One of the best rants I’ve read in ages. Of course it isn’t all the boomers fault, but the ones I know are certainly the worst offenders. Go read the whole thing, it’s worth it. I don’t agree with his final conclusion, though. Government spending is needed to pull us out of the mess, but on the right things, not just giveaways to corrupt companies and consumer stimulus packages. We need infrastructure, a conversion of our economy off the oil teat and to sustainable energy, and education spending. I’m furious at Arnie right now for cutting education spending just when we need it the most in our state. A record number of “boomlet” kids hitting our colleges and they cut college funding? WTF? So my kids end up out of state and gee, even less money in California’s coffers, go figure.
I hope we can start to turn things around in the next few years.
THE SHALLOWEST GENERATION | The Big Picture
Now that I have laid out our bleak future, I can tell you that, like Dickens’ Christmas Carol, this is only a vision of what might be. There is time to change our course before our ship wrecks on a jagged reef. David M. Walker, former Comptroller of the United States, at a recent Fiscal Wake Up Tour at the University of Pennsylvania, described what has been happening in this country for the last 25 years in one word – laggardship. The last six months have been a perfect example of laggardship. Our leaders have floundered from crisis to crisis, overreacting and blustering rather than leading. True leaders are proactive, not reactive. After not addressing our energy policy for decades, as soon as oil reached $140 a barrel, Congress lurched into action so their constituents would think they were leading. As our financial system has imploded, government “leaders” have flailed about with one rescue package after another and Congress looks for scapegoats. Meddling, tinkering, and non-enforcement of rules by Congress and other government bureaucracies caused the crisis that they are reacting to. Government creates the problems and then assumes even more power over our lives with their ridiculous “solutions”.
No one in Washington has shown an ounce of leadership in decades. True leadership requires strength of character, clear vision to see the future as it is, the bravery to make unpopular decisions, and the honesty to tell the public the unvarnished truth based on the facts.
The facts are: we have a $10.5 trillion national debt; $53 trillion of unfunded liabilities; a military empire that has U.S. troops in 117 countries and has spent $700 billion on a pre-emptive war that has killed over 4,000 Americans; a $60 billion trade deficit; an annual budget deficit that will exceed $1 trillion in the next year; a crumbling infrastructure with 156,000 structurally deficient bridges; almost total dependence on foreign oil; and an educational system that is failing miserably. We can not fund guns, butter, banks and now car companies without collapsing our system.
I truly hope that President Obama can rise to the occasion and become a true statesman and leader. David Walker lays out our dilemma:
“The regular order in Washington is broken. We must move beyond crisis management approaches and start to address some of the key fiscal and other challenges facing this country if we want our future to be better than our past. Our fiscal time bomb is ticking, and the time for action is now!”
Ultimately, it is up to the Baby Boom generation to change our country’s course. The oldest Boomer is 62 years old and the youngest 45 years old. It is time for Boomers to take a hard look in the mirror and rethink their priorities. It is time to cast aside the $88,000 Range Rovers, $1,200 Jimmy Choo boots, $5,000 Rolex watches and daily double lattes at Starbucks. It is time to live within your means, distinguish between needs and wants, reduce debt, save 10% of your income, make sure your kids get a good education, not try and keep up with the Jones’, show compassion for your fellow man, and possibly pay more taxes and get less benefits, for the good of the country.
One Response
I wish I could be optimistic that good sense will come to the fore. This AM I saw that Ms. Pelosi has a package all prepared for the automakers (with no mention of bloated corporate white collar payrolls, among other things). Ms. Pelosi, WE DON’T HAVE THE MONEY for this nonsensical bailout! Do you really want your grandchildren paying for the incompetence of those running major corporations? And the incompetence of those running the government?
Shit, I was hoping for a good day.