Rich Boomer, Poor Boomer

If there is one thing worse than a Baby Boomer, it's a rich Baby Boomer.  Since the Boomers have become adults and took over the business world, the middle class has shrunk considerably.  According to Bruce Judson, a Senior Faculty Fellow at the Yale School of Management, “In 2007, the percent of total income received by the top 10% of families was 49.74%, or effectively one-half of the nation’s total. This compares to 1980, when the top 10% received 34.63%, or about one-third of all income.”

Another even more disturbing statistic compiled by Judson states that "the top 5% of households grew from $134,800 in 1980 to $220,100 in 2007; an increase of 63%. In contrast, over this 27 year period, the average real household income of the bottom 90% of families increased from $29,800 to $32,400; less than 9%.  The real income among the top 5% grew at seven times the rate of income of the bottom 90% (63% as compared to less than 9%), an extraordinary difference of 600%."

These numbers should surprise no one who studies the Baby Boom generation.  Self absorption and high self worth lead to selfish behavior.  For the same reasons the rich Boomers used their connections and college deferments to get out of serving in Vietnam, they, in their middle life, continued to look out for number one. 

In an April, 2010 poll, the New York Times discovered that the recent Tea Party movement was made up of mostly wealthy and educated Baby Boomers.  While it appears that Tea Party members reside in rural areas, the reality is that the movement is more about rich Boomers being afraid of a President who may increase their taxes and take some of their precious money away. 

As the rich Boomers in the Tea Party movement scream that President Obama is a socialist, what they are really saying is that they are not going to spend one dime of their money to benefit the greater good of the country. 

Didn't the Boomers' civic oriented parents teach their kids anything about duty and service?

The Boomers are Just as Bad "Over There"

In a recent speech to his country, Generation Xer and pragmatic Prime Minister, David Cameron warned his citizens about their spending and consumptive ways.  It appears that the British Boomers are no better than their American counterparts.

In Cameron's speech, he pointed out that Britain's budget deficit is more than 11%.  He went on to say that Britain currently owes $1.12 trillion (U.S. dollars) and in five years will owe nearly double if nothing is done now. 

According to the New York Times, Britain spends as much on interest payments as they spend on education.

While hearing a politician not only speak the truth about his country's situation but berating the improper spending habits of its citizens is beyond impressive.  Although Cameron will most definitely face an uphill battle.  With Boomers still in charge of Britain, Cameron will have a difficult time making the necessary cuts to reduce the deficit since I am sure that British Boomers have the same dislike of sacrifice and pain as their American brothering.

On a positive note, I may have an opportunity to start a new blog called Britain's Worst Generation.

Can I Bring My Chicken on the Airplane?

Boomers love to claim how they change the way things are done.  They proudly espouse how they will do things differently than their parents.  A great example of this change can be demonstrated by pet owners.  Before Boomers started to own pets, most domesticated animals lived in homes or in backyards.  However, when the Boomers started to own pets, they had to do things differently.

All of sudden, pets were everywhere.  If you were eating lunch on a patio, a dog would be at your feet.  When you went to the mall, a pet owner would be walking their dog from store to store.  Then, the real insanity began.  On just about every airplane flight, pet owners now have their dogs sitting under their seat or should I say the seat of the person in front of them. 

It is bad enough that Boomers feel they have the right to bring pets with them to restaurants and department stores, but they also need feel the need to bring their animal in a small confined space with a couple hundred fellow humans.  Seriously!  How messed up is that.  But, don't tell Boomers their pets are just animals.  To Boomers, pets are their new kids.  And, considering how invasive Boomers have been with their (real) kids life, it should be no surprise that Boomers helicopter over their pets as well.  God forbid, they let their dogs stay home and sleep on the sofa.  Boomers need to work and travel and they want to make sure they can spend as much quality time as possible with their domesticated critter.

This blog is dedicated to my wife who had to spend a cross country flight listening to a dog bark during the whole flight. 

Sixty Two and Still Pathetic

After hearing about Tipper and Al Gore divorcing this week, I couldn't help but chuckle.  It was about time the poster children for their generation did what all Boomers seem to do and that is go their separate ways.

