The "Greatest Generation" hath spawned the worst.

assumption: all baby boomers are wealthy, and have income that is not neccessary for survival. hmmmm hubris?

"Well" to quote Reagan, the "G.G." nearly nuked US all to oblivion, as well as spreading nuclear toxic test/wastes round the world, radiation deadly for aeons to come. Rejecting all that, we, their thusly abused children, have survived to live apposed to them, many already having dedicated our entire middle class (~ $50K/A) professional lives (thus having also already paid our dues in doing so); as well as some of US having already devoted the 2% asset desiderata, ATOP our taxes purportedly devoted to such societal improvement, as well (in contrast, how long does it take neoCONS to waste $50B on Bush wars?). If we middle-class "G.G." waifs give ANOTHER 2% now, what assurances can be given that all (especially those up at the $200-1000K level) will contribute, as well and that the UN (or whoever) will spend it efficaciously on EVERYONE'S healthy nutrition, clean water and air, preserved environment, health care and education? With such effective assurances, count me in.

Everyone bitches that retired Baby Boomers are gonna bust the system. From the perspective of this WWII-baby, it's the Boomers who are gonna save the economy, not break it. The economy is gonna survive off all the mutual funds we've got waiting to support us when we retire. It wouldn't be a hardship to start sharing a bit of that wealth right now.

You're talking to Baby Boomers who make a lot of money, I hope. The vast majority of us are barely getting by. And since there won't be any social security by the time I get to 65, anything extra I have is going to savings. Sorry, kids.

GIVING also takes place in sharing the treasure of our time, our minds, and our creativity. It's not all about dollars and cents, although those able to give more, God bless them.

Baby Boomers as givers? Well that's true their greed forced my generation into debt servitude with student loans and overpriced mortgages we cannot afford (because they plan to retire on the money generated from their $600,000 house). Not to mention the credit card companies again run by greedy Baby Boomers. Thanks for giving Baby Boomers! My generation will never live as well as yours and your medicare bills will further cause my generation to be underwater! Oh and you have yet to raise my generation's salaries to equal that of the cost of living while you happily make over $100,000 a year.

Excellent article.

Volunteering is too often linked to donating lots of ca$h. The truth is you don't have to be a philanthropist to truly give.

Sure it'd be great if the Baby Boomer generation donated more money to worthy causes. But the greatest potential to give inevitably falls on the younger generation.

Mandatory Community Service from High School to College would instill a spirit of giving, prove that one person can make a difference and that that person needn't be a Billionaire to create change.

Philanthropy and volunteerism is a lot more practical than we think.

All it would take to "provide everyone on earth with health care, nutrition, clean water, education and a clean environment" is 50 billion dollars a year? Really!?! So why doesn't a guy like Bill Gates or Warren Buffet do it for a year or two just to see how it feels? Didn't the "G-8" countries just "donate" 60 billion to Africa, just to solve a tiny portion of the problems on that continent alone? Pardon me, but I remain a skeptic.

It is delusionary to think that everyone of a certain class, especially the wealthier classes' are going to be motivated to give up anything to support any particular value or program, no matter how worthy. On balance, the working poor are far more generous than those with all the money. Jesus proved that long ago, with the story of the widow with her mite. So if you want to give all that you have to the poor in the hope of gaining your own salvation, have at, but chances are it will be a drop in the bucket and much of it will be wasted. The idea that we can change the world with our ideas is nuts. The world will only change when it has to, for its own survieval, and by then it will probably be too late.

Hehehe. I like that the author defines a community college professor as "not rich." I'll tell you why we don't give more to charity -- if we did, we'd need charity ourselves to get by.

I love these charity promoting types....In a fair and humane society we would have the issues covered. The more you give, the more administrations can proclaim "No Nanny State Here"! whilst taking your hard earned, and blowing foreign bodies to bits and making a profit into the bargain. Armed conflict is a global warming expense we can no longer afford. The extraction, manufacture shipping and final exploding of these profit making evils is obscene.
Cancer is simply unidentified cellular deformity from any number of causes. Mostly it is a result of the chemicals and crap that we are sold every day as marketing successes that allow shareholders to retire to the Maldives while cancer charities beg for futile billions.

I will not give to charity. I live charity on a personal level. I urge you to do the same.

If I read another self-adulating Boomer article, I might puke. Look around at the world your generation has spawned and feel shame.

"...super-generous Baby Boomers"? Not really.

This article seems way off the mark. First, the data is from the IRS which leads me to the conclusion that many people do not register donations, as I know I don't. Secondly, I'm really sick and tried of labeling people by generations and then making generalizations about them as a one size fits all.

Nanoon: I second your motion.

We're all just Americans here but we live in on a global plantation with three classes: Masters, Overseers, and Slaves.

