Raising Retirement: The intergenerational theft of baby boomers

Bryce Edwards puts together a devastating critique of how those bloody baby boomers have robbed the public services they are now demanding we pay as their charmed existence continues into their dear bloody golden retirement...

If you were born in the 1950s you would have grown up as New Zealand's economy boomed, with almost zero unemployment. If your family couldn't afford a decent private rental there were literally entire suburbs of state houses built and available at low rent. These were not the multi-story blocks that later tenants had to endure, but roomy, well-built (and now much sought after) houses with quarter acre sections. If you wanted to own your own house but didn't have the deposit then your universal family benefit could be capitalised and there were subsidised housing corporation loans to make sure the mortgage payment weren't too onerous. Most health and education services were, for all intents and purposes, free. School donations were actually donations - not invoiced with threats of exclusion if not paid. Tertiary education required almost no fees and living allowances were easily accessible, along with plentiful holiday employment.

Of course the top marginal tax rate was 66% in order to pay for all these benefits. But in the late 80s, just as middle class baby boomers entered their high earning years, the top tax rate was halved. That meant the next generation had to start paying and borrowing for their education, along with market rentals for state house tenants and numerous other user-pays charges.

A new generation of graduates already saddled with mortgage sized debt wasn't really a problem. They were told the need to own your own home was irrational and there were plenty of houses they could rent from the well-off baby boomers, who were furiously investing their surplus income in property, claiming deductions but still free of any tax on their substantial capital gains. House prices rocketed - which was great for growing untaxed wealth, but was a disaster for families trying to buy their first home.

Baby boomers who joined Kiwsaver early will have received the highest proportion of Government subsidy for their savings - the state's generosity is already being ratcheted down. Kiwisaver funds will be the icing on the cake for baby boomers,

...Gen Xers and Gen Y should be foaming at the bloody mouth over hoe we as a generation have been screwed by these greedy buggers, and now we have to raise the retirement entitlements as well???

I am sick of hearing that the retirement age has to raise! If Muldoon hadn't deceived the nation and if the Cullen fund hadn't been gutted, we wouldn't have the looming retirement cost issues we currently face. ?Thank you National Party.

I'm against raising the retirement age for two reasons. The first is the sheer audacity of baby boomers and their outrageous intergenerational theft. Like a bloated swarm of locusts, baby boomers have benefitted from free education and social services that allowed them a free ride to property speculate Gen Xers and Gen Y out of their first home, and now these greedy boomers want to lift the retirement age just as they qualify? So Gen Xers and Gen Y have to pay for their education, pay for their kiwi saver and try to save for a deposit in another inflating property bubble while being told that they will have a longer working life as well?

What kind of sick joke is this? How come the original youth generation have sold out their early idealism for such selfish indulgence?

The second reason I'm against raising the retirement age is because raising the retirement age is anti Maori and anti worker. The average life expectancy of a wealthy pakeha comfortably sitting behind a desk may be 79, but for Maori men it's a mere 70 years and for the poor their life expectancy is only 73 years of age. Arn't these blokes the very ones who should be allowed to benefit most from a hard life of work?

Haven't they earned their retirement?

Raising the retirement age cheats Maori and the poor while giving those greedy baby boomers another free ride. Let's keep the age exactly where it is and asset test those boomers so they can finally start giving something back from the society they have so willingly taken from.

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