4 ms·

That is a very defeatist and ultimately useless world view. Every generation is mad at the generation before it about something, and argues the previous generat

That is a very defeatist and ultimately useless world view. Every generation is mad at the generation before it about something, and argues the previous generation could have solved the problems but now the current generation is left with the problems. Your statement above about millennials being left with the bill, meanwhile gen x feels the baby boomers did them in like another comment here states, the baby boomers is mad at the generation before them (silent generation) about sending them to the disasters that was the vietnam and korean wars, and they in turn is mad about WW1 and WW2 and the great depression that they had to endure because their parents were living it up in the swinging 1910's and 20s.

cm2187 10y ago
The amount of debt that the baby boomers will leave behind is a very objective thing. This is the biggest accumulation of debt in peace time in the history of mankind (and objectively the parents indebting their children to buy a shiny new TV, a behaviour that would be universally unacceptable if it wasn't state wide).
- kabouseng 10y ago
  Sorry this is taking your comment on a tangent, but it is not exactly peace time for the USA, nor has it been since the 1960's or arguably since WW2 if you take the cold war into account. The USA has been involved in one or another war for literally decades now...or does minor wars not count?
  - cm2187 10y ago
    I don't think we can compare the Gulf wars with the all out World Wars. And none of the European countries or Japan were making any war effort, and accumulated as much if not more debt over the same period.
    - Theodores 10y ago
      Didn't the US drop more bombs on Laos in a secret war than all the bombs dropped in WW2? I do not have the figures but in these 'little wars' there has been a lot of silver spent on munitions. The whole process is just a lot more efficient so we are not at total war on the domestic front, just paying our taxes so the military can buy vastly more effective killing machines. Things may have gone away from the unguided bombs of times gone past, war zones may be in different places, but otherwise, there is a lot to compare today's wars with WW1/WW2 when it comes to $$$ spend and devastation caused.
      - cm2187 10y ago
        During ww2, the US were constructing one aircraft carrier a week. I don't think anything of these conflicts matched that ever since.
  - TheCoelacanth 10y ago
    Post WW2 has been one of the most peaceful periods ever in human history. It might not be peace in the absolute sense, but it's about the closest humans have ever achieved.
    - kabouseng 10y ago
      I doubt the people or Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, Korea, Vietnam, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Bosnia, Kuwait, Somalia, SAR or Serbia would agree with you, to name just a few... If I may ask, how do you get to your statement? Is there some metric one can look at to determine it?
      - TheCoelacanth 10y ago
        Because those regions were so much more peaceful when the Mongols or the Ottomans or the crusaders were rampaging through them /s I'm not saying that there isn't localized violence, just that global level is down. Stephen Pinker's The Better Angels of our Nature is one source to support this idea.
        kabouseng 10y ago
        No I was genuinely wondering what is the basis for that statement (I have heard it before), or if it was just sentiment. I'll add Stephen Pinker's book to my reading list. Yes it's an old debate whether the US should have gotten involved in all these conflicts, but back to your original point: That the US national debt has increased dramatically in peace time. My point is that it is not peace time, and that a substantial part of that debt stems from the US's military industrial complex. It is after all not nothing that (famous tv saying) "the US spends more on defense than the next 26 countries combined" or something like that.
- curun1r 10y ago
  Debt doesn't exist in a vacuum. There's a reason that double-entry accounting exists. The other side of the ledger is wealth and it's held by someone. In some cases, it's foreign countries, but a lot of it is held by Americans. To say the boomers are only leaving behind debt is only looking at half the story. It's more apt to say they're leaving behind inequality. Some gen x and millennials are being left considerable wealth. Some even multi-generational wealth.
rmc 10y ago
> Every generation is mad at the generation before it about something, and argues the previous generation could have solved the problems but now the current generation is left with the problems. I mean, the canonical example is the German student protests in the 1960s ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_student_movement https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_student_movement ), which led to things like the Red Army Faction ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Army_Faction https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Army_Faction ). These were people whose parents were literally Nazis....
- kabouseng 10y ago
  Thanks for that, I'll definitely read up today.
- jacobush 10y ago
  The west german policy basically provoked that faction into existence by murdering. Can't remember the name of the incident but this information was withheld until fairly recently.
marincounty 10y ago
I'm not sure, nor care what generation society has labeled me. When I look back on who had it good, or bad; I always come to an abrupt stop when I think about having to go to war. I couldn't imagine being a number in a draft, and just waiting for my turn to go. Those guys had real problems. I couldn't imagine being disabled, or killed over a rediculious war like Vietnam, or the Korean War. When you take away being killed/maimed, being very poor is the next huge problem. My heart does go out to anyone who's very poor in this society. I see the amout of homelessness, and cringe. It seems like the powers at be are going out of their way everything illegial. "Can't sleep here!" "Camping prohibited here." And living off the land seems only viable in some parts of Alaska? Hell, for all practical purposes it's practically impossible to live on the cheap, without breaking some law? I really think we need to have areas set aside areas where people can pitch a tent, and use a restroom. We can debate about education, etc., but we have a big problem right now. We have people who have know where to live. I don't see it getting better. Politicians really don't seem to care. Certain people from all generations act like homelessness is a lifestyle choice. In my world, it's my biggest fear.

