Why Boomers Don’t Care About Being Woke Like Millennials and Gen Z

The term “woke” has emerged in political discussions to describe people who closely align with causes like social justice, income inequality, racial discrimination, and the advocacy of disadvantaged groups in America. Woke adherents tend to be more common among younger generations, but why is this the case?

“Boomer” is an affectionate shortening of the term for the generational group “Baby Boomer.” The Baby Boomer generation describes Americans born between 1946 and 1964. The name is derived from the population “boom” that followed the close of World War II. During that period, America experienced immense economic growth that allowed the country’s soldiers back from war to to settle down and raise families.

Because the Boomers grew up in a time of prosperity, they were used to problems in society working themselves out. This contributes to an attitude shared by Boomers that if someone has a problem, then they just haven’t tried hard enough to solve it.

Younger generations are growing up in a vastly different world than the one that Boomers enjoyed. According to the American Economic Association wage stagnation for American workers began in the 1970s, meaning the value of what they were paid started to decrease in the economy.

The Economic Policy Institute analyzed wages from 1979 to 2013 and found that the bottom 90% of wage groups only increased their wages by 15% during that period. By contrast, the top 1% of wage groups saw their annual pay increase by 138%.

Boomers grew up in a completely different time than the Millennials and Gen Z generations. For one, they didn’t have social media.

Woke used to mean one thing: becoming more aware of social injustice. Now, however, the term has almost completely lost its meaning. Many older generations use the phrase quite often.

When Boomers look at the younger generations, they see a disparity in their expectations and what they expect them to have accomplished. This leads some Boomers to view younger generations as spoiled or lazy. They see younger people as ones who would rather blame their problems on others instead of fixing them themselves.

Younger generations, for their part, also place blame on the Boomer generation for the current state of the country. An Axios/Survey Monkey poll from 2018 found that a majority of Millennials, the generation born between 1980 and 1997, blame boomers for spoiling the prosperity of the country.

Another reason why many Boomers do not subscribe to woke critiques of wealth inequality is that they are more likely to be the ones holding onto that wealth.

Many of the methods that Boomers used previously to grow their wealth like saving extra money to use in investments are much harder to do than they used to be. Because worker wages buy less in the economy today, there is much less left to use to grow wealth.

Perhaps the most notable differences between older and younger generations can arise in the workplace. This is because Boomers have a completely different outlook on work than, say, Gen Z.

Many Boomers also hold high the idea of sacrificing much of their personal life to get ahead in their career. They believe that you have to give up your life to make money.

Millennials and Gen Z, meanwhile, are completely disenfranchised in many aspects of society, including working. Millennials immediately had to deal with many crises upon first entering the workforce, such as the 2008 financial and housing crisis.

As a result of this mindset, many Millennials and Gen Z workers strive to obtain a balanced work and personal life. They don’t believe in the need to sacrifice their lives to get ahead in their careers, as financial crises have shown them that this is a lie.

Many Boomers have claimed that younger generations don’t have any loyalty to their companies or bosses. They won’t, for example, stay late in the office to get work done, even if they’re not being paid. Boomers would’ve done this. Millennials and Gen Z won’t.

Heritage Foundation economist E.J. Antoni told Fox Business that, “Young persons who haven’t had the time to save money and to buy a home, they are not seeing that same kind of increase in wealth. But [for] existing homeowners, it has been an absolute boon for them.”

Some people are scared of change. So, why wouldn’t a whole generation be scared of the huge societal change that younger generations are pushing for?

In just the last few decades alone, society has seen such incredible technological change thanks to the internet and social media. Now, as artificial intelligence reaches new heights, even more change is on the horizon.

Baby Boomers are in a different place in their lives compared to typical proponents of woke politics. They are more concerned with maintaining their lives, addressing health issues, and managing retirement problems. Boomers are naturally less focused on the social or political activism that is a key part of woke culture just because of their age.

Clearly, Boomers are older than the younger generations. They’re more focused on their own personal issues rather than the world’s issues.

Political opinions can sometimes change as a person ages. Boomers may have been more open to woke ideas when they were younger, but research from The University of Chicago gives credence to the idea that left-leaning people are more likely to become conservatives over time than the other way around.

Interestingly, many studies have begun to theorize that the age-old tradition of becoming more conservative as you age may be going away.

These studies shine a light on yet another glaring difference between Millennials and Boomers. If these statistics stay true as Millennials continue to age, then society as a whole could be currently going through a huge change.