Guest Writer - Mistrust Fund Kid

As it tis busy season and I'm in the middle of teaching dance classes, I have opened Cappy Cap up to several writers to help me keep the blog delivering at least a daily dose of wisdom while I pursue my contribution to GDP. Keep in mind they may not necessarily be my opinions, so don't come yelling at me if you don't like something. Regardless, my friend, monikered the Mistrust Fund Kid has written this piece reminiscent of a post I wrote quite a while ago. I hope you enjoy it;

Good evening all. The gracious Captain has asked me to make a few comments here. This is in the interest of cultural diversity; although the primary point of diversity between the Captain and I mostly amounts to a disagreement about what level of cynicism is an appropriate defense in the face of a nation that is taking on water rapidly.

I suppose if the Captain and I were on the Titanic, the nature of our disagreements would likely have been over which bottles of scotch to break open, and whether the string quartet should play something just a little more snappy.

As you might have gleaned, then, the diversity scrimmage line moves slowly around here.

What I present here tonight is anecdotal, yet powerful evidence that the economic party in the US is indeed over. We have not realized it yet, since we are at that phase of the party where we are still milling about in the halls, in the parking lot, looking for our cars, saying the goodbyes and perhaps attempting to achieve a little backseat romance. As we stand outside in the cool night air, we are mere hours away from the hangover, yet that has not crossed our minds yet.

The first exhibit is the most obvious. The luxuries to which we have become accustomed will be departing.

Joe White:
When Boomers ran out of cash, they financed their dreams. The U.S. household saving rate plunged to 2% of income in the 2000-2005 period, when Boomers were hitting their earning peak, from 10% during the early 1980s. Imposing McMansions sheltered occupants with five-figure credit-card balances, exotic balloon mortgages and V-8 powered sport-utility vehicles financed over five and six years, all adjuncts to a lifestyle that depended on cheap credit and cheap oil.

The boomers are good dreamers. Always have been. What they have had great difficulty with is accountability and responsibility. The topheavy demographic forces they have exerted have allowed them to live in a wonderland of their own creation, fueled by debt and under the cover of a cultural standard that they set. Any dissent was laughed away, it could not compete statistically with the dreams and delusions of the boomers.

They brought us the 'upscale' movement - nothing was ever good enough for their tastes. A profound sense of entitlement to material goods intersected with their appetite for luxury, the result being an amazing growth in a service and consumer economy.

Now to segue into the political.

Richard Berry:
This is all merely typical of the smug, cocksure Boomer Elite. This is a group that breaks things. It has set the wrecking ball to institutions that are the essential glue of our society (marriage and the family), the basis of our political system (federalism and the separation of powers), the engine of our prosperity (the free market), the guarantor of our freedom (the military), and the glory of our history (the Constitution, participatory democracy).

Although our Masters of the Universe insist we credit them as moral paragons, they are among the most luxury loving, wealth flaunting population ever seen in the world. Whenever a Hollywood celebutard mouths some perfect imbecility in front of a camera, it is sure to be done from a five star resort hotel or on the red carpet of one of those absurdly frequent self-congratulation festivals. The silk tie, moussed hair crowd on Wall Street is no better.

This generation of Americans has treated itself to one unchallenged intellectual conceit after another for years. They are a blaring symphony of cognitive dissonance - claiming to be peace-loving, yet capable of violent protest. Living in freedom and disparaging the military who do the dirty work for them. Longing for leftist wealth redistribution yet cowering behind self-created tax loopholes. They have attempted to collect the wealth of this nation in their private accounts even as they have run our nation ten trillion in debt; the payment of which will be deferred to their children as they step off the taxpayer treadmill by the hundreds of thousands in the coming years.

To be fair, they never realized the mess they were leaving behind for us.
It would be a mistake to assume that their destruction of our economy was the result of some malignant drive to wreak havoc.

Rather, is was their relentless pursuit of of material gain, and utter dismissal of all warnings that have led us here. Being cowards, they found it easier to convince themselves that their profligate ways were not harmful, indeed that they were actually helpful; this allowed them to totally disregard any thought that they would ever have to sacrifice anything.

The America that you younger citizens have grown up in was actually an anomaly. The boomers are leaving the party after drinking the best of the booze and only throwing in a few dollars for the tab. You get the leftovers and the bill. With interest.

But the story is not over quite yet. Because they went too far too soon. This collapse in the economy is going to pull them down with it. They didn't quite make it out the door before the collapse.

We will continue this line of thought next time.

The Mistrust Fund Kid