Young people want to spend money on jobs and schools. The old like war and Social Security

[J_J_]

Three of these trends are intuitive. People over 65 are fans of a government program whose main purpose is giving money to people over 65. And you'd expect a population segment made up overwhelmingly of retirees not to be especially concerned about job creation. You'd also expect people under 35 — who may still be in college, or have student debt, or have kids starting to enter school — to care more about education.

The military spending trend is where this gets really interesting. You can think of reasons for why young people would be less inclined to spend a lot on defense. Older people are likelier to be veterans and to have friends who were veterans, for one. But all of the most plausible theories have nothing to do with life cycles. If knowing or being a veteran helps explain this, then one would expect younger people to put a lower priority on defense spending more or less indefinitely, as the all-volunteer military isn't going anywhere, and if anything should be expected to shrink relative to the population.

There's no obvious reason to think the share of adults under 35 who think military spending should be a major priority will grow over time. And if it doesn't, that implies a pretty significant political shift on that issue.

http://cdn1.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/6zM13V7ithmq5Bo-BD8Vfshih9k=/800x0/filters:no_upscale%28%29/cdn0.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/2404502/us-age-most-impt-gov-spending.0.png

http://www.vox.com/xpress/2014/10/30/7091339/government-spending-defense-education-jobs-social-security


How is it then, they expect us to believe that Millennials are turning out to support Republicans?

Because the media is a bunch of fucking liars!

[J_J_]

1. don't believe me? Read these comments from millennials at Reddit

http://www.reddit.com/r/politics/comments/2ks94n/young_people_want_to_spend_money_on_jobs_and/

There is no way in hell young people are turning out to vote for Republicans.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

2. I'm old. I don't like war and I do support spending on jobs and schools.

Yes, I also support Social Security because I paid into it for 45 years and it's now an important part of the income I need to live on. But I care about job creation and education because I don't want to spend my "golden" years in a society consisting largely of people who are ignorant and/or unemployed; that's a recipe for social disaster. When I was young, there was this thing called the draft. I am not suggesting reinstating the draft, but it sure got young people paying attention to what war was all about. Everything looks different when you have some skin in the game.

[J_J_]

3. looks like young people already understand the uselessness of corporate wars

Which is why they would never go out to vote for Republicans

[Bluenorthwest]

9. And yet the wars are fought by volunteers who volunteer young. It's not senior citizens piloting

bombers. It's young people. If they universally reject wars, they need to universally stop fighting them. I remember when the youth of this country were doing massive protests of war. Burning draft cards, which the 'youth' no longer need worry about....

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

10. If you can't get a job, the military might look like a good deal.

[Old Codger]

7. What you said N/T

[DustyJoe]

4. threads by younguns

[–]pok3_smot [score hidden] 6 hours ago
This is why we need a constitutional amendment to ban people over 50 or so from voting.
permalink

With the above sample from the link above I see little support for
some of the ageist millennials. The old fossils they denegrate in a
large part ensured their right to vote.

[J_J_]

5. they are angry that the boomers enjoyed the best economy in the US to get theirs

and have pulled the ladder up behind them.

I read DU for the boomer perspective, Reddit for millennials...I'm an Xer


I appreciate everything previous generations have done, but someone seriously dropped the ball on accountability and it is not the younger generations fault although they get much of blame and the repercussions.

[alarimer]

6. Not the boomers fault at all.

They didn't "pull up the ladder." They got screwed. By the same forces that have always screwed people over.

Corporations and politicians. Politicians who lie to get elected, then screw people over (Bill Clinton and NAFTA, Reagan and just about anything).

The sooner we stop this intergenerational blame game, the better off we will be. We should all be on the same side.

[J_J_]

15. I agree we need to unite

But some Boomers are responsible for electing politicians who cut taxes for the wealthy and said it would trickle down.

Education was once cheap, Kids are now leaving college with debt the size of a home.

I know it wasn't the boomers on this site, which is why people are reacting, but as a whole, bad choices were made that led us down this path.

Millennials had no choice in how we got here, but they are ready to do something. Gen Xers need to do more that's for sure, and the boomers need to wake up that lost hope crushed by the deaths of so many of our great leaders.

We do need to unite.

