It’s Their Fault

Much of the reflexive anti-baby boomer anger that we younger generations carry is stirred up in discussions about real estate, especially in these post-bubble days.  Perhaps it is natural then, that one of the most drawn out forum debates on the issue of boomers shows up on a relocation website.  Let the flame war begin (actually the discussion is more informed and civil than most)…

Look where we are today. Housing prices that got so out of control that we needed all types “exotic” loans just of afford them. Of course this was caused by a lot of boomers getting greedy and thinking they “deserved” these ridiculous high prices. Also they got into flipping houses alot which only drove house prices up more. It was insane! That’s why I’m extremely happy that a lot of the housing markets are going down the toilet. I pray that things finally get back to being affordable. 

A Bay Stater opens with a rant… but some interesting (though questionably spelled) perspectives are offered:

Waaaah! Waaaah! Waaaaah!

The only thing wrong with baby boomers is the whiny instant-gratification short attention span kids they raised who expect everything to be handed to them instead of earned.

But isn’t that because that’s what their parents got?

The Baby Boomers, to be fair, are only NOW coming into a majority in Congress and other positions of power. Their legacy will be made or broken based on how they handle the following issues:  

-Postwar Iraq

-Social Security

-Medicare/Medicaid

-The changing American economy

So… get to it, Boomers! Time to solve these problems. Because, if you kick them on down the line to your kids, they really will have a powerful, well-founded case that the Boomers were one of the worst generations in American history - one that loved to rack up debt and pawn the payments onto their kids.

Bay, your points are fascinating. As a baby boomer, I’ve lived a bit longer then you have and I can tell you that each generation feels the one before them did it wrong. Well, soon it will be your turn and I wish I’d still be alive to read what all atrocities your generation will have caused in the eyes of your successors.

I’m a Boomer who is very disappointed in my generation, but for completely different reasons than those most commonly stated in this thread.  

I think that Boomers started out well, overthrowing the tyranny of suppression, fear, superstition, conformity and materialistic greed that was characteristic of America in the 1950s and early 60s.

But as we aged, we created a new tyranny of political correctness, fear-mongering about everything we formerly trusted, hysteria about protecting children from reality, more materialistic greed than any generation has exhibited in history, new forms of racial tension and oppression of minorities through the worship of “victims”, massive budget deficits, and a sense of entitlement that places us at the center of the universe with no concern for the legacy we’re going to leave for our grandchildren.

Yeah, boomers suck. Cuz we’re human. “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory” or

something like that.