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Strategies & Market Trends : John Pitera's Market Laboratory -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: John Madarasz who wrote (3978)	6/4/2001 11:48:39 AM
From: Raymond Duray	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 33421

Hi John, Just a very naive thought... but won't the uber geezers<g> be handing most of that wealth down to the current younger generation ? Not so naive, but I'll tell you, it is hard to hand down world trips, ocean cruises, air travel, golf club memberships, restaurant meals, extraordinary medical expenses at the end of life (this is a huge reallocation of society's net worth to the medical/insurance complex), or the myriad other indulgences of the geezers. What will be handed down are used and depreciated assets, some like fancy automobiles, SUVs and RVs that will have scant residual value. Some like real estate that will be worth more. So, on balance, when I see people like Steven Pollin(sp?) writing books like "Die Broke", I'm appalled. He's living in a fantasy world where there is no regard for the finite nature of the resources of this planet. What I meant by my comment is that the present geezer generation is living beyond their own means and those of their heirs and successors. I don't think we need to put on sackcloth and ashes, but we do need to start to ask ourselves about the huge waste of resources that sustains the US economy. We need to face the facts that we've depleted the oceans, that our food production is totally dependent upon diesel and natural gas, both of which we no longer produce in abundance and we need to come to grips with the nurturance of the next generations. The founding fathers of this nation were loathe to have one generation parasitize its successors, and made it clear that the assumption of national debt was an assault on the prospects of the younger, necessarily more defenseless, generation. This is exactly the situation we find ourselves in now, with the public and hidden debt approaching $15 Trillion. This is paid for by the taxpayer, obviously, in the form of interest. It is paid for not so obviously by the loss of opportunity for the young of society. While we are willing to pay many tens of thousands of dollars to extend the life of people who are at the end of their natural lives, we no longer are willing to subsidize the educational opportunities of those who will have 40 to 50 more years of productive life. This is waste. This is mis-allocation of resources. This is my point. Enough, I'm off my soapbox for now. Best, Ray :)