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The Most Entitled Generation


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2015 Oct 18, 5:57pm   34,398 views  73 comments

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http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2015/01/08/the_most_entitled_generation_isnt_millennials_its_baby_boomers_125184.html

"For the first time in America’s history, an entire generation of her citizens is poorer, more indebted, and less employed than the preceding generations.

That generation is the Millennials – our generation.

The culprit, say some social commenters, are Millennials themselves. In this telling, we are a lazy cohort of entitled and narcissistic brats– the proverbial “Generation Me.” But this is a classic case of blaming the victim....

...The truth: The economic tragedy of the Millennial generation was written before many of us had even learned to read – by Baby Boomer parents and grandparents who, at once, genuinely love and care for us, but have also created or perpetuated institutions, policies, and economic realities that have now hobbled us.

Our generation has been called “entitled.” We beg to differ. If any generation is entitled, it’s our parents’ and grandparents’ generation: the Baby Boomers.

True entitlement is tripling the national debt since the 1980s and using the proceeds to spend lavishly on tax cuts and government programs that primarily provided short-term economic boosts, while refusing to raise the Social Security age of retirement or to reduce benefits, even as the gluttonous program careens toward unsustainability.

True entitlement is allowing the reasonable minimum wage that Baby Boomers enjoyed when they were our age to deteriorate while opting to cut taxes on the gains from stocks and bonds that they accrued during periods of debt-driven economic and stock-market surges – creating an economy where wage earners at all income levels, as of 2012, receive a smaller portion of economic output at any time since 1929.

True entitlement is, for decades, enjoying the benefits of the lowest energy costs in the world while refusing to price-in the external costs of carbon emissions, exacerbating the real changes to our planet that pose profound risks to the environment and economy for which Millennials will soon be the primary stewards.

These grave consequences were entirely foreseeable – but they happened. Young Americans have been fleeced in order to fund the transient excesses of the old – and yet Milliennials are labeled “entitled” because we were given “participation trophies” and “personal tutors” before we were old enough to vote...?

Give us a break. Millennials are not entitled. But we are frustrated....

Read more: http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2015/01/08/the_most_entitled_generation_isnt_millennials_its_baby_boomers_125184.html#ixzz3oyG8Ga9m

#politics

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1   Tenpoundbass   2015 Oct 18, 8:52pm  

I think education is to blame.

I'm Gen X, and we had radical teachers too. They taught to fight the man to make sure you get your self your fair share of the pie.
Your radical teacher was a feminist with hairy armpits employing you to fight the man to give you a piece of pie.
Then you guys want to debate on what pie even is. You do that for so long you forget that the pie never even came.

2   Dan8267   2015 Oct 18, 11:08pm  

The Most Entitled Generation Isn't Millennials. It's Baby Boomers

Absolutely. The fate of the Millennials was sealed before they started high school. The Boomers gutted our economy for short-term profit and not once gave a rat's ass about future generations. You can see this attitude in their views on Social Security, the one thing they didn't gut because they wanted it for themselves. But every time a Boomer is interviewed on SS, his or her stance is the same. SS must be preserved for Boomers, but after that, who cares.

This same greed drove the housing bubble, the bust, and the eco-boom. It caused the Second Great Depression and the mass unemployment in the Millennial generation. Millennials are still living with their parents because they cannot hope to afford a home, even an apartment, on their own.

Meanwhile, over their 40-year reign, the Boomers killed off half of Earth's wildlife. Half. Damn, that would be impressive if it weren't so terrible.

And the batshit crazy Tea-Party antics? That's largely the Boomers as well, who are now retiring and have nothing better to do than screw up politics.

Think about all the things that Boomers have influenced if not right out controlled. The started the drug and sex culture when they were young and wanted to fuck and get high. Then they started the War on Drugs and a War on Sex when they were done and didn't want other generations to do what they did. They called money evil when they were unemployed and poor and insisted on "free communal living". Then they got middle management jobs and started investing in stocks and created the Greed is Good era while sending the police to bust every homeless camp in the country. They got beat up by the police when they protested and when they got older they sent the police to beat up protesters. They have profiteered more from war than any other generation. And once they got into upper management of banks and the financial industry, the destroyed the economy.

