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The Most Entitled Generation


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2015 Oct 18, 5:57pm   34,971 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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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.

41   Dan8267   2015 Oct 20, 3:15pm  

But she's so into hate sex and posting the videos online.

42   marcus   2015 Oct 20, 6:49pm  

Heraclitusstudent says

They expect to receive social sec and medicare they didn't fully pay for

True, I guess. Although they pay more relative to what they get than any previous generation. Also, for couples it's only the medicare that they are getting back more than they paid in. That could change if we could lower costs, and maybe not spend quite as much at the very very end of life. Yes, I'm talking something like death panels. IF someone's going to die soon, don't be wasteful with life prolonging measures.

43   Heraclitusstudent   2015 Oct 23, 11:51am  

Ironman says

The boomers (and everyone else who works) pay a tax on their paychecks for 50 years before they start receiving S.S. or Medicare at 66. Plus, their employers pay into the fund for 50 years too... What happens if the boomer dies at 65?? It's NOT an entitlement!!

Hey Bozo, just because you paid into the fund means you paid ENOUGH, to deserve the payments SS say they will give you.

Typical reaction of an entitled idiot: "I paid for 50yrs!!!" Whine whine whine.

The social security fund is projected to run dry as early as 2034 because of boomers retirements.
Then taxpayers (=millennials) pay for you.

44   Heraclitusstudent   2015 Oct 23, 12:02pm  

Ironman says

How about home owners insurance when you make a claim? You collect a lot more if you have a fire than you paid in!

That's an idiotic statement in the context of a discussion on social security.
Fires are not very likely to happen and statistically, home owner pay more than they get out.
Old age is 100% likely to happen.
Get it?

45   Shaman   2015 Oct 23, 3:49pm  

Ironman says

Sad how clueless the next generation is... This country is fucked

Without the millenials, YOUR retirement and all your investments are fucked! Have some perspective asshat!
The millenials are on their parents' basement because their jobs don't pay enough to provide them their own address, in addition to student loan payments, cell phone bills, and paying into a social security retirement plan they will never see.
Why? Because your generation outsourced America for a fast buck, jacked the price of housing to the sky, and built the largest pile of bad debt in history.
Oh and as a coup de gras, you saddle the millenials with an unsupportable burden of social security and Medicare entitled oldsters who are going to live longer on the government tit than any generation before them! The next generation will have to work until they're 90 to provide your wrinkled ass with room and board for the next 30 years.
And you dare to criticize your victims?
Most selfish generation indeed!

46   mell   2015 Oct 23, 3:59pm  

Quigley says

Without the millenials, YOUR retirement and all your investments are fucked! Have some perspective asshat!

The millenials are on their parents' basement because their jobs don't pay enough to provide them their own address, in addition to student loan payments, cell phone bills, and paying into a social security retirement plan they will never see.

Why? Because your generation outsourced America for a fast buck, jacked the price of housing to the sky, and built the largest pile of bad debt in history.

Oh and as a coup de gras, you saddle the millenials with an unsupportable burden of social security and Medicare entitled oldsters who are going to live longer on the government tit than any generation before them! The next generation will have to work until they're 90 to provide your wrinkled ass with room and board for the next 30 years.

And you dare to criticize your victims?

Most selfish generation indeed!

But the millenials directly vote for the continuation of those policies. More free shit, print moar money and make debt disappear, let's all go to overpriced colleges and then demand debt forgiveness for our stupid choices. The millenials do not deserve any pity as it is in their hands to stop that deficit spending nonsense, refuse to live in overpriced shacks, tell the healthcare monopoly and the career socialist/crony-capitalist politicians, the corrupt housing and banking cartel to take a hike and march with pitchforks to imprison the Fed and the past 2 administrations which have abolished the rule of law. They had the chance in 2008 to make their voices heard and prevent the biggest heist in taxpayer history. They largely saddled themselves with the coming debt tsunami.

