{"id":3240,"date":"2013-02-08T21:15:00","date_gmt":"2013-02-09T02:15:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jimgworld.com\/blog1\/?p=3240"},"modified":"2013-02-05T20:56:16","modified_gmt":"2013-02-06T01:56:16","slug":"my-sick-generation-baby","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jimgworld.com\/blog1\/?p=3240","title":{"rendered":"My (sick) Generation, Baby"},"content":{"rendered":"

A recent study<\/a> indicates that Baby Boomers on average have worse health than their parents’ generation did. Being an aging Boomer, this really disappoints me. My generation sold itself on being so hip and enlightened, so ready to change the world and set it free. I thought that we were earthy and close to nature and body conscious, that we exercised and ate healthy (organic even), and thus were going to age gracefully. We despised big-business manipulation and thus would avoid all the salivatory temptations laid before us by Pepsi and Burger King and Kraft foods, i.e. high calorie fast foods and microwave-heated processed meals and high-fat munchies from big plastic bags. But no, on average we are more overweight and sicker and have higher blood pressure than our parents had at this point in life. We might be living longer than they did, but only because of medical science; we will be depending greatly on its expensive nostrums to delay the inevitable end of our confused, contradictory, self-absorbed lives.<\/p>\n

And in the process of using so much expensive medical care at the government’s expense (Medicare isn’t going to be touched despite GOP lectures about fiscal responsibility), we are dragging down the nation’s economic growth and making a much more difficult future for today’s kids and young adults. Various Baby Boomer commentators including economist Robert Samuelson
\n(“There\u2019s a huge redistribution from young to old<\/a> \u2014 a redistribution that will be made worse if retiree programs are largely excluded from deficit reduction . . . taxes will rise steeply or other federal programs will be cut sharply. The young will pay more and get less. . . “) and pundit David Brooks (e.g., “entitlement spending is crowding out spending on investments in our children<\/a> and on infrastructure . . . the real entitlement problem is Medicare”, and “Seniors vote. . . as a result, seniors are being protected while children are getting pummeled<\/a>. If you look across the country, you see education financing getting sliced. . .”) repeatedly explain how the federal budget deficits that are being caused by entitlement commitment to the aging Baby Boom generation will suck vitality out of the US economy for the next 25 years or so. Young people just entering the working world today will still be paying off our bills in 2040, through high taxes and reduced economic growth. Their standard of living and opportunities for betterment will clearly be impacted by “my generation”. <\/p>\n

I’m really disappointed to hear that we Baby Boomers are acting so irresponsibly. We’re still politically powerful and conscious (remember all of our “organizing” skills from the 60s and 70s), so we will get out and vote. Thus, as Mr. Brooks admits, we will be able to fight off most attempts by younger politicians like Congressman Paul Ryan to get our entitlement costs “under control”. That’s nice; making good on long-term promises is the right thing to do. But we Boomers are not being grateful and careful about this; we’re indulging in bad habits and getting fat and sick without thinking what this will do to the world we will leave behind, and about the people who will struggle to get by in it. We were the generation of love, but we don’t seem to be translating that love into foresight to help our children (I’m using the not-so-royal “our” here, as I don’t have any kids). <\/p>\n

So, to all you 20 and 30-something people out there, I can only offer apologies for “my generation” and its hypocrisy and ultimate lack of character. I can understand why you might want to turn a certain line from our own anthem, “My Generation” by the Who, against us. I.e, “why don’t you all fade away . . . “<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A recent study indicates that Baby Boomers on average have worse health than their parents’ generation did. Being an aging Boomer, this really disappoints me. My generation sold itself on being so hip and enlightened, so ready to change the world and set it free. I thought that we were earthy and close to nature […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13,8,23],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jimgworld.com\/blog1\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3240"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jimgworld.com\/blog1\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jimgworld.com\/blog1\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jimgworld.com\/blog1\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jimgworld.com\/blog1\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3240"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/jimgworld.com\/blog1\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3240\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3243,"href":"https:\/\/jimgworld.com\/blog1\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3240\/revisions\/3243"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jimgworld.com\/blog1\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3240"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jimgworld.com\/blog1\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3240"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jimgworld.com\/blog1\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3240"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}