Generational Equity
A consistent message foisted by entitlement critics is the intergenerational injustice of the Boomer generation creating huge debts that their children and grandchildren must repay. They refer to this as “fiscal child abuse.”
I read blogs and news articles nearly every day that are highly critical of Boomers. Follow-up comments by readers tend to be equally vindictive. Many who comment are younger and have come to believe that their future has been preordained, compromised, and the horizon looks stormy. They need a scapegoat, and their choice is a large generation with a notorious mythology of civil disobedience and self-centered greed.
Generational critics are fanning these flames of discord between generations, even though rational people believe that solving myriad problems confronting the nation will require unprecedented intergenerational cooperation.
Disrupting the implied social contract between generations could lead to further fragmentation within our society. It could further marginalize older adults, diminishing rather than growing opportunities for substantial contributions throughout the lifespan. The social carcinoma of ageism could continue growing to such an extent that criminal elements increase their violence against older Americans, with theft and abuse in all its ugly forms becoming routine.
Privatizing entitlement programs may serve some constructive purposes for all generations but this initiative will make a small minority of entrepreneurs and mega-corporations exceedingly wealthy. We can surely expect the ranks of billionaires to grow as private retirement accounts swell mutual funds and the bank accounts of their managers.
Wealth creation is a great tradition of this nation, but recent years have demonstrated a growing disparity between the haves and the have-nots. Americans have been learning the hard lessons of deregulation and impotent regulatory oversight through the savings & loan crisis in the late 1980's, the wave of corporate corruption in the early years of this decade, and the mortgage lending crisis that's rocking the nation's economic stability today.
If private retirement accounts, and mandatory payroll deductions to fund them, become the law of the land, then the U.S. government will experience a shortfall of funds to pay for the promises already obligated to today’s retirees. This shortfall, estimated to be in the area of $1 trillion in the first few years after privatization, will need to be covered by other taxes such as greater income taxes.
