Whether it is housing access, spending that causes inflation, or climate change, young folks (including me) love to blame the Boomers.
But is it true?
Recent survey data calls the assumption into question.
The oldest cohorts are leading the decline in support for mass immigration, according to last week’s most reliable population survey in Australia, conducted by TAPRI. At the same time, younger generations remained much more supportive:
First, a brief comment on the 38 percent of voters who as of December 2023 endorsed Labor’s high migration policies (Table 21). Most of them shared the progressive agenda, in which migration is seen as part of Australia’s need to open up to the world.
This group included many young people and students. They supported a high immigration intake despite the fact (explored further below) that young people face severe difficulties in the housing and rental markets, markets in which migrants are obvious competitors.
…Since two thirds of Australian voters are home owners (either outright or with a mortgage), their concerns about the impact of immigration on the cost of housing probably reflect an altruistic concern for other Australians. These include people who are having to deal with increasing housing costs (high prices for buyers and high rents for renters). Those burdened with crippling housing costs no doubt also include their own offspring.
I would add that the paradox of the Boomer generation is that it is far more politically engaged and active than younger cohorts. For instance, political groups like GetUp are dominated utterly by Boomer membership. So, if you are looking for mass mobilisation for change, you’re much more likely to get it from Boomers than Millennials et al.
Again, we have the paradox of the Boomer as perpetrator and policeman. In political terms, younger generations are not much at all.
Adding to the picture, Westpac released its superb Red Book of consumer attitudes yesterday and again, the mythos of ‘feeding and fattening’ Boomers versus persecuted Millennials broke down:
― The inflation surge over the last two years has seen a broad-based slump in sentiment. By many accounts it has also widened the ‘generation gap’ between the ‘baby-boomers’ and others, especially millennials and Gen Z. To what extent does this wedge refl ected in sentiment reads?
― Chart 9 below shows sentiment measures for each of the generations based on age-group responses, specifi cally: ‘baby boomers’ (b. 1946-65, now aged 59-78, accounting for 24% of the population aged 18+); ‘gen X’ (b. 1966-1985, aged 39-58, 32%); ‘millenials’ (b. 1986-1996, aged 30-39, 19%); and ‘gen Z’ (b. 1996- 2010, aged 14-28, 19%).
― The fi rst thing to note is that, generational issues notwithstanding, there is a strong positive sentiment eff ect associated with being younger. Historically this alone has been worth about 1ppt on sentiment for every two years of age.
― Chart 10 shows most of this is due to different assessments of fi nances and the economy. Younger cohorts are typically moving through periods of more rapid income rises (as they enter the workforce and move through the early stages of a career or trade). On the economy, they may also have a narrower frame of reference, having not experienced major recessions (although the GFC and COVID period may balance they somewhat).
Of note is that younger generations are much more positive than older ones, as Albonomics guts living standards. To some extent, this reflects the deteriorating health system for older cohorts.
That said, although everybody is negative, the spread between older and younger has widened. The Boomers we blame for overspending see travails in the current economy that are holding them back.
The younger cohorts are most confident and, presumably, most freely spending, even though everybody with half a brain can see that they are being screwed by an industrial ram supercharged under the Albanese government.
This is not to say that Boomers are not better off under Albonommics. They are property owners, mortgage-free, and getting a return on cash savings.
There is something extraordinary going on here.
Either the Boomers’ superior political engagement, parental instincts, and education give them better insight into the Albonomics class war destruction wrought upon their children.
Or the progressive system has so brainwashed their children that they support their destruction. Reduced to cookie-cut corporate neurotics distracted by genitalia and post-colonial obligation, several entire generations have lost their voice for economic wellbeing.
I have noted many times before how this inverts Malow’s hierarchy of needs and how this is certain to destabilise the mental health of a younger generation over time:
Will Millennials et al. be content to live in a drain pipe at constant risk of harm, kept warm only by the dumpster fire of gender confusion and post-colonial retribution?
Any human can give them the answer, not least the immigrants fleeing poverty, on whose behalf Millennial cohorts seem so desperate to suffer.
It is time for younger cohorts to take responsibility for themselves, not the rest of the world. To rise and throw off the shackles of woke brainwashing.
Or they are genuinely $%^&ed.
