The Boomers as an Economic Problem

Abstract

By 2010, we can see the articulation of a clear set of claims that the Baby Boomers constitute an economic problem: indeed, that they bear a generational responsibility for the global financial crisis that began around 2007 and became more widely apparent the following year. The Baby Boomers’ (relatively) generous pension entitlements; the way that they benefited from the ‘housing boom’ that preceded the financial collapse; their birth location in the post-war boom of the 1950s; the effect of the sheer size of the cohort upon state-funded pensions and healthcare; and the Boomers’ allegedly selfish outlook and behaviour are marshalled, in various combinations, to make the claim that it was ‘the boomers who busted us’ (Vine, 2008, Times; Sandbrook, 2010, Daily Mail).