We'll Never Have It As Good As Our Parents Did

Says Every Generation Ever

Author

Michael Batnick
August 26, 2024

Last week on Animal Spirits, Ben and I discussed how every generation thinks they won’t have it as good as their parents. A listener sent us this incredible Time Magazine cover from May 1986, a year after I was born. Now that I’m turning 40, I’m extra feeling this.

The headline of the article was “Growin Pains at 40.” The subheader read: “As they approach mid-life, Baby Boomers struggle to have it all.

Describing a boomer in 1986, Time wrote:

Still single, he is a freelance writer and editor living in a rented apartment in Santa Monica, California. He has an enviable view of the ocean, but what he really wants, he says, “is to settle down and have a family.” He feels funny about turning 40 this year. “Middle age sounds a bit strange because many of us haven’t attained the goals that our parents attained at that age. I mean, how can you be an adult when you don’t own a house?”

Here’s another banger, a coup de grace, if you will.

But the Baby Boomers’ great expectations have been diminished by a series of rude social and economic shocks, from the Vietnam War to double-digit inflation. Although the sheer size of the generation provided a sense of solidarity and power, it ultimately proved to be the Baby Boomers’ bane. There were simply too many of them to maintain in the style to which millions became accustomed as affluent children of the ‘50s abd ‘60s. Egalitarianism might have been the avowed ethic of their youth, but competition was, and still is, the harsh reality. Many bravely refuse to admit it, yet the fact is that many Baby Boomers do not live as well as their parents, and may never.

These worries aged like a fine mustache, no offense, Dad.

It turns out the kids were alright. From 1990 through today, Baby Boomer’s net worth went from $4 trillion to $79 trillion, a 20x increase. That’s good for 8.8% compounded annually, or 6.2% after inflation.

Back to the article, perhaps the funniest thing is that, at least by one measure, it was bullshit. When asked if they were better or worse off than their parents, 63% said better, and only 28% said worse! WHAT!?!?!? Like William Randolph Hearst said a century before this article came out, “If it bleeds, it leads.”

The people are different, but the feelings are always the same. Every generation will complain that the youth are getting soft, while the young people will complain that the previous generation had it easy. Same as it ever was.