From first to worst

Posted: October 23, 2006

by RAY HAYNES

Doing it right?

From first to worst

California baby boomers seem devoted to matching their parents’ productivity with an inverse, equal destructiveness of their own.

Assemblyman Ray Haynes represents California’s 66th Assembly District.

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Those Americans who suffered through the Great Depression and fought World War II only to turn around and build their nation into the most productive, peaceful, and generous country on earth are often called our “greatest generation.”

Perhaps it is an indication of our fallen nature, but such generations seem tragically destined to be betrayed by their kids. I remember, as my generation attended college and entered the workforce, a lot of debate among my peers as to what we would do when we “took over.” We all thought we would “do it right,” happily taking for granted all that the greatest generation had done and blissfully planning to outdo that sorry lot at every turn. Now, I think I can say, having inherited a sizable legacy from the “greatest generation,” that the baby boomers have pretty well screwed things up.

My peers really thought they were smarter than anybody else. They still do — just ask them. They will tell you how much smarter they are than you are. You are greedy. If you keep your money, you will only spend it on selfish things like food, clothing, and shelter for you and your family. You have to give your money to them, so they can spend it on food, clothing, and shelter for your family.

Medical care? Education? If you choose your doctor or your children’s school and pay for it, you will refuse to make sure your kids are healthy or can read and write. If they choose your kid’s doctor or school and pay for it, your children will get quality health care and education.

Of course, they can’t be expected to do all this altruistic work for poor dumb you for nothing — they aren’t greedy, mind you, but, well, we all have to live: that means you have to hire them. And because fair is fair, and because they are so much smarter than you about what is good for you, and because you are so lucky they are around and willing to save you from yourself, it is only fair that you pay them at a level that shows recognition of just how wonderful this all is and how properly grateful you are for their willingness to save you from a horrible fate (i.e., having to choose for yourself how you will live and spend the fruits of your own work).

That means they will require you, through government rules and regulations, to pay them a lot of money. Somehow, though, it is never quite enough money, so they then use their power and money to increase their power and money. And this has nothing to do with greed. You must try to keep this straight: you are greedy (proved by your stubborn resistance every time they need a little more of your money) — they are generous.

If this sounds like hyperbole, come to Sacramento — or simply visit any one of their campaign websites — and hear or read this exact message from them in their own words repeated and repeated and repeated. This is arrogance, and, as a result of the arrogance of my generation, our health care system is falling apart; our education system has collapsed; and government is bloated, incompetent, and inert.

My generation is so smart, however, that these problems cannot possibly be our fault. So we keep doing the same things over and over again, expecting to make things better.

Most of the initiatives on the November ballot bear this out. With the notable exceptions of Prop.s 83, 85, and 90, the initiatives grow government, increase taxes, and/or expand government spending with no concern for the real-world consequences.

In 1992, when I joined the Legislature, total state general fund spending was $42 billion. Our bonded indebtedness was about $15 billion. The Legislature talked about floating a $3 billion school bond. Today, total general fund spending is $102 billion; our bonded indebtedness exceeds $50 billion, and we have floated $35 billion in school bonds in the last six years. But my legislative colleagues still think we spend too little, that we don’t have money to build schools, and that you people are still too cheap because you don’t want to pay more in taxes.

When the “greatest generation” took over state government, they built an entire freeway system, a water system, a higher education system, and our entire K-12 structure on a state budget of less than $15 billion general fund per year. But with $102 billion, all we can do now is hire 50,000 new bureaucrats at $100,000 each per year to think about how to build freeways, schools, dams, and universities, and somehow never actually building anything.

I wonder what our kids will say about us when we hand the mess over to them.

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