{"id":2383,"date":"2010-09-03T07:40:49","date_gmt":"2010-09-03T11:40:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nicholsclan.com\/tinblog\/?p=2383"},"modified":"2010-11-24T09:43:25","modified_gmt":"2010-11-24T14:43:25","slug":"paying-it-forward-the-generation-that-just-said-no","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/timscogitorium.com\/tinblog\/2010\/09\/paying-it-forward-the-generation-that-just-said-no.html","title":{"rendered":"Paying it forward: the generation that just said no"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"We<\/a>FDR’s New Deal ushered in a new era in America.\u00a0 While many programs such as Social Security and the WPA were primarily intended to jump start a stagnant economy and relieve the immediate suffering of many, they had a larger cultural effect.\u00a0 Perhaps without explicitly planning to do so, the Greatest Generation began to “pay it forward”.<\/p>\n

Social Security was perhaps the most literal implementation of paying it forward.\u00a0 Current workers paid for the retirement and disability incomes of the citizenry, with the understanding that when they reached the age or came of need for that income, the new crop of current workers would be paying for them.\u00a0 WPA was more subtle.\u00a0 Taxpayers funded the construction of roads, bridges, schools, and utilities that would form the essential infrastructure of the future.<\/p>\n

World War II saw taxpayers yielding up to 95% of their income (at the top bracket) to fund the rebuilding of the American industrial engine that would not only win the war but be the basis for the post-war economic dominance we enjoy to this day.\u00a0 The war also saw domestic sacrifice as government rationing\u00a0 controlled access to gasoline, tires, sugar, coffee, cheese, and penicillin so that resources could be redirected to the war.<\/p>\n

The generation that followed continued the trend.\u00a0 They built airports, the Interstate highway system, Medicare, the state university systems, and sent a man to the moon.\u00a0 The working class parents of the hippies and yuppies showed the world what a vibrant middle class looked like.\u00a0 They formed labor unions that balanced corporate ambitions with worker safety and financial success.\u00a0 They started reigning in pollution, not because it was profitable, but because they wanted a safe and clean world for their kids.\u00a0 They put their personal desires on hold to send more of their children through college than had ever happened in history.<\/p>\n

Then we came of age, my generation, the adults of the 1980’s onward.\u00a0 The generation that just said no.\u00a0 The generation that presided over the decay of our transportation and industrial infrastructure.\u00a0 The generation who watched their own children’s education fall behind the rest of the world. The generation willing to watch costs for health care and college spiral out of reach for the average American.\u00a0 The generation whose faith in unregulated capitalism inspired the greatest economic collaspe since the 1930’s.<\/p>\n

Ironically, the last time we were here, the pay it forward culture began.\u00a0 Now that we’re back, it seems highly unlikely we’ll take that path again.\u00a0 Talking heads rail against “social justice”, even by churches much less government.\u00a0\u00a0 The Tea Party sees Orwell’s Big-Brother as the demon when we are far more likely falling into the soma induced self delusion of Huxley’s Brave New World.\u00a0 We caterwaul for lower taxes despite enjoying lower taxes than the previous two generations and some of the lowest taxes in the industrialized world.\u00a0 We are seriously entertaining the dismantling of Social Security and Medicare.\u00a0 We love the idea that health insurance can’t bounce us for a pre-existing condition, but howl at the notion we’ll all be required to carry such insurance as a way to pay for it.\u00a0 We rally to war as long as all that’s required is for us to go shopping.\u00a0 And pollution vs. profits isn’t even a debate anymore.<\/p>\n

The prevailing wind is to take whatever you can get and keep it for yourself and your family. Perhaps we think we live in the fantasy bubble that we’ll strike it rich at any moment, and then we can afford to not care about the rest of the world.\u00a0 Yet the cold reality is that the vast majority of us will not be in a position to make our kids set for life when we die.\u00a0 They will be left to compete in the world we have made for them.\u00a0 And they may well be the generation that doesn’t live better off than their parents.<\/p>\n

It’s not too late to reclaim our dignity.\u00a0 We can waste years arguing over how we got to where we are, or we can put our energies to getting us back on track.\u00a0 It’s not rocket science.\u00a0 Our grandparents fixed this once before.\u00a0 It all begins with the simple realization that the rich won’t voluntarily save us. That the government is not the enemy, but rather it is us.\u00a0 A government of the people, by the people, and for the people.\u00a0 The government is our collective power.\u00a0 Let’s take that back.\u00a0 Then let’s agree to work hard and sacrifice for our children’s future.\u00a0 To do whatever it takes for them.<\/p>\n

After all, it’s not about us.\u00a0 Let’s make our grandfathers proud.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

FDR’s New Deal ushered in a new era in America.\u00a0 While many programs such as Social Security and the WPA<\/p>\n

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