life as to how I am viewed by anyone except the person who signs my paycheck. I have come to believe that I am living in one big clip joint and conduct myself accordingly.
Nixon,
You NOT of God-fearing variety? You believe this "here and now, for this little while" is all there is?
I would never presume to deny the existence of God. I'm merely saying that in the world I inhabit, I have come to believe that I am regarded merely as something to be fleeced. I try to devote my time and energy to avoiding said fleecing.
If you worked against it, and will work until you drop as you say, then ignore the flak.
The job is not anyone else's unless they can win it. You know more. But the younger guys have more energy.
It is always the ones who pay the paychecks who decide which they value most.
The "Tankin' Our Jobs' meme is another flavor of entitlement mentality.
While you hold your own and don't accept blood money you are your own man, and no one can ask more of you.
There was a time when old men who feared burdening the young would "Go Hunting" and never return.
That may happen.
But I'll be damned if I'll let anyone schedule it for me.
Boomers are naive, its just there place in history. Raised in a time of true affluence and high standards of living, walk in firm handshake look in the eye and you land the equivalent of 40k first job, college educations you could pay for with a summer job, and no huge disruptions of life for there whole existance sans nam. They are woefully unprepared for the coming happenings. What gets me most of all is how smug they are with how well they have had it, but if the zero hedge prophesies come true they will be hurt when they need it most. When they look to the generation they raised for help what they get will be justice.
Could not agree more. I live in WA, and every time I go to an upscale place like Bellevue, Kirkland, Woodinville, or Seatte literally all I see are smug Boomers, Gen-X, adn Gen-Y types who assume that life will always be DotCom 2.0 jobs and lunches at upscale bistros. They don't have a fucking clue that this wonderful party of $200/hour "Life Trainers" is coming to an end in the next few years. And when that bitch Reality does assert herself, they will stand there blinking, blaming the Republicans (those places are monolithically liberal). I can't wait for it to happen just because of the smugness you mention.
I grew up in Bellevue Washington, 9812 Belfair Rd - the neighborhood of "Viewcrest" - just below Clyde Hill (8th street & 100th)..... during one of the R/E booms these properties were selling for a cool million (for the lot alone)..... I moved to L.A. for college and now Oklahoma (now with two techno degrees), I never wanted to move back to Bellevue - never.... & yes there is a very false perspective of affluence & wonderfulness in Bellevue, and the newbies are very shallow...
This whole thread reminds me of a picture I saw in National Geographic once. The story was about Herculeum, a town like Pompeii that was wiped out when Vesuvius erupted in ancient Roman times. The picture was of the remains of one guy running towards the boat dock. He had a gold statue in his arms and was fried instantly as the hot gases rushed across the town.
Even ZH'ers, including some regulars here, seem to have no idea how late the hour is. The whole post is ridiculous in its assumption that the future will continue as the present only with some new economic realities. Folks, we are at the precipice, and Gen This or Gen That makes zero difference in the big scheme of things.
Good luck to all. I hope you can manage to get your attention on survival rather than bickering as the ship goes down.
I was in Herculaneum and saw the cooking pots where they found piles of coins underneath. The assumption was people were hiding their stash for their eventual return. Piles of skeletons were littered in areas where some had tried to escape by sea but their boats were forced back to land due to the land movement. Very eery place to be especially when Vesuvius had a mild eruption when I was there. Truly metaphorical for our times.
Miffed;-)
Tao 4 is correct..... sadly
Yeah, you better hope it is wrong. Because if it were right, this rag's purpose would be obvious. Better to create noise than truth, eh?
Hey, when is Putin coming to Poland?
Widespread civil violence is going to give all these retirees something to do.
For the record, it wasn't the Boomers who sold the country down the river with SS, Medicaid, Medicare and all the rest of the scams. We had nothing to do with passing any of it. As a matter of fact, a lot of us saw plain as day that it was all unsustainable and wanted to roll it back, which was exactly how Reagan got elected.
No, it was the so-called Greatest Generation that sold the country out. They were the singular and only cohort that, in the end, will have raked in the benefits of the ponzis before their inevitable collapse, with none of the blame for that collapse. Accomplished solely by leaving the Boomers holding the bag.
