My parents were born in the 1930s. They were known as the Silent Generation, which was named because “many focused on their careers rather than on activism, and people in it were largely encouraged to conform with social norms”, according to the description in Wikipaedia. Mum and Dad, in their youth, swam socially, danced ballroom (and won) and eventually got engaged and married.My brother and sisters were all classed as Baby Boomers, when we were born sometime between the mid-1940s and the end of 1964. None of us, way back then, knew what a “baby boomer” meant. We had a wonderful family life, a wonderful neighbourhood, and we didn’t grasp the growth globally from 3 billion in the 1960s to the now 7 billion. More than double in just under 60 years.
My son and daughter were born as Millennials, otherwise known as Gen Y (mid 1980s to end of 1999). Sometimes I think my son, born earlier in 1980s, is actually Gen X (mid 1960s to early 1980s) but some writers disagree with those dates so I’ll accept him as Millennial.
So what are any of these demographic cohorts mean to any of us today? Are we meant to blame the Baby Boomers for what is happening in this world?
The articles from the USA blame baby boomers. Matthew Primeau for the Thought Catalog said “…over the past five years or so, I’ve noticed that it’s become fashionable for Baby Boomers to write insulting and self-righteous articles complaining about how ‘pampered,’ ‘entitled,’ and even ‘narcissistic’ they perceive Millennials to be.” Bruce Cannon Gibney for the Boston Globe said “Interpersonal failures and unbridled hostility appeared in unusually high levels of divorce and crime from the 1970s to early 1990s. These problems expressed themselves at generationally unique levels in boomers, to a greater extent than in boomers’ parents or children at comparable ages.” Linda Bernstein for Forbes wrote: “This new boomer blame game represents a change in attitudes toward people born after the end of World World II in 1946 up until 1964.”
UK thinks the same thing. Antonia Hoyle for the Daily Mail wrote what a person she interviewed had said: “I have graduate friends whose parents will let them be homeless rather than be a 'strain' on their own comfortable lives. They could release equity from their homes to provide for us, but all they care about is being better off.” Shiv Malik and Caelainn Barr wrote for the Guardian a report which would look at why “a combination of debt, joblessness, globalisation, demographics and rising house prices is depressing the incomes and prospects of millions of young people across the developed world, resulting in unprecedented inequality between generations.” And Linette Lopez for the Business Insider said “It was the Baby Boomer generation that voted overwhelmingly for Britain to leave the European Union in a bid for a return to isolationism, proving themselves all-too susceptible to the seduction of self-serving promises that leaders … could never keep.”
Aus, as we know, blames Baby Boomers. Rohan Smith, writing for News.com.au in June 2015 said “As younger Australians struggle with rising house prices and HECS debts, Chris Sidoti, who headed the commission under John Howard between 1995-2000, once famously labelled the generation born between 1946-1961 ‘the most selfish generation in history’.”
So hold up, all you global people who blame Baby Boomers! This is how I see it!
I looked through a BBC “primary history” (which I know the whole world wouldn’t accept, but I do). It’s a simple reading for information. World War 2 hit the world between 1939 and 1945, with soldiers fighting for the West from USA, UK, Australia, New Zealand, France, Canada, India, the Soviet Union and China. They fought the Axis powers: Germany, Japan and Italy. This page says that “In 1937 Japan attacked China. In 1939 Germany invaded Poland. This is how World War 2 began.” The USA didn’t actually join in until 1941 when the Japanese bombers attacked Pearl Harbour. This is something that all of you should know. Read on.
The war in Europe was finished by May 1945. The Pacific war continued until later 1945 when the USA dropped A-bombs (atomic) on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan. Japan surrendered: “Japan’s Emperor Hirohito announced his country’s unconditional surrender in World War II in a radio address on August 15, citing the devastating power of ‘a new and most cruel bomb.’ ”
The end of WW2 , after the globe lost more than 60 million people – around 3% of the total 1940’s population of 2.3 billion – caused the Baby Boomers to be born. Why? Well, have a look at today’s population: 7.5 billion globally. 7.5 billion. That is more than 3 times the population from the 1940s, 70 years ago – less the people killed during WW2. Who allowed that to happen? Try looking at GI Generation – the one before the Silent Generation. GI Generation was named because so many people born during that fought through WW2. Silent Generation people were described by Barbara E Freisner for the (USA) National Association of Baby Boomer Women (NABBW), who wrote: “The Silent generation grew up to be strong and self-sufficient yet they tended to stay out of the spotlight – preferring to work behind the scenes. For example, Silents didn’t become the star – they became the stage managers. They didn’t become the president – they became the president’s chief of staff. It was particularly difficult for the Silent generation women. They were expected to conform with social norms ….” They began to reproduce, after WW2, to readdress the population loss.
