Most of us spent our youth and middle age looking out for No. Yet today Torontos traffic gridlock is rated as being among the worst in the developed world, even worse than that for New York City or Los Angeles. She also tells it like it is! In his book, Brokaw explores the stories and characteristics of this generation. In 1980, a typical American CEOs pay was 42 times that of an average blue-collar workers pay. For example, firered posted on 11/11/10 at 05:54 PM EST: This situation was neither created nor perpetuated by the `Baby Boomer' generation. In 1998, former news anchor Tom Brokaw wrote a book called The Greatest Generation. Once we recognize the crushing burden the current system will place on our kids and grandkids, well see that reforming government spending programs (including entitlement programs)on our backs, not on our kidsis the only way to go. Because we arent saving, we arent investing. One of them attributed the greediest generation quote to Dick Durbin and the follow-up letter to an Illinois woman named Patty Nye. Not just going fishing: Higher mortgage debt levels are keeping Baby Boomers in the workforce for longer, Ahuri research shows. Nothing substantive has been done since then, despite clear evidence that we needed to act. We need to do the sameindeed much morebecause we are in far worse shape than any of those countries. The answer, based on the Congressional Budget Offices latest projections, is $202 trillion! Every year on Veterans Day, we baby boomers look around and see fewer and fewer members of the Greatest Generation . Infrastructure is probably the least sexy thing taxpayers are asked to pay for, but one of the most critical. When that happens, count on boomers to strenuously object at the ballot box. [7] Strauss and Howe use the birth years 19011924. The Baby Boomers should tighten their belts in the interests of their children and grandchildren. Thats not likely to happen. The fact that the deficit commission is focused on federal deficits and not the long-term fiscal gap is indicative of how much damage the economic labeling problem is causing. No matter what happens to the official interest rate business continues to sit on its cheque book. I think she is a little ticked off! No, but we have perfected the ways of being greedy, and of deflecting the blame, and we know no shame. 3) How much Alan Simpson might pay for government provided health insurance is not possible to calculate. A 2012 study by Harvard University[5]said that estimates of unfunded public liabilities could range as high as $4.4 trillion. The latest survey conducted by Russia's Levada Center suggests Victory Day is still one of the most important public holidays for Russian citizens, with 65% of those surveyed planning to celebrate it. Baby boomers, often shortened to boomers, are the demographic cohort following the Silent Generation and preceding Generation X.The generation is often defined as people born from 1946 to 1964, during the mid-20th century baby boom. In America, this has been ameliorated somewhat by Obamacare, which sensibly (for an insurance scheme) includes the young and the healthy in the insurance pool. She also tells it like it is! ! The Projector also includes a feedback component, so people can share their proposed solutions with others and thus build political support for specific spending cuts. He spoke to Congress, saying, "The men of the Eighth Army are a magnificent lot, and I have always said the greatest generation of Americans we have ever produced. The study found that the government faces a present value "fiscal gap" -- the excess of expected payments over expected revenues -- of $51 trillion. The brilliant Harvard professor, Niall Ferguson, describes the traditional intergenerational compact as our most important social contract and one that is being broken in Western economies. We were suitably embarrassed that old people were eating cat food or scavenging garbage cans for food, so we reallocated resources to the elderly. How could you do this?'". None of these is politically or financially feasible, but eventually either choice 1 or 2 will have to be made. Surviving members of this generation would see Japan emerge as the world's second-largest economy by 1989. The World War II generation of the Soviet Union was further decimated by the war. I guess that makes us greedy. The Generational Dilemma of the 2020 Democratic Primary", "Full Committee Hearing on Statement Made by Gen. James A. "Salaries of Members of Congress: A List of Payable Rates and Effective Dates." The ones who created the banking and houseing crisis, the ones who are the first generation to have children that expect to do worse then them . I have been paying Social Security taxes for 48 YEARS (since I was 15 years old. The look on his face was horrible. They were part of what is called "the greatest generation." My generation is, I think, is the "greediest generation." My parents, as did the parents of many of my generation, wanted a better life for their children. Our rate of domestic investment was also in the 10 to 15% range in the 50s and 60s. In Kotlikoff's view, the chairs of President Obamas deficit commission, hailed and pilloried for proposing radical changes earlier this week, havent gone nearly far enough to attack the long term fiscal imbalance. Here's a response in a letter from PATTY NYE from Illinois . Votes. If the Senate continues to block expenditure reform and Treasury assumptions on growth, unemployment, terms of trade, productivity and inflation are not realised, national debt will continue to