j.r. leonard

I think Tyler misreads this. While he’s right that Boomers are viewed as a force of nature, ‘Ok Boomer’ signals agency to fellow Ms/Zs rather than impotence. I hear it as, “we can just go around these people or run out the clock on them. They no longer matter.https://twitter.com/tylercowen/status/1192502834803040256 …

In general, when one side in a conflict is more time-rich, this will always happen. The adversary turns into a lame duck due to mortality, no matter how much nominal power they have. The NPV of their power declines to “mostly harmless”. It will happen to X’s, Ms, Zs in turn.

I’m reminded of the Seinfeld episode with the Mandelbaum family. That episode starts with Jerry giving them the benefit of doubt on relevance, but ends with what’s effectively an “ok mandelbaums” punchline. By the end it’s no longer even worth humoring their self-importance

I take Cowens point as Millennials co-opted OK Boomer from Zs as a statement of irrelevance and yet they’re still borrowing money from their parents, stanning for Bernie Sanders, going into debt to get the latest version of Steve Jobs’ iPhone, etc It’s all talk or typing really

what I think Cowen misses is that a large reason for the put-down's use is because millennials feel like talk and typing is all they have. i suspect this is increasingly more perception given strong economy but delayed childrearing and homebuying is very real nonetheless