BS.
Nobody is free of all blame, but if the Greatest Gen started it then the boomers exponentially increased the Ponzi madness without limits ("hey - it worked so far, why not souble down!"), single individual protests notwithstanding.
There are many boomers (i.e me now at age 62) that did not support any of this overspending crap - so be careful where you lay the blame.... it has been primarily the demo liberals and Rinos in congress using Treasury benefits to get re-elected.... w/o regard for how later generations will become enslaved. BTW, I am one of those boomers with the $50K house & mortgage, and I am thankful, BUT unless Gen X & Y'rs can also benefit in the American Dream they will eventually find FULL TIME WORK as "revolutionaries"..... something none of us want to see, but maybe inevitable. Is this is why the elite 'powers that be' are up-arming the DHS, FEMA, Dept of Ag, etc etc etc - a very sad scenario awaits us.....
No way there are/were MANY boomers like that.
And by the way I'm not sure if "not supporting" something is always sufficient for absolution...
Medicare Part D?
Proposed by a Boomer President? Passed by a Boomer Congress? You own none of that?
I will take nothing and suffer what comes if it will save the innocent a red cent.
I am a GEN-Xer. Though I had no control, at least I had a small voice with which to condemn the welfare state.
My condemnations and repeated attempts to vote in someone ANYONE (remember Ross Perot?) who would address this train wreck have failed.
I do not share responsiblity for this.
But I will not pass the buck.
I will take not one red cent from SS, nor unemployment.
I will climb the mountain of taxes, financial repression, welfare transfers and regulation, and provide for myself, my children, and my parents despite it all, or perish in the attempt.
I won't ask my children, nieces and nephews to sacrifice from their lives to make up for the failures of mine.
That is the MINIMUM contribution to the future - first do no harm. That MINIMUM has to be thrown into the pot before ANY change can be accomplished.
This whining and shifting of responsibility are weak and unmanly.
Death comes to us all. Try to make it a good one.
Oh, please. The younger generation is not going to pay for anything because they don't have jobs. They were too stupid to pick from a list of 15 to 20 majors from 50 or 60 schools that most likely would have led to employment. $30,000 in debt and a degree in Sociology, Psychology, Anthropology, Archaeology? Your degree is worthless. Like sending a child with $30,000 to a used car dealer and he comes back with a '72 Pinto with 400,000 miles on the clock. LGBTQ studies anyone?
The boomers with this attitude towards the younger folks are no better than those lazy, stupid, useless eaters they complain about.
Just for the record, not all boomers feel this way. As a boomer myself, I don't blame the young for their lack of enthusiasm for the system we helped put in place. That system SUCKS. It is lie upon lie...a huge Jenga-tower of lies. It would be a sign of mental illness if they DIDN'T despise it.
Yes, boomers bear their share of responsibility for where we are. It is NOT the responsibility of younger folk to "work hard" so that you don't have to face the consequences of a system that you allowed to mutate into a global ponzi-scheme.
Personally? I'd like to see the Gen X'ers and Millenials pull out as much as possible. Work, but off the books. Stop buying so much consumer crap. Avoid the whole 30 year mortgage home-buying thing and rent as cheaply as you can get it. Use your numbers to exert pressure on the system where you can, and withdraw support wherever you can.
Avoid the military at all costs and refuse to be cannon-fodder for a country that will tell you to go to hell when you come back damaged.
And as for voting, your primary goal should be removal of ALL incumbents. Give them one term, and one term only. Then send them home. Regardless of what they do. The continuity of political offices needs to be interrupted, because that is what lobbyists depend on...they NEED someone who will be there long enough to accomplish the things they are paying them for. Pull the rug out from under them every election cycle so they have to re-negotiate with new faces all the time. Weeds don't grow in a regularly cultivated garden.
I'm sorry for you guys, the world you will inherit is a mess. While we didn't create it single-handedly, we sure didn't do much to fix it either. You can be angry if you wish, or you can decide to do a little fixing of your own. I am rooting for you.
So many people blaming the 'boomers' for all their troubles. When in fact it is not a generation that caused the problems, it is an attitude, a mindset.
