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Originally Posted by Shawnski
Surprisingly good post for the most part. My concern is that I do not believe the boomers "demanded" those government programs.
In 1971, Nixon effectively took the world off the gold standard, which up to that time was the mechanism to limit government spending by not allowing them to print money at will.
Once that limitation was removed, politicians were able to promise the world in order to get votes. Not only here but also in the States, governments grew massively since then, all because they could rob from future generations in order to gain power by spending at will. Trudeau's "Just Society" started the ball rolling rapidly down the slippery slope. And as much as Conservative governments said they would curtail spending and shrink governments, they have been just as much at fault since then.
Yes now the boomers are hooked now, but in fairness they have been paying into these programs for decades. One could argue that the blame isn't really with the boomers, but with a system that didn't have the appropriate checks and balances to ensure it was sustainable.
All of this is a central issue with Ron Paul (and has been since the 70s). I am surprised more young people on this particular board haven't figured this out yet. There are a ton of them south of the border that have though, and win or lose this election, Dr Paul's message is getting through. It is a good start.
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I guess we should forget that reliance on the gold standard was a major factor in the Great Depression, or that it flies straight in the face of Keynesian economics.