Free Republic
Browse · Search
Smoky Backroom
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

How the boomers screwed Europe
The Economist ^ | May 28th 2026

Posted on 05/31/2026 2:53:08 PM PDT by MinorityRepublican

Once upon a time, inequality in Europe was largely horizontal. The rich western half drove BMWs and holidayed abroad, while the poorer east rewired its own appliances and queued for bread.

But three decades of catch-up growth in erstwhile communist countries has put paid to jokes about Romanian cars whose top speed was “downhill”. These days inequality in Europe has a vertical dimension—one that goes up and down family trees.

Youngsters unable to move out of their parents’ spare room due to sky-high house prices wonder if they will ever enjoy the lifestyle as adults which they knew as kids.

Thirty-somethings in jobs pay hefty taxes to fund the pensions of oldies who retired in their prime. Costs related to ageing are guzzling a quarter of the European Union’s GDP, a figure unlikely to fall as the Old Continent grows older still. To be a young European is to feel oneself an unwitting participant in an intergenerational confidence trick.

(Excerpt) Read more at economist.com ...


TOPICS: Heated Discussion
KEYWORDS: europe; euroweenies; slackers; victimcard
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-4041-6061-80 ... 121-122 next last

1 posted on 05/31/2026 2:53:08 PM PDT by MinorityRepublican
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies]

To: MinorityRepublican

More generational hate.

When will they pull us up on stage for our shame session?


2 posted on 05/31/2026 2:54:12 PM PDT by Vermont Lt
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: MinorityRepublican

Generational stratification is not unknown to Europe. It existed for thousands of years.


3 posted on 05/31/2026 2:56:11 PM PDT by Bayard
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Vermont Lt

Poor widdle Bommers.
Always the victim.


4 posted on 05/31/2026 2:56:43 PM PDT by MotorCityBuck (Keep the Change You Filthy Animal !)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: MinorityRepublican

Blah blah blah Boomers...... Hate hate.... If it wasn’t for them everything would be wonderful.

Whine whine whine..... What a pant load.


5 posted on 05/31/2026 2:57:47 PM PDT by HerrBlucher
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: MinorityRepublican

It is the Boomer Generation that concluded that White civilization needs to be EXTERMINATED and they are doing a very, very, effective job of getting to that goal.


6 posted on 05/31/2026 2:58:49 PM PDT by BobL (Trusting one's doctor is the #1 health mistake one can make.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: MinorityRepublican

Blame it on the politicians and their asinine legislation..no different then here in the US.

Our problems are the result of Congress.


7 posted on 05/31/2026 2:59:09 PM PDT by maddog55 (The only thing systemic in America is the left's hatred of it! I want lower taxes.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: HerrBlucher

It’s Europe...wine, wine, wine 🙄


8 posted on 05/31/2026 3:00:13 PM PDT by maddog55 (The only thing systemic in America is the left's hatred of it! I want lower taxes.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 5 | View Replies]

To: BobL
It is the Boomer Generation that concluded that White civilization needs to be EXTERMINATED...

Correction. It's the boomers within the POLITICAL CLASS, the so called "experts" who pushed the hatred of whites. The middle class boomers aren't full of white guilt.

9 posted on 05/31/2026 3:00:54 PM PDT by Tell It Right (1 Thessalonians 5:21 -- Put everything to the test, hold fast to that which is true.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 6 | View Replies]

To: maddog55

Pour me a glass of Spatlese or Spatburgender please. Preferably from the Mosel River Valley.


10 posted on 05/31/2026 3:02:48 PM PDT by Night Hides Not (Remember the Alamo! Remember Goliad! Remember Gonzales! Come and Take It!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 8 | View Replies]

To: MinorityRepublican
Boomers??

How about Communists and all the morons who keep voting for more "free stuff"? After all the destruction they have wrought with the importation of hordes of the third-world, they keep voting for the same Party/People.

Sheesh. Boomers? Pffft...

Want more proof? How close with the election be in LA? Klepto-Communist Karen Bass should be shamed out of office and put in prison, yet the race appears close.

