I highly recommend the book and have added it my library. The book and the author – like so many before – blends a look at history with a look forward. Any look ahead must consider this significant piece of the story. This generational turn plays a major role shaping our future. While intergenerational tensions are likely to take center stage, there’s no dearth of tension within the massive boomer generation itself. Much like TV, radio, music, and automobiles shaped the lives of boomers, building blocks like the Internet, mobile phones, social media, and world events have shaped the lives of younger generations. As older Americans were pushing against the changes driven by younger Americans, younger Americans were banding together and pushing back, shouting through newly invented megaphones. He goes on to describe how we’ve seen generational tensions before, as when the boom emerged, but we’re now living through something exceptional. The author describes how America is visibly changing (I think this phenomenon applies globally), as it had visibly changed when the boomers were kids. Major generational turns have always been transformative – and this one will be no different. It is that tension and how it evolves that plays a major role in shaping the future. These demographic shifts play out in a period of growing tension between the boomer generation and younger generations. The number of Americans aged 85 or older will more than double over the period from 2020 to 2060. By the mid-2030s, the two groups will be about the same size, and, 25 years later, there will be almost 1.2 people over the age of 64 for every one under 18. A century later, the ratio was a bit over 3 to 1. Per the author, in 1900, there were about 10 times as many people under 18 as aged 65 and over. That future includes the aging of society and the continued decline in fertility rates. Philip Bump – The Aftermath: The Last Days of the Baby Boom and the Future of Power in America There were about 74 million boomers in 2020, meaning that, if only boomers died each year, it would take 23 years for every boomer to die even at the exceptional rate seen in the first year of the pandemic. For example, the author poses this question: will there be as robust a surge in demand for cemetery space as there was for kindergarten classrooms in the 1950s? Much like birth during the boom created new industries, the death of baby boomers may do the same. However, a 2017 Census Bureau estimate expects there to be about 2.5 million boomers still alive in the United States in 2060 – albeit less than 1 percent of the country’s population. As he mentions, the number of residents of the United States born during the baby boom has declined over the past 20 years, dropping by nearly 10 percent since 2000. That journey to the past is illuminating, contributing a great deal to the shift the author takes towards the future. The book takes the reader on a fascinating journey, describing the building blocks that shaped the boomer generation, and in turn, how the generation redefined the world. Not only was there a massive emerging market with money to spend, there was a new way to reach it. By 1964, 51.6 million did-92 percent of the households in the country. In 1946, the first year of the boom, an estimated 8,000 households in the United States had television sets, according to Census Bureau data. Alongside this new emerging market was another area of convergence – the Television. It also witnessed the birth of a unique market: the teenage market. In many ways, the baby boom drove a sudden scramble. California alone was opening one school a week in the 50’s. As the author describes, education was the first institution strained. Ten years after that, it was 2.2 million. According to the author, from 1947 to 1957, the number of teachers in the United States increased from 861,000 to 1.2 million. The changes driven by this massive generation rippled across society. Baby boomers as teens were driving around and listening to music – a nostalgic phenomenon that continues to this day. The rise in the 1950s of rock and roll music converged with radio and automobiles. For example, music helped shape the generation. It occurred during a period of convergence across multiple disciplines – like what the world is currently experiencing. in ways that earlier generations did not. The number of kids born during the baby boom was equal to more than half of the entire population of the United States in 1945. From 1946 to 1964 – the baby boom – the annual average was just shy of 4 million. From 1941 to 1945, the country averaged 2.9 million births a year, up from 2.4 million over the prior decade.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |