It’s all your fault, boomers! I was just reading several articles where Millennials list all the failures of Boomers. The number one failure seems to be that boomers didn’t spend their lives planning ahead so that Millennials could have a stress-free life. This seems pretty unfair.

FYI: for this article, we will consider Millennials to be ages 26-40. If you want to read the articles, just Google ‘boomers fault’.

I have news for them, no previous generation has been able to look into a crystal ball and create conditions for a perfect world. We are still waiting for computers and AI to make that possible.

How could they expect boomers to plan for anything when life was changing at such a fast pace from the 70s until now? Some boomers were just kids in the 70s and were most concerned with having fun in the early 80s. Looking back, some of us see how we were just as socially engineered and manipulated as people are today, only through the mediums of cable TV and movies instead of Netflix and social media.

As 20-somethings we got busy doing the same things that our parents were busy doing when they were in their prime;getting married, working to pay bills, taking care of kids, managing all the details of life, and navigating the ups and downs of economic and political chaos.

Then 9/11 happened, the internet was unleashed, the Great Recession brought the world to it’s knees and globalization changed the economy so much that most of us have just been trying to hang on.

The reason the Millennials do not understand this is because they did not live before the internet became part of our daily lives. They don’t know what it’s like to have privacy or life without social media or smartphones. They didn’t live through the Civil Rights era, the gas shortages, the invention of microwave ovens, cordless phones, and the first man on the moon. They are being taught different values and beliefs that collide with the ones we were taught.

They have not spent years working for the same job, supporting families, managing home repairs and yard work and participating in school, church, and community life, because so many of them aren’t married, don’t have kids, or own houses. They have been enjoying their youth far into adulthood, often living with their parents . In other words, they are living very different lives than their parents did.

It’s easy to blame previous generations for the current economic and world problems, but most of these problems are simply human problems that have always existed in one form or another. Access to so much information creates the illusion that the problems are growing when the world is actually improving in multiple ways, according to Bill Gates. Overall people are living longer, having higher standards of living, and better health.

However, I actually saw one Millennial complaining that Boomers are living too long and costing them money.

Another problem that several people living in Germany mentioned was that of boomers retiring and actually wanting to get their pension payments. These young people thought that boomers should have to keep working and paying into the system longer to get paid.

A huge drop in the number of tax-payers will also become a problem in the United States when all the boomers start collecting their Social Security. The aging of the work force and retiring of workers is also causing a problem for business owners that will probably eventually be solved by automation, but for now means supply chain issues are getting serious.

But whose fault is this lack of tax-paying workers really? Blame the generation who did not have enough children to replace the working class, which is every generation since the boomers were born. Fertility rates dropped below replacement rates in the late 60s and never recovered.

But why did the boomers have fewer children, along with Gen X, Y, and probably Z? We can blame, or praise, depending on your views on population growth, several trends: women’s changing roles in society, economic and political instability, and changes in the perceived value of children relative to their cost, as well as the actual costs of having children.

You can also blame environmental activism which jumped into high gear in the 70s along with all the other social movements, and helped push the belief that there were ‘too many people’ in the world. Unfortunately, no one seemed concerned about a lack of future workers at that time.

The 70s was a time of change and inflation, like the 2020s.

In 1970 a new house cost $23,400.00 and by 1979 was $58,500.00

In 1970 the average income per year was $9,350.00 and by 1979 was $17,550.00

In 1970 a gallon of gas was 36 cents and by 1979 was 86 cents

In 1970 the average cost of new car was $3,900.00 and by 1979 was $5,770.00

https://www.thepeoplehistory.com/1970s.html

If you want to blame someone for today’s problems, blame the feminists who pushed birth control, abortion, and divorce as the means of empowering for women. Blame the hippies who burned their flags and bras and embraced the sexual revolution and drug culture. Blame the politicians who grew the national debt into a monster that will never die.

Blame the banks who turned Americans into credit-slaves. Blame the TV commercials, newspapers, and magazines that sold the public the idea of easy credit, consumerism, and escapism. Blame the schools for not teaching real-life skills. Blame the church for not preaching the truth. Just remember that not all boomers were guilty of these things or agreed with them.

I think we should differentiate between true boomers born in the 40s and 50s from those born in the early-60s because a lot of cultural changes happened in those 18 years. Personally I identify more with the Gen Xers on many topics.

The truth is that every generation since Adam and Eve is to blame. People are by nature envious, selfish, greedy, and they like instant gratification! They don’t like being told no, or having to work hard, or not having what other people have. They don’t have good insight into their own motivations so they assume the best about themselves and the worst of others.

And they want to to be free to have sex with whoever they want with no consequences, to abuse their bodies with drugs and alcohol, and for someone else to be responsible for their expenses, their children ,and their futures. They need Jesus!

One thing I think the Millennials are correct about is that we are guilty of voting for politicians that put the country into more debt. However, I believe that any politician would have done this, no matter who we voted for. America’s and the world’s economic problems are systemic, not based on who is in office.

We may have spent money on different programs or had different regulations, but we still would have been in debt. Our economy is built on a system of buying and selling money and credit. I don’t think the government is even worried!

Supposedly Millennials are the socially-conscious generation that cares about equality and the environment. That’s great. But they need to be more self-aware and recognize their own faults, such as being very prone to group-think and being hyper-sensitive, quick to judge and blame, and unable to accept differences in other people. Those are common traits of people who have unrealistic expectations and think a little too highly of themselves. Thankfully Gen Z seems to be much more tolerant and grounded in reality.

But, as a 1964-born Boomer myself, I am not offended by the complaints of the younger generations. They are the kids that I watched grow up and I love them and wish I could reassure them that things will work out. The future looks a little scary, but they are smart and resourceful and creative. If they seek God first and his righteousness, they can’t go wrong. I look forward to seeing what they do with the world they are inheriting.

Hopefully they will be able to make the world a better place for my grandkids, if I get any. On a side note, I had an idea for a ‘rent-a-grandkid for the day’ program. What do you think? 🙂