You've only got it half right. The spoiled, irresponsible, instant gratification, baby boomers do bear some of the responsibility. But the bankers, driving the FED, big pharma, the military industrial complex, big agri, and our out of control monster government, that offered credit like crack, bears the other half.

I could not agree more, but hey, I think we are looking at those born before 1960, as both my husband and are not under forty. We never had "job for life, with a pension to go with it" like my Boomer folks. We don't own a McMansions and live in 1200 sq. foot 1940s home. In my case, I practically raised myself as my folks were off having a good time, being free. Now they sing a different tune and talk down "big government", don't they remember the great free education they both received in public school. The public universities they attended at low cost and high quality? Securing those great engineering jobs with great benefits the like my generation will never see! It deeply saddens me that they think "government all bad", was it bad to them growing up by providing a great education that allowed them to secure the good job? Why can't my kids have the same? Why can't they "pay it forward" like their folks?

I think you're using "baby boomers" as a synonym for "neo-conservatives."

I agree with most of the article, however, have to extend the selfishness to both sides of the aisle if we are talking politics. We have seen unprecedented greed and lack of morality in both parties. But it is not just our politicians. Many people think they "deserve" to have what someone else has. Sure, I wonder what the people do for a living that live in those "McMansions" and own those large sailboats in Charleston Harbor. But I don't feel that I deserve to have the same just because someone else has it. In general, we have become a self-serving society that is more concerned with how much stuff we can buy than we are with helping others, and being content with what we can afford ourselves. Common decency and courtesy just aren't so common anymore. I am afraid we are going to have to learn things the hard way.

You are right that people don't understand sacrifice today, but putting the blame on the Tea Partiers is not where it belongs. It belongs to the 99 'centers, the ones who complain about those that have worked hard, took chances, and sacrificed to earn what they have. They want the rich to pay so they don't have to work, just sit back and let the government provide for them from cradle to grave.
Speaking of which, where are all those 99 'centers today? They have faded away and taken their socialist movement with them.

This article is a piece of unsubstantiated crap. While it is true that boomers are on the cusp of claiming retirement benefits, most of them are actually still working and have been working and paying into the system for many, many years. Yes, boomers bought bigger houses. Yes, boomers bought more "stuff", but you know, that does not kill an economy. Did we boomers use credit cards? Yes, and paid those interest rates which made a fortune for the bankers. The economy was actually rolling right along through the end of the 20th century, fortified by the boomers spending habits and the overall American engine of economic growth. What has gone wrong? A new set of government policies introduced in this new century, including foreign wars, and a sense that science should be put on the back of the shelf, and the bible should be the guidepost. Don't solve teenage pregnancies with science and logic, use the bible and just say "NO". Does it work? Well, no, but it is still the way to go. Did the unions bring about a rise in the middle class? Well, yes, but the elite don't like unions, so kill them off and then wonder why the middle class is disappearing. The author of this column didn't offer squat to support his thesis, he just wanted to blame someone, anyone, for his fears and insecurity.

Insofar as Boomers "never experiencing anything as challenging as WWII" etc. I have just one word: VIETNAM. Boomer veterans were called "baby killers", and spat upon, and disrespected when all they were doing was what their parents did in WWII. They did their duty, and got kicked in the b*#ls for it. So stop whining about how hard it is for your generation! When your classmates get shot at and killed by National Guard troops because they're protesting something they consider immoral, then you can talk!

@Jonathan Edwards '...synonym for neo-conservatives.'

neo-cons more appropriate than BBers...well/ maybe/ but, the old saw say: 'we have met the enemy and it are us' (pogo)...us is society...not just BBers or neo-cons...

difficult to put one's finger on the negative effects of transition from the era of the greatest generation (depression years thru post WWII years) to our current era...

it was a kinder, gentler time (home doors not locked, keys left in cars)...you could be arrested on folly beach for the dirty shag...now more suggestive dances are on prime time TV...maybe we can blame progress.

have to comment on WWII and vietnam comparison...

to compare WWII to vietnam shows schools are not teaching history...what we did to nam vets was reprehensible...they deserved the same honor the WWII vets and current vets receive...but;

WWII was an honorable, necessary war to rid the world of evil...vietnam was another stupid war we were lied into...

politicians should be tried for treason for sending our young men/women to fight in nam...mcnamara's tears and LBJ's not runing for a 2nd term, were not nearly retribution enough.

Whoa! What a broad stroke of the brush!

Hey, *I* remember JFK saying, "Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country." Our parents, (which I agree, were the greatest generation) came home from WWII and God bless them- were able to get and *keep* jobs until retirement. My husband and I were both born in 1952- the height of the baby-boom. Have you any idea how many jobs my husband has gone through- because of downsizing and lay-offs? Because his jobs were sent to China? I am on Disability- so a secure job for him would be a blessing. If the first job he had that offered a pension- had not shipped his work to places unknown- he would have been retired by now. As it sits, he is 60 years old- and still does not have a job with a pension.

