Baby boomers are overly hated.

For the past few years, there's been a lot of intense hatred towards baby boomers on the internet. The hatred towards boomers reached its peak in early November 2019 when the phrase "Ok boomer" went viral and all over the news. I am either a very young millennial or very old zoomer (Generation Z). People now like to blame boomers for everything, including the economy, the environment, etc. Many also say that baby boomers deserve this hate because the boomers kept hating millennials. I will let you know that boomers don't actually hate millennials that much. The idea that boomers complain about millennials is a MYTH.

Here's a few things people like to say about baby boomers:

Complaint 1: Baby boomers are all right-wing racist conservative bigots and they hate gay people, don't believe in climate change, etc.

First of all, plenty of baby boomers are concerned about climate change. Here is some information from Gallup in 2018. Although 70% of 18-34 year olds are worried a great deal/fair amount about global warming. 56% of adults age 55 or older also worry. Sure that isn't a big majority of adults age 55+ but it's still a good amount. According to Gallup, 54% of adults age 55+ believe the effects of global warming already began. According to a 2019 Gallup article, only 26% and 22% of 50-64 year olds and 65+ year olds were skeptical towards global warming, respectively. Although only 7% of 18-29 year olds were skeptics, 21% of 30-49 year olds were skeptics. This means baby boomers and Generation Xers/older millennials aren't different in being skeptical towards global warming. The percentage of concerned believers of global warming was 67% for 18-29 year olds but was 49% for 30-49 year olds, 43% for 50-64 year olds, and 47% for 65+ year olds. The percentage of "mixed middles" was 30% for 30-49 year olds and 31% for both 50-64 year olds and 65+ year olds. This shows that Generation Xers/older millennials and baby boomers aren't different in their opinions about global warming. 

Now let's discuss the baby boomers' opinions on homosexuality. It is true that adults age 50+ are less likely to support gay marriage, but nonetheless, a good amount still support gay marriage. In 2019, 55% of 50-64 year olds supported gay marriage and 47% of adults age 65+ supported gay marriage. That's still a good amount. What you also need to realize is that people age 50+ grew up back when homosexuality wasn't accepted, which affects how they view gay marriage. I'm sure decades later, there will be controversial new ideas that will be rejected by my generation and accepted by the future generations. For example, younger people often have been more accepting of interracial couples than older people because interracial marriage was stigmatized a long time ago when older people were still young. Another example is age gaps. Age gaps used to be more common and accepted, and studies show that older people are MORE accepting towards age gap couples than younger people.

Now let's talk about the racism topic. Saying that baby boomers are more racist than young people is ridiculous. Research shows that millennials are actually just as racist as baby boomers. Even Generation X are just racist as boomers, according to the research. It's actually the Silent Generation who are more likely to be racist. Also in 2017, 57% of baby boomers said that more needs to be done to give black people equal rights with white people, and 53% of WHITE boomers believed more needs to be done for equality between black people and white people.

Now let's discuss the "all baby boomers are right-wing" statement. Although baby boomers are more likely to identify as conservative, people born from 1900-1945 also are more likely to identify as conservative. Also, baby boomers actually used to be very liberal when they were young. In fact, my generation (I was born in the late 1990s) are MORE conservative than boomers and Generation Xers were when boomers and Generation Xers were young. In 1976, when boomers were graduating high school, 21% of high school seniors were conservatives. In 2014, when people born in the 1990s were gruadating high school, 29% of high school seniors were conservatives. The percentage of high school seniors who are liberal was 35% in 1976 and 34% in 2014. Also, white millennials are actually just as conservative as their parents. The probable reason why millennials tend to be more liberal is because 44% of millennials are people of color, and people of color are usually more liberal. Generation Z also has a large percentage of people of color (48% of Generation Z are people of color). Baby boomers, however, have only a small percentage of people of color. Only 29% of baby boomers are non-white while 72% of baby boomers are white. If you removed the people of color from the millennial generation and only look at white millennials, you'll notice that white millennials are just as conservative as their parents. Studies also show that White Generation Xers are politically the same as white boomers and white millennials aren't too different politically from white boomers and white millennials aren't too different politically from boomers in general.

