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Remember this when they elderly fight tooth & nail against any cuts to their precious welfare programs... The average medicare recipient has only paid ~$75K in

Remember this when they elderly fight tooth & nail against any cuts to their precious welfare programs... The average medicare recipient has only paid ~$75K in taxes but will extract >$500K in services. The 'Greatest Generation' is bankrupting this country.

protomyth 15y ago
technically, it is the generation after the "Greatest Generation" that is the problem.
timmaah 15y ago
The 'Greatest Generation' is just about gone. It is their kids doing the bankrupting.
Shivetya 15y ago
I get a different read from the story. The Greatest Generation has not spent themselves into debt with hundred dollar a month smart phone bills, five hundred a month auto leases, another fifty for high speed internet, a thousand dollars to coffee shop across a year, and so on and so on. My parents are from this generation, they saved. I am trying to be the same way but it is very difficult. There are so many many temptations out there and we are heavily marketed too on every front. Look, we have people lining up at night to buy iPhones, the latest video game, or to see a movie. That generation remembered people lining up for food, the draft, and other such true necessities of life then. The "ME" generation is bankrupting America by wanting the rewards of a successful life without actually having to work for it. Instant gratification doesn't work, but it sure doesn't stop people running for office who promise it.
- potatolicious 15y ago
  I think there's a bit of rose-tinted glasses going on here, and you're really painting a straw man. Not all of us buy expensive smartphones, have $500 car loans, thousand-dollar coffee shop bills, etc etc. Similarly, not all of your beloved, vaunted Boomers were penny-pinching misers who saved all they got and avoided the drive-in, movies, and bars. My impression (never having lived it 60s and 70s, of course) is that people then we just as excessive as we are now, or at least the marginal difference can't explain away the giant gap in wealth.
- _delirium 15y ago
  Look, we have people lining up at night to buy iPhones, the latest video game, or to see a movie. That generation remembered people lining up for food, the draft, and other such true necessities of life then. This is a sort of strange view, which isn't much in keeping with what I've read about the 1960s/70s. If anything they were something of a historical peak of decadence/entertainment, with people lining up for rock-show tickets and festivals (Woodstock being only the biggest of many), a huge explosion in car ownership (including a big increase in "muscle car" sales), big increases in sales for both the film and music industries as record numbers of people lined up to see the latest movie or buy the latest record, the growth of suburbia as suddenly everyone needed their own yard and 3-bedroom home, a big wave of people replacing their B&W televisions with fancy new color models, etc., etc. However, it turned out well for them in net-worth terms because splurging on that suburban home in 1975 turned out to be a good real-estate investment, whether they bought it for that reason or not.
3pt14159 15y ago
Do you have a source for the 75k to 500k figure? I have problems with the Baby Boomers, but I never came across that stat before. Also, is it adjusted for inflation? You could buy a car for $1k back in the day.

protomyth 15y ago

technically, it is the generation after the "Greatest Generation" that is the problem.

timmaah 15y ago

The 'Greatest Generation' is just about gone. It is their kids doing the bankrupting.

Shivetya 15y ago

I get a different read from the story. The Greatest Generation has not spent themselves into debt with hundred dollar a month smart phone bills, five hundred a month auto leases, another fifty for high speed internet, a thousand dollars to coffee shop across a year, and so on and so on. My parents are from this generation, they saved. I am trying to be the same way but it is very difficult. There are so many many temptations out there and we are heavily marketed too on every front. Look, we have people lining up at night to buy iPhones, the latest video game, or to see a movie. That generation remembered people lining up for food, the draft, and other such true necessities of life then. The "ME" generation is bankrupting America by wanting the rewards of a successful life without actually having to work for it. Instant gratification doesn't work, but it sure doesn't stop people running for office who promise it.

potatolicious 15y ago
I think there's a bit of rose-tinted glasses going on here, and you're really painting a straw man. Not all of us buy expensive smartphones, have $500 car loans, thousand-dollar coffee shop bills, etc etc. Similarly, not all of your beloved, vaunted Boomers were penny-pinching misers who saved all they got and avoided the drive-in, movies, and bars. My impression (never having lived it 60s and 70s, of course) is that people then we just as excessive as we are now, or at least the marginal difference can't explain away the giant gap in wealth.
_delirium 15y ago
Look, we have people lining up at night to buy iPhones, the latest video game, or to see a movie. That generation remembered people lining up for food, the draft, and other such true necessities of life then. This is a sort of strange view, which isn't much in keeping with what I've read about the 1960s/70s. If anything they were something of a historical peak of decadence/entertainment, with people lining up for rock-show tickets and festivals (Woodstock being only the biggest of many), a huge explosion in car ownership (including a big increase in "muscle car" sales), big increases in sales for both the film and music industries as record numbers of people lined up to see the latest movie or buy the latest record, the growth of suburbia as suddenly everyone needed their own yard and 3-bedroom home, a big wave of people replacing their B&W televisions with fancy new color models, etc., etc. However, it turned out well for them in net-worth terms because splurging on that suburban home in 1975 turned out to be a good real-estate investment, whether they bought it for that reason or not.

3pt14159 15y ago

Do you have a source for the 75k to 500k figure? I have problems with the Baby Boomers, but I never came across that stat before. Also, is it adjusted for inflation? You could buy a car for $1k back in the day.