I am not a boomer, but I find it odd that anyone could call the life of someone who lived under the shadow of mutual assured destruction for most of their lives as "charmed."

So, what's his answer to us 'spongers'????...Deathpanels???

Gen X intersects with the boomers. The gen was labelled precisely to have a way to describe boomers and post-boomers for whom their was no boom- not ever.

I'm right on the border born in 1967. It's always been an economic mess for me except perhaps the late 90s.

My uncle is an older end boomer born in 1950. he can remember the pure boom, but it was just as over for him post 90s as anyone else.

Early boomer investors cleaned up though - they had pure numbers to carry them through.

They'll also be dying off as well. I'd think that would actually be *good* for the economy, not only in released social security/medicare, but released jobs and funds.

Yes, the boomers lived through the Cold War and I have always thought that the reason they rebelled against us, their parents, was because of the Cuba missle crisis when they (here in Florida at least) huddled under their school desks practicing "survival tactics". They knew that we could not protect them. My 5 yr old daughter said "Well, if I die now I certainly did not live very long." My son said, Mom, if I grow up I want to . . " It is not good for children to know that their parents can't save them. My baby was happy and secure because he had no idea what was happening.

But to an extent they lived a charmed life because we spoiled them. How could we not?

Wow! My dying off will be a boon to society!

Now there's a sobering thought for a beautiful Fall Saturday night.

I think I'll go eat some worms.

Nobody would be 'sponging' and everyone would be enjoying the fruits of living in a free country, if it weren't for the endless thirst for power by the democrat party. First LBJ sunk a fortune of blood and treasure into years of a 'limited' Vietnam war combined with a 'war on poverty' which became a generational addiction to 'free' Federal government money. Then succeeding generations of politicians led by pandering democrats added more 'benefits' that sucked the energy of every business cycle. Finally democrat allied unions failed generations of low achieving children from single parent homes that flowed from the war on poverty economic structure. Just when the walking economic corpse might have been able to adjust to all of this, BHO and the democrats in congress decided to go for one more benefit, housing for all those imagined, homeowners who were 'barred' from owning a home they could not afford. Derivatives followed which greased the slide of almost every country into unprecedented debt that will destroy the global economy. The democrats couldn't do it without RINOs, corrupt Republicans and most of all, the media.

Good link ...

... http://www.economist.com/node/21563725

Hey, I'm dying as fast as I can.

"achieve some generational redistribution"

This snippet, and the fact this article is from The Economist should tell you all you need to know.

Look at the number of posters after the article claiming that the problem is not enough money going to the government. Even some of the boomers immediately fall into guilt mode. Sad.

No boomer here. Too old. Born in '42. But I worked for over fifty years.

I added up my contributions to SS and figure if I live 8 more years I will break even. Actually not if you count interest lost. I am not complaining and I don't think any generation deserves to be called spongers.

Maybe the current twenty somethings will turn out pretty bad. Especially when history notes that they put Obama in office.

Now it's all our fault !!! I guess I sponged my way into the Viet Nam era Army too. I know this is sacreligious but the group who benefitted most from Boomers entering the workforce was the WW2 generation. That 41% pumped billions into the Social Security pot o'gold. We'll get limited service,maybe death panels, and kids that will blame us fior everything except that hey voted democrat.

What a bunch of BS! Can't blame a Bush? Then blame a Boomer.

And thanks to the "Greatest Generation" for taking many times more out of Social Security than they paid in, and electing all the clowns who've voted to borrow even more money to make sure their children and grandchildren will probably never get out from under the debt burden.

#14 points out that the Social Security system was put in place by the "Greatest Generation" and their parents. The boomer generation paid for it. Our payroll taxes have been several times higher than the first generations living off Social Security. Unfortunately, the payroll taxes will continue increasing on future generations because Dems and the media just cannot understand the math in this Ponzi scheme.

Obama blows through 5 trillion and the Economist is worried that there might be a generational struggle because the baby boomers might retire. The Economist is left wing claptrap.

