The Best Generation of last 100 years?

[NDN]

Well, the GI Generation contributed the most to defending our way of life from enemy forces, so them. Definitely not Gen X or Y.

I agree. With that said, I have a much better overall opinion of the Xers than the Boomers.

[NDN]

The (so-called) Silent Generation. They came out of a period of hedonism, went into a depression, and fought World War II, and we were a global power at the end of it all.

You just described the Greatest Generation, not the Silents. What people forget about the Silents though is that in addition to fighting two thankless wars a lot of them were really responsible for a lot of the major changes that happened in the 1960's. MLK, RFK, etc. were all Silents.

[NDN]

Brief Summary of these Generations from what I gathered:

G.I. Generation (1900-1925)
The generation which saw war at it's worst...many would fight not only WWI but some would go on to fight WWII. Also saw the worst of the Great Depression and grew up as the "we never had carrots when we were your age" types who made sure their children (The Silent Generation) grew up listening to their parents and not saying one word back.

Silent Generation (1925-1945)
This generation was always cautious, eager to go from early life to elderly life, mostly too young for war (except Korea in some cases) and too old for the hippie counter-culture. Raised in a time of war and depression, they look to FDR, Truman and JFK as their political heroes of the day. If their parents told them to do something they did it or got smacked for not listening. They did what they were told in dire times and never said boo about it...they were silent.

Not really accurate. As I mentioned above, the Silents were eligible for both Korea and Vietnam, and a large segment of them wound up being the leaders of the major Social Movements of the mid-20th century. Martin Luther King Junior, Robert F. Kennedy, Gloria Steinem, Margarethe Cammermeyer were all Silents. They might have been comparatively quieter in their youth, but in adulthood many of them were anything but.

Generation X (1961-1981)
The most unlikely of all 20th Century Generations...the kids after the Baby Boomers but before the Baby Boomer's kids. They grew into adulthood in the late 80's, early 90's and reached college age around 1992-1995. Their children are being born into the "New Silent Generation".

You neglect to mention that Generation X wound up being raised in a fairly unpredictable time, and in many cases to fend for themselves. The escalation and end of the Cold War, drug use exploding (and the subsequent War on Drugs), urban decay, AIDs, Latch Key Kids, etc. No wonder they're seen as so cynical.

Generation Y or "Internet Generation" (1981-2001)
The baby boomer's children who grew up during generally peaceful and uneventful times with technology at their fingertips. Reaching adulthood in the 2000's.

Generation Y compared to previous generations is actually far more micro-managed. From childhood, many of us have been made to participate in an almost endless list of in school and after school activities, medicated, protected through various safety regulations and prevention programs, curfew laws and stiff penalties. Arguably it is Generation Y that is the New Silent generation, perhaps even the one true Silent Generation.

The New Silent Generation (2001-)
The generation growing up into a world post September 11th and post-internet technology. Being born into a world of futuristic techonology and war, they may remain just as silent as their great-grandparents did back 60 years before them. 

I could see the "New Silents" winding up rebelling against the increasingly intrusive and authoritarian structures of the West.

[NDN]

I won't say one generation is 'better' than another - certainly I like and dislike each of these for different reasons.  But I think the interesting point is to contrast the relative well-being of the first two generations with the stagnation or decline in living standards of those subsequent.

Just imagine the improvement in every aspect of life that Keyensian redistribution brought within the lifetimes of the GI's and Silent Generations!  We cannot even conceive of such rapid progress today - we're all pretty much used to stasis. 

It has less to do with the decline of Keynesian economics than it does the devaluing of the Dollar. Simply put, Inflation has caused Real Wages to progressively decline as a whole the past 30 years. This is largely the fault of the government for engaging in inflation-inducing deficit spending and adopting a "free float" fiat currency (under the control of a private corporation). We could end this overnight by passing a Balanced Budget amendment and abolishing the Federal Reserve as we know it. Unfortunately, for obvious reasons the establishment is not going to ever let this happen barring some kind of economic meltdown and/or revolution.