The Most Selfish Generation

[Jaguar]

I think he's claiming that if it's not inherited, people will be less willing to invest and they'll just have less capital to pass on when they die.

That, or it will get taxed and spent on immediate consumption by the government, or it will be transferred to people who will consume it immediately.

Most investment in this country is private, because the government doesn't build its own shops or factories or skyscrapers or office parks. These are the things that actually allow us to remain employed and productive, and they're funded by regular people who invest their money, often so that they can pass it on to their children.

[The Mad Monk]

Last I checked, at least in this country, it was my grandparent's generation which created the welfare system from Social Security, to medicare, to food stamps, to actual welfare. The 1930's and 1940's generation was all about hard work, savings, thrift, and sacrifice for the greater good while the baby boomers were and are nothing more then self centered brats who used the system for maximum personal benefit, greedily refused to pay the necessary taxes to support the system (no matter if it was education, health care, welfare, or anything else), and simply loaded the country up on debt which we now have to pay because they were to lazy and cheap to pay for the benefits they used. While our grandparents were all about hard work, savings, and working for the common good the baby boomers have been all about debt, egotism, and selfishness with no regard for the public good. The inherited a pretty damn good hand of cards, benefited greatly from it, and then squandered it all giving the rest of us the finger.

Tragedy of the Commons. They created a system everyone could benefit from, but nobody was specifically responsible for. Of course this happened.

[Kuciwalker]

That, or it will get taxed and spent on immediate consumption by the government, or it will be transferred to people who will consume it immediately.

Most investment in this country is private, because the government doesn't build its own shops or factories or skyscrapers or office parks. These are the things that actually allow us to remain employed and productive, and they're funded by regular people who invest their money, often so that they can pass it on to their children.

Woah now, you are bringing us into a wholly separate question of labor elasticity and intertemporal consumption elasticity, neither of which are related to my point - individual dissavings represent (to first approximation) destruction of capital.

[Agent Sox]

I don't think its fair to say that the baby boomers are the most selfish generation. You have to remember that it was their generation that had to deal with a government that was running tests on it and most of the proven abductions happens during their generation as well. That is a lot of psychological baggage they have had to deal with.

[KrazyHorse]

[Cort Haus]

I have to say, this Sox bloke is really quite good.

[Tupac Shakur]

He definitely produced the strongest rebuttal so far in this thread.

[MRT144]

Oh, I'm not remotely worried about my parents spending down their savings. I just feel for all the other members of my generation who won't be able to afford enough bathrooms

Well, a non insignificant amount of our generation aren't having snot nosed crotch fruit aka children, so you only need 2.

[MRT144]

GenX/Y whiner, always looking for an easy way out and blaming everyone else for not making your life easy enough.

I'm 57. I put myself through college and made my own way in the world.
I put my daughter through college at a significantly higher cost.
I look after my 82-y.o. mother and try to give her a good quality of life.

I didn't ask for social security; it was in place long before I entered the workforce. It's a social contract that was forced on me, and I'm well within my rights to expect delivery of the promised payback for my lifelong contribution. Just like I expect my corporate pension and 401(k) to be there for me.

Conflating the actions of individuals with the government's mismangement of funds, irresponsible imperialism and babying the multinationals as they suck the nation dry is just a convenient crutch.

Get a life and make something of it.

Your generations lives have been pretty easy (If you're white, straight, etc etc). Other than bleakness for about a decade (69-79) in you've really been winning at life because you've passed the buck to your children.

[Agent Sox]

He definitely produced the strongest rebuttal so far in this thread.

Thank you, Tupac Shakur. I'm glad someone here agrees with me, haha.

[Az]

Leave the OT, Agent Sox.

[Agent Sox]

Uh oh. Have I done something wrong, Az? Is this like an official moderator thing?

[Az]

No, it is for your own safety. They are starting to experiment on you.

[Agent Sox]

Haha no you can't fool me like that. But please don't bring up that topic because it is a sensitive one to me.

[Az]

Ok, sorry, I will not tell you about them any longer.