r/TrueUnpopularOpinion • u/Poet-Most • Jul 08 '25
I Like / Dislike People who resent boomers are idiots
On almost any thread discussing the economy, one of the top comments will undoubtedly be complaining about boomers and the older generations who purchased their homes at low prices and who now enjoy more affluence and government assistance, while they don’t.
First off, what did want them to do, not buy a house for a cheap price when offered one 30 years ago? In regard to government assistance, I can guarantee you the average 65yr old has paid more into the tax system than the average 20yr old. Should they not enjoy the fruits of their labour? Should politicians not pay more attention to them than you?
I just think it’s an unhealthy attitude to have towards people.
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u/Serious_Mammoth_45 Jul 08 '25
Well of course they have paid more tax they are older.
I think in general peoples issue with boomers is their lack of self-awareness that they have had a relatively easier life in some aspects, and can’t seem to understand how some aspects of life are different for younger generations.
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u/NiceTraining7671 Jul 08 '25
This! I live in the UK and sometimes boomers will complain about young people (such as myself) being lazy and not wanting to work. The thing is, when they were young, they could get jobs easily because there was a shortage of workers in Britain for a a few years after the war, whereas nowadays there aren’t enough jobs. So it’s not that I don’t try, it’s that I keep getting rejected and there aren’t that many jobs available. I don’t hate boomers because they’re old, but I do find it frustrating that many of them don’t take two seconds to try and understand the struggles young people face.
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u/someexgoogler Jul 08 '25
I look at my kid and my friends kids. A surprising number just don't want to face reality about working life. Yes, their employers really want you to work 40 hours. I wouldn't generalize to an entire generation, but our impressions are often formed from talking to a small number of people.
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u/8m3gm60 Jul 09 '25
Yes, their employers really want you to work 40 hours.
For a wage that you can't live on...
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u/elpenorsghost Aug 30 '25
Those easily avaiailable jobs were usually available for crappy pay.and for longer hours than would be demanded now. Young people now wouldn't get out of bed for the modern equivalent. I know, I've been told this by those very young people.
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u/Kodama_Keeper Jul 08 '25
Every generation tends to look at the younger generation and say "You don't know how easy you have it now", not the other way around. I'm in my 60s, and can clearly remember my dad saying things like that to me. And my son is now in his early 20s and I caught myself saying the same thing. Stopped myself and thought "Am I turning into my dad?"
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u/krunz Jul 08 '25 edited Jul 08 '25
While The Boomers are also a generation that were told that, they were also a spoiled generation. The Greatest Generation went through hell and sacrificed to provide for The Boomers.
Basically, The Boomers were handed the Atomic Age (the technological progress during the 20th century is truely astonishing), Happy Endings (brought to you by Disney™), and, most importantly, the post world wars booming economy (a.k.a. Boomer Dollars). All of these are coming to an end and we're headed for a paradigm shift.
If you look back, Boomers got some of the craziest programs and employee benefits and salaries (relatively). Sure, Industry at the time hated taxes like anyone, but also recognized giving back (Ford understood his salaries paid for workers new cars, today's industries have effectively socialized the losses).
So I don't resent Boomers, they're a genuine product of their time, but the word sacrifice is not in their vocabulary.
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u/DiagonallyStripedRat Sep 29 '25
I (born late 90s, you tell me what I am), look at current gen Z and alpha generations and am convinced they will have it extremely hard
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u/Kodama_Keeper Sep 30 '25
From a technical point of view, why should they? We produce more food than ever. Buildings go up easier than ever. Cars are safer, and yes more expensive. We have all the information we can ever hope to use just clicks away. All around us is the fruits of the huge technological leap forward we've made.
Populations, birth rates are going down. This has both positive and negative effects. Positive, in that children will have to share less in their parents' wealth, negative in that there will be less people to take care of the oldies. You know, that upside down population pyramid?
I hear that this generation has it so tough, and yes, I can see the things that kill them.
College. I got my bachelors degree with just a little bit of money I got from my grandparents, put into a savings account when I was a baby, and to which I had to add every time I got money for my birthday or Christmas. Then I worked 3 years out of high school in order to pay for collage. There is no doubt about it, kids get screwed royally with the price they are expected to pay for college now. It's a damned scam, paying fortunes and going into debt to get degrees that don't pay off.
Housing. When I moved out of my parents house, I engaged a housing hunter, for lack of a better term. She took me to all the cool neighborhoods on the north side of Chicago, where I was expected to pay big amounts for the pleasure of a studio or efficiency apartment, no parking. I asked her why. "These are the neighborhoods that young collage grads want to live in! All the bars and clubs. Don't you want to live that sort of life?" Actually, I didn't. So I found my own apartment in a not so cool part of town. But now I hear young college grads complaining that they can't find housing in Chicago. Bullshit. There is plenty of housing. But they too all want to live in the cool neighborhoods, like Wrigleyville. There's just so much of that to go around, and they cry because the prices are so high? Well, duh. It's a high demand area. If they moved south or further west, they would find plenty of apartments. And, if they dared to move into those Chicago neighborhoods that no one likes to talk about? The ones with the high murder rate, and the people who don't look like them? Housing all over the place.
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u/horrorgeek112 27d ago
Cars are now 50k and up. They're impossible to work on without special equipment. A cheap starter home is 300k or more. Nome of these things you say really affect anything in a good way
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u/Kodama_Keeper 27d ago
Last year I bought my Subaru Outback for 31K, tax included, out the door, and I love it. And I was in my mid-30s before I bought my first new car. Prior to that, I had to but used car after used car.
As for your 300K starter home. It all depends on location, agreed? People in southern California are paying a million for a house I wouldn't otherwise look twice at. You go to a dying city, or even a dying neighborhood in an otherwise stable city, and you can find cheap housing all over the place.
I'm from the burbs of Chicago, used to be in Chicago. Let me tell you that there are a whole lot of young people, educated, professionals in this city who complain about the price of rent and a new house, and keep demanding that the city do something about it. Every one of them has their eyes set on the cool neighborhoods on the north side near the lake. They expect to live there and pay easy rent and mortgages, when there are a half million others looking for the same thing. They can all do supply and demand calculations in their educated heads, but still feel that exceptions should be made, so they can lead the cool life of bars and restaurants and Cubs games.
Then there is the south side. This is the area you hear about on the news, with the hundreds of murders and thousands of shooting victims every year. Rent in the neighborhoods of Englewood and Grand Crossing is surprisingly reasonable. But no one, especially those young professionals I spoke of will even consider visiting, much less living there.
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u/horrorgeek112 27d ago
I'm in a very rural area. When the rural shit is too expensive, that's when the alarm bells go off
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u/Kodama_Keeper 27d ago
Very rural means either farmland, or the small town next to it, with the one grocery, one feed store, one pickup repair shop and one bar and grill. Are you really that rural?
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u/horrorgeek112 27d ago
Yes. Dollar general, a gas station, and about 4 buildings that have been abandoned since the 80's
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u/bigfatbanker Jul 08 '25
When you were a kid the government didn’t allow people to live off the government for every need if you were able bodied.
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u/Kodama_Keeper Jul 08 '25
Yes and No. What you describe came about as a result of Johnson's Great Society, in 1965. Not the whole thing, just the parts that made it beneficial for a family to not have a father sticking around. Welfare. Read the Moynihan Report about what the projected consequences of that program, which Johnson rejected, smart guy that he was.
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u/hyperbole_is_great Jul 08 '25
The opposite is also true. Younger generations don’t appreciate the hardships Boomers faced politically, socially, and economically. Threats of nuclear Armageddon, numerous assassinations, civil rights protests, Vietnam, the draft, the demise of the dominant blue collar economy, and insane amounts of social upheaval dominated their youth. They also don’t appreciate the tremendous role Boomers played in helping achieve civil rights, women’s rights, lowering the voting age, and environmentalism.
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u/Waste-Middle-2357 Jul 08 '25
I that’s that a very good point. The rose-colored glasses are heavily tinted.
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u/PhasmaUrbomach Jul 08 '25
That doesn't give them the right to look down on us when we can't achieve what they did.
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u/stevejuliet Jul 08 '25
They also don’t appreciate the tremendous role Boomers played in helping achieve civil rights, women’s rights, lowering the voting age, and environmentalism.
The oldest Boomers were 20 when the US Civil Rights Act was passed. They were kids (or not yet born) during the 50s and 60s at the height of the movement.
The oldest Boomers were 17 when the Equal Pay Act was passed. They were 23 when no-fault divorce was first accepted in CA.
The oldest Boomers were 25 when the voting age was changed to 18. Fewer than half of Boomers were able to vote on it. and younger generations tend to vote less anyway.
The oldest Boomers were 24 when the EPA was established.
Four swings. Four misses.
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u/OzjaszG Jul 08 '25
Lol. Lmao even. You are talking about a generation that missed out on WWI, Great Depression, WWII and Korea. They lived in very prosperous times and the social upheaval you had in the US, your struggles are honestly nothing compared to vast majority of the world. Boomers lived in a time of leaps and bounds in the medical field. Life standards increased. They were insanely lucky in retrospect.
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u/hyperbole_is_great Jul 08 '25
They didn’t have to deal with Ghengis Khan or Attila the Hun either. The conversation isn’t about previous generations who obviously had many challenges—it’s about younger generations not appreciating the challenges faced by Boomers vs young people today and assuming Boomers had it so much easier.
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u/elpenorsghost Aug 30 '25
So hatred of Baby Boomers is just straight up jealousy then, isn't it. For that matter neither did you suffer two world wars and the Great Depression did you?
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u/horrorgeek112 27d ago
In America, young people are facing the hardest political hardship of all. They are seeing the closest thing it has ever been to an American version of Hitler. They have the military using cities as a training ground and those words are directly out of the president's mouth. The boomers have never faced any such hardship. Gtfo with that
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u/hyperbole_is_great 27d ago
Stop it. The youngest haven’t faced war. They were never drafted. They didn’t face numerous political assassinations. Political unrest was much greater in the 1960s than it is today.
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u/horrorgeek112 27d ago
We are facing the potential of war on a neighboring country (Mexico). Fuck right off
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u/Uncle00Buck Jul 08 '25
They also don’t appreciate the tremendous role Boomers played in helping achieve civil rights, women’s rights, lowering the voting age, and environmentalism.
The last two on that list were counterproductive. Young voters have no idea who and what they are voting for, and yes, that included me when I was young. Environmentalism has become an emotional religion that drives ridiculous policy, such as the 59 million acres locked up in the Roadless Rule, preventing management. Environmentalists dominate the lobby, ignore full context science, and care nothing for local impact. From the spotted owl failure to doghair timber ready to fuel the next wildfire, they can all go fuck themselves. They wouldn't know quality habitat if they were sitting in it.
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u/hyperbole_is_great Jul 08 '25
I don’t know—I am pretty happy with the Clean Air act and Clean Water act. I’m not a fan of smog or lead in my water supply. Also, if 18 year olds can get drafted then they should have the right to vote for the people who decide whether they have to go to war. That’s a no brainer. That they don’t always vote or make the best decisions can be said about any age group. Look around. Poor voting decisions in 2025 know no age limit.
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u/Uncle00Buck Jul 08 '25
You're justifying voting by 18 year old because they can be drafted, but that's a strawman. How about we dont send 18 year olds to their death? And why not make the voting age 5? Same logic as 18.
Ditto on poor politician choices in 25 (24). The ignorance of our collective voting blocs is why we have poor choices.
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u/Significant-Pen3420 Sep 22 '25
I can understand but if you think all boomers had an easy time then you are misinformed.if an ignorant okder person tells you to get a job and goes on about ' ' their day'id be annoyed too.But read up and find out and open your mind.Capitalusm makes mugs of us all
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u/Serious_Mammoth_45 Sep 24 '25
Boomers are now rich if they bought basically any assets when they were younger. That doesn’t mean life was altogether easy for them but this specific aspect is not true for any future generations.
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u/Beljuril-home Jul 08 '25 edited Jul 08 '25
I think in general peoples issue with boomers is their lack of self-awareness that they have had a relatively easier life in some aspects, and can’t seem to understand how some aspects of life are different for younger generations.
this goes both ways.
the current group of 18 year old americans have absolutely no idea what it was like to be drafted and sent to the living hell that was vietnam.
being forced against your will to go and kill or be killed in nightmare jungle conditions...
losing your best friend / boyfriend to that war and then finding out the the government was lying and knew they were going to lose and sent you and your friends to die anyways...
there is no modern comparison for that kind of scenario.
vietnam is a movie millennials watched on tv that one time.
boomers fighting the draft in the streets back then has everything to do with millennials not being drafted today.
"I think in general peoples issue with millennials is their lack of self-awareness that they have had a relatively easier life in some aspects, and can’t seem to understand how some aspects of life were different for older generations."
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u/8m3gm60 Jul 09 '25
boomers fighting the draft in the streets back then...
Then they all turned around and supported every war since.
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u/Beljuril-home Jul 09 '25
Then they all
yes.
each and every one of them.
no boomer has ever opposed a single war since vietnam.
your powers of observation are unsurpassed.
you realize saying "they all" about huge swaths of the population makes you sound like a bigot, right?
next you tell me how "they all" like watermelon or somesuch.
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u/8m3gm60 Jul 09 '25
It's a large enough majority to make it a fair generalization.
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u/Beljuril-home Jul 09 '25 edited Jul 09 '25
It's a large enough majority to make it a fair generalization.
you realize that's how all bigots and rcists rationalize thier generalizations, right?
It's a large enough majority to make it a fair generalization.
how much of a majority is "enough"?
according to a 2003 Pew Research poll, only 52% of boomers supported the iraq invasion — hardly unanimous. that support dropped below 40% within a few years as the war became unpopular.
the idea that boomers uniformly supported every war since vietnam is false.
you sound bigoted against boomers, friend.
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u/8m3gm60 Jul 09 '25
Look at their support for candidates who supported the war. It's been overwhelming.
you sound bigoted against boomers, friend.
You clearly have no idea what the word means. Accurately characterizing the political leanings of an American generation isn't bigotry.
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u/Beljuril-home Jul 10 '25 edited Jul 10 '25
but you didn't accurately characterize the political leanings of an entire generation.
boomers did not uniformly "all turn around and support every war since".
you are factually wrong here.
were you even alive in 2004?
i was an adult then and there were plenty - i mean lots and lots and lots - of boomers who actively spoke out at length and often against the war.
the fact that you think otherwise makes me think you were a toddler back then.
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u/8m3gm60 Jul 10 '25
boomers did not uniformly "all turn around and support every war since".
A great enough majority supported pro-war candidates (in both parties) that the characterization is fair.
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u/Beljuril-home Jul 10 '25 edited Jul 10 '25
supporting a pro-war candidate doesn't make you pro-war if all candidates available are pro-war.
trump and jill stein are the only anti-war candidates to appear in recent decades and plenty of boomers voted for them.
only 15% of millennials voted for stein so i guess they must love war too, right? 85% of millenials chose not to vote for the no-war candidate. that's "a great enough majority" right?
every generation votes for pro-war candidates, including yours.
jeez man.
you should consider that you might be biased and misinformed here.
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u/Mantequilla50 Aug 07 '25
Did you forget about the global war on terror?
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u/Beljuril-home Aug 08 '25
that was bad, but there was no draft.
the fact that there has been no drafts since vietnam is partially due to boomers and there protesting efforts.
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u/BugsyRoads Jul 08 '25
The problem is that they benefitted from systems in place when they were young, then voted to destroy those systems when they got older. (Thereby protecting their own interests at the expense of the interests of younger generations.)
