Yes I have to admit it I am baby boomer, born in the 1950’s. This is not something I had any control over it just happened. So, imagine my horror when I opened several newspapers to read that us baby boomers are responsible for the state of the world today. Yes the entire economic downturn has been caused by my generation with no thought for the past or future generations. We have been labelled as the want it all now and to hell with the consequences brigade. To top it all the youngsters are accusing us of not dying young or fast enough.
It would appear that the first boomers are ready for retirement and the fear is that there are not enough people working to pay for our pensions. This is hardly the problem of people who have worked since they left school. If it was not for the boomers then there would be no schools hospitals or any of the other amenities that people take for granted. It is the boomers that have been working since 1945 that have paid for everything we have today including the schooling and pensions of those born before them and since.
To label three generations as feckless, and self centred because they want a pension after working for as long as the government asked them to is a bit harsh. Maybe it is the fault of those who choose not to work or those who plunder the savings of the prudent in the name of profit that have ruined the economy. Banker’s bonuses are still being paid out in telephone number style. If they can afford to pay so much bonuses they can afford to pay decent interest rates on savings and pay back some of the loans that the taxpayer made to them to bail them out. In fact I have often wondered why people who are against the bonuses being paid out do not simply switch their bank accounts to a bank that does not pay as much.
Around 7 billion will be paid out by the top five banks in the form of shares or bonuses to employees; this is on top of their wages. The top five? According to these people, http://www.wsws.org/articles/2011/jan2011/bank-j12.shtml
They are HSBC, Barclays, Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS), Lloyds and Standard Chartered. They are making around 200 million per day. Now how much of that is going to savers in the form of interest payments and how much is going into the government coffers in the forms of corporation tax? Sadly not very much but some quarters, including the young and the middle aged are blaming the baby boomers for this sorry state of affairs.http://www.express.co.uk/posts/view/227764
I did not ask to be born when I did, I have worked continuously since the age of 21, I have no debts and I consider myself to be careful with my finances. Given this I take exception to the arseholes who blame me and many like me for the state of the world.
For those who do, well F*** you!!