Hating Elon Musk; hating Boomers
Though shalt not covet is one of the Ten Commandments. When I was young I didn’t quite understand what “covet” meant, although later on it was explained to me that it had to do with envy. It didn’t occur to me yet that the prohibition had political repercussions, although as I’ve gotten older I realize that of course it does.
“Socialism is the philosophy of failure, the creed of ignorance, and the gospel of envy.” —Perth, Scotland, 28 May 1948, in Churchill, Europe Unite: Speeches 1947 & 1948 (London: Cassell, 1950), 347.
“The inherent vice of capitalism is the unequal sharing of blessings. The inherent virtue of Socialism is the equal sharing of miseries.” —House of Commons, 22 October 1945.
Now that Elon Musk has become a trillionaire, the already-virulent hatred for him has increased, and people aren’t shy about showing it. For example, we have this from Hasan Piker:
Trying desperately to sound profound, the current darling of the Left [Hasan Piker] began: “Meritocracy is a lie. Lying is OP [gamer slang for “overpowered”]. And money is fake. This story that we are watching unfold in front of us is a great example of all three of those classic Hasan Minhaj tropes that I advance over and over again. Okay?
He continued:
Elon Musk is a f***ing failure and yet, in spite of his failures, because he lucked into a, uh, initial — because he happened to be at the right place at the right time, he has failed upwards with his endless wealth. He’s a horrible person, an unbelievably insecure person, and yet he’s the richest person on the planet. Right? We know he doesn’t f***ing work hard because he tweets all the goddamn time.
This is what passes for thought these days from an “influencer.” Piker himself benefited from nepotism, so it’s especially ironic that he’s down on Musk as just happening “to be at the right place at the right time,” as though it was pure chance and there was no thought or agency involved at all.
This type of thinking seems to appeal to a lot of people, though. Some of those people also hate Boomers for living so long and not giving them their stuff quickly enough; I wrote about that sentiment in this previous post, and to a lesser extent in this one.
It’s hard to overestimate the rage towards Boomers felt and expressed by a lot of commenters (or bots? or paid shills?) online. You can see some if it in the comments to this piece at City Journal, which refers a book by Yale law professor Samuel Moyn entitled Gerontocracy in America: How the Old Are Hoarding Power and Wealth – and What to Do About It. Although City Journal’s readers are generally somewhat to the right (at least, that’s been my impression in the past), the article is sometimes favorable to Moyn’s book although it critiques it as well.
The comments there are mixed; some defend the Boomers and there are also examples of the Boomer-hate I’ve been talking about. See this, for example:
So you trust the boomers who bequeathed the world yawning income inequality and the housing crisis more than the generation tasked with fixing it?
You shall know them by their fruits and the boomer fruit has been poisonous.
They are the first generation in the history of the world whose children have shorter lifespans than they do.
They are destroyers of the world, both literally and figuratively.
They are the weak men who create hard times.
Is this a real person? Hard to say, but I see such sentiments often online. Here’s a typical response from a Boomer:
Boomer here.
You whiners just can’t wait to put another socialist government in power; one that, once all of us Boomers are dead, will rob you of the trillions in hard-earned wealth we’re leaving you.
We worked for our money. Try it, you might like it — and it will be a new experience for many of you.
In the meantime, quit whining about what we Boomers have. Get your own. You can begin by not being silly, wasteful people. Starbucks and designer foods have never been necessary. Neither is a 60″ TV screen.
I did a search on whether Boomers actually had more wealth than previous senior generations. Here’s Google AI’s reply, for what it’s worth:
The Numbers: The typical (median) household headed by a Baby Boomer boasts a net worth of $432,200 (in 2024 dollars). In contrast, households headed by older adults in 2001 (Silent Generation) had a median wealth of $335,900, and those in 1983 (Greatest Generation) had $185,300 in their 50s, 60s, and 70s.Historical Luck: Boomers entered the housing and equity markets just before two massive, 40-year asset appreciation cycles. They purchased homes at younger ages and significantly lower prices than younger generations, allowing them to ride decades of compounding real estate and stock market growth.
Historical Luck: Boomers entered the housing and equity markets just before two massive, 40-year asset appreciation cycles. They purchased homes at younger ages and significantly lower prices than younger generations, allowing them to ride decades of compounding real estate and stock market growth.
