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Jabour, Bridie: Boomers and millenials: not intergenerational but class warfare

Jabour, Bridie

Boomers and millenials: this is not intergenerational warfare, it’s class warfare‘, Guardian Australia, 6 April 2016

Talk about intergenerational conflict is really about class conflict, based on differential access to capital, particularly housing. Some millenials can rely on inheriting parental wealth; others will be locked out of property ownership. But it is not just about housing:

Capitalism is failing worldwide and it is the poor who are bearing the brunt of it. The casualisation of the workforce, wage stagnation, job insecurity – all these things give millennials the constant low hum of anxiety that they have come to accept as normal. The picture is particularly grim for anyone not in the top 30% of earners in any wage bracket.

Looks at figures for income inequality and underemployment – Australia today is worse than the UK and the US on the latter measure.

Boomers have no doubt benefitted from their incredible electoral clout but as the old truism goes, the rich are getting richer, and the poor are getting more screwed, no matter what age they are.

The article attracted more than 350 comments. We will add it to our extensive collection of resources on inequality.