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Edited on Thu Feb-25-10 03:51 PM by SoCalDem
While we boomers were working our asses off , paying INTO the system, they were generously buying off giving the elders (our parents & grandparents) nice increases in benefits & services...(bear in mind that THESE folks were also the ones who got $1-down houses they could afford, cheap cars, free, or nearly free educations, decent interest rates for their savings, union jobs that kept ahead of costs, and pensions too)... These people voted in larger numbers than their boomer children/grandchildren, so they were well-rewarded for their candidate support...with Boomer-money..
I always knew that the "greatest generation" was taking way more than "their share", and that when I was old, there would be a lot less for me.. I also "knew" that the whole 401-k thing would end up being a boon for a few, but a big flop for most of us. Handing over hard-earned cash every week to strangers on Wall Street to play with.. .. with them knowing you could not even access it for decades, was NOT a good idea..and now everyone knows what they did with all that money for all those decades.. They gambled it away, and paid themselves handsomely too.. They did send us lovely statements quarterly, to make us think we had some wealth, but even Bernie Madoff sent out lovely looking statements, ans we all know what happened there.
The one difference in our circumstance now, is that old people now have massive debt. In past generations, people did not embrace debt like recent generations have had to do (wages do not keep up with costs, so debt becomes the way to bridge the gap).
Globalization did away with real job/wage growth, we have few if any pensions, we are bogged down in debt, living in houses we owe more on than they are worth, our jobs went bye-bye, and now we are figuring out that , at the end of our rainbow is a pot of IOUs that will never be redeemed..
But hey.. rich people got their taxes lowered a LOT during those decades, and they have more buying power than ever, and their kids are doing just great..
America...what a country :(
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