The wealthiest generation of humans to ever have existed are American boomers. At $85 trillion dollars in assets and savings, never before in history has any nation or empire had anything remotely close to those numbers or even the quality of life. After World War II, an American whose factories and bridges and roads were unspoiled by war and then a truly free, globe-spanning trade network protected by the might of the American Navy allowed Americans to ship products around the world. Furthermore if a boomer invented something and had copyright patents on it, then America protected their business too: the world uses the American patent system, and if other countries want to sell products in America, those products must respect copyright law. The advent of the internet only sent the wealth stratospheric.

Yet, right now some people in the States seem that they want to deny that same future for their children and grandchildren. Tariffs. Pulling out from global organizations. The total removal of copyright law. Piracy no longer suppressed in shipping lanes. Most internet traffic being bots (fake humans) and thus being an inhospitable place for new businesses and mom-and-pop shops to operate in. The growing lack of protections and pay for factory workers – that the economic policy institute says that the pay between today's factory worker and the CEO is 290 to 1, but was only 20 to 1 in 1950. 

Then there was a shift in Boomers lifetime from paying employees well, to taking in swaths of immigrants to replace the jobs of Americans so the Boomers could become even wealthier. 

It's also not as if the children of boomers will get to ‘enjoy’ that wealth to put it bluntly. To reference myself as an example: If all goes well, I will be an old man myself before my parents pass, and even then I would trade any money I would inherit to have them both live until the age of 100. Taking the broader, economic view on a national scale, that “85 trillion dollars” of boomer money will continue to remain out of circulation for many years to come, especially as medicine improves. 

There is housing prices too. According to federal data, a new single family home in the 1960’s cost around $13,000. I remember my dad telling me that my grandmother had lived in her house for so many years that the bank would often call her to ‘refinance’ her mortgage because she only had to pay something like sixty bucks a month. For more than 40 years. 

Wild. 

The other day in an interview, President Trump said “I don't want to drive housing prices down, I want to drive them up, for people who own homes.” Probably to continue to protect those $85 trillion in assets. However, the median home buying age is now 40 years old. 

On copyright law at the “Winning the AI Race” President Trump said that you “Cant be expected to pay for, “gee I read a book!" …everything [that is used to train AI]. That is just not doable.” He also signed an executive order to take away funding from States which make " A.I” development " difficult.” 

You know if the argument that the president was using was, "This book is crucial for national security, to train weapons of war.” Perhaps the argument would be easier swallowed, but the end result is actually that tech-bro-CEO’s get to put out their chat bots like ChatGPT, which are illegally trained on the works of living story writers. Suchir Balaji was a 26 year old researcher who worked at OpenAI, whose job it was to train AI models. He claimed that it was being illegally trained on the works of others, without those people being made aware. Then, tragically he wound up dead. 

This current administration is very vocal in pulling away from patrolling sea lanes and has rather resorted to piracy in Venezuela, and with the actions of ICE, they are removing the cheap labor that boomers used in part to grow wealthier. Housing prices are beyond the point of going “through the roof" and have gone completely orbital. The latest ‘One Big Beautiful Bill' has alleviated taxes on the richest Americans, but –raised– those who make less than $13,000: the poorest Americans. Inflation is soaring and the value of the dollar is falling – trillions added to the debt in less than a year of Donald Trump’s presidency, and tariffs which (in a capitalist world!) will only over time serve to urge other nations to find other countries to sell, or buy their product from.

The colossal wealth of the hypocritical – or rather, the colossal hypocrisy of some Americans is staggering, and breathtaking. Which of the sins are boomers commiting? Greed? Gluttony? Or perhaps they agree, but through their inaction, it is sloth? Or is it envy, for what could have been the potential of their granddaughters and grandsons? Maybe it is just jealousy – that if housing prices are lower, then they would lose a tiny fraction of a fraction of their holdings to their children and grandchildren? It would be easy to attribute the father of all sins – vaulted pride, to their utter and deafening silence on the financial sins of the current administration, and those which came before. 

Raised with a conservative father I was always instructed to behave with fiscal responsibility. Where have the fiscally responsible conservatives gone? 

Austin Petak: Austin Petak is an aspiring novelist and freelance journalist who loves seeking stories and the quiet passions of the soul. If you are interested in reaching out to him to cover a story, you may find him at austinpetak@gmail.com.