Al and Tipper Gore were the worst couple of the worst generation.  As a mother and Senator's wife, Tipper Gore decided to burn record albums.  OK, she didn't exactly burn albums but she tried to ban them for their content.  It wouldn't be so bad that she warned parents of explicit language on records but when asked who her favorite band was she replied "the Rolling Stones."  Excuse me! The hypocrisy of liking a band that constantly used explicit lyrics about sex, drugs and depravity while telling us we couldn't listen to others like them, made Tipper the poster child of her lousy generation.

Al, had his on problems.  His environmental charade is probably his most egregious.  After Al Gore lost the infamous 2000 Presidential election, he went on a quest to end the world from global warming.  Like his wife, it wouldn't be so bad that he did this but Al also lived a life of hypocrisy as well.  Flying in private jets and living in a huge mansion, Gore probably has one of the largest carbon footprints of anybody in the world.  Gore also suffered from hypocrisy since he berated President Bush for not doing anything to stop global warming, while as Vice President for eight years, he, nor President Clinton did nothing as well. 

So, this is the end of America's worst couple.  Good riddance.  I can't wait until they each write their book about the difficulties of staying married in the modern world.  Blah Bla Blah Bla Blah.

Material Happiness

In the 1960's, for reasons I cannot figure out, the Boomers decided to rebel against their parents.  I guess it was hard for them to live up to the greatness of their parents generation. So, with this burden, the Boomers set out to discover their own morality.

The Boomers tried everything: Free Love, Buddhism, Taoism, Maoism, Christianity, Krishna, Environmentalism, Paganism, Native Americanism, New Age, Black Power, White Power, Feminism, Scientology and many, many more.  However, none of these movements seem to take hold as much as the most powerful ism the Boomers found and that was Materialism.

As the Boomers stopped getting high...who am I kidding....As the Boomers changed their drugs from psychedelic to stimulants and were finally ending their childish games....who am I kidding again....and were moving into the business world, they discovered the joy of materialism.

And, to give the Boomers credit, they got real good at it.  As soon as the money came in, it went straight out.  It didn't matter where the money came from. Whether it was from working, inheritance or government checks, the Boomers spent every dime they could get their hands on.  From the mid-80's to the late 00's, the Boomers bought everything from luxury cars to electric facial masks. 

The consumer marketplace was alive and booming (pun intended).  Consumer product companies found new ways to sell to the Boomers.  Infomercials started to explode on cable television and new malls were opening everywhere.  Then in the late 1990's, the Internet became the ultimate tool to easily buy any product you ever wanted.  And, for the Boomers, it came at a perfect time.  As the Boomers were starting to age, it was more difficult for them to race out every weekend to buy more material.  the Internet let Boomers bask in the joy of materialism without leaving their sofa.

So, here we are in 2010, the Boomers spent all their money and then some.  According to money-zine, "The size of the total consumer debt grew nearly five times in size from 1980 ($355 billion) to 2001 ($1.7 trillion). Consumer debt in 2009 now stands at $2.5 trillion." 

Well, I guess its time to come up with a new ism.  But, I am not worried.  I am confident that the Boomers will find joy in their new religious movement: povertyism.

Have a Nice Day!

In the 1970's, "Have a Nice Day" was written on t-shirts, buttons, posters and bumper stickers.  Along with a smiley face, it became a symbol of the positive attitude the young Boomer generation exuded. The Boomer generation did not like to deal with pain or negativity in any way.  Some Boomers took drugs to remove the pain, while others embraced spirituality as the means to live positively and ignore the pain of living on Earth. 

The book The Power of Positive Thinking by Norman Vincent Peale became a mantra for many Boomers.  With his simplistic approach to life, Peale wrote positive verses such as "when someone hands you a lemon, make lemonade."  For many "Christian" Boomers, the combination of Christianity and positiveness of Peale's message was just what they wanted to hear.

As Boomers took over most institutions, positiveness became the culture.  In education, instead of providing negative discipline, Boomers brought in positive approaches developed by people such as Haim Ginot, B.F. Skinner and Alfie Kohn.  No longer would children be punished for negative activities in school.  Through praise and positive thinking, discipline would be achieved.

In the workplace, employees were expected to remain positive and not focus on the negative.  Boomer managers did not want to hear about problems.  When employees focused on negative aspects or problems, they were dismissed or ignored.

So, here we are in 2010.  Let's see where positiveness has got us. 

