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The Most Destructive Generation Ever
Submitted by Raul Ilargi Meijer via The Automatic Earth blog,
Dorothea Lange Hoe culture in the South. Poor white, North Carolina July 1936
I’m afraid I got to delve into a particularly unpopular topics once again today. Blame it on Bloomberg. They ran a piece on the Silent Generation (people born between 1928-’45), which finds it self in a ‘sweet spot’ but refuses to spend enough. A funny problem: the by far richest group in the US doesn’t spend, while those who would like to spend, for instance to build a home and a family, are too poor to do it.
I know I’m not going to make myself popular with what I have to say about this, but then I’m not running for US President, or Miss Universe for that matter. Besides, people should be careful about taking things personal that are not.
My point is that the Silent Generation is by far the most destructive generation in human history, so it should be no surprise they’re also the richest ever. What’s more, the chance that there will ever be a more destructive generation is eerily close to zero, and that uniqueness warrants scrutiny.
My point is even more that the Silent Generation may and will claim innocence wherever they can, but there is no innocence left today. Today, they can all watch their TVs and look out the window and understand that this is not going to end well. Unless the Silent Generation make very substantial changes to their lifestyles and attitudes, they’re inviting a war with their own (grand)children.
It starts here: World population went from 2 billion in 1928 to 7+ billion today in 2014, as US population went from 120 million in 1928 to 320 million in 2014. In graphs, first the world:
And then the US:
That is huge. But there’s another factor at play that, interestingly, is both a cause and a consequence of the population numbers: energy use. Again, first the world:
And the US:
As should be clear, we’re looking at an exponential function multiplied by an exponential function. World population more than tripled, and all those extra people used 6-7-8 times more energy per capita then did prior generations. That’s 20-25 times more energy use in total. As I said, it should be no surprise that it should be no surprise that the Silent Generation is the richest ever.
But. But there’s one more graph that we should be careful not to leave out. if only because it’s interesting to see that the richest generation in human history, as they were coming of age, and while they were busy increasing their per capita energy use manifold, also started incurring more debt. Much more debt.
That last graph should make us wonder how rich they are exactly. Or, rather, how much of their alleged wealth will need to be serviced by their progeny. And then you have to ask what kind of wealth that is, exactly. Let’s turn to the Bloomberg article:
The Richest Elderly Generation Ever Doesn’t Like to Spend
Jon Burkhart was born during the Great Depression. [..] When he and his wife married in 1959, they lived in Texas and saved 10% of every paycheck. Thanks to well-timed equity and property investments, the 81-year-old now lives a much different life than the elderly he knew as a child. [..] The median net worth for the oldest Americans has climbed to near the top compared with other age groups from near the bottom just two decades ago .. This shift in buying power may not be a positive development for the economy as prime-age workers typically spend more than their elders.
The Silent Generation, born between 1928 and 1945, has benefited from improved health, a more generous social safety net, an exit from the job market ahead of the past recession and rebounding stock and home values. “They are in the sweet spot.” The median family net worth of Americans 75 and older was $194,800 last year adjusted for inflation, compared with $130,900 in 1989 ..Members of the Silent Generation are currently about ages 69 to 86. The title of richest ever will probably go unchallenged for now ..
Increased net worth of today’s elderly may not translate into a boon for consumer spending [..] household spending peaks at age 45 and then falls in every category except health care, dropping about 43% by the age of 75. The term Silent Generation was coined by Time Magazine in a 1951 article as the group was coming of age. It described the generation as “working fairly hard and saying almost nothing,” one that “does not issue manifestos, make speeches or carry posters.”
Not in 1951. They did not ‘not issue manifestos, make speeches or carry posters’ then. But they did in the 1960s, when they were in their late teens and up. It’s curious to see that those who did protest and wave banners and all, from Washington to Paris and beyond, concerned as they were with human rights, corruption and the environment, later became the wealthiest and most destructive people the world has ever witnessed, as a group, as a generation.
From 1962 through 1991, when mid-wave Silent Generation members were in their prime working years, gross domestic product grew an average of 3.5% a year. Since then, GDP has expanded 2.6% a year. The homes and financial assets they acquired as they aged saw outsized price gains over the decades. [..] Meanwhile the Federal Housing Finance Agency’s home price gauge has risen 472% since 1975.
