"A study from Pew reports that 'most young adults in the U.S. see others as selfish, exploitative, and untrustworthy.' "
People usually perceive others as they themselves are. Get out of yourselves and serve others...maybe your perception of the world will change! The best way to find yourself is to be in service to others.
"A study from Pew reports that 'most young adults in the U.S. see others as selfish, exploitative, and untrustworthy.' "
People usually perceive others as they themselves are. Get out of yourselves and serve others...maybe your perception of the world will change! The best way to find yourself is to be in service to others.
Crazy Hair what planet are you living on. Perhaps the older generations might be a more giving society, our youngsters today generally I might add don’t give a shit, for them it’s about how many likes did I get today on Instagram and Facebook or even worse how badly was my look criticized to the point of I feel soooo bad there is not much left to live for. Sadly
I'm guessing you don't have kids? This isn't what MOST kids/young people are like. This is what old people portray children as looking like to make themselves feel better about how badly they messed up both their, and the generations after theirs', priorities. Oh, and because it's important to illustrate they're dumb (unless they're celebrities who can help you get votes) so old people never have to give up the wealth and power they've spent their entire life chasing at the expense of their children (we're generalizing here right!?)
It is true that if you give a child, who hasn't yet developed self-esteem, this kind of self-critique tool and societal bent toward self-critique (you know who pays to have the most chemicals injected into their face? It isn't children...) they're going to be messed up. No way around it. That WE, as a society, valued the power of celebrity and status over decency, hard work and kindness isn't the child's fault. The boomers turned all of life into chasing money and power (and they're still doing it today), and that our children are paying for it should make us sad for them first, mad at their parents second, and then, finally, lead us to tell them to sack up and overcome the sh*tty hand they were dealt.
But let's not start with overgeneralized defeatism
Excellent reply only thing wrong I do have kids and great kids I might add, plus lots of grandchildren. My kids missed all the nonsense of Fakebook and Instagram thank God. My grandchildren unfortunately not. They are gorgeous, but I fear for them growing up especially in today’s America, hopefully common sense will prevail and they will grow up with some sense of normality. Watching the state of the Nation tonight although I’m not expecting anything from HIS speech. I don’t think you can blame all their ills on our generation. When I look at the oligarchs they are just over 40 eg Mark Zuckerberg, Elon Musk and the Google mob. I’m not sure what you call that generation I know I call them the Triple D’s Distract, Disrupt and then Destroy. Mark Zuckerberg poured $430mil into the 2020 election which destroyed our election integrity, those kids are not exactly kosher.
I grew up on a farm in Iowa. The last thing most farmers chased was money, power, celebrity and status. They were happy to have enough money to put food on the table for six, and saved to pay cash for tractors and the next harvest's seeds so they never had to borrow money. We were taught, first and foremost, decency, hard work and kindness. At the heart of the community were Quaker and Lutheran churches.
We instilled the same ideals in our children (who are in their 30's). All four are gainfully employed and value family. I would venture to say there are many, many more families out there who carry the same values.
But this mass attitude of victimhood penetrating our society will be our ruin. Blame is so easy and childish.
Yes, I dream about injecting some of those chemicals in my face or even getting a face lift. But financially it's not gonna happen in this lifetime. Thank goodness for Photoshop.
This. So, so, so much this! When you live in a society where the poverty level would have been considered EXTREME wealth just three generations ago, developing real self-esteem is almost impossible - there is nothing to overcome making the development of real self-esteem almost impossible. There are a few exceptions to this and the major exception is service. If we could get anything right in society, it would be illustrating how valuable service is to both those you serve, and those doing the serving.
There are a million reasons why service has declined (taxes are the primary driver, right next to parents who believe pre-determining their children's outcome is "good" parenting) but fixing this problem would fix so many of our societal ills. This, and jobs that actually create demonstrable value - that is the other way real self-esteem can be developed - and de-globalization may just give us that gift.
I frequently wonder if part of the whole homeless-drug-addict-checked-out culture isn't a phenomenon that's arisen because of this sense of hopelessness you are describing. Kids who have been raised getting a prize for every stupid thing they do (as well as the smart things), being told they can be anything they want to be. It actually puts a huge burden on them to be something _important_ , something that stands out to everybody. Well, by definition, only a few can stand out in each arena, and if you were dealt a genetic/nurture/peers hand of cards that doesn't get you there - doesn't get you even remotely, serviceably in the ballpark of there, what are you going to do with your life? They weren't being taught that life is worthwhile unless you are a prince/ss. Well, we're mostly technopeasants now.
I agree. But I think too many are conditioned to believe that the government can, and, will fix whatever ails them. What we are witnessing is the failure to deliver on that. Ever growing taxation, ever-growing governmental spending, ever-shrinking satisfaction. Just think what it will be like when the debt created by that ever-growing spending is defaulted on.
