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Welcome To The Third World, Part 4: Boomers Reap What They’ve Sown

by John Rubino on December 19, 2011 · 90 comments

It was fun while it lasted. We Baby Boomers got to diss our elders when we were young and borrow without restraint through middle-age. Few generations have traveled such a smooth stretch of financial/psychological highway.

But now that we’re…old…the world we created isn’t so congenial. Our savings are inadequate, jobs are scarce, and retirement, as a result, is out of reach for many of us. We are, in short, reaping what we’ve sown these past four decades. From today’s Wall Street Journal:

Oldest Baby Boomers Face Jobs Bust
Many older Americans fear they will be working well into their 60s because they didn’t save enough to retire. Millions more wish they were that lucky: Without full-time jobs, they are short of money and afraid of what lies ahead.

Deborah Kallick was a professor of biomedical chemistry at the University of Minnesota until she ventured into the private sector in 2000 with a job in genome research. She is now one of more than four million Americans aged 55 to 64 who can’t find full-time work. That number has nearly doubled in five years, according to U.S. Department of Labor figures in October.

Ms. Kallick, 60 years old, has been unemployed since 2007 and lives in the Northern California home of an ex-boyfriend. She has run out of unemployment insurance, used up most of her retirement savings and is indebted to relatives and credit-card companies.

A good job could settle her accounts, she said. Until then, Ms. Kallick relies on generosity, occasional consulting work and the sale of sweaters, purses and other possessions on eBay.

“It is very hard to work through this and learn to be calm and happy day to day,” said Ms. Kallick, who never married. “It has taken a lot of strength and courage to learn to do that.”

Older Baby Boomers are trying to postpone retirement, as many find their spending habits far outpaced their thrift. With U.S. unemployment at 8.6%, and much higher among people in their teens and 20s, younger members of the labor pool accuse Boomers of refusing to gracefully exit the workplace.

But their long-held grip is slipping, as employers look past older Americans to younger, cheaper workers.
The Labor Department counts people as unemployed only if they have looked for a job in the previous month. By that definition, 6.5% of workers aged 55 to 64 were unemployed in October, below the national average but more than twice the jobless rate for the group five years earlier.

Taking into account the number of older people who want full-time work but are unemployed, working part-time or need a job but have quit looking, the percentage jumps to 17.4%, or 4.3 million Americans ages 55 to 64, according to the government data. The number has grown from 2.4 million in October 2006.

This group without full-time work now accounts for more than one in six older Americans seeking positions.

In some ways, older people are doing better than everyone else: Among all U.S. workers, 20% are unemployed, underemployed or have given up looking for jobs. But older people have far less time to rebuild savings.

“This is new. It is different. It is worse than we have experienced before and it is very widespread,” said Carl Van Horn, head of the John J. Heldrich Center for Workforce Development at Rutgers University. “It is going to get worse. You are going to have a higher level of poverty among older Americans.”

Older people have more trouble finding new jobs. Among unemployed workers older than 55, more than half have been looking for more than two years, compared with 31% of younger workers, according to the Heldrich Center. Among older workers who found a new job, 72% took a pay cut, often a big one, the Rutgers data show.

The problem has been building for decades: Inflation-adjusted, middle-class incomes have stagnated in parallel with a free-spending culture of indebtedness that has left many Americans with too little saved. Over the same time, many U.S. companies cut pensions and shifted to less-generous retirement-savings plans such as 401(k) accounts that have stagnated or diminished in the market tumult of past years.

Older families aren’t just failing to save, they are increasingly draining accounts that were supposed to help finance retirement.

The median household headed by someone aged 55 to 64 has $87,200 in retirement accounts and other financial assets, according to Strategic Business Insights’ MacroMonitor database. If each of the 4.3 million unemployed or underemployed people in this age group runs through half the family savings, that will, in theory, total $188 billion in lost retirement money.

The typical retirement-age household has too little saved to maintain its standard of living in retirement, according to actuarial and Federal Reserve data.

Financial planners often advise that retirement resources be large enough to provide 85% of a person’s working income. Median households headed by a person aged 60 to 62 with a 401(k) account have saved less than one-quarter of what is needed in that account to live as well in retirement, according to Fed data analyzed for The Wall Street Journal by the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College.

The trouble spreads across generations. Older people hang on to jobs or, out of desperation, take lower-level jobs for which they are over-qualified. Either way, they displace younger workers.

In the past, older people who lost jobs often gave up and retired. No longer. In October, two-thirds of people aged 55 to 64 had jobs or wanted them, up from 59% in 1994, according to Labor Department data.

At an age when they should be generating peak incomes and savings, many unemployed and underemployed Americans are applying for early Social Security benefits and spending what’s left in their retirement accounts.

Kathi Paladie, 64 years old, lost her job as an executive assistant at a mortgage company in Tacoma, Wash., six years ago. She hasn’t found full-time work since but works occasionally as a phone interviewer for a political survey firm.

Her retirement savings is spent, and she said her monthly $800 Social Security checks, $100-a-week unemployment benefits and occasional paychecks barely cover expenses.

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Tagged as: debt, depression, gold, inflation, silver

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Bruce C.

A sad and disturbing article. Foreboding too in that young people may also experience the same thing for most of their adult lives if real incomes stagnate or diminish because they too may never be able to save or invest without living very frugally compared to the Boomers’ generation.

Also, the article failed to mention another category of Boomers’ in dire straits – those who speculated too much and lost big – which are the situations of most of the Boomers’ I know. Ironically, they did save and invest enough to be very well off even now had they invested more conservatively but were impatient and greedy and tried to make outsized gains too quickly.

But this is still a very bifurcated economy. For those who have jobs, and never lost them, very little has changed, which is still the vast majority. Here in South Florida I see little evidence of any kind of economic recession or personal financial hardship. Quite the contrary, in fact, which makes the articles I read at websites like this one seem apocryphal.

Perhaps an acquaintance summarized it best in saying, “There is so much crazy stuff going on that I can’t do anything about. Every prediction, both good ones and bad ones, I’ve heard for the last few years have been wrong. Whatever happens will probably be different than any one thinks. In the meantime, everything just keeps on going as usual.”
- David
  
  Bruce, I live in south Florida, too. The company I work for is having a difficult time making a computer transistion and we have more temps than regular staff in shipping now. It will be that way until at least Feb. Our Christmas party was put off until Feb so we could catch up on the work.
  
  The many immigrants here makes the difference. They know the value of not living beyond their means, and the value of community and family support.
  
  The rest of the country, I can’t speak for, but I expect to work until I die. No regrets about that, I knew from long ago that there are simply too many of us Boomers for us to collectively sit around in retirement for long.
  
  We will need a military coup in America to set things straight. There are too many people in power looting the wealth instead of sharing, and too many people who think the government can actually solve problems.
  - nv
    
    Have you ever lived thru a military coup. Please ask those immigrant friends of yours if they have ever lived thru one and how they feel.
    
    This is as good as a good administration can be. The only presidential candidate who is willing to speak this language is Ron Paul. Focus on electing him instead of jokers who talk about moon landing colonies, blaming the poor for all the failures and finally the change promiser who nobody can believe in anymore.
    - David
      
      Without outside intervention no matter who you vote for the government gets reelected. I intend to vote for Ron Paul, but he can’t govern properly with so many inmates running the asylum.
- Jason Emery
  
  Bruce C. said, “For those who have jobs, and never lost them, very little has changed…..”
  
  Actually, a lot has changed. The value of their homes has lost 35% or more. Their stock portfolios are down a bit. Their pensions are even MORE underfunded than they were a few years ago. Their pay has been stagnant, but the cost of everything except houses has gone way up.
  
  This is why all the consumer sentiment surveys are so low. People are still spending, but they are well aware that the economy is in trouble.
  - Bruce C.
    
    I was trying to express the dilemma that I see people are in. All of these articles that JR features represent the many facets of what’s going on. Fortunately (or maybe unfortunately in terms of forcing needed change) a lot of people are still doing okay. Nothing yet has motivated them to action. Okay, housing prices are down for themselves – but for everyone else as well (that’s a wash). Ditto for stock portfolios, pension funding, and all the rest.
    
    There is still a lot of complacency despite it all. Even Peter Schiff, I was surprised to hear, thinks Ann Barnhardt’s call for a boycott of the financial industry by ordinary investors is too extreme.
    
    (http://beforeitsnews.com/story/1541/898/Peter_Schiff_Interviews_Ann_Barnhardt_-_12_21_Video.html)
    
    How can he think that? That is probably one of the easiest and least violent and destructive things that every one could do to send a clear message, or at least just take away the punch bowl and shake things up.
    
    What has been one of the secret fears of the Congress for decades now? A taxpayer revolt. That’s the same kind of thing.
    - Jason Emery
      
      Yeah, it would be a disaster for the masters if the little guys all pulled the remnants of their funds out of the market. However, it is going to happen eventually, probably in slow motion.
      
      For one thing, just because someone has a job, and can pay the bills/mortgage (and of course, many cannot) doesn’t mean they have enough to add to investment portfolios. Just the opposite, I’m guessing. I believe there is a net outflow from the market, as us 99% ers struggle to keep up and extract cash.
      
      Sorry I don’t have a link, but I believe many investors that got burned in the dotcom crash never reentered the market, and the 2008 meltdown was more of the same. There is still a lot of volume, but most of it is high frequency traders selling back and forth.
Marc

“or inflating it away (evaporating the nest eggs of savers who own bonds, cash, or bank CD, also making retirement a lot harder). Either way, Boomers are the main victims.” This is already taking place. Ironically, those who did somehow manage to do the right thing are being punished/sacrificed with interest rates paid on savings that are well below the real rate of price increases. Expressed another way, the value of hard earned nest eggs is being siphoned off at a rather alarming rate and transferred to politically favored groups.

Winter is setting in and the grasshoppers are found to greatly outnumber ants. It is not surprising that the political solution is to loot the ant’s stockpiles without regard for dire consequences.
Hollow man

If you think you can lower yourself to become a redneck, there is plenty of work out here. Clean drug screen, reliable. Your hired, short proving period and you will move up. Where do you ask? West Texas , Southeast NM. Pays the bills feeds the belly, Medical insurance, peace of mind. But you will be destroying the earth in the oilpatch or enriching urianium, prison, horse races, casnino. We have a new plant that will be starting construction soon. Converting plants , algee that is, to deisel fuel. A new potash mine is also in the area. Not much water but a lot of hunting, 4 wheeling, dirt bikes ect..
Hollow man

Oh wait a sec. I forgot there is this lizard out here in the desert that may shut it all down. EPA at work again we wil know in 6 months if Americans will starve so afew lizards can live.
http://Vistagraphs.net Steve A. Mizera

I retired early with no savings or assets in 2004 and with a debt of almost half a millon dollars.

My plan has worked well: I filed bankruptcy, let my inflated valued house go back to the bank, gave back my brand new motorhome, bought a few lots in Oregon and downsized to live within my means while traveling. No utility as I live free from the sun and wind.

It has been a great time. I fully expect the economy of this country will collapse and the world will see its greatest depression. There is only one word to blame it on: GREED.
- MissyT
  
  Steve; you took responsibility and did something rather than sit and grouse about it. Kudos to you.
  
  I don’t agree with the simplicity of the word greed….it is bad behavior and bad values which can be attributed to poor control and instant gratification that society says we must have this or must have that…..everyone thinks they are a diva or other reality star and want all the trappings of a “star”. They bought the concept that “things” make them what they are instead of individual responsibility, being a person of your word and doing what is right instead of doing what gets you 15 minutes of fame. The drive to achieve and aspire to a level of success in business that neither cheats or lies is fine with me and those people who do it correctly deserve the betterment of their lives.
Kim Beaney

Well it is obvious most boomers are stupid and will get whats coming to them ,duuuhhhh!
Now if they were smart they would bet the farm (or what is left of it) and buy PHYSICAL SILVER!
http://www.mindmagic123.com Hypnosis Hypnotherapy – Los Angeles

Scary, I’m 70 today, still working. My income has declined about 50% this year.
People don’t have the money for my services. Unfortunately the macro situation is worse. The cost of the wars has impoverished the country. The interest on the deficit is huge and rising. States and municipalities spent the same way, as if economic growth was ever-expanding. Don’t see much hope on the horizon.
Pea Knuckle

Here in Southern Spain there is still work in the “black” labor markets. 10 Euros per hour and there are loads of Spaniards who even show for up for menial work clearing brush, building walls, etc. With an 18% VAT, at some point the Eurocrats will try to reclaim all the “lost” tax revenue “stolen” by “tax cheats” just like they are in Italy and Greece. They will impose capital controls and try to force all monetary transactions to be controlled by the state. The socialists are in a race against time, they have to get complete control before the system collapses or they will completely lose control.
joeblow

Obama will fix it. He’s working on it for the next few weeks in Hawaii.
john

It is a slow process, but we are being lead to believe that we are at fault for the “state of the world” and not the corrupt and fraudulent bankers, financiers and politicians. Forget that fact that we are bombarded by the physiologically perfected advertising and economic structure designed and built to rob our parents, the baby boomers and our children’s’ wealth.

Although I got into a little credit card debit I have been able to pay it off. I bought a home that I could afford! I refinanced 6 years ago and avoided the recommendations of the broker to sell me a bunch of equity. I live a frugal life. The question I ask before buying…..”do I need it or do I want it?” I rarely I buy what I want, I buy only what I need! I keep my needs basic.

I know many former counter culture folks (hippies) from my youth who gave up the simple life for one’s of three piece suits, 4000 sq ft homes and being more at ease with bankers, doctors, lawyers than the 99 percent. They sold their souls!

In short I did everything right! I was a good consumer until I realized that I’m a citizen not a consumer-serf! The only vote we have left is how we spend our money and who we do business with. Witness what happened to Bank of America when the “citizens” stood up and said “hell no!”

I will not accept any blame!
- Robert
  
  The banksters are to blame… and so are the “former hippies” you absolve, who set the stage for the barbarian bankers and their post-modern relativism.
  
  Deny it all you will, but as Jefferson said, “”And can the liberties of a nation be thought secure when we have removed their only firm basis, a conviction in the minds of the people that these liberties are the gift of God? That they are not to be violated but with his wrath? Indeed I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just: that his justice cannot sleep for ever.” –Thomas Jefferson, Notes on the State of Virginia, Query 18, 1781
  - john
    
    Let’s see…who had more influence. A bunch of hippies, or the politicians and bankers. So, tell me in detail how a bunch of hippies caused the bankers to go gaga over cheep money. That’s right, the hippies allowed corporations to act and citizens under the Constitution. Remember Jifferson owned slaves! So, be careful about you give credit to.
    
    PS: What does your god have to do with anything?
    - Penny
      
      Dear John,
      Those “hippies”? They are hiding in the White House giving advice to Mr.Hope and Change. Remember…it is the politicians who MAKE the loopholes and SELL legislation to favor the banks and industry, while making huge gains in their personal wealth while making “public service” salaries. Amazing how these “public servants” make millions in insider trading that the rest of us would go to jail for. Disgusting.
      Sorry, also John, that you do not believe in Divine Providence and that our rights do come from God. Our Constitution is based on that premise. If you think that government gives you those rights, then don’t be suprised that they take them as well. I pray that the day never comes, but it seems to be a fore gone conclusion with Mr. Executive Order while the Sheeple wait for the next installment of the Kardashians. Also disgusting!
Tony D

I’m lucky that at 50 I live in Australia and can see the crisis coming. I’m saving steadily but my 401k (superannuation) will never be enough at it’s current rate of growth, so I’ve diversified – property, PMs and cash, as I believe wealth has to flow somewhere, even if it is being reallocated by inflation.
Reading this article makes me happy I’m a school teacher so I can work pretty well as long as I want/can if necessary. My sympathy goes to people who are trapped in circumstances not of their making, decent hard working people who are just being chewed up in these unfortunate times.
I think it is kind of hard blaming Baby Boomers for the individual devastation they are facing as they(we) are products of a system that largely conditioned them(us) to trust that the future would always be bright. The system also distracted Boomers through culture, entertainment and sport.
There is a reason depressions are about 80 years apart – that is about the span of a human life and collective consciousness fades over this time span. People who go through the turmoil in the next few years will be changed by it forever. What Boomers think of as austerity will actually become the norm.
John hit a lot of nails on the head with this article and that’s a sad thing.
eugene

My issue is the BS blaming of the boomers but then it’s very, very difficult for Americans to see a larger picture. That takes a thought process in scant supply. Far easier to pick out this or that group to rant about. We ALL played and now we’ll ALL pay. Get used to it. Suck it up, accept responsibility and get on with it.

Every single American, of all ages except for the very young, benefitted from all this. Untold millions of 20s, 30s and 40s did their full share in this mess. I drive by the local high school and see a lot full of cars way newer than mine driven to school by kids. College students graduating with useless degrees by the hundreds of thousands. Student loans used for skiing trips and other leisure activities. 30 yr olds with jet skis, new trucks, big houses and massive debt. Lets all take a deep breath and settle down. 40 yr olds wildly planning on retirement at 50. Turn it into an age thing if you like but admit what you’re doing. I know a whole lot of people, of all ages, who worked damned hard for pittance wages and barely fed themselves/families.

I read predictions of all this nearly 20 yrs ago. It was one helluva party with kids, parents and grandparents having a high old time. Anybody with an ounce of common sense saw the danger and many did. We turned into a nation of under educated, lazy, over paid and over benefitted people who simply couldn’t compete in a global market.
- John Galt
  
  It’s not a particular age group that’s responsible for the mess we’re in. It’s those who have voted for Republicans and/or Democrats. I won’t have any sympathy for them when the SHTF. We will not only witness a collapse of the dollar, but probably another civil war in an effort to reestablish the republic outlined in the Constitution. Thomas Jefferson warned us about democracy, which he considered to be a “tyranny of the majority”. It’s unfortunate that so few get it.
Rob

At least the boomers got to enjoy the good times. We gen-Xers are having our wealth and incomes confiscated to pay for the boomers’ and “greatest generation”‘s survival.
- Lisa
  
  I totally agree Rob. As far as I’m concerned, the boomers and the greatest gens had their chance at the american dream and they squandered it for the rest of us. And these are the people in power! These are the people who vote! Whining about the poor, whining that they don’t have what they used to!
  I’m 38, I have 2 science degrees, earn a decent wage (by today’s standards), live in a good urban neighborhood, I’ve never owned a new car, barely got into the housing market, and can’t save money to save my life because it’s all out in taxes and good ol fashioned food, utilities, day care, gasoline, medical bills, etc. I will never live the good life, my vacations are camping trips at best and I WILL NEVER BE ABLE TO RETIRE. This is it for me.
  My children are another story…..
- escapefromobamastan
  
  I remember for the last 40 years of my life, and I am a boomer, having vast amounts of money confiscated from MY paycheck to pay for the previous generation’s survival.
MissyT

Well, I guess I’m going to be the one boomer who is going to say the worst. Many, but not all, who spent their money, no matter what generation, on big screen TV’s, boats, mega-mansions, leased cars, newest phone on the market every 3 months, etc., are now wondering where the money is?? I spent years forgoing the newest car, patching up my car and seeing it as transportation not the latest status symbol, paying down my mortgage, buying wisely overall in many categories, to save for that rainy day – which is now. So now that others who didn’t save a penny for the rainy day want me to pay more taxes and “share” the wealth…..to what extent? I donate to charities – faithbased, animal rescue, USO, St. Jude Hospital, etc., the gambit really. I get fried when people say the wealthy have to give more…I guess since I’m still producing tax revenue for the state and fed I guess I’m one of the 53% that are still giving, but how much more should I give. Let me tell you that when they start asking for even more, then I will consider giving up my revenue producing work and sit back and let the fed/state tank, because until the hard working tax producing people refuse to pay more and more tax to support the waste and those getting food stamps, disability and free cell phones, etc., that are lying to get these perks it just won’t stop. I’ll gladly give to the truly disabled, the elderly and infirm; just don’t ask me to give to the lyers who just keep taking government money and saying they are disabled and can’t work because they are stressed…who isn’t?
- Rachael
  
  Your arrogant conceit is palpable.
  
  The significant minority who overspent made your life possible (at least in our debt-based currency economy). As many a MF Global customer are learning, we all participated in, and made this economy possible. As horribly unfair as you may feel about the outcome, you are going to pay the price too.
  
  However I feel that I must be the one to point out the worst, and that is that you will suffer for the system, not the individuals you feel that have done wrong.
  
  A trillion dollars of revolving debt and maybe another trillion in sub-prime mortgages extended to people that couldn’t afford the payments isn’t what is (will be) bringing our economy to its knees in the near future. Those things are affordable, in the grand scheme of things, a debt-based currency on the other hand is inescapable.
  - QQQBall
    
    Arrogant? I am financially independent and I grew up dirt poor. I live on the same property I bought in the mid-1980′s – I have a car with 240k which runs like a top b/c I maintain it – BTW, I bought it used – never have owned a new car and never spent more than $4k on a used one either. The property has a couple of other houses on it, so I have been a landlord for +/-35 years, but b/c I bought right, I have lived for free and paid the mortgage off long ago – aided by the rents from tenants. I sold other investment r.e. from 2004 through 2007 and paid my silent partner – Uncle Sam. IF you ever wake-up, look and see what the huge tax bite is: State, Feds and the accrued depreciation is charged at Income rate I believe (CPA handled all that). I have been self-employed for over 3 decades and that is NOT a walk in the park – I still have a sec’y in another state and my daughter also far away does some drawings and exhibits for me to earn money while she is in college, but NO more employees – I charge more for less and do not have to worry about supporting others – been there, done that and with ObummerCare, who knows what will happen. BTW, I started in my profession at a whopping $6/hour back then and slept on a buddys couch for months b/c I was unsure I would make it – and I worked my ass off. AS you can guess, I have no debt, still work very hard, etc… although alot of the CF is going to kids educations.
    
