Boomers, having it better than the rest of us for 30 years

In 2019, "OK Boomer" has become a sort of slur that younger people give to (mostly) older people on social media and other forums when the older people give some kind of socially conservative comment or tells younger people to stop complaining about their economic issues.

It's a bit of a catch-all and has become a cultural clash point, but if you just sum it up to that, you're missing the bigger picture. "Ok Boomer" isn't a complaint about social issues as much as it is an economic one. Because it is indisputable that
Boomers have had it better than the generations that have followed. And that's not just the case in 2019, but also when Boomers were as young as millennials are today, and when I was in my mid-30s right before the Great Recession hit.

Take a look at this chart from a recent article from Nicole Lyn Pesce in CBS Marketwatch.

Gen Xers lagged far behind Baby Boomers in the percentage of U.S. household wealth held at similar ages. Millennials lag even further behind.

Boomers continue to hold steady at over 56% of U.S. household wealth. pic.twitter.com/4ICYseGAYZ

— Gray 'serial millennial myth debunker' Kimbrough (@graykimbrough) November 24, 2019

As a whole, boomers have fared better financially than Gen Xers (born between 1965 and 1980) and millennials (born between 1981 and 1996) throughout every stage of their lives. Boomers currently boast more than half (57%) of the nation’s wealth, while Gen X owns just 16%, and millennials 3%.

Adults under 40 have been accumulating less and less wealth over the past 30 years, plummeting from owning 13% of the wealth in 1989 to less than 7% today.

Indeed, at a median age of 35, Gen Xers owned just 9% of the nation’s wealth in 2008 — less than half what boomers had at that age. And millennials will have to triple their net worth in the next four years to catch up to Generation X at 35, and increase their wealth sevenfold to catch up to boomers at that age.

But Marketwatch tells us under 50 not to worry, because this wealth gap could shorten the old-fashioned way.

Boomers are expecting to pass on their estates to their heirs in what’s being dubbed “the great wealth transfer,” which could see those millennials lucky enough to have relatives with money collecting $59 trillion in wealth and assets.

So just wait for your parents and grandparents to keel over, and things will be just fine, you young’uns! Even if you might not have Social Security to back up that wealth as you get older (headdesk).

Let’s go back to this Saturday Night Live skit from January. It seems even more relevant today as the stock market jumps on trade rumors and irrational exuberance to buffer the Boomers’ portfolios, while the rest of us tread water because we still have bills to pay, and those bills keep going up.

Host: "Carrie, it's your lucky day. That means you get to play for the Boomer Birthright Bonanza...That's a full-time job, a starter home, no student debt, and we'll throw in the Social Security. In other words, you get everything the Boomers got, just for being born at the right time."

That skit is basically a live-person version of the “Old Economy Steven” memes that started getting popular around a decade ago, with the last scene nearly taking this specific meme word-for-word.

And while Boomers have many of their health insurance concerns taken care of with Medicare, many of the rest of us get our pockets picked with no cost controls, and little year-to-year certainty for both health insurance and housing costs.

These items underscore a real tension in the country these days. Some people, especially those who are older and financially comfortable, think that the country is overall doing OK, and while a few of its leaders are messed up, if they’re replaced or diminished, things will be peachy. Other people, especially those younger and financially vulnerable, see a society where getting ahead is a lot harder than it used to be, a lot of people are ignored and/or punished by those in charge, and that our economic and governance structures need to be significantly changed.

What wins out will go a long way toward determining what the 2020s will hold in this country. Will it continue to be our current, corporatist landscape with major divisions and differences between haves, have somes, and have nots? Or will it be a society that actually allows people under 50 a chance to get out of debt, not be one bad event away from financial disaster, raise families comfortably, and see a future worth investing in?

Ok Boomer? You gonna continue to make the rest of us play this losing game? And if the Boomers won’t vote and work to get the changes that need to be made, are we going to keep accepting that?