I live in a New Zealand that went from free health and education, and the best social services in the world, to a New Zealand where some people are living in appalling conditions. I blame the baby boomers.

After the war that generation worked their guts out to make New Zealand a better place. Where community came before individuals, where personal responsibility was seen as being adult and where contentment was found in not how much one had, but how one lived.

The post-war generation worked hard to make New Zealand a great place to live. Then the baby boomers grew up and stuffed everything up. Greed replaced sharing. Blame replaced responsibility. Individual replaced community.

In some ways I can't blame these baby boomers. Seeing the hard work their parents put in, the sacrifice - why go down that pathway when upgrading the car or house was more important than living more frugally? Many baby boomers enjoyed the inheritance their parents passed on, but today much inheritance goes for overseas holidays, newer cars, paying off loans for non-essential rubbish.

The only reason shopping channels exist is because people buy a ton load of crap. I guess it's the price, the offering we pay to the idol god we call The Economy - its high priest the Rt Hon John Key.

Baby boomers, you have a lot to answer for. The freedom you tried to find in the sixties and seventies only brought other kinds of bondages we see in society today.

Perhaps when the rest homes begin to fill up and you find that looking out for #1 comes to bite you in the bum then, perhaps then - although way too late - you will realise the error of your ways.

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