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I Guess Baby Boomers are to Blame...
Old 11-21-2008, 12:17 PM   #1
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I Guess Baby Boomers are to Blame...

Stumbled across this article blaming boomers for all that is wrong with the US.

The Shallowest Generation - Seeking Alpha

The author makes some good points, but paints with a pretty wide brush...
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Old 11-21-2008, 12:21 PM   #2
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I blame it on Rio...
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Old 11-21-2008, 12:33 PM   #3
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Old 11-21-2008, 12:53 PM   #4
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I blame it on Rio...
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Old 11-21-2008, 01:41 PM   #5
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Quote:
Originally Posted by tgotch View Post
Stumbled across this article blaming boomers for all that is wrong with the US.

The Shallowest Generation - Seeking Alpha

The author makes some good points, but paints with a pretty wide brush...
Well, lemme see here....Hmmmm....in his 'bio' (what little there is of it) it says "in his 22 year career".....he also earned a BS.....<cypher> BS @ ~22 years old + 22 year career (part of which was probably taking orders & money at Mickey D's or something similar during his HS & college years....a.k.a "financial positions with a retailer....") = maybe 44 years old.....probably 42-43 </cypher>.....Hmmmm, just another one of them there young whipper-snappers that might possibly be just barely able to call themselves a baby boomer....but most likely younger than that.....blaming the Boomers! What nerve!

So I wonder what he thinks about what all the Generation X'ers (or whatever the h*ll they call themselves) are doing to make this country great again, and save & redeem it from all of the carnage that us 'shallow' 'greedy' and irresponsible Ba$tard$ Boomers brought upon it!?

Overall the article was nothing new and rather dull somewhat interesting, however the last couple of paragraphs made it sound almost as if it was more or less a bit of political propaganda to garner votes for Ron Paul....just MHO.

Dang young'uns! And stay off the friggin' lawn, too!


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(He probably wrote this article on on a computer that uses software developed by that evil Boomer Billy Gates)
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Old 11-21-2008, 02:18 PM   #6
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2004, huh? someone needs to revise this down













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Old 11-21-2008, 02:24 PM   #7
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Old 11-21-2008, 02:33 PM   #8
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Old 11-21-2008, 02:35 PM   #9
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Originally Posted by Goonie View Post
Well, lemme see here....Hmmmm....in his 'bio' (what little there is of it) it says "in his 22 year career".....he also earned a BS.....<cypher> BS @ ~22 years old + 22 year career (part of which was probably taking orders & money at Mickey D's or something similar during his HS & college years....a.k.a "financial positions with a retailer....") = maybe 44 years old.....probably 42-43 </cypher>.....Hmmmm, just another one of them there young whipper-snappers that might possibly be just barely able to call themselves a baby boomer....but most likely younger than that.....blaming the Boomers! What nerve!

So I wonder what he thinks about what all the Generation X'ers (or whatever the h*ll they call themselves) are doing to make this country great again, and save & redeem it from all of the carnage that us 'shallow' 'greedy' and irresponsible Ba$tard$ Boomers brought upon it!?

Overall the article was nothing new and rather dull somewhat interesting, however the last couple of paragraphs made it sound almost as if it was more or less a bit of political propaganda to garner votes for Ron Paul....just MHO.

Dang young'uns! And stay off the friggin' lawn, too!


--------------------------------------------------------
(He probably wrote this article on on a computer that uses software developed by that evil Boomer Billy Gates)
Get off my lawn.

Get off my back.

We get what was and do what we can.
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Old 11-21-2008, 05:30 PM   #10
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As a gen X'er, I'd like to ask you baby boomers to do your patriotic duty and go home. Make room for us younger types and give us our inheritences now.
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Old 11-21-2008, 05:40 PM   #11
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You young punks are gonna have to wait...and wait...and wait. Not much left for you to scavenge, either.
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Old 11-21-2008, 05:50 PM   #12
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I should be able to get a good hundred pounds of soylent green after cleaning and dressing!
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Old 11-21-2008, 05:57 PM   #13
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As a gen X'er, I'd like to ask you baby boomers to do your patriotic duty and go home. Make room for us younger types and give us our inheritences now.
Dream on!
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Old 11-21-2008, 07:57 PM   #14
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If this was the first article I'd ever read on Seeking Alpha, I'd never be back for more...