Sacrifice? Did you forget a little skirmish called Viet-Nam? Oh- and hey...our Gov't started dipping into Social Security and to pay for the Viet-Nam war- LBJ did that. If it had been left alone and invested for even a small percentage of interest- it would have been fine. That *is* an example of the gov't ruining things.

And my generation *is* experiencing a Depression- nobody in Washington or in the media can fool us into thinking this is just a recession. Wall St. along with politicians made that possible. Have you ever heard of betting on derivatives?

As far as building bigger houses, and more stuff- I can't fault you there- whatever mistakes we made- we are paying for now-

Stanley, your "gratitude" for my husband's service is full of "Yeah, buts". Whether or not a treaty was needed, it DID exist. Your hysterical ranting about "a war with China" and a "nuclear holocaust" is a childish projection that NEVER would have happened. China was/is no more likely to "push the button" than was the Soviet Union in 1962. China was and is highly knowedgeable about the concept of "assured mutual and total annihilation". They are not dumb enough to destroy themselves. While the "domino theory" proved not to occur, there was nothing wrong with the theory itself. Had our troops not gone into Laos and Cambodia and neutralized the situation, the theory might well have occurred. (And don't try to tell me we didn't go into those other countries - I have friends who were among the troops that infiltrated). It was very nice that you were a peace keeper in the Congo, but as everyone knows, UN peace keepers are not armed as a condition of their UN assignment. But thanks, anyway. Until you're in a protracted (for months) firefight in a jungle like VIetnam, and doused with Agent Orange as my husband was, you're talking through your hat. As of right now, you're just another armchair warrior who ISN'T on the line but thinks he knows better about how things SHOULD be run.

Stanley, I'm not going to waste anymore of my time on this, or on you. I WILL say that if armchair warriors were so great, they'd either be walking point, or they'd be running the war instead of sitting safely in their easy chairs, wrapped in their flags and spouting their know-it-all opinions for all to hear.

After reading this drivel I fully support Rep. Brown's decision to leave the legislature and return to school. For instance, he specifically mentions home foreclosures as a sin of the boomers. But St. Louis Federal Reserve Bank economist William Emmons, in an article published last year, found that "excess foreclosures
came primarily from younger, relatively affluent households". Rep. Brown also seems to suggest that I should forego Social Security and Medicare benefits, programs that I have been contributing to for almost 40 years, simply because it might be inconvenient for his generation to meet those obligations.

I have to wonder what a 3rd-generation legislator knows about sacrifice, other than something he read in a school book. The "Greatest Generation" made the sacrifices they did in response to a world in crisis, not because they wanted to. They stood up and met the situation head-on. They didn't sit around and whine about how it was all their parents' fault.

As a military veteran who worked my way through college I refuse to apologize for the fact that I choose to spend the fruits of my labor on a decent home and a nice car. I earned my money and I'll spend it any way I choose.

Good luck in school, kid, you've got a lot to learn.

Wow! reading these comments bring tears to my eyes. Mr Brown pitched the time-worn mantra of double talk so common to his party. He makes the pitch for every give-away known to government and then he ties it to 'Ask not what your gov't can do for you...'. How deceptive can a democrat be.

The give-away mentality has resulted in two things 1) A government so deep in debt that we will not survive 2) A populace where nearly 50% do not work or produce, but demand ever increasing hand-outs. We are at a point in our history where there is open demand for higher taxes and greater 'benefits' for those that do not work or produce. That is more like Greece than it is like the America I where I was raised.

Thanks Mr Brown! Your party has led this nation into an economic/ cultural abyss and the other party has watched passively.

I get so sick of hearing the whimpering about serving in Viet Nam and not getting recognition. I enlisted of my own volition because I believed that having the good fortune to be born in the greatest nation on earth was reason to serve. After four years service, I went to work and neither asked for nor received benefits of any kind related to my service - that is what most veterans do when returning to civilian life.

Coinzgprnts - So, you're "sick of hearing the whimpering about serving in VietNam"! You "went to work and neither asked for nor received benefits of any kind related to(your) service - that is what most veterans do when returning to civilian life". I trust you receive any and all medical care from a civilian doctor, instead of the VAMC.

While "most" vets may not have NEEDED benefits, those who have suffered service-related injuries/disability worked for and EARNED their benefits through their very service to this country. Your arrogance insofar as anti-veterans' rights is concerned is astounding!

Since you decry receiving any benefits related to your service, I trust that if and when you are diagnosed with an Agent Orange-related disease, you will suffer in silence and take what karma dishes out to you without "whimpering"!