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brycejones

Lifer
Oct 18, 2005
27,739
26,903
136
What?? The boomer generation will be transferring ~68 Trillion dollars to their children and charities as they die off over the next ~20 years. It's more complicated than that, you can read here for something that goes into a bit more detail: Millennial Inheritance.
Hoarded money that hasn't been taxed at approriate rates, will be passed through at reduced tax rates and tens of trillions of dollars of investment in actually improving things like education, infrastructure, and healthcare will be missed. Plus we're paying for their wars of choice they didn't want to pay for.

Decades of underinvestment in our country is like technical debt in a computer application instead of addressing issues when they were less expensive to fix we've waited and waited until the amount required to catch up just keeps increasing and it increases at an ever greater rate because more work has to be done.

See things like water systems and roads. The boomers pretty much rode out the investment of previous generations and did little to maintain that infrastructure now it's shot to hell and a massive problem for those coming after them to deal with. See the refusal to start dealing with climate change in a serious way. I could go on and on.
 

MrSquished

Lifer
Jan 14, 2013
23,156
21,282
136
And it doesn't say anything about the debt they've left them either. Both in $$$ terms, and in other things like the environment, etc.

And a bunch left us the current Republican party.

My boomer parents were (pops passed) and are great (mom who is going to live forever). At least when it came to how they voted and what they did with their money. My father was a progressive through and through and while we did not get along well, I appreciate my boomer father for his socio-political values he instilled in me.
 

Ajay

Lifer
Jan 8, 2001
16,094
8,109
136
This kind of proves my point - boomers will be transferring huge sums of wealth to their kids when they die because when they were alive they hoarded it all.
I wouldn't quite look at it that way. They had good pensions, some invested well, others have paid off their homes/properties, etc. That said, for half their lives - they managed to elect into congress and the presidency those who would best suit their own financial goals. I don't have the numbers yet, but I suspect the bulk of that $68T is in the hands of the top 10%ers.
 

IronWing

No Lifer
Jul 20, 2001
70,268
29,013
136
I find it interesting that the generation of the Civil Rights movement and anti-war protests/hippies somehow became the FYGM generation.
The Civil Rights Movement is something that happened to the Boomers, not something they did. The folks marching on Birmingham and Washington were older than the boomers. Sort of like JFK and the Apollo program, no boomer ever voted for Kennedy and the astronauts and engineers were older. Things the boomers watched somehow became remembered as things the boomers did.
 
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fskimospy

Elite Member
Mar 10, 2006
85,710
51,001
136
I wouldn't quite look at it that way. They had good pensions, some invested well, others have paid off their homes/properties, etc. That said, for half their lives - they managed to elect into congress and the presidency those who would best suit their own financial goals. I don't have the numbers yet, but I suspect the bulk of that $68T is in the hands of the top 10%ers.
I think housing is another good example of what I'm talking about - wealth for the boomers is primarily housing wealth (about 2/3rds), which is the result of the boomers enacting policies that have caused massive shortages, skyrocketing housing prices, and a humanitarian crisis within our borders so they could enrich themselves. Now their kids can largely only afford to buy a house if they inherit their parents' overvalued one.


I agree that wealth is heavily concentrated at the top and the federal government has shafted regular people to cater to the rich but also the housing crisis is mostly caused by local governments.
 

Brovane

Diamond Member
Dec 18, 2001
5,689
1,962
136
I think housing is another good example of what I'm talking about - wealth for the boomers is primarily housing wealth (about 2/3rds), which is the result of the boomers enacting policies that have caused massive shortages, skyrocketing housing prices, and a humanitarian crisis within our borders so they could enrich themselves. Now their kids can largely only afford to buy a house if they inherit their parents' overvalued one.


I agree that wealth is heavily concentrated at the top and the federal government has shafted regular people to cater to the rich but also the housing crisis is mostly caused by local governments.

I am Generation X and I could just barely afford a house in 2003 in Southern CA. I have no idea how my children(Generation Z) will be able to afford a house. Some areas are worse than others with Southern CA being really unaffordable unless you move into the desert.
 

fskimospy

Elite Member
Mar 10, 2006
85,710
51,001
136
I am Generation X and I could just barely afford a house in 2003 in Southern CA. I have no idea how my children(Generation Z) will be able to afford a house. Some areas are worse than others with Southern CA being really unaffordable unless you move into the desert.
Oh yeah absolutely. My wife's dad's house in Rancho Penasquitos just sold for well over a million and PQ is not some super nice area and his house wasn't super nice either.

NYC is the same way - we were looking at two bedrooms recently and even when you go pretty far south in Brooklyn a two bedroom runs you close to a million. We are fortunate that we have the down payment from the proceeds of selling our old place (at wildly inflated prices) but how is any normal person supposed to put together $200,000 and then pay $4-5k a month in mortgage and maintenance?
 

Ajay

Lifer
Jan 8, 2001
16,094
8,109
136
Hoarded money that hasn't been taxed at appropriate rates, will be passed through at reduced tax rates and tens of trillions of dollars of investment in actually improving things like education, infrastructure, and healthcare will be missed. Plus we're paying for their wars of choice they didn't want to pay for.

