Not exactly news...

The headline to the article says it all:  "Many boomers don't plan to leave their children an inheritance."

Upending the conventional notion of parents carefully tending their financial estates to be passed down at the reading of their wills, many baby boomers say they instead plan to spend the money on themselves while they're alive.

In a survey of millionaire boomers by investment firm U.S. Trust, only 49% said it was important to leave money to their children when they die. The low rate was a big surprise for a company that for decades has advised wealthy people how to leave money to their heirs.

"We were like 'wow,'" said Keith Banks, U.S. Trust president.

This shouldn't surprise anyone... for years there've been bumper stickers and T-shirts saying "I'm spending my kids' inheritance."  On the one hand, it's true children shouldn't live life based on the expectation of what material windfall they may receive upon the death of their elders.  But on the other hand, the sentiments expressed by Boomers in the linked article culminate a theme that has dominated their generation for decades: it's all about them.  Previous generations in America sought to build and improve--not only their own lives, but those of their descendants.  In the lifetime of one generation, though, the Boomers have managed to squander nearly all the capital built up over the previous two centuries.

I realize I'm painting with a broad brush: not all members of this demographic are completely self-absorbed.  But as a group they've left a very large wake.  The excesses they celebrated as teens morphed into an "anything goes" mentality.  Limits?  Boundaries?  Responsibilities to others?  What are those?

As a result of this mindset, it's not just the individual family legacies that are at stake.  It's quite possible the "live for today" approach placed our nation and its way of life at risk.  Ultimately, the inheritance the Boomers may fail to pass on is that of a free, prosperous, stable Republic.

"Boom," indeed.