    People never developed the ability to think independently and critically and that’s why they are screwed… the problem is that my purchasing power is getting redistributed to the 1% and bottom whatever % (30%). Its been 4 years now, the rescue search should be called off… let the losers, including the banksters, sink or they will take us all down. If Boomers were honest and reviewed how much money has run through their hands, they would be embarrassed to be in the circumstances they find themselves in today.
    
    Read your “money of your life” and “cashing in on the american dream, how to retire at 35″. The article title is correct, USA w/o the ability to borrow is already a 3rd world country.
    
    “engendered” was an interesting choice of words john… I cannot think of a better one though.
Jon

Ron Paul’s Secret Weapon: US!!!!!!!

http://djia.tv/ron-paul/ron-pauls-secret-weapon-us-lets-do-this/
http://millout.com Matt Holbert

John-

Based on the number of responses, this is a topic that resonates with a large number of people. While I’m aware that evolutionarily we adapt rather than seek fitness, I still find it amazing that we got ourselves in this predicament…

We are going to muddle our way to a new paradigm, one way or another. It is safe to say that most of us will become gardeners or farmers. For those in the Inland Northwest there is a 6 weekend Permaculture Design Course coming up: http://inlandnorthwestpermaculture.com/ …

This weekend format may make sense for those in the Moscow, ID area.
MissyT

This is about Greed and very revealing – said 30 years ago
This is Phil Donahue interviewing Milton Friedman thirty years ago.
The audience is notably silent.
http://dauckster.posterous.com/a-31-year-old-video-clip-absolutely-worth-you
- Rachael
  
  Friedman is certainly no prophet, and his appearing wise was merely a brief interlude to his overarching idiocy.
  
  http://www.lewrockwell.com/rothbard/rothbard43.html
paper is poverty

A generation tends to get defined by some subgroup that was particularly visible, but… most baby boomers were not hippies and did not participate in the counter culture. Actually, it seems to me that the boomer generation has been singularly unable to question authority. I don’t think they were greedy or selfish or lazy, I think they were simply complacent because they so readily believe what they’re told. Starting off with Better Living Through Science! and the American Way, and all that Cold War propaganda. More recently they’re being told that Social Security will be there for them, Treasuries are risk free, your bank account is insured, the government is here to protect you, your pension fund is carefully and competently invested, you should contribute as much as possible to your 401k. They seem to believe it all, with only a minority able to consider the terrifying possibility that promises will not be kept. After all, at this point boomers are maximally personally invested in the system and the status quo, and it’s incredibly painful and angering to realize that they’ve been lied to… most of them just don’t want to go there. I worry about what’s going to happen to a lot of the boomers, psychologically speaking, when things really begin to fall apart. Dmitry Orlov’s “Reinventing Collapse” talks about the people at the peak / end of their careers as being the hardest hit by societal collapse, and in our case, those would be the boomers.
- Rachael
  
  Indeed.
  
  The latter half of the Boomers, referred to as the Jones Generation by some, is the fist generation to be psychologically brainwashed by mass media from their earliest and most formative years. Before television, this wasn’t possible. It has profoundly affected who they are, how they think, and their ability to do anything collectively except follow instructions and do what they’re told.
  
  Now that these people are mostly controlling the leavers of power in government and the board rooms of America, is it any wonder that they are following what the lords of finance (with the monetary keys to the castle in their hands) tell them to do?
  
  As one who enjoys watching the soap-opera of life I have to say, I’m not surprised at all.
systemBuilder

We are in a CEO (or entrepreneur)-take-all economy. In the 20th century, CEOs and entrepreneurs felt they had a social mission to raise the lot of everyone in the country. “If everyone trades with everyone else, then all can be Rich” – Alexis DeTocqueville (“Democracy in America”).

The 21st century degenerate republican idea is that it’s a zero sum game, and you pay top dollar for a CEO who can loot your competitor’s market and when he finally does it, half the winnings go to the CEO, half to the stockholders, and $0 for the workers who made it all happen, after all.

Romney thinks like this. I just heard him last night on “Charlie Rose” saying that we had to increase the spoils for winners, at the expense of the common man. Remember: Romney looks for inspiration from his dad, who ran American Motors in its failure years.

Henry Ford wasn’t like that. He truly believed in making the common man rich, by leading them to trade with one another.

Today’s wealth Americans believe in a zero-sum game. If America can get no richer, then the rich in America can still FEEL richer by making the average american poorer, i.e., by making more like the average Chinese factory worker. And this is why you see America’s wealthy outsourcing all our jobs to China.
- Robert
  
  The “zero sum” presupposition is as leftist as can be. True conservatism creates a NEW pie; you socialists legislate, squabble and redistribute a single pie, never thinking, or allowing free enterprise to create new one.
  
  The sum of the matter? Obama White House: A Div. of Goldman Sachs
J W

One can live very well on $800.00/mo in Panama. I have a Pensiado visa as an insurance policy.
- DosZap
  
  JW,
  How did you get the PensiadoVisa?
  How long is it good for?.’
  
  I am looking into expiating,as I have no intention of being caught in the Fascist state we are headed into.
  
  After 35 yrs at the grindstone, and paying my share,now being blamed for taking care of others grandparents, and parents thru taxation, I am looked upon as the PROBLEM.
  
  No we are not the problem, we had to follow the rules of the system, and we paid our 50% tax rates.Because the Govt is unable to control thir spending, WE are to foot the bill?.
  
  I have been debt free for 25 yrs, paid off my home in less than 15yrs, never buy anything on credit that does not get paid 100% when due.
  FICO of well over 800,and has been for 20 year.
  
  Yet, I am the problem.
  
  No, if that’s the case SEND this problem hundreds of thousands back paid into SS by/to me in a check( and I will call it even).
  Then you can be rid of this bloodsucker that has done nothing except follow the law, pay every debt owed,and still have my character,and not depend on anyone for my care.
  - john
    
    DosZap
    If I get your drift correct….you don’t feel you should be blamed either.
    
    The top forty new shows have everyone believing that the boomers are at fault. Their BS and propaganda really works. They have a whole generation believing they caused the problem and must feel guilty.
    
    Amazing. Before it all over, the media and the government will have us killing each other rather than the one responsible.
B mik

I am 62. In the mid 1950′s I remember that people were afraid to take on debt, especially consumer debt for anything other than a house or maybe a car. The Great Depression was still fresh in their minds. “Credit” was a bad word. Any neighbor who purchased things like furniture on credit was thought a fool. People lived within thier means. Looks like we are coming back to that point again, repeating History and relearning it’s lessons.
- Rachael
  
  People in the 50′s had the luxury of thinking that way. They didn’t have a unhinged, exponential, debt-based fiat currency economy to contend with…..there was still a nominal connection to restraint. Relatively simple math now dictates that enough new credit must be extended each and every year to replace interest payments being made in that same year (more credit if you want some ‘growth’). This is the world in which we live.
  