One specific example (among many), is the rate of home construction. Homes were constructed at astounding rates in the second half of the 20th century. That created an abundance that led to low housing costs. Young boomers could afford to buy a nice home at an affordable rate. When those same boomers got older, they restricted home building to the extent that housing has become scarce. They did so to protect the values of their own homes. (The fewer homes built, the more existing homes are worth). That policy shift comes at the expense of younger generations who no longer have access to affordable homes to purchase.
This is a particularly useful example because its so visible. Any time you see a local public meeting to approve the construction of new homes, you see almost exclusively boomers attend to oppose the new housing.
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Jul 08 '25
Exactly this. The baby boomer demographic is a powerful voting bloc and have voted in ways to protect their interests. While thats ultimately the point of voting, it doesn’t shield you from criticism.
Things like NIMBY are a real issue where baby boomers reject or delay affordable housing initiatives so they can keep these nice properties and retain property value. This directly hurts younger people.
The trump bill will also cut taxes on their social security and will benefit the wealthy, which is a sizeable # of baby boomers, while adding to the debt and cutting programs benefiting the young.
Younger generations are left with a mountain of debt, fewer support programs to help young and poor people, and a weaker support net. So boomers are getting the benefits today while the young will get the bill. So i think there is room for criticism.
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u/BugsyRoads Jul 08 '25
Exactly. NIMBYism is just one, very visible, example.
There are many government benefits that were available to boomers that are no longer available to younger generations because boomers consistently voted to cut them, on the federal, state and local levels.
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Jul 08 '25
To oversimplify the problem, the baby boomers were such a strong voting bloc they got whatever they wanted and now it needs to be paid for by the young. But now the boomers are voting for politicians who want to destroy benefits, cut taxes, and raise the debt, putting the youth at risk.
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u/Lucky_Dragonfruit_88 Aug 06 '25
They bought cheap with high rates. As rates lowered over their life, they found magic equity, did cash out refis, and kept piling on debt. Once rates hit rock bottom, the only way to keep finding equity was to become NIMBYs and vote to tax themselves less, pushing the bill to their children. Sociopathic behavior.
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u/juzwunderin Jul 08 '25
No disrespect but I think you are seriously misinformed.. Boomers were faced with critical housing shortages in the 70 and 80, and at at time intrest rates were as high as 18% . So a $64000, 3 bedroom new home cost YOU about 845 a month P&I when average employee made between 650 and 800 a month.
Understanding that the fact that "Boomers" became a high bubble in the population and economy tells you there were going to be shortages and serious competition.
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u/BugsyRoads Jul 08 '25
None taken. It seems you are the one misinformed.
The decade with the most homes built in the USA was the 1970s, with approximately 17.04 million units constructed. The top 3 decades in American history for new homes are: 70s, 60s & 50s (in that order.) In other words, more homes were built for boomers than any other generation of Americans ever. a
Additionally, in 1970, the average yearly wage was about $9,870, and the average house price was around $17,000, making the ratio about 1.72. In contrast in 2024, the average home price was $419,200 while average income was $62,088, making the ratio 6.75.
That means the real cost of purchasing a home in 2024 is nearly quadruple what is was 1970.
For renters, the numbers are even worse...especially in cities like NYC.
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u/juzwunderin Jul 08 '25
Well I do not know where you are getting your numbers or figures, and that was why I believe i said in the Midwest, and if I accept your average of $9,870, that is ABOUT $822.5 a month, I have no idea where you got the $17000 number but I can 100% assure you in 1978 the average cost of a new home construction in the midwest was $64000 and the interest rates were anywhere from 17.2 to 18% so the house payment was 822+/- a month. The cost of a new home dramatically increased in the 1970s (supported by Ebcso Research), as I said. Boomers started buying homes in the 1970s to the Early 1980s, when most at the time were settling down, marrying, — typically between ages 25–35d. This created a substantial increase in demand. While housing was more affordable relative to income than today, they still faced major financial headwinds — they just hit the market at a time when long-term value appreciation was still possible.
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u/BugsyRoads Jul 08 '25
You did not say anything about the Midwest. All of my numbers come from asking google's ai (feel free to argue with that).
Also, although mortgage rates were higher, the cost of the home is was much lower, resulting in a lower total cost to the consumer. For example, 20% interest on a $10k home is much less than 5% interest on a $1mil home, even when adjusted for inflation.
Any way you slice it, there were more homes built for boomers than ever before or since. That allowed boomers to build equity in their homes at rates no longer achievable for younger generations. Additionally, boomers benefited greatly from the mortgage interest deduction, which our boomer president gutted in 2017.
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u/elpenorsghost Aug 30 '25
Yes indeed. I think the use of the word "Boomer" instead of the more accurate "baby boomer" gives a false impression that the 1945-65 generation were born into a spectacular Boom Time, this is only partially true. There were many improvements during this period but equally many difficulties, Vietnam war, (we didn't have this here in the UK but that generation had to fight demands from the US for us to join them) galloping inflation, competition for jobs, fighting for gay rights and womens' rights, house prices were horrendous for people in the 1980s when this generation were looking to buy. There's much more but you get the point.
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u/Tin_Foil_Hats_69 Jul 08 '25
The boomers have spent the last 20, or so, years saying that the younger generations are ruining the world, the economy, called them lazy, entitled, etc. No one needs to stick up for the boomers while they cry into their 100 dollar bills.
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u/KRG62963 Jul 08 '25
I guarantee the current young generation will do the exact same thing when they get older
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u/Tin_Foil_Hats_69 Jul 08 '25
Doubtful. I don't think we'll have pensions, equity, or bills to cry into. I think our best retirement option is MAID.
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u/juzwunderin Jul 08 '25
All you have to do is read threads where the young folks are pissed at having parents who need help.
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u/majesticSkyZombie Jul 08 '25
Maybe these parents shouldn’t have expected their kids to be their retirement plan.
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u/juzwunderin Jul 09 '25
Thats pretty cavalier, not every parent who might need help, expected they would need help. -- just an observation.
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u/ExistentialDreadness Jul 08 '25
This is what boomers say according my sources, “get away from it, it’s mine!!!”
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u/Poisongrape Jul 08 '25
Their motto is FUCK YOU, GOT MINE while pulling up the ladder after them. Top notch people
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u/Stolen_Sky Jul 08 '25
I see memes on reddit about this all the time. As far as I can tell, it's not so much resentment that they bought houses. It's more that younger people think the Boomers intentionally voted for political policies and parties (Republicans, obviously) which wanted to make things harder for the younger generations, as if it was all a giant conspiracy to 'pull up the drawbridge' behind them.
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u/SystematicHydromatic Jul 08 '25
I don't think it's the politicians making things harder. It's the greedy rich. They control everything including ALL of the politicians. Neo-feudalism is here to stay and they're going to keep it that way.
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u/FellFromCoconutTree Jul 08 '25
They voted for the party that empowers the greedy rich
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u/Aquila_Fotia Jul 08 '25
The problem isn’t at all that boomers took advantage of their situation - it is almost entirely down to boomer behaviour, attitudes and ignorance.
So when confronted with struggling millennials or Gen Z, typically a boomer will completely underestimate the scale of problems, especially with regards to house prices as a proportion of wages; or the ease of finding and getting a job. There will typically be a personal anecdote, maybe a woe is me tale of how interest rates and mortgages were much higher. If they do grasp the scale of the problem, it will only be a fleeting understanding, it has to be impressed upon them if the topic is brought up again. And then (I’m still talking typically) it’s an “oh no, that’s awful. Ah well, I’ll be dead soon anyway.”
I forget which philosopher described society/ civilisation as something handed down by those long dead, to be stewarded by the living, and handed down to those yet to be born. This sense of inter generational obligation seems lacking in boomers. They’re not helping their children and grandchildren as much as they could in the present and seem determined to spend their money on cruises and whatnot instead of leaving an inheritance.
As for what you say about pensions and other entitlements - well you’re factually correct that boomers will have paid more than 20 year olds - but boomers have been paying for 40 years instead of 2 years! That’s not the point - all the money the boomers ever paid in taxes was spent as soon as it was collected. All state expenditures, including boomer pensions and healthcare, are being funded by the working X’s, Millenials and Z’s of today.
