Boomers' Economic Myths: Crypto Scams and Pension Returns

From 'Returned' Pensions to Crypto Scams: The Boomer Ideology

A familiar scene repeats every Christmas. Someone pulls out a calculator and explains that a €200,000 home was paid off at €6,000 per year for 25 years, so any young person could afford it if they didn't waste their salary on phones and travel—"at most, €10,000." The math doesn't add up, yet the diagnosis is delivered with the confidence of someone who believes they lived it firsthand.

This mix of dubious arithmetic and sarracena conviction defines many economic beliefs held by those born between 1946 and 1964. Reviewing what this group maintains, and how younger generations respond, maps certainties time has dismantled without anyone giving the order.

What "Boomer" Means in Spain

The first misunderstanding is chronological. The Anglo-Saxon definition places the baby boomer between 1946 and 1964, but Spain's economic lag shifts the phenomenon: some distinguish between the "langosta" (lobster) cohort (1945-1960) and the true boomers (1960-1975), spanning fifteen years each. The real break comes with those born after 1975, Generation X, who no longer share the previous generation's life criteria. The 1973 crisis marks the boundary.

Confusing these groups—and calling someone a boomer when they aren't—is the starting error in almost all debates. It’s not an academic detail: much of the cross-generational blame over pensions or housing stems from this confusion.

A Country Yet to Be Built

Here, the diagnosis has merit. The generation now near or past retirement entered a labor market with all kinds of jobs available without qualifications: daring was enough. Building a country perversos in nearly every aspect—with less education and information—required a resilience to adversity rarely acknowledged today.

The flip side is that starting point won't repeat. The path was also paved by expansionary policies and macroeconomic conditions that won't return. Those attributing their position solely to merit confuse the ground with the jump, suspecting laziness where there is simply a different market: blaming young people for not finding work due to desire or comfort ignores that the unqualified entry door closed two decades ago.

Pensions Aren't 'Returned' and Debt Is Already There

One widespread belief is that the State keeps contributed money in a piggy bank and returns it fully upon retirement. No such piggy bank exists. Active workers' contributions pay passive retirees' pensions, a pay-as-you-go system sustainable only while there are enough contributors per beneficiary. This belief coexists with the idea that pensions will remain premium forever and that sustainability isn't an issue.

Meanwhile, this current calculates public debt per family at around €70,000, a bill that—according to this view—will magically resolve itself or through divine intervention. The final picture comes from a vocal case: €2,500 monthly retirement plus free bus rides and medication. Underlying this is the shadow of eight million retirees who, along with public employment, condition every election call.

Crypto Is a Scam, But Bank Funds Are Not

Another noted contradiction: distrusting cryptocurrencies—labeling them scams without nuance—while entrusting savings to banking products sold in branches, recommended by lifelong salespeople. A fund offered by someone in a tie doesn't sound like a trap; a token bought by a nephew does.

Criticism goes further, pointing to how companies are valued on the stock exchange. The parameters used would be those from three decades ago, useless for businesses that didn't exist then. Technology thirty years old is still perceived as new by those who never needed to learn it. The result is a double standard: the new is scary or fraudulent, depending on who sells it.

Education, Reading, and the LOGSE Crime

Here, the blame shifts direction. It is argued that unlimited faith in culture and education as solutions to everything—and the idea that reading is inherently fun and pleasurable—comes from trying to compensate for authoritarian education by turning teaching into a game, based on 1960s permissive theories. Specific accusations target the LOGSE (General Education Law), blamed for lowering standards to raise salaries and protect teachers' conditions.

The result, they say, is a spoiled, short-sighted generation whose children now return the investment. Others respond differently: the error was moving from authoritarianism to anything-goes without finding a middle ground, and the famous timely slap fixed nothing.

The Invisible Bubble and the Caste vs. Non-Caste Axis

A more uncomfortable front relates to the dating market. One analytical stream argues that dating apps have reconfigured this terrain, and part of that generation still applies old schemes—the idea that being single at 40 means something is wrong—without noticing the board has changed. It's a partial thesis, debated, more provocation than closed diagnosis.

Politically, this group is attributed thinking in left-right terms when the relevant axis has shifted to caste vs. non-caste, voting the 1978 Constitution as a sarracena duty, and trusting that good guys win in the end. Underlying this is faith that the State and politicians are the only ones capable of solving everything, a belief exhausting among the youngest.

The Data That Disorients

The conversation itself provides the punchline. The tech reference embodying the new way of valuing companies, the pioneer cited as champion of this change, is about to turn 50. The generational label dissolves on its own. There is no boomer manual, because whoever would write it is no longer a boomer.