  By their very nature, exponential systems always get out-of-hand……our fiat currency economy as designed will be no different. The simple truth is if you want to have different outcomes, we’re going to have to change how the game is played. A economy with a non-debt backed currency or hard money, both with 100% reserve requirements, are the only alternatives.
  - Anne
    
    Wow, Rachael, the big expert on my boomer generation. Well, Rachael, I just retired at 64 with SAVINGS and NO DEBTS. And I am not arrogantly conceited about it, it’s just a fact. Trouble is, we who saved for the future are now at the expense of the reckless spendthrifts who created a big part of this situation, and we will be paying for their mistakes. Also, TV doesn’t influence me, I am able to think for myself, I didn’t get sucked into the credit-card and mortgage maelstroms that you never escape from. I know there’s a great financial and systemic collapse coming; but, until then, I can sleep at night knowing that I did not help create this mess. For those who did get sucked in, how were they to know 50 years ago what would happen when those attractive credit cards became available? People back then could not foresee how it would all end up. I don’t know what generation you are a part of, but I wonder how your generation would have handled it. Thankfully I had thrifty parents and I was able to come unscathed through it all.
    - QQQBall
      
      Anne.
      
      I basically tried to say the same thing to Rachael above. My mom lived through the GD and my dad abandoned mom/sister/me when I was 5 yo. Never gave a penny of support either. MY mom raised us in 3D – Death, Doom, Destruction around every corner. My friends tell me I do not have to live the way I do and my kids tell me “You deserve a MBZ”, but I am very secure financially and even more so b/c I still live pretty much like I did in college. BTW, my kids – son is in a graduate program in europe and daughter wants to go to law school in europe next year – they will graduate w/o any student debt.
      - http://clearbluespace.com Wm of the High Desert
        
        Frugality is a rare and very valuable approach as long as there is still some money going around and there is.
Tom Jeffries

Brilliant and sad, by equal measure.

Mr. Rubino has nailed it. I was seeing anecdotal evidence of ageism in my chosen field, the media – for a decade. I could see this coming. I made some lucky decisions, many based on reading and learning from Mr.Rubino – John, all the best to the Family for Christmas and much Blessings in 2012.
Bob

Personally, I have absolutely ZERO sympathy for these “Boomers”. I am one myself, born in 1958, but I had the benefit and foresight of listening to my Grandparents & parents about what the world was like in the 30′s & 40′s and what it took to carve out and maintain control of your life. I grew up in the 60′s & 70′s and watched while you stupid “hippies” began to destroy America. I despised all of you then, and I still do to this day. You and your ilk are the direct cause of the majority of the problems in America today.

I am a retired Army veteran, have two Bachelor Degrees, a Masters Degree and have a VERY secure job as an Industrial Engineer. I own my house free & clear, have a LOT of cash in savings, have not invested in the Stock Market for over 10 years and own a substantial amount of gold & silver.

Why am I beating my own drum, in light of the truths in the the article above? I am am attempting to show that there are some of us out there who didn’t have their heads up their “4th Point of Contact” (paratroopers will understand that one) their whole life. As a result of our saving, frugal living and planning for the future, my wife & I will be eating steak while the rest of you self-centered, former hippie, Democrat voting, loser morons will be living in a storage closet somewhere, eating cat food and trying to stay alive.

People, you brought it on yourselves by your horrendous personal decisions, and you have no one to blame but yourselves for the results. So quit whining about it. Have a nice life!!! I know I will.
http://clearbluespace.com Wm of the High Desert

Just turned 60. This evocative piece made me first remember looking at my small pile of gold in ’88-sensing, but not knowing how it could ever go up verses real estate. Then I was glad I didn’t quit the old family biz back in ’81, the old 2nd generation guy, president of this info company was anti-computers and I couldn’t stand it, I bought my own and got started: all my savings $3000 and and an equal loan from my parents. It was so absurd that for the first time in my life I didn’t quit and I paid my parents back too even. The events have unfolded like I expected and I feel prepared – - – but maybe this life is really going to be a test of my heart and soul, not my darwinistic survival/procreative acumen.
I’m leaning more towards doing a dog rescue thing, though.

Merry Christmas to everyone everywhere!
Pingback: USA ett framtidsöga
http://www.adovationz.co.nz Digby

A great article, very sad, but very true for us Baby Boomers.

And a corporate sector that sent millions of jobs overseas, and allowed in low cost immigrants to do jobs that middle America did not want to do, but now could be doing.
- DosZap
  
  Digby,
  You think the manufacturing base was sent ovberseas because we could not compete?.
  All a LIE, and planned.
  We could have shut the gates, and lived within our borders, and never have lost one job.
  But that was not THEIR lan.
  If anyo of you think this is an accident……………your in rectal defilade.
Robert

This article is both trenchant and absurd at the same time. A brief word of explanation. I, too, am a baby boomer. I have watched the utter filth of my generation destroy the greatest nation ever to have existed. For example, I have a sister who worked for the gov’t, and retired at 49 – forty nine freaking years old! – to live in her massive house with all her toys and pleasures -all on the gov’t dole. As with most of the easily deluded feminists, she is married to the government, of course is divorced (marriage takes too much sacrifice for the ME generation, you know – only lasted a year or two), and expects to live off the dole for possibly a half century. Another relative is a regular teacher, and will retire around 57 years old, making $7,000 per MONTH. Yet another librarian I know at a community college retired around the same time, and is doing somewhere around $8,000 month. With my tax dollars, and that of the next generation (some of whom, with all their “Yes we can” chanting, are no better). But, let’s be frank – it is my vile, arrogant, self-absorbed, idolatrous generation that brought all this filth to the fore. The young leftists were propagandized from the start, and never had much of a chance, unless they really thought for themselves.

Ms. Kallick: First of all, she has a Ph.D. in hard science. I don’t know her situation, but it is patently clear that she could find some kind of job, somewhere. It might be Fargo, it might be overseas, it might be Nunavut (go look it up – and start applying there!!) but I simply do not believe she cannot find at least a moderately paying job somewhere. She may have to make a lateral move to a related area. I have had to do this a number of times in my career, and I’ll bet you dollars to donuts she is unwilling to do this. Retrain yourself! Also, Ms. Kallick, finding a job means applying to THOUSANDS of jobs. It means working to midnight and weekends, full time, looking for work. It means moving to another field.

Then, we are told she isn’t married. Another dupe of Gloria Steinem. While rich and famous ol’ Gloria had the option to marry later in life, many women who follow suit never get married. And of course, many feminists were too self-important to have kids (believe me, I know a massive amount of women who are like that, and dated some). And now you are upset that you are, as the article says, reaping what you sow. If she were like my wife, who was NOT arrogant enough to think marriage would somehow “demean” her, she would have someone to support her, as my wife does after developing a very debilitating disease that forced her to stop working. Also, as she is now finding out – too late – a job does not “give you meaning,” in most cases. It’s those you love, and who love you that do. But, no matter for the feminists! P-O-W-E-R is what they have always been about, and everything is subsumed to that. How sad. How deluded.

Tell you what, Ms. Kallick. I’m 58. I’m the modern “nigger” of this culture – white, male, not gay and not a Muslim, Buddhist or Hindu. I go to the end of EVERY line that forms, and have my whole life. I was just fired because a senior manager was having an affair with someone who wanted the position I was in line for. But rather than whine, as one example, I just applied to a job in Kazakhstan. Maybe I’ll start my own business. I don’t really know, but I’m not going to do nothing. Worse case, I’ll go work at Target, and I just looked at Waste Management today about being a garbageman. At 58 years old.

And now, boomers want to retire at the expense of the younger generation. And you know what? A lot of them ARE doing just that, as noted above. It’s all part of the Socialist Workers’ Dystopia. Or as Bastiat once wrote, “Socialism is the great fiction, whereby everyone endeavours to live off of everyone else.” Guess what? It DON’T work. Well, correct that. I does work for some of them, like the lucky noted above. But that, too, is going to implode.