In America, we believe in Winner Take All, Aryan Supremacy, Gender Slavery, Human slavery, Constant war, Massive child abuse, and Genocide and we do them all to this day.

We have designed a global economic system where more than half the population on earth lives on less than $2/day so that Master can live in palatial wealth power and privilege on a planet that the flat-earth blood god Yahweh gave them to RULE - with economic hitmen, jackals, nukes, cluster bombs, torture prisons, and a very wide assortment of wmds.

I am aware that many Americans still cling desperately to the illusion temporarily spawned by the Roosevelt Legacy that they live in a "middle class society". Illusions die hard. All you good folks who think Master is going to let you get any benefit of from those mutual funds and 201(k)s need to rethink your position. The operative term is "Market Correction".

That means that Master's Overseers on Wall Street will steal the money from you through a variety of legal and quasi-legal moves, and and other "elected official" Overseers will tell you how they feel your pain and there's nothing to be done. You get nothing, Master gets everything. This is how wealth transfers and wealth accumulation are accomplished on the Plantation.

Because of the illusions created by the mangled roadkill we call the Roosevelt Legacy, white America thought that they were "different", "special". Your future as Americans is the same future Master envisions for the rest of the planet - $2/day. Now that's a labor rate that makes Master very happy.

But yes, please contribute all that you can to Master's non-profit Overseers so they can do good works. They have million dollar mortgages to pay and braces for little Tiffany and Troy, and that's without counting the two hundred thousand dollars they will have to pay so that both Tiffany & Troy can get educated at the best Overseers schools so they can take their place on Master's Plantation - working you to death on sub-living wages. They desperately need every dime you've got left.

So pluck up that Xrstian Charity and give, give, give - until you're dead. Master wants it that way. You love Master, right? You worship Wealth, Right? You worship Master and want to be one, Right? This is your world. Now live in it.

Peace.

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"This country, with its institutions, belongs to the people who inhabit it. Whenever they shall grow weary of the existing Government, they can exercise their constitutional right of amending it or their revolutionary right to dismember or overthrow it."
Abraham Lincoln
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Let's run with this.

If I had time, I'd write a sci-fi novel occuring in the near-future in which the Boomers are aged 85-105 or so, and are increasingly hooked up to expensive life-saving equipment. Meanwhile, the X-Gen is in poverty without social security, the Y-Gen by-and-large has no access to health care at all. So then people begin asking whether they shouldn't just pull the plug on the Boomers. The Boomers anticipate this, so the hospitals of the near future become heavily armed/defended bunkers, with robotic machine guns, etc. guarding against some foolish Y-Gen who'd try to pull a plug.

As the Boomers eventually do succumb to old age and even machinery can't keep them going for more than 120 years or so, they realize the final risk: that the X-Gen (now mostly dead, since they couldn't afford the machinery) -- but mainly the Y- and Z-Gen might come into some inheritances. (Though most of it was spent on the life-prolonging machinery.) Worried that the next generation might come into inheritances, they, while half-comotose, devise a plan to slash&burn wealth in any way they can. More money is printed to devalue currency, interest rates & real estate prices go through the roof, etc.

How's that for a dystopian vision? Now that Huxley's prophesies have all come true, we need to start gazing into that crystal ball again.

Anyone from Hollywood out there? I'll write the book & screen script. ;-)

The Ellinger article resonated deep with my being as, in my Christmas letter of 2005, I wrote the following: "In an Ecuadorian journey to the rain forest with the Pachamama Alliance , I gained a piece of wisdom that has become part of my personal vision and mission. George Bush, Bill Clinton and I all have something is common. We were all born in the year of 1946, the beginning of the Baby Boomer Generation. Our elected leaders of my generation have not led the country or the world in the right direction. It is my belief that the Baby Boom Generation can become an interconnected leadership group. We can all become the leaders and work together to preserve the precious resources of the planet. To assume my leadership position in the Baby Boomer generation, I have decided that I will never retire. In December 21 of this year, I will turn 59 and ½. I have two choices that I can make about my retirement money. I can begin taking money out of my retirement or I can continue funding my retirement for the next 11 years. I am choosing to do neither. I will fund the planet by funding the Pachamama Alliance (www.pachamama.org) with money that I would have previously funded my retirement. I ask each of you to consider making a commitment that will prove that each of us becomes the chieftains of the world. Without water to drink or air to breathe, money in the bank is worthless. The planet needs your time, your money and your energy to change its direction. By working together in a leadership role of interconnectivity, change is and will happen." From this letter, I also raised $5000 for the Pachamama Alliance. For me, this experience has made me feel rich and free. The only difference is that I am giving instead of saving. I am an acupuncturist who has lived a simple life and really never considered myself weathly. I have worked hard most of my life. I love what I do and will continue to share until I die.

The vast majority of charities merely perpetuate and amplify the problems they are trying to solve.

I agree with Eric Stevens on keeping charity on the personal level.