PHILADELPHIA: Few generations have been so subject to mythologising as the baby boomers, born in the 20 years after the end of the Second World War. According to their detractors (who are often baby boomers themselves) they had it all: free love, free universities, final salary pensions, at least two property booms and a guaranteed job. Their offspring, by contrast, cannot afford to buy, or even rent, a home; leave university with debts they will never pay off; will never have a steady career; and can look forward to a miserable state pension at the age of 70 – if they are lucky.
There is some truth in this. But only some. The pension of a younger baby boomer aged around 55 will probably be worse than that of his father, since the defined benefit schemes that the last generation enjoyed have largely ended. Moreover, few plan to retire early since many need to look after both their adult children and aging parents – a new social phenomenon. A report points out that the baby boomers are an eclectic group with a wide range of needs, incomes and savings (if any).
They are right to say that there has been a tendency in recent years to use the term “baby boomer” to provoke inter-generational division and resentment. It has even been suggested that this will be the first generation that has not bequeathed a richer nation to its children. This is almost certainly rubbish, unless there is a calamity that puts a permanent end to economic growth.
Moreover, the baby boomer generation may well have made money from the housing boom but is using much of it to help their children on to the property ladder. Recent figures also showed that people who started work in the Nineties were paid 40 per cent more in their first 20 years of employment than those who started work in the Seventies. The baby boomers have also been traduced as pampered and selfish when in fact a large number have been involved in charitable and voluntary work.
The report says that if we are to ensure that our increasingly aging society is prosperous for all future generations, older and younger generations need to work together rather than be pitched against each other…