OK Boomer, Let's Talk: How My Generation Got Left Behind
By (Author) Jill Filipovic
Atria Books
Atria Books
7th October 2020
United States
General
Non Fiction
Society and culture: general
Social classes
305.2420973
Paperback
336
Width 140mm, Height 184mm, Spine 23mm
357g
Particularly relevant in an election year...This book is full of dataon the economy, technology, and morethat will help millennials articulate their generational rage and help boomers understand where theyre coming from. The Washington Post
Jill Filipovic cuts through the noise with characteristic clarity and nuance. Behind the meme is a thoughtfully reported book that greatly contributes to our understanding of generational change. Irin Carmon, coauthor of the New York Times bestseller Notorious RBG
Baby Boomers are the most prosperous generation in American history, but their kids are screwed. In this eye-opening book, journalist Jill Filipovic breaks down the massive problems facing Millennials including climate, money, housing, and healthcare.
In Ok Boomer, Lets Talk, journalist (and Millenial) Jill Filipovic tells the definitive story of her generation. Talking to gig workers, economists, policy makers, and dozens of struggling Millennials drowning in debt on a planet quite literally in flames, Filipovic paints a shocking and nuanced portrait of a generation being left behind:
-Millennials are the most educated generation in American historyand also the most broke.
-Millennials hold just 3 percent of American wealth. When they were the same age, Boomers held 21 percent.
-The average older Millennial has $15,000 in student loan debt. The average Boomer at the same age Just $2,300 in todays dollars.
-Millennials are paying almost 40 percent more for their first homes than Boomers did.
-American families spend twice as much on healthcare now than they did when Boomers were young parents.
Filipovic shows that Millennials are not the avocado-toast-eating snowflakes of Boomer outrage fantasies. But they are the first American generation that will do worse than their parents. OK, Boomer isnt just a sarcastic dismissalits a recognition that Millennials are in crisis, and that Boomer voters, bankers, and policy makers are responsible. Filipovic goes beyond the meme, upending dated assumptions with revelatory data and revealing portraits of young people delaying adulthood to pay down debt, obsessed with wellness because they cant afford real healthcare, and struggling to #hustle in the precarious gig economy.
Ok Boomer, Lets Talk is at once an explainer and an extended olive branch that will finally allow these two generations to truly understand each other.
"If you want to understand why Americans are protesting in the streets right now, read this book.OK BOOMER, LET'S TALKblows the lid off the conversations about inequality and racism that lie at the heart of our national divide."
Jose AntonioVargas, founder of Define American and author ofDear America: Notes of an Undocumented Citizen
"A sharp retort to critics of millennials and the clichs of laziness and narcissism that cling to them [...]A worthy defense of a maligned generation, both passionate and policy-wonkish."
Kirkus Reviews
"A deeply analytical book."
Brian Lehrer, WNYC
"When you look at what's has been done to Millennials finanancially by Boomers [...]it's amazing that you just want some social justice."
Dan Savage, hostSavage Love
"OK BOOMER, LET'S TALKdeftly busts the stereotype of snowflake Millennials, painting instead a compelling picture of a generation burdened by debt and uncertainty about the future."
Cecile Richards, New York Timesbestselling author ofMAKE TROUBLEand co-founder of Supermajority
"As the CEO of a largely millennial organization and the parent of a millennial son, I learned a lot from this book. It's an engaging but sobering read for any Boomer, and essential for anyone interested in the future of American politics."
Anne-Marie Slaughter, CEO, New America
Jill Filipovic is a Brooklyn-based journalist, lawyer, and author of The H-Spot: The Feminist Pursuit of Happiness. A weekly columnist for CNN and a 2019 New America Future of War fellow, she is also a contributing opinion writer to The New York Times and a former columnist for The Guardian. Her work has appeared in Time, The Washington Post, Foreign Policy, and the anthologies Nasty Women: Feminism, Resistance and Revolution in Trumps America and Yes Means Yes: Visions of Female Sexual Power and a World Without Rape.