This is another post that hits home with me. I don't think I could say it this good. Please read the whole thing once, at least. If you are one of those he talks "to"/about, think about this really good. UpLateAgain is a retired military man living in Colorado. Good on him and thank you for your service. I was there too.
Open Letter to American Youth (or, You Voted Obama into Office and The Bill is Coming Due)
Friday, April 27th at 4:48PM EDT
If you have graduated college within the past three years, about 85% of you have returned home to live with mom and dad. That would be the mom and dad that pay the vast majority of the household bills, and probably in many cases are even making the payments on your student loans.
In point of fact, mom and dad are not only paying the daily living expenses around your place, and likely repaying your student loan, mom and dad are paying the money it takes to run the country as well. And if mom and dad are “rich”, they’re paying about 70% of those costs.
At some point, you need to come to the realization that mom and dad are not going to be there forever. Maybe you already have. Once you come to that realization, you are left with the conundrum of figuring out who it is that is going to be doing that paying after they are gone.
I mention this because I’m one of those folks that fall into the ‘mom and dad’ category. I’m in the group that pays into the 30% of the money that runs the country…… not the 70%. But I’m reasonably comfortable. I’m 62. My wife is a little older. We’re likely only going to be around maybe another 20 years or so at max. Your parents might have another 40 years. But there are going to be fewer and fewer of them (the people not only paying the household bills, but paying to run the country) as that 40 years passes.
That means you are going to have to start picking up the slack as those now paying the bills pass on. Much like your parents did when their parents passed on. Only it’s not really the same. See, a bunch of you (the majority of those that voted, in fact) chose to elect a government that pushes entitlements, free lunch whenever possible, and social justice rather than one that chooses fiscal responsibility. That means the debt you have in fact already inherited is WAY beyond your means if you are going to try to live in the lifestyle to which you have become accustomed……. you know… with occasional free time, too much food, some tech goodies, and maybe even a decent ride.
The vast majority of you are going to end up not only NOT living what we (who did live it) used to call the American Dream, you are going to end up with your lives being one of absolute drudgery just trying to keep up with paying the interest on the debt you now already owe though you may not realize it… right up to the point where your one and only life has been just wasted…… used up… gone…. and not a darned thing you can do about it.
You traded your future for an ideal. Sold your soul to the devil so to speak. An ideal that doesn’t work, has never worked (it has been tried hundreds of time throughout history in one fashion or another), can’t work, and never will work. You traded away a secured future in the ONLY system that has ever worked (capitalism, free enterprise, and the primacy of the individual)….. the one that built this country and gave it its wealth… for a bunch of social baubles and trinkets that will ultimately result in a life of drudgery and economic slavery when there is nobody but you to pick up the tab for it.
You can deny it, make arguments in support of what you bought-into, scream about fairness, and look down condescendingly on those who disagree with you (you know – those rednecks clinging to their guns and Bibles) …. but in the end, it is YOU who is going to be left with the check. Not me. And there’s no way you are going to be able to pull me out of my grave to help you pick it up.
Nope. None of the folks now paying for all those things you feel you are entitled-to are going to be here to make those payments. It’s going all fall to you. And guess what. You won’t get to opt out. Your government (you know… the one you keep empowering to run your lives more and more every day) is going to see to it that you pay “your fair share.”
That’s not a joke, and it’s not a scare tactic. It’s reality.
I’ve got mine. I worked hard for it, and earned it a long time ago. I’m going to live the rest of my life pretty-much the way I want to. You, on the other hand, are never going to get yours. Your future was stolen by people that spent it cheaply today…. effectively buying your support with it….and who did so knowing that it was you who were going to have to pick up the tab for that purchase tomorrow. Not them. Not the spenders. Not me. Not your parents. You.
So how do you like them now?
I don’t know if it (the American dream for lack of a better term…. actually that one does nicely)can be recovered at this point. I do know the blood flow can be stanched, at least for the time being. And I believe it will be (and mostly no thanks to you). Probably just long enough to get the rest of us who have been paying the bills up to this point through to our ends.
But after we’re gone, I don’t hold a lot of hope for you. You fell for the promise of a free lunch, and way too many of you still haven’t learned your lesson yet.