Federal income taxes are at their lowest levels ever. State and local taxes may be high, but it’s very site specific. What do you make of the outrageous concentration of wealth in our top 1 to 5% percent? Somewhere along the way, since Reagan, the middle class lost and the CEO class won. It isn’t the size of government but what our tax dollars are used for…which forces more people to turn to the government for help. Right and left played along.
Regarding federal income taxes being at their lowest level I second what BTDS said. ( And income tax is not the only source of federal revenue.) As for the concentration of wealth in the hands of a few, I am a staunch capitalist. But I think the current over-reliance on corporations needs a course correction. I think that reliance creates that concentration of wealth you find so outrageous. Those people who have significant wealth can wager larger in the stock market(s) and thus win larger. They should face larger risk too but that seems to not happen as often as it should, likely because of advanced knowledge or awareness of moves in the market. Lobbying dollars go a long way. Giving corporations the power to influence, oh hell, I mean control, elections, through political donations is what I find outrageous. It Lso probably impacts that concentration of wealth you find outrageous. But many ordinary Americans, and foreigners for that matter, have gained wealth on smaller scale by investing in those same markets. Not my cup of tea but many partake. As for state and local taxes my preference is as much state and local control as possible and as little federal as possible. And yes it is absolutely about the size of government. If for no other reason than for all the bureaucrats salaries, benefits, and perks. In 2016 compensation for federal civilian employees was $215 billion. And that does not take into account the costs of running and supplying the offices to house them or vehicles to transport many of them. That was for 2.2 million civilian workers or 1.5 percent of the US workforce spread among 100 agencies. The federal government also generates tons of waste that apparently no one can account for. That is Congress' job but they have abandoned their responsibility to do so. And the fraud is staggering - $5.4 billion in identity fraud associated with Covid PPP aid, and estimates as high as $100 billion of the $5 trillion appropriated Covid funds, Medicare fraud estimated to cost $65 billion a year, we do not even know what the fraud and graft involved in the green energy programs amounts to. But you get my drift and this is largely because the federal government is a massive, bloated bureaucracy that is incapable of efficient administration. In other words too big. Then bear in mind $32,000,000,000,000 dollars of federal debt. In the fourth quarter of 2022 the US spent $213 billion on interest payments on that debt. In one quarter so times 4 for the year. That was up $63 billion from a year earlier. And it was a jump of almost $30 billion over the 3rd quarter; the biggest quarterly jump on record. This is because the Fed raised interest to 4.25 percent in December and just raised them again in January. Every time the Fed powers up the printing press it devalues the dollar - yours, mine and the federal governments. So the federal government has to spend more for less, which means increasing debt and increasing debt service. It is a vicious, vicious cycle and it cannot continue indefinitely. When it finally crashes the wealthy will flee like rats leaving a sinking ship and average American citizens will be left to suffer the consequences. So be very, very careful who and what you vote for.
Great post! I agree with more than half of what you said here. I believe during the Bush and then Obama years the federal government was reduced and was smaller than in previous decades. I worked in the federal govt then, it was difficult, stressful. But I think that if there is one federal worker (1.5) for every 100 workers we are well served. That’s a lot of clientele for one fed, esp when you consider all those people and children not in the workforce also being affected by federal programs. (Did that stat include military as well? ) That said, I agree about the unwieldy nature of administering that amount of money and programs. But the grift and fraud is not all a problem of the number of government employees, or maybe it is. The private sector is milking the system and regarding the corporations…..I’m totally with you. Too few, too large. It comes down to big money, starting with its political and financial influence in Congress, who hold the purse strings. Gaining control of the beast takes oversight of dare I say it, regulators, an enforcement arm and finally a functional, well staffed judicial system. I agree, some agencies and programs could use fewer people but many others could use more and more expert employees (ie SEC). I don’t see state or local control over many federal programs because of these governments are also poorly administered and/ or subject to the same greed, grift and fraud. Maybe that’s the nature and continual struggle of a capitalist democracy. I firmly believe the beginning of any solution, as difficult as it will be, is to get money out of politics. Pretty complicated, I’m far from an expert in any of it.
It makes me happy that when we discuss what at first blush are opposing views we find much to agree on. My dad was a federal civil servant for years so I am not anti-govrrnment worker. The figure I used did not include the military. I do have more faith in state and local governments because I feel I have greater access to them and thus can demand greater accountability.
I think the corporate influence should be limited by overturning Citizen's United. And I think term limits are a must for Congress. No more McConnells or Pelosis.
Lots in common! Spot on re Citizens United. I’m still bouncing around on term limits. In rural states like mine, it would be difficult to find decent Senate candidates every 6 years, for instance.
