Alan Greenspan has recently been frightening Americans again, as he did in April, by threatening that Congress will have to cut Social Security benefits to fund retirement for "aging Boomers." In fact, the trust fund is solvent until 2042 and sloshing with surpluses. Manufacturing a crisis helps Congressional conservatives spill our precious contributions into the unquenchable stock market.

Given the data, where does Greenspan get his nerve? Why did NPR's Neal Conan, after Greenspan's earlier remarks, speak of "the remorseless arithmetic of what could be an impending budget disaster"? A friend of our son snapped, "I pay 15 percent into FICA, but Social Security won't be there for me." Why imply that this, if true, would be my fault? How can the right wing repeat disinformation endlessly and get verbal support from others who do not share their ideology?

What greases the skids is the innocent-looking practice of "Boomer-bashing." In case you haven't noticed, Armageddon will be the fault of the people born between 1946 and 1964. Since the 1990-91 recession, they have been cleverly vilified. A 1997 New York Times op-ed said that Crybaby Boomers "hate their kids." Pictured as essentially wealthy, self-righteous, unwilling to share their vast power and, of course, aging, they possess a not-so-mysterious grudge against photogenic "Generation Xers." A Boston Globe article described their craven autobiography: "idealistic longhairs" who became "yuppies" are now "ready for the glory days of the menopausal and the bald." "Boomers" are typically imagined as undeserving: techno-illiterate, overpaid, sexually failed, narcissistic. The urban myth is that a young person can find a job only if a (white, male) midlife person loses one. Roz Chast in The New Yorker sardonically saluted "The Crummiest Generation."

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