Reply #5: you know what makes me bitter and frustrated?

[Lisa]

Politicians who imply that, just because I'm under 40, I'm a self-centered ingrate who cares more about a few dollars out of my paycheck than about the welfare of the people who built and paid for the hospital where I was born, the schools where I was educated, and the parks where I played.

These are the same policymakers who whine about how rude and thoughtless "kids today" are -- and then they get bent out of shape when young people disagree with this whole privatization kick. I especially love how Bush is out there wisecracking about "I'm not going to take your away your check" whenever seniors challenge him -- as if that's the only thing that could possibly be on their minds. He and his gang are dissing the old and the young, at the same time!

So "the greatest generation" and the boomers weren't perfect, but considering what the world looked like a century ago, I'm amazed and proud that they managed to bring in things like the New Deal. And if it means handing over a tiny portion of my earnings so the people who subsidized me will enjoy their remaining years and not have to scavenge out of garbage cans (as some people did in the 1930s) -- I call that the price of admission to a civilized society.

I suppose I could bawl out my 80-ish mom for not having had a bunch more kids to prop up the tax structure, but that would be pretty nonsensical, since getting out of the Dark Ages was the whole point.