That penultimate president whose-name-we-cannot-mention simplified and lowered taxes below where they are now also. They've gone up since Biden took office. I know a tax accountant who handles a wide variety people's taxes in the Seattle/Tacoma area. Many of these are very well off, he says. The majority of his clients were panicked when the 2018 tax season arrived. They had all heard they were going to get crucified because of the elimination/simplification of many of their habitual loopholes. He said the taxes for all of his clients except one went down after those changes. And the one that didn't was peculiar for reasons, but he didn't elaborate.
You seem to be missing the whole "we didn't have federal income taxes for the first 150 years of this country" thing when saying they're at the "lowest levels ever." Lowest levels SINCE the government started robbing from the people you mean?
The concentration of wealth in this country has ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to do with CEO's. There are infinitely less CEO's today, as a percentage of the population than there were 70 years ago. As government concentrated, so did business. Not the other way around.
CEO's have become powerful BECAUSE the government not only takes money they don't deserve/haven't earned, but then ALSO borrow against that money (to the tune of spending twice as much as they "make") so they have even more money that they hand pick who they give that money too. Taxes are, by definition, the process of giving the government the power to pick the winners and losers... If thats the kind of system you want to live in, we want to live in VERY different systems.
But you are correct, the right, left, and everyone else, went along.
We've certainly discussed this before, but when an entire generation decides that wealth and status are all that matter (hi boomers), and then builds train tracks to drive their children directly into that same system, whether they earned their way there or not, what else do we expect? We have generations that were told they "could be anything they wanted to be," and when things got hard were told to blame others, or that their parents would do the work for them, but that "nothing could stand in their way." Then, turns out they can't do whatever they want (welcome to life), never learned hard work OR how to overcome obstacles, and now are sitting around waiting for their parents (in the form of government after their actual parents blew all their money on face implants and cars they couldn't afford) to rescue them again as they've done throughout their life.
And it all starts with taxes. When your first dollar goes to the government, you SHOULD expect them to take care of everything. But your first dollar SHOULD NEVER GO TO THE GOVERNMENT. You want to buy things, great, you should pay to facilitate that exchange in the form of government. You want to own a home and have it supported by good schools, and waste treatment plants, etc... great, you should pay to for those common goods. You want to work hard and create value for yourself and others, YOU SHOULD KEEP THAT VALUE!!!
And here I was trying not to go on a rant about taxes :)
I should have read further before I typed up basically the same comment - at least up to the taxes part. Not sure I'd blame it all on us boomers but an unfortunate succession of forces.
I had to take a few minutes to prepare a measured response because I find your comment quite off-putting. With regard to your first paragraph's tirade against boomers I do not know the source of your opinion but it is extreme stereotyping. The Boomer generation spanned roughly 20 years of births. It is marked by being a very large population as compared to those before and immediately after. A large population would logically acquire a larger measure of wealth, especially in relatively peaceful and prosperous times. Also the Boomer generation was the first generation with a significant number of women who entered the work force outside the home. Thus a significant portion of two-earner families came to be. Two-earner families were able to accumulate wealth at a greater and faster pace. I am surprised someone who prides themselves about being about the data missed that one. Also you are aware that the drive for wealth accumulation is largely a product of the so-called Golden Age of the late 1890s? You know the Wall Street types. So if you need to cast blame I suggest you look there.
Now for the specifics. I am a Boomer although I am a late Boomer. I am not and have never been of the opinion that wealth and status are all that matter. I do not worship at the altar of the almighty dollar nor do most of the folks I know. The ones who do are viewed with pity by the rest of us because that path is not only a road to hell it is driven by either character defects or mental illness. I do not blame others for any personal misfortune I have incurred but rather always try to deduce what I did wrong. I also diligently tried to instill that in my offspring, as my parents instilled it in me and my husband's in him.
Many if not most of my generation realize that overdoing for your offspring retards their growth, thus we expect them to leave the nest and spread their own wings. No boomerang kids around here. Those offspring you seem to be describing were the result of helicopter parenting created by Millenials or Gen X depending on your sources and are an anathema to most Boomers. At least the ones I know but to be fair I am a southerner, a ruralite, a conservative and all of that is informed by being a Christian. I have an estate largely because I came of age in a former feckless Democrat administration, Carter, and know what an economic downturn means. No jobs, high inflation and all that flows from that. It was scary. I found a man with common values, married him, we both worked hard, avoided debt (to this day every time I pull out a credit card I hear my Daddy's voice saying "if you can't pay for it, you don't need it" so I then go online a pay the credit card balance); and lived below my means. Never had a mortgage, paid cash for my land, paid to build the house in stages, paid cash for and drove beater cars. Never had cosmetic surgery., not thankfully any other kind except oral surgery. It worked. I have a modest estate if the federal government does not destroy it in its not so subtle effort to redistribute wealth. Fueled by the ignorance of people like you who seem.to think I am not justified in having what I have. If my estate does survive it will not go to my offspring. My husband and I sacrificed to give them a firm foundation. What they make of it is up to them.