11 posted on 05/31/2026 3:04:06 PM PDT by Obadiah
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Tell It Right

That’s why I used the word “Generation”. No prior generation of people, in the 250 or so prior generations throughout recorded history, ever got themselves into a position to Exterminate their own people, and went forward to do just that.


12 posted on 05/31/2026 3:05:51 PM PDT by BobL (Trusting one's doctor is the #1 health mistake one can make.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 9 | View Replies]

To: MotorCityBuck

Yes…I sit on the porch of my huge, empty home, clipping my bond coupons and taking my used underwear to the goodwill store so the poors will have something nice to wear when they trudge to work.

Oh the humanity. LOL


13 posted on 05/31/2026 3:06:32 PM PDT by Vermont Lt
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 4 | View Replies]

To: Obadiah

How about Communists and all the morons who keep voting for more “free stuff”? After all the destruction they have wrought with the importation of hordes of the third-world, they keep voting for the same Party/People.


Then after the Revolution, they will get the shock of their lives when they find out, if they don’t work, they either get shot, or go to a gulag.


14 posted on 05/31/2026 3:07:04 PM PDT by dfwgator ("I am Charlie Kirk!")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 11 | View Replies]

To: MinorityRepublican

Boomers are a selfish selfish bunch. And that’s their prerogative.

I choose to leave my kids set up after i am gone. I want them to be better off than I. My parents, they don’t care about that. Neither do my aunts and uncles, who all happen to be boomers. They are taking their selfishness to the grave. Good for them, it’s their perogative. It’s their money, they can do whatever they want with it.


15 posted on 05/31/2026 3:09:19 PM PDT by hillarys cankles
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: MinorityRepublican
The crazy-high taxation is an institution in Europe. It prevents even the frugal from being able to save and retire.

The youth aren't showing any signs of wanting to veer right. So if they continue to vote left, they are endorsing perpetual crippling high taxes.

If they also buy into the atheistic, nontraditional, pro-abortion, anti-children beliefs of their parents, then they are a part of the problem.

HOWEVER if they are AFD Germans, or National Rally French, or Reform UK Brits, then indeed they are trying to fight their way back from the brink of Communism and back toward sanity, prosperity, and conservatism, and religion. I genuinely feel sorry for them, and I hope they are motivated enough to free themselves from the yoke of high and crippling taxes.

We will see.

16 posted on 05/31/2026 3:10:53 PM PDT by caddie (Going forward we all need to become Trump, and also Captain Obvious, and Charlie Kirk too. )
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: caddie
HOWEVER if they are AFD Germans, or National Rally French, or Reform UK Brits, then indeed they are trying to fight their way back from the brink of Communism and back toward sanity, prosperity, and conservatism, and religion. I genuinely feel sorry for them, and I hope they are motivated enough to free themselves from the yoke of high and crippling taxes.

It's more than just high taxes.

They're the last generation of native Europeans in Western Europe.

The West is disappearing before our eyes.

17 posted on 05/31/2026 3:12:15 PM PDT by MinorityRepublican
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 16 | View Replies]

To: hillarys cankles

That’s as ridiculous a comment as any I’ve read around here lately. Trashing the largest cohort in American history with a broad brush like that is just silly. Yeah, your relatives might be jerks. But that doesn’t mean everyone born during that time is a jerk.

And I find it humorous that all you kids can think about it money, money, money. I guess your parents were jerks if they did not tell you there is more to happiness and life than how many dollars you can stuff into your pockets.


18 posted on 05/31/2026 3:13:00 PM PDT by Vermont Lt
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 15 | View Replies]

To: MinorityRepublican

It’s always someone else’s fault.


19 posted on 05/31/2026 3:14:30 PM PDT by SpaceBar
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: MinorityRepublican

How Europe screwed itself: It never learned the lessons of two World Wars.


20 posted on 05/31/2026 3:15:01 PM PDT by mass55th (“Courage is being scared to death, but saddling up anyway.” ― John Wayne)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-4041-6061-80 ... 121-122 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
Smoky Backroom
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson