The Most Selfish Generation

[MOBIUS]

The *****y sense of entitlement in this thread is staggering! What a bunch of whining losers...

Stop blaming other people for your own failures and get out there and do something about it if you feel so bad about it - starting with actually bothering to vote and banishing all those people that have created these policies from government! In this country your average baby boomer is worth 4x your average whiny young adult - no wonder the politicians pander to the older generations if the younger generations insist on voluntarily disenfranchising themselves from the whole political process...

[rah]

How do you know that the previous generation did all they could? How do you know it seemingly died with the baby boomers? And of course not all of them fit in to the same box. Everyone is different.

[Nikolai]

I find it selfish, but it's not a surprise, the baby boomers have had it all and got spoiled. I still haven't met many of them that feel much responsibility for the next generation. In the old days, the previous generation did all they could to make life easier for the next, that seemingly died with the baby boomers. I know of disturbingly many who take out loans and live off them as there were no tomorrow, which means their heir either will have to renounce all their parents owned, or get into huge financial trouble by taking the loan with the rest.

Of course, not all of them is like that, but I'm glad my parents is not of that generation...

[rah]

Touche.

[OneFootInTheGrave]

well this is a civ site after all... we are all used to excessive whining... that makes this community tick

[rah]

I don't know about that, but I know my daughter looks up to us for all the sacrifices that we had to make to supply her with all the tools that we hope she will use to have a happy life.
I'm glad my daughter isn't like the ungrateful little whiners that represent the younger generation here.

[OneFootInTheGrave]

the next generation will have even more terrible parents where is this world going mg:

[Jon Miller]

We will have to work hard and be heroic to thrive, just like your parents generation. Unlike your parents generation, we have terrible parents .

If we thrive, I expect our children to look up to us.

JM

[rah]

Yes, this is typical of the younger generation. Place blame on others and don't take responsibility for anything. And now are concerned that their parents won't be leaving them as much money when they die. Boo Hoo. Please go ahead and complain and be prepared for your children to hold you in worse contempt. It will be fitting justice.

[Jon Miller]

As

JM

[Az]

We're little better. And in the same context we'd have been just as bad.

You can't jointly blame them for environment, and for not reproducing enough. Having more kids would have been even more devastating to the environment. And overpopulation is a massive issue.

Yes we can. The bad state of the economy is the main cause of the lack of economic resources to deal with sustainability issues - With the biggest true problems in environment being recycling of materials, preservation of open space, and energy consumption.

All of those could have been targeted with systemic+technological solutions with healthier budget structures - Which people in the west cannot have because they have to support a generation of elderly ****s that ****ed around like there is no tomorrow, but did not bother with raising the kids that comes with it, to support them in the future, when they are elderly - a clear structure for societies since the dawn of time. Now some hope for immigrants completely alien to their own countries to support them in old age, creating EVEN MORE social problems for their children, like elderly liberals, or just hope that "money" springing from thin air, without the real economy to show for it, will cover these costs.

What was happening in reality, though is that the west, lead by these people in positions of power, has been living basically depending on free labor from 3rd worlders, only having government bonds nominated in their own currency to show for it.

So, let us summarize the last 60 years: From leading the world and ruling it politically, having all of its industry, science and capital, the west has lost prominence in many issues as well as squandered all of their savings, become a net debtor to the rest of the planet, with its military prominence also being under threat, and all of its territories lost.

In the same time, these 60 years have been a period of the greatest material luxury and comfort humanity has EVER experienced.
Do you believe that these two are not connected in any way?


Present-Oriented Hedonism is what this behavior is called, and it is the distinguishing mark for the behavior of children.
The baby-boomers in the west were a generation of overgrown babies. That's all there is to it.

[OneFootInTheGrave]

this generation is even worse... they have the excuse of not knowing what they were doing, while we are digging the grave for our successors with full knowledge

[Docfeelgood]

It's also hilarious that the tea baggers declared the government can do nothing right, their current idol Rick Perry cut the Texas state forest service's fire fighting budget by 75%, and now Texas is facing the worst wild fires in its history but doesn't have the men or equipment to put them out. Now they're begging the big bad Federal government to come bail them out of the problem their short sightedness created. That's Texas and the tea bagging baby boomers all in a nut shell.

[Dinner]

This is not what this discusison is about. It is abaout the collective failure of an entire generation to come up with a durable solution. Is there any aspect they didn't royally screw up ?

Environment: check
Social (population pyramid imbalance): check
Financial (sure they built the "welfare state", but the bills are for us to pay): double check

And now of course, we have to pay for their retirement plans but when we retire we will have to take care for ourselves.

I love my parents but they were part of the most self centered ****ed up generation the world has ever seen.

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.

[MikeH]

We're little better. And in the same context we'd have been just as bad.

You can't jointly blame them for environment, and for not reproducing enough. Having more kids would have been even more devastating to the environment. And overpopulation is a massive issue.