Why Boomers are Responsible for…

…The Economic Turmoil

We hear about Republicans being the real villains of this Great Depression repeat, what with their love-affair with deregulation and presumed favoritism for the wealthiest Americans.

Or it’s Democrats, what with their control of both houses of Congress over the past year with little “fixing” to show for it, and their “business unfriendly” ideology that purportedly leans closer to socialism than capitalism.

Or it’s Wall Street, driven by greed and little care for anything else but making a quick buck regardless of the method’s validity (let alone ethics…).

Or, it’s us, we who make up the ranks of ”common Americans” (never did like that moniker; sounds like a feudal times’ referral to “commoners” meaning… peons…which of course was back when “commoners” didn’t rule the land as we do ours….), who thoughtlessly and recklessly took out loans we knew full well we couldn’t afford, didn’t qualify for given our worth/income, and now can’t afford to repay.

You know who underpins the majority all of these groups?  Whose ideology is the foundation for all that has gone wrong?  Who in fact lead the way for this economic implosion?

Boomers.

Let’s see how this pans out:

• The majority of folks in leadership positions in this country, both in government and business…are Boomers
• Unlike our parents, who sacrificed and saved, we Boomers aren’t much for sacrifice, and over the last decades of our adulthood elevated debt to a way of life, think of “saving” as something you do only so you can put a down-payment on something big in the next few months, and popularized the life-skill of wanting what you want when you want it even if you can’t afford it
• We, who started our young adult life eschewing the excesses of the corporate world, fighting to reverse the damages of pollution, and believing in the power of our unified voice to create positive change, now are the greatest polluters (with our three homes, our luxury vehicles, and our frequent flying for pleasure), the poorest voting record, and have made living in excess a trademark of our generation

Combine all of the above with the fact that we are, historically and numerically, the most powerful group in the U.S. right now (whether we wish to see it or not), and you have our ideology, combined with our positions as leaders, and topped off with our lack of determination to recognize our behavior as problematic let alone change our ways.  This trifecta is the fundamental corrosive agent at this historic juncture, and only we Boomers can fix it.

Here’s some very simple ways to do just that:

1. Stop spending and start saving….now
2. Vote – all of us
3. Reverse our need for excess as a litmus test for our self-worth, and replace it with our determination to simplify as the show of true self-esteem
4. Be very clear with our elected officials that we want solutions that include accountability, and hold ourselves accountable for ensuring that
5. Discontinue our fawning over folks with scillions of dollars, and instead turn our full admiration (and all the “star quality” therein) to those who better our world, as we once did; that would be teachers, nurses, social workers, scientists, journalists – folks who don’t make gobs of money (some who make very little money, actually) and yet make taking care of us, our children, and our world, their professional mission.

Boomers, do these things, and we will see this country back on solid ground.  We are the Absolutely Amazing Generation.  We can do this.  I have complete faith in us.