Again and again, I hear older people say they want back what they paid in. Let me make this clear: The money you paid in was spent on your parents and grandparents!

So you want your kids, in turn, to support you, but let me make THIS clear: Your kids don't even have the means to support themselves! Their unemployment rate is north of 25%, and they are heavily indebted.

If you can support yourself, you should. And stop complaining! You are fortunate if you were able to help support your elders and still have enough left over to take care of yourself. It's like complaining because you paid auto insurance premiums all those years and never got any of that money back. Just be glad you weren't in an accident!

"You're not getting screwed by billionaires and plutocrats. You're getting screwed by Mom and Dad"

I must say I strongly disagree here. Actually, I think this is BS. All these false 'divisions' are being purposefully manufactured by propaganda. They want to pit dems vs libs, rich vs poor, old vs young, even men vs women, all wasting energy blaming one another while not noticing who is REALLY picking their pockets.

You know what's the real "class warfare" in the US? It's none of the above - it's the morally corrupt kleptocratic class, vs the moral, honest people. That is the only "warfare" going on, and the only "divide" we should be concerned about - who are really the thieves, and who are really the honest people.

They *want* young people to feel it's 'mom and dad', and not the corrupt politicians and bankers etc. who are really stealing the money. They *want* old people to think it's because young people are raiding social security. Divide and rule, divide and steal. (Just like Dems *want* people to believe the Republicans making them poorer, and Republicans *want* people to believe it's the left making everyone poorer --- because while everyone argues about who is to blame, nobody notices the real thieves, siphoning money out your wallet.

Reason magazine does some good work. But, it's also funded by guys like the Koch brothers, who are backing and raising money for Romney ... I don't think their intentions are always entirely honest.

Whenever you see anybody trying to sew a 'blame-game division' like this, just think one thing: The ONLY such 'warfare' in this world is 'moral vs immoral'. That is it.

When you keep your eye on that ball, then false generalizations like "You're getting screwed by Mom and Dad" suddenly become more obvious.

The whole point is to make people angry, make them feel like victims - but blame SOMEBODY ELSE while you rob them blind.

Lobster, there's no need to credit a conspiracy theory as an explanation when the general stupidity of the public will suffice.

Who is this "they" that is trying to create false divisions?

The article in the print copy of Reason, which was co-written by Veronica De Rugy, was more factual and didn't try so hard to sound hip. Households headed by over-65s have less than 10% in poverty; those headed by under-35s have more than 25% (if my memory is correct from reading it.)

You simply cannot argue that our entitlement programs, which at one time did help keep old people out of poverty, have gone unchecked for so long that they now transfer wealth from poor young people to rich old people. It's totally sick. There really is no reason to dish out checks to people on the basis of age. (If we did it on the basis of race, the fur would fly.)

Yet these programs always have been, and still are, the "third rail of politics" because the American public simply refuses to elect people who would do the right thing and reform these programs. The problem isn't some mysterious "kleptocrat" in a tall building, it's US! We like to vote ourselves a nice fat share of other people's money. That's how half the population ended up getting a government check.

What the older generations have done is faithfully deposit 12% of its income into a 401K and then turn around and borrow it right back out. Now they are ready to quit working, and whoops! The 401K contains nothing but a note that says "You have to pay me back." Well how are they going to pay it back if they quit working? No, the KIDS have to pay it back. And what did those older generations borrow the money for? Oh, all kinds of things. Stuff they wanted but didn't want to pay higher taxes for.

The average person simply didn't pay attention. But people bear some responsibility for refusing to pay attention. I am tired of hearing their excuses - "I was busy raising my kids," or "I was busy going to work," or whatever. If you're going to be part of a country or community, yet you decide you simply aren't going to pay attention to anything that is going on past the edge of your back yard, you cannot complain about any nasty surprises you get. And this really is no surprise - everyone knew the government started raiding the trust fund back in the 60's. Everyone watched the old people get everything back within a few months and then draw benefits for 25 more years. The cynical part of me thinks people paid no attention because it's easy not to, when you stand to benefit so much from the status quo. There's a reason why the Silents are called the "What, me worry?" generation.

Nobody really started pitching a fit until the first generation came along that would be totally screwed by the situation - Generation X. We were always too small to make a difference, and still are, and this situation will not be fixed until more members of Generation Y reach adulthood and for godssake quit fawning over the Obamagoon.

Yes, our government has been bought and paid for by large banks, special interest groups, and lobbyists. But we could still vote every one of them out. We keep putting up with the current situation because the voting majority is still content with the status quo.

Well said, Pirate Jo. You nailed it.