Overdue reading I found browsing through my tabs: my pal Zach ranting against Boomers.
Of course, we all hate boomers (#1369771, #1358006)... ish; they're also our parents/grandparents and colleagues and neighbors and friends etc, so conflicted.
But as a class (to speak Marxian) or an economic entity, they've really made a mess of things, engaging in the most ruthless generational redistribution of wealth ever unleashed on humanity. Unjustifiable, too, and to their lasting shame and/or redemption, without most of them knowing or understanding what went on.
- Yes, because most individual boomers were just living life and following the incentives immediately presented to them they aren't exactly to "blame"...
- but they also did and benefited unreasonably from money-printing and 40y+ of structurally falling rates etc, so what else to do but "blame"...?
Zach makes me laugh, right off the bat:
This [Boomers ignorant of the struggle of younger peeps], understandably, tends to fill younger people with white hot rage who then idly fantasize about the “day of the pillow”, a rather grim imagined day when all the Boomers get smothered to death in their nursing homes by the nurses who can’t speak English that were imported thanks to the Boomer’s mass immigration policies.
From my Scandi purview, what often troubles me so much is that the elderly don't have a purpose. They sit on most of the assets, passively earn a ton of the income (certainly when adjusting for generous and lavish healthcare expenditures in kind), and they do nothing for society. In a functional generational order, the elderly care for kids or pass down timeless knowledge, or provide entertainment via the communal stories handed down.
But as enlightened, welfare-state-loving and gender-equal Scandis, we've already dismantled such things: kids are cared for by "professionals," grandparents don't have anything useful to convey the next generation but outdated ideas and racism, etc. Yet, we keep a welfare state that, just like in America, is perfectly made for upward redistribution of an ever-shrinking "communal" pie.
One reason, obvs, is technology and modern economic growth shoving is from a circular-ish state of society where events and reactions and trade-offs thereof are reproduced evenly to an ever-changing one where old norms and ideas are outdated rather than beneficial:
...are generally completely out of touch with what life is like for younger people, especially those under 35, meaning that their wisdom is frequently out of date and useless. Some of this cluelessness is due to the extremely rapid technological change that has happened in the past 30 years, most notably the internet coupled with the smartphone, which has obliterated the past highly gate-kept system of information dissemination and control.
"A Boomer getting all their news from Fox News and a Zoomer getting all their news from social media and YouTube/Twitch might as well as be living on separate planets.""A Boomer getting all their news from Fox News and a Zoomer getting all their news from social media and YouTube/Twitch might as well as be living on separate planets."
Not exactly a Boomer-specific problem, with plenty of people succumbing to mental obesity (#1383936) and echo chambering spheres of information.
Obvs, most Boomer problems have to do with housing. Here's an insane chart:
Boomers are often characterized as being a generation of nihilists who desire to burn everything down before they depart this mortal coil. Only 20 percent expect to leave any inheritance at all to their children, despite owning over half the wealth in the entire country. This is not normal behaviour
"I certainly identify with this fear of being relegated to a perpetual underclass, even though I am self-employed and do well enough for myself""I certainly identify with this fear of being relegated to a perpetual underclass, even though I am self-employed and do well enough for myself"
tl;dr, no good takeaways, just sharp account of what is.
As the boomers depart this earthly realm over the next few years, we'll see to what extent worldly affairs improve. I'm skeptical.
I don't think it's that simple. Many boomers supported their own elderly parents, and are now supporting their adult children:
https://www.bankrate.com/banking/parents-sacrifice-for-adult-children-survey/
Yes, its anecdotal, but every one of my boomer peers provides financial support for their adult children and grand children. Literally every one. I realize there are of course exceptions.
As a class, the boomer generation lucked out. No question. They benefited from the post 71 asset expansion and had a chair before the music stopped playing.
That's a good point. Financial support into adulthood is essentially a pre-inheritance.
Yeah, I mean that's fair. They don't really get much sympathy from me, though, when it's them having caused that trouble in the first place.
If you rob me, you're not a good person for giving me back some of what you took.
(Yes, yes, I understand individuals and incentives and wider structure etc.)
Another reason Boomers have no timeless wisdom to pass down is that they are the generation that first started completely ignoring the timeless wisdom of their elders. That's why they have nothing to offer but out of touch Boomer nonsense.
They also took such poor care of their health and delayed having kids until so late in life, that they mostly aren't physically up for regular childcare.
I don't see people talk about the age-of-becoming-grandparents very much, but it seems to have increased dramatically. When people have kids in their early 20's, they become grandparents in their 40's. When people have kids in their mid 30's, they don't become grandparents until they're about 70.
Don't know enough about the sociology here, and what generational virtues came before boomers. Sounds plausible
Whatever those virtues may have been, the Boomers weren't interested in listening to them or passing them on. They're very proud of being revolutionaries.
I can’t stop laughing at this.
Feminism and neoliberalism were both cults of the individual and ignored the reciprocal duty of the individual to the group they belong to and depend upon for wealth and security.
US exceptionalism was a further expression of this collective decay and delusion regarding the health and strength of the society upon which all citizen ultimately rely.
Current generations raised upon the amoral creeds of feminism and neoliberal individualism are really beyond rescue...what will be required is societal collapse and rebuilding over many generations.
USA with 4% of the worlds population consumes 20% of the energy.
US imperialism is headed for a reality check very few can see coming.
USA can no longer fight a war of any scale as it lacks both the supply chains of essential war materiel, and the collective sense of purpose, determination and unity to do so.
Only if you believe in Chinese propaganda on TikTok and other social media platforms. Your account is also filled with overpraising China. I hate wars myself, but the USA is still a nation worthy of praise because it has not suppressed the independence of its citizens. When I read about the horrors in other countries and how their governments treat people, it gives me shivers. The USA and EU nations are examples of how a civilized society works. Problems exist everywhere, but solving them together and working for the right cause is something I have mostly seen in the West.
In Russia, China, North Korea, Belarus, Iran, Iraq, and even many Middle Eastern countries (I’m probably missing several more), things are very different. Gay people exist everywhere. The West acknowledges this, while many Eastern nations make fun of it. When change is needed, the West says it should be tried and calls it liberalism, while the East mocks it as “woke,” “neoliberalism,” blah blah blah. Just look at Nepal, and see how country after country across Asia is experiencing protests against corrupt, authoritarian governments. Change is needed for the world to function. I see the sudden rise of right wing movements all over the world, and it feels similar to the years before World War II. It’s just so scary
My respect and support go to all people who seek change. How can anyone respect countries like China and Russia when we see that they kill their own citizens just for demanding more transparency? How can we respect a country so large that it spans 11 time zones, yet attacks a country 28 times smaller just because a bald dictator wants it? And sacrifices the lives of its own people, hundreds of thousands of them. I was quite high when I wrote this.
USA is unquestionably the dominant military power and has for decades exercised that military power invading multiple nations and changing their governments.
Have you read what USA (and Britain) did to Iran in the 1950s?
Indonesia in the 1970s.
Chile, Honduras, Nicaragua, Cambodia, Vietnam, Guatamala, Iraq, Libya and many many more.
US wealth and power has been built and still relies heavily upon the projection of power and use of military force upon other peoples and nations.
For decades the US military have operated drone strikes upon alleged 'enemy combatants' in countries where there is no declared state of war, in direct and blatant breach of international law.
USA has kidnapped ('extraordinary renditioning') and tortured people outside of the international rules of engagement.
USA is a rogue state dependent upon the use of threats and violence to enforce its global hegemony.
Chinas rise to power has been via it manufacturing goods at lower price than any other nation can and paying a higher price for commodities than any other nation can- ie China as a whole is playing the free market game and winning and now the US does not like that it is losing.
Yes you can point to inequity and suppression in China and other autocracies- there are also inequities in the USA- historically slavery, still today racism, massive inequality, use of immigrant labour to suppress wages, but the most brutal of US aggression is external power projection where it has used its secret services and military might to force regime changes and other actions upon other nations.
USA has been the global bully- making the rules and when the rules do not suit it, breaking them.
view on www.youtube.comEveryone else has had to play along or get the fuck bombed out of them.
That is now changing and China is saying fuck your bullying tariffs- if you want refined rare earths for your military industrial combine- get on your knees and beg.
Many around the world are watching with interest.
Has the emperor no clothes?
My comments are not directed at you or anyone specific really. Just some thoughts triggered by this.
It has always interested me how we humans can demonize certain things but not others. Hating on boomers is easy but as you stated it's not really fair and is a generalization. After all, most of them are just lowly plebs like us. The rulers and elites are the ones making the world worse for us. Not them.
But we can hate on them without fear. It reminds me of regional generalization and stereotyping. People in the south get a bad rap. That's also not gonna get you fired. But if one says something about a people group that's a different story. If one says something about immigrants that will get you in more trouble.
If you make a generalization about the opposite sex same thing. It's just interesting how we have come to accept some scapegoating as less evil than others. When I think about it falls apart. Not because stereotypes are dumb. They usually have some basis. Just the uneven application of disdain for the practice.
What is most annoying is listening to someone lecture about an ism and then practice the same action on another group. One where it is not so frowned upon.
The truth is, we all have prejudices but some are more shameful to society than others so we try to keep them more in check. But I have a theory that they come out in other areas towards other groups.
Blaming the other seems to be a human practice with a long history.
In 10 or so years, these Boomers will be mostly gone or relegated to being inconsequential.
I was about to post that too, they are indeed slowly disappearing
Wow, super based
Well, I guess they exist to have their savings and welfare checks drained by the healthcare industry.
The temptation to paint all boomers with the same brush is understandable but it is also a mistake. What is happening is less about generational morality and more about structural incentives and timing. Boomers were born into an era where economic growth, demographic expansion, and policy choices lined up in their favour. They benefited from cheap education abundant job opportunities and a housing market that rewarded early entrants exponentially. Those advantages were not earned through exceptional foresight but rather through historical circumstance.
The real question is not whether boomers as individuals are to blame but whether the systems they inherited and preserved have any reason to reform themselves once they are no longer personally beneficial. Passing the baton has never been a natural political instinct. Economic systems tend to entrench those already in possession of power and resources. The frustration younger generations feel is amplified because the path to stability has narrowed dramatically and in many cases closed entirely...
If they hold over half the wealth in the entire country, how come only 20 percent of them expect to have anything left over to leave as inheritance?
I don't think I've seen too many boomers buying a yacht only to spite their kids.
I'd be interested to hear if there is evidence of real over-spending, or if there's significantly less left after the welfare arm of the state and their protected industries have had their fill.
That half of the nations wealth held by boomers is not evenly spread across boomers.
Many boomers are not wealthy at all.
A few are extremely wealthy.
Fiat debt leveraged neoliberal economics has resulted in a huge increase in wealth inequality, including among the boomers.
What is tragic is the failure of subsequent generations to accurately see what has delivered the decay.
The neoliberal era ideology that many younger citizens emulate and take to even more tragic extremes with Libertarian ideology.
It might take a century of humiliation for the awareness to arrive.
Or it might never come.
China has won the trade war and now the US military industrial combine that sustained US wealth and power, cannot fight a war of any scale and duration because it lacks to supply chains to do so.
the wealth of nations and generations is significantly derivative of the quality of government they maintain...and the wests governments have been subservient to the narrow short term imperatives of bankers and capital for many decades now...