November 24, 2021: Generation of Swine, Unfettered by Responsibilities, Stench of a Generation.

 

An essay by Hillary Hoffower published by “Business Insider” and picked up by msn.com reiterates the central theme of these columns. To wit: the Generation of Swine, the “Baby Boomers” have squandered the national treasure and laid waste the future of this country and perhaps the planet as well.

From the 1950's Industry on Parade, to the 1980's The Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous, the Swine have been mesmerized by the captains of industry, celebrity and wealth, dreaming that they too, if unfettered by responsibilities, will rise to notoriety.

Under the banner “A billionaire boomer blames his generation for ruining the economy for millenials”, Ms Haffower quotes billionaire Howard Marks, investor and cofounder of Oaktree Capital Management, that the Boomers have left future generations with debt and a broken economy; with an affordability crisis and two recessions under their belt; and that they need to 'make room for millenials to wield economic and political influence'. In short, get out of the way.

Marks could have added that the Swine have also left future generations with a broken political system with a country increasingly at war with itself, and a world with rapidly diminishing prospects of warding off looming ecological catastrophy.

For decades now, dating back to the 1960's the Swine have held sway (see postings on this blog dating back to 2008), terrorizing our elders, stealing from future generations. Marks notes that there are roughly 71 million of us left now, three times the size of the 'silent' generation that preceded us, and rougly 10 percent more than the 65 million Gen Xers who followed (1)

Marks noted that for decades the Boomers “votes and financial resources have given them enormous political influence”...resulting in “extensive deficit spending on things the Boomers want and a failure to modify benefit programs that need fixing, all at the expense of future generations”(2)

There you have it: a scion of finance calling out the Generation of Swine for heeding the siren song of greed.

Hoffower notes that Marks “isn't the first to question boomer's economic influence. Both generational experts and news outlets from Vox to the Guardian have called out the generation for their role in bankrupting the rich economy they inherited, leaving millenials to pick up the pieces.” (3)

But our intrepid capitalist only dances about the problem. While recognizing the tax cuts, the deficits and the already enormous national debt, he stops short of consequence: the disinvestment in our infrastructure; the failure to provide affordable housing; the ravaging of our schools; the deterioration of our health care system; the shipping of middle-class employment overseas along with the destruction of trade unions; and “privatization”, the selling off of the government itself —be it tax collection, unemployment compensation, prisons and law enforcement agencies, toll roads and bridges—for parts.

That they have impoverished our institutions and soiled our public discourse remains to be told. Yet is is good to note that even among the worshiped the stench of a generation is beginning to be noticed.

____________

1. www.msn.com/en-us/money/markets/a-billionare-boomer-blames-his-generation-for-ruining-the-eoncomy-for-millenials.

2. Ibid.

3. ibid.