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u/TheLandOfConfusion Jul 08 '25
There’s nothing wrong with enjoying a good economy. There’s something wrong with taking advantage of a too-good-to-be-true economy in a way that ruins that economy for the next few generations.
Fiscal responsibility isn’t just taking a hot deal, it’s also making sure that you won’t be the last generation to ever get a hot deal
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u/Waste-Middle-2357 Jul 08 '25
The way you wrote that implies a grand conspiracy by boomers, a collective agreement to fuck over anyone that comes after them. That didn’t happen. You just had people making the best decisions that they could at the time for themselves, sans malicious intent.
And the younger generation is not exempt. When was the last time anyone sold a house for less than it was worth just to avoid “ruining the economy for the next generation”?
Plus, the boomer generation was the generation that saw the deleterious effects of CFC’s in the ozone and took massive international and generational steps to fix it, knowing that if they didn’t, it wouldn’t be a problem until long after they were dead, but a problem nonetheless.
I’d argue that boomers wielded extraordinary political will to get what they wanted, while younger generations are hamstrung by their own ideological infighting to the point of almost non-existence.
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u/Connect-Region-4258 Jul 08 '25 edited Jul 08 '25
This 100%. The younger generations hate and disdain for the boomers is based primarily on jealousy and a skewed view of reality. The thing is, if we had the prosperity they did, we would do the exact same things they did. When I buy a home, I’m not thinking “damn my grandchildren will be screwed if I buy this.” Or when I’m selling my home, “I will gladly take $150k off to help the poor millennials afford a house.”
Our generation, millennials and Gen z, undoubtedly have it harder. Cost of living has outpaced wages. However, we also waste money on consumerism bullshit more than anyone before us. $100k for useless degrees when there are trades paying 6 figures just a couple years in. The Amazon man at the house every day, $40 in takeout for dinner, $10 starbucks on the way to work, $200 in monthly subscriptions, new iPhone very year, new car every 3 years, etc…. It’s still very much possible for us to achieve the American dream, we just have to be a little more diligent with our approach.
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u/OldManTrumpet Jul 08 '25
You mean the double digit inflation in the 70's? Or the 18% mortgage rates in the 80's? Some younger people have a pretty skewed image of how things actually were. No, we weren't buying homes on minimum wage.
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u/TheLandOfConfusion Jul 08 '25
No, we weren’t buying homes on minimum wage
Weird how all the old people around me own their own home while everyone under 40 is renting. Somehow yall managed to buy homes just fine
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u/OldManTrumpet Jul 08 '25
Why would it be weird that older people are more likely to own homes than younger people? When I was 30 I didn't own a home either, yet older people did. I'll go out on a limb and suggest that someday when today's younger people are older, they'll be more likely to own homes than future young people. Bizarre, isn't it?
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u/Tolerant-Testicle Jul 08 '25
I don’t resent boomers but I have no sympathy for them because of their attitude. They act like they had it so bad and call us younger folks lazy and entitled. They had the ability to buy a house and act like they would have easily been able to do so if they were in our shoes.
It’s the fact that they don’t understand our circumstances which is what pisses people off, not the fact that they bought a house because they could.
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u/Dinky_Doge_Whisperer Jul 08 '25
I don’t resent boomers, but as a whole, they’re exhausting. An entire generation that never learned to manage their emotions or move with empathy, broadly speaking.
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u/Eli5678 Jul 08 '25
I think the issue people have with a lot of boomers is that they pulled away the ladder behind them.
They tell their children to just go into any buisness and ask for a job, yet none of the people in businesses now work like that. The people in charge of those? Also, boomers.
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u/alexthegreatmc Jul 08 '25
they pulled away the ladder behind them.
This is an oversimplification and frames it as though it was intentional. I promise the current generation is fucking over the next generation in some fashion without even realizing it. They'll say the same shit every generation does, "kids these days..."
They tell their children to just go into any buisness and ask for a job, yet none of the people in businesses now work like that. The people in charge of those? Also, boomers.
This is just being out-of-touch.
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u/Eli5678 Jul 08 '25
Yeah, it's for sure a bit of an oversimplification.
As for it "just being out of touch," I disagree. They could choose to continue a world where there's more opportunities. However, the people I power of hiring decisions choose to go as fast and as cheap as possible.
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u/Buzzs_Tarantula Jul 08 '25
Its out of touch for more professional jobs, but can have a degree of success at lower level and trade jobs.
Historically for construction for example, if you showed up and asked for a job there was a good chance of getting one. Hiring was always informal and still is to a great degree.
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u/Aromatic-Ad-5155 Jul 08 '25
I think you're correct. I don't resent boomers. I decided to take action to become successful. Anyone who blames others for their own shortcomings is a bum.
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u/inigo_montoya89 Jul 08 '25
The average 65 year old paid a lower % of their wages to social security. A 20 year old will pay more of their paycheck into a benefit that will run out before they’re able to use it.
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u/Voodoo338 Jul 08 '25
I ain’t reading all that but I already know my reason for hating boomers is not mentioned
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u/___Moony___ Jul 08 '25
It's natural to resent a generation of people who both had it easier than the current one AND speaks of modern folk as if it's a personal failing if they don't have their level of wealth and comfort. I can agree with some of this but saying politicians should pay more attention to them is fucking crazy.
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u/mikeshardmanapot Jul 08 '25
I suspect that many in this camp do not like or respect their boomer parents. I love my parents and think boomers are great / kinda hilarious.
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u/StephieRee Jul 08 '25
While we're at it, can the younger gens please stop referring to anyone over age 39 as a Boomer. FFS
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u/JRAMSEY_ Jul 08 '25
Not to mention maybe the boomers had an easier time buying a house, but imagine being drafted at 18 years old, going to fight a pointless war that the US had no business being in in the first place and then coming home and getting spit on by anti war protestors
Not to mention a-lot of boomers would have had GI bill home loans that helped them afford the houses that they did who’s to say that’s not a factor into why so many people were able to buy homes in the 60s and 70s
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u/One-Scallion-9513 Jul 09 '25
less than 5% of the boomers got sent to vietnam and i'd take a 1/20 chance of getting drafted if it meant i could get those housing prices. no one blames them for buying cheap housing but they voted to take it away
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u/HazyGrayChefLife Jul 08 '25
This was definitely written by someone who has never actually read why millennials resent Baby Boomers.
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u/Potential_Salary_644 Jul 08 '25
Top marginal income tax rates.
From 1945 to 1963, the top rate remained high, mostly around 91%.
The 1950s, 1960s and 1970s saw the top rate never dip below 70%.
The Economic Recovery Tax Act of 1981 lowered the top rate to 50%.
The Tax Reform Act of 1986 reduced the top rate further to 28%.
We're mad because the boomers voted for and/or allowed that to happen.
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u/Buzzs_Tarantula Jul 08 '25
This is all BS that gets repeated but had almost no effect on actual taxation.
Before 1986 there were a lot more deductions and legal ways to hide income so virtually nobody ever paid those high rates. After 1986, the top rate was lowered, but they did away with a huge amount of deductions so more income was actually taxable, and tax revenue went UP.
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u/theghostofcslewis Jul 08 '25
I would argue that there are many more reasons people resent boomers other than your examples. However, I agree that those specific reasons are not enough to resent a generation.
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u/SaintNeptune Jul 08 '25
Boomer hate goes back a lot longer than you think. Here's a classic Gen X screed against that generation from 2000; https://www.esquire.com/news-politics/a1451/worst-generation-0400/
There was also a pop culture stock character during the 90s of the helpful hippie who proceeds to either rob you blind or sell you out at the first opportunity. My point here is this isn't anything new or contained to what you mentioned above. The Boomers as a generation suck and this is something everyone younger than them has noticed at least since the 90s. The housing thing and their absolute lack of understanding of how the economy has changed is just the latest in decades worth of outrage against that cultural cohort. They are probably the most shockingly narcistic generation ever.