• Education - The positive approach to discipline in the schools has created an entitled generation.  The young "millennial" generation believes they can do no wrong and expect positive things to just come to them.  High self esteem can be an excellent trait, however, the positive discipline the kids received will ill prepare them for the realities of life in a down economy.
• Business - With no discussion of negativity in business, the problems that have been evolving for the last thirty years have been ignored.  Companies like General Motors and Ford ignored the warning signs so obvious for anyone paying attention. 
• Government - Governments have ignored the reality of an aging society.  Pension pay outs, Social Security and Medicare are currently in crisis.  Yet, these problems did not just come about yesterday.  Many individuals have been warning the government for years and years about these problems, but the positive thinking Boomers wanted no part of such negative discourse.
• Investment - The stock market and real estate bubble can be attributed to positive thinking.  Ignoring the negative reality that a company cannot have a PE ratio of 1,000 and be a good stock was avoided by the Boomer investors.  The unrealistic increases in real estate prices were looked at with optimism.  While some warned of an impending disaster of faulty mortgages, they were discounted by a generation constantly searching for greener meadows.
• Society - Social institutions were affected as well.  Divorce became the norm for Boomers.  If living with a spouse became hard or negative in some way, Boomers bailed and searched for a more positive relationship.  This alone wouldn't be so bad, but divorce has led America to become more economically weak.  With families living in disparate situations, family incomes have declined, savings rates have been reduced and for poor Boomers, the government has needed to prop up many single family situations. 

There are so many other examples of the damage "positiveness" has done, I will need to leave them for future blogs.  However, I think it is safe to say that the power of positive thinking embraced by the Boomer generation has been far more negative to our country.  I guess that would be ironic...don't you think?

$10,000 Pyramid Scheme

When the $10,000 Pyramid debuted on March 26, 1973, who knew the affect a game show could have on a whole generation.  As Boomer college students were getting high and watching the $10,000 Pyramid, some of the more greedy and ambitious ones realized that someday, when they were in business, they may use the concept of the pyramid and take advantageous of their fellow comrades.

Well, their time came in the mid 1990's.  As Boomers were consuming more material goods and living for today, many of them realized that they were now in their fifties and it was time to start thinking about retirement.  The problem, for most Boomers, was that they did not save a dime in their adult life.  According to the Employee Benefit Research Institute, the personal savings rate in the United States saw a consistent decline from the early 1980's.  While the personal savings rate was over 10% in the late 1970's, by the mid 1990's the rate had declined to around 5%.  In the 2000's, the personal savings rate actually declined so far that by 2005, it dipped below zero.

So, with no savings and retirement just around the corner, the Boomers were ripe for get rich pyramid schemes.  And in the last twenty years, there were many.  One of the largest was the Dotcom bubble of the 1990's.  The greedy Boomer bastards on Wall Street colluded to convince a financially incompetent generation that the traditional metrics to measure stock value were antiquated and investment in Internet based companies led to quick riches.

Some of the more hilarious stories from the Dotcom bubble include:

• Pets.com - According to Wikipedia. Pets.com spent 11 million on advertising when they only made $619,000 in 1999.  I just can't figure out why their stock went from a high of $11 to a low of $0.19.
• eToys - They raised 166 million in venture capital with a business model that had them buy retail and sell retail.  Strangely enough, the stock went from a high of $84 to a low of $0.09. 
• Webvan - With traditional grocery stores having razor thin margins, it seems logical that an online grocery with very high fulfillment costs would be a great idea. Suckering inept and desperate Boomers for quick riches, the stock hit $30 and of course, the stock became worthless since groceries are barely profitable.

While some individuals that started the Dotcom pyramid scheme made out like kings, just about all the suckers that invested in Internet-based stocks lost a ton of money.  As the new millennium began, the Boomers were really in trouble.  No savings and what little they had was lost in the Dotcom bubble.  But, no fear....here comes real estate...and that will be the ticket to a wealthy retirement....or something like that.

Texas Style Extremism

As we enter the fifth decade of the cultural war pinning the left and right wing Boomers against each other, the new battle lines are being fought over school curriculum.  With legislation such as No Child Left Behind, which will eventually nationalize our school curriculum, both sides of the cultural war want to assure that their point of view is being proselytized to future generations.

Today's battleground is in the state of Texas.  The vastly right wing Board of Education of Texas has voted to change the language in social studies and history text books. And, since Texas purchases the most text books in the country, they dictate what the publishers will print for most other states.

The new text books will alter language regarding many historical events.  For example, instead of referring to the business of bring slaves to the North American continent as the trans-Atlantic slave trade, the new text books will refer to the slave trade as the Atlantic triangular trade.  The most disturbing alteration is in regards to the concept of "separation of church and state".  Wanting to ignore the first amendment of the U.S. Constitution, the Texas Board of Education points out that the Constitution never actually includes the words"separation of church and state."  They even went as far as removing Thomas Jefferson as an example of an influential political thinker since Jefferson believed in separation of church and state and was not a Christian.

While I do agree somewhat with the frustration of the right regarding the text book language written by the politically correct left, swinging the pendulum so far right and invoking non-factual content, along with omitting critical historical figures, is not the answer.

But, what should we expect from the Boomers.  With such irrational and extremist views, they are not competent enough to rationally eliminate politically motivated curriculum from text books and create factual historical content for which students can analyze and debate. 

This time it is the right wing that is at fault.  But the left wing Boomer zealots are no better.  The text books created by the left wing Boomers had white Americans at fault for seaminly everything.  The left wing text books leave white children sobbing with the realization that their culture is the crux of all the worlds ills even though, most whites in the United States come from as diverse backgrounds as non-whites.

For those of us who study the Boomers, it is no surprise to see what is happening in Texas.  However, we should be concerned that this so called "cultural war" is polluting the education of future generations of Americans.

The Sky is Warming, The Sky is Warming

Hyperbole and Baby Boomers are synonymous. It really doesn't matter the subject matter.  However, when it comes to climate change, the Boomers even outdo themselves in extravagant exaggeration.

In the latest study conducted about climate change, the National Academy of Sciences is calling for even more extreme measures to counter the earth's warming temperatures.  (Now, before, I lose the zealots who are absolutely convinced climate change is happening, I have read climate change studies and do believe that "man" is a major factor that has led to increased earth temperatures.  When you think about it, it is pretty obvious.  The earth's human population has increase substantially in the last hundred years and there are bound to be some affects.)

With that said, some of the foolish exaggeration coming out of these Baby Boomer scientist's mouths are dumbfounding.  Here are some points from the Los Angeles Times article covering the new climate change study:

• Human populations should be shifted from coastal locations. (Seriously?  Should we really start panicking when nothing has happened to demonstrate rising tides)
• The Southwest will inevitably become more arid. (Really? Why can't the Northeast become more arid and the Southwest become more wet?  Where is the data to back this up?...or there isn't any)
• The ocean levels are going to increase by 5 feet by the end of the century. (We can't predict the weather for next week, but we are sure about the ocean level increase in 100 years? Yeah...right.)

From reading past climate change studies, the only thing that can be proved is that the earth has been warming in the last twenty years.  There also seems to be correlation between industry output and warming temperatures.  However, that is where the science stops. The rest of the arguments are typical Baby Boomer exaggerations about a myriad of climate change catastrophes.  With no data to back up their hyperbole, the Boomer scientists studying climate change have very little credibility.

The sad element is that climate change may affect the planet substantially.  However, the Boomer scientists and Boomer politicians like Al Gore are going to exaggerate to the point that we will stop listening to them.

Didn't any of these Boomers read Chicken Little?

I was at Woodstock...Man

As a youth growing up in the "post" Woodstock world, one of the big jokes was that even though approximately 500,000 people attended Woodstock, millions more claimed to have been there.

Another claim made by the Woodstock generation is that there were babies born at the event.  While one person did actually die, the Boomer attendees love to spout proudly "Yeah, man, one guy died but three babies were born."

According to a story compiled by the Associated Press in July of 2009, "no one has come forward with a credible public claim of giving birth to a Woodstock baby or being born there."  So, here is another Woodstock myth going awry.

While Woodstock provided some wonderful concert performances, the event was more a distorted myth than a grand experience.  For those who did attend the show, it was an unsanitary, mud fest for which you needed binoculars (which probably all attendees did not have) to even view.  With little food and even less bathroom facilities, it was a probably more a nightmare than the cultural event of lifetime.

For those who were not there and yet claimed to be, Woodstock became a symbol of a generation getting together for peace.  However, for those of us who review the actual history, the Woodstock era was more about divisiveness and individualism.  Divorce rates began skyrocketing after Woodstock.  People moved into separatist camps about numerous issues like war, culture, race and politics.  The 1970's then became the "me decade" as declared by journalist Tom Wolfe.

