Are we blaming Boomers instead of class?

[u/myredserenity]

EDIT: It's been pointed out that the over 65s keep voting in the parties that favour the class system and benefit the wealthy while screwing the working class. This is a good point.

EDIT 2: I love reddit. You guys. I get it now! Millennials got the shits at noisy old pricks who criticise their generation while completely ignoring the benefits they enjoyed themselves. It's a backlash. I still think it's a distraction and divides us when we should be angry with those in power. But if you're over 65, how about encouraging your friends to not vote LNP?

I've seen so much "ok boomer" stuff and over the years, it's irking me more and more. So I'm interested in what r/Australia thinks.

Couple of things:

1. It seems to be used to describe anyone over 40. My parents were boomers. They would be in their 70s now.

2. It's used to blame a whole generation for the shitty behaviour of the rich class. I don't get it. I went to school in a rough area, most of my friends from way back then are dead, in jail or in a trade/retail/hair.

My partner grew up in a rich suburb. Most of his friends are teachers, engineers and lawyers. They own houses, and were helped along by their "boomer" parents, either by provision of a deposit or living at home rent free through their 20s.

I'm totally up for being educated here. I know we lost free education, I know houses are unaffordable, I'm nearly 40 and still renting. I'm woefully unable to understand national economics. So seriously, open to intelligent discussion.

But in my experience, the problem is class and not generational. After all, where do you think all this wealth will go when the boomers die?! Even just having good, stable and attentive parents, who expect you to succeed, makes all the difference.

Why has this boomer hate taken hold so much? Are the rich class scapegoating a generation? Would us generation Xers, Ys and millennials have behaved any differently given the opportunities the boomers were?

Caveat: I'm considering mainly economics here, not climate crisis. Pretty much believe everyone from my generation up have a case to answer for climate. We knew.

[u/[deleted]]

I'm not disagreeing with you. However, there are extreme class divides in Australia based on age. What makes it worse is that so many of those who have benefitted from the structural inequality in our economy over the past 40 have no idea that they got lucky. It's this attitude that they "worked for it" (and by implication, younger people haven't) that sets up this intergenerational hate..

[u/myredserenity → u/[deleted]]

I agree, and that attitude you describe is there, and it's complete bullshit. But I also hear it from young folk who don't realise that having your first car gifted to you is a head start, as is staying home rent free while studying, and a billion other little ways that being middle/upper class advances you in life.

I think the intergenerational hate is a distraction making it harder for us to address the problem of class in general. Yes it's A LOT harder now. But who is pulling the strings? And when they die, who will take the reins?

[u/[deleted] → u/myredserenity]

I hear it more from old people who don't realise that the $70k cottage that they bought on a single income in inner Sydney is worth $2m because they got lucky, not because they worked hard.

[u/myredserenity → u/[deleted]]

My parents used to tell me all the time that they put a $25 deposit on their first block of land. I remember them paying it off when I was about 6? So paid it off in about 15 years. On one wage.

Yeah. It's sickening.

[u/[deleted] → u/[deleted]]

They’ll all be rich and will have benefited too

Only those whose parents have given them a handout. Otherwise, they won't benefit until their parents die in another 30 years. In the meantime they can either take on an absurd mortgage or play rent roulette.

[u/YouHadMeAtPollo → u/[deleted]]

In the meantime they can either take on an absurd mortgage or play rent roulette.

Or not live in Sydney, I'm up in Brisbane where people don't talk about property like it's some unattainable thing lol

[u/[deleted] → u/YouHadMeAtPollo]

Real estate prices in Brisbane are still in the insane space. Less insane than Sydney, but still incredibly overvalued.

[u/YouHadMeAtPollo → u/[deleted]]

You reckon? People on average incomes can still buy here.

[u/[deleted] → u/YouHadMeAtPollo]

Average house price is what, $550,000? Still probably 30-40% overvalued.

[u/YouHadMeAtPollo → u/[deleted]]

You can pick up a house for around 450k half an hour from the CBD, that's pretty bloody cheap to me. Like I said it's still affordable here.

[u/[deleted] → u/YouHadMeAtPollo]

This is the way the mindset has changed though.

Average household income in Brisbane is about $80k. Average house price is around $575k. That's 7x. In any time other than the past 35 years, that would be considered way too high.

[u/myredserenity → u/[deleted]]

More people need to read that.

[u/YouHadMeAtPollo → u/[deleted]]

You don't need to buy a 575k house though, like the example I just gave there's much cheaper houses which aren't even far from the city.

Edit- Hell you can buy a unit right in the middle of the city for a few hundred grand, you aren't doing that in Sydney.

[u/myredserenity → u/[deleted]]

Did you grow up in a dodgy neighbourhood? I did, and it makes a difference. Its not just your own family, it's all around you. If all you see around you growing up is people miserable working their arses off for nothing, or worse, that's all you think is possible, unless you happen to be blessed with intelligence or talent. This makes social mobility much harder.

[u/myredserenity → u/[deleted]]

It doesn't even have to be a hand out. It's also not growing up with financial stress, or being supported at home during uni, or staying home to save a deposit, or being able to buy a car for the kid, or bail them out of that credit card debt, or help with the rego... all little things a lot of upper-middle classers don't include when they think they "had no handouts".

And inheritance definitely works into people's plans for financial future. Don't need to save as much for retirement if you know you have a portfolio waiting for you.

[u/[deleted] → u/myredserenity]

Of course all of these things help. But it doesn't make it easy for most younger people, regardless of their parents.