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Is there a good reason to blame the generation before rather the corporations, shareholders, and economic paradigms that they had nothing to do with? People jus

Is there a good reason to blame the generation before rather the corporations, shareholders, and economic paradigms that they had nothing to do with? People just do their jobs and live. The people running the world make the rules. They don't belong to a generation they belong to a ruling class. A ruling class which has obfuscated itself using different rhetorics and the mass media to deliver that rhetoric to protect itself from the blame. But really marketing, psychological manipulation, credit cards, consumer culture. All this stuff raised these people to act the way that they do. They didn't decide to be selfish assholes, it's the culture. They are a product of the system. Their conditioning has been conditioned. The ruling class made the rules, and their corporations used various tactics to raise these people as who they are for their personal benefit. They want consumers that spend so they can capture all that wealth rather than let it sit around and do nothing in the bank accounts of the masses.

ithinkinstereo 9y ago
Yes in the sense that the prior generation enjoyed tremendous social/government benefits, that they then systematically dismantled when they came into power. Of course our neoliberal, hyper capitalistic society doesn't help either...
- coldtea 9y ago
  >Yes in the sense that the prior generation enjoyed tremendous social/government benefits, that they then systematically dismantled when they came into power. The people that came into power dismantled them, no the generation. The people in power before them, and after them equally were for dismantling things.
  - pm90 9y ago
    > The people that came into power dismantled them, no the generation. Its the generation that votes/puts people in power in a democratic political system. Politicians are representatives of the people i.e. generation. > The people in power before them, and after them equally were for dismantling things. Nope. The New Deal was the opposite of dismantling: using government resources to kickstart the economy. And then the Great Society programs to enable higher standards of living for all.
    - coldtea 9y ago
      >Its the generation that votes/puts people in power in a democratic political system. Politicians are representatives of the people i.e. generation. In an ideal world. In practice they're in the pockets of many interests (including their own), and people only get to vote 1 in 4 years or so, and only accept a candidate "wholesale". How many promises did Obama broke to the people that elected him? How many will Trump? >Nope. The New Deal was the opposite of dismantling: using government resources to kickstart the economy. And then the Great Society programs to enable higher standards of living for all. The New Deal was rather the exception, after a near fatal crash, and under the pressure of a unionized America and an increased communist global influence, where the ruling classes had to show that they were for more than exploiting too. Similar things happened all over the world and established the early welfare state, but not because the 1930's generation was somehow special in voting for better people.

ithinkinstereo 9y ago

Yes in the sense that the prior generation enjoyed tremendous social/government benefits, that they then systematically dismantled when they came into power. Of course our neoliberal, hyper capitalistic society doesn't help either...

coldtea 9y ago
>Yes in the sense that the prior generation enjoyed tremendous social/government benefits, that they then systematically dismantled when they came into power. The people that came into power dismantled them, no the generation. The people in power before them, and after them equally were for dismantling things.
- pm90 9y ago
  > The people that came into power dismantled them, no the generation. Its the generation that votes/puts people in power in a democratic political system. Politicians are representatives of the people i.e. generation. > The people in power before them, and after them equally were for dismantling things. Nope. The New Deal was the opposite of dismantling: using government resources to kickstart the economy. And then the Great Society programs to enable higher standards of living for all.
  - coldtea 9y ago
    >Its the generation that votes/puts people in power in a democratic political system. Politicians are representatives of the people i.e. generation. In an ideal world. In practice they're in the pockets of many interests (including their own), and people only get to vote 1 in 4 years or so, and only accept a candidate "wholesale". How many promises did Obama broke to the people that elected him? How many will Trump? >Nope. The New Deal was the opposite of dismantling: using government resources to kickstart the economy. And then the Great Society programs to enable higher standards of living for all. The New Deal was rather the exception, after a near fatal crash, and under the pressure of a unionized America and an increased communist global influence, where the ruling classes had to show that they were for more than exploiting too. Similar things happened all over the world and established the early welfare state, but not because the 1930's generation was somehow special in voting for better people.