47   Shaman   2015 Oct 23, 9:09pm  

It's not my generation, but hey you know what you get what you ass-ume?! I'm Gen X, managed to get some shit for myself before it was all gone, but I feel bad for the millenials who not only don't have anything, can't get a decent job to get anything, and have to live in squalor because of the shit the previous generations pulled, but also get looked down on by the very people who pulled the rug out from under them. Dick move. Boomers decided that might made right. Well when you're all wearing depends and depending on others for your next puréed meal, you'd better hope the millenials don't adopt the same slogan, break out the pitchforks and refuse to care for your wrinkled butts anymore or support your crooked system.
You decided to do all these selfish things because you had the power and you could. But hey, If simple force is all that's required to define morality, then you're doubly fucked because your ability in that regard is going downhill fast. The only thing that's standing between you and the cold hard street is a common sense of decency enjoyed by my generation (X) and the millenials.

48   Y   2015 Oct 23, 9:29pm  

Did you ever consider the founding fathers just fucked up?

49   anonymous   2015 Oct 23, 10:46pm  

summary of living generations -

"silent generation": post-war conformist, very lucky ... they enjoy a relatively stable existence
"baby boomer": self-absorbed, child abusing ... they attack the established order in favor of social ideals and spiritual agendas, and guide the next crisis
"generation x": crisis manager, resilient ... they are alienated and nomadic, pragmatic leaders, and hardened elders
"millennial": over-confident, optimistic ... they fight the big wars, become political leaders, and then get attacked by the next crop of baby boomers
"homelander": post-war conformist, very lucky ... they enjoy a relatively stable existence

'the fourth turning' by strauss and howe

50   marcus   2015 Oct 23, 10:57pm  

Quigley says

Boomers decided that might made right. Well when you're all wearing depends and depending on others for your next puréed meal, you'd better hope the millenials don't adopt the same slogan, break out the pitchforks and refuse to care for your wrinkled butts anymore or support your crooked system.
You decided to do all these selfish things because you had the power and you could. But hey, If simple force is all that's required to define morality, then you're doubly fucked because your ability in that regard is going downhill fast. The only thing that's standing between you and the cold hard street is a common sense of decency enjoyed by my generation (X) and the millenials.

I'm surprised to see you joining in the insanely stupid generalizations of people born in certain time windows.

Funny, people understand it with race, they understand it with gender, but somehow when we talk about the time frames of when people were born ? OH, for that we can totally generalize and blame or credit as if it makes some kind of sense.

Quigley says

and built the largest pile of bad debt in history

Ronald Reagan was not a boomer.

Blaming all the boomers for the policies that were extensions of policies initiated by Reagan and other members of the so called "greatest generation" is absurd.

If you were blaming the plutocrats and our corporatist state that you pladge allegiance to as a republican, I could understand. IF you blamed the 1%, and their selfishness and disdain for the regular Americans, I could understand. But instead you want to blame people born in an arbitrary time window ?

What the fuck ?

51   Ceffer   2015 Oct 23, 11:05pm  

Adult diaper stocks have a bright future. Diaper stocks and flipping, great hedges against cannibal anarchy.

52   bob2356   2015 Oct 24, 1:21am  

Ironman says

The boomers (and everyone else who works) pay a tax on their paychecks for 50 years before they start receiving S.S. or Medicare at 66. Plus, their employers pay into the fund for 50 years too... What happens if the boomer dies at 65?? It's NOT an entitlement!! Plus, retirees continue to pay for their Medicare premium, even after they have retired and don't have a paycheck.

Somehow you missed one of the most widely reported facts in the history of the republic, that pretty much everyone is collecting more than they paid in?

Ironman says

Do you say the same thing about your car insurance, when you total it after paying auto insurance for two years and the insurance company pays out more than you put in?

How about home owners insurance when you make a claim? You collect a lot more if you have a fire than you paid in!

How about Health insurance? Go in and have a surgical procedure done, the health insurance company will pay out a hell of a lot more than you put in!

How about Life insurance? Most people collect a lot more than they paid in when they die!

Are all of these "entitlements" since you receive more than you paid in??

This sets a new low bar for laughable logic using non existent math skills even for you. What percentage of home owners owners ever make a claim vs the percentage people who collect their ss (that number would be 100%). Average health insurance 5k per single person, 15k per family a year. What percentage of people have surgeries that cost more than that in their life up to 65?

