If you look back over the last 50-60 years it is very interesting. Granted I am going off generalizations and impressions but think about it. Since the 50's the baby boomers have been the biggest group driving economics. They were raised by the greatest generation the WWII generation, who all grew up during the great depression. In the 50's there was relative peace in the world and prosperity in the US. So the depression era parents tended to save a crap load of money and spent what they could on their boomer children. During the 60's the boomers started to come of age. Free love was started in the late 60's and the drug counter culture became a large movement. In the 70's the rest of the world started to catch up to the US. My opinion is that it was precisely because of the 60's drug culture that this happened. We lost our edge because our young were too busy toking and snorting while the greatest generation didn't have any clue what was going on. In the 70's the first of the boomers hadn't established themselves yet, they were too busy having a party to care about anything else. I think that is why the 70's was essentially a lost decade for the US economically speaking. In the 80's the boomers started to become the "me" generation, or more accurately the "what's in it for me" generation. The 80's also is when the last of the boomers came of age. The step to the right in the 80's was a result of the first of the boomers hitting 30 and finally growing up. When they hit the magic age they started agreeing with mom and dad and stated wanting people to do things for themselves. The 80's is also a decade know for excesses. I think that is because the boomers realized they wouldn't never attain the wealth their parents had, because they had been out partying their life away. The 90's was also generally a conservative period. That is when the first of gen x hit the streets as adults. They saw the excesses of the 80s and wanted it. That's what they were told is the goal. The last of the boomers were finally hitting 30 and starting to grow up. Generally the boomers at this point were thinking that they had to work their butts off and save like a fiend or they weren't going to be able to retire. The first of them would be of the age to retire in another 15-20 years. The 00 were when gen x started to hit the magic 30 year point and really started going conservative. Unfortunately at that point it is when the first of the boomers started to realize they couldn't retire when they wanted and really worked to get more from the government. That leads us to now. The echo boom is finally hitting adulthood. I've read articles saying the echo boomers are as powerful a force as their parents, (the younger babe boomers), but aren't as liberal as their parents were at their age. This has me hoping for the future, but doubtful that anything will actually improve. The problem is the politicians we know have in government came of age when the country took a hard step to the left. They were taught by the hardcore liberals. The boomers have hit the age where they are again say what's in it for me. They now realize that all the partying and blowing of money they did when they were young is keeping them from retiring. They also refuse to recognize that it is their fault for spending so freely. They have their hands in the government coffers demanding more, because they lacked the forethought to save when they were young. They are taking another hard step to the left that we can't afford. We could handle it in the pasted because we were a conservative nation and didn't have the giveaway programs that now exist.