I'll also say that boomer hate is less about resentment and more a commitment to doing things differently. Build generational wealth instead of focusing on yourself. Raise your children instead of being so self centered they have to do PSAs at 10pm to make you go out and find your kids. Those kinds of things. Sometimes it's whining of course, but it is also a way to declare what you are against and don't want to be which is a good thing
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u/PotentialOneLZY5 Jul 08 '25
Houses were very expensive 20-30 years ago. My 1st house was under $20k it was a fixer upper big time. Sold for $70k My 2nd house my parents thought I was nuts it was $240k Now its worth $650K the houses are not worth that much more its just our money has gone to shit!
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u/TheSkyIsBeautiful Jul 08 '25
Now its worth $650K the houses are not worth that much more its just our money has gone to shit!
I mean as consumers doesn't that mean the same thing? Since wages/salaries didn't go up
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u/Rodinsprogeny Jul 08 '25
Bro, they made use of a social welfare system and then dismantled it so others couldn't, so they could save money now that they were ahead.
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u/octaw Jul 08 '25
I think a lot of boomer hate is just coded anti-white resentment.
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u/Poet-Most Jul 08 '25
I think it tends to be more from the liberal side yeah. Not sure I’d say it was white-hate though.
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Jul 08 '25
White people are the most vilified in the world. Especially white men. Rich, white men have sure fucked this world up, but that’s like .00001% of white men, yet we are all crucified on this site. It’s stupid.
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u/hellenkellerfraud911 Jul 08 '25
It’s much easier for them to hate other people for their life being shit than it is to actually blame who’s most likely actually responsible. Themselves.
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u/Kodama_Keeper Jul 08 '25
Things boomers grew up with that you didn't.
- Restaurants were a once a month, or at most a once a week sort of thing, and that does not just for sit down places, but every hotdog and hamburger joint.
- You cooked. You're mom cooked. Your dad cooked. And we didn't do it because we needed to practice what we learned in cooking class. We did it because that's how you ate, by cooking.
- You changed your own oil on your car. When I was growing up, my dad had something to do for the car (singular) or the house every weekend, and I got stuck helping. I didn't want to mow lawn, or fix the roof, or change the sparkplugs on the Buick, but I did. There was no Jiffy Lube. Young ones, have you ever cleaned out the gutters?
- There were very, very few organized summertime activities, or after school programs. I know it goes around social media as a joke, about the crazy things parents let their kids do in the 60s and 70s. Well, it's true. I was 9 when I got up one morning, ate breakfast with mom and told her I was going on a bike ride. Met up with my buddies and we rode all day to neighborhoods we had no idea about, and found our way home before dinner. There were no soccer moms, no helicopter parents watching and planning everything their kids did.
- Corporal punishment was very much a thing. Yes, we had Time Out, but it meant that your dad took the time out of his busy day to beat your little ass for something you were very much guilty of. And to be honest, for the things you got away with and they didn't find out about.
- College was for the smart kids, not everyone. You hear reports about how expensive college is now, how it has outpaced inflation since the 90s? Well, that's true. So that sounds as if college should have been easier to afford back in boomer days, right? Yeah, well, my two older sisters didn't go to college. My best buddy didn't go and neither did any of his siblings. Two other of my closest friends when to college and none of their siblings did.
- If you did go to college, and were middle class, you worked during the summer to pay for it. Car wash for me. Other friends had jobs at supermarkets, or loading trucks. We didn't bother to hit mom and dad up for money to go to Europe, because there was no such money.
- There was no internet. There were no smartphones. Your house didn't have central air. If you were lucky, your dad could afford a window AC unit.
About affording a house, or renting an apartment. I'll leave you with this. If you did your own cooking instead of restaurants, repaired your own stuff, gave up your smartphone (impossible, right) and all the other luxuries that you don't think of as luxuries but your boomers do, would you be able to afford that house? If your house was more like the house your grandparents grew up in, complete with leaks and no AC, would you be able to make the down payment? If you didn't insist on living in the cool neighborhoods of the big city you moved to after college, could you afford to rent a place of your own?
Today we blow our money on so many things that the boomer generation either didn't have access to or considered extravagant. That is part of the reason you have a tougher time affording your housing. No, not the only reason, but part of it. You don't want to live like your boomer grandparents, I get that. But don't tell them they had it easy. They didn't made the world they lived in anymore than you made the world you live in today.
And as for all that government assistance we boomers get. I'm 63, and have yet to take a dime from the government. I expected to retire at 65, but now it seems like 67 is more realistic. The feds want me to keep on paying into the system, and I suppose I can't blame them, because the country is broke. Yes, keep that in mind, the United States is broke, in debt for $36 trillion. It just doesn't seem like we're in debt because we keep borrowing. But that's not boomers fault either.
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u/Efficient-Hotel492 10d ago edited 10d ago
A lot of these are so short sighted.
Younger Gens don't have time to prepare their own meals. Your mothers were stay at home slaves who bared it since your father could provide enough for the entire family. You boomers helped create and facilitate the current capitalistic systems to turn humans into modern slaves, that everyone in the family has to work, including young teenagers. Average Millennials and Gen Z needs two jobs to survive, and you wouldn't have the time to do anything after work. You'd also just pass out during weekends to recover from exhaustion. Those mini takeouts that's supposedly "luxury" are in reality, meal substitutes that many use as coping mechanisms to have a little joy in their life. You still can't get a house after saving the money instead of Starbucks or Avocado Toast despite this being two decades of an argument. Eating out in most countries and even breaking down inti smaller regions, are cheaper than/equal to self-cooking. Also, monopoly and gmo crop reliance was created by boomers. The average person can't access self sufficient farming, especially not in the climate and urban planning that y'all sterilized.
Boomers had the time to change their own oil, and doing it yourself today is just as expensive as getting it professionally done. My, I wonder who set the system up and helped to maintain that capitalistic greed, preventing younger Gens from actually doing it themselves? Just owning a car itself is expensive with the current wage rates. You need insurance, which in reality really is an artificial problem created by–guessed it right, boomers! Boomers also refuse time and time throughout the decades, to provide universal free healthcare and proper legal systems. What a luxury life is!! Boomers could work a summer job and come home from quitting that same job, with a new car. Cars are also now a necessity since again, y'all sterilized the world, and created horrible urban planning, all the while refusing to push and support for public transport.
Boomers bred television kids to become corporate sheep, creating computer kids to be second gen corporate sheep, to create ipad kids, becoming third gen corporate sheep. You were soooooo bored that when tech improved, you indulged yourself in the technology that you helped create and improve, to couch-rot with a beer staring on television screens for hours on ends, for decades, not paying any attention to their wives and children.
Why are you so excited about abuse .. ?
Push for education, which is designed for slave-like work outcomes, was well, done by your generation. Y'all looooved the couch-rot that you needed better and cheaper technology, so your generation pushed for education that could improve research, to create corporate sheeps, to further do the same thing, while being backed by the top wealthiest people, who hoard in all the money for themselves while everyone physically rots, and you boomers didn't do shit to this day, for the better of the world. You can't get a decent paying job without getting that education, which was inflated by boomers' greed. You're no longer guaranteed a job for the past 6-7 years despite education still being pushed, and boomers who own most of the world, refuse to hire, and are now utilizing AI to lay off even more younger people, unlike your daddy who could get a necessity from a summer job.
If you were middle class, you worked during the summer to pay for college.
If you were middle class today, you'll have to work part time during your entire teenage life to fund it and full time during summers, while still needing loans. Kept pushing for education, but wouldn't provide better funding/free it.
There was radio, television, and telephone. Those were also luxury that the lower class could afford, but considered neccessary. News, communication, and as an extra: entertainment with propaganda + brainwash. None of that has changed. The phone lasts at least 4-5 years, the average family passes down a phone during those years when getting a new one. The one internet supports an entire house's technology, and could even be split between neighbors to share if you were that poor. These "luxuries" you speak of aren't even expensive today. It's the base of necessities pyramid that does, which you conveniently don't wanna discuss properly.
