Baby boomers

For the video game, see Baby Boomer (video game).

A baby boomer is anyone born between 1946 and 1964 in a country that experienced an unusual spike in birth rates following World War II, a phenomenon commonly known as the baby boom. In the United States, the term is iconic and more properly capitalized as Baby Boomers. The terms "baby boomer" and "baby boom" along with others (i.e., "boomies" or "boomers"), are also used in countries with demographics that did not mirror the sustained growth in American families over the same interval.

Causes of the post-World War II Baby Boom

A large part of the Baby Boom was an after-effect of World War II where the bombed out cities and fractured economies increased the needs for goods and services in unprecedented peacetime amounts. Consequently, the Arsenal of Democracy switched gears and started cranking out goods and materials for export, as the United States supplied the "free world" with goods to rebuild their own economies. This led to an unprecedented bubble of vigorous economic growth that did not diminish until 1968. Furthermore, in the U.S. the G.I. Bill enabled a record number of people to attend college and obtain, perhaps in most cases, the first college degree in their extended families. This led to an increase in education and granted higher incomes to families, allowing them the resources to produce more children.

Definition and dates

United States

There is some agreement as to the exact beginning and end dates of the baby boom, but the range most commonly accepted is as starting in 1946 and ending in 1964. The problem with this definition is that this period may be too long for a cultural generation, even though it covers a time of increased births. If the gross number of births were the indicator, births began to decline from the peak in 1957 (4,300,000) but fluctuated or did not decline by much more than 40,000 (1959-1960) to 60,000 (1962-1963) until a sharp decline from 1964 (4,027,490) to 1965 (3,760,358). This makes 1964 a good year to mark the end of the baby boom in the U.S.

In his book Boomer Nation, Steve Gillon states that the baby boom began in 1946 and ends in 1964, but he breaks Baby Boomers into two groups: Boomers, born between 1945 and 1957; and Shadow Boomers born between 1958 and 1964. Further, in Marketing to Leading-Edge Baby Boomers, author Brent Green defines Leading-Edge Boomers as those born between 1946 and 1955. This group is a self-defining generational cohort or unit because its members all reached their late teen years during the height of the Vietnam War era, the defining historical event of this coming-of-age period. Green describes the second half of the demographic baby boom, born from the mid-1950s through the mid-1960s as either Trailing-Edge Boomers or Generation Jones. In some cases the term Shadow Boomer is incorrectly applied to the children of the Baby Boomers; this group is more accurately referred to as Echo Boomers.

William Strauss and Neil Howe, in their book Generations, include those conceived by soldiers on leave during the war, putting the generation's birth years at 1943 to 1960. Howe and Strauss argue that people born between 1961 and 1964 have political and cultural patterns very different from those born between 1955 and 1960 and fit into what those writers term the Thirteenth Generation or Generation X (also known as the Cold War generation) born between 1961 and 1981. The definition of boomers as born from 1943-1960 has become more accepted as the influence of Strauss and Howe has grown. There are others who put the dates at 1946 to 1963, because of the number of significant "Gen-X" figures born in 1964. There were over 79 million babies born during that generation.

It can be argued that the defining event of early Baby Boomers was the Vietnam War and the protest over the draft which ended in 1973. Since anyone born after 1955 was not subject to the draft, this argues for a ten-year range of 1946 to 1955 as defining the baby boomers. This would fit the thirtysomething demographic covered by the TV show of the same name which aired from 1987-1991. This would mean that those born in the years 1956 to 1965 would be Generation X and in the late 1980s would have been called "twenty somethings". The cultural disaffinities of those born after 1957 (thereby missing the draft and being too young to be part of the 1960s) could be captured by the Gen X of Douglas Coupland in his book Generation X: Tales for an Accelerated Culture, the term "X" has itself been transformed to cover a later cohort.

Further complicating the definition of the baby boomer generation is the new Generation Jones which has been defined as 1954-1965. This definition was created because of the vastly different experiences of the children born during the nineteen years traditionally defined as the baby boom.

United Kingdom

In the United Kingdom, the pattern of birth rates was different. There was a sharp post-World War II peak in 1947, when more babies were born than in any year since the post-World War I peak in 1920. There was then a decline, followed by a broader but lower peak in the 1960s. Thus British Baby Boomers are younger than their American counterparts and had not risen to such prominence when the term was coined. The two peaks can clearly be seen in the UK population pyramids.

Soviet Union

In the Soviet Union, members of the upswing in births born after World War II are called the Sputnik Generation after the Soviet-satellite launched in 1957. There was also competition on birth rate after the war. This was one of the many aspects of the Cold War. [1]

Characteristics

Size and economic impact

There is much debate that the 76 million American children born between 1945 and 1964 represent a cohort that is significant on account of its size. Boomers account for about 39% of Americans over the age of 18 and 29% of the total population. In 2004, the UK baby boomers held 80% of the UK's wealth and bought 80% of all top of the range cars, 80% of cruises and 50% of skincare products.

