The Cultural and Business Focal Point of a Nation
Due to generational size and characteristics, Boomers have had a transformational impact on society and culture as they’ve progressed through each life stage.
When a plethora of Boomer babies overwhelmed mealtime during the fifties, a company called Gerber introduced portioned and prepared foods for babies and toddlers – such memorable delicacies as pulverized spinach in a jar. Home-cooked meals took on an entirely new meaning.
When the nascent medium of television enraptured elementary school children with the Mickey Mouse Club, mass marketers found the perfect medium to propel galactic fads such as Hula Hoops and Silly Putty. Boomer fads became mainstream news.
When Boomer teenagers developed a taste for carryout food and its conveniences, McDonald’s grew from one humble California store to a national French-frying juggernaut, spearheading new companies, from fast-food to fast-casual restaurants.
When GM became a metaphor for Big Brother during the antiauthoritarian sixties, Germany and Japan, America’s World War II archenemies, captured the U.S. automotive market with VW Beetles and Toyotas. Boomers helped the nation decouple residual World War II hostility toward Germany and Japan from post-war consumerism, allowing these foreign automobile manufacturers to gain significant market shares in the U.S.
When Boomers decided to lose extra pounds from consuming so much fast food, jogging became a craze, and Nike became a Fortune 500 company. Fitness became a preoccupation of many in the generation, fostering other industries such as fitness clubs, bestselling health books and nutritional supplements.
Boomers transform life stages, and this will also be true of their lifestyles past 50 and 60. New industries will emerge that can cater most effectively to mature needs and desires. These new industries will change economic models and influence adaptation.
Those horrific outcomes predicted by generational accountants may or may not come true as foreseen, partly because this generation shifts paradigms, creating new industries, abolishing others and ultimately reshaping the social and economic landscape.
Boomers also grew up in a time when cultural messages influenced yearning for self-empowerment. Old West television programs were among the most popular, and these docudramas revered self-styled heroes who challenged the world as iconoclastic thinkers. Boomers were taught to become self-reliant and creative in making career and lifestyle choices, and this remains true today. This generation breaks molds in so many ways, but the driving motivation is a deep desire for originality.
Self-empowerment captures the nuances of how a generation might deal with its own aging. We can fully expect that many will find new paths to independence from traditional societal institutions, including the entitlement programs, when they no longer serve needs for supplemental income and medical care expenses. The current advent of medical tourism points toward a globe-trotting future for many Boomers.
Boomers also grew up in an overcrowded generation. They stood in lines at schools, movie theaters, rock concerts and real estate offices. Along the way they learned to work together communally, turning overcrowding problems into collaborative opportunities.
If the government’s entitlement programs are about to be overcrowded once again, Boomers will find creative ways to share the burdens of aging. This is becoming manifest on one level today with the advent of co-housing communities, where community members live in independent townhomes and condominiums but pool resources together for occasional shared meals and to reduce the costs of fully independent living.
When they were young adults, Boomers popularized volunteerism and community activism. They became engaged in social and political issues such as gender equality, racial equality, environmental activism and governmental accountability. They started thousands of nonprofit organizations serving broad-based community needs. Their volunteers populated soup kitchens, nature trail restoration crews and church-sponsored charitable organizations. A spirit of activism reflects this generation’s collective passions to make a difference.
Community activism will attract new volunteers as this generation ages. The most fortunate will seek ways to help the less fortunate, as exemplified by the philanthropic agenda of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, which is contributing billions of dollars to assist less fortunate groups of people.
Through their voluntary and checkbook philanthropy, this generation will stay engaged to ease the burdens of aging for the less fortunate, perhaps discovering creative ways to support the less fortunate while providing committed workers who offset the costs of entitlement programs with gifts of their time and resourcefulness. A significant number will seek “encore careers,” wherein practical skills can be contributed to non-profit organizations.
Some have also criticized the Baby Boomer Generation for being overly focused on work and career, and it is true that this competitive generation has worked hard to build companies and institutions across the spectrum of industry. Many recent surveys, including those conducted by AARP and MetLife, reveal that more than 70% of this generation do not want to retire in the traditional sense. They want to keep working, earning and contributing. This shared passion will lead many to choose work after 65, 70, 75 and beyond.
Entitlement critic Kotlikoff (Pg. 112, Generational Storm) sees this as “a win-lose proposition for the economy and the tax base.” He continues, “When workers work longer, they actually save less because they have fewer years of retirement to finance.”
Says who? Will Boomers who work longer save less, feeling secure that their date with the grim reaper is that much closer? I think not. Kotlikoff thinks so.
You pick.
If, as anticipated, a large percentage of Boomers continue working into late life, reliance on entitlements will also come much later, with significant cost reductions. Boomers with long careers will keep contributing to entitlement funds through payroll deductions. This sociological characteristic of the generation could substantially alter the scenarios of doom and gloom promulgated by generational accountants.
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