"They" said...

I was at my parents' house last night and in the room were myself, my Democrat boyfriend Josh, my Republican Dad, and my Independent-leaning (though registered Republican) Mom. Our original plan was to watch The West Wing until we realized that it was being pre-empted by Emperor McCokespoon (thanks to Wes, that has stuck in my head) and Mom declared that nothing was going to be on tv from 9-11 or so.

We still had the tv on a network channel when it came on, and the anchors were talking about what he'd be talking about when they mentioned social security. I turned to Dad and asked if he thought it was really in trouble. He just turned 56, so it has to be on his mind since retirement isn't too far away. He said that he didn't think it was and that it was just one of many domestic things Bush is trying to force through. Mom (55 this year) chimed in that when she was my age (nearly 30...just a matter of days now) "they" were saying that social security was in trouble, and her (boomer) generation wouldn't see a dime of it. Now "they" are saying, 25 years later, that social security is in trouble and my generation (X) won't see a dime of it. I don't think our generation ever thought we'd see a dime, due to the enormous boomer population and much, much smaller Generation X population (generally 1965-1978), listed at about 17 million.

But, in college while doing a marketing paper, I found that the generation after X, sometimes called Y or the Echo-boom, is indeed almost as large as the boomer population. The Echo-boom is generally listed as births from1979-1994, and they total about 60 million to the boomers 72 million. So, hopefully these now young punks will get a job when they achieve adulthood (some already have, some are still in elementary school) and their masses just might be able to pay for my generation's social security, and help us continue to pay for the boomers too. After all, isn't that what happens, each generation pays for the previous generation's social security, or is that just some urban myth?