It's the youth of America who should be really pissed off.

[kpete]

Greedy Old Tea Party White Guys are Robbing Their Grand Children

........................

It's the youth of America who should be really pissed off.

Their sweet little old grandfathers have just sold them all down the river without even a second thought.

"Hey, Grandpa! Where's my education, where's my job, where's my clean air, where's my future?"

"Sorry, sonny. I bought a war and got my tax cuts and socialized programs -- even though socialized programs are a Communist plot -- with that money instead."


You bought a war? A war? I mean seriously, grandpa. You didn't just splurge on one or two occasional wars. You bought a whole bunch of wars. "World War I, World War II, the Cold War, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, the Israeli/Palestinean wars, Iraq and Afghanistan, the war on drugs, the war on terror...."

the rest:
http://blog.buzzflash.com/node/12162
(disclosure: kpete is 59)

[treestar]

1. Generation baiting is useless

Every generation deals with what is before it. Should the parents of the 1910s be blamed also for whatever caused the Depression? The parents of the 60s for the Vietnam fallout? It just divides.

[Statistical]

2. While that is true never before has so much cost been laid at the feet of the next generation.

The national debt is $14 trillion. Even WITH the expiration of Bush tax cuts and ending of the wars (Iraq in 2012, and Afghanistan in 2015) it is projected to grow to $24T by 2020.

This will be a cripling blow to the prosperity of the next generation. They will face BOTH much higher taxes at all income ranges (100% tax on rich wouldn't be sufficient) AND less services.
Essentially a huge portion of their tax base will simply go to paying the bills that were left to them. It is one thing to decide you want big govt and then pay for it, or you want small govt and face the consequences of reduces services. This generation has had big govt without paying the bills. The difference between what we "want" and what we are willing to pay just gets pushed down the line.

Just for clarification I am not for cutting deficit during the recession but once we see economic recovery we really need to get serious and make some tough decisions because the status quo is a prosperity death sentence for the next generation.

[dkf]

8. Exactly. Why shouldn't they be mad their labors have been obligated by people who refused to

Appropriately volunteer their own?

Some generation got the goodies and another got a raw deal because of it.

It's easier to defend demographics, like the fact there are so many baby boomers to take care of. It is more difficult to explain unpaid debts.

[wtmusic]

11. +1. This credit card mentality has got to go.

Bill Clinton balanced the budget, Obama can do it. Get re-elected on a platform of "no new taxes", then raise them anyway (worked for Bush 41).

[former9thward]

23. Ahh it didn't work for Bush 41.

Guess you didn't see the 1992 election results.

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

24. At $24T the interest on the debt would be $700B a year.

Unsustainable.

Hell, at $350B we're already hearing about the Friskies Generation.

[Igel]

32. Tough call.

Look at the mess that the "adults" in charge in the 1890s and early 1900s left for the youth of the mid-1910s. Then that war crippled the world for generations. Or at least until about 1921.

Let's also not forget the mess that those who looked at the adults in the 1890s and early 1900s with disdain and said, "Piffle, the old pricks. We are young, we are most certainly their betters and know better. There's no way we can ever possibly make *their* wretched mistakes. It's 1928, and the prosperity and peace will last for our entire lifetimes and those of our kids." The Depression was a horrible thing and ruined the chances of succeeding generations--and the wreckage of the war ruined the world for a century. Or until the early 1950s.

FDR said that the only thing to fear was fear itself. There's a lot of fearmongering.

And, while I've run into pollyannas I've seriously had trouble not garroting after a while, it still pays to be cautiously optimistic. The deficit is a big problem. But with gross domestic revenues in 2010 being about the same or perhaps a bit better than in 2007, with baseline non-stimulus federal spending being up over $300 billion/year, you have to ask exactly where the willpower to lay off the bonbons is going to come. The (D) didn't have it in 2007 and 2008 before the recession. There's no evidence they have it now. The (R) most certainly don't have a clue that you can do anything but gorge yourself. But if nothing else, the way that Greece has found to resolve its problems--an intervention and being forcibly checked into Wastrels Rehab Clinic--may work. Rather than think doom-and-gloom, however, I recall that WWI was to have set the world back quite a ways and failed to do so; even the Great Depression, destroying a generation of Americans and followed by a war that killed many more, didn't actually destroy that generation. It changed them, but not all change is for the worse.

