What Makes America Great

 Last week the men of my parish had a spirited discussion. My fiery and pious younger brother took up the position that we ought not to speak of the boomers so negatively as a generation, as a 4th commandment issue, and as a failure to honor our fathers.


I backed his idea. I agree. There are many faults ascribed to the boomers that are accidents of economics, failures of their fathers, and even if it was their fault, we should seek not to damn them as a first response.


But that was last week.


This week I walked past the front yard of one of my boomer neighbors. In the front yard of his large and well appointed house, which he shares with his wife and dog, sat a sign. "Hate Never Made America Great."


Well, obviously, hate has never made anything great. I mean, there might be a wrinkle, where God is great and he hates things, namely sin, but I agree with the phrase as a general maxim. Hate does not make one great.


But that is not actually what they mean.


What they mean, is that you are not allowed to call for the deportation of illegal immigrants. You are not allowed to say, "male and female he created them," and you are not to raise a grievance when Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk bring in grateful and beholden workers on H1Bs; granted, at 2/3 of the wages they would have paid a domestic worker.


Their point is ludicrous, and part of why their point is ludicrous puts the lie to my arguments of last week.


How rich for a boomer with a cushy lifestyle to proclaim to the world their ideas on American greatness. You would think they would know to show some humility on this topic.


The truth is that most graphs of wealth you see exclude 401Ks and pension funds, and for good reason. The collected wealth of the nation, the 12 trillion+ in vanguard ETFs, is boomer retirement. They were born in a fat time, to a victorious people, with wealth and promise before them.


They thought those fat times were forever. They looked to their affairs, and not to the affairs of their children. They bought the progressive version of history where things just keep getting better and the 7 fat cows are not followed by the lean.


And they ate up the plenty, or are busy eating it up on a healthcare industry that is designed to extract the maximum value from their vanguard funds. The great wealth transfer is a mirage. The transfer is to the oligarchs.


And what of the millenials? What of Gen Z?


I got off light. I entered the job market post recession. I was cleverer than most, and I showed that I could be the indispensable man. I worked long hours. 60-70, even a couple 90 hour weeks. I got the corporate seal of approval, with titles and responsibilities that opened doors, and I won a comfortable life. Not extravagant, but as good as my parents.


How many of my friends and brothers shared my good fortune?


How much of the millenial and Gen Z cohort is drowning in debt for college degrees that were supposed to unlock the world, but crippled their entry into adult life. Not fine arts majors. Computer science, business, and biology. Was it because the demand was never there?


Enter again the H1Bs, the offshoring, the cheap migrant labor. Why would someone with a fiduciary responsibility hire an expensive American over a cheap immigrant? That would be a neglect of their duty to their boomer shareholders.


I will not deny that there is hate out there. But that hate comes from hurt. It does not make it right, but I do think it should give one pause.


I think the boomers got handed the kind of situation that is bad for people. I think their parents stopped going to church long before the boomers did. I think the moral and political ideas that made America great were handed to the boomers as take it or leave it propositions by a silent generation who had inherited the social and political capital, and no longer saw a need for the institutions that created it from their high vantage.


I've given a lot of opinions in this peace, but here is my most passionate opinion:


The boomers need to reflect with humility before they make decrees about what makes America great, because the obvious answer is that whatever it was, they did not have it.

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