Has democracy failed us? Has the tyranny of the self interested majority and the politically tone deaf and ignorant left us with a political system that is simply too broken to be fixed?
The intergenerational friction between baby boomers who have been state sponsored from birth is seen no where better than in Auckland’s property market and with climate change.
Gen Xers and Gen Ys have to pay for their own education, then have to try and save a deposit in a housing market speculated out of their reach by baby boomer investors (and foreign speculators), have to save for their own retirement and now are being told that the age of retirement has to be raised so we can afford it all.
Democracy has gone from being the promise that your children will have a better deal than you have received to being a promise that your children will be in more debt than you are.
Generation Rent is now a reality in a market that has no rights for renters…
Generation Rent – that is how one economist is labelling the increasing number of young New Zealanders locked out of the home ownership dream.
Economist Shamubeel Eaqub says the census figures tell the story – Kiwis in their 30s, the age at which many start to think about having a family, are increasingly stuck in rental accommodation.
…and underemployment for those generations is becoming the norm...
A rising tide of “underemployment” is creating a new social underclass, say the Greens in accusing the Government of “massaging” unemployment figures.
Since 2013 March Quarter, the number of people classified as underemployed had risen from 82,400 to 103,600 in the same quarter in 2015.Â
The statistics in the latest Household Labour Force Survey show that while unemployment had dropped to 5.8 per cent, underemployment had risen by 21,200 in two years.
Statistics New Zealand began measuring underemployment in 2013, defining it as the “grey area” where people have a job but have similarities to unemployed people because they face a “partial lack of work”.
It is when a part-time worker is willing and available to work more hours than they usually do. The statistics are limited to part-time workers.
“We know have 103,000 underemployed, but Government treats them as employed for their figures,” said Green Party co-leader Metiria Turei.Â
…killing off public broadcasting like TVNZ7 and strangling Campbell Live while promoting neoliberal voices like Henry and Hosking are of course essential to keeping the blinkers on and feeding the myth of the poor being responsible for being poor.
With so many Gen Y and Gen Xers fleeing NZ for work and the ability to pay off their student debt, Baby Boomers are a democratic majority meaning they sway politics to their advantage. The voting record for people under 40 is atrocious when compare to those older generations who have a vested interest. This is why a capital gains tax has been so hard to establish, why the funding for pensioners out strips funding for youth and why a $1000 kiwi saver bonus can be dumped without any problem. National understand the importance of being perceived by the mainstream media as ‘moderate’ when the reality is that much of what National have passed as welfare policy is draconian, but because middle class tax breaks like working for families and interest free student loans haven’t been touched, the voiceless suffering on the bottom are never heard.
That’s why when AAAP protest angrily it surprises many, they have no connection with the reality of those welfare reforms or the grinding poverty those on the bottom experience.
Climate change is probably where intergenerational politics are most damaging. Beyond self interested voting that robs the next generation of the universal subsidies that built Baby Boomers up, Â the absolute do nothing approach to climate change is not only robbing todays generation of a present, it is robbing them of a tomorrow. The rapidly warming climate caused by human pollution is now at a tipping point…
More Bad Climate News: Once-Stable Antarctic Region Suddenly Melting
Antarcticaâs glaciers have been making headlines during the past year, and not in a good way. Whether itâs a massive ice shelf facing imminent risk of collapse, glaciers in the West Antarctic past the point of no return, or new threats to East Antarctic ice, itâs all been rather gloomy.
And now Iâm afraid thereâs more bad news: a new study published in the journal Science, led by a team of my colleagues and I from the University of Bristol, has observed a sudden increase of ice loss in a previously stable part of Antarctica.
…if this warming continues and vast methane reserves beneath the ocean or in the permafrost of Siberia are released, it is game over in terms of being able to adapt fast enough for much of the planet.
The ice loss in Antarctica is so large that it is causing small changes in the Earthâs gravity field.
These realities seem unsolvable by modern politics because the inconvenient truths and unpalatable solutions threaten much of the current establishment. Baby Boomers don’t need to be concerned with climate change, because let’s be honest – they won’t be here for the worst parts of it.