[old mark]

3. K&R. You SHOULD all be pissed off, and you should all be Democrats at least,

and rioting in the streets of DC starting Monday.
Just wait to see what the GOP congress has in store for you and your future...


mark

[proud2BlibKansan]

4. As a baby boomer who can remember the first Earth Day and the creation of the EPA,

I remember all too well the warnings we were given to stop polluting our planet. Watching those come true 40 years later is rather infuriating.

[wtmusic]

12. The EPA has been enormously successful at preventing pollution

and anthropogenic global warming was only widely acknowledged in the last decade.

Sad to say, but Nixon has done more for the environment than any president since.

[cali]

5. I'm so freakin' tired of people trying to pit old against young

I see it's not limited to repukes who do it ad nauseum

[kpete]

6. i try to be open minded - this is not a B&W issue-lots of grey---

"Succinctly, here is the developing inside-the-Beltway storyline:

Boomers who dutifully paid into the national pension system are selfish slackers who hate their grandchildren and their country if they insist on receiving the benefits for which Washington made them pay extra for the last thirty years.

The whole point of the Reagan/Greenspan reform was to have boomers pay more up front to ensure their Social Security pensions would be paid for without burdening the next generation. Of course, Washington assumes the rest of the country is Short Attention Span Theater and won’t remember. The trick now is to guilt-trip boomers into acquiescing to their benefits being cut as though they caused the problem that thirty years of higher payroll taxes were designed to prevent."

http://scrutinyhooligans.us/2011/01/01/social-security-and-the-fairness-con/#more-18060

[Sal Minella]

9. "No taxation without representation" is not a newly-minted idea.

As it is now, children not yet born will be taxed as adults to pay for BushCo's profligate spending on wars and tax cuts for his cronies.

[freshwest]

16. How will they be obligated to pay taxes with jobs that won't afford that?

What they are going to do is live in a third world society with a few big bosses they'll be beholden to for everything.

In such places, it's not taxes paid to the government, it's bribes or favors given to the bosses.

And freedom? What freedom do you have when one word gets to the boss they don't like, and you lose everything?

We're fast going to that system for those still trying to exist within any system. Maybe that's the lesson for this generation coming up.

Don't belong to anything except your family and tribe, and shut up about politics, you're too low to affect anything.

Sorry if I got too far off your point there. But if I can't say here, where else can I? The RW has taken over most internet message boards.

[patrice]

7. Each generation has the benefit of hind-sight. Switch places and they likely would have made the sam

e mistakes the generation before them made.

[wtmusic]

13. It doesn't take much foresight to realize that mountains of debt

and a reckless policy of CO2 emissions spell big trouble for future generations.

[tama]

14. And it does not take much foresight to realize

that blame games and getting pissed off will solve nothing.

[wtmusic]

15. Au contraire.

Getting pissed off is a wonderful motivator. It got your president elected.

[tama]

18. Point proven! :D

I don't really care for presidents and other parasite "leaders". Not anymore, not since George Bush II, him I genuinely respect gratefully, because he was a great teacher of what the system is really like and how it really works. Dubya woke me and many others into reality from the mass-hypnosis we've been lulled into.

[patrice]

20. True. I am thinking more about those of us who were doing what we could to change

things, probably miscalculated how much time we have and mis-estimated the effect of the things that at least some of us were doing.

Though I don't want to say that there was no positive effect. Both of my children are fundamentally committed to low-carbon peaceful lifestyles and have been so for about 20 years.

On the other hand, I have to say that leading a nuclear weapons-freeze parade of about 100 locals, down Kansas Avenue in Topeka, Ks., for and with a visiting group from Plowshares, (amongst other actions) apparently hasn't been one of the most effective things that could have been done about that issue.