48% of baby boomers are democrats or democrat-leaning and only 46% of them are Republican or Republican-leaning. In fact, with political party identification, Generation X aren't different from baby boomers. Generation X and Boomers both had very similar political party identifications for a long time. Also, according to Ipsos, in the 2016 election, adults ages 40-49 (who were all Generation X) were almost just as likely to vote for Trump as adults age 50+ and were almost just as likely to vote for Hillary as adults age 50+. 49% of 40-49 year olds voted for Trump while 52% of both 50-64 year olds and 65+ year olds voted for Trump. 46% of 40-49 year olds voted for Hillary while 44% of 50-64 year olds voted for Hillary and 45% of 65+ year olds voted for Hillary. According to Gallup in 2014, baby boomers were more likely to identify as conservative than Generation X (44% of boomers being conservative and 35% of Generation Xers being conservative). NONETHELESS, this was NOT because Generation X are more likely to be liberal. It's because Generation X are more likely to be moderate. 33% of boomers identified as moderate while 39% of Generation X identified as moderate. Generation X were nearly just as likely to identify as liberal as boomers. 23% of Generation X identified as liberal while 21% of baby boomers identified as liberal.

Complaint 2: Baby boomers always are complaining about millennials.

No. Baby boomers don't complain about millennials. The idea that boomers hate millennials is a MYTH. In fact, I'd say the average baby boomer doesn't really have much of an opinion on millennials. I have found NO evidence that baby boomers hate millennials. Just because the internet says that boomers hate millennials, doesn't mean boomers hate millennials. The internet telling you something over and over is NOT proof that it is true. There are many myths that society will tell us so often that we end up believing it has to be true. For example, society tells us that gum takes 7 years to digest even though that's a myth. Sure, there are many news articles criticizing millennials or accusing millennials of killing certain industries. Guess what? Those articles are NOT written by boomers. I actually looked up LOTS of those articles and looked up the authors. Guess what? Only 1 or 2 of those articles were written by a baby boomer. The rest were written by Generation Xers or even millennials themselves. Many of these articles are probably written for attention anyways. I've seen many millennials criticize their own generation. 

I've seen MANY people criticize millennials and most of them were actually millennials themselves, usually young right-wing millennials. It's usually the right-wing that criticizes millennials, with most of those right-wing people being millennials themselves. Sure, boomers are more likely to be conservative but many white millennials are conservative, too, and I always see white millennials criticize their own generation. I have NEVER seen a baby boomer criticize millennials except maybe for that viral TikTok video. Just because you saw one baby boomer condemn young people in some TikTok video, doesn't mean most baby boomers criticize young people. Also, in 2013, Time published their famous anti-millennial article "Millennials: The Me Me Me Generation". I looked up the author and his name is Joel Stein. He was born in 1971. He's Generation X, NOT a baby boomer. 

There are also surveys and polls about people's opinions on millennials and young people. Here's a survey from 2014. Although 18-29 year olds usually considered themselves tolerant (67%), hard-working (74%), and responsible (77%), 71% of 18-29 year olds also viewed their own age group as selfish and 58% viewed their own age group as entitled. Remember when I said that it's usually conservatives that criticize millennials? Well my statement is supported by information from surveys/polls. 52% of Republicans do NOT think 18-29 year olds are very hard-working, while 64% of democrats think 18-29 year olds ARE hard-working. 45% of Republicans think 18-29 year olds are hard-working, while only 35% of democrats think 18-29 year olds are NOT hard-working. Also, Republicans are considerably less likely than democrats to view millennials as "tolerant" or "responsible". For example, only 51% of Republicans said millennials are tolerant while 68% of democrats said millennials are tolerant. Now here's an Ipsos poll from September 2019. According to Ipsos, 40% of baby boomers had a positive opinion towards younger generations. I know that's a minority but 40% isn't too small of a percentage. But here's something you should know about Generation X and millennials. Only 37% of Generation Xers had a positive opinion towards younger generations and only 42% of millennials had a positive opinion towards younger generations. This means that millennials approve of younger generations only just as much as baby boomers do, and Generation Xers are a tiny bit less likely than boomers and millennials to approve of younger generations. Despite this information, people act like only baby boomers criticize younger generations. I've seen millennials criticize younger generations all the time. Remember the 1990s nostalgia trend back in the first half of the 2010s? Back then, millennials were criticizing 2000s kids and 2010s kids and were saying that 90s kids had a better childhood. Every generation criticizes the younger generation and millennials are just as likely to do it as baby boomers. This is why some people from the three generations in the Ipsos poll (Boomers, Generation X, Millennials) didn't have a positive opinion of younger generations. I'm NOT saying it's a bad thing to have a negative opinion on a specific generation. If you think the 1990s are better than the 2000s or 2010s, that's your opinion. If you don't like a specific generation, that's your opinion. Nonetheless, it's crazy to act like only baby boomers criticize younger generations.