That doesn’t leave us hopeless, but it does challenge the way forward. Perhaps political parties have simply outlived their ability to make meaningful change and the future will rely on direct action.  To begin with, The 5th estate has an obligation and responsibility to overthrow the 4th estate for dereliction of duty and activists need to identify protests where the safety of polite protest is dropped for outright civil disobedience.
The political system can work when the middle class feel the economic hardship those on the bottom face, Greece and Spain are proof positive of that, but until that occurs, resistance can no longer be meek.
I don’t like this. As one of the people caught in the renting trap – too late to buy property or land, I reject the notion that the fault lies with the oldsters who currently have property etc. They played the game when they were young, and they deserve their rewards.
The true villains here are the banking system and the ultra rich – Jonkey and his mates. They suck the life out of the country, don’t pay their taxes and don’t contribute to the rest of us.
get those guys in line, and the older folk can live out their lives in the comfort they are entitled to and the younger can have a good chance to do the same when their time comes.
Totally agree, the problem is bigger than what the baby boomers are doing. I’m sure a lot of them are genuinely selfish but I think most are scared for their future, they know they might live a long time and they are scared of becoming poor and unwell over that time.
It’s the fact that so much money has been sucked up by the 0.01% that is forcing Babyboomers to look at other means to support themselves in old age. Owning a couple of rentals is a good way to do this – relying on the pension is not. Maybe it was for their parents generation but it isn’t now (even if it has held up better than the rest of the benefits).
After their private retirement plan took a hit around 2000 my father became very focused through his sixties on setting things up so that if he died first (which he did) Mum would be properly taken care of. This motivation was a long way from the selfishness that his generation is often tarred with so I think we need to acknowledge that this is a bit more complicated than just intergenerational politics.
It’s a whole bunch of things that include, fear, the desire to protect family, entitlement and greed – all mixed into a situation that was setup by the neo liberal changes that have sucked money out of the system.
We have to remember that there is plenty of money in the world and who has it. We need to stop fighting amongst ourselves
Of course there is plenty of money in the world. After all money is created by humans. There cant be a shortage. The problem that needs to be faced is that all new money is created by the banks as debt to them. They own the money supply and we mugs merely rent it from them by our interest payments, so Generation Rent is truer than we imagine.
Fix that problem by having the Reserve Bank create our money supply debt and interest free. The fear of pensions being unaffordable, which is mentioned in a few comments, will vanish. The money will be available and a universal minimum wage will replace all the other bizarre handouts.
Spot on @DD – that’s the root of the problem.
I am a babyboomer in my 50s. I live in the provinces and own a modest house that has not increased in value at all in the last five years. I pay for my kids’ university education out of my savings so they don’t end up saddled with loans. I am well educated, but have been kicked around by effing Key’s policies and my prospects these days are pretty much nil. I know that I will be relying heavily on NZ Super to put food on the table. My only hope is that my kids will be able to get ahead, but my own future looks bleak. People like me will really need NZ Super to keep us from going under.
Too right JT, I am in the same boat having made sure my kids are not drowning in debt I have to work for myself to bring in what I can until I am 70. ( thank god for Farmer’s markets and a rural background and land skills)You can live debt free in the country but you still need an income of at least $40,000 net per annum.per couple to live properly.
The world is going the way of Atlantis. Once the realisation dawns on the majority of the middle classes they will vote for their version of Hitler and persecute environmentalists for causing the problem before sinking into the sea, still blaming everyone else but themselves.
The decisive totalitarian who promises “order” at whatever price is set to rule. Compassion,unity and love needed, now.
But the baby boomers are to blame for the seismic shift to the right and the neoliberal mess x’s and y’s now have to battle with. These former hippies turned yuppies, who are now resting on their laurels, promised so much in terms of equality and democracy and delivered so little. They are responsible for the shit we’re now in. They’ve allowed the banks and corporates to get away with robbing their own children.
Mod, This comment was meant in reply to a previous comment and not to Martyn Bradbury with whom I agree.
t here would be more than enough money for pensions and other needed social programs if the dept – slavery program hadnt been implemented – first by muldoon, now by key who is taking it into hyper drive, burning public money in designed to fail projects like cc events center, are not random illogical brain storms of key/brownly, they are a business plan of banksters, just to give you some statistics, the us spends $737 billion a year on defense, $30 billion a year which is 8 days of defense spending would solve world hunger yearly, the wars are manufactured – enemies cultivated, google the ‘Babylonian debt slavery’ model for some insight? call it conspiracy fantasies if you want, more fool you if you dont educate yourself.
seeing pensioners as the enemy is not good, its part of the program to fight amounst our selves, point blame in any direction other than the real perpetrators
Indeed, divide and conquer – it’s so simple – raise emotions so rational thinking departs.
