“A Generation of Sociopaths: How the Baby Boomers Betrayed America” by Bruce Gibney

Photo above - "Boomers are sociopaths!" Author, millionaire venture capitalist and Pay Pal founder Bruce Gibney, with unidentified companions.

America's boomers are under attack by . . . America's Gen X millionaires. I naturally expect Gen X,Y,Z to hate boomers. But normally those unhinged rants emanate from stoners living in mom's basement. People who feel they will NEVER be able to afford a nice house while boomers are still hanging on. However, today's class warfare hate rant ("sociopaths!!!") comes to us courtesy of Bruce Gibney, creator of PayPal, venture capitalist and a member in good standing of the Gen X rich boys club. Which includes wealthy moguls like Mark Zuckerberg, Elon Musk, Larry Page . . .

Wait . . . I'm already off track, Mr. Gibney objects. It's boomers who are the problem, NOT Silicon Valley Gen X guys. Okay let's stay with boomers, and why Mr. Gibney sez they should be looted to pay off the national debt. (See link below).

Boomers have $77 trillion in assets. That includes paid off homes. 401K accounts funded from automatic payroll deductions. Self-funded IRA accounts. Rental properties. Shares in companies they founded. If the government took just HALF of the $77 trillion, America's national debt could be completely paid off. Hooray! Mr. Gibney, you are smartest guy in the room. Half of $77 trillion is $34 trillion!

Of course, this may come as a big disappointment to OTHER gen X -Y-Z kidz. The ones still living at home in the basement. Mom's 3 bedroom rancher in Levittown. It's now worth $500,000. That man-child who spends considerable time playing Fallout, and sparking up weed, who was promised by mom and dad that someday the entire house would be theirs. Looting boomers and grabbing their homes might not be popular with those Fallout fan-boys.

According to Gibney, boomers cheated the system, so they deserve whatever comes next. How exactly did they cheat? Well, they bought those 3-bedroom homes, qualified for affordable mortgage rates, and then paid those off. Boomers made contributions to their 401K/IRA plans, to save for retirement, because social security could become a black hole of negative returns. What's worse is that boomers may have even been those accursed small business owners operating stores on main street, showing up 6 or 7 days a week. THAT's how boomers screwed America. A lifetime of frugality, hard work, and saving for retirement.

Is it just me, or does anyone else get the impression that Mr. Gibney is a lunatic who may have pi$$ed away most of his Pay Pal windfall, and is now looking to replenish his bank account with an outrageous book? ($22.49 at Amazon. But only $9.99 if you buy the Kindle edition, and enrich Jeff Bezos and his mega-yacht as well)

America's $34 trillion national debt certainly IS a serious problem. But does anyone really believe that taking half of retirees' life savings is going to prevent congress from repeating the same mistake, over and over, in the future? Some politician will authorize a government grant to the next guy who promises he can invent a perpetual motion machine.

Mom and dad aren't the problem. If anyone wants to debate excessive wealth, let's talk Tesla, Microsoft, Amazon, etc. If corporate tax rates are too low, let's put that on the table for discussion, too. Corporations like Pay Pal, which had $30 billion in revenue last year, $4 billion in net profit, and paid zero in taxes due to clever accounting. Would Mr. Gibney like to update his "sociopath" book and explain how THAT happened?

Let's allow voters to decide how this ends up. Not some venture capitalist/pay pal influencer, okay?

I'm just sayin' . . .

~‘Eat the Boomers’: How to repay America’s national debt | The Hill~