{"id":8312,"date":"2025-12-22T08:37:57","date_gmt":"2025-12-22T13:37:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.silvercentury.org\/?p=8312"},"modified":"2025-12-22T08:37:57","modified_gmt":"2025-12-22T13:37:57","slug":"think-the-boomers-ruined-everything-think-again","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/78.142.243.82\/~silvercentury\/2025\/12\/think-the-boomers-ruined-everything-think-again\/","title":{"rendered":"Think the Boomers Ruined Everything? Think Again"},"content":{"rendered":"

In anxious times we look for scapegoats, so boomer-bashing is on the rise. Wondering how to push back? Here\u2019s a quiz:<\/span><\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Cheer up, they\u2019re dying off!<\/span><\/li>\n
  2. The boomers invented [the internet\/water bed\/etc.]. What does <\/span>your<\/span><\/i> [entitled\/tech-addicted\/etc.] generation have to show for itself?<\/span><\/li>\n
  3. It\u2019s about class, not age<\/b>.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    It\u2019s easier to point fingers than to address what\u2019s actually going on. So blame the actual culprits, the rich: the politicians, lobbyists, technocrats and corporate leaders who\u2019ve shaped a system that benefits other wealthy people at the expense of the common good. Since the financial crisis of 2008, almost 100 percent of the country\u2019s economic growth has gone to the families of the 1 percent, and they\u2019re doing just fine. As for the underlying forces, blame predatory capitalism, unfettered by shifting political power. I<\/strong><\/span>t\u2019s not about age. It\u2019s about class<\/strong>.  <\/span><\/p>\n

    Both the 1 percent and the 99 percent are made up of all ages. Americans born into the postwar economic boom were indeed demographically fortunate. The benefits, however, were not evenly distributed. As leading economists have long pointed out, growing wealth disparity <\/span>within<\/span><\/i> different age cohorts (not between them) underlies the shrinking prospects of ordinary Americans. <\/span>It\u2019s about class, not age<\/strong>.  <\/span><\/p>\n

    For a clear explanation of what happened to the more egalitarian social contract that followed World War II, and who benefited from its destruction, read <\/span>\u201cNo, the Boomers Did Not take It All<\/a>\u201d<\/span> in <\/span>The American Prospect<\/span><\/i> by journalist Robert Kuttner. Hint: \u201cIt wasn\u2019t \u2018boomers\u2019\u2026.It was Ronald Reagan and the presidents who followed.\u201d Including the Democrats. It\u2019s not about political party or <\/span>\u201cgerontocracy<\/a>.\u201d<\/span> It\u2019s about class and power<\/strong>.<\/span><\/p>\n

    Media coverage is not neutral. Kuttner\u2019s article is subtitled,<\/span> \u201c<\/b>Why is the <\/span>New York Times<\/span><\/i> validating the generational myth, as opposed to taking a hard look at power and class?\u201d Because the status quo serves the New York Times Company\u2019s neoliberal agenda quite nicely; why upset the apple cart? That agenda prioritizes protecting private property over providing social services\u2014services that disproportionately benefit the young and the old. Old people make better targets than kids, and much <\/span>New York Times<\/span><\/i> coverage is ageist. (Age advocate Stella Fosse lays out the paper\u2019s sorry record on age bias <\/span>here<\/a>.)<\/span> <\/span><\/p>\n

    Most mainstream media outlets are for-profit companies with sharp eyes on the bottom line. Editors know that generational labels attract readers and that conflict = clickbait. <\/span><\/p>\n

    Of course, media outlets have options and could choose not to advance the misleading narrative that the old profit at the expense of the young\u2014especially in these divided times. Check out journalist <\/span>Sheila Callaham\u2019s analysis<\/a><\/span> in <\/span>Forbes<\/span><\/i> of how the <\/span>Wall Street Journal<\/span><\/i> and the <\/span>New York Times<\/span><\/i> covered the same story: older Americans not selling their homes. Guess which one steered clear of the \u201cboomers caused the housing crisis\u201d trope?<\/span><\/p>\n

    Look beyond date-of-birth. Yes, people born in the aftermath of WWII were lucky. That doesn\u2019t make them the enemy. The housing shortage isn\u2019t a selfish-old-person problem, it\u2019s a housing-market problem. It\u2019s a result of policy failures compounded by economic barriers and demographic shifts, and it affects Americans across the age spectrum. Only the wealthy are protected.<\/span> <\/span><\/i>It\u2019s about class, not age<\/strong>.  <\/span><\/p>\n

    Far more resources have always flowed from old to young. That\u2019s as it should be. Already underway, the Great Wealth Transfer is moving an unprecedented $124 trillion from older to younger Americans. However, as with the postwar economic boom, the benefits are not equally distributed. Although high- and ultrahigh-net-worth households make up only 2 percent of American households, they\u2019ll receive over half that money and will pass it on to their already-super-rich children.<\/span><\/p>\n

    Don\u2019t let age divide us.<\/span> In 2023, the <\/span>Pew Research Center<\/span><\/a> stopped using generational labels to avoid contributing to generational conflict and suggested that others follow suit. The more energy we waste on generational finger-pointing, the less likely we are to join forces to demand a society that works for all ages. Blaming America\u2019s ills on old people\u2014or on immigrants or feminists or trans folks, for that matter\u2014divides us and distracts us from what\u2019s actually going on. The only winners in this blame game are the ultra-wealthy. Once again, <\/span>it\u2019s about class, not age<\/strong>.<\/span><\/p>\n

    The story we need to tell isn\u2019t about boomers vs. millennials. It\u2019s about the rich and powerful vs. the rest of us.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    In anxious times we look for scapegoats, so boomer-bashing is on the rise. Wondering how to push back? Here\u2019s a quiz: Cheer up, they\u2019re dying off! The boomers invented [the internet\/water bed\/etc.]. What does your [entitled\/tech-addicted\/etc.] generation have to show for itself?…<\/span><\/p>\n

    Read more Think the Boomers Ruined Everything? Think Again<\/span> ›<\/span><\/a><\/div>\n

    <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":8313,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_FSMCFIC_featured_image_caption":"","_FSMCFIC_featured_image_nocaption":"","_FSMCFIC_featured_image_hide":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[79,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8312","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog","category-voices-views"],"cc_featured_image_caption":{"caption_text":"","source_text":"","source_url":""},"wps_subtitle":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/78.142.243.82\/~silvercentury\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8312","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/78.142.243.82\/~silvercentury\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/78.142.243.82\/~silvercentury\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/78.142.243.82\/~silvercentury\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/78.142.243.82\/~silvercentury\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8312"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/78.142.243.82\/~silvercentury\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8312\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8314,"href":"http:\/\/78.142.243.82\/~silvercentury\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8312\/revisions\/8314"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/78.142.243.82\/~silvercentury\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8313"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/78.142.243.82\/~silvercentury\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8312"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/78.142.243.82\/~silvercentury\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8312"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/78.142.243.82\/~silvercentury\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8312"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}