As for your second paragraph your first sentence illustrates a stunning level of ignorance. The federal government at this stage is not even adequately managing its Constitutional mandates - a secure border and a standing military. Or its subsequently created bureaucracies, for example the Department of Transportation with its across the board ineptitude. Yet it takes and takes and takes and spends, and spends, and spends in the name of whatever trendy term it can sell to the gullible - currently social/justice/equity, green energy, and covid relief. All of which are based on questionable evidence. I do not even understand the rest of your second paragraph. If you are saying I do not want to pay taxes you are once again woefully uninformed or deliberately obtuse. What I want is for my taxes to function effectively. I want most of my taxes to be paid locally not seized by a behemoth federal government that is intent on dictating the minutiae of the life of every American citizen through a system of ever-burgeoning bureaucracies and bureaucrats. And non-citizen resident. You can imagine what I think of that. I want to pay for schools that teach children how to think, not what to think. And I want those schools funded and governed locally. I want my taxes to be paid locally to fund police who are actually allowed to enforce the law. I want stable infrastructure (roads/bridges, sewage plants, etc.) and a functioning electrical grid (by that I mean one powered by proven technology not pie-in-the-sky technology being funded by federal programs which are nothing more than ways for politicians and bureaucrats to line their pockets). And what functions best is going to vary across the country. They have coal.in West Virginia so let them use coal. They have rivers in the east and Pacific Northwest so let them use hydroelectric. They have wind off the coast of California and Massachusetts so let the..use wind. They have solar in the desert southwest so let them.use solar. This is not rocket science. Change will come. Just not by government fiat, at least not effectively. Take the gas stove debaucle for example. I want to pay federal taxes for border enforcement, a functioning military. Other than that I think most federal departments and agencies need to be scaled back considerably and their needs for tax dollars re-evaluated. Mostly I want accountability for tax dollars, particularly at the federal level. It is the only way to give the American citizen the respect, power, and control to which they are entitled.
In closing you and all the other know-it-all Boomer haters need to pull your heads out of your arses and decide if you want to continue to be part of the problem or part of the solution.
We're badly missing each other here, but that is entirely my fault.
of what generation would you consider Bush, Biden, Clinton, Trump, Pelosi, etc...? The burden the Boomers must carry is that they broke the sacred agreement with the American people forever in the form of debt. That is, in no way, to blame EVERY Boomer, but that generations "leadership" must carry the weight of this failure. The "gilded" age carries the failure of implementing income taxes (the worst thing ever done to this nation, with the fed right behind it) and the Boomers carry the failure of "leading" us into debt that is so large almost no one can actually fathom what it means. That excess wasn't created by the golden age. The golden age may have ripped people off, they may have lied, cheated, and stolen, I honestly have no idea (they did rig rules and regulations to concentrate power - the All In podcast just did a great tiny throwaway segment on this when talking about the potential corruption going on in India right now as public/private partnerships slush money around to build badly needed infrastructure), but I know they didn't steal people's money in the form of mass taxation AND steal people's money again in the form of borrowing against that taxation.
I am a millennial. I certainly carry the weight of my generations failure to accept life for what really is and instead try to manufacture a virtual façade to be placed on top of their lives. But we haven't "lead" anything yet, and so our generation doesn't actually have legacy. The Boomers do, and that is not calling EVERY boomer, or even most boomers, anything other than wonderful people - but it is to call out that this generations leadership has amounted to what we see around us today - the war machine, the debt machine, the pharma machine, the failed education system, and I could go on and on.
On the tax thing I was in no way indicating YOU don't want to pay taxes, I was saying I don't want to pay income taxes and I firmly believe NO ONE should pay income taxes. Income taxes were the moral failure (believing the government, and not God or Man deserved the first piece of value of your labor) that lead to every single thing that came after it.
My statement regarding the "dependent" class is that it isn't weird, given the system, that they believe the government is there to take care of them. Fundamentally, if you give your first dollar to someone (before you even keep one for yourself) you should expect everything from them. The issue isn't with the expectation - it's with the system. if your first dollar went to God you'd lean on God (as was the old, and much more desirable way). If your first dollar went to yourself, you'd lean on yourself. But if your first dollar goes to the federal government, well then... this is exactly what we should expect.
Join a church. If you want to feel needed, they can help you with that. And you will see people way worse off than you living their lives in grace and acceptance.
"A study from Pew reports that 'most young adults in the U.S. see others as selfish, exploitative, and untrustworthy.' "
People usually perceive others as they themselves are. Get out of yourselves and serve others...maybe your perception of the world will change! The best way to find yourself is to be in service to others.