If I were a young person in university, I would be vehemently protesting every time one of my profs went on sabbatical, or retired at 53. I would be speaking out over the government padding the pockets of the well connected, who use the scam of global warming to make billions of the vanishing middle class.
And guess what Ms. Kallick? At 58 yrs old, between my wife and I, we have spent a GRAND TOTAL of $45,000 on cars between the two of us, since age 16, owning only one new car in our lives, our current 12 year old Hyundai Elantra. We didn’t take the Yuppie track, you see, but saved, and were self reliant. And we started early, because we were given nothing. And because we were given nothing, we know what it’s like to start from scratch, and we DON’T want the younger generations to have to go what we went through (that is why it is so disgusting to see the young dressing like the 1960s, mindlessly chanting “Yes we can,” and thinking that if socialism impoverished us, doing even MORE of it will make everything better. We never owned a McMansion, we never made assumptions on the future. In sum, we never bought into the self-centered, atheistic (wait, scratch that! Boomers aren’t atheists, they worship themselves!), materialistic, arrogance that the Boomer generation brought.

In sum, as McKay wrote in The Madness of Crowds, in the 1850s, “Men go mad in droves, but gain their senses one by one.” Gain you senses, all you folks noted above. And you can start by voting out Jimmy Carter Obama in 10 months.
- frankthomaswhite59
  
  Bob, I loved your commentary and completely agree.
Helix6

The amount of hate expressed in these comments is depressing. Isn’t hate one of the seven deadly sins?
- paper is poverty
  
  I completely agree. Here we are, heading into a meltdown caused by various elites (central bankers being one of the most obvious), and yet, many folks are attacking their neighbors and those less fortunate than them instead of looking toward the top. Who ever thought the little people ran the world? Did we invent credit cards? No, bankers did. Did we decide to have a housing bubble? No, Greenspan did. Did we decide to have war after war after war? No; though our support could be had through lies, false flags, and media control, it was not our idea and most of us did not know the truth. (I’m frustrated the boomers don’t question the system and its propaganda a lot more than they do.)
  
  The elites who have been running things need to be removed from power, and power needs to be re-localized and redistributed. But if most of us are busy hating each other then it doesn’t bode well for our ability to govern ourselves. Nor does it bode well for the survival of the least among us if things take a particularly dire turn in coming years. Some of the commenters here are Christian; perhaps they should focus more on charity, mercy, ‘love thy neighbor’, and humility. They sure sound like good ideas to me.
- David II
  
  It’s unsustainable…it is going to collapse…save yourself
Helix6

@Bob: You are perhaps too young to remember the day JFK was assassinated. Or the ensuing coverup. You might remember the tail end of the Vietnam war, although perhaps too young to understand it. A war we entered under a false pretext, in which we entitled ourselves to firebomb and massacre gooks, and which unwilling youth were forced under penalty of imprisonment to fight, kill, and die. And you probably remember Watergate, a shameful episode of criminal enterprise at the highest levels of government, and the ensusing coverup.

Let me assure you, the rot — from the top — that is the true cause of the destruction af America began long before the first “hippies”, and in fact may have in large part given rise to them.
mogar

I am more than a little tired of all this dumping on the baby boomers. A minority of us were out there buying 4000 sq/ft houses. Many of us were entering the workforce in the 70′s. Wages have had zero real growth from the 70′s forward while inflation ate away at whatever you could save. The only way to get ahead was to constantly upgrade your skills thereby commanding a better salary. The economic environment of my parents is not the same one I entered into. The economic environment my kids will face will be different still.

This bashing of on generational group is simply stupid and gets us nowhere in coming to terms with the real underlying causes of this financial meltdown. These causes lead all the way back to Wilson, the FED, FDR, gold confiscation, and Nixon’s closing of the gold window in 1971. This system was never going to work. It’s a system that we literally have stumbled our way into.

It’s finally dying, but it won’t go softly into that good night. The fact that it chooses to do so at this point in history says nothing about the generation that was at the helm when it did so. People are driven by the economic environment they find themselves in. People do not drive a system configured the way ours is.
- sean
  
  Well said. I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about the roots of this crisis, and I think that most of the seeds were sown in the Wilson administration. It’s a lesson: our great-grandchildren may be the ones who end up paying for our mistakes.
Frank

We’re dealing with a fiat currency here people, this is how they work. Get over it. You’re going to get what you deserve because you weren’t paying attention, Do you think the Gents that put this together we’re drunk fat and stupid.

Listen to this little bit of arrogance, We gave you a Republic (and with a wink to a colleague over his shoulder) if you can hang on to it. Game on and you loose cause we we’re fat drunk and stupid. Have another drink and when your head falls between your legs kiss your ass goodbuy
Jason Emery

It is quite comical to read some of the comments on this board. It shows the extreme economic illiteracy of the American people. All the trillions of wealth created by us boomers have been looted by the banking sector and the military industrial complex. Actually, it was a general, Dwight D. Eisenhower, that first warned us of what was to come.

As John says, we’re ungovernable. The Tea Party has been in office almost a year, and just ducked another chance to make a small dent in the deficit, and declined to do it. The present system is hopelessly broken, and a new system must be built from scratch.

I’m not in favor of a military coup, but it is far from the least desireable outcome. At some point, the present farce of a government will be shut down. Will it be a military coup, a complete meltdown of the financial system, civil disobedience by 20 million people, etc.? Heck if I know, but the present system has only a couple of years left. The actual budget deficit, using GAAP accounting, is about 6 trillion per YEAR, per John Williams of Shadowstats.
- David
  
  Civil war is anything but civil, but democracies don’t last long because people will not vote themselves the hardships needed to stay free.
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Argentine_Revolution_of_1905 The US could wind up like Argentina did after their currency failed and society collapsed.
  - escapefromobamastan
    
    We’re a representative republic.
    - David
      
      Actually we’re a corporate plutocracy. It doesn’t matter who you vote for the gov’t just gets re-elected and they are all owned by big business.
      - laura m.
        
        David me and many others agree, which is why I stopped voting twenty five years ago; politicians are puppets of the corporate elite. Voting is a farce as politicians are corrupted and worthless.
Mr. Mojo

It looks like the old divide and conquer of the American people by the elites is still working well. No generation is to blame, all generations are to blame. There are crooks and fools in every generation. It wasn’t the boomers that created the Federal Reserve and income tax scams or created the Military/Government Corporation. The idiot above who blamed the hippies for all that ills us is comical. If anything, the boomers failed in ignoring the hippies about corporate greed, materialism and war and continued down the same path as their parents. All that’s happening has been in the making for the last century and unfortunately it’s going to be the younger gens responsibility to either fix it or get hammered by it.
farang

“Robert December 21, 2011 at 11:01 pm
The banksters are to blame… and so are the “former hippies” you absolve, who set the stage for the barbarian bankers and their post-modern relativism. ”

Yep, it’s them there damn hippies fault, the ones that haven’t been around since the late 1960′s 51 years ago…Brilliant! Not the paid-for financial corporate whores of congress and the White House that refuse to prosecute blatant FRAUD….

