Erin over at Existential Ergonomics wrote a great piece called “The Boomer Mentality,” in which she details the grasping, materialistic, selfish nature of the various Boomers she and her boyfriend encountered on a trip to Yellowstone National Park.  It’s a post worth reading, and Erin handles the contentious subject matter deftly and with humor and grace.  It is clear she does not hate Boomers, but she certainly recognizes their idiosyncrasies and hypocrisies for what they are.

I, too, do not hate Boomers.  My parents and most of my aunts and uncles are Boomers.  Many of my colleagues are Boomers.  Boomers have been among the kindest, most supportive people I have ever known.

I also do not like intergenerational politics.  They seem like another way to divide us and to pit us against once another.  It also seems like a game that is targeted specifically towards Americans and other people in Western countries.  You never hear about Vietnamese kids complaining about their Boomer parents, for example.

All of that said, the Boomer generation—those born between 1946-1964—are a difficult bunch.  Both stingy and lavish, they horde housing, blow their wealth on frivolous luxuries, and seemingly refuse to help their struggling Millennial children, a generation (mine) that really got screwed economically.  At the same time, the Boomers as a group refuse to acknowledge how easy they had it from an economic perspective, and are baffled that the rest of us can’t just make a fortune in sales overnight (or what have you).

Of course, it’s not their fault, exactly.  They are the product of their parents’ choices, the so-called Greatest Generation.  That generation faced a major world war and a devastating Great Depression before that, so they overcompensated and created one of the most spoiled generations in the history of the world.  They also lavished this generation with high-paying jobs that required few skills, coupled with generous healthcare benefits and fat pensions.

So, in response to Erin’s very mild and humorous post, the Boomers came out of the woodwork.  Boomers are either the heroes or the victims of their stories—they are never the villains.  Remember, this generation grew up believing they were going to change the world (and, in many ways, they have) for the better, and that their self-indulgent lifestyles were some manner of high-minded idealism.  We all know the aging hippie Boomer who refuses to believe that the 1960s are over.

One of the comments was from a woman who has this picture for her Gravatar:

Can’t you just feel the smug self-righteousness oozing from that tiny picture?  It looks like she carries lemons around in her purse so she can maintain her pucker all day.

Her comment was no better, and written with the subtlety of a rant on Facebook:

This comment goes against the excellent advice that if you don’t have something good to say, don’t say anything. However, as one of the oldest Boomers living, I’m going to make an exception to that advice. Boomers are currently between 60-78 years of age. The reason so many are travelling is because at least in the 65-78 group many/most are retired and finally have the time to travel. Fortunately, everyone younger than 60 is pleasant, drives perfectly, and is committed to working well together. As soon as we Boomers have kicked the bucket the world will be a better place. Or … is the problem with having old people around that they’re old? As post-Boomers grow old, how much do you want to bet that they annoy young people just as much as (some) current old people annoy you?!

So, dear readers, I offered up my own scathing critique to this smug old lady:

Classic Boomer cope. Yes, we Millennials are not perfect; yes, we favor quality-of-life over eighty-hour workweeks.

The issue is not enjoying the fruits of your years of labor. I sincerely think most Boomers do not appreciate how easy their path in life was. Yes, y’all were an exceptionally hardworking generation, but the constant self-indulgence and this weird desire to work until you die is putting a massive strain on the rest of us.

I love Boomers—my parents are Boomers, and do not fit the negative stereotypes—and the elderly. I think older Americans have every right to enjoy their twilight years. At the same time, reserve some fraction of the massive resources—valuable homes, pension plans, 401(k)s, cash reserves, bloated Social Security benefits, etc.—for your children and grandchildren to make their lives easier.

I don’t know about Erin (the author of this excellent and very fair post), but I came out of graduate school in 2009 amid the Great Recession. Both of my brothers also found themselves looking for work shortly thereafter, in the fields of higher education and law. We are all very hardworking and have excelled in our respective fields (I’m a schoolteacher and musician). But landing a job was nigh-on-impossible in 2009. Yes, I know some of the older Boomers lost huge chunks of their 401(k)s in those years and had to forestall retirement, or engage in the penny-pinching that has become the lot of their offspring, but many did not suffer the way that Millennials did when hitting the job market for the first time.

I am probably in the 1% of my generation because I save scrupulously; teach upwards of 20-25 music lessons a week on top of my normal job; own my house free-and-clear; and paid cash for my used compact car. I’ve negotiated incredibly aggressively for higher wages in the field of private education in the American South, where these schools do not charge much for tuition. I’ve squeezed every penny I can. I’ve managed to do some traveling and to own a dog.

But there’s no way I could support a family of four on my salary the way a Boomer could in the 1970s. I don’t get basic health insurance from my employer (I buy my own). I max out retirement contributions so I can qualify for tax breaks and government subsidies to help pay for health insurance. And I doubt seriously Social Security will be there for my generation when I hit my 60s (or it will be vastly reduced).

My parents are good stewards of their money, and I hope they live many, many more years. They will have a real legacy to pass to my brothers and me, and we, in turn, will pass it along to our children.

But, yeah, the Boomer RVers snatching magnets from a woman’s hand and demanding parking spots and toppling their oversized hotels-on-wheel in the desert are the heroes.

You Boomers need to take stock. Never has the world created a more vain, hapless, selfish, foolish, narrowminded, and myopic generation. Always the hero or the victim, never the villains. Or, perhaps more accurately, never willing to take responsibility for the reckless way you’ve squandered the greatest economic conditions in the history of the world in a never-ending orgy of spending and self-indulgence.

In the interest of parsimony, maybe Boomers and Millennials—after all, we Millennials are just aspiring Boomers—can maybe work together past some of this bitterness and resentment.  I think Millennials tried that, and were rewarded with poor-paying jobs and high health insurance costs.  But when the Boomers do kick the bucket, let’s hope this generation of fiddling Neros doesn’t squander all of that wealth at the bingo parlor.