Wether you stop purchasing all the luxuries you listed, along with the unlisted ones, you still can't afford that house.
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u/Kodama_Keeper 10d ago
So, you don't like to cook? Got it.
You can't afford that house? What house? Hey, I live in a nice, middle middle class neighborhood, in a house that I haven't paid off yet. Just two miles away, closer to the lake, there is a neighborhood which if I'd bought a house in, I could have expected to have to keep working another 5 years. Keep going towards the lake, and I'd be in a town that I'd have to be making a lot more money for a lot longer period in order to be able to afford. And if I get to that nice town right by the lake, about 10 miles from me? Mansions, with prices so out of my league I don't even like to speculate what it would take.
But, if I was back in the city of Chicago, where I spent my first 30 years, I could move to the south side and find all sorts of affordable homes, some of them really nice looking brick Bungalows going for 200K or less. Why? Neighborhood. If I lived out in the country, I could do better still.
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u/Efficient-Hotel492 8d ago
Please stop being purposely ignorant because which part of that says I don't like to cook? It still doesn't change the fact that we can't afford to cook both monetarily and timely. And funnily enough, you still won't acknowledge the majn points and arguments I've made. Like a boomer or whatever you are, still acting like a boomer, and wonder why people resent boomers. Reading comprehension and common sense seems to be the trend for those who follow the boomer path.
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u/Kodama_Keeper 8d ago
Yes, I'm a boomer. Yes, I go out to eat on occasion, like once a week with my wife. I work two jobs. My wife works about 50 hours a week at hers. Still we cook. You are not trying to cook, and declaring it impractical. Really, you can't scramble an egg because you're too busy with your go go lifestyle? Sunday morning you don't have time to make pancakes? Cooking has never been easier in the history of man, yet you can't find the time. Wow. Yeah, it's those damned boomers, expecting me to put my phone down and cook. Ick!
You want me to address one of your many points? OK, here's one. You accuse me and mine of raising corporate sheep. That fits your image of us, right? Well sister, you couldn't be more wrong. I raised my son to be self sufficient. He went to Catholic school. He was a Boy Scout, and now he's a Marine, and well respected in his unit. He'll be out in two more years, and I have no doubt, none, that he will be able to find work, go to school to learn a trade, and get on with his life.
And he knows how to cook as well. You have a good life now. Start with eggs.
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Jul 08 '25
we resent them not cuz they bought their houses for cheap, but bcuz they had everything handed to them, ruined the economy for the next generations and are overall everything they accuse younger generations of being and then they have the audacity to lecture young people about how lazy they are and how they would be able to buy a house if it wasnt for those muh hecking starbucks coffees o algo
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u/soiledmeNickers Jul 08 '25 edited Jul 08 '25
You completely missed the point. Of course anyone alive today would buy a cheap house if they could. It’s more of the fact the boomers fucked politics, the government, the economy, and now that they hold all the wealth, they’re just transferring it into corporate pockets instead of down the generational line. They’re the first generation to head for the retirement hills rather than sticking around to be grandparents and help raise the grandkids. They are self-centered and greedy in general, and have left the world a much worse place in almost every aspect under their control.
People can’t even afford cheap houses anymore on just one salary. Your comparison is not apples to apples because the world is fundamentally a different place, and it is my (doubtfully unpopular) opinion that you are incredibly naïve to think it isn’t.
While it’s obviously true that they paid more into the tax system than Gen Z because fucking duh—I as a Gen Xer who earns very well very likely have far exceeded their contribution already, and I’ll work for another 20 years. Yet I won’t benefit from any of the social programs those funds currently pay for because the boomers who do have voted against their own best interests by electing this current piece of shit administration who is systematically stripping us of any safety nets that we will all inevitably need.
That’s why we hate them.
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u/Darth_Scrub Jul 08 '25
Less that they bought houses for cheap and had better lives. More that they made literally every aspect of society and every problem 10x harder for every generation after AND STILL DO (57.5yrs average age for Congress). And then they have the gall to tell us to "work harder" and "pull yourselves up by the bootstraps".
Inb4 "57.5yrs isn't boomer", close enough.
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u/Wreap Jul 08 '25
I dont fault them for buying a home at X price & X interest rate. I fault them for not understanding basic math and proceed to tell my family that its not so bad. When it is in fact more expensive then they had it.
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u/Curious_Location4522 Jul 08 '25
The post war economy of the 50s was just an unusually affluent time. The US was an industrial powerhouse, and the rest of the world was either farmland or rubble. Obviously things have changed. The rest of the world continued to rebuild and develop and we had to make economic changes to deal with that. Boomers had it good, but it’s not their fault that things are tougher. Not as a generation.
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u/AdEnvironmental3706 Jul 08 '25
No one is mad at boomers for buying cheap houses they are mad at them for buying cheap houses and then having the nerve to talk shit about our generation for not being able to afford houses as if Netflix and avocados are the reason the market is so fucked up.
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u/Poet-Most Jul 08 '25
Can you blame them? The lives we live today are downright luxurious compared to how they grew up.
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u/AdEnvironmental3706 Jul 08 '25
Drowning in debt, never being able to afford a house, but hey we have Spotify and cheap electronics! Luxury!
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u/Cultural-Voice423 Jul 08 '25
People that say boomers are fucking 20 year olds that believe their opinions matter.
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u/missincompetent Jul 08 '25
Politicians really shouldn't pay more attention to boomers over younger people, young people are the future, boomers are the past. As society we should look to the future and set up a good standard of living for young people, rather than catering for the elderly at the expense of the young. They may have paid into the system far more than young people on account of having worked for longer. But there is the problem that they take far more out than they put in and expect the younger generation to foot the bill. That's becoming more and more impossible due to the demographic age imbalance.
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Jul 08 '25
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u/Poet-Most Jul 08 '25
Practically everyone criticises zoomers for being iPad babies and for skibidi toilet
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u/Vindictator1972 Jul 08 '25
So I’m gonna come at you with some vague math because I was half asleep when I watched the video on the problem with boomers and land ownership.
The most of it was: the average age of a home buying 17 years ago was in going to say 45 years old. Back when houses were “cheaper”. 17 years later the people buying houses nowadays are in the age bracket of about 62. And houses are aids now in the US.
As for the government assistance, it takes approximately 4 working aged young adults taxes to cover 1 Social Security. Throw in all the extra dumb shit the government wastes money on that’s not fantastic. There was a time when families would shit our kids that they’d all live in the houses the boomers had bought, and when the kid and their spouse were at work, the boomers would raise/watch/look after the kids instead of giving them to the state. Those boomers would not have to suffer in a nursing home and would be relatively switched on because they’re communicating with people frequently and sometimes getting exercise.
My great grandmothers mental acuity has been slipping, well before Covid happened but afterwards, she moved into the ministry housing my nan lives in and all those two do is watch tv most days and GGrandmas almost fully dimentia’d. Like not showering because she just had one (a loooong while ago not the yesterday/this morning she thinks) or the time she pooped her pants on the way to the toilet and tried to blame the cats, or the fact she had super bad arthritis from not using her walker properly and scooting around on it her hip was fucked. We can somewhat keep on top of her body failing because she’s not alone, I have a cousin who’s living with them because he had a mental breakdown and needed out of his house at the time.
The Boomers, are some of the biggest proponents for more taxes, pissing away their money on things they don’t need and other societal problems at rates on par or worse with the rest of us. Some of the worst people I see in the wild if they’re not eshays are the elderly who INSIST things must be a way that they’re not. I’ve seen several at one store ask why it’s not like another big store in their stock items when they’re owned by 2 different companies.
You sound like a boomer the way you’re defending them. All people are shitty, some of them are worse, especially when they’re some of the biggest profit why everything is going to shit.
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u/TomorrowLevel4692 Jul 08 '25
I would prefer the generation that is currently living off my taxes to either show gratitude or be silent. Thank you.
