Rich boomers stereotype is discrimination, MPs say

Depictions of older people as hoarding wealth and working against the young are “ageist stereotypes”, a cross-party group of MPs has said.

- ALBERT TOTH

The women and equalities committee writes that the “boomers” trope, referring to those born between the mid-1940s and mid-1960s, is a “significant contributory factor to the normalisation of ageist attitudes” in the UK.

A report, titled “The Rights of Older People”, says this age group are stereotyped as people “who hoard wealth to the disadvantage of younger people”, creating “unnecessary and unhelpful division” between generations.

The committee notes that many older people are depicted as “living comfortable lives in homes they own while younger generations struggle on low incomes, unable to afford to enter the housing market and struggling with high rents”.

This is described as an “othering” narrative by the authors, and a “unique form of discrimination, as younger people essentially discriminate against their future selves”.