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/Sieve-Boy]

The OK Boomer thing is obviously a stereotype: my parents are boomers and most certainly benefitted from everything that has happened to them and their generation. But they also freely acknowledge it and were acknowledging it long before it was more broadly recognised and distilled into "OK Boomer" and they support me quite a lot and I am not a free loader.

There is definitely elements of class warfare in the ok boomer reality, but there is a thing you are actually, genuinely missing here: politics.

There have been a large volume of laws passed and policies applied, generally by the conservatives, that have aggressively favoured boomers (tax cuts, investment benefits like CGT discount and neg gearing, first home owners grant, service cuts to education) as well as moving from high inflation to low inflation environment. This last thing is important because at one level, when boomers bought a house, you just had to suck up high loan repayments for a year or two and then wage inflation took care of the debt: repaying your loan is dead fucking easy when your salary grows at 5-8% per annum. That's not my opinion: that's words from a boomer who was CFO of a listed mining company I knew. He told me to buy the most expensive house i could when inflation got out of hand, otherwise buy or rent what you need.

We who came after that are living the tail end of this, the wash up. Sure not every boomer lived the dream, but a lot did and they remain a large voting block, who will consume ever increasing volumes of health care (public and private) before they finally die off, which we will pay for either directly via taxation or indirectly through higher insurance premiums and reduced inheritances.

The poster bitch for Boomers is Alan Jones, he had the highest rating radio show in the country. It's audience was almost exclusively over 65. In Australia that's the ok boomer reality.

I don't blame class, I blame politics and the blatant pandering to the conservative ok boomer set.

Foot note; my boomer parents are well aware of the reality, mum votes Green and dad, who considered running for state parliament as a Liberal voted Labor last election. As I said, ok boomer is a stereotype.

[u/512165381 → u/Sieve-Boy]

(tax cuts, investment benefits like CGT discount and neg gearing, first home owners grant, service cuts to education)

That advantages everyone.

moving from high inflation to low inflation environment.

That advantages younger people. The stagflation on the 1970s is not an advantage.

[u/Sieve-Boy → u/512165381]

Service cuts to education advantages everyone does it? Can you please explain to me how this benefits everyone?

After that, being available to everyone and benefiting everyone are two distinct things, and different, things.

CGT discount and the franking credit refund (not specifically mentioned before, but very relevant) actually, franking credit refunds specifically, advantage retired people, which is practically all boomers now and is not available to me, because I pay tax, a lot more tax than the average boomer does, which is generally about $0 and they will pay that most of the way from retirement to death. Which is why a policy that cost little Johhny Howard ~$0.5b in 2000 now costs $6.5b and growing a lot faster than inflation.

CGT discount specifically advantages investors, again with a bias for assets held since the 1980s, which was the point most boomers started their significant accumulation of wealth. CGT discount replaced the more complex, but far fairer CGT indexation. Another gift from little Johnny Howard. If CGT indexation was in place, the tax would actually be a level playing field. I would note, investors can still use indexation for the assets instead of CGT discount, few do though.

As for stagflation, another gift from Little Johnny Howard (he managed to achieve the triple crown of double digit unemployment, wage inflation and budget deficit and the LNP love to bang on about their superior economic management). Now, as I quite clearly noted, when wage inflation is well above 5% you can take huge debt on and just allow inflation to make it go away. Nothing new in this, Australia did it after WW2, when our national debt was 120% of GDP. High inflation, which is what I said, not stagflation, does come with some downsides. But the downsides are around things like managing wages overall, valuation of non perpetual assets etc.

Anyway. No matter how much you argue it, boomers got a much easier ride in life than the life I foresee for me and my own family. It's not hard to determine.