I think the first preacher of the Gospel said it best, lose yourself to find yourself.
I had the same thought as I read the article.
The faults we vilify in others are generally the same faults we see in ourselves...IF we are honest and self aware.
Crazy Hair what planet are you living on. Perhaps the older generations might be a more giving society, our youngsters today generally I might add don’t give a shit, for them it’s about how many likes did I get today on Instagram and Facebook or even worse how badly was my look criticized to the point of I feel soooo bad there is not much left to live for. Sadly
I'm guessing you don't have kids? This isn't what MOST kids/young people are like. This is what old people portray children as looking like to make themselves feel better about how badly they messed up both their, and the generations after theirs', priorities. Oh, and because it's important to illustrate they're dumb (unless they're celebrities who can help you get votes) so old people never have to give up the wealth and power they've spent their entire life chasing at the expense of their children (we're generalizing here right!?)
It is true that if you give a child, who hasn't yet developed self-esteem, this kind of self-critique tool and societal bent toward self-critique (you know who pays to have the most chemicals injected into their face? It isn't children...) they're going to be messed up. No way around it. That WE, as a society, valued the power of celebrity and status over decency, hard work and kindness isn't the child's fault. The boomers turned all of life into chasing money and power (and they're still doing it today), and that our children are paying for it should make us sad for them first, mad at their parents second, and then, finally, lead us to tell them to sack up and overcome the sh*tty hand they were dealt.
But let's not start with overgeneralized defeatism
Excellent reply only thing wrong I do have kids and great kids I might add, plus lots of grandchildren. My kids missed all the nonsense of Fakebook and Instagram thank God. My grandchildren unfortunately not. They are gorgeous, but I fear for them growing up especially in today’s America, hopefully common sense will prevail and they will grow up with some sense of normality. Watching the state of the Nation tonight although I’m not expecting anything from HIS speech. I don’t think you can blame all their ills on our generation. When I look at the oligarchs they are just over 40 eg Mark Zuckerberg, Elon Musk and the Google mob. I’m not sure what you call that generation I know I call them the Triple D’s Distract, Disrupt and then Destroy. Mark Zuckerberg poured $430mil into the 2020 election which destroyed our election integrity, those kids are not exactly kosher.
I grew up on a farm in Iowa. The last thing most farmers chased was money, power, celebrity and status. They were happy to have enough money to put food on the table for six, and saved to pay cash for tractors and the next harvest's seeds so they never had to borrow money. We were taught, first and foremost, decency, hard work and kindness. At the heart of the community were Quaker and Lutheran churches.
We instilled the same ideals in our children (who are in their 30's). All four are gainfully employed and value family. I would venture to say there are many, many more families out there who carry the same values.
But this mass attitude of victimhood penetrating our society will be our ruin. Blame is so easy and childish.
Yes, I dream about injecting some of those chemicals in my face or even getting a face lift. But financially it's not gonna happen in this lifetime. Thank goodness for Photoshop.
Can I qualify as a victim? 😁
🤣🤣🤣 not sure if you qualify but in my books you do! You remind me of ME!
This. So, so, so much this! When you live in a society where the poverty level would have been considered EXTREME wealth just three generations ago, developing real self-esteem is almost impossible - there is nothing to overcome making the development of real self-esteem almost impossible. There are a few exceptions to this and the major exception is service. If we could get anything right in society, it would be illustrating how valuable service is to both those you serve, and those doing the serving.
There are a million reasons why service has declined (taxes are the primary driver, right next to parents who believe pre-determining their children's outcome is "good" parenting) but fixing this problem would fix so many of our societal ills. This, and jobs that actually create demonstrable value - that is the other way real self-esteem can be developed - and de-globalization may just give us that gift.
I frequently wonder if part of the whole homeless-drug-addict-checked-out culture isn't a phenomenon that's arisen because of this sense of hopelessness you are describing. Kids who have been raised getting a prize for every stupid thing they do (as well as the smart things), being told they can be anything they want to be. It actually puts a huge burden on them to be something _important_ , something that stands out to everybody. Well, by definition, only a few can stand out in each arena, and if you were dealt a genetic/nurture/peers hand of cards that doesn't get you there - doesn't get you even remotely, serviceably in the ballpark of there, what are you going to do with your life? They weren't being taught that life is worthwhile unless you are a prince/ss. Well, we're mostly technopeasants now.
I agree. But I think too many are conditioned to believe that the government can, and, will fix whatever ails them. What we are witnessing is the failure to deliver on that. Ever growing taxation, ever-growing governmental spending, ever-shrinking satisfaction. Just think what it will be like when the debt created by that ever-growing spending is defaulted on.