“Robert December 21, 2011 at 10:08 pm
The “zero sum” presupposition is as leftist as can be. True conservatism creates a NEW pie; you socialists legislate, squabble and redistribute a single pie, never thinking, or allowing free enterprise to create new one.
The sum of the matter? Obama White House: A Div. of Goldman Sachs”

“A Div. of Goldman Sachs”….which means by definition FASCISM you peabrain…not “socialism.” You and Peter Schiff need to find a dictionary. Thanks for contradicting yourself in less than two paragraphs..and feat quite commonplace among those that call themselves “conservatives.”

In point of fact, us baby Boomers (I am a middle baby Boomer, 1955) were the ones that built up the HUGE SURPLUS in the S.S. Trust Fund that “The Greatest generation” raided and squandered on those that NEVER PAID IN WHAT THEY COLLECTED, and replaced our money with IOU’s. REAGAN QUADRUPLED or FICA payments in the early 80′s, or we COULD HAVE SAVED THAT OURSELVES.

George Herbert Walker Bush, when VP, had a brother set up an office in Beijing to negotiate the coming NAFTA he would push as President (and his successor Clinton finalize) that TOOK OUR MANUFACTURING BASE and it’s JOBS to China. I was “unaware” Bush was a Baby Boomer, or a Hippie.

Sure, just show off your foolishness and ignorance by generalizing about an entire generation: in 1973, when I entered the wokplace fulltime (I worked fulltime as a senior in high school to pay my bills, that was how my folks raised me), was one of the previous WORSE JOB MARKETS in US history…but we did okay. We just kept plugging away…remembering the tales of our parents and how they had struggled in the Depression, and things didn’t seem so terrible.

Now you fools go find a dictionary, and look up “socialism” and “fascism” and come back when you know the difference. BTW: “Socialist” countries in Europe? You’ll know them by the way they are the ONLY ONES NOT BROKE NOW and rated by their citizens as the VERY BEST IN THE WORLD TO LIVE IN. Finland. Norway. Unlike the US, where in 8 short years, Ronald Reagan managed to take us from the largest Creditor nation in the world…to it’s largest Debtor.

Clueless clowns abound on this comment board.
http://www.aimhighprofits.com/ Pabs

The times and lives of baby boomers virtually destroyed the fundamental ability of their children and grandchildren to clean up after them…. The gas guzzling v8′s, borrowing, as mentioned, at will and unfortunately a government which is still run by these same baby boomers with the same old philosophies. Hence why, although not well liked, Obama and Clinton have both inherited terrible recessions and struggled to turn them around with their youthful insights.

A coup is not what is needed to straight the ship but the young blood of “occupy wall street” speaks volumes for the voice of today’s america in the one sense that “they are mad as hell and not going to take it anymore.”

Change is needed…change is required…change is essential
Stupified American

You could always blame Iran for the three WTCs blowing up using two planes, then go and invade them as well. Also giving Israel some more trillions to slaughter the Palestinians and build vast arsenals of WMDs at Dimona, would also help the American economy greatly.
James

I noticed in 2004 that my house was making more money than I was.

i.e. its value was increasing at over 50k per year, which was more than I could save. I thought, if everyone’s house did this, then when everyone tries to sell them at once to cash in, then where does the money come from? How can we all get all this free money for nothing just by sitting in a house? Can it last forever?

Answer: The money will come from the next lot of people competing with each other to convince the bank they need an even bigger mortgage.

That realisation forced me to conclude that the system is a big game of musical chairs, and it would be wise to listen carefully for when the music starts to slow down.
Helix6

More of the usual schlock. OK, if I understand this article correctly, we were supposed to kick in 12.4% of our income to Social Security (our supposed baseline government-managed pension benefit), PLUS up to 15% of our income into a 401K or 403B plan, AND put away money into private savings as well? Let’s see… that’s… 29.4% of our income being SAVED in the form of Social Security and retirement plan, BEFORE any private savings of any kind are considered. And we didn’t save enough? And how many people do you know with a 4000 square foot house? Much more likely they started in a townhouse or condo, saved what they could, moved into an average house in the suburbs so their kids could have a safe environment and decent school, blew most of what they might have saved on their kids’ education, courtesy of educators who make twice as much and work half as many hours as they do, and forked over the rest to the corrupt medical care industry.

I guess sneering at boomers must get someone’s ya-yas out, given the increasing popularity of this pastime. The fact of the matter, though, is that thare’s just way more to it than what’s ever presented in this kind of article, and talking about the “way more to it” part is a place that the critics have no interest at all in going to.
Stan

@ helix6
” The fact of the matter, though, is that there’s just way more to it than what’s ever presented in this kind of article, and talking about the “way more to it” part is a place that the critics have no interest at all in going to.”

Which is why my last post was censored I guess. There can be no pointing out the REAL problems with the economy at this website apparently.
sgt_doom

“….the world we created isn’t so congenial.”

“We,” kemosabe?????? It’s always “we” when the bod guys want to spread the responsibility around, but it’s always “me” or “I” when they choose to keep all those ill-gotten gains.

Negative, sonny, Peter G. Peterson, the Koch brothers, David Rockefeller, Richard Perle (also, I believe), etc., etc. ain’t no baby boomers, sonny; most of the bad guys were born before 1946 and after 1964 (when was Blythe Masters’ birth date????), ergo, your entire supposition is wrong, sonny.

Nice try, though, keep spitting out those talking points like the good robot you strive to be…..
sgt_doom

Heard some super-snarky whorescum from Rupert Murdoch’s Wall Street Journal say (and this is a direct quote): “The boomers didn’t save for their retirement, of course!”

Again, another whorescum born AFTER 1964, and a complete and utter propaganda specialist, i.e., everyone has a job for life, and was born to wealthy parents like the kind of scum Murdoch routinely hires?

Longest job over the past 25 years, while I continued doing volunteer political and social activism, as I have for the past 40 years, lasted exactly 19 MONTHS before a mass layoff (that is, everyone was laid off).

Second longest: 12 months — last 17 jobs were offshored, of that I’m certain; fairly certain last 32 of 33 jobs were offshored.

“We,” kemosabe??????
sgt_doom

“This is new. It is different.”

Bullcrapt!!@!! Pure claptrap, and while I haven’t checked, this is probably yet another academic plant who belongs to the Bretton Woods Committee (brettonwoods.org) which began seeding academia with their stooges over 20 years ago.

(Principal influential groups of the uber-rich: Group of 30, Peterson Institute, Bretton Woods Committee [the lobbyist group for the international ultra-rich], Trilateral Commission (19 on the present administration, usually 15 is the average for each and every administration since Carter), and the Council on Foreign Relations.)

This is nothing new, in fact, this is the fourth so-called “jobless recovery” since 1990, probably several since 1980, but can’t ascertain due to lack of reliable stats.
1st step

Many responses strike me as common denial type responses; especially those that roughly state something along the lines that “hey we are all equally responsible, blah, blah, blah …” or “hey it’s greed man, blah, blah, blah …” In short, pure claptrap of the moral relativistic and/or cultural Marxist type. Sure, hey let’s blame the victim and criminal equally. Deep down they must know whose hand was in the till, or to use a more blunt analogy, who was the rapist.

As I’ve seen written elsewhere, a good way to summarize the silliness is to note that insanity is just that. To believe that the solution to too much debt is more debt, to too much regulation is more regulation, to too much government is more government, etcetera … No these types really believed, and many still do believe, that there is a free lunch out there and wanting and voting for free lunches is just as bad as voting against them. Sure, Jimmy Carter was just as bad as Ronald Reagan who is no worse than FDR, etcetera … No, you can believe that to make yourself feel fine about voting for Barry Soetoro, but don’t try it with me. Is voting for Ron Paul the equivalent of voting for Newt Gingrich? In office or out, are the two capable of the same acts? Answer: No way, not even close, and actions sure do speak louder than words.

