America from the perspective of a twenty-something

The 21st century is going to see some changes in the world and in this country. A period of prosperity unrivaled in history and our role as the dominant superpower was not going to last. The rest of the world was bound to catch up a little. Inside the United States we also knew things were going to change. The baby boomers were going to retire in mass, and the overall age distribution was going to shift from a very old population in the first half of the century to a much younger one in the second half. The ethnic composition was going to change as well, there would be no more majority race. It was expected that whites would still be the biggest group but no longer more than 50%. Things were going to be different probably as soon as 2025 (when first baby boomers hit the average life expectancy). There were also going to be flying cars, colonies on the moon, and new intelligent robots that we would one day have to fight in a great war.

But there is something more now. Thanks to the reckless and irresponsible policies of the current generations in power, we will inevitably see a sharp fall in the relative wealth and prosperity of this country. The great prosperity of the second part of the 20th century will not extend far into this century. As someone who is part of the generation that will be taking the reigns of leadership in the next 10-20 years, it has made me very angry.

Lets start with the most recent. The Federal Stimulus Package went to "save" jobs of union workers, middle management, and experienced government employees. It went to help States pay their bills so they could honor their bloated pension programs. It is not clear how many jobs it actually created, but we know for damn sure it did not create 3 million jobs as promised. Even more importantly, if you were to divide up among the age groups who got the real benefits of it, I guarantee you that the 18-29 age group got a very small piece of that pie. Almost no new jobs have been created, and millions have been lost. So when there are openings at businesses, they can choose from one of the millions of experienced workers available pushing my newly graduated generation to the bottom of the list. New jobs and new businesses are essential for my generation because the older generations seem unwilling to give up the current ones.

What about Cap and Trade and Healthcare? Cap and Trade puts off the real strict carbon emission controls for 10-20 years down the line and the nasty ones for 30-40 years down the line. The current government is hoping we can figure it out and if not, we can pay for it. The Healthcare plan would almost assuredly freeze innovation in its place, increase cost, and force rationing of care. Not exactly something one wants to inherit.

The massive debt currently in place will take so long to pay down, that there will be no money left for discretionary programs like defense, homeland security, and others. Instead it will be toward the mandatory spending programs of Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid. Draining wealth at a big rate from the younger generations.

What are your solutions? Currently there are no serious attempts to reform these mandatory spending programs because God forbid older generations have to make tough choices. Deficits are massive and all those that have been in government for the past 8 years are responsible. From the federal government straight down to the States. Many states will have to raise taxes to pay for their cadillac pension funds for public employees. Good to see they were all looking so far ahead to the future. Guess how many job openings there are for new graduates in government? The same as before the Stimulus, very few.

So, we have an economy where very few new jobs will be created in the next year or two, the relative wealth of the country is declining, we have done nothing about the trillions we owe the older generations, but hey at least we "saved" jobs for older people.

This country has been shortsighted for too long. From my perspective it seems they have done an excellent job of putting off big problems and delaying doomsday for another 10 years here and 15 years there. It seems as if the plan is to hold things together until 2025 or 2030 and then let us figure it out.

You will have to excuse me if I have little faith in the status quo. For my part, I am actively supporting candidates in three races in hopes of kicking out three incumbents. I suggest to others my age they find the right kind of people to run and do the same.