And there are plenty of Gen X'ers and Millenials with the EXACT same attitudes. And you younger folks will elect them into office, just like we did. You'll think you got rid of the problem with those awful boomers, only to see the same demons grinning at you in younger bodies.
Some of these posts are so angry and hateful that I shudder to think of the world you'll leave to YOUR kids.
The only thing worse than ducking blame that is deserved...
...is assigning blame for what has not happened yet.
They'll make their mistakes too.
But you are premature to condemn them.
And immoral to do so while ducking your own responsibility.
I think the problem is simply numbers. A few grasshoppers are fine but a cloud of locusts is destructive because there are too many. Nature is out of balance. I'm a tail end boomer myself and I don't want to leave a world worse for my children. I have tried to life frugally as best as I was able but,with the fed's and government's policies, I don't think this will make any difference. If any blame be laid, it should be there.
Miffed;-)
That is a pet theory of mine too. I am fascinated with Calhoun's rat experiments, and see so many parallels with what we see today.
The thing about locusts is that they are all grasshoppers. When they multiply, and start bumping up against each other, they undergo actual physical changes, and become more aggressive before swarming to find new homes.
Calhoun found that the rat's also underwent profound changes, mostly psychological, when a certain critical mass was reached. And a list of those changes sounds a lot like a list of modern human psychiatric disorders...I found the "beautiful ones" sound awfully like autistic children...
Interesting.
Hollowing out rural communities, hollowing out industrial/manufacturing communities, increasing migration to cities via many tricks packs us into denser population zones....decades in the making
combine with the sociological shift from being "citizens" to "consumers", introducing and protecting drug trades, limiting and controlling all media ownership 4 entertainment and news....
pushing fear using any meme possible (bombings, shoot outs, war threats), stock market crashes (multiple over many many years), making wars overseas not at home distancing the horror that would provoke serious objections...
indoctrinating school education, twisting memes from greed is good to thinking "global", exponential growth of financial engineering beyond average comprehension, perpetuating stock market investment myths, deregulating globally but then up-regulating locally (eg OHS, etc), promoting promiscuity as freedom to express oneself and a renovated kitchen is "living well and a good debt cause its an investment", hiding declines in small businesses vs global corporations market share destroying the concept of working for oneself, creating fake degrees that make nothing but more regulations and a centrally planned mind set....
politicians announcing selected policies for voter consumption while secretly engaging in under-handed policies that are hardly debated, pushing EQ vs IQ, making social skills (conformity) more important than critical thinking skills, painting dissent as hate.......
the list can go on forever
.... the over-populated rat holes are dumb to the big picture and easily turned on each other rather vs fighting against the cage they are in.
And I am just talking about Australia.
Blame any generation you choose but I see DUMB people everywhere of every age group, I also begrudgingly accept its part of their/our conditioning which I fell for to some extent.
Awakening is painful, it put self-reliance back on the table and that is too much for those who want a nanny state or to believe recent history is perpetual.
For now they are the majority so regardless of your age -get independant and smart real quick. The snug bubble of the west is about to pop and few have an inkling let alone the skills to manage it.
Many of the numbers and budget projections of the government have been based on far better employment numbers then we are currently facing or will be facing if this continues. The long-term implication of poor job creation will drastically impact in a negative way both the wealth and future of our children and America. It will mean some people never work or go decades without a job.
The alternative to working and producing is to use up your savings or be sustained by the government, family, or friends. The longer someone is out of the workforce the harder the adjustment to reentering becomes, they call it work for a reason, and one of those reasons is that often it means doing unpleasant things. More on the implications of unemployment in the article below.
http://brucewilds.blogspot.com/2013/09/implications-of-poor-job-creation...
'the parasitic cost of those boomers that has made it impossible for the younger generation to expand.'
Effin Hilarius, the Bankers stole all the Boomers wealth and sold them promises in return, now the Bankers will get Gen X/Y to blame the Boomers. Fuckin A1 to be a banker amongst such gullible twats.