Lets face it …Labour should match jonkey Nacts on the super issue at very least ( it is an election breaker)….who cares if a few millionaires get caught up in the net….better than Labour eating its own with punitive austerity measures on their super entitlement after years in the workforce and taxpaying …and later in their retirement years in meagre part time jobs to make ends meet…this talk is killing Labour
Labour should be concentrating on bigger issues like taxing the wealthy corporations, stopping the hemorraging flow of money out of the country eg banks and overseas corporatesâŚ.making tertiary education free for New ZealandersâŚfunding state secondary and tertiary education properly so we dont have to depend on foreign students⌠who then use it with the help of their families as a loop-hole to gain residency and buy up NZ housing
( which is a bargain compared with their own countries…I heard of one overseas student in Christchurch buying up many properties)
âŚ.stopping overseas companies ( shells within shells) buying up New Zealand land ….and property speculation by foreigners
“With so many Gen Y and Gen Xers fleeing NZ for work and the ability to pay off their student debt”
Err, seen the net migration figures over the last few years?
the two statements are not incompatible….many young NZers leave because of university debt….and many wealthier ( in comparison with NZers) foreigners come in for education and house bargains
Except much of the increased migration flow is from returning New Zealanders.
Citation please.
” Has democracy failed us? Has the tyranny of the self interested majority and the politically tone deaf and ignorant left us with a political system that is simply too broken to be fixed? ”
” a housing market speculated out of their reach by baby boomer investors (and foreign speculators) ” So true, this utterly selfish behaviour has soured my once good opinion of NZ. I see it now except for young people as a miserable money grubbing backwater. I personally know so many greedy so and sos buying 2 or more houses and sod the first home buyers.
Of course our neoliberal ahole governments compound the damage by selling off our public assets.
Yes, Climate Change, our Planet is revolting against man’s non stop greed for growth and the casino money chips that are destroying its ecosphere.
The current ahole government are totally irresponsible. Government was once government for the people’s wellbeing not greed and freemarket winner gets all destruction.
There is a chasm between what’s available for the young and the older people. Child poverty shows we don’t really care for our children and youth they’re just economic cogs to fit in where they can.
One of your best articles Martyn! Congratulations đ
How very odd! A comment that seems so right on a number of levels achieves a luke warm vote. Does this mean that a high proportion of TDB readers and respondents who talk Left wing theory are closet Baby Boomers on practice?
Perhaps that part of the problem.
I am 71 and live in the (forgotten provinces) that FJK has run down with underfunding while propping up Auckland.
Our home we bought in 1974 at $23 000 when we were 35yrs old gone up 10 times since but that means it is only worth $230 000 not $1 million and since 2009 our houses prices have stagnated.
We put a mortgage against the home (our only money asset available) to help our daughter into her home in Gisborne and since 2009 her property price has also stagnated because the regional economy is being undermined by national’s policies of “rob from the provinces for Auckland infrastructure”.
We agree national is killing our future for our young but as I have tried so hard to save our now mothballed rail we are finding deaf ears with a Government who is intent on only truck freight which is now causing all of us poisonous air and fatal road crashes, so we agree the NatZ are killing our future.
We do much money aside the home.
âThe Dry Land Burned Like Grassâ â Siberiaâs Road to a Permaburn Hell
I just put that link in, I hope it works I usually get someone to link things for me.
We are not getting the news on just how catastrophic the climate situation is. I think the situation is hopeless, and the rich baby boomers are having a party before they shuffle off. They don’t give a shit, they believe themselves to be above climate change. They are the ME ME arrogant bunch who will have wiped their fat carbon arses all over the planet for greed and fun. I think it is hilarious they own practically everything, which means nothing in the face of what is really important, our home planet is what we need to save ourselves from near term extinction,(believe it or not a lot of climate scientists do believe it). But the news is all about ‘terrorism’ (and the new favourite word for the masses) ‘radicalisation’! While the Earth goes into abrupt climate change, not hardly a peep, I certainly didn’t see the link above video on the news.
We are now living with the consequences of that generations deliberate ignorance head up arse greed. Greed and showing off to each other is what matters to that generation of shallow fools. They are on every station and tell us about food, wine and holidays, and dimwit opinions on everything trivial, and trivialise everything important to anyone but them. they are simpleton idiots who talk endless shit in my opinion, and they never shut up, or fuck off either, they are responsible for brainwashing and dumbing down the news/ music/ art.! Also they created the system which exploits everything now for profit. They condemn us to this road to hell climate change. The ring leader is FJK, say no more really, my generation is gagged by BBs controlling everything, you have to kiss the arse of one for them to open a door or put down a ladder for us grovelling generations to clime up into the ‘special’ group of sycophants. Where is the meritocracy!!!
The big storm over us now is the edge of a massive storm system, (the biggest in the world right now) I shudder to think what it would have been like to get this storm’s full brunt, (maybe like the northern hemisphere’s Polar Vortex? While living in an hardly insulated old full of gaps house) owned by a BB parent I rent it off. I live out on the Otago peninsula and it was freaky enough for me, lightening like I’ve never experienced the intensity of before.
A roll of a dice to see who gets climate hell next, all the while the baby boomers party on. As you can see I do have issues with a lot of BBs it is just sad really it has come to this. Maybe we could start a campaign to ‘punch a baby boomer a day’? Wasn’t the original saying ‘punch a pom a day’?? Just Joking, we have to love them they are our fucking parents.
For what it is worth, I looked around the audience at the latest Min for Environment public meeting on climate change – 99% BBs I judged.
My husband is home now to make the link work. Yes Ross Clark I know I am generalising, but I have worked in the past for many BB bosses in the tourism industry and these days having to deal with BB gallery owners. They are usually bullies and condescending wankers or creepy know alls, and they give me the shits generally so I usually avoid them as much as possible. Come to think of it I usually avoid most of the human rat race plague these days. P.s this link is shocking, especially the video, and not once mentioned on the news here.
https://robertscribbler.wordpress.com/2015/04/17/the-dry-land-burned-like-grass-siberias-road-to-a-permaburn-hell/
Thanks for the link – as you say, no mention here.
This is what’s happening with barely one degree of warming. in other words it’s an hors d’oeuvre, a taste, a tidbit of what is to come.
Yeah you have a bad case of generation envy Martyn.
Its understandable as most the rich today are BBs, but by definition so are most of the poor on fixed retirement incomes.
The argument becomes absurd when you extend it to climate catastrophe.
Climate change is the result of capitalist industrialisation and that’s quite a few generations of capitalists at fault there most of them dead and some of them today very aspirational GensXYs.
In all of the social movements I have been around for 50 years the generations mix amiably and don’t have age fixations.
Only in recent years have a I noticed any disrespect for old campaigners as passed their used by dates.
So far I have resisted reverse generation discrimination.
You need some counselling on this one I think.
Yes. It’s no longer fit for purpose, which shows that there is no “end of history”. Democracy is good for societies that have already solved most of their problems, which is why it doesn’t take in countries like Pakistan. What is for the most part unprecedented is the backslide from conditions where it works to conditions where it doesn’t, which is what the western democracies have been experiencing gradually in the last few decades.
There is no democratic solution to current problems, yet democracy is essentially our civic religion. Become an atheist today.
Democracy is having a real choice about the way a country is governed. Labour are pandering, again, to the floaters who have drifted over to Key and they are failing to fight for the hundreds of thousands who are actually drowning and who were given nothing to vote for.
That’s what democracy looks like. Get over it already.
No, that’s what an oligarchy looks like. And it’s going from strength to strength.
we arent dealing with ‘democracy’ what we are looking at is an ‘oligarchy” an american study, applies to nz too –
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2014/apr/21/americas-oligarchy-not-democracy-or-republic-unive/
Can the boomers please stop with their personal stories as a way of minimising the systemic hogging of wealth from the 60s to now?
Nobody is blaming you as individuals.
Feminists don’t blame men as individuals for patriarchy
Maori don’t blame Pakeha as individuals for colonialism.
