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How Boomers Broke America's Future
Forget the culture wars. This is the real intergenerational war over money and control
Gen Kimura
August 07, 2025
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What’s in This Week’s Issue…
Good morning. While millennials are being told to skip avocado toast to afford houses, there's an $84 trillion wealth transfer happening right under our noses.
But here's what nobody talks about: The money isn't just changing hands. It's actively working against the next generation.
So this week…
🏆 The Big Play: How one generation built a system that locks out everyone who came after
💪 The Power Move: The three strategies you need to survive the rigged game
💵 Follow the Money: Why Netanyahu wants a full conquest of Gaza now
-GEN
🏆 The Big Play
The biggest money power story of the week.
How Boomers Quietly Rigged the Future Against You
Boomers are the ruling class
Let’s take the example of Tucker: a teenager in 1960s Ohio, raised in a stable home with factory worker parents, and access to a well-funded private school.
In 1968, he finishes high school and faces a simple choice: college or a union job like his parents.
College costs $400 per year. That's about $4,000 in today's money. So, he works summers at the local factory and graduates debt-free four years later.
By 25, Tucker buys his first house for $30,000 (roughly $230,000 today), with a mortgage payment well below 25% of his monthly income.
Fast forward to 2025.
Skyler graduates high school facing $38,000 in college debt just to compete for jobs that didn't exist when Tucker was starting out. And the same house Tucker bought? It’s now worth $400,000.
The difference isn't just inflation. It's systematic ladder-pulling. And here’s how we got here:
1. The Education Money Machine
Here's what happened while boomers climbed into power positions:
As taxpayers and political leaders in the 1980s and 90s, they cut state funding for universities. The narrative shifted from "college as a public good" to "college as your personal investment."
This created a money-making feedback loop:
More loans meant higher tuition
Higher tuition required more loans
More loans justified even higher tuition
And that’s how younger generations enter adulthood in a debt trap that previous generations never faced.
But education was just the beginning.
2. The Housing Cartel Machine
Housing is the next milestone for any young adult.
But if you own an asset that rises in value, you do everything possible to keep supply low.
Boomers did the same with housing:
1950s-70s: America built 1.5 million housing units per year
Today, we struggle to build 1.4 million despite a much larger population
In California, Proposition 13 froze property tax assessments at 1970s values. So, a boomer who bought in the 1980s pays taxes on a fraction of their home's current worth.
Meanwhile, a millennial buying the identical house next door pays taxes on the full current value.
This isn't accidental. It's NIMBY activism disguised as community concern.
3. The Political Power Machine
When you have housing sorted, you have started building wealth, and with it, influence.
But political power guaranteed it:
The American Association of Retired Persons has 38 million members and spent nearly $20 million in just 2024 to influence everything from taxes to healthcare.
Compare that to youth advocacy groups: their budgets are peanuts.
But here's the real kicker: Boomers vote.
Politicians know this. It's why billions are spent on TV ads during news programs. It's why you'll never see a politician propose cutting Medicare to fund student loan forgiveness.
4. The Revolving Door Machine
This isn't a ladder from wealth to power. It's a complete circle.
Political power creates wealth, and wealth creates political power:
Senator John Ossoff introduced the Ban Congressional Stock Trading Act because members of Congress can trade stocks while regulating the very companies they invest in.
What happened to his bill? It was buried in committee by older lawmakers who profit from those trades.
Between 1972 and 2014, a significant number of senators joined at least one corporate board. It's completely legal to be a sitting member of Congress and simultaneously sit on a corporate board.
For example, Republican Eric Cantor lost reelection in 2014 and within months landed a vice chairman post in an investment bank paying him $1.8 million in his first year.
Ultimately, the system protects itself.
💪 The Power Moves
Playbook for understanding the game of power.
How You Can Win Against This Rigged Game
The Wealth of Boomers
Every generation thinks they're different. Boomers were once hippies fighting the system before they became the system.
But here's why we might actually break the cycle:
We're the first generation to see the playbook in real time.
We've watched banks rig 2008. We've seen governments fumble pandemics. We've witnessed endless protests turn Americans against each other.
This has made us deeply cynical and distrusting. But it's also given us something previous generations never had: complete transparency into how the game actually works.
Your three survival strategies:
Perspective is power: We could’ve been drafted for World War II or born into the Great Depression. The American dream changed, but the upside has never been greater with global access to information and opportunities.
Father Time is undefeated. The handover to younger generations will happen. Instead of vandalizing property, learn from what boomers did right while fixing what they broke.
Information is your advantage. You're already ahead of 99.99% of people who ever lived simply by understanding how money and power actually work.
The Takeaway:
The system is rigged, but it's not permanent.
Every rigged game eventually gets exposed, and every generation that rigs it eventually loses control.
Your job isn't to complain about the game but to understand it well enough to change it.
💵 Following the Money
Three of the wildest financial and corruption stories from around the world.
Israel’s War Cabinet in 2023
✨ Poll time!
Which system do you feel has been most rigged against your generation? |
