Boomers are wealthy fat cats who own multiple investment properties making it impossible for the younger generation to own homes. They use their plump superannuation funds on cruises, grey nomading and spending the kids inheritance. (SKI) They add nothing to the economy and if they do work they’re taking someone else’s job. They block up the healthcare system and cost the taxpayer a fortune in aged care. They benefitted from buying cheap housing, a free university education and are now supported by younger generations. This is the classic narrative replayed in podcasts, news articles and TV interviews.
Have you looked at the book store recently? Francis Beckett wrote ” What Did Baby Boomers Ever Do For Us?” Bruce Cannon Gibney writes about the Boomer generation as “A Generation of Sociopaths.” In 2021 Helen Andrews published “Boomers: The Men and Women Who Promised Freedom and Delivered Disaster.” Jill Filipovic wrote “OK BOOMER, Let’s Talk: How My Generation Got Left Behind” and Fiona Wright’s satirical novel has the winning title Kill Your Boomers. Funny ha?
On Saturday this fat cat indulged in her ritual of collecting the AGE newspaper and a coffee and slowly cruising through its pages in a most decadent fashion. At 77 years old, I’ve earned it! My eye was drawn to an excellent article by Greg Callaghan called ” Generation Scapegoat” in the Good Weekend Magazine found in Saturday’s Age. This four page article provided facts…something rare in recent debates about ageism. It is such an impressive article I decided to summarise the key points here for our VIVA70 readers. Grab the reading glasses and take a look!
The Property Mogul’s Myth Unpacked
The Haves and Have Nots exist in every generation and Callaghan argues that the top 20% control most of the overall wealth in the Boomer generation. Melbourne University recently published a survey “Household Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia” (HILDA) which showed that 66% of retirees own their homes outright in Australia. I did a bit of rummaging with AI, which in turn delved into government census and housing surveys in different countries. I found Malaysia has one of the highest mortgage free home ownership by retirees at 85%, Canada at 70%, New Zealand at 72%, USA at 65%, and UK at 61.3%. While 66% seems a high number home ownership by Australian Boomers is lower or on par with many first world countries.
Increasing numbers of retired renters, mainly women, are the most at risk group of Boomers with rental increases of nearly 40% in real terms since the early 2000’s. Single, older women are most at risk because of lower lifetime earnings, the gender pay gap, career breaks for care giving, and unpaid leave gives older women roughly 30% less superannuation compared to men.
“The new face of the housing crisis isn’t a struggling 20-something; its a single woman over 55 only one rent hike away from living in her car or couch surfing.”
Vanguard’s 2026 study also found 24% of retirees will now leave paid work with a mortgage on their home.
The Pot of Gold: Superannuation
Callaghan points out that Superannuation did not exist until July 1992 in Australia when early boomers like myself were already in our 40’s. ” Even then, it kicked off at just 3% of earnings before taking more than a decade to crawl up to 9%.(It’s now 12%)”
I remember when I started teaching in 1972, I could not join a superannuation scheme. I was a married woman and the assumption was that my husband would take care of me in my older age!
Myra Hamilton, a sociologist from University of Sydney notes that Australian women typically have around one third less superannuation than men.
Place to call Home
The article points out that life in 1960’s and 70’s for most people was very different to younger generations today. Yes housing prices relative to earnings was a huge advantage for Boomers. Callaghan notes that “In 1975 a Sydney house cost about $28,000- manageable at four times the average annual income. Today the same dream requires $1.58 million, a suffocating 16 to 18 times the median annual salary.”
If Boomers were able to get on the property ladder and build equity in their homes in 1970’s, this provided a strong platform to build wealth. But how did we manage to do this? By saving. No overseas trips, home theatres, facials, spas, date nights, dining out. My first home, a renovators delight, cost $36,000 in 1978. I took in boarders in the 2 spare bedrooms to help pay the mortgage. I was not alone. This was how my friends also got into the market. Banks did not lend to single women. I went to three banks until I found one that would lend me the amount, if I had a male guarantor, paid a higher interest rate and had 15% deposit.
Amy Remeikis recent book ” Where It All Went Wrong” notes that John Howard’s government policies turned housing from a place to live to a way to amass wealth. But look at this statistic from the ATO. Who are the greatest group of landlords in Australia? Boomers? Well NO! Taxation Office figures show that 73% of Landlords are Gen X’ers or Millenials. Boomers hold under 27% and this number is decreasing as they die or divest property to pay for healthcare costs.
Callaghan also points out that in 1975 homes were 130-150 square metres in size. Today’s typical house size has bloated to between 214 and 235 sq. meters to house families half the size of those in 1970’s. One bathroom? Don’t be ridiculous!
The other factor that rarely gets mentioned is that Boomers will die. We’re on the downward slope! Where will all this property go that we have supposedly accumulated? For the 20% wealthy Boomers family trusts and savvy accountants, negative gearing and low capital gains tax. Who will get all this hoarded property? Cat’s Homes and Charities? No. Our Kids and grandkids. They grumble because they have to wait a bit longer.. we refuse to lie down quietly but the next generation will inherit these assets along with all their inflated value.
There is so much more in this article. As with most ageist stereotypes it’s the detail that’s missing and the wrong conclusions drawn. Stereotypes are great for speedy caricatures but they are simplistic and can be ill informed. Some days the Boomer Bashing wears me down. Like all generations we’re a diverse group. Some Fat Cats. Some older people on their knees and just trying to get by. And a lot of people just growing old, trying to keep healthy, volunteering and doing the best they can.
Don’t blame the Boomers by Greg Callaghan October 17 edition of the Good Weekend Magazine found in the Age.
Council on The Ageing- State of the Older Nation report 2025
Images by Alena Darmel with thanks