In 1998, former NBC Nightly News anchor Tom Brokaw published a bestselling book about Americans who came of age during the Great Depression and World War II. He called it, and them, “The Greatest Generation.”
He had good reason to. While all generations must steward the nation through both good and bad times, they tend to be remembered for the most notable events of their day. The Greatest Generation saved the world from fascism, and there is no denying the historic challenge and heroic response of those who, if they remain alive today, have become centenarians. But The Greatest Generation wasn’t perfect, having bequeathed to the world what you might call “The Greediest Generation.” I’m speaking of the Baby Boomers.
As a not-so-proud member of The Greediest Generation, I don’t subscribe to many of its tenets and am aghast at its lack of responsibility. My generation is simply not doing its job. To the contrary.
For example, in 1983 government leaders from The Greatest Generation patched up a design flaw in the original Social Security Act of 1935, which had been launched by former President Franklin Roosevelt before they came of age. But that was more than 40 years ago, and it was a patch rather than a permanent fix. If something isn’t done again soon, the Social Security trust fund will run dry within a decade, resulting in significant benefit cuts to today’s younger retirees and leaving those who come after them to fend for themselves. Whose turn is it to fix things? The Greediest Generation. Will we? Don’t hold your breath.
The same goes for the two signature health care initiatives of the Lyndon Johnson administration, Medicare and Medicaid. Their perverse incentives and rising costs are bankrupting the country at an accelerating rate due to the sheer size of the Baby Boom generation. Boomer politicians not only haven’t addressed these problems, they made matters worse through the misnamed and misleading “Affordable Care Act.” Medicare and Medicaid now account for 40% of all spending on health care and rising.
Though I was a broke college student forty years ago, I followed the events surrounding the Social Security crisis and hoped even then for a more permanent fix. I knew that it might harm me down the road, but I also knew those my age had decades to adjust. And as a businessman years later, I actively opposed both Hillarycare and Obamacare, knowing they would fail the country and saddle us with unsustainable debt. But the bulk of my generation would have none of it, preferring immediate gratification to responsible leadership.
Their interest in immediate gratification should not have come as a surprise. The Greediest Generation wasted its formative years embracing sex, drugs, and rock & roll, not to mention no-fault divorce and abortion-on-demand. Under its watch more than 60 million babies have been snuffed out in the womb, countless children have been irreparably harmed by cavalier commitments to marriage vows, and drug overdoses have resulted in innumerable deaths. But hey, if it feels good, do it, right?
Even now, in their dotage, the loudest voices in The Greediest Generation haven’t given up protesting anyone or anything that might upset their apple cart. They get particularly upset if someone suggests we finally address the “third rail” entitlement programs that are bankrupting the nation. Even the Department of Government Efficiency’s efforts to chase down where more than $100 billion in improper Medicare and Medicaid payments are going is drawing their ire.
The result for our progeny is not only debt but despair. Those now of childbearing age are not of childbearing mindset. With births running well below replacement rates, they’re turning the probability of disaster-by-demographics into a certainty.
These are just a handful of the reasons Baby Boomers are likely to be remembered as The Greediest Generation if we don’t get our act together quickly. Not only have we neglected the problems of which we have long been aware, we have made things worse on our watch. Sure, we will have “gotten ours,” but that’s no comfort to those who come behind us.
Fifty years from now, when there are too few doctors and nurses and plumbers and electricians, and too few working-age people to support increasingly obese entitlement programs, all in a nation that has grown too culturally and economically weak to defend itself, that will become apparent to everyone. If nothing is done to turn things around soon, the Greediest Generation’s legacy will be sealed.
Steve McKee is a branding expert, author, and visiting fellow at The Heritage Foundation exploring ideas and their influence. Learn more about him here.
Reproduced with permission. Original here: Will the Baby Boomers Make America Go Bust?
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