A Generation of Sociopaths: How the Baby Boomers Betrayed America

We are living in a time when it has become fashionable to question the American Dream and to proclaim the end of American exceptionalism (though it’s not clear what that is or was). It’s Reagan’s, Bush’s, Clinton’s, Bush’s, Obama’s fault that social security is under threat, government spending on healthcare remains unfunded, roads and bridges are cracking, interest hovers at zero, real job and wage growth have disappeared. Both political parties get blamed. But who make up these parties’ constituencies, those who have wielded power for over 30 years? Baby boomers.

Styled as a polemic, A GENERATION OF SOCIOPATHS argues for swift action to curtail the benefits that baby boomers have taken from other Americans, serving only their own needs at the expense of both the nation and future generations. Gibney outlines how our country, once at the brink of prosperity and peace, has been hijacked for the self-serving needs of those born of the Greatest Generation. Despite how stark that appears, the world is not zero sum; there is no reason that the improving international standard of living and economy must weigh in at the expense of our own. America currently stands at an intersection and must answer the decide whether to take steps to restore our infrastructure and make actual investments to the future or continue to fund an excessive lifestyle through debt.

Exhaustively researched and passionately argued, A GENERATION OF SOCIOPATHS will become a landmark book about the American economy and policymaking.