Of course not every Boomer is bad or selfish, but enough of them are to warrant judging the generation as a whole a selfish failure. For two centuries, every generation did a little better than the previous one. It was our social contract with the future. That is, until the Boomers. Generate X was the first generation to do worse then their parents. The Millennials far more so. When Boomers go down in history, they aren't going to be written up well.

3   Strategist   2015 Oct 18, 11:33pm  

Ironman says

So, get off of your asses, put down your smartphones, turn off your Facebook, Youtube, Instagram and Twitter Apps, and go get a job and make things happen!!

There are no jobs that pay $50.00 per hour, for highly skilled video game players.

4   mmmarvel   2015 Oct 19, 3:58am  

Strategist says

There are no jobs that pay $50.00 per hour, for highly skilled video game players.

Well, we can look at their other skill sets ... nose picker? Bong smoker? Binge drinker? Stop me when one of these rates $50 an hour.

5   Philistine   2015 Oct 19, 4:12am  

Every "millennial" that gets hired in my office comes in and asks for a raise/promotion after the first two weeks, takes constant sick days, and quits after six months (thanks, now that we fully trained you). I've actually closed a couple requisitions in my department as it's easier to farm the clerical work to another manager or just forego it altogether rather than babysit one more 25 year old teenager. I do think this age group got a raw deal, but the ones I've employed don't even want to meet half way, so I can't sympathize. Certainly a screwy bunch.

Then we have these baby boomers that are hogging up all the payroll with their outdated executive job titles. They are stuck permanently in 1987 business practices and putting off retirement as long as the board will continue paying them.

I don't know which group is the bigger bunch of assholes.

6   Y   2015 Oct 19, 6:50am  

Yes, Putin's sending us trophies for running away from their bombers over syria.....
20 trophies for turning around and running at the 20 mile mark...
the farther away we turn and run, the more trophies we get!!

Ironman says

Indiana Jones says

In this telling, we are a lazy cohort of entitled and narcissistic brats– the proverbial “Generation Me.”

Yep, the "Everyone gets a Trophy" generation, just for participating.

7   Strategist   2015 Oct 19, 6:54am  

SoftShell says

Yes, Putin's sending us trophies for running away from their bombers over syria.....

20 trophies for turning around and running at the 20 mile mark...

the farther away we turn and run, the more trophies we get!!

That is how we get to claim victory.

8   Y   2015 Oct 19, 7:03am  

liberalism flourished under the 60's/70's boomers....fueled by the drug wave and the associated side effects of disregard for law and order.
enough of the populace became self-centered and forgot about "making every generation a little better than the previous one" to effectively neuter implementation of the concept ..
now do you get it? the millenials have been drugfucked by the volkswagon longhairs...
and it's so bad now, there's no turning back...the millennials will eventually consider themselves lucky when they experience what their progeny propagates...

Dan8267 says

For two centuries, every generation did a little better than the previous one. It was our social contract with the future. That is, until the Boomers. Generate X was the first generation to do worse then their parents.

9   Dan8267   2015 Oct 19, 7:43am  

SoftShell says

liberalism flourished under the 60's/70's boomers....fueled by the drug wave and the associated side effects of disregard for law and order.

Another idiot conservatism that doesn't know anything about liberalism and thinks it's code for hippies. Get over the 1960s. It's been 50 years. So you never got to partake in the free love orgies. Put your bitterness aside.

10   mmmarvel   2015 Oct 19, 8:34am  

Indiana Jones says

Give us a break. Millennials are not entitled.

11   Indiana Jones   2015 Oct 19, 9:20am  

Philistine says

I don't know which group is the bigger bunch of assholes.

The Millennials had for the most part Boomer parents. This is extremely unfortunate for them, because not only did the Boomers destroy America politically, economically and socially, they psychologically screwed up their millennial children. Instead of actually parenting these kids -- setting a good example, giving them healthy boundaries and parameters for behavior, etc., they instead were busy being their children's "friends", allowing the child to be the parent, and when that failed, medicating them. Imagine having the most selfish parents who can't see past their noses -- how do you think you'd turn out?

Of course the Millennials are confused. Hopefully we will see them come out of this Boomer generated fog-of-confusion and understand how they've been completely screwed by those that profess to "love" them. If a Boomer's love is destroying their children's future then I can't imagine what their hatred is capable of.

