Ride Into The Sunset

The children of the war veterans were now running most of the country, and in general it had been a peaceful and productive time (with the exception of Vietnam). They were living better than ever, but had made a mess of many traditional aspects of American life. Divorce was normal, bankruptcy was no longer shameful, and sexual morality was a sham. Now in their fifties (by the mid-nineties), they had failed to save much money, and were once again feeling the same hangover headache that they had felt after the summer of love, but this time the dark specter of mortality was impossible to avoid. What to do?

With time being short for the remainder of their careers, they got desperate and decided to stack the deck. Entitlements went through the roof. Social Security? Yes! Never mind that the numbers didn't work. Stock market abuse? Sure! It was helping their retirement accounts.

Then we ran straight into 9/11 (or it ran into us), and the perfect path was disrupted. Now what?! More desperation, more abuse, and more selfish behavior. Madoff steals $50 billion, AIG loses over $500 billion, and the "safe" banks turn out to be shell games run by idiots. No longer able to crank up the juice on financial markets, this generation of takers turns to the only organization left, the U.S. government.

The rally cry goes out:
This isn't fair! Someone else should pay to fix this! We deserve a guarantee!

Never mind that the debt they have racked up through abuse and entitlements will be passed on to their grandchildren. Never mind that they made the very situation that put them (and us) here. Never mind that their children will be the first generation in American history to make less money than their parents' generation (the most basic and true measure I know of).

The Greatest Generation may have fought hard, but in the end they were generally crappy parents, giving rise to the MOST SELFISH GENERATION in our history.

Now we (their children, grandchildren, and great grandchildren) will get the bills, the blame, and the mess. What more could we expect from self-centered whiners?

Are they all that bad? No, there are exceptions. But as a group they get the grade of F.