BOOM - Here Comes the Babies

Posted Tuesday April 12, 2005 12:00 PM EST

New York, NY: They started being born as soon as World War II was over, and they kept on coming for more than twenty years. They are the generation of Civil Rights, of fighting in and protesting Vietnam, of the British invasion, of feminism, of Woodstock. They're the Yuppies, and the parents of Gens X and Y. They're Bill Clinton and George W. Bush.

Now there are 75 million of them. They are the richest and in some ways most influential generation of all time. But who are these baby boomers really, and what made them what they are?

Stated very simply, the sociologists and the media define baby boomers as those born between (and including) 1946 and 1964. (There is no law or constitutional amendment so stating; and other boundaries have been suggested. But this is the time frame most commonly used.) In 2005, that would make us between 41 and 59 years old. There are about 76 million boomers in the U.S.; we currently represent about 29% of the U.S. population. (In Canada, we are sometimes known as “Boomies”; there are 6 million of us there. In Britain, our generation is known as “the bulge.”). The term is used (nobody knows who coined the phrase) to define the “boom” in births after WWII.

The 1960s is the decade that defined the boomers. The music, events, and the social changes made a permanent impression on us. Those of us born during the “peak” boomer years, ’52-’57, were in our formative years during the sixties. There were so many changes in the sixties that how old you were during the decade greatly affected how you turned out. 1961 was a whole lot different from 1969!

Those born at the early end of the spectrum were in our early 20s by 1970. The deaths of President Kennedy, Bobby Kennedy, and Dr. Martin Luther King; the Vietnam war and related protests; and the Watergate scandal... all made deep impressions on us.

At the other end, those born after 1959 have no direct recollection of the assassination of President Kennedy; they were not yet listening to rock music by the time the Beatles broke up. They were much more likely to use illegal drugs.... often to a great and disturbing excess. And they were never subjected to the military draft. So any attempt to lump us all together probably won’t work. We can tell, by the e-mail we receive here at BBHQ, that there is much that ties us together, but also much that separates us.

In 2005, the economy IS the boomers! We represent the vast majority of the work force. There are 76 million of us; we ARE the economy. (That is not bragging; that is just a statistical reality.) The huge growth in the economy in the 90s was due in no small part to 76 million of us working up to our peak earning and spending years. What are we spending our money on? Other than Metallica CD’s and movies aimed at 15 year-olds, whatever is being sold... we are buying it. What kind of cars are we buying? What kind are Detroit and Japan selling? We ARE the upper end of the automobile market. What explains the explosion in the popularity of SUVs? We do. Where do we go on vacation? Everywhere. How do we get there? Every way possible. Day care centers are thriving because boomers do not want to take care of the kids they produced. And their offspring think it is supposed to be that way. Parents are not supposed to stay home and raise their children. That is what day care centers and the government is for.

Aside from that, what impact on society are boomers having? Well, let’s see now... the CEO of General Electric is a boomer; the CEO of IBM is a boomer; the CEO of Ford is a boomer; Bill Gates, Paul Allen and Steve Ballmer are boomers; Steve Jobs is a boomer; Steven Spielberg is a boomer; Ron Howard is a boomer; Tom Hanks is a boomer; Denzel Washington is a boomer; Meg Ryan is a boomer; Michael Jordon is a boomer. The producers of most TV shows and movies are boomers. The editorial page editor of the Wall Street Journal (Paul Gigot) is a boomer. Rush Limbaugh is a boomer; Oprah is a boomer. Madonna is a boomer; Bruce Springsteen is a boomer; Tom Cruise is a boomer; David Letterman is a boomer; Jay Leno is a boomer; Dr. Laura is a boomer. Clarence Thomas is a boomer; Al Gore is a boomer; Bill Clinton is a boomer; Osama bin Laden is a boomer; George Bush is a boomer.

How’s that for impact?

-- John Q. Writer