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Key points
- Some people, especially in the younger generations, blame baby boomers for causing many of the world's problems.
- Commonly held beliefs about baby boomers may serve as the basis for negative feelings towards the generation.
- There is evidence to suggest that many of these beliefs are not true.
Baby boomers have become the Rodney Dangerfield of American society—they get no respect. The generation born between 1946 and 1964 is widely blamed for causing most of the major problems of the country and the world, especially by young adults who firmly believe their lives (and the planet itself) have been seriously compromised by boomers’ allegedly irresponsible and profligate ways.
Despite being the largest generation in history until millennials came along, baby boomers were in fact always viewed by society in less than flattering terms, but in recent years their public image has fallen to a new low. It’s safe to say that boomers are now generally despised by many millennials and Gen Z, a direct result of what members of those younger generations believe to be true about the 70 million or so Americans in their late 50s to mid-70s.
My goal here is to offer some evidence to dispel popular assumptions made about baby boomers in hopes of making them a little less hated. Boomers have been considered the “worst generation in history” for decades now (I trace that label back to the mid-1980s), an interesting thing in itself as I personally know of no other generation that has ever been judged negatively en masse. History is written by the winners, as they say, and although baby boomers have won more than their fair share of battles (one complaint made against them), there’s the real possibility that they will forever be known as a large bunch of bad people.
To that point, here are ten commonly held beliefs about baby boomers along with facts suggesting they are not true.
1. Boomers are greedy. It took quite a while for baby boomers to start giving some of their money away (another criticism dating back to the 1980s) but today the generation donates the most charitable dollars in the United States. Boomers currently contribute 43 percent of all donations, according to the consulting firm Bridgeworks, with 72 percent of the generation donating an average $1,212 in annual gifts. Much more philanthropy is likely to come as they approach mortality over the next two or three decades.
2. Boomers are self-centered. Baby boomers were labeled the “Me Generation” in the “Me Decade” of the 1970s and the label stuck. Today, millions of boomers are serving as mentors, teachers, and volunteers, demonstrating that they are eager to give time and energy to worthy causes. Twenty-six percent of boomers volunteer, according to a 2018 study published by Up With People Volunteer Abroad, close being Generation X’s rate of 29 percent and ahead of millennials’ 22 percent.
3. Boomers ruined the environment. In the 1960s and 1970s, baby boomers led what was then called the “ecology” movement in order to address air pollution and other environmental problems of the time. The generation’s strong commitment to environmental causes continues to this day. In an article published in a 2019 issue of Electronic Green Journal, author Scot Squires wrote that based on his study with 1,215 participants across three generations, “Baby boomers were the most environmentally friendly generation.”
4. Boomers are cognitively impaired. Many believe that older brains are withering away but that just isn’t true. In a 2018 study published in the scientific journal Cell Stem Cell, researchers from Columbia University and the New York State Psychiatric Institute found that people aged 79 had just as many new neurons forming in the hippocampus as those who were 14. Even the oldest brains produced new brain cells, meaning that most baby boomers are perfectly capable of learning new things.
5. Boomers are physically impaired. While a good number of baby boomers’ knees and hips may be achin’ (trust me on that one) and some suffer from a chronic disease, the generation is not as unhealthy as widely believed. In a 2020 study of 135,000 people living in England, a University College London professor found that those in their 40s and 50s were in worse physical shape than people in their 60s and early 70s were at the same age. “Gen X faces more years of ill health than baby boomers,” CNN reported, dispelling the notion that boomers are a singularly unhealthy generation.
6. Boomers are digitally illiterate. While baby boomers, unlike millennials, Gen Z, and Gen Alpha, did indeed grow up in an analog world, research indicates that the former are more adaptable to technology changes than we think. A 2019 survey of Chief Information Officers of more than 4,000 information workers found that workers over the age of 55 were less likely than their millennial coworkers to find technology in the workplace stressful. Beyond that, remember that many of those who blazed the digital trail including Apple founder Steve Jobs and Microsoft founder Bill Gates were or are boomers.
7. Boomers are sociopaths. So says Bruce Gibney in his 2017 book A Generation of Sociopaths. The reality is that while baby boomers grew up in a time when mental health issues were considered taboo topics, the generation went on to make it acceptable to discuss and receive treatment for depression, anxiety, anorexia, bulimia, ADHS, PTSD, autism, and other conditions.
8. Boomers are rich. In 2021, Federal Reserve Data showed that Gen Xers passed baby boomers in share of household net worth as the former hit their prime earning years and invested wisely in the bullish stock market. Those numbers indicate that Gen X is now wealthier than boomers.
9. Boomers had it easy. An economist would know that the United States experienced recessions during 1969-70, 1973-75, 1980, 1981-82, and 1990-91—all of these periods during baby boomers’ prime earning years.
10. Boomers are done. Baby boomers are hardly riding into the sunset (or to a condo in Boca del Vista). Vice-President Kamala Harris is a boomer (just made it), as is Robert Downey Jr., who is the #1 box office movie star in America. I have a 10-year-old daughter—think I’m done?