There are many defensive Boomer apologists commenting on this blog. Some want to attribute blame to the greatest generation that was around when Social Security was created in the 1930's. Others want to deny that the Boomer generation which has been in an increasingly powerful and influential position from the 1960's to today is culpable of creating and expanding an unsustainable multi-faceted Ponzi scheme. Others adopt the Ostrich approach and want to deny there is a problem.
I am 50 years old and represent the absolute last of the Baby Boom generation, or the very first of the Generation X generation, depending on how you slice the groups.
I believe my personal family story is illustrative of the initial failings of the Silent generation and the increased failings of the Baby Boomer generation. My Greatest generation great grandfather started with nothing and amassed an impressive portfolio of land holdings-4 sections (640 acres each) of midwest farm land plus a smattering of homes, retail buildings, appartment buildings, lake homes, etc. assets-all owned free and clear without any debt. And, assets which threw off impressive annual income streams just sitting there paid for.
My silent generation grandfather pissed away half of this principle inheritance before he drank himself to death at age 51. My father and his siblings pissed away the other half of this principle inheritance by the early to mid 1980's. My ultra progressive liberal Democrat Baby Boomer father who now doesn't have a pot to piss in has been worthless in terms of paying for his own freight for the last 30 years and has had to be supported by his Generation X offspring continuously, to one degree or another. My equally progressive feminist liberal Democrat mother, divorced from my father since the 1980's plans to leave all of her assets upon her death to progressive charities, in the ever so popular high minded progressive fashion. Thus, over the span of 2 generations and 40-50 years conservatively $30-50 Million worth of Greatest generation generated family wealth has been completely and utterly squandered.
To get to this result required the complete abrogation of the long standing and tried and true historic American value of never spending or encumbering principal. And, a complete break from the value system that it is the responsibility of each generation to ensure that each successive generation inherited a better life than the previous. Somehow, in my family, both the Silent generation and the Baby Boom generation were successfully able to adopt the cognitive dissonance required to simultaneously be able to completely deny and ignore the inheritance they received from the previous-Greatest generation, while also feeling absolutely no compulsion to reciprocate the inheritance tradition forward to its successive generation. Preserve it? Why, it's ours and we want to spend it....add to it....wouldn't think of it......leave it alone.....not a chance...
Folks, my family story is playing out on the macro level in the United States. Somehow, what were sacred family/national assets morphed into assets which were solely and uniquely Silent generation and Baby Boom generation assets. No acknowledgement of what was received. No requirement to recirocate. Assets for their enjoyment only. No strings. Except, of course, the strings they are not shy in pulling requiring our generation to subsidize their continued existence....
The justice part will kick in soon because the music will stop and the Ponzi scheme will collapse well before all Baby Boomers make it through the queue. Then, the rest of us will get to start again as our first generation Greatest generation ancestors did, and rebuild from scratch. C'est la vie. Regardless of which generation, or combination of generations is to blame for the current unsustainable Ponzi scheme, the last partial American generation that will be able to remain perpetual children for their lifespans is the Baby Boom generation. The later stage Baby Boomers, and the successive generations will need to learn to work once again, and be responsible adults.
Reading The Tavistock Institute of Human Relations: Shaping the Moral, Spiriautal, Cultural, Political and Economic Decline of the USA by Coleman helped me understand this mess.
My family is spread over Africa, Europe and Australia - the book still made sense of the shit storm. Fortunately I have a couple of very contrary relatives over a generation or two, and today their "anti-social" perspectives are admired by me. My boomer parents and my gen X sibling and I are working together (takes a lot of adjustment by all); this is seen as odd by everyone else ;)
Be odd, its anti-uselesseater.
Fuck the boomer cry babies
Never seen so many whiners and cry babies in one place.
An American born in 1945 can expect nearly $2.2m in lifetime net transfers from the "state" far more than they pay in, and far more than any previous group. A study by the International Monetary Fund in 2011 compared the tax bills of what different age citizens pay over their lifetime with the value of the benefits that they are forecast to receive. The boomers are leaving a huge bill. Those aged 65 in 2010 may receive $333 billion more in benefits than they pay in taxes.This is a heavy burden to place upon the young. The article below delves deeper into this subject.
http://brucewilds.blogspot.com/2013/03/the-young-will-be-burdened.html