[KaiserJeep]

Only the fact that you want to coerce others to behave the way you wish, versus what they wish, using the powers of government. That is Fascism, whether initiated by Mussolini, Donald Trump, or you.

The exception would be in a democracy, where you manage to convince a clear majority of voters to enact something such as a carbon tax. The will of the majority is a well known principle.

The problem is that you and I both live in a varaiation of Democracy called a representative democracy. The USA is a Constitutional Republic and NZ is a Constitutional Monarchy with a Governor-General whereas we have a President. We have a Congress and you have a Parliment. The problem is that these executives and legislators are calling all the shots, making all the decisions, and screwing things up by the numbers. Our only check on them is our one vote per citizen. I'll make a giant assumption here and assume that the USA and NZ are alike in two respects: a politician is only lying when his lips are moving, and legislation favors those who buy the most legislators.

The government pretty much takes care of itself first, and the rest of us second. Amazingly, most politicians are in the upper income class when they leave office, in spite of modest salaries compared to the private sector. Is that also the case in your country?

[evilgenius]

The trouble with hoping for the old to die off is that it isn't exactly something peculiar to them which causes them to think the way they do. As the young get old they begin to think the same way, at least in numbers that matter enough such that you won't see the expected outcome. I attribute some of this to in/out group thinking. Just like the US discovered as the Cold War was dissipating, entrenched in groups need an enemy. As things transpired, there was no enemy big enough afterward to qualify. That was ok for them, though. They simply aimed their disapproval at a range of foes. The good thing was that the new list could now include all kinds of philosophical intransigencies never before targeted.

Also, while the left has been busy trying to define everything according to one person's, or group's, rights, the right has been busy trying to hold onto the power they've already been enjoying. In order to execute this they've appealed to their own notion of rights, those dealing with liberty. Neither side wants to recognize that their arguments don't hold water. The trouble is that it was easy to define rights when there was a king. When the king came by everybody had to bow and scrape. But what happens when, essentially, everyone has the rights that only kings used to have? It isn't rights that are in contention, but right-of-way. Appealing to a person's rights when the issue is right-of-way doesn't get you anywhere. Of course people have rights. But you know what, a little tax here and there is not a violation of them. It may be a getting wrong of who should have right-of-way, but it certainly doesn't amount to a taking of one's personal liberty.

This raises another point, that right-of-way isn't subject to the needs of those involved. Just because someone is on their last legs doesn't mean it is their turn any more than someone in the US has the right to go forward at a traffic light against a red light merely because they feel that they've waited long enough. Chances are, if you think only in terms of rights, when it comes to many of the issues that have come up in which people have mislabeled them as rights issues there does exist an urge to go against the red. If there is a chronic lack of ability to move people need to realize that it is a management issue and not a rights issue. Together, we have to change the structure within which right-of-way transpires, at least such that people do get a turn. Whether they choose to sit there and not take it (maybe because they are still fixated upon their rights, seeing themselves as kings) and then try to go after their turn is over, stomping upon someone else's right-of-way, is another issue.

[Plantagenet]

The trouble with hoping for the old to die off is that it isn't exactly something peculiar to them which causes them to think the way they do. As the young get old they begin to think the same way

Yup.

People keep forgetting that everything changes.

Todays bright eyed youth, dreaming of a world fueled by clean energy become tomorrows dour grown-ups, scrimping pennies to send their ungrateful children to overpriced colleges and then stumbling towards retirement as their pensions are clawed back and their neighborhoods made into way stations for curious looking immigrants with extremely noisy cars and an assortment of strange customs

Its just how it goes.


Help me into the voting booth sonny so I can vote to make America Great Again!

[Plantagenet]

A lot of the things that the younger generation want either don't cost much, or are actually beneficial to older people. Things like apartments vs houses .....

Sorry, but that belief is already toast.

Here in the US Millenials are now rushing to buy houses in the suburbs just like their parents did.

"a series of data points form a mosaic of a generation of young people ready to buy: The number of new-owner households was double the number of new-renter households in the first quarter of this year, the share of first-time buyers is creeping back toward the historical average, and mortgages for first-timers are on the rise.

“They’re crawling out of their parents’ basements, they’re forming households and they’re looking to buy,” said Doug Bauer, chief executive of home builder Tri Pointe Group Inc., which operates in eight states.

In a shift, new households are overwhelmingly choosing to buy rather than rent.

the-next-hot-housing-market-starter-homes-

This proves my point---millennials are going to do the exact same things and make the exact same mistakes boomers did. For instance, look at millennials flocking into the home market now...right when its at a top so Millennials have to pay top dollar for stripped down starter homes.

This will be followed by a millennial market crash and then a millennial recession and then millions of millennials will lose their jobs and demand bailouts for millennials who are underwater on their "starter homes."

Its going to be just the same old stuff all over again that the boomers went through.

Cheers!


The myth of millennials not buying homes is over

[evilgenius]

Although every generation is different, simply because of the time they find themselves in, they do tend to gravitate toward the same common behaviors as they go along. They don't all conform as rigidly, but they do seem to conform. I don't think you can simply realize the need to be different and because of it do away with the psychological reality, things such as archetypes, that compel us toward those common behaviors. To do that I think a generation has to address the roots of that reality and overcome them in a conscious way. I dare say, for instance, that the young don't have any less domestic violence, though they may not be aware enough to perceive it is a problem amongst them. Join the club. I had no idea of its, and other such issues, prevalence within my own generation when I was young either.

Have you seen any real concerted attempt to address male rage within the young? Do they even know what it is and where it comes from? In reference to that, what about teaching men how to communicate starting from very young? These are only examples of things that underlie the human condition as we accept it. It is true that most of these happen to us before we are complete, and they serve to go into making us who we are as we understand ourselves later. It doesn't mean that we have to pass them on, but it also means that we are much more likely to. An understanding of something new has to begin with an effort to stop the old because it is very active in replicating itself from generation to generation, as well as from thought to thought. Change isn't just something that you can do because you see all kinds of problems that need correcting. You have also to change yourself because you've been handed all that is necessary to undo all of that work. It isn't your fault. And every generation has always had choices. None of them have done much about it.