Author completely misses the biggest change...and it isn't the boomers. Demographers have known since we were born that we would be a big group moving through the generations. No, the big change came from LBJ's Great Society - the break-up of the poor family. Most of us baby boomers came from parents who struggled and saved. Almost always mom and dad were married when we were born; most of 'em stuck together for life. Single parent families often moved back in with the grandparents or shared a house with another single parent.

Somewhere along the way we got the silly notion that everyone 'deserves' a separate place to live - complete with air-conditioning, television and Internet. The percentage of out-of-wedlock births skyrocketed. To parents of boomers, to boomers themselves, the viral video "I want my Obamaphone!" is absolutely nuts. This isn't how we were raised, nor how we lived.

The title alone tells me I don't heed to read it. This "Boomer" started on a paper route in 1959 and has worked ever since. Included was a years vacationj in Viet Nam courtesy of Lyndon Johnson and the USAF. I have been a useful contributor to society for the majority of my life and have never spent an hour in jail, on welfare, or cashed a food stamp. I haven't lived in Section 8 housing and have no government supplied cell phone.

All I ask is what I've paid for and deserve and later that plot in a national cemetary. The Economist can KMA!

You boomers sound like a bunch of Joe Scarboroughs defending the indefensible.

Face it and man up - it is your generation that historians will pin that destroyed this great experiment and enslaved me and my kids and grandkids....

Personal and anecdotal evidence doesn't erase this fact.

I'm a Gen Xer with several Boomer friends, most of whom I met at work. Their values are very admirable, & it is sad to see them not as valued as I think they should be. They work lots of extra hours even though they are salaried & don't get paid any extra to do so, & are loyal to employers who are not loyal to them in return. The younger generations watch how they are treated & as a result many of us don't work late nearly as much, & when a recruiter calls, we take the call.

The "Staff" of the Economist blames "sponging (baby) boomers" for problems with our economy. I blame the liberals and their endless handouts which has created closely spaced generations of laybouts who believe that they are "entitled" to food stamps, free cell phones, free educations, free housing, etc. etc. ad nauseum, for the problems with our economy. I blame Barack Hussein Obama, aka Barry Soetoro for $5 trillion added to our country's debt during his term in office. I blame our Democrat controlled congress for the Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac scandal.

Baby boomers have worked all of their lives and paid oodles of money into Social Security, and other government funds. Our government has robbed Social Security, and now Obama as robbed Medicare.

This 41% of the population needs to get out and vote for Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan so that they can begin to clean up the ungodly mess that the Libs have created.

When I, along with my employers, was paying income taxes for over 45 years and then medicare, it was used for someone else and other government programs (thanks LBJ). Now that I am at the age where where I need to receive what I was promised, am I supposed to just die. It doesn't sound to me like the boomers are the only ones who are selfish. They tagged us baby boomers because after WWII babies were being born in large numbers due to soldiers returning home, families being reunited and people getting married and starting families.

This particular boomer and spouse have worked for everything they have, have done all the "right" things in life--marriage, home, family, in that order. The family we raised is a benefit to society (good students, college graduates, hardworking even though they can't find good jobs, no drugs, welfare or illegitimate children). Along the way we took care of ailing parents and grandparents, some of whom didn't even live long enough to collect Social Security themselves.

I'm sick and tired of hearing what a bunch of spongers we are. If anyone is to blame, it is the criminal politicans who were and are more interested in their own power and comfort than in the good of our country.

And we're certainly a lot worse off than the Economist says we are in what we have lost to this economy. Interest on our life savings, accumulated by NOT taking vacations or living high on the hog: .05% or thereabouts. That will help with inflation, won't it?

And thanks to Obamacare, we'll be expected to shuffle off this mortal coil by taking "the pain pill."

I have to point out one very obvious thing that is affecting it all, longer life span.
So you have a huge amount of people who were born living a much longer time.
That alone is deal changer.

#21, as long as you are sniffing around looking for someone to blame--blame the hard left,of EVERY generation, who threw money down a rathole for decades, expecting a different result each time. (the definition of insanity.) I suspect you won't be barking up that tree, though, because you own it.