They don't get it

Lots of people wonder why the younger generation (under 30) are so cynical and anti-establishment. Let me help them reach some understanding on this.

The current ruling generation (baby boomers) has the appearance of wanting its cake and eating it too. We (the Gen Y) were brought up by these folks being told that anything is possible if you work hard and be honest. We were taught that if we could dream it, we could do it. We were taught that morals were important, and that not having morals was evil and those who chose that path would not succeed. Now that my generation is coming of age, we are realizing that that was just a bunch of smoke and mirrors created not for our benefit, but for our parents' benefit. Maybe this is just our coming-of-age moment, this realization that our parents' generation is so terribly off base and self-centered.

Health care is paid for, but Republicans don't like it. Even the Republicans that voted for the deficit-funded Medicare Part D benefit are fighting against the current Health Care reform. Bruce Bartlett even takes Republicans to task over the health care debate. Hypocrisy at the highest levels of government. Isn't this what Jesus taught us was bad? The current Right-wing "moral high ground" pundits talk, the more I associate their justifications with an 'eye for an eye' Old Testament basis, not a New Testament 'turn the other cheek' basis that I was taught growing up. We have hard-core Farm Belt Republicans railing against big government, yet they happily lobby Washington for increases in the Farm Bill. Raising taxes is the the devil's work, yet we continue to spend ungodly amounts on the defense budget and two wars. Our economy is tanking, while the rich get more and more. The rank and file middle class wages are kept in check with 'pay for performance' while upper class wages skyrocket based on abysmal performance. Our Congress is broken, with our out-of-touch rich folk Congress wringing their hands over whether or not the government should be funding abortion, meanwhile unemployment has risen to 10.2%. This doesn't seem to matter much, because Wall St. is pretty happy with how things have gone, and what is good for Wall St. is good for Main St, right? Obama talked about change, but its become more and more of the same.

The worst part is, which health care prolonging people's life spans, the baby boomer generation will stay in power for a longer period than any previous generation. This means that me and my son will be paying the price for this incompetence for decades. Is it any wonder why Gen Y'rs run and hide in Facebook and MySpace? That is the only solace we have left. The more you look at how we got to this point in our American history, the more sad and angry one becomes. I hope that the crisis of 2008-2009 moves us in a different direction, but as we move into 2010, things aren't looking that way.