If you take offence at younger generations moaning about boomers, then maybe you are the problem – as an individual.
Younger generations are always critical of older generations.
One thing I have always tried to do is refrain from lumping people together, or trying to fit them in a pigeon-hole.
I am furious at the behaviour of many of my contemporaries, and the state of our country.
But when painting Baby Boomers with such a broad brush some of you should be careful that you don’t end up sounding like bigots.
I’m approaching 69 and my husband is coming up 70 soon.
During our working lives, we took out a mortgage to buy a home, raised two children, paid for private health insurance, not wanting to be a burden on the state health system. We helped assist our children to go through tertiary education (university and polytechnic), so they wouldn’t come out with too much debt. As a result of the latter, they managed to secure good jobs and have through their working lives paid their way, worked hard and contributed to NZ.
When we reached 60, we were forced to give away our private health care insurance, due to increasing fees, rising each year, despite hardly using it during our time as members. Now we are required to rely on the public health system should we become ill. In this regard, we make sure we are responsible for remaining as healthy as we possibly can.
We have very small savings to supplement our pension, which we are grateful for, despite contributing to the pension scheme over the years through our taxes, as we were led to believe at the time, for our old age. However our savings account is used to pay rates and unforeseen emergencies etc.
We are by no means well off and have to live on a tight budget to get by. We are fortunate to be able to grow our own vegetables and have fruit trees. Our garden keeps us going throughout the year. A meat meal and dining out are very few and far between in our household, being considered luxuries by us.
While realizing there are many seniors out there, sitting on multiple rental properties and the like, sucking in the rents, with very little outlay, not all of us fall into this category. For most of us oldies it’s a case of getting through each day as best we can on what we have available to us.
this a very ageist article , what ? no young property developers either here or in hong kong ? no baby boomers struggling ? shame on you . you can do better than this I trust..
I am a baby boomer, I was brought up to live frugally and thus have saved to purchase, gone without or made do, repaired .. and still do … most of my life. I have watched following generations ‘want it now’ and buy the latest gadget. I am now active in lobbying for taking action against climate change, inequality, encouraging building resilient communities. But, having said that, there is a lot of truth in your article. “Build for the future, don’t steal from it”. I think it is the obscene inequality due to a small portion of baby boomers (and younger), that need to be addressed.
Great article with some fundamental uncomfortable truths, BUT itâs still written by a âleftâ Capitalist-Apologist who uses the false stock explanation that climate change is due to âoverpopulationâ. That educated people can go on blinkering out the actual causal mechanism while blaming the majority poor reveals the derangement of this ruling value system. I know plenty of âbaby boomersâ who have done very well in the market board game who still look at this causality in reverse: blaming me for having a âsense of entitlementâ to a habitable planet, while all along they continue to impose a âsense of entitlementâ onto me going into debt with money we donât have to get an âeducationâ so I can get a âjobâ that wonât exist (because they’re all being automated at an exponential rate) so I can pay their pension and justify my right to exist and accelerate the planetary ecocide even faster! so. much. lol.
To add to my previous post, at the time my generation lived and worked, it was an egalitarian society, where Kiwis were generally valued as individuals and given a fair go.
During those years the rule was a fair day’s pay for a fair day’s work. And home ownership was encouraged by government of the day.
Definitely not the same set of rules for working young people today! They deserve much better than the frustration and hardship dished out to them at the present time, thanks to the ugly monster, Rogernomics and resulting neo liberalism, which has created more damage than any other economic and social system in this country!
I is not that simple, I fear.
There are many young New Zealanders, and also some immigrants, who have sufficiently well off parents, who give them the financial help to get their tertiary and other education, and in some cases the parents can borrow against the equity of their homes.
The upper middle class, and even some that may not be there, get this help, and while they may take out student loans, they will get an education that will offer them potential to get jobs with high salaries.
What worries me most is how we have moved back to a newly re-enforced class system, as there are fewer from more traditional “working class” or even “precariat class” background moving into higher education.
A person’s future depends a lot again on how well the parents did, and how well they are.
In view of that, the generations X and Y do not all face the same problems. Those that have a poorly resourced start in life, given their background and parents, they are often stuffed, but those that have well earning or asset rich parents to fall back on still do ok, or at least manage.