Federal income taxes are at their lowest levels ever. State and local taxes may be high, but it’s very site specific. What do you make of the outrageous concentration of wealth in our top 1 to 5% percent? Somewhere along the way, since Reagan, the middle class lost and the CEO class won. It isn’t the size of government but what our tax dollars are used for…which forces more people to turn to the government for help. Right and left played along.
Regarding federal income taxes being at their lowest level I second what BTDS said. ( And income tax is not the only source of federal revenue.) As for the concentration of wealth in the hands of a few, I am a staunch capitalist. But I think the current over-reliance on corporations needs a course correction. I think that reliance creates that concentration of wealth you find so outrageous. Those people who have significant wealth can wager larger in the stock market(s) and thus win larger. They should face larger risk too but that seems to not happen as often as it should, likely because of advanced knowledge or awareness of moves in the market. Lobbying dollars go a long way. Giving corporations the power to influence, oh hell, I mean control, elections, through political donations is what I find outrageous. It Lso probably impacts that concentration of wealth you find outrageous. But many ordinary Americans, and foreigners for that matter, have gained wealth on smaller scale by investing in those same markets. Not my cup of tea but many partake. As for state and local taxes my preference is as much state and local control as possible and as little federal as possible. And yes it is absolutely about the size of government. If for no other reason than for all the bureaucrats salaries, benefits, and perks. In 2016 compensation for federal civilian employees was $215 billion. And that does not take into account the costs of running and supplying the offices to house them or vehicles to transport many of them. That was for 2.2 million civilian workers or 1.5 percent of the US workforce spread among 100 agencies. The federal government also generates tons of waste that apparently no one can account for. That is Congress' job but they have abandoned their responsibility to do so. And the fraud is staggering - $5.4 billion in identity fraud associated with Covid PPP aid, and estimates as high as $100 billion of the $5 trillion appropriated Covid funds, Medicare fraud estimated to cost $65 billion a year, we do not even know what the fraud and graft involved in the green energy programs amounts to. But you get my drift and this is largely because the federal government is a massive, bloated bureaucracy that is incapable of efficient administration. In other words too big. Then bear in mind $32,000,000,000,000 dollars of federal debt. In the fourth quarter of 2022 the US spent $213 billion on interest payments on that debt. In one quarter so times 4 for the year. That was up $63 billion from a year earlier. And it was a jump of almost $30 billion over the 3rd quarter; the biggest quarterly jump on record. This is because the Fed raised interest to 4.25 percent in December and just raised them again in January. Every time the Fed powers up the printing press it devalues the dollar - yours, mine and the federal governments. So the federal government has to spend more for less, which means increasing debt and increasing debt service. It is a vicious, vicious cycle and it cannot continue indefinitely. When it finally crashes the wealthy will flee like rats leaving a sinking ship and average American citizens will be left to suffer the consequences. So be very, very careful who and what you vote for.
Great post! I agree with more than half of what you said here. I believe during the Bush and then Obama years the federal government was reduced and was smaller than in previous decades. I worked in the federal govt then, it was difficult, stressful. But I think that if there is one federal worker (1.5) for every 100 workers we are well served. That’s a lot of clientele for one fed, esp when you consider all those people and children not in the workforce also being affected by federal programs. (Did that stat include military as well? ) That said, I agree about the unwieldy nature of administering that amount of money and programs. But the grift and fraud is not all a problem of the number of government employees, or maybe it is. The private sector is milking the system and regarding the corporations…..I’m totally with you. Too few, too large. It comes down to big money, starting with its political and financial influence in Congress, who hold the purse strings. Gaining control of the beast takes oversight of dare I say it, regulators, an enforcement arm and finally a functional, well staffed judicial system. I agree, some agencies and programs could use fewer people but many others could use more and more expert employees (ie SEC). I don’t see state or local control over many federal programs because of these governments are also poorly administered and/ or subject to the same greed, grift and fraud. Maybe that’s the nature and continual struggle of a capitalist democracy. I firmly believe the beginning of any solution, as difficult as it will be, is to get money out of politics. Pretty complicated, I’m far from an expert in any of it.
It makes me happy that when we discuss what at first blush are opposing views we find much to agree on. My dad was a federal civil servant for years so I am not anti-govrrnment worker. The figure I used did not include the military. I do have more faith in state and local governments because I feel I have greater access to them and thus can demand greater accountability.
I think the corporate influence should be limited by overturning Citizen's United. And I think term limits are a must for Congress. No more McConnells or Pelosis.
Lots in common! Spot on re Citizens United. I’m still bouncing around on term limits. In rural states like mine, it would be difficult to find decent Senate candidates every 6 years, for instance.
I struggled with that as well.
No they are not. They were lower a couple times - and I'm not talking about before we even had them which was a longer period.
