Generation Gap Crap From A Cretin

Oh, extra fun, didn't realize it was a yout' hating his betters, i.e., a sap who blames the decline & fall of American Empire & the resultant crummy economy on his parents' generation merely for existing (Blame the "Greatest Generation," who couldn't keep it in their pants.) rather than for its blind acceptance of its own destruction by reactionary forces. Well, no reason to expect the children of idiots to be any wiser than the mutant gene pool from which they sprang.

It may now be starting to change as economic opportunities for those who are freshly out of college and even professional schools are starting to narrow, whereas the bill for half-a-century of profligate living is suddenly coming due.

Also, a free market asshole (What we get for linking to something from The Daily Dish merely because it appeared schadenfreude-filled.):

When jobs were plentiful in the 1990s, it made sense for the cost of college education to rise rapidly. It was, after all, clearly a worthwhile investment. But now jobs are scarce and pay little while tuition and other college costs are still on the rise. It is a dead-end situation both for colleges and for graduates. Even law and medical schools no longer guarantee a well-paying job. Yet, graduating young professionals are now routinely facing debts of $300,000 or more. Even if they find a job, you can’t expect people laden with such debts to be risk-takers.*

No, but we can expect them to be roused against their betterselders.

Generational Conflict

In the United States, rising unemployment among young people hasn’t yet led to an intensified conflict between generations, but it probably will soon. Western Europe, where budget cuts hit Britain, France and Italy and riots protesting those cuts ensued, provides a blueprint for coming strife.

At first glance, it is easy to dismiss such riots as unreasonable demands for more entitlements on the part of people weaned on socialist handouts. But it is worth analyzing the nature of those protests on a deeper level. In Europe, as in the United States, students are facing a very grim future with no job openings and few opportunities to advance. They see a generation of baby boomers — their parents’ generation — who enjoyed free education, secure, well-paying jobs and steady careers, and who are now preparing to retire at age 60 to full pensions and medical benefits. The new generation will be asked to pay for all those benefits out of their meager salaries while at the same time they are being told that the baby boomers have eaten the entire pie and that they will have to pay more for their education, work harder for less money and retire at a later age — because there is no money left in the till for them.

It may be different in Europe, but anger against high-living oldsters will likely well up on this side of the Atlantic as well. Social Security and Medicare are bankrupting the state while those who are now working to support such open-ended programs are warned not to count on them when they reach the age of retirement. Recent graduates probably would have gladly supported the retirees if they had a good job and a bright future, but not when they themselves are struggling to keep their heads above water.

Say, remind us where all that fucking money went, shithead. Foolish as that statement is, note the context in which it occurs:

Only after reforms in the mid-1980s, the Reagan-Thatcher years, did recent graduates — the Baby Bust generation — begin to see a much freer, more entrepreneurial environment, with better job prospects and greater economic opportunities.

Big economic analyst just can't quite make the connection. We can't imagine why.

*A risk for you, Mr. Gutsy Free-Market Risk-Taker (Alexei Bayer is head of KAFAN FX Information Services. His monthly “Global Economy” column in Research has received an excellence award from the New York State Society of Certified Public Accountants for the past six years, 2004-2009. He previously worked for the Economist Intelligence Unit and Standard & Poor's.): A long walk off a short dock.