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OK Boomer, Let's Talk: How My Generation Got Left Behind

OK Boomer, Let's Talk: How My Generation Got Left Behind

Current price: $26.24
Publication Date: August 11th, 2020
Publisher:
Atria/One Signal Publishers
ISBN:
9781982153762
Pages:
336
Usually Ships in 1 to 5 Days

Description

“Particularly relevant in an election year...This book is full of data—on the economy, technology, and more—that will help millennials articulate their generational rage and help boomers understand where they’re 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, Let’s 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 history—and 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 today’s 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” isn’t just a sarcastic dismissal—it’s 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 can’t afford real healthcare, and struggling to #hustle in the precarious gig economy.

Ok Boomer, Let’s Talk is at once an explainer and an extended olive branch that will finally allow these two generations to truly understand each other.

About the Author

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 Trump’s America and Yes Means Yes: Visions of Female Sexual Power and a World Without Rape.

Praise for OK Boomer, Let's Talk: How My Generation Got Left Behind

 "If you want to understand why Americans are protesting in the streets right now, read this book. OK BOOMER, LET'S TALK blows the lid off the conversations about inequality and racism that lie at the heart of our national divide."
—Jose Antonio Vargas, founder of Define American and author of Dear America: Notes of an Undocumented Citizen

"A sharp retort to critics of millennials and the clichés 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, host Savage Love

"OK BOOMER, LET'S TALK deftly 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 Times bestselling author of MAKE TROUBLE and 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