One statistic not readily available is the number of young people’s lives that have been stifled or destroyed to preserve the precious egos — and assets — of the boomer generation, both now and over the past few decades.

Indeed, one reason I suspect so many statues are being torn down today (often indiscriminately) is because it is frankly easier to topple a statue than it is to displace the boomers and their failed policy consensus (though at this point many of the statues are probably not as old).

A case in point is universities: Many are refusing to open or will switch to virtual learning for the upcoming semester. The risks to the student population are exceedingly low, but 70-plus-year-old professors say they don’t want to teach with the threat of COVID (as if they ever wanted to!).

There are thousands of younger academics, however, who have faced dismal professional prospects for years and who could probably do a better job. Yet our gerontocratic institutions would prefer to sacrifice education for everyone in order to pad the incomes of septuagenarians who should have retired years ago.