Greenspan: Gen Xers pretty much suck at working

Hey, why not? The U.S. going to war will solve everything! Wait, what?

 

This Gen-Yer thinks Alan Greenspan, err, Ayn Rand, pretty much sucked at setting the nation's monetary and regulatory policy.

 

I am struggling trying to understand exactly what it is you are saying here. The entire Baby Boomer generation left behind a shitshow?? Explain to me how the people who worked their whole life and are just wanting back what they put into it left a shitshow behind for you.

I am pretty sure that is was the government that mismanaged the money, not an entire generation of people. And how is the money that THEY put into social security YOUR money?

 

Because we will work our whole lives "putting into it" and there will be nothing to get back in the end.

 

Yes, but it is not THEIR fault. I don't see the point in blaming an entire generation for doing what, by law, we all have to do.

 

I still don't get it. I am sorry. Yes, there are a lot of them. But I still take the stance that THEY didn't do anything wrong here. THEY did not bankrupt an entire system.

 

It would be so awesome if somebody could invent a time machine so somebody could go back to about 1940 and put a bullet in Ayn Rand's brain.

 

Actually, the Boomers (being a late-boomer or Generation Joneser I can say this) have basically coasted through life on a free ride, without any of the nation-shaking existential crises that faced earlier generations -- until about now.

The oldest of the boomers did have Vietnam, so there was that. But most of the boomers were too young even for Vietnam. There was the Cold War and the threat of nuclear war when we were little kids, but at most we only got scared watching on TV. Yeah there were economic doldrums in the 1970s but those were more annoying than anything else, and then Desert Storm in the 1990s, but nobody went to Desert Storm who didn't sign up to go. So basically most of us have had about 40 years of just coasting.

 

I suppose it is a matter of opinion then, because my mother is most definitely a Baby Boomer and there was certainly no coasting through life for her and it was nothing near a free ride. She certainly didn't coast through any of the events you mention, nor did any of the Baby Boomers I know.

As a matter of fact, though the system will be out of money when I retire, I still look back on the Baby Boomers as doing things and really opening the doors for those of us that came after them. I have a hard time blaming "them" for taking "our" money.

 

Well, everybody works day-to-day to get through life, that has never changed in thousands of years.

But the Boomers (and again I am among the group) have really never faced nation-shaking crises like virtually all the generations before, particularly the Depression-WWII group.

Hell, THEIR parents had a major recession in the early 1910s, WW I, and a deadly worldwide pandemic in 1918.

What the Boomers have faced over their lifespan has been romper room compared to earlier generations.

 

Perhaps. But that doesn't equate to a free ride through life. Nor are they to be blamed for spending the money that they put into social security.

 

OK, I'll wade in here: The Boomers have made it possible for our government to go dipping into the SSI fund for all kinds of fruitless adventures just because of the sheer amounts of their contributions. And now, when it's getting time for them to cash in on all that money they've contributed through the years, it's not there. Hmmm. Where did it go? Maybe Al Gore was right about that lockbox. Oh, and just my experience at my workplace: Most Boomers take one, maybe two of their allotted sick days per year. All other younger groups take every single one they're given.