I heard this on the radio this evening during an interview with Ralph Reed, a conservative American political activist and founder of the Faith and Freedom Coalition. The following quote is the result of a recent study...
"More 18 to 29 year-olds believe there is life on Mars than believe they will receive a social security check in their lifetime."
- Ralph Reed
Founder, Faith and Freedom Coalition
The young adults of my generation tend to be known for spending money extravagantly, sometimes carelessly, and often oblivious to its value. We expect many things to be free and fail to consider that everything costs somebody something. As long as it's not coming out of our wallets, we make no connection between cost and value. That being said, I think it's a notable event for this young generation to realize and verbalize an opinion that the government is spending too much. We are the ones that are going to pay for today's federal expenses -- "universal" health care, bailouts, "economic stimulus packages"....most of us assume we will have no social security to speak of, and many of us are considering retirement options even while in college. It's going to be every man for himself. I don't know about life on Mars....but I'd be willing to bet a pretty penny that the FICA taxes I pay today won't be coming my way again.
Friday, August 27, 2010
Young Americans skeptical about government
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America,
government,
Quote of the Day,
responsibility,
uncomfortable situation
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What's to bad is that Social Security can easily continue on and pay for itself, indeed it's been amassing a surplus that the feds keep swiping for other purposes. The problem is that some politicians are looking for something to harp on that needs to be cut and blah blah blah, when this is one of the few government programs that actually works pretty well. Approaching our later lives as 'every man for himself' is a really sad and anti-productive way to go about it, because we are always stronger together than we are separated, and giving up on helping each other is a virtual death sentence for those who are more disadvantaged than we are.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.commondreams.org/view/2010/08/16-7