Yeah, blame it on the boomers.

Baby Boomers: It's All Your Fault

Yeah, don't I know it.  Of course, that's because boomers belong to what is probably the last generation to accept personal responsibility for their own outcomes.  Might as well take responsibility for every other generations lousy outcomes while we're at it.

I'm a boomer, I guess.  At least, I was born during the right time frame.  I never really thought of myself as a boomer, but the insistence of younger people referring to me in that terminology is fine, if it makes them feel better.  While I'm at it, I'm a bit overweight (fat), and apparently older members of my own generation don't think I have much of value to offer society, and according to at least some Gen Xers, I probably don't, so, yeah, I'm incompetent.  A fat, incompetent boomer.

 But, back to the previously linked article.  It starts out explaining how big of a cohort the baby boom generation is.  Okay, I'll take responsibility for that too.  I at least realize that it isn't my kids fault, and really, I don't think it's the result of stupidity on my parents part either.  It happened, and if it makes you young folk feel better, I'll take responsibility; it's all my fault.  It has to be somebody's fault, doesn't it?

As the boomers hit their peak spending and borrowing years in the late 1990s and 2000s, they splurged on second homes, SUVs, and went crazy on credit.

 Hm.  Around that time, I was busy telling people, mostly people younger than me, to reconsider how much they could afford to spend on a house.  But what did I know?  This was clearly different than the housing bubble I had lived through in the late 70s in Great Falls, MT.  That was just a local phenomenon, not national like in the early 2000s.  Besides, I'm sure that housing bubble was also my generation's fault anyway.

In fact, I'm sure ALL of the previous bubbles and collapses in the American economy were the baby boomers' fault.  Great Depression? Sure.  Panic of 1907?  You bet.  Feel better?

Good.  Now that we got the blame game out of the way, all I want to know is what are we going to do about it?  Oh, wait.  I shouldn't have said "we."  Cuz, you know, boomers can't do anything right.  So, Gen X, what will YOU do about it?  Oh, wait.  I already know.  Nothing, cuz it's NOT YOUR FAULT!  And Gen Y?  Take a guess at THAT answer.  They are, after all, the product of Gen X.