Blogger: Seniors are the 'me' generation

"Brainy Smurf" has called out fellow members of Gen Y for expecting everything to be handed to them. And now he's criticizing seniors for being focused on "me, me, me."

Many seniors' stands on recent issues also indicate they're out of touch with current economic realities, he claims in a post called "3 misguided senior perspectives from a 30-something" at Pants in a Can.

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Basically, he says, seniors have had it pretty good compared with the lives of young working people.

His three observations:

Health care. "Yeah, yeah, I know they're all over the whole Medicare side of things (for their own reasons) but they can't understand why the 'younger' set is by and large upset with the wacky costs associated with health insurance," Brainy says. He and his wife pay a combined $15,000 a year for work-based health insurance.

Retirement. Many seniors retired with the benefit of a pension. Current workers have the 401k, and seniors don't seem to appreciate the difference, he says. "The fact is -- employers aren't going to take care of their 'former' workforce like they used to, and calling a 401k plan a 'retirement' plan similar to a pension is, well, like comparing apples to asparagus," says Brainy, who despises the latter.

Cost-of-living increases. He observes that some seniors are upset that Social Security recipients will get no cost-of-living increase next year because the cost of living has declined. "Maybe my job sucks but I'm pretty sure that I'm not alone -- I haven't gotten a raise since 2003," he says. "It might even be as far back as 2001, but plain and simple, right now I'm certainly not expecting a token raise anytime soon, you know, just because …."

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It's your turn. Is he being fair or harsh? Does everyone circle the wagons to protect what they have? He concludes:

But in the end, it’s really funny to me as I can't deny that I've jumped on the bandwagon before and said stuff like, "Yeah, the bratty Gen Y's out there just expect everything to be handed to them,"  but now I'm seeing firsthand that AARP members are just as expectant of handouts.

Related reading:

• Social Security's new math: Who loses?
• Should elderly get a $250 bonus?
• 9 signs that America is in decline
• Retirement? Good luck with that