A Generation of Sociopaths: How the Baby Boomers Betrayed America

“Deficits in self-control were not limited to the sexual and marital. Perhaps the purest example of self-control and foresight is saving, the denial of pleasure now in favor of security later. This proved almost impossible for the Boomers, whose inability to save represented yet another radical break from earlier generations’ practices and ultimately required them to plunder the accounts of other generations”. – page 63.

From the time when I was a college student in the early 1970’s I have had a bone to pick with my generation. I found far too many of my contemporaries to be greedy, self-centered and patently irresponsible. Time has not changed my opinion one iota. Now in 2017 writer and venture capitalist Bruce Cannon Gibney unleashes a devastating indictment of the Boomer generation in his important new book “A Generation of Sociopaths: How Boomers Betrayed America”. In an extremely logical and very workmanlike presentation Gibney demonstrates how over the past several decades Boomers have succeeded in promoting dubious tax policies and legislative initiatives that have had the net effect of enriching themselves at the expense of their children and grandchildren. And yes, I can see where I have personally benefitted from some of these policies. There is a lot of food for thought in this book.

One of the most telling statistics in “A Generation of Sociopaths” has to be the marked difference between the savings rate of The Greatest Generation and that of the Baby Boomers. In the early 1970’s the savings rate hovered at nearly 13%. People saved for a rainy day, demanded value for their hard-earned money and exhibited an incredible amount of self-discipline throughout their lives. These people grew up in the Great Depression so they understood that hard times were inevitable and they made sure that they were prepared for them. No so the Boomers. Incredibly, by 2005 the savings rate had dipped to a mere 1.5%. As a result, there will be little to pass on to the next generation.

In Chapter 8 Bruce Cannon Gibney outlines how Boomers have manipulated the tax laws over the past three decades to largely benefit themselves. During the 1980’s Boomers succeeded in lowering income tax rates as they were entering the workforce. Some years later capital gains taxes were lowered as the Boomers became stockholders. Then around the time Boomers were poised to inherit estate taxes were dramatically lowered and in some cases eliminated altogether. Conversely, Boomers were not opposed to raising taxes when it suited their purposes as was the case when both Social Security and Medicare taxes were raised some years back. None of this was coincidental. The object of the game was to keep the system solvent until the Boomer generation passed on. Meanwhile, Gibney points to the repeal of the Glass-Steagall Act in 1999 as the major reason that things got so out of hand in the financial markets. This law was passed during the Great Depression and effectively separated commercial and investment banking activities. The ill-advised repeal of Glass-Steagall was largely supported by Boomers and resulted in the rampant financial speculation that ended so abruptly on that fateful September day in 2008.

We Baby Boomers like to color ourselves as people who care about the plight of others. Bruce Cannon Gibney would respectfully disagree. In “A Generation of Sociopaths: How Boomer Betrayed America” Gibney argues precisely the opposite. He believes that large numbers of Boomers have spent a good portion of their lives feathering their own nests at the expense of not only their children and grandchildren but also the nation. Clearly a change of priorities is in order. Younger generations need to become more involved and demand that resources be re-directed to areas that benefit citizens of all ages. We can no longer afford to neglect America’s crumbling infrastructure for example. No matter your age I believe you will find “A Generation of Sociopaths” to be a thought-provoking, entertaining, and exceptionally well-written book that is well worth your time. Very highly recommended!

While this is not a boomer-bashing book, it does make a clear and concise case against what is likely the USA's worst generation. Gibney lays out the facts and pulls no punches. No one on the political spectrum gets a free pass. I hope everyone will read this book. The bad reviews from ignorant, angry boomers just prove the author right. This book covers how taxes, morals, child upbringing, belief in science, and our overcrowded prisons have been shaped by the poor decisions of the (mostly white) boomer generation.

It's always a good thing to read an alternative view of history and this book really is a different reading of the history of the so called American Baby Boom era. But the reading is not without some plain historical misreadings and false assumptions - the biggest mistaken assumption being the idea that you can label and then caricature several million people based on the year they were born and how they tend to spend their money. It's dehumanizing and divisive not to mention bigoted. Also extremely disappointing was the conclusion, (Which much like Tyler Cowen's recent book), did not prescribe a comprehensive remedy but rather an indecisive let's wait and see. At the core of this book and Tyler Cowen's "Complacent Class" is the deep quandary of an America in decline; And the frightening part is not so much a decline in economic standing of the U.S. but deeper, As deep as the loss of Hegelian myth of nationhood. We used to be a nation of endless opportunity: The West, industrialization, global exportation of democracy and capitalism, exploitation of the collapse of communism and Pax Americana. But we are witnessing a diminishing of opportunity for Americans and those of us who can see it are trying very hard to hold on to what we have as long as we can. I remember watching a movie on TV about the 'Temptations' and my kids were puzzled as where this place with a huge, prosperous Black Middle-Class could have been. I said, "Detroit, Michigan", they replied, "Is this movie fictional?" "No" I said, "Once upon a time you could make a decent living in this country assembling cars". So what happened they asked and I told them the rest of the world was able to rebuild themselves after WW2, the Red Menace died and they developed machines that replaced humans. You know the population of this planet keeps growing, while markets and jobs keep shrinking. The environment keeps getting hotter and more polluted and food sources have plateaued. I keep hoping someone has a better idea of what to do other than, "Let's just wait and see".

This book gets harder to argue against every week.

It should be left in hotel rooms everywhere, like Gideon bibles.

Required reading for those of us waiting for the "I don't get technology" generation to finally retire and hopefully stop voting.

