Wednesday, May 04, 2005
Nicholas Kristof: "boomers may earn a place in history as the worst generation"
[Nicholas D. Kristof, "The Greediest Generation," The New York Times, 1 May 2005.] (registration required)
Columnist Nicholas Kristof takes his generation to task for using the political system to extract future wealth:
As a baby boomer myself, I can be blunt: We boomers won't be remembered as the "Greatest Generation." Rather, we'll be scorned as the "Greediest Generation."
Our slogan has gone from "free love" to "free blood pressure medicine."
But I fear that we'll be remembered mostly for grabbing resources for ourselves, in such a way that the big losers will be America's children.
With boomers about to retire, I'm afraid that national priorities will be focused even more powerfully on the elderly rather than the young - because it's the elderly who wield political clout.
We boomers are also preying on children in a more insidious way: We're running up their debts, both by creating new entitlement programs and by running budget deficits today. Laurence Kotlikoff, an economist and fiscal expert who with Scott Burns wrote the excellent and scary book "The Coming Generational Storm," calls this "fiscal child abuse."
[W]e boomers need to resist the narcissistic impulse to ladle out more resources for ourselves. Our top domestic priorities should be to ensure that all children get health care and to get our fiscal house in order.
Otherwise, we boomers may earn a place in history as the worst generation.
[Matthew Hisrich, "First Things First: Kansas Medicaid Program Must Get its House in Order Before Expanding Home-based Care," The Flint Hills Center, 20 August 2004.]
[Nicholas D. Kristof, "The Greediest Generation," The New York Times, 1 May 2005.] (registration required)
Columnist Nicholas Kristof takes his generation to task for using the political system to extract future wealth:
As a baby boomer myself, I can be blunt: We boomers won't be remembered as the "Greatest Generation." Rather, we'll be scorned as the "Greediest Generation."
Our slogan has gone from "free love" to "free blood pressure medicine."
But I fear that we'll be remembered mostly for grabbing resources for ourselves, in such a way that the big losers will be America's children.
With boomers about to retire, I'm afraid that national priorities will be focused even more powerfully on the elderly rather than the young - because it's the elderly who wield political clout.
We boomers are also preying on children in a more insidious way: We're running up their debts, both by creating new entitlement programs and by running budget deficits today. Laurence Kotlikoff, an economist and fiscal expert who with Scott Burns wrote the excellent and scary book "The Coming Generational Storm," calls this "fiscal child abuse."
[W]e boomers need to resist the narcissistic impulse to ladle out more resources for ourselves. Our top domestic priorities should be to ensure that all children get health care and to get our fiscal house in order.
Otherwise, we boomers may earn a place in history as the worst generation.
[Matthew Hisrich, "First Things First: Kansas Medicaid Program Must Get its House in Order Before Expanding Home-based Care," The Flint Hills Center, 20 August 2004.]
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