Lazy, when we were coming up we worked every job we could. Paper boys, mowing lawns, shoveling snow, cleaning out basements.... now WTF?

Because of the gym experience, I view this issue (and the possible solution) as more of a "mind/body" condition. Let me explain.

I can take the worst laundry room self-absorbed cyber-addicted slacker physically out of his mom's basement, beat the crap out of him, scare him with the biggest Bowie knife I can find and get him to mow the lawn. I haven't taught him a thing--other than it's probably not a good idea to tick me off before coffee.

Conversely, I see a lot of guys lifting and pedaling their brains out at the gym, and yet they are still fat and frustrated.

Change is ideally a tricky combination of action, desire, and innovation all stemming from a more personal decision of motivation. Until all of those individual pieces interlock together the condition never changes. Look at a drunk.

Over the past 50 years (with both of the WWII and 'boomer generations working and providing tax money) we have been able to create anything, including frivolous pursuits and sloughing off disasterous outcomes in war. That era is over. But the 'new America' seems destined to hit the concrete first before they realize an endless bounty cannot be ordered like the whim of a delivered pizza.

What we view as a fat, lazy, mouthy and self-absorbed generation without a clue is not only troubling to deal with, but a severe and painful loss is about the only thing that will jar them. Sadly, they will have to starve first, and do this amid their peers who have been previously rewarded by not caring.

Innovation, if the formula isn't working then you must innovate. Innovation can ONLY be achieved by people capable of innovating. IF you are a POS your whole life - starving isn't going to instantly make you a genius, it's going to make you extinct.

Agreed. We call that "natural selection."

And frankly I do not understand it. I don't have to get that hungry or reach too many times into an empty wallet before I say, "Boy, you had better work today..."

How anyone can sit there sniveling in their mom's basement and only decry that life is unfair while they perish defies logic. But like Cpt. Kirk opined, "Let them die."

Unfortunately "they" represent OUR future...

There's not much I'm afraid of, except your last statement!

Considering the solvency of the government--the same people handling my Social Security, a ponzi scheme by deducting FICA funds from me for over 40 years--my fate maybe indeed be in the hands of the slackers.

But President Osama has to find the remainder of that money to tax it. And right now he cannot even find sympathy in his own party.

All in all, I still think society sucks, I minimize me exposure to them and I vote. And having turned 60 years of age, I feel I've done enough for them, it's my turn, I will help them no more.

and so goes the fall of rome

Hmmm. Your assumption draws an analogy based on the "glory of Rome." I look at my action as more about being the first rat to abandon a sinking ship. I'm not sure that there is a social and financial goal to be achieved before this mess goes through some real pain. Granted, overall it's a good thing. As in "the roaring twenties," as a nation we had to stop acting as children.

My issue is the quality of my life. After creating the place we now call America, I've seen younger folks lambaste the 'boomers on The Black Flag forum. It appears that many of the newer generation feel an endless supply of free ice cream is their right and rite.

I'm tired of being a cash cow for idiots. They feel my tax payments are simply another "E" ticket while they spit on my generation, but wear my old clothes and call me "bro." My new end game is simply to prune off the sick branches so the tree survives. Who knows, perhaps one of these leeches will leave his mom's basement and actually get a job.

In a very real sense, I think a cyber-age depression and dust bowl era is the only thing that will motivate them. I recently read where they actually got through "cyber drug-like withdrawal" when their phones and computers are denied to them.

What I call peace and quiet they consider anarchy. Maybe there's a new TV show in that. "The Mom's Basement Sons of Anarchy." They don't really ride, they just eat pizza rolls and photo-shop pictures of cyber bikes...