FUTURE - already spent!!

IT'S NOT HOW YOU QUIT,
IT'S WHERE YOU START

by Mark Steyn

"I think of Ty'Sheoma Bethea" said Barack Obama. I think I think
of her rather more than he does these days, and I wonder how two
generations of American students came to think like this at all.
I doubt I'll be invited to give the commencement address in
Dillon any time soon. Even at the best of times, "upbeat and
inspirational" isn't really my bag. I went to one of those
old-school English boys' institutions where instead of
prioritizing "self-esteem" the object was to lower it to
imperceptible levels by the end of the first week. Still, I've
spoken at enough American schools to know that you're supposed to
jolly'em along with something uplifting like "You can be anything
you want to be." Here's the problem, and here's what I would tell
the student body of Dillon in the unlikely event they book me for
a motivational speech:


You can't always be anything you want to be. I wanted to be
a great tap-dancer. Instead I'm a mediocre tap-dancer. But
that's my problem. Your problem is that my generation and
your teachers' generation have put a huge obstacle in the
way of you being anything you want to be: We've spent your
future. Generationally speaking, yours truly, the principal,
the guidance counselor, the school board, the old, the late
middle-aged and the early middle-aged have cleaned you out
before you've got going.
"It's about the future of all our children." And the future
of all our children is that you'll be paying off the past of
all your grandparents. In the assisted-suicide phase of
western democ racy, voters are seduced by politicians who
bribe them with government lollipops, but they're not
willing to pay the cost of those lollipops. Solution: Kick
it down the road, and stick it to the next generation.
That's you. So government has spent your future. This is the
biggest generational transfer of wealth in the history of
the world. Look at the way your parents and grandparents
live: it's not going to be like that for you. You're going
to have a smaller house, and a smaller car-if not a basement
apartment and a bus ticket. But thanks a bundle, it worked
out great for us. We of the Greatest Generation, the
Boomers, and Generation X salute you, the plucky members of
the Brokest Generation, the Gloomers, and Generation Y, as
in "Why the hell did you old coots do this to us?", which is
what you're going to be asking in a few years' time. You're
being lined up for a twenty-first-century America of more
government, more regulation, less opportunity, and less
prosperity - and you should be mad about it: when you come
to take your seat at the American table (to use another
phrase politicians are fond of), you'll find the geezers,
the boomers, and the Gen X-ers have all gone to the
bathroom, and you're the only one sitting there when the
waiter presents the check. That's you: Generation Checks.
"You can be anything you want to be!" "Dream your dreams!"
You won't be able to dream your dreams, because you'll be
the gray morning after of us oldtimers' almighty bender. The
American Dream will be as elusive and mythical as the Greek
Dream. Andrew Biggs of the American Enterprise Institute
calculated that if the federal government were to increase
every single tax by 30 percent it would be enough to balance
the books - in 25 years. Except that it wouldn't. Because if
you raised taxes by 30 percent, government would spend even
more than it already does, on the grounds that the citizenry
needed more social programs and entitlements to compensate
for their sudden reduction in disposable income.
In the Sixties, the hippies used to say, "Never trust anyone
over 30": Now all the Sixties hippies are in their sixties,
and they've gone quiet about that, but it's good advice for
you: never trust anyone over 30 with the societal checkbook.
You thought you were the idealistic youth of the Obama era,
but in fact you're the designated fall-guys. You weren't
voting for "the future," but to deny yourself the very
possibility of one - like turkeys volunteering to waddle
around with an Audacity of Thanksgiving bumper sticker on
your tush. Instead of swaying glassy-eyed behind President
Obama at his campaign rallies singing "We are the
hopeychange;" you should be demanding that the government
spend less money on smaller agencies with fewer employees on
lower salaries. Because if you don't, there won't be a
future. "You can be anything you want be" - but only if you
first tell today's big spenders that, whatever they want to
be, they should try doing it on their own dime.


That's the most basic truth the young could impose on the old -
the immorality of spending now and charging it to Junior. Next
time Obama tells Joe the Plumber he wants to "spread the wealth
around;" it should be pointed out that you can't spread it until
you've earned it. "Redistribution" from the future to the present
is a crock, and if you happen (like the student body at Dillon
High School) to have been assigned to the "future" half of that
equation, you should be merciless in your contempt for the
present-tensers who've done that to you.

Next to the gaseous abstractions of "hope" and "change" these are
cruel, hard truths. But truths is what they are. Big Government
makes everything else small, and rolling it back will be
difficult.
....................

AND ABOUT THE POPULAR PHRASE "YOU CAN BE WHATEVER YOU WANT TO BE"

THAT IS ONE OF THE STUPIDEST PHRASES TO EVER COME ALONG.

You may WANT to be a great OPERA singer, but you can't come close to singing nasal sounding "Country" songs let alone Opera. And you know with years of training you'll still never make an Opera singer.

It should be: "You are unique - use the skills and talent you have or CAN develop to serve others."
......