Wednesday, December 28, 2005

Boomer looks at his cohort II: Electric Boogaloo

At least about the Boomers, it is good to know I am not alone. Again, a Baby Boomer looks at his generation and yells, "Argghhh....Gim'me Shelter!!"
Is there any club one would want less to be a member of than the so-called baby boomers, the generation of Americans born between 1946 and 1964? Their parents fought the big wars, their parents created the most prosperous nation on earth, now here come the graying spongers, bent on retiring early, living forever, and enjoying the ''good life." That means bleeding entitlement payments out of their own children, consequences be damned. Never forget the boomers' mantra: I've got mine, and the devil take the hindmost.
While we are bashing Boomers, here is a great piece in Boxing Day's WaPo by Herb Berkowitz, Baby Boomers' unhappy future. And people wonder why I save and invest like I do.
The U.S. economy speeds toward a brick wall. But instead of trying to stop or even slow the fiscal train wreck, many senior citizens want to push hard on the accelerator.

Nothing was more evident at the recent 2005 White House Conference on Aging than the palpable greed of seniors. Perhaps they see it as getting even with their Baby Boomer kids for how we aggravated them in the 1960s and '70s.

Whatever their motives, they are not very realistic. As U.S. Comptroller General David Walker, the chief federal auditor, made clear, our country can't afford existing programs for the elderly, such as Medicare. If more benefits are piled on, as many conference delegates demanded, we face economic disaster.

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