It ultimately boils down to the tragedy of the commons. If you look at the postwar WW2 era, the commons were flourishing, due to (in no small part) government s

It ultimately boils down to the tragedy of the commons. If you look at the postwar WW2 era, the commons were flourishing, due to (in no small part) government spending. The meme of Keynesian economic theory created this concept of "in the long run, we're all dead". So effectively, the baby boomer generation leveraged future generations' well being. You can't borrow now without giving something up in the future, there will always be an equivalent exchange.