Frank Baynes wrote:
Sure, and by the way, I am not accusing you personally, but I am just citing the fact. There are many financially responsible baby boomers, but I am looking at this from a generational point of view. As you can easily see below (or frankly if you look at numbers anywhere else), the financially responsible (i.e. with their wallet and their vote responsible) baby boomers have not been the norm.
I am a baby boomer, too. I am born in 1951 and have been watching this nightmare accumulate wide-awake since the 1980s. I have been saying what I am saying now for decades, and still nobody wants to hear it. It is our generation that has it upside down, and we ill pay for it ourselves, along with all other generations. Our generation's day of reckoning is coming and it will not go according to plan, i.e. that it will be our children's and grandchildren's problem. It will shortly be our own problem and it will manifest itself in a sudden fall in our own generation's standard of living, precipitated by the fact that we will have close to no retirement income. Certainly not from the government, but most likely not from private retirement money sources either.
As a reader of the Generational Dynamics blog, you will easily see what I mean.
Alright, enough theory, now some numbers:
For illustration purposes, Baby Boomers = born between 1945 and 1960, start playing a significant role in consumption and society around 1970 and start phasing out around 2010. The following numbers are in 2010 dollars, i.e. AFTER taking inflation into account:
Federal debt per citizen (excluding off-balance sheet debt, i.e. excluding unfunded liabilities) in 2010 dollars:
1970 $10,610
2010 $46,994
An increase of public REAL indebtedness by more than 450%.
Also, note that before 1970 peace-time deficits were very rare. Since 1970, there have been only about 4 balanced budgets, all during the internet boom.
Credit market household debt per citizen in 2010 dollars:
1970 $12,262
2010 $43,925
An increase of private REAL indebtedness by about 360%.
Numbers are from the St Louis Fed, Census, and the Fed Board.
I have not even included unfunded liabilities because they are completely off the charts. The benefits that we gave to ourselves without coming up with the funding. But let's leave that out, it is bad enough with just the comprehensible part of the numbers.
Who benefited from that? Who spend more than he/she was earning? Who will pay that back?
Mathematically, it could never work, but the ride was fun. However, everybody else will pay, and us, too. What we got from our parents was a solid foundation and a quite healthy financial situation. What we leave to our children is pure disaster. Shame on us. And even now we don't want to change our ways. We want our self-approved ponzi packages, and do not care about any other generation and how they can possibly finance this, even more so after we leave them with so much debt already. Debt that was created by the part of our consumption that we actually did not pay for and put on the "credit card".
For a quick read, I refer you to these charts: http://www.scribd.com/doc/45835558/Econ ... April-2010.
So from a generational point of view:
- post-war generation (our parents): saved more than they consumed, left us savings and low level of indebtedness
- baby boomers (us, the ponzi generation): consumed more than we saved, ran indebtedness up fourfold (not counting "entitlements")!
- generation x and thereafter: forced to save more than they consume, left wondering why they cannot have the same standard of living as their parents, must pay parents debt back and muddle through the prolonged economic crisis created by their parents with their big spending ways
I know it's hard to accept, but the facts are the facts. That's why I say, "The baby boomers have in effect used their parents, their own, and their children's resources."
I do not take your broad -brush stroke indictment of the "baby boomers" personally. I point out that your assertion (including your support)that "baby boomers" are the cause of the crisis is false. I base my opinion on the fact that I do not fit your profile and you further support my opinion when you state: "There are many financially responsible baby boomers....". Further, your supported data only provides a probable cause not the likely source of the crisis.
That being said, I believe that there are elements of the population that have contributed significantly to this situation. But, I cannot point my finger at any one generation. I believe that this problem stretches across class and generations. It is greed and ignorance personified. My beloved Country has become an entitlement society created in part through denial, lack of self-respect and fiscal irresponsibility. There is no accountability.
Yes, our standard of living is declining and will continue to decline until we hit bottom. Along the way the elected officials will continue the same pattern. We are now more aware of their conduct because as "baby boomers" we are beginning to realize that we are going to suffer the most, especially those of us that fit your indictment. Because whatever percentage of "baby boomers" are ill prepared (of the 80 million strong)-there is no money to carry them. I have no plan as an American, after a life of fiscal responsibility, patriotism and depression era mentality, either to receive SS (I have never dipped into the public trough) or to dig into my pocket to support those of us who displayed your indicted characteristics.