The most basic first step is admitting you have a problem; but, in addition, you also must be able to identify what that problem is. Also, in this case blame should be apportioned correctly, and the Boomers by in large as a group have some explaining to do (FYI, depending on the “generation” definition I could be counted as a “Boomer” because I was born at the tail end, i.e., according to some definitions). As Thatcher so famously noted, the problem with socialism is that eventually you run out of other peoples’ money. Well here we are, and only a fool would think that government is the solution, and that we are all equally culpable. If you voted for cultural Marxists, then you are part of the problem; but first admit you have a problem instead of trying to deflect blame; and try to correctly identify the cause and effect components. This didn’t all just happen because of some mysterious disease we can’t identify; and it didn’t just happen because all our elected leaders read and obeyed the Constitution. No, this happened because there is evil in this world and many turned a blind eye, but especially because some aided and abetted it.
keno

Te PNAC document of 9/2000 laid out the whole plan of the direction they wanted to take things and sure enough, we’re well into it now. 9/11 was their big game-plan kick-starter to it. I can only imagine that the whole situation is leading into wratched up chaos and war in about 3 – 5 yrs, and who ever survives that in one piece will be able to be useful…to someone or something. But I don’t think there’s going to be such a thing as retirement and entitlements.
SG

I think the worst is yet to come. I watched with amusement as the media networks cheered a slight decrease in the unemployment numbers (from 9.0 to 8.6) which you know is inaccurate. I have read over the course of Decemeber of so many companies planning lay offs in 2012 I wonder what the spin will be when the unemployment claims rise. I beleive this Nation is in for a serious wake up call, the party was a blast now here is your bill and no more stalling.
http://Australia Joe

Friends look to yourselves, your families and your communities for safety and sustenance. Most Governments in the western world have been infiltrated and are now run by communists hiding behind the veil of socialism. Their goal is the same goal of as that of the american financiers who backed the russian revolution. Total control of as much of the of the world as possible and with with it will come all the horrors which the communist system inflicted on its subjects. If you find this hard to believe then just look at how many of your civil liberties have been taken away in the last few years and more are lost with each passing month. How your standard of living has been falling and how your hard earned savings have been stolen by corrupt financiers and and inflation(money printing). Ron Paul has been talking about this for years, only now when when the trap is almost closed are you starting to see how entire nations have been duped by promises of good times and easy living. Money is power and the New World Order financiers chief tool in destroying the western world has always been money. When they destroy the dollar, they will destroy all your remaing wealth and replace it with their new currency of which you will have none except what they give you in exchange for the work which you do for them. I would say that Ron Paul is a long shot at saving the day but he is your only hope, don’t let it slip.
Tony D

Objectively (?) I’d respectfully suggest that what has occurred in the US has been the inevitable march of human nature within a democratic framework over several generations. Apportioning blame to individuals or single groups ignores the groundwork laid by previous generations and individuals in each situation.
Little by little, the protections of the constitution appear to have been eroded until the US finds itself a fascist police state that is more interested in entrenching it’s power rather than protecting the rights of it’s citizens. Apportioning blame as has occurred on these boards offers little.
It would seem a crisis is necessary to create the required momentum for change in the US, too many are too comfortable for the radical change that is now required.
- Bruce C.
  
  “Apportioning blame to individuals or single groups ignores the groundwork laid by previous generations and individuals in each situation.”
  
  Isn’t that a tautology?
  
  “too many are too comfortable for the radical change that is now required.”
  
  And too many were too comfortable all along the way to make the easy changes that were required to maintain the protections and restrictions of the Constitution. I agree that now a crisis is brewing.
- Jason Emery
  
  I’m inclined to agree with tony d. I remember when Ronald Reagan beat Jimmy Carter in 1980. He said he would increase defense spending, cut taxes, and balance the budget. He did the first two items, but instead of balancing the budget, he quadrupled the size of it, from $60 B to $240 B per year. Obviously, there has been no effort to reduce the size of government since then.
  
  We are approaching our credit limit. Once that happens, interest rates will rise or QE-x will balloon in size. Either way, that will signal the end of the present phase.
http://www.golddeputy.com/ Buy Old Gold

Great post. This has been inevitable for a long time. Bubbles always burst. Maybe we’ll get lucky this time and learn from it. My brother has gone from a big house and $20,000 months as a mortgage broker, and now lives in an studio with his wife, her daughter, and her daughter’s son.
David II

Who who is John Galt?
- Jason Emery
  
  “Who who is John Galt?”
  
  I actually enjoyed reading Ayn Rand’s ‘Atlas Shrugged’, although it is a bit wordy for my limited attention span, lol. However, don’t you think more recent events have invalidated her main theory. There is this ongoing, probably futile, search for some combination of economic and political systems that will somehow neutralize, or at least manage, mankind’s innate greed and corruptibility.
  
  If anything, the events during, and in the wake of, the real estate bust have convinced me that humans are doomed to repeat the same mistakes for at least another century or two, assuming we don’t figure out a way to extinguish the species.
Mike

funny how I was riding in this morning after voting for Ron Paul in NH and thinking how the baby boomer generation has really failed us all in more ways than one. One way is the way that was pointed out in this article and the other way is due to a lack of interest in technology. As I was standing in line waiting to go in to vote, I could hear the old farts talking up people like Romney or Huntsman and you could just tell that the only news source these people get is from the boob tube. They barely even know how to turn a computer on…no less to surf around the web for the multitude of news sources at their fingertips. It is quite unfortunate that they are such a large group.
scamnation

It’s not the “boomers” fault, the ponzi is coming to an end because boomers are all near retirement age now. More money will flow out of the system than enter, so what do you get? A Bernie Madoff situation. Banksters making sure they don’t lose a penny and fleece the rest for as much as they possibly could all in the name of maintaining power and control. I believe the event of 9/11 was the first firing shot against the middle class and nobody seems to noticed nor cared. Stop directing your frustrating and anger to us commoners and start pointing out who the true perpetrators are.
http://www.facebook.com/elizabeth.wesley.37 Elizabeth Wesley

Sounds like maybe the government will consider “old” people who can’t support themselves may be expendable. Instead they are funding welfare recipients like the single woman with 8 – 10 children all from different fathers with no father around to support them or the thousands of immigrants needing housing, healthcare, food and all that stuff and oh yes, how about the millions that go to Israel in foreign aid and so many other countries too including China that holds so much of our debt. Ah yes, the brains that rule have us by the short hairs and just what will anyone do about it?
http://www.facebook.com/elizabeth.wesley.37 Elizabeth Wesley

And how could I possibly leave out all the wars the U S spends its non existent money on. The whole picture is almost too ludicrous to believe but I try to twist my mind into a mode that can comprehend the madness.
lynnybee

maybe if wages hadn’t deflated 90% when measured against gold & maybe if we could simply deposit our savings in a savings account & earn interest on that money like our parents & grandparents did (anyone remember 11%, 15%, 18% interest paid on those large savings accounts that your parents had in the bank?) …… maybe if 8million good paying jobs hadn’t been outsourced …. well, maybe BOOMERS would be able to retire !