| | I wonder when CNN (or even FOX'news') will cover this?
Judging from the recent endless coverage of "Wha...wha...what is wrong with America?", the answer to that is "when chickens have lips."
I mean, when it fits into the script.
An unseen yet understood new birthright in this country is based on the belief that Life=The Endless Thirteenth Grade.
Hey, the poor guy signed up with the program. He and his wife played by what they thought the rules were, and what they thought the rewards were going to be for playing by those rules. Those being, in America, if you keep your nose clean, if you show up to school almost every day, if you sit in your seat and don't fidget too much, if you behave yourself, you will graduate into The Endless Thirteenth Grade of Life, where the same rules apply. In the endless Thirteenth Grade of Life, if you show up for your job almost every day, if you don't Go Postal, if you make half an effort, well then, no matter what else, you get to graduate to a care free retirement someday, paid for by many more younger workers piling onto the Endless Unit Quintile Freight Train.
Or not. But, that's the essence of this poor guys lament: "What is wrong with America?"
Indeed.
Mr Post WWII Generation doesn't get it. He played by the same rules that the WWII Generation played by. Well, almost. Half as many of them played their game after throwing over 400,000 of themselves into a meat grinder in the name of creating the Free World. Only, instead of staring Germania/The Grim Reaper in the face, celebrating in TImes Square and procreating itself into an excess of life and abundance on an uneven/smoldering playing field during 20 years of 'anything goes', we '60s sons and daughters of the Greatest NutBusting Generation opted for the affluent life in a world we didn't create, with fewer kids much later in life, a career, travel, vacation homes, and a lifetime 15% payroll tax on an already surplus paying demographic as a cheap/bargain 'thank-you' to our parents who created this affluent beast we've been carving up like carcass carvers.
How does a demographic that is already paying a generational surplus into a 'pay as you go' welfare scheme spend its entire productive working life taxed at 15% of earnings(please don't make me laugh and say "its only 7.5%", I said earnings, not income), and yet expect the same 'soft landing' benefits afforded to much fewer who a] deserve it for creating the Free World, but b] realized it after a hard life yet burdened by ony a 3-6% payroll tax? An entire generation of working class folks has now spent nearly its entire productive life taxed at an unprecedented 15% of earnings, purportedly justified on actuarial Trust Fund considerations, but of course(as Clark explained almost 30 years ago), actually being spent as fast as it was taxed. Its one thing to have realized that 30 years ago. Many did, but certainly not most, and that is the problem. Because even realizing it, folks still had to earn under the 15% earnings burden. That is, on average, 10% of earnings more than the smaller demographic generation whose benefits were being paid for, as a well deserved 'thank-you' for creating the Free World. But, that means, 10% less of earnings to pay for things like personal pension assets, etc. When wondering where the 'savings' of this generation went, one doesn't have to look far to see where the squeeze came from. And now that 'thank you' is on the cusp of its final gasp. A double gotcha, when you contemplate the additional strain on old age/health services about to ramp up continuously over the next 30-40 years. But, don't expect either of the idiot parties to light the fuse on that one. In the pending widespread realization of what many folks have known for years was coming, there will be 15 minutes of two groups of idiots trying to sell us "They did it!"
What's that? Some of the sons and daughters of the Greatest Generation can't do their own math? They actually thought that well deserved SS 'thank-you' to The Greatest Generation was going to maintain the illusion of their own soft landing forever, however defined? As in, "Well, sure, our much fewer grandparents didn't live in a world with the health care options available to us, our much fewer grandparents didn't expect as a birthright any imagined 'soft landing' after their years of effort, our much fewer grandparents looked their doctor in the eye and vice versa without any "gresham's law poluted third party payer ring-around-the-rosy' nonsense, our much fewer grandparents didn't attempt to live anything like us, and still they eventually died, unlike us. Because as our WWII weary but surviving grandparents often told us, and we often apparently believe , "we're special." We aren't going to ever get old and sickly and die, or at least, not without a 'whatever it costs' fight, paid for on our behalf. Hell, we are not even ever going to lose a war and suffer consequences as a result. We aren't ever going to have to worry about paying for miracles that our grandparents never even considered as a birthright. We don't have to consider demographics or ethics or who is going to pay for our miracles, because ... we showed up, some fought to a gruesome draw in Korea, some a gruesome loss in VietNam, some a TKO in Gulf War I, and are about to retire early from Gulf War 2. But hey, we kept our noses clean, and now, as a birthright, because we were born into 'the richest country on earth', we are entitled to live forever without effort or worry or concern or consequence.
Nerf World Nirvana is ours, as a birthright.
And if not, then what I mean is, "Wha...wha....wha....what is wrong with America?" Where is our guaranteed, endless Thirteenth Grade of Life? The one we've come to expect, as a birthright, endlessly paid for by others, in fact, now mostly others long dead?
regards,
Fred
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