For a large part of the ‘Silents’, rising home prices have been a substantial part of their wealth accumulation. Even when prices were falling in 2008, it didn’t matter much, because mortgages were long paid off.
Federal outlays on programs benefiting those 65 and older also became more generous over the decades. They rose to $27,975 in 2011 per capita adjusted for inflation from about $4,000 in 1960 [..] Consequently, 9.5% of Americans 65 and older were in poverty in 2013, lower than any other age group, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. That compares with 35% in 1959, when they had the highest poverty rate. Back then, “the poor people were old,” said Neil Howe, a demographer in Great Falls, Virginia. “That’s a really fascinating contrast with today.”
Ha! Yeah, fascinating, isn’t it?! Today, the poor people are young. But that’s a big problem, also for the older people. It’s sort of OK for now, just look at the average age of Senators and Congressmen and corporate shareholders. The old folk run the show, and they’re planning to hold on as long as they can,
“The Silents have done very well, and a lot of it has just been their location in history [..] They planned ahead, they were risk averse, they played by the rules and the system worked for them.”
That last bit sounds very cute, but a little too much so. The system didn’t just work for them, they were the system. They still are. They knew this in 1968, and so they can’t simply claim innocence after that. What happened is that they came from innocence, protested the system and then forgot all about it and themselves became the system.
Is it the population numbers, the energy use, or the debt increase that makes the Silent Generation so insidious? That is not even the most interesting issue, other than perhaps for historians. What’s far more intriguing is what the ‘Silents’ are going to do today and tomorrow, as they see their children and grandchildren sink.
Every parent used to want a better life for their sons and daughters than they had themselves. And there can be no doubt that most like nothing more then being fooled until they die by politicians’ promises of growth and recovery.
But one single honest look at younger generations should teach them that those promises are hollow and empty. Some can try and plead dementia, but even then.
I have no high hopes to see this resolved with grace and dignity and respect across generations, I think people across the board will be too reluctant to give up what they claim is theirs. If they are, though, that will mean the dissolution of entire societies, something that never happens in peaceful ways.
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Nature abhors people living to 90.
I'd prefer to blame Generation Zionist!
yellen wants those people to die so their relatives can use the fruit of their labor to buy stuffs. yea, a kill the old rich stimulus program. write your congressperson.
What got the 1960s youth demonstrating?
The prospect of being sent to Vietnam (self-interest).
This generation grew up when inequality was at its lowest and so the the vast majority have more.
Are Wall Street's young poor today?
As one of your supposedly silent generation, I, and many others I know have cashed up twice to assist both children and grandchildren. Mate you do not live in the real world.My only wish now is to die suddenly so that my heirs may at least inherit something that the " health " corporations do not get.
If you follow the anti-change vote in the recent Scotland Independence race or the recent Medical Canabis defeat in Florida you will find the elderly obstructing change and reform.
These are people that are the sickest, most anxious and fearful in our society and least prepared to deal with change. They have been instrumental in forming the gridlock in our politics because they are a block vote for obstructing any change or reform.
Tolerating this anti-reform group that's freezing up our political system is the price we all pay for allowing our hidden Fed rulers to injure our society with toxic vaccines, GMOs, poison-based farming and other hazards.
Toxic Injury produces anxious and fearful sheeple that seek a perceived safe haven in the Establishment and are least likely to adapt to reform or change.
Don't blame the puppet politicians like our Liar in Chief for the grodlock. The greatest obstruction to reform is this elderly toxic, anxious, fearful and handicapped generation that's in the way.
Well, they'll soon be dieing off, all those sweet spot asset holders, so where and to whom will their money flow to ?, their poor kids who have felt nothing but material lack!!!
The same kids, (now middle aged) who, starved of money these past decades will likely go on the mother of all spending spree's . I guess the scared ones may hoard , for fear of not having again, but, well, there should be plenty who will want to party like it's 1999!
