Quit whining, AOC: Gen Z should THANK Boomers for what theyre leaving behind

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez says she knows why socialism is on the rise: Blame it on the Boomers.“Millennials and Gen Z combined, now for the first time, are eclipsing the number of Baby Boomers,” she explained recently.“Young people overall feel a tremendous amount of betrayal about the world we’ve been left.”It’s inarguable that younger generations feel this way.The notion that Millennials and Gen Z are toiling in a uniquely grueling economic era, however, is utterly delusional.But convincing young people they’ve been handed a broken world only fostered an unprecedented sense of hopelessness.You are not victims of “oligarchs,” unfettered capitalism or any other imaginary monsters.One of the most popular myths these days — you hear from both sides all the time — is that the American middle class is being gutted.It’s simply not true.In 1980, 36% of American families were middle-class.Only 31% of Americans are still in the middle class because the upper middle class has grown from 10% of households to over 30%.The middle class is shrinking because the upper middle class is expanding.Real median income has not only grown across all classes over the past 40 years, but it has zoomed past the rest of the Western world.The average American family in Mississippi now has a higher per-capita GDP than the average French, British or German family.That’s a pretty remarkable economic inheritance.

Just ask the soccer fans visiting for the World Cup.Another big grievance of younger people is that housing has become far too expensive.It’s a genuine concern.But ownership rates are no lower today than they were in the ’60s, ’70s or 90s, and most of the 1980s.The homeownership rate in 1980 was 65.5%.

In 2025, it was 65.4%.Rates temporarily spiked through the 2000s when government policy incentivized millions to “buy” houses they couldn’t afford with no money down.Housing shortages are driven by the laws of physics.

It’s not the Boomers’ faul...