If you momentarily looked up from your iPhone to order your non-fat, iced skinny mocha with light ice, whipped cream, and chocolate drizzle latte from Starbucks, then you might have missed the first shots fired in the generational war between Millennials and Baby Boomers. The Flappy Bird-obsessed whippersnappers took a break from cancel culture to launch a new meme: OK boomer. The viral Internet slang is meant to dismiss any idea that the youngins find out of touch, close-minded, or offensive, even if the concept emanates from someone of their own age.
Of course, if Millennials hold such great disdain for boomers and their values, then they should certainly reject the trillions of dollars they are set to inherit over the next decade from their elders. How ironic is it that the generation that detests work, money, and inheritance will receive an enormous windfall?
OK boomer? More like thank you, boomer!
Wealth Redistribution
According to a new Coldwell Banker report, titled “A Look at Wealth 2019: Millennial Millionaires,” those born in the 1980s and 1990s are expected to inherit more than $68 trillion from their Baby Boomer parents by the year 2030. This means they will possess five times as much wealth as they have today, representing one of the largest wealth transfers in modern history.
Study authors concluded:
“The difference between the millionaires of the early 1980s and the ones being created today is that many of them stand to inherit even more wealth from their Baby Boomer parents, who are considered the wealthiest generation in history.”
Put simply, despite their constant handwringing and wailing at the skies, Millennials are set to become the richest generation in the nation’s history. That is not too shabby for a demographic that spends its free time admiring its participation trophies manufactured out of avocado toast.
Millennials no longer have an excuse to live in their parents’ basement. Since they do not need to mooch off the Bank of Mom and Dad, Millennials can pay for their own arts and crafts supplies to design placards protesting capitalism and celebrating socialism. The man-bun-wearing men and the selfie-addicted women have their own money to donate to the campaigns of Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA). They can finally pay off their $30,000 student loan bill that was accrued from studying lesbian dance theory and existential philosophy in the age of deconstruction.
Wait a Minute, Boomer
Are boomers immune from criticism? Certainly not.
Although the lamentations on Millennials are well-deserved, boomers are guilty of a lot of the problems that are facing the world. They are the ones who fleeced the public purse to get something for nothing, sent young men and women to die in endless regime change wars, and facilitated Millennials’ inflated self-esteem and self-worth. The boomers conceded to the cultural Marxists who disemboweled higher education and enabled the nihilism and apathy prevalent in the younger culture.
Perhaps then the $68 trillion can be reparations for instilling the wrong values in their youthful counterparts. Unfortunately, the trillions will be wasted on Starbucks frappuccinos, Apple products, Uber rides, and Netflix subscriptions. Why didn’t boomers teach personal finance in school?
Woe Is Me
Millennials might think that 34-hour workweeks and paying interest on the debt they accumulated from purchasing the latest video game consoles are comparable to the tragedies of the gulags, the Killing Fields, and the Great Leap Forward. But Millennials need to realize that their generation has had it the easiest in the history of the world. It is similar to how boomers had it easy compared to the Silent Generation; Generation Z will have it easier than Millennials. That is the nature of our civilization – our successors will have it better than we do in the present.
In what other point in time can morose and ungrateful people rest in a cozy establishment to drink overpriced coffee, eat expensive sandwiches, access free Internet, and tweet about their misery?
Will Gen Z ever say, “OK Millennial”?
~
Read more from Andrew Moran.
.jpg&w=1920&q=75)