13   Y   2015 Oct 19, 10:26am  

I love when this happens in the same sentence...

Dan8267 says

Another idiot conservatism that doesn't know anything about liberalism and thinks it's code for hippies.

14   Dan8267   2015 Oct 19, 10:38am  

All human beings make occasional grammatical mistakes when speaking or typing casually. No human being flawlessly follows rules. If they did, no one would switch lanes without failing to signal, ever.

However, rare grammatical mistakes does not make one an idiot, only human. What makes someone an idiot is repeatedly denying a truth that has been verified many times or repeating a lie that has been thoroughly debunked. This is what conservatives do all the time, and that is why you are idiots who deserve no respect. Grasping at straws like occasional typos only shows that you have nothing important to say about real issues.

15   Y   2015 Oct 19, 10:42am  

Nevertheless, you have to admit that when someone calls someone else an idiot, and in the same sentence fucks things up, it's somehow tied to karma...

16   zzyzzx   2015 Oct 19, 10:46am  

Of course Bernie Sanders is leading in the Democrat polls. He promises more free shit than any other candidate! Millennials love that!

Young Americans are lazy, self centered, rude, not career oriented, spoiled, and want something for nothing...and are lost without their favorite toy (their iPhone).

Whatever happened to hard work and sacrifice? Everything has a price. Your $85/month Obamacare premiums, $25/month car insurance from InsurancePanda, student loan forgiveness, zero down payment real estate, etc. are all paid for by somebody working harder than you are, you leaches!

“Something for nothing” sounds great to them because they are also ignorant. Millennials want free education, 6 figures straight out of school with a "work/life balance" and 0 risk investments.

17   Dan8267   2015 Oct 19, 11:21am  

zzyzzx says

Millennials want free education, 6 figures straight out of school

I don't get people who bitch and moan about Millennials who want 6 figure salaries. $100,000 is not a lot of money nowadays.

Those people should be bitching and moaning about executives who insist on 8 figure incomes that are taxed less than people earning $50,000/yr.

$100,000/yr is less than 1% of what the average fortune 500 CEO makes in a single year. And that asshole doesn't do nearly as much work or produce as much wealth as a typical employee. At best, he plays zero sum games that siphon off the creation of wealth producers and lowers the effeciency of our economy.

If all the executives bad behavior and outlandish incomes were reigned in, most Americans would have six figure incomes in real, not just nominal, terms. Even the person making only $20,000 would see his income double at least.

It's not greedy Millennials who are ruining our economy. It's the parasites at the top. So why is greed good for those parasites, but Millennials should have no financial ambitions?

The fact is that if you are a competent working in just about any field that requires a Bachelors of Science, you are easily producing more than $100,000 of wealth per year just working 40-hour weeks. That's how productive technology has made the modern worker. Even in other fields, as long as it's not basket weaving or women's studies, the work that a typical college graduate who actually applied himself to his studies and career, should be producing at least $100,000 in wealth a year, if not considerably more than that.

What is ridiculous is the nonsensical notion that CEOs and other executives are producing tens of millions of dollars of wealth each year. They are not.

18   Heraclitusstudent   2015 Oct 19, 1:01pm  

Philistine says

takes constant sick days, and quits after six months (thanks, now that we fully trained you).

You mean they don't want to work for one company for 20 years without asking much only to be discarded at 50 after having been squeezed like a lemon?
You mean they want to use you instead of you using them?
Oh no!

Better get used to it because when boomers retires there will be a far more limited supply of workers.

19   Reality   2015 Oct 19, 1:19pm  

Dan8267 says

I don't get people who bitch and moan about Millennials who want 6 figure salaries. $100,000 is not a lot of money nowadays.

Your statement is exemplifying the entitled attitude of Millennials. The average household in the US only makes around $50k/yr, that's from all earners in the household. The average man between 20 and 65 only makes $30-35k/yr median income, women $20-25k/yr. $150k income from both partners puts the family in the top 10%! $100k is a significant income for any age group, and that counts all income not just salary, but also capital gains and supplemental income such as rent income. $100k salary in one's 20's is fabulous wage level. Much less than 5% (perhaps less than 2%) of 20-something gets that. You obviously want your raises in the 30's, 40's and 50's too; so the oldsters usually have higher salaries after having had those raises over the decades of good performance at their jobs.