I wouldn't dream of educating you one the economics of life insurance since it involves way more than 2rd grade math skills. As little as 2% of life insurance policies (life insurance companies obviously make this number almost impossible to research) actually get paid. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/wm-scott-page/the-life-insurance-indust_b_1937246.html Life insurance company cool trick number 1, they use Social Security Administration's Death Master File to stop payouts like annuities, but not to check for a possible claim. If there is a policy the family isn't aware of insurance companies won't remind them.

It's not "you" that receives more back in SS than they paid, its almost everyone. Only a very very few people get more than they put in in your examples.

53   marcus   2015 Oct 24, 8:56am  

bob2356 says

It's not "you" that receives more back in SS than they paid, its almost everyone

Actually this is false, according to what I looked up the other night.

For an average-wage-earning, two-income couple turning 65 in 2010, the pay-in, pay-out ratio for Social Security by itself will actually be slightly negative —- the couple will have paid $600,000 in lifetime Social Security taxes and will receive only $579,000 in lifetime Social Security benefits. (Remember, the couple didn’t literally pay out $600,000; that’s the current value of what they paid out over the years, plus an additional 2 percent they may have gotten had it been invested.)

http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/article/2013/feb/01/medicare-and-social-security-what-you-paid-what-yo/

And if I understand the parenthetical part of my quote, (with typo) they are adding to what is paid in to account for (conservatively) what it would have done if invested.

Then for couples with above average incomes, it's obviously going to be more negative.

I guess if you don't adjust it , making the pay in some kind of realistic present value, then you are right, it would almost never be negative.

Medicare is where the amount paid back exceeds the amount paid in (obviously this is on average).

http://money.cnn.com/2013/04/14/news/economy/social-security-benefits/

54   mell   2015 Oct 24, 9:16am  

Quigley says

but I feel bad for the millenials who not only don't have anything, can't get a decent job to get anything, and have to live in squalor because of the shit the previous generations pulled, but also get looked down on by the very people who pulled the rug out from under them. Dick move. Boomers decided that might made right. Well when you're all wearing depends and depending on others for your next puréed meal, you'd better hope the millenials don't adopt the same slogan, break out the pitchforks and refuse to care for your wrinkled butts anymore or support your crooked system.

They will eventually have to if we continue down this path. But I think by then we will have laxer regulations wrt EOL care and people (incl. those that care for them) have more freedom in deciding when it's time to go. I think there is some healthy respect for the elderly missing (mostly because the elderly move away and don't mix much with the younger crowd anymore), but we cannot expect them to care for an army of old zombies. Young and old need to come together to solve this and break the current mold of the fiefdom of the career politicians and vote those bums out and enact needed (some painful) reforms and balance the debt (incl. defaults).

55   Ceffer   2015 Oct 24, 11:20am  

Kill the BoomFucks! Kill them ALL!

56   mell   2015 Oct 24, 8:28pm  

Ironman says

The Labor Force Participation Rate is at the level it was back in the 1970's. Once again, the money isn't going INTO the fund if this many people aren't working...

That's the main issue. It's a mix of more welfare deadbeats not working and people going galt due to higher and higher taxation.

ThreeBays says

Exactly. If the SS fund is on track to go bankrupt, they should raise revenues or cut benefits NOW (or 10 years a go). Boomers still in work, Gen X and Millennials should be compensating for the gap. Instead they are kicking the can down the road which is essentially taking more from future generations to give to Boomers followed by X'ers.

This has been the modus operandi since the neo-Keynesian voodoo-economics have made a spectacular comeback since the Weimar Republic. Kicking the can down the road, on both sides of the party isle, it's really one big party kicking the can down the road.

57   Indiana Jones   2015 Oct 24, 11:28pm  

i can see where social security, and even real estate could be looked at as a pyramidal model with the Boomers having bought in at the first level of the pyramid.

Okay, Boomer's had good timing. But what is frustrating to those lower down in the pyramid, is when Boomers sit in their $1.2m house that was bought for $25k in 1975 and bitch about how they worked so hard for what they have. That they deserve their pension, and their social security check, and on top of it, their ability to make time and a half working part time as a "consultant" or as an "on-call" in their old job. And obviously, other generations are not working so hard, or they could be just like the Boomers. Not only that, Boomers jeer and make snide remarks about those that don't have as much -- just look at this thread.