While the Baby Boomers relish Woodstock as some momentous and cathartic time, the reality is that Woodstock was more a anomaly then a symbol of the Baby Boom generation coming of age.

I was in Vietnam...Man

Richard Blumenthal, the Democratic candidate for the U.S. Senate, just revealed today that even though he professed to have served in Vietnam, he actually did not.  He claims that he said "during" but he actually said "in" Vietnam.  Whatever, Richard.  My question is, why do Boomers consistently exaggerate their service in the only war totally lost by the United States?

Richard Blumenthal is not the first American politician to exaggerate his service in Vietnam.  When Al Gore ran for President, he used pictures of himself in Vietnam to demonstrate his strong war record.  What Gore didn't show was the entourage surrounding him to make sure he did not receive any harm.

Another politician running for President used Vietnam as backdrop and that was John Kerry.  Kerry served in combat but there was a discrepancy regarding the validity of his Purple Heart.  Whether we believe Kerry or his politically charged comrades from Vietnam, again, why would anybody want to remind the voters that they were part of the worst fighting force in the history of the United States?

One of the great excuses provided by the Vietnam soldiers to explain their defeat was the lack of commitment of the people and the government.  It may be true that after three years, the public started to question the war, but the government support lasted almost ten years.  In "To America, Personal Reflections of an Historian", Stephen Ambrose states that during the Vietnam War, more bombs were dropped than all  wars put together.  In World War II, the troops had much less aerial support than did the troops in the Vietnam War, yet, those troops were able to defeat two immense worldwide empires.

The reality of the Vietnam War is that Baby Boomers make lousy soldiers.  Soldiers need to be group oriented, selfless and civic minded.  Most Baby Boomers are individualistic, self absorbed and rebellious.  These are not traits one calls upon when they put together a winning army.

So, it is about time for Boomers to stop claiming that they served in Vietnam.  It is really nothing to be proud of and nothing worth remembering.

Extremism Extremism and More Extremism

Ever since the Baby Boomers came of age and probably even before that, they have looked at life with grand extremism.  The first great example was the comparison of the Beatles versus the Rolling Stones in the 1960's.  For some reason, Boomers could not like both outstanding musical bands.  You were either a Stones fan or a Beatles fan.  Love relationships became extreme as well.  You either believe in free love or monogamy/marriage. The most intense extremist battle revolved around the Vietnam War. You were either part of the silent majority that supported the Vietnam War or you were adamantly against the war. 

The extremism continued into the 1970s.  Disco sucked or you loved disco.  You either accepted Jesus or you will go to hell.  You became physical fitness nut or a drug addict.  You either accept that American business is destroying the planet or you participate in the capitalist markets.

In the 1980's the extremism started to become more political as the Boomers started to enter leadership positions.  Abortion is murder or woman has a right to choose.  You were either for Reagan or for the nuclear freeze movement.  You were either a Democrat or a Republican.  You were either a born again Christian or not a Christian at all.

As the 1990's came about, the Boomers elected their first President.  At this point, the extremism started to become uglier.  Within days of the election of Democrat Bill Clinton, the right wing Boomer extremist spent every last breath to oust the first Boomer President.  The extremist attitudes came to a head when the Republican congress impeached the President for an extra-marital affair (extremist values hotly contested since the 1960's. Free love vs. monogamy). 

Then came the Presidential election of 2000.  Historians for centuries will use this election to demonstrate the extremist attitudes of the American culture in the later part of the twentieth and early part of the twenty first century.  The country became so intensely split in extremist camps that the Presidential election took over a month to resolve.  The end result had a right leaning Supreme Court pick a Republican candidate which brought out vengeance from the left wing zealots.  From the first day of George W. Bush's Presidency to the last, Democrats denied the validity of the 2000 elections outcome.  As the Republicans tried to destroy the Democratic President in the 1990's, the Democrats did the same in the 2000's.

The extremism continued even after Al Qaeda attacked America on 9/11/2001.  The right declared that we must fight terrorists and supplant civil liberties for safety.  The left vehemently disagreed and fought the right at every turn.  Issues such as gay marriage became a new extremist issue.  You either thought marriage was for a man or a woman or you were a sinner.  You thought people should be tolerant toward gay marriage or you were a bigot.

