Are Boomers to Blame for Debt?

Posted by: Gene M. | Jan 07,2008


I would like to make my endorsement for President.  What does this have to do with credit cards?  Not much, really.  But I’ve got a forum and I’m going to use it.  I support Barack Obama for President.  That statement will probably persuade one person, including myself.  But I’m glad to get it out there.  Read what I’ve said about Barack Obama and the credit crisis here.  

Believe it or not, Obama is a Baby Boomer, even if he seems like he’s from an entirely different generation.  Technically Boomers comprise a generation all the way from the mid-forties to the early-sixties, when Obama was born.  To me the Boomer generation should be those kids born immediately following World War II in the late forties and early fifties.  Conceivably, and quite likely, a baby born in the early sixties could have parents born in 1940 or even later – even from Boomer parents.  Hardly seems like a Boomer child to me.  

It’s not quite right, however, to put the election in terms of a generational divide.  I’ve heard many pundits and others blame the Boomer generation for our current problems with debt.  Really, I don’t see Baby Boomers as being the main culprit for the debt problem in this country.  In a generation of 85 million people, you’re going to find all types of people: materialists who rack up a huge amount of debt on credit cards and those who find debt anathema.  You will find just as many people in the younger generation – those born after 1970 – who rack up debt as Boomers.  Baby Boomers didn’t create the culture of materialism, even if credit cards became more ubiquitous in the 1970’s as Boomers entered adulthood.  

Really I think the culture of debt is an American problem.  Strike that, it’s a world problem, as you can read just as many articles about the debt crisis in England, Australia, and other countries throughout the world.  So while Boomers were the first generation to go credit crazy, this does not absolve the younger generation from immediately following suit.  And, as I said, the Boomer generation is comprised of all types of spenders, it’s unfair to lump Boomers all together and blame Boomers for our current economic problems.  

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