In addition to the size of the group, Steve Gillon has suggested that one thing that sets the baby boomers apart from other generational groups is the fact that "almost from the time they were conceived, Boomers were dissected, analyzed, and pitched to by modern marketers, who reinforced a sense of generational distinctiveness." This is supported by the articles of the late 1940s identifying the increasing number of babies as an economic boom, such as in the Newsweek article of August 9 1948, "Population: Babies Mean Business", or Time article of 9 February 1948. The effect of the baby boom continued to be analyzed and exploited throughout the 1950s and 60s. One of the first books analyzing the baby boomers was Great Expectations: America and the Baby Boom Generation by Landon Y. Jones.

Boomers have often found difficulty managing their time and money due to an issue that other generations have not had a problem with. Because the Baby Boomer's generation have found that their parents (due to modern technology)are living longer, their children are seeking a better and longer college education, and they themselves are having children later in life, the boomers have become "sandwiched" between generations. The "sandwich generation", coined in the 1980's, refers to baby boomers who must care for both elderly parents and young children at the same time.

Cultural identity

The baby boomers were the first group to be raised on television, and television has been identified as "the institution that solidified the sense of generational identity more than any other." Starting in the 1940s, people in diverse geographic locations could watch the same shows, listen to the same news, laugh at the same jokes. Television showed idealized family settings such as Father Knows Best and Leave it to Beaver. Later the boomers watched scenes from the Vietnam War, and the assassinations of John F. Kennedy, Martin Luther King, Jr., and Robert F. Kennedy.

The boomers found that their music was another expression of their generational identity. Rock and roll drove their parents crazy. Transistor radios were personal devices that allowed teenagers to listen to The Beatles and The Motown Sound. The Who summed it up in their song My Generation.

In 1993, Time magazine reported on the religious affiliations of baby boomers. Citing Wade Clark Roof, a sociologist at the University of California at Santa Barbara, the articles stated that about 42% of baby boomers were dropouts from formal religion, a third had never strayed from church, and one-fourth of boomers were returning to religious practice. The boomers returning to religion has shown were "usually less tied to tradition and less dependable as church members than the loyalists. They are also more liberal, which deepens rifts over issues like abortion and homosexuality."

It is jokingly said that, whatever year they were born, boomers were coming of age at the same time across the world; so that Britain was undergoing Beatlemania (which in fact occurred before the peak of the British baby boom in 1966) while people in the United States were driving over to Woodstock, organizing against the Vietnam War, or fighting and dying in the same war; boomers in Italy were dressing in mod clothes and "buying the world a Coke"; boomers in India were seeking new philosophical discoveries; American boomers in Canada had just found a new home after escaping the draft south of the border; Canadian Boomers were organizing support for Pierre Trudeau; and boomers in Mexico were discovering new hallucinogenic drugs and rediscovering old ones. It is precisely these experiences why many believe that trailing boomers (those born in the 1960s) belong to another cohort, as events that defined their coming of age have nothing in common with leading or core boomers (which Daniel Yankelovich and other demographers made perfectly clear).

In the 1985 study of US generational cohorts by Schuman and Scott, broad sample of adults were asked, "What world events over the past 50 years were especially important to them?" For the baby boomers the results were:

• Baby Boomer cohort #1 (born from 1946 to 1954)
  • Memorable events: assassination of JFK, Robert Kennedy, and Martin Luther King, political unrest, walk on the moon, Vietnam War, anti-war protests, social experimentation, sexual freedom, civil rights movement, environmental movement, women's movement, protests and riots, experimentation with various intoxicating recreational substances
  • Key characteristics: experimental, individualism, free spirited, social cause oriented
• Baby Boomer cohort #2 (born from 1955 to 1964)
  • Memorable events: Watergate, Nixon resigns, the cold war, the oil embargo, raging inflation, gasoline shortages
  • Key characteristics: less optimistic, distrust of government, general cynicism

Death and Dying

Baby Boomers, being a youth loving generation, have tended to avoid discussions of death and dying. In the USA, one Baby Boomer dies every 54 seconds. At some point, Baby Boomers will have a large impact on the death care services industry (Funerals/Hospice/Cemetaries/Estate Planning), however as a generation they have tended to avoid discussions and planning for their demise and avoided much long term planning.

Impact on history and culture

One of the contributions made by the Boomer generation, appears to be the expansion of individual freedom. Boomers were leaders in the civil rights movement, the feminist cause in the 1970s, gay rights, handicapped rights, and the right to privacy.

