It's ridiculous to blame an entire generation for anything. We Boomers are the products of our time, just like the generations before and after. Did the greatest generation create WWII? Did the Boomers create the Post war boom economy? No, we were the beneficiaries of it.
What I will agree with is Boomers by and large made things too easy on their kids myself included. The entire concept of "work ethic" is gone. Millennials are struggling mainly with sky high costs for college and housing. Boomers didn't cause that, government subsidies did.
Boomers made things too easy on their kids? LMAO, it is the Boomers that were spoiled ass rotten. I mean can you say "Woodstock"? Want to compare a school lunch that a Boomer ate with the ones our kids eat today? Boomers got real hamburgers. And the ketchup, it didn't count as a vegetable.
But that "work ethic" comment just really nails your distorted reality down. I was a retirement consultant for years. I still do a little bit of it, strictly referral only, and I am damn picky about the clients I choose to work with. It is a side gig now. The reason, flippin Boomers.
I really enjoyed working with the greatest generation. They were respectful, curious, and most of all, they didn't think that they knew everything nor that the world owed them a damn living. They were humble, and they were grateful.
So, when the Boomers started retiring it was like flippin a damn switch. I have a referral appointment in the South Mountains. People out there are not the most welcoming to outsiders, but I was always considered one of them due to my parents and I had built a pretty strong reputation in the area.
So, as I am getting to know this couple they are ranting and raving about the "younger generation". How they have no work ethic, how they spend everything they make, how they have no discipline. How they worked hard for everything they had, sacrificed and saved to prepare for their retirement. I just listen, and nod. Then we get down to the brass tacks.
First, evaluate the home as an asset. I ask them if they have a mortgage. Nope, house is paid for. I told them that was good. From my experience, working with everyone from furniture factory laborers to engineers and doctors, the biggest determinate of one's wealth was when the house was paid off. The earlier, the better. So, I asked them, when did you pay off the house? Oh, we didn't, it was a wedding present from our parents.
I give them a strange look, toss it off, and move on to the retirement account. I see you got half a million dollars in your retirement accounts, guess not having a house payment for all those years allowed you to save money. Oh no, they said, we inherited those accounts.
I start gathering my things. They were like, what are you doing, where are you going. I literally snarled at them, "You spent the better part of half an hour bitching about the younger generation, how they had no work ethic, how they didn't save, and yet here you are, 65 years old, never had a house payment, and spent every damn dime that ran through your fingers. Show me, show me one damn thing that you have that YOU paid for. I couldn't possibly work with you."
That is a boomer. No appreciation, delusional, thinking they made their own way when everything was handed to them. Rather it is Uncle Sam, with Medicare and Medicaid, or their parents, with wedding gifts the size of a house and palatial inheritances because their parents had discipline. They really believe they "earned" it. Flippin sick.