But I suppose their editorial board recognizes that there's no such thing as bad publicity or undesirable controversy.
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Old 11-21-2008, 08:11 PM   #15
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OK, my fault, sorry, suck it up.
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Old 11-21-2008, 08:41 PM   #16
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This statement in particular caught my eye has having a lot of truth:

"This usage of debt by the poor has masked the gap between haves and have nots for the last 20 years."
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Old 11-21-2008, 09:45 PM   #17
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I think Quinn the Elder needs to check a few facts in his diatribe.

The defining events of their generation have been the Kennedy assassination, Vietnam, Kent State, Woodstock, the 1st man on the moon, and now the collapse of our Ponzi scheme financial system.

Lee Harvey Oswald was born in 1939, the oldest boomer was a senior in high school at the time of the Kennedy assassination.

Vietnam.....Yep lots of boomers there getting shot at, but not many in Washington calling the shots.

Kent State.... The oldest boomers were there but not running the show, they were the targets.

Woodstock.... Name one boomer who was on stage. Lots of boomers there playing in the mud.

First man on the moon.....Neil Armstrong was born in 1930, missed that one by a long shot. Most of us boomers were watching it all on TV.

The collapse of our Ponzi scheme financial system. The jury is still out on this one.

No need to read any further.
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Old 11-21-2008, 11:52 PM   #18
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That was an interesting read! The broad brush blaming of "boomers" is a little much. But putting that aside and just looking at the nice presentation of a lot of macro-econ facts kept me reading without a blink from top to bottom.

Being a retired manufacturing guy, and having wondered for years how we are supposed to have anything if we don't make anything, this info was great:

Quote:
In our heyday during the 1950s, manufacturing accounted for 25% of GDP. In 1980 it was still 22% of GDP. Today it is 12% of GDP. By 2010 it will be under 10% of GDP. Our Government bureaucracy, which contributes nothing to the advancement of our society, now is a larger portion of GDP than manufacturing. Services such as banking, retail sales, transportation, and health care now account for two-thirds of the value of U.S. GDP.
My career ended with a 3.5 year stint of laying off people, shutting down factories and moving production to Asia, Mexico, SA and Europe. And while I was doing that in my industry, I watched it happening all around me in other industries.

How long will we be able to trade paper suffling expertise for tools, electronics, appliances, machinery, etc., etc.

Now that manufacturing has shrunk away to about nothing, it's fun to watch as we sell our infrastructure, transportation systems and farmland to others.

The only reason I cringe when I think of GM/Ford/Chrysler going belly-up is I hate to see the skilled human resource (millwrights, machinists, electricians, manufacturing engineers, etc.) vanish from the scene. One of these days we might need someone to be able to do some of that sort of thing again.......
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Old 11-22-2008, 02:07 AM   #19
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If the boomers are to blame it is because they borrowed themselves into a hole and spent too much money spoiling their kids.

But there is a revenge of sorts. All those gen x, gen y, millennium generations are going to be faced with supporting their aging parent who are broke because they did not exercise prudence with their money. The sad end note will be that many of them will not do it.
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Old 11-22-2008, 08:19 AM   #20
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Texarkandy--I think that statement also goes with the idea the, "One can look wealthy or one can be wealthy, but rarely do the two meet."

UncleHoney--While I agree that those defining moments had few Boomers in charge, it is a hard case to make that they did not help shape the outlook and opinions of the Boomer generation.

Something I find interesting in the idea is if you look at the 80's many of the Boomer's were in the yuppie "let's get rich and spend a lot of money" phase. During this period they were in entry , middle management, or lower executive level at whatever company they worked. Many of those Boomers have grown in responsibility and position to the point that they are now in senior executive down to middle management levels (of course not all, but most). It seems many, if not most, did not leave the "let's get rich and spend a lot of money" phase they were in during the 80's. The big difference is now they are in positions to affect their incomes. I guess in another 10 years we'll see how well the Boomers' kids have figured it out.
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