Baby boomers presently make up the lion's share of the political, cultural, industrial, and academic leadership class in the United States. Bill Clinton and George W. Bush, born within sixty days of each other in mid-1946, are the first and second Baby Boomer presidents, and their careers in office illustrate the wide, often diverging, spectrum of values and attitudes espoused by this largest American generational group to date. To date, baby boomers also have the highest median household incomes in the United States.

Government movers and shakers

The boom generation has included, as of 2006, two U.S. Presidents:

• Bill Clinton, born 1946, 1993-2001
• George W. Bush, born 1946, 2001-incumbent

It is estimated that the boom generation will hold a plurality in Congress until 2015, the White House until 2021, and will have a majority in the Supreme Court from 2010 to 2030.

Non-U.S. peers of the Boomers include U2 frontman Bono, Daniel Ortega, Charles, Prince of Wales, Tony Blair, and former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto.

In light of the generation gap and the poor state of the environment, social security, etc., Andrew Smith, in his novel "Moondust", said that Baby Boomers have the unique distinction of "pissing off" both their parents' and their children's generations.

Famous people

The Boom Generation has had many influential pop-culture icons including:

• Ronald Colle, Radiochemist, b. February 18, 1946
• Linda Ronstadt, Musician, b July 15, 1946
• Donovan Leitch, Singer/Songwriter, b. 1946
• David Bowie, Singer/Songwriter, b. 1947
• Bruce Springsteen, Singer/Songwriter, b. 1947
• Robert Plant, Lead Singer - Led Zeppelin, b. 1948
• Ozzy Osbourne, Musician Black Sabbath December 3, 1948)
• Stevie Nicks, Musician (born May 26, 1948)
• John Bonham, Drummer - Led Zeppelin, b. 1948
• Gene Simmons, Bassist, Vocalist-Kiss, b. 1949
• Billy Joel, Singer, b. 1949
• Twiggy, Model (September 19, 1949)
• Richard Branson, Entrepreneur (born 18 July 1950)
• Patrick Swayze, Actor b. 1952
• Roseanne Barr, Actor, comedienne, b. 1952
• Jerry Seinfeld, Comedian b. 1954
• Oprah Winfrey, Talk show host b. 1954
• Howard Stern, Satellite radio disc jockey, b. 1954
• Bill Gates, Entrepreneur (born October 28, 1955)
• Madonna, American Singer, Entertainer, b. 1958
• Michael Jordan basketball player b. 1963
• Michael Jackson, Singer, b. 1958

Cultural contributions

Their cultural endowments have included the following:

• Doonesbury (cartoonist, Garry Trudeau b. 1948)
• Forrest Gump (film, Robert Zemeckis b. 1952)
• Cathy (cartoonist, Cathy Guisewite b. 1950)
• Saturday Night Live (television show)
• Close Encounters of the Third Kind (film, Steven Spielberg b. 1946)
• Thirtysomething (television series)
• Vietnam Veterans' Memorial (Maya Lin b. 1959)
• Do the Right Thing (film, Spike Lee b. 1957)
• The Wonder Years (television series)

See also

• The Post-World War II Baby Boom
• Demographics
• Generation gap
• Generations

External links

About Baby Boomers

• Dowell Myers (2007), Immigrants and Boomers: Forging a New Social Contract for the Future of America, Russell Sage Foundation, ISBN 978-0-87154-636-4.
• Baby Boomers, Generation X and Social Cycles The Ultimate Baby Boomer book.
• BBC report on pensioners
• It Seems Like Yesterday a Canadian e-zine based on the CBC television series about the Baby Boomers, particularly in Canada.
• "The Baby Boom and the Future of the Economy" About.com article about Canadian economics
• "Turning 60" Jerry Adler, Newsweek, November 14, 2005 issue
• USA Today story, "N.J. woman enjoys celebrity of being 1st baby boomer" 12/29/2005 issue
• Excerpts from Boomer Nation on Plymouth State University Website
• Avocado Memories A Baby Boomer's detailed recollection of growing up in the 1960s and 1970s.
• Running with scissors
• Boomer Century A two-hour documentary from PBS.
• The Laughing Boomer Books, articles, and workshops on baby boomer retirement.

Baby Boomer websites

• AboutMyGeneration A UK Social Networking site for Baby Boomers
• Aging Hipsters US Boomer blog & Forum.
• Heyday Not-for-profit UK community based site.
• I Remember JFK A Baby Boomer's Pleasant Reminiscing Spot.
• Radioboomer Australian Baby Boomer Website with Radio.
• Babyboomer.tv Boomer Website with Video, issues and humor.
• BabyboomersUK A UK site developing health and lifestyle campaigning.
• Blog commenting about current news impacting the Boomer generation by author of Marketing to Leading-Edge Baby Boomers.
• Boomer Parties Website for events, parties and vacations for Single Baby Boomers in New York City.