Decades of under investment in our country is like technical debt in a computer application instead of addressing issues when they were less expensive to fix we've waited and waited until the amount required to catch up just keeps increasing and it increases at an ever greater rate because more work has to be done.

See things like water systems and roads. The boomers pretty much rode out the investment of previous generations and did little to maintain that infrastructure now it's shot to hell and a massive problem for those coming after them to deal with. See the refusal to start dealing with climate change in a serious way. I could go on and on.
I agree in large part. In terms of wars of choice, Cheney, I mean Bush, pulled the wool over ppls eyes and stuck us in a quagmire. With climate change, the oil companies, in particular Exxon, spent untold amounts of money spreading lies and FUD to keep the public from having a clue about what needed to be done.

That said, what I was getting on about, was that their is going to be allot of money flowing into the pockets of some of the GenXers and the Millenniums. They are stuck with the bills, but also with a fair bit of money - lets see if they do better.
 

Drach

Golden Member
Apr 24, 2022
1,132
1,794
106
I am Generation X and I could just barely afford a house in 2003 in Southern CA. I have no idea how my children(Generation Z) will be able to afford a house. Some areas are worse than others with Southern CA being really unaffordable unless you move into the desert.
Same gen X. I saved what I could since I was 18. It took till I was 41 to afford my first house in the SF bay area. My eldest is much farther ahead of me than where I was at her age.
My boomer brother and mother had the same difficulty.
 
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kt

Diamond Member
Apr 1, 2000
6,018
1,324
136
What?? The boomer generation will be transferring ~68 Trillion dollars to their children and charities as they die off over the next ~20 years. It's more complicated than that, you can read here for something that goes into a bit more detail: Millennial Inheritance.
I think you just proved his point. Boomers can't take their money to their grave, but they still hoarding it instead of doing something good with it like pay into bettering the future generations.
 
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Ajay

Lifer
Jan 8, 2001
16,094
8,109
136
I think you just proved his point. Boomers can't take their money to their grave, but they still hoarding it instead of doing something good with it like pay into bettering the future generations.
They can’t, at this point, do much about the tax structure. They aren’t the dominant voters anymore (IIRC). They will be benefiting younger generations by inheritances. Those younger generations will be able to pay off student debt, buy houses, etc. So it’s not nothing. This is just anecdotal, but my and my wife's mom are in their eighties. They have voiced concerns over how much they’ll each be able to leave us. So, I imagine, some are ‘hoarding' their money at this stage solely to the benefit of their children - which is not an unreasonable instinct for parents.
 
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Ajay

Lifer
Jan 8, 2001
16,094
8,109
136
If your moms are in their eighties, they aren't boomers.
Hmm, silent generation. Good to know. Still, they have often voted for the same economic policies. Otherwise the tax systems wouldn’t be so skewed, IMHO. But, to be fair - the taxation system and wage equality were better when they were in many of them were building up their wealth (mostly homes).
 

Brovane

Diamond Member
Dec 18, 2001
5,689
1,962
136
They can’t, at this point, do much about the tax structure. They aren’t the dominant voters anymore (IIRC). They will be benefiting younger generations by inheritances. Those younger generations will be able to pay off student debt, buy houses, etc. So it’s not nothing. This is just anecdotal, but my and my wife's mom are in their eighties. They have voiced concerns over how much they’ll each be able to leave us. So, I imagine, some are ‘hoarding' their money at this stage solely to the benefit of their children - which is not an unreasonable instinct for parents.

I think this, the Boomers are "hoarding" their wealth because they really don't know what their future long term care expenses are.
 
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Vic

Elite Member
Jun 12, 2001
50,422
14,336
136
I find it interesting that the generation of the Civil Rights movement and anti-war protests/hippies somehow became the FYGM generation.
Well.. they did vote for Nixon and Reagan in massive landslides, so it's not like this is something new.
Boomers haven't changed. They're the generation that flipped off both their parents and their children with no fucks given in either direction.
 

Red Squirrel

No Lifer
May 24, 2003
68,532
12,649
126
www.anyf.ca
Since when is saving money a bad thing? They worked for that money, it's their right to "hoard" it if they want to. If they are retired they also have limited income so it's the smart thing to do in order to have an emergency fund.
 

IronWing

No Lifer
Jul 20, 2001
70,268
29,013
136
Since when is saving money a bad thing? They worked for that money, it's their right to "hoard" it if they want to. If they are retired they also have limited income so it's the smart thing to do in order to have an emergency fund.
Using benefits provided by the taxpayers of prior generations and then slashing those benefits to generations following simply to enrich yourself is a douchebag move.
 

Brovane

Diamond Member
Dec 18, 2001
5,689
1,962
136
Using benefits provided by the taxpayers of prior generations and then slashing those benefits to generations following simply to enrich yourself is a douchebag move.

I do find it very ironic when Boomer's complain about ObamaCare(Socialized Medicine) as they sit and enjoy the benefits of MediCare.

medicare-irony-worker.jpg
 

brycejones

Lifer
Oct 18, 2005
27,739
26,903
136
Since when is saving money a bad thing? They worked for that money, it's their right to "hoard" it if they want to. If they are retired they also have limited income so it's the smart thing to do in order to have an emergency fund.

Yeah, you probably don't understand the context since you are Canadian.