20   Heraclitusstudent   2015 Oct 19, 1:37pm  

Reality says

Your statement is exemplifying the entitled attitude of Millennials. The average household in the US only makes around $50k

It's like the boomers who expect to sell their homes for insane prices after decades of 6%/yrs appreciation they didn't pay for.
They expect to receive social sec and medicare they didn't fully pay for, and young people to pay for it while knowing that when their time comes they'll get none of it.
Boomers expect not to pay for kids education. They expect cheap oil (war loot), low interest rates, cheap Chinese consumer products, and high paying jobs (for them).

The problem for boomers is that for the first time in their lives, they meet people that are as entitled as they are, and they don't like it.
Even though it shouldn't really be a surprise since they educated them.

21   MisdemeanorRebel   2015 Oct 19, 2:00pm  

Never has a generation had so much smoke blown up their ass. It's high time the boomers got criticized. It's only happening now because the Media and Industry had to kiss their ass due to their large size and teen, then adult, then middle aged purchasing power. Now that their "Brand Preferences are set" and they are finally outnumbered among adults, the long-overdue criticism can begin. Fat lot of good it does at this point, though.

22   MisdemeanorRebel   2015 Oct 19, 2:44pm  

Dan, TPB, get a load of this Realwhore propaganda:
https://www.bisnow.com/miami/news/commercial-real-estate/south-florida-50323

"It can't happen again." The more obnoxious they get, the sooner the downturn is in.

23   Tenpoundbass   2015 Oct 19, 2:51pm  

We probably have more Get rich flipping Real Estate self help authors per capita than anywhere in the world.
Of coruse there is a healthy RE market.

24   Heraclitusstudent   2015 Oct 19, 3:29pm  

Strategist says

There are no jobs that pay $50.00 per hour, for highly skilled video game players.

How about drone operator for the CIA?

25   Dan8267   2015 Oct 19, 4:09pm  

Ironman says

When you start bitching about this, we might listen, otherwise STFU and start your own busines

Given that U.S. soldiers have murdered and raped civilians in every war in the past 50 years, they are overpaid.

As for professional athletes, they are overpaid only because Americans value entertainment too much. Nonetheless, when some athlete makes a few million, it doesn't come out of your pocket unless your buying his product. He doesn't cost you your job or wreck the economy. In contrast, when Goldman Sachs made billions, it came at the expense of everyone else.

As for starting my own business, I did so back when I was 22. I contracted for many years as my own business. Republicans don't support small businesses because small businesses are the enemy of big businesses. Republicans know exactly which side of their bread is buttered.

27   Strategist   2015 Oct 19, 5:23pm  

Ironman says

Dan8267 says

Those people should be bitching and moaning about executives who insist on 8 figure incomes that are taxed less than people earning $50,000/yr.

When you start bitching about this, we might listen, otherwise STFU and start your own business!

And hire a millennium as CEO with a 100K salary + that they deserve.

28   Strategist   2015 Oct 19, 5:36pm  

Dan8267 says

Speaking of entitlement...

The Sultan of Brunei, the Arab with the Mercedes, and that Arab jerk who carved his name spent money on crap that will lose value.
All the other billionaires did not spend much, or purchased assets that will go up in value.
Warren Buffett remains the most respected and modest billionaire ever. A true gem.

29   Strategist   2015 Oct 19, 5:38pm  

Heraclitusstudent says

Strategist says

There are no jobs that pay $50.00 per hour, for highly skilled video game players.

How about drone operator for the CIA?

They deserve an extra bonus.

30   MMR   2015 Oct 19, 7:01pm  

Strategist says

There are no jobs that pay $50.00 per hour, for highly skilled video game players

It's not easy, but it is doable. I have a cousin who is a radiology resident who could have easily done this if his dad allowed it.

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/your-millennial-kid-could-earn-10000-a-month-playing-video-games-2014-11-04

31   Strategist   2015 Oct 19, 7:20pm  

MMR says

Strategist says

There are no jobs that pay $50.00 per hour, for highly skilled video game players

It's not easy, but it is doable. I have a cousin who is a radiology resident who could have easily done this if his dad allowed it.

Oh God.....Now I know why I have never seen my 19 year old study in the last few years, but I always see him practicing on those video games.
I have already threatened to kill him if he turns out anything close to me.