This behavior is perplexing to me as a Gen Xer. It amazes me constantly how shockingly selfish their behavior can be, even now. It's getting to the point that I have to take their underlying tendency to extreme selflishness into consideration for every Boomer I meet, especially within any business transaction. I wish I'd figured this out years ago as it would have saved me a lot of trouble.

58   bob2356   2015 Oct 24, 11:49pm  

Ironman says

bob2356 says

than 2rd grade math skills.

Math skills?? Which grade is "2rd" grade?? Did you forget to take your medication this morning, or is your dementia really getting bad?

bob2356 says

As little as 2% of life insurance policies (life insurance companies obviously make this number almost impossible to research) actually get paid.

So, 98% of people live forever?? OK, if you say so...

A typo mea culpa mea culpa.Spelling isn't a math skill BTW.

No 98% of people don't live forever. Very good you subtracted 2 from 100 and got 98. Have you been getting math tutoring? But you are still too dumb to click on the link so there is considerable additional room for improvement. I'm not going to tutor some one dumb as a box of rocks on things like lapsed policies or how term life works so get some 4 year old to teach you how to click on links and read about it yourself.

59   bob2356   2015 Oct 25, 12:08am  

Ironman says

Since you're so good at math, please tell us how many people in this country die before their 66th birthday and don't collect a nickle of S.S. (even though they paid in for decades)!!

Roughly 17% including childhood deaths. Now you tell me how many of those paid in for decades, especially since you are always pointing out how many people don't work.

60   bob2356   2015 Oct 25, 12:30am  

marcus says

http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/article/2013/feb/01/medicare-and-social-security-what-you-paid-what-yo/

And if I understand the parenthetical part of my quote, (with typo) they are adding to what is paid in to account for (conservatively) what it would have done if invested.

Then for couples with above average incomes, it's obviously going to be more negative.

Interesting it's turning negative for some groups of people, that wasn't supposed to happen for a while yet. Also interesting the charts don't match between different parts of the article. Which is right?

Still overall, not for specific types of people it's still a pretty big payout from soclal security over paid in. From the article:
According to this calculation, past and current generations will pay $71.3 trillion in payroll taxes but will receive $93.4 trillion in benefits. Adjusting for past and future transfers from the federal Treasury, the difference between "paid-in" and "paid-out" works out to $21.6 trillion.

61   Ceffer   2015 Oct 25, 10:31am  

The Millennial XYers think that if they have to work at all, it should be in a mod, pure white office staffed with cool people with cool, casual clothes, tattoos, piercings and haircuts and company provided new smart phones every couple of months. Bagels and Starbucks buffets are everywhere. They can come and go as they please on their own recognizance. Education is just happening to know everything, just like in the movie and TV scripts, exactly when the information is needed, without cracking a book or studying. Everybody will have a successful novel in the works without spending any time writing. Better yet, they will write children's books, make art, write songs or start a blog that has so many hits, somebody craves to buy their ouvres for millions.

After a couple of years of this excruciating labor, they will retire with stock options and permanent benefits as gazillionaires, and spend the rest of their lives clubbing, traveling, blinging and concentrating on more meaningful tatoos to have their life message scrolled on their bodies. There will then be little time for whining, but they will work whining into their busy schedules, because whining got them where they are.

Anything beyond that is a fog.

62   Y   2015 Oct 25, 10:58am  

Blame it on the frenchies coupled with student transfers...

Ironman says

The REAL problem is that you whiney ass millennials want the full pension after only working 3 years at a company.

63   FortWayne   2015 Oct 25, 2:32pm  

Ironman says

Plus, it's the Boomer's fault that, after working for decades in a company, they leave wit a pension?? Really?? The REAL problem is that you whiney ass millennials want the full pension after only working 3 years at a company.

From what I've seen everyone who is unionized wants a full salary for life after sitting on their ass for 25 years. And they still find time to complain and protest when collecting retirement benefits for longer period than they managed to work. We've been an entitled nation for a very long time. The last generation that wasn't was our "greatest generation". We've been on downhill ever since.

64   FNWGMOBDVZXDNW   2015 Dec 11, 6:51am  

anonymous says

Millennials are also wanting boots on the ground against ISIS - just not their own boots.

