Tag: Boomers

There are so many pieces on how the Baby Boomers have destroyed America, it is hard to choose which ones to highlight here. These articles are sometimes written by Boomers, the ones who can actually speak of the shameful, hard truths and not resort to callous defensiveness. They are the ones who can actually weigh the truth about the negative impact their generation has had on every subsequent generation as more important than their own personal feelings or the need to whitewash their generation’s awful legacy.

Perhaps the most entertaining piece written by a Boomer, although he does not want to be grouped with them, was Paul Begala’s (2017) essay, in which he states, “I hate the Boomers. I know it’s a sin to hate, so let me put it this way: If they were animals, they’d be a plague of locusts, devouring everything in their path and leaving but a wasteland. If they were plants, they’d be kudzu, choking off every other living thing with their sheer mass. If they were artists, they’d be abstract expressionists, interested only in the emotions of that moment—not in the lasting result of the creative process. If they were a baseball club, they’d be the Florida Marlins: prefab prima donnas who bought their way to prominence, then disbanded—a temporary association but not a team.” You get the idea. It is not a flattering portrait.

Boomers’ Defensiveness

Many Boomers, however, when confronted with these hard truths and unflattering realities about their legacy, react not by extending understanding and solidarity with the generations who have to live with the painful consequences of the Boomers’ decisions and actions, but rather, in a predictably egotistical and narcissistic fashion, by expressing outrage and hurling insults at those who have the temerity to call them out for their hypocrisy, selfishness, immorality and incompetence.

As Lewis (2019) wrote, “The 63-year-old—yes, Willetts is a Boomer himself—is well aware of the subject’s emotional resonance. Mostly, though, he is surprised that the rage tends to come not from Millennials, who feel disadvantaged, but from the Boomers, who feel attacked…. When we have all this power, we shouldn’t be surprised when younger people are rather resentful,’ he said. ‘I’m surprised they aren’t angrier.’”

Actually, we are angry and resentful. It is just that every time younger people express their justified outrage, either through calculated arguments or organic memes, such as “OK Boomer,” at the injustice we have experienced for the past about half a century under the Boomers’ tyranny of the vote and governance, the Boomers, like locusts, to use Begala’s imagery, swarm down upon us in an attempt to suppress our First Amendment right and silence us into submission. We will not be silenced.

Boomer Socialism

The Boomers have chosen to never make any sacrifices and instead have insisted on voting based on what is exclusively in their interests, without any regard to the interests of future generations, a consideration that prior generations paid to them. The ramifications of the Boomers’ decisions are evident in all aspects of our lives: housing, the economy, climate change, health care, education, child care; you name it, the Boomers have shaped the policy to their benefit and to other generations’ detriment.

The most obvious specific examples are in health care and housing. To point out the obvious, it is the height of hypocrisy to want Medicare for oneself but not for others, as this voter (granted a bit older than a Boomer but still reflective of the generation) expressed, Glueck and Tavernise (2020) “‘I don’t like Warren and I don’t like Bernie because they want “Medicare for all,”’ said Alan Davis, 80, dismissing the single-payer health care system promoted by Senator Bernie Sanders, 78. ‘I’m totally against it. I have a good health plan.'” In other words, socialism for older people, not to mention, for the rich and for corporations, but capitalism for everyone else.

As Thompson (2020) wrote, “The federal government already guarantees single-payer health care to Americans over 65 through Medicare. Senior citizens already receive a certain kind of universal basic income; it’s called Social Security. While elderly Americans might balk at the idea of the government paying back hundreds of billions of dollars in student debt, they are already the grand beneficiaries of a government debt subsidy: The mortgage-interest deduction, a longtime staple of the federal tax code, effectively compensates the American homeowner (whose average age is 54) for their mortgage debt, thus saving this disproportionately old group approximately $800 billion in taxes owed to the federal government each decade. The economist Ed Glaeser has likened these policies to ‘Boomer socialism.'”

In addition, with respect to housing, it is not just the mortgage-interest deduction, but as Lewis wrote, older people often actively prevent more housing from being built, which increases its cost; “Often, Willetts would…then head over to a local residents’ association meeting, where he would talk to ‘completely decent people’ in their 50s and 60s who owned their own home but wanted no further houses to be built in their neighborhood.”

More generally, the Boomers ushered in the era of “greed is good” under Reagan. This period was the beginning of the end for the country and for the labor movement that had been considerably strengthened, essentially during the Bretton Woods period. The new era corresponded with a focus on consumerism, with consumer demand becoming the driver of the US economy, along with it, a trade deficit, financialization, and these changes among others created gross imbalances in the economy, particularly between the haves and the have-nots, which inevitably also meant between old and young, and contributed to the destruction of the planet. The Boomers are also the reason that the nation, really the world, is suffering under Trump and his corrupt, incompetent administration.

Pew’s Maniam and Smith (2017) found that “In 2016, as in recent years, Millennials and Gen Xers were the most Democratic generations. And both groups had relatively large – and growing – shares of liberal Democrats: 27% of Millennials and 21% of Gen Xers identified as liberal Democrats or Democratic-leaning independents. By contrast, Boomers and Silents were the most Republican groups – largely because of the higher shares of conservative Republicans in these generations. Nearly a third of Boomers (31%) and 36% of Silents described themselves as conservative Republicans or Republican leaners, which also is higher than in the past.”

Boomers’ Political Dominance

The unfortunate reality is that the sheer size of the Boomer generation has distorted our politics. As Lewis said, “Boomers have bent the gravity of politics toward themselves and their needs.” Some have claimed that this is ageism or a phony generational divide. It is not. It is based on reality. It is based on facts. It is based on statistics. It based on hard truths. Deal with it. The real impact that an extremely large, selfish and short-sighted generation has had on American politics and economics is ultimately, as we are witnessing now, to the detriment of all Americans. After all, it is older Americans that are most vulnerable during the coronavirus pandemic, and they are also the ones who put an entirely unfit president in the White House.

The Boomers are the single worst generation in, at least recent, American history. No amount of outrage or defensiveness on their part is going to change that reality or assessment. They are the reason our nation is at this absurd point, and they need to own it. Despite their reflexive defensiveness, the Boomer generation needs to be held accountable for their actions, including their vote. We will not participate in the whitewashing of what is obviously a terrible legacy, their complete failure in judgment, decision-making and governance.

Unfortunately for the rest of our society, we are also facing the reality that we have to deal with or clean up their mess. The only way to end their political dominance is for younger generations to vote in large numbers based on their own interests. A fair and well-functioning democracy reflects the diversity of its constituents, and one of those important factors is age. It is as legitimate a consideration as any other aspect of one’s identity. Let us make sure our interests are being represented at all levels of government. Gen X, Y, Z – let’s band together, and let’s vote and run for office. Let us define our destiny.

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