32   Dan8267   2015 Oct 19, 7:36pm  

Ironman says

Has the bankruptcy cleared off your credit report yet?

Has the jizz cleared off your face from today's shift at the glory hole?

33   MMR   2015 Oct 19, 8:17pm  

Strategist says

Oh God.....Now I know why I have never seen my 19 year old study in the last few years, but I always see him practicing on those video games.

I have already threatened to kill him if he turns out anything close to me

http://money.cnn.com/2014/10/09/technology/six-figures-to-play-video-games/

Its also possible to make some money on side testing the video games out

https://gamercash.wordpress.com/

34   marcus   2015 Oct 19, 8:19pm  

I take issue with the degree of blame put on baby boomers. Yes, I am a boomer, and thus biased, although I agree with much of what you attribute to many boomers. It's just that I don't think your generation would have done any better. In fact, very likely you would have done way worse.

Yes it's true, boomers were the original "me generation." But most of any advantages you attrbute to their time were not their doing. And most of the policies, that you want to blame them for, were from plutocrats that are in the 1% of the boomers. The fact is there are huge numbers of boomers that will be working way way past 65, and many that will work until they keel over or otherwise can not work anymore.

If you look at the stats, boomers are in much worse state relative to retirement than their parents were, or compared to the cohort that immediately preceded them.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/robertlaura/2013/09/30/the-real-reason-why-baby-boomers-are-so-far-behind-in-retirement-savings/

http://www.bloomberg.com/bw/articles/2014-01-02/baby-boomers-poorer-in-old-age-than-their-parents

This idea ?

Dan8267 says

You can see this attitude in their views on Social Security, the one thing they didn't gut because they wanted it for themselves. But every time a Boomer is interviewed on SS, his or her stance is the same. SS must be preserved for Boomers, but after that, who cares.

Really ? The fact is that if SS makes it through the boomers, it will last forever, because when the boomers are gone, the ratio of those paying in versus those it's payed out to normalizes. All you should be worrying about is SS making it through the boomers, because it's smooth sailing after that.

As for this ?

Dan8267 says

Meanwhile, over their 40-year reign, the Boomers killed off half of Earth's wildlife.

Gee, I wonder f it had anything to do with earths human population going from 3 billion to 7 billion in our lifetime. Maybe that's just a coinicidence ? OR maybe it's somehow our fault that the planets population growth was so high during our lives ?

Dan8267 says

Of course not every Boomer is bad or selfish, but enough of them are to warrant judging the generation as a whole a selfish failure.

They are just people. Americans during this time period. Blame Americans fine. OR blame republicans. But blaming people who were born in a certain time window ? That's just stupid. We get it. You've got issues with your parents, or with older people in general. But this tendency to generalize to the boomers is bullshit. Millions of boomers have issues with each one of your complaints (except the most absurd ones).

It just doesn't make sense.

But maybe it's just a new American assholish characteristic we can add to the list ? Hating on other generations. Maybe that's the new mark of the truly off the charts narcissistic self absorbed American asshole.

35   FortWayne   2015 Oct 19, 9:19pm  

Millenials are still young, they aren't old enough to fuck everything up. All the entitlement bullshit, that red carpet got rolled out way long ago before millenials were even born. They are probably going to be the first generation who is going to pay all their lives into Social Security without getting any of it.

36   marcus   2015 Oct 19, 10:10pm  

Oh, so now I know who the boomer is that Dan's been listening to.

37   marcus   2015 Oct 19, 10:18pm  

FortWayne says

They are probably going to be the first generation who is going to pay all their lives into Social Security without getting any of it.

bullshit. You're one of those gullible republican idiots that listens to the propaganda. You're right though, that your prescious overlords will try repeatedly to loot social security. But the oldsters are always a powerful voting block, and once we get through the next few decades, the SS trust fund wil actually start increasing again. Meanwhile there is always printing. There are many reasons SS will always be there. Not the least of these is that we don''t want old folks on the streets and we want them consuming.

38   Dan8267   2015 Oct 19, 10:26pm  

Ironman says

We can always count on your little girl, second grade comments

That's still several grades above you.

By the way, why do you think females are inferior to males? Is it because of your sexual frustration?

40   Dan8267   2015 Oct 20, 10:32am  

You are what you eat, and your daughter kept visiting me.

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