Many people also say that boomers keep calling millennials "snowflakes". Believe me, I have NEVER seen a boomer call millennials "snowflakes", and I've seen many people call millennials snowflakes. I've noticed that most people who call millennials "snowflakes" are young millennial conservatives. Sure, the term "snowflake generation" was coined by Claire Fox, a boomer, but she's political and whatnot and people like that always express these types of opinions. She would've coined that term regardless of what generation she's from. Just because Claire Fox is a boomer, doesn't mean most baby boomers call millennials "snowflakes". I already said that I've never seen baby boomers call millennials "snowflakes" and most of the people who I see call millennials "snowflakes" are millennials themselves, usually right-wing millennials. I bet most baby boomers don't know what a snowflake is. If you were to ask the average boomer what a snowflake is, they'd probably think of the snow that falls on the ground. I doubt they'd think of the modern slang definition. The word "snowflake" is a modern slang word, and baby boomers are all middle-aged or elderly now, and people that age do NOT pay attention to modern slang words, so I bet most boomers don't know the modern definition of a snowflake.

So why do people assume baby boomers hate millennials? Three reasons. One is because the baby boomers are becoming elders and there's a stereotype that elders hate the young generation. Another is because baby boomers are the millennials' parents and there's a stereotype that parents tend to hate their own children's generation. The third reason is because people keep telling us constantly that boomers hate millennials that we decide to believe that boomers really do hate millennials even though that's a myth. 

Complaint 3: But baby boomers always get offended when we say "Ok boomer" to them and then they say millennials get offended by everything. They even got offended by obscene music and violent video-games in the 1980s/90s.

I never have heard baby boomers complain about millennials being sensitive. Most of the people who I've seen call millennials "sensitive" are millennials themselves, usually white conservative millennials. As for the phrase "OK boomer", do baby boomers all get offended by that phrase? It's a bit more complex than that, but ones who do probably only do because they consider it rude. If one were to say "Ok millennial" to a millennial, I'm sure some millennials would get mad. If you're going to mock someone like that, expect them to be mad, regardless of their generation. Not all baby boomers are as offended by the phrase as you think. Here's some data:

According to a survey, 65% of baby boomers have heard the phrase "OK boomer", possibly because they heard a young person say it to them or saw it once on social media or the news. Some baby boomers can find the phrase offensive, but many, believe it or not, find it funny. 67% of baby boomers find the phrase either somewhat or very offensive. A baby boomer named Bob Lonsberry called "boomer" the new N-word, causing very extreme backlash and he deleted the tweet due to backlash. This doesn't mean all baby boomers agree with him. 50% of baby boomers strongly agree or somewhat agree with his statement (only 30% of baby boomers said they strongly agree). This means plenty of baby boomers disagree with Lonsberry. 56% of baby boomers think the phrase "ok boomer" is somewhat or very funny. Only 21% of boomers thought the phrase isn't funny. Therefore, you can see that not all baby boomers are as offended by the phrase as you think. Many even find the phrase either somewhat or very funny.