Some will inherit that wealth from their parents, once baby boomers pass on.
And the ones that manage and do well, they also manage to get credit from their banks, which though is another issue, the huge debt burden, that can choke them and the whole economy, should the housing price bubble burst.
What we have is a growing precariat, and the “underclass” facing ever more hurdles to get out of their situations, no matter what upbeat talk we get from this government about “supporting” them out of “benefit dependency” and so.
Maybe they are just too “addicted” to that “drug”?
http://www.gpcme.co.nz/pdf/GP%20CME/Friday/C1%201515%20Bratt-Hawker.pdf
It is worse than this – the pattern with demographics and the stock market is rarely mentioned, but well researched. Most people don’t even think about this so not surprising.
Basically it means the returns younger generations will receive fall as the baby boomers die out.
: (
Young, old, who cares, lets just rid ourselves of these thieves in government and get some equality back for all New Zealanders.
NZ’s are only angry because they care about their country. It is very upsetting watching it go down the gurgler, when it has so much potential if managed properly.
To give a personal example of the attitude towards super entitlement: I have a sister nearing retirement age. She is not a John Key or National fan and could be described as centre – centre left. However she will never vote for a party that even hints about raising the age of entitlement for super or means testing.
Her attitude is that I have worked hard for around five decades, why should I be one of the first to take the rap for an unaffordable scheme. She knows the present national super is unaffordable, that something needs to be done, but “its not my fault, so why should I be penalised?”
I suspect this is the majority thinking on this.
I think you make an important point Martyn. The baby boomers will largely be voting National because National is the party that most caters to individual desires – largely the desire for more money and material goods. National will always win their votes because it promises, often implicitly, that under National your gains will never be taken away.
How many people vote for a party which, if it wins, would lead you to financial disadvantage, no matter how insignificant?
Only the most selfless will do that, and amongst the baby boomers there aren’t many of those.
The fault lies , not with one generation or another but with the monetary system we operate. Money is loaned into existence and when that loan is paid off that money is extinguished. The only way for more money to be created is more loans but we have reached the point in history when there is so much debt people are reluctant to borrow more. Globally debt has moved up the vertical part of an exponential curve. To see it explained more clearly visit Chris Martenson The Crash Course.
What is needed is monetary reform.
I said over 13 years ago the government is turning New Zealand into a country of landless peasants.
And here we are.
Its not money we are running out of now it is ‘stuff’, like energy, water and land. You can’t print these things.
And the BB babies are still producing babies ………….
The last human generation started to be born about 10 years ago.
So now Martyn Bradbury wants to get rid of pensions and any sense of “entitlement”? – or in other words any right to a decent standard of living at the end of life? This very same word is used against people on benefits. Apparently they aren’t “entitled” to have a decent standard of living either, or any right to live at all really. Many pensioners are living close to the breadline. People are entitled to bit of a rest at the end of a long hard working life contributing to society- and this includes both paid and unpaid work, such as mothering. Pensioners are not the enemy. The truly falsely “entitled” are the banks and the corporates. Bradbury should know better. If there is really a problem about people getting a pension plus additional high incomes- the CPAG has some suggestions as to how to use the tax rate for truly high earners to return some of that money back to the community again. But the pension in itself actually isn’t enough to live beyond extremely frugally. Not all pensioners own their own homes, let alone have extra homes to rent out to others. So some people need to be able to do a bit of work to top up their pensions. I’m replying to Andrew Little here, but Martyn seems to be of a similar point of view.
This comment thread predictably focuses mostly on whether Bomber’s charges against the Boomer generation sticks. I think most Boomers seem to have done disproportionately well only in comparison to how badly younger generations are doing at the same age. I agree with other comments that what Bomber and others (including myself at times) blame on intergenerational theft is actually inter-class theft by the 1% for benefit of the 1%.
What interests me more in Bomber’s column though is his call that:
“The 5th estate has an obligation and responsibility to overthrow the 4th estate for dereliction of duty”
Harvard Professor Yochai Benkler has written some interesting analysis of what Bomber called the “the 5th estate” in relation to WikiLeaks, although he prefers the term “the networked fourth estate”:
http://dash.harvard.edu/handle/1/10900863?show=full
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