cm2187 10y ago

The amount of debt that the baby boomers will leave behind is a very objective thing. This is the biggest accumulation of debt in peace time in the history of mankind (and objectively the parents indebting their children to buy a shiny new TV, a behaviour that would be universally unacceptable if it wasn't state wide).

kabouseng 10y ago
Sorry this is taking your comment on a tangent, but it is not exactly peace time for the USA, nor has it been since the 1960's or arguably since WW2 if you take the cold war into account. The USA has been involved in one or another war for literally decades now...or does minor wars not count?
- cm2187 10y ago
  I don't think we can compare the Gulf wars with the all out World Wars. And none of the European countries or Japan were making any war effort, and accumulated as much if not more debt over the same period.
  - Theodores 10y ago
    Didn't the US drop more bombs on Laos in a secret war than all the bombs dropped in WW2? I do not have the figures but in these 'little wars' there has been a lot of silver spent on munitions. The whole process is just a lot more efficient so we are not at total war on the domestic front, just paying our taxes so the military can buy vastly more effective killing machines. Things may have gone away from the unguided bombs of times gone past, war zones may be in different places, but otherwise, there is a lot to compare today's wars with WW1/WW2 when it comes to $$$ spend and devastation caused.
    - cm2187 10y ago
      During ww2, the US were constructing one aircraft carrier a week. I don't think anything of these conflicts matched that ever since.
- TheCoelacanth 10y ago
  Post WW2 has been one of the most peaceful periods ever in human history. It might not be peace in the absolute sense, but it's about the closest humans have ever achieved.
  - kabouseng 10y ago
    I doubt the people or Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, Korea, Vietnam, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Bosnia, Kuwait, Somalia, SAR or Serbia would agree with you, to name just a few... If I may ask, how do you get to your statement? Is there some metric one can look at to determine it?
    - TheCoelacanth 10y ago
      Because those regions were so much more peaceful when the Mongols or the Ottomans or the crusaders were rampaging through them /s I'm not saying that there isn't localized violence, just that global level is down. Stephen Pinker's The Better Angels of our Nature is one source to support this idea.
      - kabouseng 10y ago
        No I was genuinely wondering what is the basis for that statement (I have heard it before), or if it was just sentiment. I'll add Stephen Pinker's book to my reading list. Yes it's an old debate whether the US should have gotten involved in all these conflicts, but back to your original point: That the US national debt has increased dramatically in peace time. My point is that it is not peace time, and that a substantial part of that debt stems from the US's military industrial complex. It is after all not nothing that (famous tv saying) "the US spends more on defense than the next 26 countries combined" or something like that.
curun1r 10y ago
Debt doesn't exist in a vacuum. There's a reason that double-entry accounting exists. The other side of the ledger is wealth and it's held by someone. In some cases, it's foreign countries, but a lot of it is held by Americans. To say the boomers are only leaving behind debt is only looking at half the story. It's more apt to say they're leaving behind inequality. Some gen x and millennials are being left considerable wealth. Some even multi-generational wealth.

rmc 10y ago

> Every generation is mad at the generation before it about something, and argues the previous generation could have solved the problems but now the current generation is left with the problems. I mean, the canonical example is the German student protests in the 1960s ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_student_movement https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_student_movement ), which led to things like the Red Army Faction ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Army_Faction https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Army_Faction ). These were people whose parents were literally Nazis....

kabouseng 10y ago
Thanks for that, I'll definitely read up today.
jacobush 10y ago
The west german policy basically provoked that faction into existence by murdering. Can't remember the name of the incident but this information was withheld until fairly recently.

marincounty 10y ago

I'm not sure, nor care what generation society has labeled me. When I look back on who had it good, or bad; I always come to an abrupt stop when I think about having to go to war. I couldn't imagine being a number in a draft, and just waiting for my turn to go. Those guys had real problems. I couldn't imagine being disabled, or killed over a rediculious war like Vietnam, or the Korean War. When you take away being killed/maimed, being very poor is the next huge problem. My heart does go out to anyone who's very poor in this society. I see the amout of homelessness, and cringe. It seems like the powers at be are going out of their way everything illegial. "Can't sleep here!" "Camping prohibited here." And living off the land seems only viable in some parts of Alaska? Hell, for all practical purposes it's practically impossible to live on the cheap, without breaking some law? I really think we need to have areas set aside areas where people can pitch a tent, and use a restroom. We can debate about education, etc., but we have a big problem right now. We have people who have know where to live. I don't see it getting better. Politicians really don't seem to care. Certain people from all generations act like homelessness is a lifestyle choice. In my world, it's my biggest fear.