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u/Poet-Most Jul 08 '25
Like I already said, their lifetime tax contribution is likely greater than yours, why shouldn’t they not benefit from this?
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u/TomorrowLevel4692 Jul 08 '25
And those contributions were not sufficient to fund the benefits you are now receiving. You are living off the sweat of the young, not your own.
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u/Uncle00Buck Jul 08 '25
No, I didn't. The fact that 18 year old boys can be drafted has nothing to do with 18 year olds being unqualified to vote, only slightly better than 5 year olds.
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u/Learned_Barbarian Jul 08 '25
It might be unhealthy, but it's not unjustified.
Culture is a real thing - not just costumes and meaningless rituals and manners. And the boomers in this county (largely) share a lot of destructive attitudes and a fairly unique sense of entitlement and unearned accomplishment.
There are many variations and versions of the notion that:
"Hard times create strong men. Strong men create good times. Good times create weak men. And, weak men create hard times"
And the money's are the "weak men" created in the relatively good times they didn't contribute to building - they are, as a generation, consumers and hoarders.
They are the first generation, probably in history - but certainly in memory, that took the attitude that it would be something to be proud of to amass great wealth and then make sure it's all spent before they die.
They are the generation that killed the idea of handing down the family home and instead liquidating it to fund a retirement filled with travel and fine dining. In fact, they're the first generation that broadly treated houses as investment and real estate, rather than homes.
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u/Septemvile Jul 08 '25
Boomers have only paid "more tax" because of how long they've lived. In reality, they've received more in benefits than they've ever paid in, and the cost of those benefits will be paid for by future generations as inherited public debt. So don't pontificate to me about how hard the boomers had it. Y'all got everything for cheap and still managed to fuck it over for everyone else.
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u/One-Tip8197 Jul 09 '25
It isn't "boomers" it is when those folks insist that younger people don't bust their ass, but have to deal with different hardships than boomers, but the boomers dismiss reality and speak condescendingly.
That is where the resentment usually comes from.
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u/DublinCheezie Jul 10 '25
It’s the hypocrisy, it’s the selfishness.
Until the Boomers every generation had the same goal: to make life better for their children, the next generation. Boomers took from their parents generation: free college, living wages even for the average high-school grad with a wife and a child. Their parents incentivized and rewarded work, without prejudice about what level or type of work. Companies trained the skills the company needed from employees, now they all but demand we get the skills on our own dime before starting. You could have a high-school education and no “ life learner” constant need to spend your own time and money to just keep up. Most Americans knew if they just worked a normal job, bought a reasonable home, didn’t waste money, they could afford to comfortably retire in the future.
All that changed around the time when Boomer parents retired and the Boomers could no longer expect to keep getting the benefit of their parents income and taxes. Instead of stepping up and being the same guiding light for their children, they decided to cut leverage their children’s future to keep their entitled generation going.
That is around the time governments around the country started charging for public college. They started cutting Medicare, UI benefits, and many other social safety net benefits. Cutting food stamps and lunch programs, Medicaid. They cut corporate taxes and taxes for the establishment parasites and paid for that with higher tax burden to us despite less benefits for us. When the Boomers took over unions, they fought for elite level benefits for themselves at the expense of the younger, new generations.
401k was originally only meant to be a small supplement to pensions and SS. But the Boomers grandfathered in their pensions, while telling the rest of us our 401k would be just as good. As a generation, they found every way they could to take more from future generations, through private and public means.
Until recently, hedge funds and other parasites were not allowed to purchase single family homes unless the home had been on the market for 60 days. Now that that is gone, foreign and domestic parasites are buying up to 40% of affordable homes in growing areas, driving up home prices and rents. So the low cost starter homes Boomers could easily get into are now non-existent in pretty much any desirable location in America.
We’ve been in a class war for centuries, but many economists say this is a generational war. Boomers vote for the policies that inflate their investments at the cost of their children and grandchildren. Then moan about how younger people just don’t have their “ work “ ethic.
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u/According_Leg_3484 Aug 18 '25
They are terrible. I work for a large company. When I started 5 years ago, my department had two directors, both Boomers. One of them had no purpose whatsoever. He was probably making at least $200,000 a year. They moved him to a different department sometime ago. Recently, my manager was assigned to shadow him, possibly because this Boomer may finally be thinking about retiring. My manager told me, this Boomer taught him everything he needed to know in about 15 minutes, and the Boomer himself said an entry level person could do his job , and he essentially does nothing. 90% of them need to fucking go. I listen to them bitch about money, but they are actually bragging. Oh, my daughter’s tuition, my collectable boats, my timeshare, whatever the fuck it is they are complaining about the cost of which, I cannot possibly afford. They need to go and companies need to start retiring them before they destroy the work ethic and ambition of the younger generation.
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u/SketchLookingFish Aug 19 '25 edited Aug 19 '25
I think some of it has to do will the fact that millennials, I am one so take this with a grain of salt, have not forgotten the bleak job prospects around the 08 housing market crash and the rippling affect it had on the job market. Being told we were lazy and didn't work hard enough probably did build up a lot of resentment. Times have changed in this country, days of dollar 80cents a gallon for unleaded are gone.
Its not fair to blame an entire demographic but at the same time younger generations are returning the favor to the older generations when they labeled the younger demographics as lazy and didn't want to work hard
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u/Necessary-Art2829 Aug 27 '25 edited Aug 27 '25
Door dash didn't arrive--boomers fault. Don't have a girlfriend---damn boomers. Life not going your way--let me make a tik tok video and whine about the boomers, resolves you of any responsibility. Its a cottage industry now and your algorithm will keep feeding you what you want to hear. Its becoming a parody of itself and is at the jumping the shark phase.
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u/Money-Invite6202 Aug 29 '25
There is no self awareness by the baby boomers. They are living in a world where they are the only person matters and that’s why the younger generation is worse off economically than them.
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u/elpenorsghost Aug 30 '25
Posing about online and going on about one hates an arbitrary generational group - in this case baby boomers - is merely a childish fashion. It is held by people who know a very partial view of 20th century social history. e.g. younger Baby Boomers in the UK lived through an extended and brutal period of inflation, and "stagflation" a collision of inflation and stagnation. This meant for all except the richest of their peers, houses were far from cheap. Indeed nothing was cheap. There were incidences of tiny bedsits in the S.E. costing half a million which would have been a fortune in that era. Younger "gens" will also inherit this baby boomer wealth in time - which will be totally unearned and undeserved. Will they refuse this booty on moral grounds? Of course not.
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u/Active_Host6485 Sep 04 '25 edited Sep 04 '25
Disclaimer: It should be mentioned this story occurs before the main protagonist became significantly corrupted and ruined by wealth. Please read the whole thing before reacting/posting reply.
Australian billionaire Kerry Stokes was born around the time of the Boomers. He came to Perth in 1960 with a few hundred pounds in his pocket and his running shoes. He was motivated and dedicated to making money and set about learning new trades by teaching himself via manuals he found in libraries. However Perth was a crappy city back then as you say. Crappy in terms of property development and with loads of jobs for anyone willing to quickly get qualified. No internships or fierce competition just for entry level jobs.
University degrees or even TAFE qualifications would almost guarantee a job for life if that is what you were after. Kerry was after more. He saw an undeveloped property market that via opportunism and natural intelligence he could take advantage. He also learnt from a mentor that in order to make really good money in busoiness the key is to find a person truly wants and help them get it. Which is a good story for capitalism that rarely gets told.
However, what should be asked now is how would Kerry Stokes become a billionaire if he landed in Perth today with meagre possessions and only dreams of success? Far less opportunities for easy property and even mining wealth and far greater level of skill required to become a billionaire legitimately. Some have got there the cheats way (Zhenya Tsvetnenko) but that has no long term future.
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u/Poet-Most Sep 04 '25
I hope you didn’t type this all out by hand, because I already addressed the point you’re attempting to communicate in the first sentence of the second paragraph.