Also, the baby boomers getting offended by obscene music and video-games in the 1980s/90s isn't as accurate as people might think. Even in the 1950s, when the baby boomers were children and the Silent Generation were teenagers, the parents were offended by Elvis Presley. The baby boomers had their own controversial music when they were teenagers. I'm sure KISS and Alice Cooper were controversial. Black Sabbath and Ozzy Osbourne were definitely controversial. The Sex Pistols were very controversial. Also, in the 1980s/90s, baby boomers were entering their 30s/40s/50s and were becoming parents, which is why maybe some were offended by Marilyn Manson, Mortal Kombat, Doom, etc. Guess what? Some people offended by obscene music and violent videogames back then were from the Silent Generation or even The Greatest Generation. Bob Dole condemned obscene music like Cannibal Corpse and gangsta rappers, and he's from the Greatest Generation. Lynne Cheney was very offended by Eminem in the early 2000s and she's from the Silent Generation (born 1941). Joe Lieberman was going against violent videogames in the 1990s and he's from the Silent Generation (born 1942). Herb Kohl was offended by violent videogames in the 1990s and he's from the Silent Generation (born 1935). When people become parents, they become more concerned about these types of things. For example, I doubt Tipper Gore was offended by Elvis Presley when she was a kid.

Something I noticed about people who hate baby boomers

Most people who hate on baby boomers do NOT hate them because of the economy or climate change. Maybe that used to be why baby boomers are hated, but that isn't the reason anymore. I bet many people who hate boomers don't even care much about climate change or the economy. Some might care, but I bet many don't care. The reason why people like to hate boomers is because they need to find someone to hate to feel better about themselves, so they pick baby boomers because baby boomers are an easy target. Also, it's very trendy to hate boomers nowadays, which also is why they hate boomers. If hating boomers wasn't so trendy, then 90% of the people who hate boomers would NOT hate them. I think what happened is some people decided that the baby boomers ruined the economy and environment, so people discovered that baby boomers were easy to demonize, and therefore were an easy target to hate on to feel better about themselves, and people always like to hate on others to feel better about themselves. If you look at the history of the internet, in every time period of the internet, there's that one group of people who people online like to hate. I remember in the early 2010s when the entire internet violently hated Justin Bieber, and his fans were cyberbullied constantly online. I remember when people online were hating on fedora hats and "neckbeards" in the mid-2010s. In the 2000s/early 2010s, people on the Internet were hating on emo kids. There were so many anti-emo memes and youtube videos created back then and one time an emo girl defended emo kids online back then and she got cyberbullied and received death threats for it. I kinda already know who the next outcasts of the internet will be in a few years, but that's irrelevant. Most of the hate towards boomers happens online, and people online always like to hate on certain people to feel better about themselves. All the people online today who hate boomers would be hating Justin Bieber if they were a teen/young adult in the early 2010s. 

I think baby boomers aren't that bad and they are condemned for criticizing millennials even though most don't criticize millennials at all. This hate towards boomers is a big trend online right now and this trend probably will go away years later.

Complaint 4: Baby boomers ruined the economy, housing, stock market, environment, etc.

Housing

Baby boomers get scapegoated for absolutely everything bad that happens. The media used to say that millennials are killing a certain industry, but that received backlash really quickly, and then the media may have said that to get clicks, but baby boomers have been scapegoated far more, without any backlash, for all of society's issues. Let's talk about this:

Baby boomers get blamed for the housing crisis because people demand that they move to retirement homes and whatnot. We don't have multi-generational households anymore, and that's problematic itself, but baby boomers aren't to blame for the housing crisis. The lack of supply is the issue. Baby boomers owned their own homes for the most part before the housing boom occurred in 2001. They did get to experience benefits in house values with less debt to pay.

Home ownership rates by age and birth cohort. IFS calculations using Family Expenditure and Family Resources surveys.

The larger rise in home values is mainly due to restricted supply of housing alongside demand factors that have little to do with an aging population of baby boomers. While older households may have gained a benefit from this, they only can have perhaps some indirect reason for this. If you look at housing prices in England for example, they did rise in the early 21st century. While this did benefit a lot of baby boomers, this boom was simply due to rising demand for limited supplies of housing stock. This was caused by increased immigration, less strict lending standards, and at least at first, pervasive growth in household incomes and wealth. Since the subsequent housing bust, London has claimed the lion’s share of the increase in English house prices. Much of England north of London has seen relatively little – if any – increase in prices since then. This does not match up with where the majority of baby boomers are – they have been aging in the wrong place to be the cause of this southerly tilt in the housing recovery. Young people are moving in the masses to cities and yet the countries aren't building enough new homes, which creates a lack of supply. Some older homeowners might oppose to politicians building new homes in their area, so some of them could contribute to this problem, but this doesn't mean the vast majority of older people are against it. If there's a lack of housing choices available and other risks, clinging to a household is the most a baby boomer might be able to do. Perhaps bringing back multi-generational households could solve this more than one might thinks. 

