[amanaplanacanal]

As a person in that cohort, I suspect it was the booming economy that led us to think that growth would go on forever, so we could vote ourselves infinite riches on the back of our children and grandchildren, secure in the knowledge that infinite growth would bail them out.

We are the worst generation.

[fuzzfactor]

>As a person in that cohort,

Me too.

>We are the worst generation.

Nah.

>Pulled the ladder up on those after them.

It was only the ones that voted themselves infinite wealth and got it, and they pulled it up on most everybody in their same age group too way back then. IOW only a handful of boomers by comparison to all the rest.

When you do the math the vast majority of people over 65 have assets that are dwarfed by a halfway decent tech employee, after only about 5 years of employment.

Which is neither better nor worse, if everything went south right now you still couldn't say whether the retiree of 65 or the hard-working 25-year old would make it until they were 70 or not without running out of "runway".

This is by design no matter how you vote.

[amanaplanacanal]

Tax cuts, beginning back in the 80s, and continuing to this day. Broadly popular, contributing to the spiraling national debt.

[WarOnPrivacy]

>>Pulled the ladder up on those after them.

> It was only the ones that voted themselves infinite wealth and got it,

It was also the ones who spent generations pressuring their govs for ever restrictive zoning laws, wanting to freeze their neighborhood in time by tanking new builds. This is very much pulling up the ladder behind them.

[Aeglaecia]

if i breathed in leaded petrol id behave irrationally too , personally i believe that sustainable growth could have continued for a few hundred years (and possibly have lead to a better system) had we not instead capitulated to those suggesting parabolic growth was anything but borrowing from the future

[fuzzfactor]

What a coincidence ;)

I'm looking forward to even more exposure to today's somewhat leaded aviation gas as I contribute to the transition being made to alternative fuels.

I'll use that as an excuse any time I need to behave more erratically ;)

>sustainable growth could have continued for a few hundred years (and possibly have lead to a better system)

Yes, I did the math when I was a teenager.

But both of these impending eventualities did not look like they would ever be recoverable after Nixon was there for not that long a time.

I guess I was right, and here we are :\

This is not what my father fought in World War II for, and the whole country went through, just to end up in deeper debt [0], with more irrational leadership than so-called shitholes, and failing to remain orders of magnitude richer than China :(

As we go along, a lot of 21st century financial things that might have been recoverable just a few years ago are slipping out of reach faster each day now. Sooner or later the bottom rung of this modern ladder will be out-of-reach and not coming back either.

[0] When the only reason for any debt at all is a temporary situation like the need to vanquish authoritarian dictators who need it so bad that freedom-loving Americans just can't stand it any more.