Thanks, Boomers!

This was going to be a longer post, but that will have to wait. I just saw a tidbit over at Paul Kedrosky's Infectious Greed blog that made me have to post something about how we Baby Boomers are turning out to be the Dumbest Generation as opposed the ones before us, the Greatest Generation.

Paul takes an Aussie writer to task for gloating about the Australian banks have missed the whole financial crash so far. Paul points out that it's not over yet. Within his well-considered piece is this bit of information about the Aussies.

The second problem with Australian banks is their reliance on mortgages. Over the last twenty years debt has gone from less than half of average income in the country to more like 1.5 times income.

It's the same thing all over the world. Despite the lack of any existential crises, national governments from France to the US and all places in between have run up massive debts. Household debts have skyrocketed and savings rates gone down. Borrow, borrow, spend, spend! Yay! Let's have more credit cards, second mortgages and loans to people with lousy credit! Hope and change and free health care for all! Wheeeeeeeeeee!

How's that working out now? For those of us that follow Dave Ramsey, we could have told you (and many of us did) how this would turn out.

Meanwhile, we're hip and groovy and doing what Crosby, Stills and Nash told us to do. "Love the one you're with," man. After all, if you can't be with the one you love, honey, love the one you're with. With a prison population of over 2 million consisting mostly of young men raised in homes where people loved the ones they were with, that seems like it didn't work out so well, either.

Self-denial is for the repressed, man. You gotta do what feels right in the moment. Borrow, spend and sleep around.

Thanks, fellow Boomers. Thanks a lot.