[patrice]

21. In short, those of us who were active weren't aggressive enough. nt

[tama]

10. What is more boring

than angry and pissed off Americans & America? :D

Sequel 257, Rambo gets pissed off again...
and again...
and again...
and again...

BOOOOOOORIIIIIIIING!!!!!!!!!!

[gulliver]

17. They should be pissed at themselves for not voting.

Of course their interests have suffered. They didn't vote their interests. They didn't vote.

Voting should be mandatory and easy.

[bettyellen]

25. yep, in fact they made the same mistake the younger boomers did w/ Reagan

not turning out enough to counter the older -"greatest generation" voters who went overwhemingly conservative.
they didn;t protest the wars nearly as much as previous younger generations. maybe they would have if they had knew how it would cost them eventually. now that every generation is hit in the wallet... all of us, they start squalking about themselves. and lecture everyone else about being selfish.

[antigone382]

36. Technically, the last pres. election saw higher youth turnout than any election except...

...the very first election in which eighteen-year-olds were allowed to vote. Still not nearly high enough, and I have no problem with making it mandatory to at least show up at the polls (and making election day a national holiday), but as good as you could expect.

[bettyellen]

41. but they allowed us to lose the midterms.... not cool and sexy enough I guess.

[jotsy]

19. Intriguing commentary.

No disrespect to the author, and certainly not to Mr. Hedges but...I'm not prepared to let my children face a world designed as writers have anticipated. This is a moment we can choose to define or rely on familiar markers to follow. I'm not much for following.

[patrice]

22. Right on! Fatalism is the poison of our dying culture. NGU! nt

[jotsy]

28. I contend the U.S. too young in rooted in the mesh to have culture of its own.

Most is borrowed from more long standing histories. I'm okay with that, to boldly go where we've yet to venture. We're more than serfs and consumers, which the PTB want no one to see.

[bettyellen]

26. what has stopped them? They "bought the war" as much as anyone.

[MineralMan]

27. Generation baiting is bogus.

The same baby boomers you're talking about also spearheaded the civil rights movement, women's rights, clean energy, and much, much more. There is nothing you can say that applies to all people in any generation, so it's a bogus argument on its face.

[elehhhhna]

29. forgot to mention that Grandpa's also MOVING IN with the kid OR living

al fresco (going homeless), each option being both annoying AND embarrasing, thanks to gutting the wasteful, broken, communistic welfare boondoggle called Social Security.

[Cleita]

30. I was pissed off as a youth in the sixties and looking

back, we were living in a socialist paradise, with the exception of the Vietnam War, compared to today. I wonder why those just graduating from college aren't more pissed off? Maybe it's because mom and dad are willing to let them live at home well into their twenties. We didn't have that option and were pretty much expected to hit the road when we graduated from high school. I do notice that in my peer group, over 65, those seniors who don't have good relationships with their grown children are for the most part conservative.

[jeff47]

34. Because we were taught well

Assuming we still want to talk in generational stereotypes:

Our parents were pissed in the 60's, and then gave up during the 70's, and became Reagan Democrats in the 80's. We were taught by their example that the world can not be made better. Just keep your head down and grab as much cash as you can for yourself...even if you're paying 23% interest on it.

Oh, and if you guys wanted us to move out of the house, you probably shouldn't have spent the 80's destroying unions and the manufacturing sector. The service industry jobs you left us don't pay the rent you charged on apartments when we were 20-somethings.

</end stereotypes>

As a "Generation X" person, it's a tad frustrating to live in the Baby Boomer's shadow. Since there's so many more Baby Boomers, we've never mattered politically. With virtually every attempt to push our issues thwarted because our grandparents and parents greatly outnumber us, we've learned there's no reason to try. Spending your life at "the kid's table" doesn't exactly make for a powerful movement.

The saddest part is that we will probably never matter politically. As the Baby Boomers pass on, our children become the 'big' demographic. We anticipate our retirement age will be raised to 147, and lowered back to 65 for our kids.