So who is the largest generation? According to a Pew Research Centre in USA, Millennials (in USA) are now larger than the Baby Boomer generation – 75.4 million has overtaken 74.9 million. According to Catalyst, Millennials will be one in third adults by 2020. Pew Research Centre listed what gadgets are used and liked by different generations:
- Cellphones are liked by most adults under the age of 65
- Desktop PCs are most favourable with Gen X – 69% of GenX, 65% of Baby Boomers and 57 % of Millennials own a PC
- Millennials are the most likely to own a laptop – 70% of them do
- 74% of Millennials own an MP3 player, usually an iPod
And who chose what they do now?
It isn’t Baby Boomers. Most people born in Baby Boomers generation are retired. And guess what? Not many Baby Boomers are too rich. In a SMH article in 2011 Jo Chandler wrote “However reluctantly, the boomers are positioning to redefine old age, just as they have recast every other category of the demographic continuum on the push through. From the generation that invented teenage-hood, embraced the sexual revolution, fought the gender war, manufactured consumer culture, wrestled the work-life balance, fractured traditional family and rode the wave of prosperity until it crashed around their ears in the global financial crisis - now comes The New Old Age.”
What surprised me from the blame thrown at “Baby Boomers” was that virtually no blame is given to GenX or Gen Y and certainly not Millennials. So how are Baby Boomers coping?
We set the definition of our generation.
We were part of large families after WW2.
We built rock ‘n’ roll.
We were hippies.
We wore much shorter skirts or much looser summer wear.
We tested many drugs, including marijuana, LSD and heroin.
We drove cheap cars and – back then – most women knew how to change a tyre.
Feminism grew.
Yet now, after most of us working for 40-50 years, we are retiring but not all of us have our own retirement funds. Yes, many saved that, but who were they saving for? Their children? Or is it selfish to save for themselves? There are a lot of reasons why old people – Baby Boomers - are on Centrelink benefits. They are very rarely on unemployment, but many retired people have health issues, either generation-linked or from injuries. Many women live alone after their divorce – and they weren’t the only generation who did that! Some of those Baby Boomer people can’t afford to go on a holiday these days, yet their own kids can.
Australia is one of the worst globally for the price of housing, but who owns many rental properties? The Conversation article in September 2013 laid out some declining Baby Boomer ownership: “Housing equity through ownership has provided an important nest egg for older Australians, with baby boomers the main winners in the housing market. Not only did they buy when prices were far more affordable, but family homes barely affect eligibility for the aged pension. If some retirees might over-invest in their castle, others are using super to pay off their home loan… But although older Australians generally live in their own homes, home ownership among the over-55s has fallen too. This reflects changing household circumstances. Divorce is one of the flashpoints for falling out of home ownership, especially for women, and many are unable to climb back on the ladder. Older, lone person households are more likely to be in private rental than couples, and their financial future seems grim.”
Nicola Powell from Domain wrote that “Gen Y may have a tougher journey to purchasing but Baby Boomers have other weighty financial commitments. They often have responsibilities for grandchildren, frail parents (who are living longer), their Gen Y kids staying at home (to save a deposit) and a working life that is forever pushing longer. They are playing a more supportive role than their own parents did of them. Baby Boomers have adapted, life has changed – and continues to change.” Gen Y need to understand this.
Most Baby Boomers have never chucked them out of home, but as Australia falls backward on the GDP we take our kids back into our own home if they need help. Personally, I think how the country is dealing with their GDP is not “because of” Baby Boomers, it is because of the stock market. That was “invented” hundreds of years ago, and pretty much set up in Wall Street in USA. It wasn’t dominated by Baby Boomers, but a few generations before them.
Baby Boomers had precedence in the population because we increased the population after WW2. We followed with the Gen X and Gen Y. We had jobs, many without university education, and we had our own lives (see what I wrote earlier). We had houses available under $100,000. If we could, we would hold onto what we built or bought. We didn’t change the house price – have a look at so many articles which tell who bought. But many of us also suffer, not from Baby Boomers but from many other societal issues.
I feel very sorry for Millennials and Gen X or Y people who are unemployed, can’t buy their own home, can’t buy what we used to be able to, but hey, you now have so much more than our parents did, so much more than we ever bought, so much more that you demand. Please, Gen X or Y and Millennials, please stop blaming Baby Boomers. What is happening in this country is not us. Blame the political party, blame people who have arrived here from elsewhere, blame yourself.
But please don’t blame us!
Note: From the Wikipaedia: "My Generation" is a song by the English rock band The Who. The song, released as a single on 29 October 1965, has been said to have ‘encapsulated the angst of being a teenager,’ and has been characterized as a ‘nod to the mod counterculture’. People try to put us down… This might have been from our own parents: now it’s coming from our children.
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