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Baby Boomers

2023

Matt Walsh


[Legal]

Excerpt from: [The Matt Walsh Show] (May 2023)

There's simply no denying that money had more value, more purchasing power, 40 years ago than it does today. Jobs generally paid more when measured in today's dollars, and things didn't cost as much. In fact, by nearly every conceivable measure - economically, societally, culturally - the Boomers inherited a better country than they'll leave behind for their children. They inherited prosperity. They leave stagnation, debt, decline, and bankruptcy. They inherited a vibrant and patriotic culture. They leave us one that is rotten and degenerate. They inherited strong nuclear families. They leave behind a long, sad trail of divorce and broken homes.

As a generation, they failed to do the one single thing that every generation is supposed to do, which is to create a better world for their children. It doesn't have to be utopia - it'll never be that - but it should be better. A generation's only legacy is the country it leaves behind. Judging by that one, and only real metric, the Boomers have catastrophically failed.

And they're not done, either. They're still clinging to their positions of leadership in DC and corporate America. They've made for some of the worst political leaders this country have ever seen. They refuse to go away. They refuse to ride off into the sunset and let us clean up the mess. This is absolutely true and there's no getting around it.

Boomers generally don't take this kind of criticism well, but that doesn't stop them from complaining bitterly about Millennials and Gen Z. What they like to ignore, or maybe have somehow forgotten, is that Millennials and Gen Z are their children and grandchildren. That's all part of their legacy.

The Millennial generation - we didn't sprout from the ground randomly like fungus. We didn't fall out of the sky like snowflakes. We were conceived, birthed, and raised - and in many cases raised poorly. In fact "raised" may be an overstatement. Many Millennials were less raised than they were merely sustained with food, toys, and television, and then sent out into the world with no moral or spiritual formation whatsoever.

There are generalizations of course, but they are accurate generalizations. Millennials fall victim to generalizations all the time, so perhaps it's time for other generations to get a dose of that medicine.

It's important to speak about the cataclysmic failures of the Boomer generation, and to hold them accountable for instilling in Millennials every negative trait that they now so eagerly complain about. That's important to point out not to simply cast blame, but because it's not just or honest to give your children a destroyed culture, a bankrupted country - and then immediately blame them for it.