You are probably right. But certainly lowest since the Reagan years, for most of us.
That penultimate president whose-name-we-cannot-mention simplified and lowered taxes below where they are now also. They've gone up since Biden took office. I know a tax accountant who handles a wide variety people's taxes in the Seattle/Tacoma area. Many of these are very well off, he says. The majority of his clients were panicked when the 2018 tax season arrived. They had all heard they were going to get crucified because of the elimination/simplification of many of their habitual loopholes. He said the taxes for all of his clients except one went down after those changes. And the one that didn't was peculiar for reasons, but he didn't elaborate.
You seem to be missing the whole "we didn't have federal income taxes for the first 150 years of this country" thing when saying they're at the "lowest levels ever." Lowest levels SINCE the government started robbing from the people you mean?
The concentration of wealth in this country has ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to do with CEO's. There are infinitely less CEO's today, as a percentage of the population than there were 70 years ago. As government concentrated, so did business. Not the other way around.
I did an entire substack on this - https://butthedatasays.substack.com/p/has-the-american-dream-been-eaten
CEO's have become powerful BECAUSE the government not only takes money they don't deserve/haven't earned, but then ALSO borrow against that money (to the tune of spending twice as much as they "make") so they have even more money that they hand pick who they give that money too. Taxes are, by definition, the process of giving the government the power to pick the winners and losers... If thats the kind of system you want to live in, we want to live in VERY different systems.
But you are correct, the right, left, and everyone else, went along.
We've certainly discussed this before, but when an entire generation decides that wealth and status are all that matter (hi boomers), and then builds train tracks to drive their children directly into that same system, whether they earned their way there or not, what else do we expect? We have generations that were told they "could be anything they wanted to be," and when things got hard were told to blame others, or that their parents would do the work for them, but that "nothing could stand in their way." Then, turns out they can't do whatever they want (welcome to life), never learned hard work OR how to overcome obstacles, and now are sitting around waiting for their parents (in the form of government after their actual parents blew all their money on face implants and cars they couldn't afford) to rescue them again as they've done throughout their life.
And it all starts with taxes. When your first dollar goes to the government, you SHOULD expect them to take care of everything. But your first dollar SHOULD NEVER GO TO THE GOVERNMENT. You want to buy things, great, you should pay to facilitate that exchange in the form of government. You want to own a home and have it supported by good schools, and waste treatment plants, etc... great, you should pay to for those common goods. You want to work hard and create value for yourself and others, YOU SHOULD KEEP THAT VALUE!!!
And here I was trying not to go on a rant about taxes :)
I should have read further before I typed up basically the same comment - at least up to the taxes part. Not sure I'd blame it all on us boomers but an unfortunate succession of forces.
I had to take a few minutes to prepare a measured response because I find your comment quite off-putting. With regard to your first paragraph's tirade against boomers I do not know the source of your opinion but it is extreme stereotyping. The Boomer generation spanned roughly 20 years of births. It is marked by being a very large population as compared to those before and immediately after. A large population would logically acquire a larger measure of wealth, especially in relatively peaceful and prosperous times. Also the Boomer generation was the first generation with a significant number of women who entered the work force outside the home. Thus a significant portion of two-earner families came to be. Two-earner families were able to accumulate wealth at a greater and faster pace. I am surprised someone who prides themselves about being about the data missed that one. Also you are aware that the drive for wealth accumulation is largely a product of the so-called Golden Age of the late 1890s? You know the Wall Street types. So if you need to cast blame I suggest you look there.
Now for the specifics. I am a Boomer although I am a late Boomer. I am not and have never been of the opinion that wealth and status are all that matter. I do not worship at the altar of the almighty dollar nor do most of the folks I know. The ones who do are viewed with pity by the rest of us because that path is not only a road to hell it is driven by either character defects or mental illness. I do not blame others for any personal misfortune I have incurred but rather always try to deduce what I did wrong. I also diligently tried to instill that in my offspring, as my parents instilled it in me and my husband's in him.
Many if not most of my generation realize that overdoing for your offspring retards their growth, thus we expect them to leave the nest and spread their own wings. No boomerang kids around here. Those offspring you seem to be describing were the result of helicopter parenting created by Millenials or Gen X depending on your sources and are an anathema to most Boomers. At least the ones I know but to be fair I am a southerner, a ruralite, a conservative and all of that is informed by being a Christian. I have an estate largely because I came of age in a former feckless Democrat administration, Carter, and know what an economic downturn means. No jobs, high inflation and all that flows from that. It was scary. I found a man with common values, married him, we both worked hard, avoided debt (to this day every time I pull out a credit card I hear my Daddy's voice saying "if you can't pay for it, you don't need it" so I then go online a pay the credit card balance); and lived below my means. Never had a mortgage, paid cash for my land, paid to build the house in stages, paid cash for and drove beater cars. Never had cosmetic surgery., not thankfully any other kind except oral surgery. It worked. I have a modest estate if the federal government does not destroy it in its not so subtle effort to redistribute wealth. Fueled by the ignorance of people like you who seem.to think I am not justified in having what I have. If my estate does survive it will not go to my offspring. My husband and I sacrificed to give them a firm foundation. What they make of it is up to them.