The environmental debate started to heat up as well.  You either believe in global warming or you do not.  Then when Democrat Barack Obama became President in 2008, the extremism of the Boomers hit a new level.  The right literally flipped out.  While President Obama pretty much continued most of the policies of the last Republican President, the right called him a socialist and a Nazi.  I am not sure how you can be both but it did not stop them from saying it.  Many extremist right wing Boomers then questioned the Presidents citizenship. 

So, here we are in 2010 with a nation split into two extremist camps.  It should be no surprise that the country is crippled by two extremist political parties bickering to the end, but one things is for sure, the Boomers are to blame for extremist attitudes that exist today all across the country.

The Most Debt Ridden Generation

It is no secret that the United States has a debt problem.  According to the CIA World Factbook, the United States government leads all debtor nations with over 12 billion dollars of debt.  And, an even more disturbing figure comes from Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco (FRBSF).  According to the FRBSF, the United States personal debt rose to 133% of income in 2007 up from 65% in the 1980's.  This means that today, the citizens of the United States are spending 33% more than they actually earn.  The major reasons given by FRBSF for such an increase in debt stem from real estate speculation and consumer spending.

To make matters worse and to no one's surprise, the savings rate has also dropped considerably in recent years.  According to a McKinsey Global Institute study published in June of 2008, the Boomers savings rate has reduced dramatically compared to the previous generation of Americans.  The Silent Generation, born from 1925 to 1944 savings peaked at about 30% while the early Boomers born from 1945 to 1954 only peaked at 20%.  The later born Boomers born from 1955 to 1964 saving rate only peaked at 10%.  Based on their study, McKinsey concluded the following:"Our analysis shows that the Boomers' missing savings peak accounts for most of the collapse in the U.S. household savings rate from its peak of over 10 percent in the mid 1980's to around 2% today." 

An even more daunting statistic regarding savings comes from the Hoover Institution at Stanford University.  In 2005, the savings rate in the United States went into negative numbers.  Now, this is not unprecedented.  In 1933, the United States also had a negative savings rate.  The difference is that in 2005, the United States was in the middle of a great "Boom" and in 1933, the United States was in the worst part of the Great Depression. 

With the lowest savings rate since 1933 and the highest personal debt ratio in U.S. history, it seems pretty obvious that the Baby Boom generation is not only the most debt ridden generation ever but financially incompetent as well.  With no foresight to save during a boom and no preparation for retirement, the Baby Boom generation has placed the United States in a very precarious position.  With Boomers having no money to live off of, how will the country afford to take care of the older Boomer generation?

Over Forty Five and Still Pathetic

According to a newly released survey by AARP,  "Americans 45 and older are far more open to sex outside of marriage."  Gee, what a surprise.  The generation that perfected divorce and made a travesty of the institution of marriage wants to pervert it even further.  So, when Stephen Stills sang out "If you can't be with the one you love, love the one your with," the Boomers really took that as gospel.

The Baby Boomers obviously did not invent divorce but they did become the most divorced generation in American history.  According to the Americans for Divorce Reform, the divorce rate started to increase in the 1960's and then peaked in the 1980's.  This is another example of Baby Boomers not actually changing things, as they always claim, but taking an element of society and running with it or in this case destroying it.  Currently, one out of every two marriages fails.  However, there is no doubt that when Boomers finally stop getting married and divorced (which should happen when the finally get in their seventies and Viagra doesn't work anymore), the divorce rate will surely decline.

America's Worst Generation

In the following months, I set out to uncover every facet of America and in detail describe the affects the Baby Boom generation had on each.  Areas such as finance, education, health care, war, leadership, business and culture will be examined.  The goal of this blog is to gather enough evidence so that I can accurately refer to the Baby Boom generation as the worst in American history.

This will definitely take some work ahead.  America has had some pretty awful generations.  The Puritans come to mind and of course the generation that fought the Civil War and stumbled through Reconstruction can also be considered America's worst generation.  However, neither one of those generations sent the country on spiral backwards.  The Baby Boomers took a country on top of the world and methodically reduce it to a second rate, debt ridden country begging for handouts from China.

As I enter this journey, I ask my readers to participate in the data collection.  Knowing that many of you have the contempt and anger over a generation that destroyed the greatness of America like an insatiable locust, I hope you can help me finally and accurately call the generation born after World War II "America's Worst Generation."