Age of the Boomer and the War with Millennials

There is an overwhelming sense of fear and uncertainty in our society today. We have run unsustainable national debt, resources are being depleted, the world is polluted, everything is becoming increasingly expensive, and we have not fully recovered from the Great Recession. These problems did not come about overnight but gradually developed over several decades and culminated with the Great Recession. But how did all the problems come about and who is to blame? When we look at modern history, we begin to see changes in our society, changes that began in the 1960's. There was a change in values, morals, ethics, behaviors, and attitudes. We also began to see a change in trends related to drug use, divorce, crime, and consumption. During this time period, society has been dominated by the baby boomer generation. When I saw this correlation between the changes in our society and the baby boomer generation, I asked myself, could it be that the baby boomers are the root of the problem. At first this correlation seemed outrageous because baby boomers have promoted themselves as the greatest generation to ever live. They believed that throughout their lives they have fought for just causes and rejected the corrupt institutions of our society. After researching the trends, behaviors, and events that transpired during the baby boomer generation though, I found that not only have the baby boomers been the cause of all major problems we face in our society today, but they have also been the worst and most destructive generation our society has ever seen. They have lived lives of self-indulgence, materialism, and excess, characteristics that have facilitated all the problems we have. It began in the 1960's with the counterculture movement and the rejection of the institutions and values of their parents. They wanted to expand their minds with drug use and promote peace and love throughout the world. Innocent drug use and peace promotion led to the violence and drug epidemics of the 1970's and 1980's. The excess and decadence that began in the 1980's and continued all the way through the 21st century, ultimately led to the Great Recession. The baby boomers have made no attempts to solve the problems they created and passed on these problems to future generations, the most notable problem being a national debt of over $19 trillion, most of which was incurred on the baby boomer's watch. The issue of debt cannot be understated because it IS currently the biggest threat we face in our society. It is difficult for baby boomers to understand this because they were never burdened with unsustainable debt right out of college like the Millennials have been. Even if we were to decrease the national debt by $1 trillion every year, it would take over 19 years to eliminate the debt. Nineteen years is almost an entire generation. The baby boomers speak of a balanced budget. Newsflash, you can't pay off debt unless you have a surplus budget!! They have dominated the workforce and have created a difficult environment for the new generation, the Millennials, to enter the workforce. Now that they have reached the point in their lives when it is time to retire and let that next generation take over, they refuse to retire because they "don't have enough" to continue the excessive lifestyle they have become accustomed to. When they do retire though, revenues will only be able to finance the entitlement programs America has, the bulk of which will go to the retired baby boomers. Because of this and the fact that the baby boomers have made no attempt to solve the debt issue means that they are content with continuing their life of excess in retirement at the expense of the future generations, namely the Millennials.