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