The low number of houses for sale caused house prices to go up in the 2010s/2020s, and investors bought up so many homes they reduced the supply of homes for sale. Landlords also did the same thing, and we shouldn't give them tax breaks live-in owners don't get. Everyone can get a tax break in one house. If they own and reside in the house but nothing more, they don't earn tax breaks for any single-family homes and condos they purchase later in life. This will help US home prices. In the US, homes aren't being built, which can contribute to lack of supply, but there's an even bigger problem, there can be homes available for many people despite less homes being built, but many cannot afford it. Home prices were caused by landlords/investors, and this caused a problem. Building more homes could be done but it won't solve it. We need to cover the difference between what people can afford and the actual expense of the housing. Housing Choice Vouchers helps people pay 30% of their income on rent, and the program will cover the balance. Vouchers reduce rental costs and allow people in poverty to spend more on food, medicine, and things that help their children prosper.

Environment

Baby boomers get a lot of blame for the environment. Hell, one study found that people over 60 account for 25% of greenhouse gas emissions in 2005 and 33% in 2015. Nonetheless, in 2005, only the Silent and G.I. generation were over 60. In 2015, only the first half of the baby boomers, Silent Generation and G.I. Generation were over 60. Nonetheless, we don't know if it's most or just some baby boomers who accounted for this. Other research has shown that many baby boomers have been very good with the environment. A 2021 study in the UK found that generations did not differ in how seriously they took the environment. In fact, the study found that older people are actually more likely than younger people to think that behaving in environmentally conscious ways will make an impact, with twice as many baby boomers boycotting a company in the last 12 months for environmental reasons than Generation Z. In fact, 61% of baby boomers vs 41% of millennials disagreed with the idea that there's no point in altering their behavior because "it won't make a difference". In fact, baby boomers were the least likely to agree with such a statement, whereas Generation Z were the most likely to agree with such a statement (a third of zoomers). A survey from 2020 found that people over 55 (which were baby boomers/Silent Generationers)  were ahead in almost every environmental activity the surveyors monitored. This includes recycling through local bin collections (84% for over 55s versus 54% for 16 to 24 year-olds), avoiding single use plastic items (66% versus 55%), eating only seasonal fruit and vegetables (47% versus 33%) and reducing plane travel (24% versus 21%). The young generation was only ahead in two things: veganism and buying second-hand items or up-cycling. 

Economy

Income inequality

Income inequality plays a major role in the downfall of the economy. There are many explanations for why income inequality rose in the late 20th century:

*College inequality in who goes to college and who doesn't, which caused a lot of income inequality as college became more of an expectation in the late 20th century. Many jobs began to require bachelor's degrees and thus college graduates made far more money than those without one.

*Mass incarceration caused income inequality. Contrary to popular belief, the War on Drugs only accounts for 20% of prison growth, and it's actually a myth that prisoners often are in there for non-violent crimes such as drug possession. A minuscule percentage were in there for drug possession, and they usually just switched their sentence to drug possession for plea bargains to get shorter sentences. Many prisoners actually are in there for violent crimes, and it is actually prosecutors who caused mass incarcerations by expanding life sentences, extending death row periods, creating three strike laws, etc. How many baby boomers are in the government or a prosecutor.

*Financial deregulation. Let's just realize that baby boomers were a lot more left-leaning up until the Reagan Era, but not all baby boomers are conservative. We also should realize only a minuscule percentage work in the government. The U.S. financial sector was tightly regulated when Democrats had power, but when Republicans were in charge, it got deregulated. These differences diminished in the late 20th century, and Republicans and Democrats united to promote deregulation, which caused financial deregulation. Financial deregulation caused income inequality. Deregulation isn't necessarily bad, but it depends on the industry.

