Not ok Boomer.
Millennials claim that they refuse to take care of their aging Baby Boomer parents, who they blame for saddling them with soaring housing costs, student debt and other financial woes.
The grievances first surfaced in a viral Reddit thread from 2023, which was responding to a Vox article warning that cash-strapped 30-somethings were not prepared for the financial realities of eldercare.
However, the digital soapbox resurfaced this week as the post-war generation prepares to reach 80, with 4 million Boomers expected to attain that milestone this year, per the Wall Street Journal.
In the thread, posted in the boomer-bashing subreddit r/BoomersBeingFools, the poster had deemed eldercare “not an issue” as “we refuse to take care of you,” adding “old folks home it will be.”
“I think they should just pull themselves up by their bootstraps,” said another, invoking the age-old Boomer adage used to dismiss complaints by younger generations.
“Most didn’t help their kids, why would their kids help them,” fumed a third.
A fourth wrote, “Only Boomers would openly rob multiple generations of a sustainable and secure future and still expect people to burden themselves further with their end of life care.”
“Hey boomers, remember that social safety net you dismantled and those homes and cars you got before you pulled up the ladder behind you?” griped one disillusioned commenter. “Yeah, you need to sell that stuff to take care of yourself. Because f–k you. That’s why.”
Many were echoing long-running observations by economists that, contrary to their “hard work” mantra, Boomers benefited by getting in housing and equity markets in record numbers and at the just the right time before their four-decade appreciation cycles. Fortune reported.
They were also the largest voting bloc for nearly 40 years, from the 1970s to 2010s, meaning their votes influenced the policies that shaped housing markets, taxes on capital gains, the university systems and more.
Despite the tough talk online, these millennial keyboard apparently don’t put, er withhold, their money where their mouth is.
A Population Reference Bureau fact sheet noted that the percentage of family caregivers assisting older adults soared from 18.2 million in 2011 to 24.1 million in 2022, right around when millennials’ parents came of old age.
Adult children also comprise the largest percentage — 40% — of family caregivers in America, according to Fortune.
Why millennials can’t just rely on the cushy inheritance received during the fabled “greatest wealth transfer in history,” Because it’s apparently grossly overstated.
A Realtor.com study found that of the postwar Gen’s roughly $93 trillion in assets, only around $36 trillion will trickle down to Gen X and millennial heirs over the next two decades once you account for retirement spending, debt, taxes, and fees.
As such, they often use their last asset, their house, to bankroll their retirement instead of passing it to their next of kin.
To make matters worse, the US housing supply gap widened to 4.03 million units as new construction faltered last year, driving a housing shortage that has essentially eliminated Zoomers and millennials from the market.
“Over the past decade, many households, particularly younger ones, have delayed forming due to limited supply and worsening affordability,” said Realtor.com senior economic research analyst Hannah Jones. “Rather than establishing independent households, many young adults have remained with parents, lived with extended family, or shared housing with roommates.”
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