I read with great interest the recent letters to the editor against Measure RE, including ‘Listen to the Voters about Measure RE,” Our nest eggs are for retirement: Thoughts on Culver City’s transfer tax,” and “Wake up, Culver City Homeowners!”
I worry that Culver City homeowners that are part of the “baby boomer” generation don’t realize the effects that the policies of their generation have had on mine (I’m 39 — a millennial, I guess). Their generation’s policy decisions – the failure to properly fund public pension obligations, the proliferation of student debt, and environmental degradation and carbon emissions, to name a few – amount to a tremendous transfer of wealth from my generation to theirs. As opposed to the “greatest generation”, who through sacrifice and a vibrant labor movement created a booming and relatively equitable postwar economy for the benefit of their children, the baby boomers will have left my generation with tremendous financial, environmental and societal liabilities that I and my contemporaries will be paying off for the rest of our lives.
And that’s fine! Most baby boomers I know are wonderful, well adjusted people and I’m happy to help. If would just be nice, if at some point, some day, there were some acknowledgement and gratitude regarding the munificent gifts they have extracted at my generation’s expense.
Instead, I am confronted with things like opposition to Measure RE. This sadly seems true to form – sneaking out the back door (to a tax haven state, most likely) and leaving the rest of us to pick up the tab.
— Ben Wiles