*Globalization: Trade, driven by the integration of China into the World Economy, has worsen income inequality in high income countries: "Rising import competition has adversely affected manufacturing employment, led firms to upgrade their production and caused labor earnings to fall." Growing trade between the United States and the rest of the world, especially China, has increased the imports in the American economy, which led to less jobs in industries that produce these goods originally in the US. Offshoring also is a factor. Both led to less employment, falling labor force participation, and poor inflation-adjusted wage growth. Solutions to this include making US exports less competitive, including the depreciation of the US dollar.

Inflation

Baby boomers also get a lot of blame for rise in inflation. While an Australian study did show that baby boomers and Silent Generationers spend a lot more money, an American study found that zoomers and millennials spent more money than baby boomers. Some causes of inflation include the labor market, where inflationary pressures appearing large American fiscal packages would appear often in the labor market. Increased demand for workers put a lot of upward pressure on wages and then causes prices to skyrocket. Most of the inflation in 2021-2022 occurred due to developments that increased prices rather than wages. This includes big increases in global commodity prices and sectoral price spikes, a huge shift in demand to goods during the pandemic from services and pandemic obstacles in supply chains, where products are created and sold.

Great Recession and Financial Crisis 2007-08

The Great Recession continued to affects Americans into the 2010s, but the peak was December 2007 to June 2009. I'll just say this made a long-term impact on the economy, but why do people need to blame an entire generation defined solely by their birth cohort for this? Here's some causes of the Great Recession:

*Trade imbalances and debt bubbles: Inflow of investment dollars to fund the American trade deficit created the financial crisis and housing bubble crisis. The trade deficit increased in the 2000s decade, and it was financed by inflows of foreign savings, especially from Middle Eastern and East Asian countries. A lot of that money entered poor mortgages for overvalued houses, which contributed to the financial crisis. A lot of savings from nations in the Global South entered the mortgage market, which contributed to the American housing bubble. Many countries did become richer, especially India, Saudi Arabia or China. This is more of a foreign policy issue than a baby boomer issue.

*Economic inequality: middle class wages stayed the same and wealth flourished on the top, so homes had to deal with equities and deal with excessive debt to maintain a decent living. This caused quite an amount of debt in the American economy. In the United States, the household debt as percent of annual disposable income was 127% in late 2007. In 1990, it was 77%, so the household debt too high in proportion.

*Poor regulation: Private lenders were advised to reduce their lending standards by government affordable housing policies. The shadow banking system, which are non-traditional banking systems that tried to rival and exceed traditional banking in success, were not regulated and given financial safety nets.

*Unregulated markets and predatory lending: Predatory private mortgage lending and unregulated markets caused the housing and financial crisis. There was also homeowners unable to make mortgage payments due to adjustable-rate mortgages resetting, borrowers overextending and predatory lending. Some baby boomers may have done this, and some non-boomers may have, too, but lending organizations play a role in this with predatory lending. There were also international trade imbalances and unethical government regulation.

*Subprime mortgage crisis, which is actually caused by government officials and corporate leaders of financial institutions, which is comprised of some baby boomers but a minuscule percent of baby boomers have these extremely prestigious jobs. Improper mortgage lending was a major role in the subprime mortgage crisis. Mortgage leaders reduced their lending standards unethically, giving loans to people who should not have been given a loan to begin with. They handed out interest-only and adjustable rate mortgages that borrowers were unable to repay. Banks, investment companies, insurance companies and other financial institutions repackaged and sold mortgage backed securities and collateralized debt obligations to investors who believed this was safe investment. Different financial institutions took more risks than they should've. People did buy houses they couldn't afford. Some were victims of predatory lending but they bought houses they shouldn't have. The Fed raised interest rates, and homeowners couldn't afford their mortgage payments. These homeowners may or may not have been baby boomers. Overall, homeowners, boomer or not, played a role in the subprime mortgage crisis, but world central banks, credit rating agencies, underwriters, investors and especially lenders were major culprits. Predatory lenders were the main culprit.