The New York Post published a very good review of Jill Filipovic’s book “OK Boomer, Let’s Talk: How My Generation Got Left Behind”. Please click photo or here for link to the review. It tells us what most Americans have known for years. The “Baby Boomers” who grew up in the 1950s and 1960s are the first generation of Americans to give their children and grandchildren a lower standard of living that what they enjoyed.
However, the problem was not caused by all “Boomers”. It was caused by just those Boomers who embraced “progressive” or “Democratic socialist” laws, programs, and policies starting in 1965. (These same laws, programs and policies also did more long term damage to blacks in America during the past 55 years than the 245 years of slavery in the South that ended in 1865.)
“Progressive” Democrats gave us massive new welfare programs and big tax hikes hidden in the prices of everything we buy.
“Progressive” Democrats led by President Lyndon Johnson and Ted Kennedy changed federal law to increase legal immigration by more than 400% in 1965. They also required most immigrants to come from poor countries and allowed them to collect welfare and other government benefits as soon as they got here. This brought in more than 1.2 million legal immigrants each year, many in need of public assistance. This made it difficult if not impossible for new immigrants to learn English and assimilate. Massive numbers of immigrants not speaking English also made it almost impossible enforce immigration laws. As a result millions more came to America illegally. Together, legal and illegal immigrants competed for jobs and brought down wages. Many worked under the table and did not pay taxes, have health insurance or pay medical bills. The result was that everybody else paid higher taxes, higher health care costs, and higher prices for everything else.
During the 1960s, “Progressive” Democrats lobbied for and got new laws that allowed teachers, professors, administrators and other “public servants” to form unions and force all public employees to pay dues. These unions demanded and got bigger and bigger salaries, benefits, and pensions. Unlike private unions, they never had to worry about making demands that would put their company out of business. Today, public employee unions are the most powerful political force in America and are responsible much of the government costs and debt that drive up taxes and the prices of everything.
Because public employee unions are so strong, public schools and colleges now serve their employees and administrators–not students or the public. Today’s millennials were forced to pay for college to learn what was once taught in high school for free. “Progressive” Democrats raised the cost of a good state college from roughly $800 per year, less than what a student could earn in a summer, to more than $20,000 a year, or more than five summers of work!
“Progressive” Democrats gave us complicated laws that raised the cost of everything touched by government. Health care, health insurance and car and business insurance became unaffordable.
New license requirements and complicated laws made it almost impossible for young people to afford the start- up costs needed to open a new small business. Instead of owning their own taxis and jitneys, millennials make peanuts driving for Uber or Lyft.
While some environmental laws and zoning and building codes supported by most “baby boomers” of all parties gave us the cleanest air and water in the world, “progressive” Democrats adopted new laws that went way beyond that. These new laws were so complicated and intrusive that almost every building and new project is in violation of something. This forces property owners to hire expensive politically connected lawyers, architects, and consultants to get anything done. This, together with high real estate taxes, make home ownership beyond the reach of most millennials without inherited wealth. “Boomers” paid roughly 25% of their income on housing costs when they were young. New millennial homeowners and renters today are expected to pay roughly 50%.
“Progressive” Democrats promoted inherited wealth over earned wealth by creating loopholes in state and federal estate and inheritance tax for fake charities like the Clinton and Kennedy foundations. The “trust fund babies” in these families promote “progressive” Democrat and socialist candidates and agendas, that hurt millennials with even lower wages, fewer opportunities and higher prices.
Of course, most millennials don’t understand this. That is because the media, Hollywood, and almost every teacher and professor they had since kindergarten falsely blame their miserable situation on “capitalism” or traditional, constitutional American government.
What is even worse, is that most of them are now Democrats who demand that government become even more “progressive” and socialist, and do even more of the things that ruined their lives in the first place!
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Seth Grossman, Executive Director
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