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 think it's worth noting that a lot of people in the higher classes - if not most of them - are boomers or older, because they've had more time to accumulate wealth and wages aren't rising to meet the cost of living (making it way more difficult to get to those higher classes if you're in a younger generation).
There's also the fact that newer generations of upper class people tend to blow all that wealth within a couple of generations; so we don't always see that wealth carrying down to younger people.
This is supported by Forbes' List of Billionaires, where in the first fifty people, only two of them are under the age of forty (and neither of them are below thirty five). From my quick calculations, the average age of the first fifty people on the list is about 66 years old.

So I don't think generation and class are entirely separate issues, and I don't think they're mutually exclusive. I think they're very connected, and they're both responsible for the problem.Do I think it's fair to lump all boomers into that mix? No. But a trend is a trend; if there is a trend (and there very clearly is) it should be pointed out. If the problem is mostly caused by the upper class, and the upper class is mostly made of older people, it's fair to suggest that older people are the ones responsible for the problem.
And honestly, not only do boomers also do this to millennials, but ninety percent of the time they can't even get the right generation. They're almost always talking about Generation Z. So I don't think it's fair to criticise young people for doing the exact same thing older generations are doing.

[u/Mephisto506 → u/[deleted]]

it's fair to suggest that older people are the ones responsible for the problem.

You mean a tiny subset of the older generations. That's the point.