In his book The Greatest Generation, Tom Brokaw paid homage to the generation that emerged from the Great Depression to fight Hitler and other forms of tyranny. Their efforts were all about sacrifice so that their children could enjoy a better life. They sacrificed on the front lines of battle and back home in the factories that produced what was needed to wage war.

We, on the other hand, are members of the Baby Boom generation (the authors are both 60 years old)—a cohort that is hardly known for its selflessness—and we can’t help but wonder: What, exactly, happened to the children of the “Greatest Generation?” Where is our willingness to sacrifice so that our children can enjoy a life even better than ours?

RECENT POLITICAL DECISIONS have rejected sacrifice in favor of a what’s-in-it-for-me approach and, in the process, polarized the nation. To make matters worse, our leaders and opinion makers have convinced too many of us, conveniently, that our self-interest is also in the interest of the greater good, implying that no compromise or shared sacrifice is ever needed. Here are just a few examples:

1. We are fighting three wars (with a “volunteer” army) while refusing to pay for them, effectively passing the cost of financing the wars to the next generation.

2. We have an energy problem that is both a supply and a demand problem. It threatens our environment and our security, yet no politician seems willing to ask the American public to sacrifice to help solve the issue.