Monday, July 31, 2006

Interesting demographic phenomenon

With the baby boomer population reaching retirement age, we're going to have an interesting phenomenon in the next 10 years or so: a generation of seniors that (for the most part, using the gross generalizations that are necessary to demography) did not live through hardship when they were young.

It's sort of a cultural touchstone that Seniors Suffered Through Hardship. The 1930s were the Great Depression, the 1910s and 1940s were World Wars, so anyone who lived through those decades was (at least during my lifetime) generally considered to have Been Through Hardship. But the boomers? Nothing so all-encompassing. Individuals went through hardships, sure, but the generation as a whole was born and raised in an era that is, by general cultural consensus, idealistic and propserous. Their childhood is the touchstone that people harken back to when they want to evoke A Better Time or The Good Old Days.

I wonder how that's going to effect society as a whole, to have elders who are not considered to have been through hardship - and, with the economy and employment patterns being what they are, to have possibly enjoyed more security and propserity than their children and grandchildren ever will?

No comments: