Boomers aren't as big a part of the problem that Millennials think

[PopeyesPappy]

We Boomers get a lot grief from Millennials about the current state of affairs. While we undoubtedly had a hand in many of the complaints, Millennials should probably be placing more fault on even earlier generations. While it is true that over most of the last 20ish years the average age of congress was Boomer, congressional leadership during much of that period was from the Silent Generation. These leaders are the people that largely drive what gets done and what doesn't.

Most of the younger members of congress during this period would have been Gen X'ers and Millennials. There was even a 4 year period in there when the Senate majority leader Paul Ryan was a gen X'er so it is hard to say later generations have not been represented in congress. Prior to the 21st century congress was dominated by members of the Silent generation. Their leadership was mostly from the even earlier Greatest generation.

A look at the ages of Presidents tells a slightly different story. The only Silent generation we have ever had is Joe Biden. Four of the our last five presidents starting with Bill Clinton were Boomers. Prior to Clinton they were all from the Greatest generation all the back to Kennedy. While Presidents certainly help guide their party's agenda, they don't make laws or create budgets. Congress does that.

So the next time you younger folks start assigning blame for how fucked up everything is take closer look at who was actually in charge of making the mess.

In the mean time...



 

[Hydra009]

While it is true that there is some changing of the guard as Boomers retire/pass away, they still hold a strong and disproportionate influence on the corridors of power:

Baby boomers are the largest generation in American history. They still control the majority of wealth and both political parties, and their influence will only grow over the next five years, Munger says.

"At the earliest, boomer power will peak sometime in the late 2020s," he writes in a new book, aptly titled "The Generation Gap." 

Q: You focus on boomers. What's so special about them?

A: The No. 1 takeaway is that the boomer generation is the unique one. It seems like millennials are the unique generation, but that's not the case. Boomers are so powerful that they define what normalcy is. Our conception of "normal" American postwar society is just the boomers' experience of the world.

[Hydra009]

We Boomers get a lot grief from Millennials about the current state of affairs.

I couldn't help notice that you don't elaborate on what those grievances are or why millennials might feel that way, even while admitting that some of these criticisms are probably justified (though again, which criticisms are justified is left to the reader's imagination)

So please, allow me to get more specific:



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decoupling_of_wages_from_productivity
Millennial wages stagnate despite better education and productivity

Cities where millennials can't afford to rent a one-bedroom

[Gawdzilla Sama]

You have to live long enough to have an impact.

[Shiranu]

You have to live long enough to have an impact.

Yeah, and Boomers are doing their best to make sure we don't have the chance to do that.

[Gawdzilla Sama]

Yeah, and Boomers are doing their best to make sure we don't have the chance to do that.

Ah, we're killin' the wee lads and lassies are we?

[PopeyesPappy]

Hydra and Shiranu

I don't know if you chose to ignore the point of my post or just missed it, but the people in charge of this mess aren't just Boomers. The top of the food chain until recently was mostly Silent generation with a healthy portion of Boomers and Greatest and a sprinkling of Gen X'ers.

Now let's look at Hydra's chart. If you break it down by the numbers based on a population of 330 million it looks like this:

19,008,000 Silent: $374,527 of real estate holding each
69,828,000 Boomers: $214,814 of real estate holding each, 57.5% of what the earlier generation is worth each.
65,439,000 Gen X: $110,026 of real estate holding each, 51.2% of what the earlier generation is worth each.
71,775,000 Millennial: $15,326 of real estate holding each, 13.9% of what the earlier generation is worth each.

There are a few things other than each succeeding generation is screwing over the following generations here. First is that the older a generation is the longer they have had to accumulate wealth. Generally speaking, the older a person is the more they make so older people should be worth more than younger people. 

Add to that each succeeding generation tends to inherit wealth from their parents. At this point in time Boomers have inherited more wealth from their parents than Millennials have from Boomers because a larger percentage of Boomer's parents are are already dead. 

Based on these things the age adjusted spread of wealth in real estate holdings is probably about where it should be. But that is very deceptive because we are talking about averages. The reality is the vast majority of the wealth of all generations is in the hands of a very few individuals at the top of the bracket. The fact of the matter is that half of all Boomers have no savings. They are living paycheck to paycheck just like everyone else. The difference is most Boomers won't be earning nearly as much in their remaining years as Gen X'ers and Millennials will. You have time to catch up. We don't.

[Hydra009]

the people in charge of this mess aren't just Boomers

That's technically true (trivially true), the fact remains that Boomers are definitely an outsized part of it.  If you wish to argue that the Silent generation is also accountable, I have no objection.

The top of the food chain until recently was mostly Silent generation with a healthy portion of Boomers and Greatest and a sprinkling of Gen X'ers.

I'd love sources.  Cause I'm looking at a 2021 data that says otherwise.



I suppose it depends on how you define "recently".  Boomers had roughly 4 times the political power as the Silent Generation in 2021.  And from today all the way back to 2001, Boomers have had the majority in the House of Representatives.  2009 to present for the Senate (the 111th congress was sworn in Jan 2009)





"until recently" if you define "recently" as 14 years ago!

In fact, Congressional representation further proves the point about Millennial grievances because Millennials are disproportionately kept from Congress as Boomers are disproportionately kept in Congress.  That's from 2016.  The 2021 figures show some improvement, though there is still a noticeable generational bias.

[PopeyesPappy]

I don't disagree with the above. If you go back to the OP I said that the average age of congress for the last 20 years was Boomer. Boomers have been the majority in congress for a while. For most of that time the majority of the senior leaders in congress were Silent generation though. It's the leaders that mostly decide which policies get voted on and  which don't. Not the rank and file. 

[Shiranu]

I think it might be "fun" to also include CEOS and other landed and un-landed aristocracy within America: that people who actually run things.

In that case, it's actually more Gen-X statistically that are the problem (making the majority of CEOS)... though I would be curious to see it broken down further by political donations - unfortunately, we have passed laws to prevent precisely that (and other useful info like nationality, name, or...anything) from being known information.

At the end of the day, blaming any age group isn't right - evil is evil and it doesn't go away with age, but it does feel like several of the older generations have a strong disposition towards behaving like villains.

Give the younger generations a go at the leash and I'm sure it will be much the same.

[Shiranu]

Ah, we're killin' the wee lads and lassies are we?

Sure feels like it sometimes :P.

[Gawdzilla Sama]

Sure feels like it sometimes :P.

Just the same as I felt in the '60s.

[Hydra009]

At the end of the day, blaming any age group isn't right - evil is evil and it doesn't go away with age, but it does feel like several of the older generations have a strong disposition towards behaving like villains.

Give the younger generations a go at the leash and I'm sure it will be much the same.

True, though imho since WWII we have had many pivotal crises as a nation and the ball was definitely dropped.  Trickle-down economics, stagnant wages, exploding costs in healthcare, housing, and college tuition, union busting, climate change, etc.  These problems were often ignored or deferred for later or deliberately created and then foisted upon the American public.  Short-term gains (if that) in exchange for enormous long-term harm.  When viewed through a generational lens...

[Shiranu]

True, though imho since WWII we have had many pivotal crises as a nation and the ball was definitely dropped.  Trickle-down economics, stagnant wages, exploding costs in healthcare, housing, and college tuition, union busting, climate change, etc.  These problems were often ignored or deferred for later or deliberately created and then foisted upon the American public.  Short-term gains (if that) in exchange for enormous long-term harm.  When viewed through a generational lens...

I do kinda fear that if our generation and the one right behind us doesn't fix this... *shrugs*

Without writing a short manifesto; our generation was old enough to see the looming threat, educated enough to actually have a fairly decent understanding of it, but still have yet to be given any power - the only "powerful" 40 year olds (or younger) in the Senate tend to lean more towards the far-right crowd; your Boeberts, Gaetzs, Cruz's [I think he is sub-50 still] and that ilk.

Though looking at it, I would wager that's largely more a corruption issue than a generational issue that keeps the educated of our generation out of power.

[Hydra009]

Without writing a short manifesto; our generation was old enough to see the looming threat, educated enough to actually have a fairly decent understanding of it, but still have yet to be given any power - the only "powerful" 40 year olds (or younger) in the Senate tend to lean more towards the far-right crowd; your Boeberts, Gaetzs, Cruz's [I think he is sub-50 still] and that ilk.

Which is most frustrating thing!  It's like seeing a fire in a building, knowing extremely well what fire does to human flesh, and then seeing some *ahem* jerk standing in front of the fire doors telling everyone that fire isn't real (or is beneficial or natural and therefore good) and partially convincing the crowd, which is really shameful!

There's a viral tweet about this that I can't remember right now that really sums it up: it's like being raised your whole life to be kind to people, to value science, to do the right thing and then when you express those values as an adult, you get insulted and dismissed as some know-it-all naive bleeding heart librual.

It's not like I want to dislike Boomers, I'm sure they're mostly decent people.  But when danger rears its ugly head...

I'll put it this way, when people, especially people in high office, behave maliciously, with particular contempt for the poor, hostility towards to the foreigner, and deep and unthinking hatred towards the reformer, these sorts of people tend to cluster into one very specific demographic.  Eventually, that demographic will change, and as you point out, is already changing.  But for now, that sort of demographic is predominantly a white male rich conservative boomer demographic.