Caution:,This Chart relates to the USA . I am extrapolating the trend onto to the rest of the world only out of pure academic curiosity. It may have no accurate resemblance to actual reality.
Take a look please at the very illustrative chart above!
It indeed shows how generous the Silent Generation has truly been in passing on its wealth to the three other generations: Babyboomer, GenX and Millennial.
The biggest beneficiaries of this transfer of wealth over the last 3 decades has been the Babyboomer – 33% (I’m one of them) and the Gen-X –27% .
In 1990, for your information, the Gross Wealth Product (GWP) of the world was (in contemporary US$) USD. 27.5 trillion . Today’s GWP of the world is USD 87.8 trillion.
With the above figures given, please do the maths now yourself and calculate how much of the Delta GWP-change (of USD 60 Trillion) created since 1990 by the Silent Generation has been handed down now up to 2020 to the Babyboomers and GenXers .
However, do not forget that back in 1990 the Global Debt to GDP ratio was c. 60% and today in 2020 it is .. USD. 281 trillion or 355% of GDP!
So, you if you did your maths (or, should I say Economics?) correctly, you will surely realise that much of the Delta-change in GWP that the Babyboomer created between 1990 and 2020 was really all financed by borrowings from the future of the Millennials and generations that come after. It was never real wealth creation, after all!
In net aggregate terms, it should be clear to all, that whatever wealth we might claim has been handed to Babyboomers by the Silent Generation has been merrily enjoyed by the former only at the expense of the GenXers and Millennials … and the their future.
It is my fear therefore that the Baby-boomers generation to which I belong is surely going to be judged very harshly by History of a Post-Covid world as being the “Bane of the 21st Century” … and History’s verdicts are seldom unfair or inaccurate!
Sudarshan Madabushi