The Education Divide: While college-educated Boomers possess vastly higher wealth than previous generations, Boomers without a college degree have median net worths similar to, or even lower than, their predecessors of the same education level.
Unequal Distribution: The “wealthiest generation” title is heavily skewed by the top echelons. The top 10% of Boomer households control the lion’s share of the generation’s collective wealth.
One of the main articles cited for some of those statistics is this from Pew
I think it is completely fair to say that Boomers rode a flood tide, and young people today are riding an ebb tide. Doesn’t mean Boomers didn’t have to work for what they had, but it does mean that some of the things Boomers did no longer work, and this is behind some of the frustration.
For example, one reason health insurance is so expensive for young people is that they are paying high premiums and deductibles to fund the expenses incurred by Boomers now. When Boomers were young there was not this top-heavy old population to care for, and what was done for those oldsters was far less than is done now, and so while young they didn’t pay nearly as much and could more easily build capital.
Unlike life insurance, health insurance does not sit on money; what the Boomers “paid in” was spent long ago, and what is being paid out for Boomers is being paid for by younger people. Medicare is of course using current tax money to pay for Boomers’ care, but the payroll taxes have stayed at the same percentage for a long time at least; on the other hand Medicare does not pay its share of health care costs: providers and hospitals balance their budgets on the backs of people with employer coverage, and charge private insurance 2 – 4 times as much they charge Medicare.
This is not a blame thing, this is just the way it is. A few Boomers were involved in making this system what it is, along with lots of other people who are a very small part of the population, and almost everyone else has to deal with it, regardless of whether they are winners or losers by it.
Mao’ist propaganda from the Cultural Revolution; hate your elders, reeducate, confiscate, and kill them.
I’ve been told that Social Security will be bankrupt when I am retired for at least 30 years now. It looks like 2030 – 2032. I’m still working full time, my 67th was years ago.
Hasan Piker can bugger off.
This is such an idea and concept rich post.
Niketas’ comment is interesting. Insurance is always a system of socializing costs. Health insurance is one of the worst (in terms of spreading costs far and wide) and very expensive.
I’ve many thoughts, but I’ll start with this one: Real Estate.
Two days ago was out with one of my oldest new friends (post marriage) who is house shopping. She’s looking for her second real estate purchase in about 2 years, looking to re-locate, and these California prices are rather high.
So she is educating me a bit on the current state of these sorts of transactions, and she mentioned that putting 20% down is now the norm. Huh… Clearly, this is basic stuff, but it immediately made me think of 40+ years of home financing.
Long ago, 20% was typical. (40 or 50 years ago?) But people on the left would gnash their teeth and complain about all those people who don’t have the 20%. So then for a number of years 10% down was common. Not good enough? Well, maybe just a few percent down will do. So the rigor of the loan qualification was going down, down, down.
Many, many other things happened that affected the stability of the mortgage market, including the somewhat bizarre financial practice of creating “Collateralized Debt Obligation” securities. Which IIRC, was originally spurred by the S&L loan disaster starting in the late 80’s. And the result of all of these actions was the credit crisis of 2007 & 2008. I will note that the vast majority of the actions that help cause the crisis were created in an effort to supposedly lessen the effect of income inequality.
So now we’re back to 20% down. Who’da thunk it? Think, unintended consequences of what went before.
And I recall this point about real estate back in 2008 – 2010. Many GenXer’s were getting their butt’s handed to them with declining home prices, and possibly a handful of Millenials. Some survey of that time said that the vast majority of Millenials felt that they were never ever going to buy a house. We’ll just rent instead.
My thought: Oh, this will not end well for them! A blindingly obvious point or tactic is that you want to wait through most of the home price declines, and then BUY. My home shopping friend did exactly that, and she & her now ex-husband bought their first home at a rock bottom price, around 2008.
Second point. Investing in securities:
Warren Buffett is well known for saying this, but it dates back to about the 1890’s. “Start buying when there is blood in the streets. Even if some of the blood is yours.”
The credit crisis of 2008 was something of a once in a lifetime opportunity. Were you able to capitalize on it? Did you? A huge question and problem is, “What do I buy?”
From hero to the progressives (Tesla EV’s) to hated symbol of wealth.
I think the fact that he aligned too much with Trump and, of course, DOGE accounts for much of the about face for many.