This is our country God Bless it, and we really need some help here. Learned helplessness and hopelessness have taken over.

But we can turn this around.

[JHB]

12. What it says to me is that millenials have grown up in an environment...

...saturated with lots of RW hippie-hate and and very little guidance on who is doing the screwing (it ain't a generational thing -- it's cross-generational from a particular sector).

[J_J_]

19. but millennial values are more aligned with the values of the hippies according to this

They know who is doing the screwing.

They want US to help people with food, with education, and stop bombing people.

[Bluenorthwest]

8. I've never met even one of these people who allegedly exist who somehow favor their own current

age group needs exclusively. Never met young people who do not know they will be old people later. Never ever met any old people who are not highly focused on their own offspring and grandchildren having a great future, I have in fact known dozens of elders who gave up shit tons of things so they could leave them to or just given them to their families. Dozens of them. Never met a one who does not give a shit about the younger generations, nor have I met many young people who are not aware that their own youth is not a lasting and definitive characteristic but a temporary state.
If 'the youth voter' is 18-30, the most Presidential elections one youth can vote in is 4, if they turn 18 in an election year. A transient time. Some in that age group are hard right wingers. Some are not. Politics are not a function of age.

[J_J_]

18. Never ever met any old people who are not highly focused on their own offspring and grandchildren

"Never ever met any old people who are not highly focused on their own offspring and grandchildren having a great future"


wow, really?

I guess I have met many more selfish people than you.

How do you explain the entire Republican party?

Sorry, but there is no way in hell they think what they are doing is for the good of the country, or the future of their children and grandchildren. They are all about me me me mine mine mine. They don't really pretend to hide it.

[MineralMan]

11. I'm 69 years old. When I was 21, I supported Social Security

and opposed the Vietnam war. When I was in my 30s, I supported Social Security and started working for myself as a freelance journalist. when I was in my 40's, I was a freelance journalist. I supported Social Security. My parents were getting to the age when they'd be getting it. When I was in my 50s, I supported Social Security and still worked against war. In my 60s, I started getting Social Security and still opposed war. I never had children but have supported every increase in my property taxes that went toward supporting the school system.

I'm still working, since the Bush economic collapse wiped out my retirement savings. Guess what? I'm still paying social security taxes. I'm still a freelance writer and still working for myself. Even though I'm getting a Social Security payment every month and am on Medicare, every dollar I earn through my writing is taxed at about 18% for the "Self-Employment Tax" and that goes into the Social Security fund. Interestingly enough, the SSA recalculates my benefit every year, based on my additional years of earnings. I won't be retiring. I'll never be able to afford to do so. I'll be writing for income until I cannot write any longer.

You're wrong when you lump "old people" into some group and make statements about them. I don't characterize Generation X or the Millennials as anything in general. Each is an individual. Some are probably as you describe. Others are not. You're always wrong when you group people by age or any other characteristic that cannot be avoided. Ageism, like most biases, are wrong. There are lots and lots of older people on DU, and they support the same things you support, for the most part. When you speak in general about "old people" or "millennials," you will always be incorrect, because there is nothing about either age group that is universal.

Please don't do that.

[J_J_]

13. of course it is wrong to stereotype

But this article is based on a poll so I was referencing that.

Of course the whole thing is generalization, but my main point is that overall, it doesn't seem like millennials are turning toward the GOP, like the media is trying to tell us.

not. happening.

[MineralMan]

14. And yet you did stereotype.

Always an error. Some millennials are Republicans. Others are Democrats. Still others are something else. There is nothing you can say about any age group that is generally accurate. Nothing, except their age.

[J_J_]

16. I would like to see intelligent dialogue from the growing number of millennials turning Republican

Is there a message board where young people are discussing the future of America and they think Republicans are providing solutions?

I sure as hell haven't seen any.

Reddit is the most popular board for young people, there are no Republicans who post anything of substance in the politics section.
They have a private board where they get together to attack certain posters, but their numbers are very low.

Where can I find this growing group of millennials voting for Republicans that the corporate media has informed me of?

Most millennials are on the net (is that a generalization?) so where are they?

[MineralMan]

17. I can't answer your question. For political discussion, DU

is the only place I go. You'll have to find someone who ranges over a broader spectrum than me to get an answer.