As for your second paragraph your first sentence illustrates a stunning level of ignorance. The federal government at this stage is not even adequately managing its Constitutional mandates - a secure border and a standing military. Or its subsequently created bureaucracies, for example the Department of Transportation with its across the board ineptitude. Yet it takes and takes and takes and spends, and spends, and spends in the name of whatever trendy term it can sell to the gullible - currently social/justice/equity, green energy, and covid relief. All of which are based on questionable evidence. I do not even understand the rest of your second paragraph. If you are saying I do not want to pay taxes you are once again woefully uninformed or deliberately obtuse. What I want is for my taxes to function effectively. I want most of my taxes to be paid locally not seized by a behemoth federal government that is intent on dictating the minutiae of the life of every American citizen through a system of ever-burgeoning bureaucracies and bureaucrats. And non-citizen resident. You can imagine what I think of that. I want to pay for schools that teach children how to think, not what to think. And I want those schools funded and governed locally. I want my taxes to be paid locally to fund police who are actually allowed to enforce the law. I want stable infrastructure (roads/bridges, sewage plants, etc.) and a functioning electrical grid (by that I mean one powered by proven technology not pie-in-the-sky technology being funded by federal programs which are nothing more than ways for politicians and bureaucrats to line their pockets). And what functions best is going to vary across the country. They have coal.in West Virginia so let them use coal. They have rivers in the east and Pacific Northwest so let them use hydroelectric. They have wind off the coast of California and Massachusetts so let the..use wind. They have solar in the desert southwest so let them.use solar. This is not rocket science. Change will come. Just not by government fiat, at least not effectively. Take the gas stove debaucle for example. I want to pay federal taxes for border enforcement, a functioning military. Other than that I think most federal departments and agencies need to be scaled back considerably and their needs for tax dollars re-evaluated. Mostly I want accountability for tax dollars, particularly at the federal level. It is the only way to give the American citizen the respect, power, and control to which they are entitled.
In closing you and all the other know-it-all Boomer haters need to pull your heads out of your arses and decide if you want to continue to be part of the problem or part of the solution.
We're badly missing each other here, but that is entirely my fault.
of what generation would you consider Bush, Biden, Clinton, Trump, Pelosi, etc...? The burden the Boomers must carry is that they broke the sacred agreement with the American people forever in the form of debt. That is, in no way, to blame EVERY Boomer, but that generations "leadership" must carry the weight of this failure. The "gilded" age carries the failure of implementing income taxes (the worst thing ever done to this nation, with the fed right behind it) and the Boomers carry the failure of "leading" us into debt that is so large almost no one can actually fathom what it means. That excess wasn't created by the golden age. The golden age may have ripped people off, they may have lied, cheated, and stolen, I honestly have no idea (they did rig rules and regulations to concentrate power - the All In podcast just did a great tiny throwaway segment on this when talking about the potential corruption going on in India right now as public/private partnerships slush money around to build badly needed infrastructure), but I know they didn't steal people's money in the form of mass taxation AND steal people's money again in the form of borrowing against that taxation.
I am a millennial. I certainly carry the weight of my generations failure to accept life for what really is and instead try to manufacture a virtual façade to be placed on top of their lives. But we haven't "lead" anything yet, and so our generation doesn't actually have legacy. The Boomers do, and that is not calling EVERY boomer, or even most boomers, anything other than wonderful people - but it is to call out that this generations leadership has amounted to what we see around us today - the war machine, the debt machine, the pharma machine, the failed education system, and I could go on and on.
On the tax thing I was in no way indicating YOU don't want to pay taxes, I was saying I don't want to pay income taxes and I firmly believe NO ONE should pay income taxes. Income taxes were the moral failure (believing the government, and not God or Man deserved the first piece of value of your labor) that lead to every single thing that came after it.
My statement regarding the "dependent" class is that it isn't weird, given the system, that they believe the government is there to take care of them. Fundamentally, if you give your first dollar to someone (before you even keep one for yourself) you should expect everything from them. The issue isn't with the expectation - it's with the system. if your first dollar went to God you'd lean on God (as was the old, and much more desirable way). If your first dollar went to yourself, you'd lean on yourself. But if your first dollar goes to the federal government, well then... this is exactly what we should expect.
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Join a church. If you want to feel needed, they can help you with that. And you will see people way worse off than you living their lives in grace and acceptance.