Ok, Boomer: A Symposium
By the early 2040s, the boomer generation will come to an end. Fortune predicts that 2030 will mark the beginning of the largest wealth transfer in history. The net worth of the average boomer is $1.2 million while the average millennial is worth $100,000 currently.
What does this great “wealth transfer” mean for Christians in institutional terms, not just monetary and political. What will the boomers leave to their children? Will the next generations actually inherit boomer institutions? Have boomers prepared the next generation and made their “fortunes” transferable and sufficiently resilient to last the next 10-15 years? Are boomers giving their successors opportunities to prepare to lead (or lead now) or are they stubbornly clinging to institutions forcing millennials to either look elsewhere for opportunities or start their own younger, but poorer institutions?
Promises were made to millennials but their ability to succeed in boomer world have been limited. Do they keep playing by the rules, build anew, or adopt radical critique of boomer world? What is most productive, advisable, effective, etc.? How have boomers advantaged or disadvantages millennials and younger generations? What does good criticism look like? What sources (doctrinal, social, or political) of coalitional and institutional unity existed for the boomer that will not outlast their generation or prove unviable for millennials given political and social changes?
By the time of the great wealth transfer, millennials will be in their 40s, generally a decade behind when boomers began taking institutions and accruing significant wealth. Will this gap bode ill for millennials and the generations below them institutionally? What should boomers be doing? What should younger generations be doing to prepare now for the end of boomers and boomerism? Observers have noticed an ideological generational clash for some time. Experiences shape perspectives, passions, and aspirations. Each generation thinks differently about the world, but each generation influences how subsequent generations will receive and process the world. The boomer’s world reflects not only what boomers prioritized; it has shaped the direction of their progeny, for good or ill. Before these questions can be answered–if they can be answered–we must assess what boomers and boomerism have wrought.
We are pleased to bring you, dear reader (of whatever generation), reflections on the coming generational end and transfer in a series of symposium articles from, as it happens, a Gen-X’er and two boomers: Aaron Renn (senior fellow, American Reformer), C.R. Wiley (senior editor, Touchstone), and Rusty Reno (editor-in-chief, First Things). We hope these reflections will generate further, clear-eyed consideration of what has been and preparation for what is to come.
Aaron Renn, The Boomer’s World.
C.R. Wiley, Die, Boomer! Die!
Rusty Reno, Boomers and Their Consequences.