"Honest, I've Searched and Searched and Searched, but Nothing Will Ever Top this Tea Party Sign"..

[Curmudgeoness]

56. I completely agree.

Actually, I have so much sympathy for the younger people today. I have seen ups and downs, bad economies and good economies, but I have never seen this much burden on the generation coming of age now. And I don't know what kind of advise to give anymore. This is unsustainable if we are to stay a first-world country. We cannot throw away a whole generation. The only hope that I have is that things will improve here, and the young people will have the opportunity to get out of debt from school and will be able to buy homes and raise families....and these people will know the hard times and will not make the same mistakes that many in my generation made. Too many gave their kids too much so that they did not learn that everything is not easy, we did not save nor did we teach our children to save, and we assumed that things would always get better. What a mistake!

I believe that my parent's generation had it probably better than any other generation that I am aware of, at least for the working classes (since that is where my family falls). My parents went through the Great Depression, so they knew about hard times. But they also saw strong unions, good manufacturing jobs with benefits including fully paid health insurance from their companies with (maybe) a $50 deductible, company pensions, upward mobility, one income could easily support a family, and there was no talk of pulling the rug out from under them with changes to Social Security and Medicare that would destroy their "golden years".

I think that most of the teabaggers that are visible are older people because they have free time. I know way too many younger people who are extremely conservative (I seem to be one of the few liberals at work and in my neighborhood), but the younger and middle aged conservatives are at work or at their kid's myriad of activities.

If we don't change the attitude of the majority in this country, we will be doomed to a spiral of decline for all but the upper classes. Until the time comes where common people rise up, and that will take a long time to simmer before it explodes, but it will if we continue.