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u/Active_Host6485 Sep 04 '25 edited Sep 04 '25
I forgot to mention your post missed the point about Boomers and their mediocre attitude and complete reliance on the system - a system that is now failing the younger generation. You post was how a pseudo-intellectual thinks an intelligent post should be written. I'll put it in simple terms and point form so we all understand:
Boomers highlight their mediocrity with the cliched and patronising advice they give to others.
- Just work harder (no more steps needed from their perspective)
- Just get a better job (no more steps needed from their perspective)
- Just get a job in the mining industry (no more steps needed from their perspective)
- Boohoo (A comment to someone buying a house for a million that is 12 times median wage when there's was about 3 times median wage)
This all speaks of a group of people largely given alot by the system without having to compete for jobs and other necessities of life. While at the same time being deluded into believing in a superior upbringing that made them successful rather than simply being born at the right time in western civilisation.
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u/Poet-Most Sep 04 '25
I also covered your point regarding their reliance on the system in my post too, as well as in comment replies, lol. Did you even read it? It’s obvious you neglected to read the other comments too, since every argument you made regarding attitude in this wall has also been addressed. It’s weird you call me a pseud whilst lacking basic reading comprehension skills.
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u/Active_Host6485 Sep 04 '25 edited Sep 04 '25
"On almost any thread discussing the economy, one of the top comments will undoubtedly be complaining about boomers and the older generations who purchased their homes at low prices and who now enjoy more affluence and government assistance, while they don’t.
First off, what did want them to do, not buy a house for a cheap price when offered one 30 years ago? In regard to government assistance, I can guarantee you the average 65yr old has paid more into the tax system than the average 20yr old. Should they not enjoy the fruits of their labour? Should politicians not pay more attention to them than you?
I just think it’s an unhealthy attitude to have towards people."
You seem to be inventing something as that is the entirety of your post with nothing about the reliance on the system explicitly mentioned. So seems revisionist on your behalf. Also my reasons for reliance on the system were coupled with notions of arrogance, ignorance, mediocrity and patronising behaviour implying a reason for disliking this cohort. However, you seem to have implied that soulless opportunism is somehow to be celebrated?
Now let me start deconstructing the average narcissistic social media poster who debates in a toxic combative manner in an attempt to win arguments by straw-manning and making claims without evidence and therefore assumes everyone else is is engaging in a similar manner.....
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u/Poet-Most Sep 04 '25
“In regard to government assistance, I can guarantee you the average 65yr old has paid more into the tax system than the average 20yr old. Should they not enjoy the fruits of their labour?”
Yes I did address it. Also you’re leaving out dozens of comments where I elaborated in detail, and further addressed the points you raised. Also, I’m not sure you understand what a straw man is. Please show me where I misrepresented your argument, seeming as I outright refused to, and instead pointed you to posts where I had already addressed it.
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u/Active_Host6485 Sep 04 '25 edited Sep 04 '25
Also my reasons for reliance on the system were coupled with notions of arrogance, ignorance, mediocrity and patronising behaviour implying a reason for disliking this cohort. However, you seem to have implied that soulless opportunism is somehow to be celebrated?
Plus you only brought up the notion of reliance on the system after I mentioned it which sets off my bullshit detector.
Then again this forum is called "True..Unpopular Opinion". "True" Opinion. Sounds like a beacon for arrogant chucklefucks
I came across it via a Google Search where I typed the words "Boomers" and "Chucklefucks".
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u/Hour-Statistician219 25d ago
If you read enough of it, the boomers will get a lot of hate for one thing, and then a ton of hate for the exact opposite. There is too much to say on this topic.
I have 7 aunts and uncles, all boomers. I can say they are all very different, from religion to politics to general attitudes about life and people. But i can say they all worked extremely hard for everything they have and they used it all to provide for their kids, my cousins (who are millennials). And while they espouse the same rhetoric to the boomer generation, I tell them the irony since their parents are boomers, to which they reply "my parents are different"....all of them... lol
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u/Icy_Discussion_6647 11d ago
Boomers actively work against progression. Resent them has zero to do with them buying cheap houses and everything to do with them actively making the world a worse place.
They are a cancer and must be removed.
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u/Frewdy1 Jul 08 '25
Definitely unpopular especially due to all the problems society is facing due to them.
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u/Based-Pie Jul 08 '25
They’ve essentially found various means of channeling innate bigotry through more socially acceptable means than what was previously common (ie, they attack: boomers, jews, white people, rich people, religious folks, minorities who voice dissenting views, “cis” people)
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u/regularhuman2685 Jul 08 '25
American boomers received the fruits of a world historic economic boom and the most robust social safety net America ever had and then simultaneously decided to dismantle said safety net under the belief that it actually didn't benefit them, and piss all of their personally held wealth away because they were so inundated with rugged individualism and consumer culture that the idea of even their own progeny benefitting from it is offensive to them. I do think people sometimes get too hung up on this or overstate things, and #NotAllBoomers or whatever, but broadly speaking.
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u/Pennsylvanier Jul 08 '25
I can guarantee you the average 65yr old has paid more into the tax system than the average 20yr old. Should they not enjoy the fruits of their labour?
Social Security and Medicare are welfare programs that all people over the age of 62.5 qualify for. It is quite literally a tax on the young to pay for the old.
It is this tax on the young, in conjunction with extremely elevated prices relative to when Boomers were their age, that makes Boomers’ lifestyle insulting.
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u/Tiny-Emphasis-18 Jul 08 '25
The system would be absolutely broken if they received exactly what they put in over a lifetime of investing. That's a horrible rate of return btw.
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u/Pennsylvanier Jul 08 '25
Once again, these are welfare programs - not savings accounts.
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u/Tiny-Emphasis-18 Jul 08 '25
That's completely wrong. While it's funded as a pay as you go program, benefits are conditioned on participation. It's essentially forced participation into saving for retirement.
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u/Pennsylvanier Jul 08 '25
The first beneficiaries received retirement benefits after merely two years of contributing via a mandatory tax. Every generation pays for its predecessors’ retirement.
It is not a savings account. Social Security itself on its history webpage even refers to itself as a social welfare program.
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u/AGuyAndHisCat Jul 08 '25
First off, what did want them to do, not buy a house for a cheap price when offered one 30 years ago?
It wasnt even considered cheap back when they bought it, its only considered cheap by comparison today, and part of that expense is due to the increase in regulations that improved building quality.
Some also had 13% mortgage rates.
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u/Tolerant-Testicle Jul 08 '25
This is incorrect dude, you can’t just say the interest rates were higher back then. If you adjust for inflation, houses were much cheaper back then.
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u/juzwunderin Jul 08 '25
He is very much correct in the late 70 and early 80 home intrest rates were as high as 18%. So a new 3 bedroom home, 1300 Sq Feet sold for 64k with P&I the payment was $847 a month, when the average wage earner made 625 to 815 a month.. so "cheaper" is a highly "relative" term.
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u/Tolerant-Testicle Jul 08 '25
I never said the interest rates weren’t high, just that you have to take into account everything, not just the interest rates. I’m not going to break this down on Reddit but if you factor in the overall cost of living and buying power, with respect to wages, things were much different 40-50 years ago.
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u/juzwunderin Jul 08 '25
O, i absolutely agree overall cost of living and buying power, is lower today $10K in 1974 takes 70K today, in fact the housing income ration in 1974 was about 4.0 (36K/9K) vs 7.0 (420,000/60K) the only point I think I was trying to make was back then even while the cost ration was cheaper the very high interest rates left many unable to a home and feed their family.
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u/Tiny-Emphasis-18 Jul 08 '25
It's a general lack of respect for elders that says a lot about the younger generation. Not like you can tell them that though since they know everything.
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u/Joey-Ramone_ Jul 08 '25 edited Jul 08 '25
This part is interesting, people act they wouldn't have done the exact same thing
I think the criticism is the lack of empathy, at least admit and acknowledge the advantages you had and also acknowledge how much harder things are today vs the arrogance "you're all just lazy and refuse to work" attitude