Should we blame the boomers?

“Younger Americans outline their generational frustrations.

 

Americans born between the end of World War II and the mid-1960s did not sign up for membership in a group called the baby boomers.

 

Can, or should, we hold them collectively responsible anyway?

 

In a new video for New York Times Opinion, younger Americans from the New York region give voice to the frustrations of the generations that have followed the boomers.

 

They’re upset about the high cost of housing, of health care, of raising a child. They’re frustrated by political dysfunction and economic inequality. They’re not thrilled that the planet keeps getting hotter. They blame the boomers.

 

Is it fair to be mad at people of a certain age, collectively? Is it reasonable? Is it useful to talk about what went wrong on their watch?

 

The baby boomers are the product of an unusually well-defined demographic event: The greatest generation came home from saving the world in WWII and begot the luckiest generation.

 

They were self-aware. They saw themselves as a generation. They talked about it a lot. They knew they were coming of age in an era of great opportunity and urgent challenges, and we know they knew because they talked about that, too. A lot.

 

They said they were going to change the world, and they did. Just not for the better.

 

As one of the younger people in the video tells boomers, “When given a choice between protecting your interests or investing in a better future for your children, you usually chose yourselves.”

 

Thanks a Lot, Boomers

 

The postwar generation had a good run. Now we’re all paying for it.” [1]

 

1. Opinion Today: Should we blame the boomers? Appelbaum, Binyamin.  New York Times (Online) New York Times Company. Oct 17, 2025.