rise. [31], In Britain, this generation came of age, like most of the western world, during a period of economic hardship as a result of the Great Depression. The annual costs of this largesse will total close to $4 trillion! I, and millions of other Americans, have been paying income taxes our entire lives, and now you propose to increase our taxes yet again. In 2010, Alan Simpson and Erskine Bowles were appointed co-chairs of President Barack Obama's National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform, tasked with coming up with a plan to "bring down the federal budget deficit to 3% of gross domestic product by 2015, compared with nearly 10% today, and to propose ways to hold down the surging costs of government programs such as Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security.". This ability to freely label government receipts and payments in alternative internally consistent manners renders the governments cash flows meaningless from the perspective of economic theory and is called the labeling problem in economics. Posted Jun 3, 2013 by Martin Armstrong. Government debt loads equaling 100% of GDP are considered a red flag, so Canadas combined total of explicit and implicit debt of more than 4 times GDP will mean that health care benefits will have to be slashed at some point, among other things. Hence, the real fiscal problem facing the country is 20 times larger than the one weve been publicly acknowledging. 1995 - 2023 by Snopes Media Group Inc. . by senior futurist Richard Worzel, C.F.A. Dick Durbin, a Senator from Illinois calls senior citizens the Greediest Generation as he compared "Social Security " to a Milk Cow with 310 million teats. Friday, November 26, 2010 Alan Simpson, President Obusha's hand-selected Cat Food Commission member doesn't suffer critics. [40] Surviving veterans visit the Yasukuni Shrine to pay tribute to their fallen comrades.[41]. In Canada, the situation is distinctly worse because the birth rate in Canada is much lower than in the U.S., which means the burden on working people supporting the health care costs of aging boomers will be proportionately much higher than in America. She says they've earned the title of the "greediest generation . As a career politician, you have been on the public dole (tit) fifty years. The writer believes that generation Q must be doing itself a favor, and America a favor, if it demanded answers and results from candidates to many issues the "Greediest Generation" is leaving them, specifically, huge budget deficit, climate change and Social Security reform. As the lady asked, please share this with every senior citizen you know. Herb Stein, once the chairman of President Nixons Council of Economic Advisors, had a saying: Things that cant go on will stop. What he should have said was, Things that cant go on will stop too late. When the U.S. Treasury bond bubble bursts, we could see a financial collapse that makes 2008 look tame. Business employs 80 per cent of the workforce and is the only true generator of wealth and jobs. The Audit Commission recommended a single asset test for the aged pension including the value of the family home above $750,000 for couples to be phased in over 15 years giving time to plan and adjust. Per TPM: "We had the greatest generation," Simpson said. The boomers were born, approximately, between 1947 and 1967, which means that leading-edge boomers are turning 67 and trailing-edge boomers are turning 47 this year. Now, with those hormones fading, we've popularized Viagra. And the day is fast approaching when we will be held responsible for the financial debacle ahead of us. According to a 2004 study done by AARP, "There are 26 million people aged 77 or older in the United States. [34], Members of the World War II generation in Germany came of age following World War I and the German Revolution of 19181919. The Greatest Generation paved a golden road for the Greediest Generation. They also experienced much of their youth with rapid technological innovation (e.g., radio, telephone, automobile) amidst growing levels of worldwide income inequality[9][10][11] and a soaring economy. Everyones greedy when it comes to health care, not just the boomers. Durbin and the Filibuster 'Myth'. I don't know exactly when the "Greatest Generation" ended, but I know we are in a new one and it's not the greatest. ". Wagner, a likely 2018 candidate for governor . But our worst economic bequest is the fantastic fiscal liability were leaving our kids. And Itll hurt economic growth runs the second. We are called the Sandwich Generation for a reason, because weve found ourselves serving, and in many cases, supporting our parents, our children, and even our grandchildren. Instead, we have sacrificed our children and their children so that we can have a better life. If you have some better suggestions about how to stabilize Social Security instead of just babbling into the vapors, let me know. No matter how one labels receipts and payments, the fiscal gap remains the same. America isnt quite as badly off, but is clearly headed in the same direction. Henry Kissinger Comments on Trump: 'He Puts America First'-Mostly Fiction! 24 November 2010. The good news is that the American people seem to realize this. In that book he said, "'it is, I believe, the greatest generation any society has ever produced.'. "Hey Dick, let's get a few things straight!! Poor Broder. It is you and they who have bankrupted America and stolen the American dream from millions of loyal, patriotic taxpayers. 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