:)
What happened to this site? I was excited to sign up for an account after visiting this site for YEARS. I hesitated to do so because I knew that there was not much that I could really add to the extremely well informed discussions that followed each article. Now that I finally did, it seems like all of the intelligent/insightful comments are all but obliterated. I feel like there's a new, secondary wave of wannabe idiots shooting their mouths off. They inject their additudes/unfounded opinions (often using horrible spelling and grammar), and use the comment section as a platform to riducule one another rather than have an open discussion. I used to like to learn as much from the comments, as I did from the articles. So much for that. This is officially my first, and last post on this site. I cannot say I won't visit the site anymore, but it has DEFINITELY gone down hill fast.
I good rule of thumb is that it is better to be informed, rather than opinionated. I think the scales have finally tipped here. User "OW My Balls" has a very apropos screen name; because this comment section has become an Idiocracy. Very sad.
u got nervous fingers.
Or is your GF having a mulitple?
Just kidding...your comment is valid.
What happened to this site? I was excited to sign up for an account after visiting this site for YEARS. I hesitated to do so because I knew that there was not much that I could really add to the extremely well informed discussions that followed each article. Now that I finally did, it seems like all of the intelligent/insightful comments are all but obliterated. I feel like there's a new, secondary wave of wannabe idiots shooting their mouths off. They inject their additudes/unfounded opinions (often using horrible spelling and grammar), and use the comment section as a platform to riducule one another rather than have an open discussion. I used to like to learn as much from the comments, as I did from the articles. So much for that. This is officially my first, and last post on this site. I cannot say I won't visit the site anymore, but it has DEFINITELY gone down hill fast.
I good rule of thumb is that it is better to be informed, rather than opinionated. I think the scales have finally tipped here. User "OW My Balls" has a very apropos screen name; because this comment section has become an Idiocracy. Very sad.
What happened to this site? I was excited to sign up for an account after visiting this site for YEARS. I hesitated to do so because I knew that there was not much that I could really add to the extremely well informed discussions that followed each article. Now that I finally did, it seems like all of the intelligent/insightful comments are all but obliterated. I feel like there's a new, secondary wave of wannabe idiots shooting their mouths off. They inject their additudes/unfounded opinions (often using horrible spelling and grammar), and use the comment section as a platform to riducule one another rather than have an open discussion. I used to like to learn as much from the comments, as I did from the articles. So much for that. This is officially my first, and last post on this site. I cannot say I won't visit the site anymore, but it has DEFINITELY gone down hill fast.
I good rule of thumb is that it is better to be informed, rather than opinionated. I think the scales have finally tipped here. User "OW My Balls" has a very apropos screen name; because this comment section has become an Idiocracy. Very sad.
The Warren Buffet generation, growing up in depression and then WW2, likes to accumulate and not spend. Its a knee jerk to years of privation.
Inter generational baton transfer stopped right there--spreading the money around like good manure to feed the investment for the young -- and Nixon, Reagan and Thatcher served their shorter and shorter "WS hyped up asset-stripped quarterly report" interests, as follow up to BW revoked "our money your problem", supply sided icing on the cake of Reaganomics's deregulation fervour. Which became even more morphed in Bush Snr's NWO outsourced Oligarchy soup when it started the Oil petromonopoly to go ballisitc in forced feed consumption to feed not only Trilateral but also Chindia.
And the Baby boomers (GWB/Clinton/Blair) did NOTHING to remedy that.
In fact they made it worse by being complicit in $ fiat bonanza games and clash of civilization MIC casino plays. And, its now their legacy to Pax Americana's dystopian hegemony.
What part of that Fordian "print the legend and not the truth" movie did you not understand?
This generation is currently ~70-86 years old. They will die off soon enough. Their children and grandchildren will have no problem putting a good chunk of the massive inheritances back into the economy. Of course, the government will find a way to take a giant, wet bite out of the money first.
What a pile of crap. Let's refocus the people's anger at a scapegoat, the elderly.
Listen, just because the banking family syndicate's plan, that has been in place for 100 years, happened to confer benefits during a particular time period, doesn't make that generation responsible.
This is part of the plan, confer some economic benefits to suck people in, then when we're all feeling cozy and safe, slam the hammer and steal untold amounts from the treasury for the benefit of the bankers.
Stay focused on the enemy, the banking syndicate, run by same folks that control every central bank in the western world. That's who we need to blame and hate, not the elderly.
Very soon the US deficit hits $18 trillion and soaring.