Dear Millennials, We’re Sorry (Frank Bruni) from the New York Times
"AMONG Americans age 40 and older, there’s a pastime more popular than football, Candy Crush or HBO. It’s bashing millennials. ... We have a hell of a lot of nerve, considering the havoc we’ve wrought on theirs. ..."
I'll have to say (as one of the over-40 set), I largely missed the bashing-Millennials fad. However, I have on several occasions been guilty of bashing baby boomers. Bruni's piece reiterates several of my key rants. I think Millennials have been so majorly screwed by their "elders" that I grow red in the face when I see some Republican or Democratic lawmaker say with faux outrage words like "How can we in good conscience leave our children with the burden of [fill-in-the-blank]?! What do you mean 'How can you?'? You did exactly that -- and now it is DONE. Let's be clear: unless we plan on making huge cuts in Medicare or Social Security (which we're not going to do), the baby boom generation will not have to "pay" for ANY of their 40+ years of misguided policy-making. Let me be equally clear: I am not talking about the so-called "greatest generation" or Silent generation, those who lived through the Depression and World War II. THOSE folks were astonishingly far-sighted and wise. They invested hugely in infrastructure, education, economic development, and a broad range of other things that kept our economy and middle class strong. They promoted organized labor, scientific development, and made a social safety net that, as far as it went, made sense. I don't want to rehash Bruni's list -- you can read that for yourself. But under the reign of the baby boomers, the over-riding mantra seems to have been "God damn it! Cut MY taxes and cut HIS programs. And I mean now!"
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