But no, our kids aren't pissed off. We did what parents are supposed to do: shield them from all the crap flying about in the world. We wish your generation had been more successful at lessening the whirlwind, but we can't go back and make you guys think about your 10-year-old's retirement when Regan was proving "deficits don't matter".

All we can do is teach our kids the right beliefs. And polling on a variety of subjects shows that we've taught our kids very, very well. As your generation fades, our kids will be able to accomplish what we could not. Because Liberalism always wins in the end.

[bettyellen]

35. so you think giving up and acting powerless is going to make your kids proud?

seriously? yes your kids will be pissed off too. you;re just too young to realize it yet.
why wouldn;t they? according to you, you gave up before you even started.... I know you all rarely even showed up to vote when YES it WOULD HAVE MADE A DIFFEREENCE. if your ass was on the line maybe you all would have protested a war or two, huh?
Thanks for sitting it all out and then blaming other people. kids table ndeed.
what complete swill.

[jeff47]

38. Perhaps you should read that post again

And spend less time worrying about "blame". As the only blame part is the snarky stereotype part at the beginning.

We failed, due to the numbers against us. We failed so badly that many people, such as yourself, don't think we even tried. So we put our political dreams into our kids, who will not face an impossible demographic Juggernaut.

[bettyellen]

40. the younger demographic failed to show up, and most now fail to take responsibility for that.

I read it just fine, your entire post is blaming others. It;s a shameful example you're setting. Keep dreaming about your kids, if and when they realize you had some failings. they too will treble them while not showing up at the polls themselves. Same as it ever was....

[tama]

42. No,

voting does not matter. Partisan divide and conquer. Makes you pissed off and stupid. It's just boring.

Kids are smarter today and I have nothing but trust in them. They keep me fed, literally. Kids today have no shame in dumpster diving, and they bring the food in the table in the community I live, as the oldest member.

[bettyellen]

43. it's boring to vote? i know a lot of kids who are bored by anything serious, but Obama was "cool"

so they voted, local races, not so sexy, so we lose. usually people grow out of the short sightedness. sadly, too many don;t get serious ntil they are hurting. then they make dumb angry irrational decisons. Teabaggers and kids blaming their parents are intellectually speaking, not all that different. Driven by resentment and ignorance, coming from a place of pure self interest.
That;s not boring, it;s fucking sad.

[tama]

44. No,

getting pissed off is boring... :)

[bettyellen]

46. i agree, Im tired of seeing people baited into being angry at the wrong folks.

[coalition_unwilling]

31. It's the workers of America who should be really pissed off (at the

owners). As most youth are workers, they should be really pissed off, of course, but at owners, not at the elderly workers or middle-aged workers.

[Hydra]

33. Oh, we are very pissed off

But it's too late now. The previous generations over and over were afraid to let things take their natural course. Dick Cheney should not even still be alive, let alone have his hands so deeply dug into our politics.

No, we've quietly and not so quietly told everyone that we aren't interested in oil, nukes, religion, pollution for profit, homophobia or any of the other zombies that keep getting raised from the dead.

It only takes a small group of people with a large number of followers to point a people the wrong way.

[Toucano]

37. It's too late for anger and bargaining. It's time to move to acceptance.

The sooner we accept the facts of our condition and the grim outlook, the sooner we can start to change it.

If anyone didn't get their anger moment in the last 8 or 9 years, they're too late.

[tama]

45. Acceptance sounds very good

after accepting we can start adapting, creatively and having fun!

But can't really say that knowing the facts means knowing reality, of which I know less and less... :)

[Taitertots]

39. Pissed... We should be marching in the streets and the older people should join us

We need to tear down the institutions past generations built and rebuild them on principals of equality, justice, and shared prosperity.

The Military Industrial Complex
The Corrupt Political System
The Financial Intermediaries
The Corporate Business Structure
The Regressive taxation
The Unfair legal system
The Unjust Foreign Policy
The Environmental Degradation

Many of you were fighting these all along, but the vast majority were not. Can't we just agree that everyone should be pissed?

America has adopted policies that are certain to cause nothing but accelerating inequality.