Maybe, we'll have to resort to a draft, like we had to do back when their daddies were trying to stay out of Vietnam. That way, only poor, dark skinned, and middling people will have to die in the desert. Trump types can flat foot their way to the couch.

65   ja   2015 Dec 11, 7:18am  

Ceffer says

The Millennial XYers think that if they have to work at all, it should be in a mod, pure white office staffed with cool people with cool, casual clothes, tattoos, piercings and haircuts and company provided new smart phones every couple of months. Bagels and Starbucks buffets are everywhere. They can come and go as they please on their own recognizance. Education is just happening to know everything, just like in the movie and TV scripts, exactly when the information is needed, without cracking a book or studying. Everybody will have a successful novel in the works without spending any time writing. Better yet, they will write children's books, make art, write songs or start a blog that has so many hits, somebody craves to buy their ouvres for millions.

That wouldn't be fair for the boomers.
Let's adjust.

A= median life expected (salary+ pension - housing expense - health care cost - education cost ) for a boomer
B= median life expected (salary+ pension - housing expense - health care cost - education cost ) for a X

Let's adjust for inflation
Let's create a tax on boomers that covers the difference A-B-(increase national debt). They'll have to pay it over their expected life, so, at the end everything evens out.
We could try to find more items, but I think this a first good approach

66   curious2   2015 Dec 11, 5:14pm  

YesYNot says

anonymous says

Millennials are also wanting boots on the ground against ISIS - just not their own boots.

Maybe, we'll have to resort to a draft, like we had to do back when their daddies were trying to stay out of Vietnam.

Ugh - the Democrats seem to love conscription, from Woodrow Wilson to Lyndon Johnson to Jimmy Carter (reinstated registration) and Obamneycare and Mark Shields. Here's a thought: if we don't have enough volunteers to wage war in the middle east, then the obvious solution is to STOP WAGING WAR in the middle east. Let AF/DBOAPD sort it out - he'll know what to do.

67   Dan8267   2015 Dec 12, 1:48am  

curious2 says

if we don't have enough volunteers to wage war in the middle east, then the obvious solution is to STOP WAGING WAR in the middle east.

But that would be like voting, which is Unamerican! What's next, paying for the hospital care of those who do volunteer so that they don't die after coming home? Damn entitled veterans.

68   MMR   2015 Dec 12, 10:27pm  

Michael Bolton is only good at telling people what they want to hear, but the guy isn't a man of action. He blames gay chindian billionaires for his difficulties in life but is silent on all the threads pertaining to Islam. Damn chindian billionaires and their sexual preferences...if it hadn't been for them, poor whiny Bolton would be shitting gold bricks by now

curious2 says

Lef AF/DBOAPD sort it out - he'll know what to do.

69   MMR   2015 Dec 12, 10:29pm  

Voting matters... Good one, keep em coming

Dan8267 says

But that would be like voting, which is Unamerican

70   Dan8267   2015 Dec 13, 11:49am  

I think your sarcasm detector is on the fritz.

71   justme   2015 Dec 13, 11:59am  

Quigley says

coup de gras

That typo was funny on so many levels. Gras(french)==Fat(english). coup de gras = “strike of grease”. Yeah, those fat boomerfucks strike again.

Let them eat liverwurst, I say.

72   justme   2015 Dec 13, 12:04pm  

DieBankOfAmericaPhukkingDie says

ISIS could be handled with a bounty system.

$1000 a scalp or two of four limbs.

Who would't want to pack up the M134 and see what you could bring home during a few weeks vacation blowing jihadi fucks the fuck away?

I know you are jesting, but for those who did not get the joke: Remember what happened last time we put a bounty on terrorists and "foreign fighters". That's right, enterprising Afghans of many political colors rounded up any brown-skinned foreigner they could find and sold them to the CIA. The innocent are now dying a slow death in Guantanmo Bay. Our capitalist Gulag Guantanamo in the archipelago of Cuba is every bit as bad as what the Soviets had.

73   justme   2015 Dec 13, 2:09pm  

DieBankOfAmericaPhukkingDie says

justme says

I know you are jesting

Gosh, you caught me!

Don't forget we have impressionable and childlike minds here.

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