I asked to interview Gibney for my blog. His publicist said he was too busy, but she sent me a review copy of it at no cost.

In 2012 I wrote and published "The Candy Store Generation: How the Baby Boomers Are Screwing-Up America". The last chapter was titled "Had Enough", where I predicted that sometime in the future a generation would arise and say "We've had enough," and they would right the many wrongs of the Boomers. I think, with Gibney's book, we may be seeing the first salvo from the Had Enoughs. And, as a Boomer, I have to say it stings, more than a little. It was one thing for me to write about my own generation, but quite different to see a young GenExer do it.

Gibney's book suffers from not knowing whether it's scholarly or popular. Hence it has footnotes galore and many technical terms to placate the scholars, and just enough common language to keep the non-scholars reading. He is certainly provocative, I'll give him that.

Only read this if you have a lot of time to pay attention.

I was born in 1962 dropping me into the “Baby Boomer” demographic, although at the tail end, and there are a number of historians that have some flexibility in the actual date cutoff. As a manager of multiple blue and white collar workers, I took a couple of courses about relating to different demographic groups, notably younger workers. These courses provided some basis to relate to different attitudes associated with these groups—although at the time I was skeptical.

While I may fall into Baby Boomer territory and have some characteristics of same, I had limited formative experience with the events of this same group (immediate post war prosperity, racial upheaval, Vietnam, drugs, etc.). Being on the cusp of demographic groups, I also relate to Gen-X; although I was never “latchkey” with strong parents and restrictive policies. That said, so much of this generational identification is arbitrary and sweeps up trends, events, and attitudes into one big bundle, sometimes with no room for individuals or groups of individuals that buck the trend or behave outside the general characteristics. Demographics identify generational force rather than individuals, and like any confirmation biased reading you pick up what you want from any analysis.

All that said, Bruce Cannon Gibney’s A Generation of Sociopaths is a tough read. The drum beat of sociopath characteristics connecting multiple dots in policy, politics, and culture is reiterated over and over – until you cry “enough, I get it!” Do not get me wrong, this is a valuable book filled with important historical perspectives and insights to one of the largest demographic trends in the 20th century. You will find clearly visible dots to be connected from upbringing, life events, selfishness, and “sin”. Many of our current leaders in government seem immersed in many of these same policies, and continue to pollute even the younger generations.

If nothing else, unless there is recognition of at least a portion of truth in this book, things will continue to be more backward looking and less forward looking. One thing is for sure, we need to look forward not back towards some past that cannot be reincarnated. We are in a new world where primary providers of information are being replaced by social media with its own strengths (instant access and the strength of majority weighting) and weaknesses, (playing fully into confirmation bias, bubbles, fake news, and as with a strength, majorities plying information that is less than reliable). There continues to be a sense of entitlement with seemingly less accountability for metric based outcomes. Doing what feels best for the moment works when you are on vacation, but not when you are planning for the future.

Bottom line? Tough but valuable read. “Sure to be controversial” is an understatement.

I wish you could give half stars because this is really a 3.5.

I think it would be hard to be a boomer and read this book and agree though there are a lot of data supporting his conclusions throughout the book.
That said, I'm not sure that Boomers as a whole were as complicit as a few in creating the economy of today.

The book takes a very heavy handed look at the Boomers and spends a little more time than I'd like browbeating and name calling (thus four stars) and making suggestions that I doubt he'd take (raising the retirement age by 3 years for example) if he were not set financially.

Gibney does a very good job of showing how the Boomer generation created a massive amount of debt for the X and millennial generations without in the case of X, creating a cohort large enough to support it (X is approximately half the size of either the boomers or the millennials). He also shows how they were very intentional in their greed, taking advantage of all the good of the New Deal and then heaping on debt like there was no tomorrow for them to pay for. He makes the argument that Boomers were the first generation to be raised permissively and in front of a television and expect that every year will get better without them doing anything.

He correctly points out that politicians curry favor with Boomers by continuing to protect their social security and other entitlements in order to maintain power. He points to Donald Trump as the Id of the Boomer generation and predicts an environmental and economic reckoning in the early 2030's.

The book is well written and contains a fair amount of supporting research. It is repetitive and tries too hard to be controversial, it could have been a hundred pages shorter and still made the same argument. He tries to give some suggestions (raise taxes, it will be necessary, track down tax evaders, bigger estate taxes etc.) but they are nothing revolutionary. This book is a good read and a jumping off point for a lot of other exploration but a little tough to get through at points.

Just like many of the reviews state most of the people who are going to give this book a negative rating are those being discussed. Discussions in this book are things that my cousin and I have often talked about in regards to our " baby boomer " parents. We ourselves often referred to them as "sociopaths" so as soon as I saw the title to this book I knew it was a must read. This book is spot on. Anyone walking away from this angry and not learning is afraid of succomunbing to the truth and willing to change. Very scary future indeed.

Witnessing first hand how this "me" generation has consistently denied opportunity to their children and grandchildren in order to serve their own interests, this book is both hilarious and painful. A well written, documented, and merciless breakdown of the past decades, this book causes quite a stir; thus, its one star reviews are more a badge of honor than anything. A bold and entertaining book that inspires the rest of us to be the opposite - to be the generation that gives more.

This book gave me a new perspective on political parties (democrat or republican- boomers look out for boomers) and the machinations in Washington. Although the book portrays boomers in a negative light, Gibney has optimism for the future based off of the past. However, it almost needs to be updated already with the financial implications of the new cuts.