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Controversy 11 Controversy 11 AGING BOOMERS Boom or Bust? WHO ARE THE BOOMERS? When you hear the word “Boomer,” what do you think of? Who are the Boomers, actually? It’s important to give an answer to both questions. On the one hand, we need to consider the subjective associations we have with the word “Boomer.” On the other hand, we need to consider verifiable facts. The term “Boomer” easily evokes stereotypes. Stereotypes are con- veyed by many of the names given to Boomers over the years, labels such as “The Pepsi Generation,” “The Me Generation,” or “The Sixties Generation.” These phrases convey con- sumerism, narcissism, rebellion, and openness to change. Even the original term “Baby Boomer” doesn’t seem quite right because people in this generation aren’t babies anymore. The oldest of the Boomers are already receiving Social Security benefits, and many others are thinking seriously about retirement. Some facts are clear. There were 77 million people born in the United States between the years 1946 and 1964, and this group of people is generally referred to as the generation of the Boomers. We can see this group graphically displayed as a bulge in the population pyramid featured here. As the Boomer generation moves through the life course, as they grow older, this demographic fact will have big implications over the coming decades. But here we should pause to consider several interrelated questions. What does the term “generation” really mean? Do all individuals who fit into this demographic group form a single “generation”? Are there traits they share in common? Conversely, are there differences among members of the Boomer generation? This is but one set of questions we need to consider. We will also consider what it means for a whole generation to grow older: What are the factors that influence that process, and what personal, social, and economic consequences are likely to come as a result? Finally, we need to consider how the Boomers have been represented and understood by the media, by business groups, by social scientists, and by Boomers. For example, some writers have been harshly critical of Boomers as a group, describing them as selfish. Still other commentators see them as idealistic, which seems the exact opposite trait. Depending on how we see and how we represent Boomers as a group, 429 430 AGING we are likely to come to different conclusions about what it will mean for this large group of Americans to move into later life. So we need to come back, again and again, to our first question: Who are the Boomers actually? WHAT ISAGENERATION? AGE-PERIOD-COHORT ANALYSIS The term “generation” can mean several dif- ferent things: It can mean a group of people born in a certain time period (e.g., the “G.I. Generation” or “Children of the Great Depression”). The term “generation” can also refer to people who are a certain age at a sin- gle point in time (e.g., “the older generation” or “young people today”). We use the techni- cal term “cohort” to speak about people born in a certain time period (e.g., 1946–1964). To draw objective conclusions about who the Boomers are, we can make use of what is known as the Age-Period-Cohort model in epidemiology and demography. Boomers as a group will be influenced by each of these different factors: age, period, and cohort. Aging effects are those described earlier in this book, especially in the chapter, “Why Do “Boomer Rock Band”? Rolling Stones at a 2002 Our Bodies Grow Old?” Chronological age performance in Las Vegas, Nevada. effects are familiar to us all. They are effects brought about by the physiological process of aging, along with social responses by others to those effects. For example, people get gray hair and reserve capacity tends to diminish. Declining vision or hearing may be age- associated changes, and there will be responses to those changes by other people. Period effects are those affecting all age groups in society at the same time: for example, the change in communications prompted by the Internet and e-mail beginning in the 1990s. In the year 1995, such a period effect probably would have had a different impact on, say, a 5-year-old, whose entire life experience will be to take the Internet for granted. That would be quite different from, say, an 80-year-old (in 1995), for whom learning about e-mail might be a novelty and a challenge. Although members of all age cohorts are exposed to the same period effects, the influence of these effects is modified by where in the life course one happens to be due to chronological age. Thus, period effects continue to shape our common life: For example, the political world changed in many ways after September 11th, 2001. Finally, there are cohort effects associated with events affecting groups of people during the same years (e.g., the so-called G.I. generation whose youth was dramatically shaped by the War). As this cohort grew older, the War could have ongoing consequences (e.g., in the G.I. Bill that permitted returning veterans to go to college more easily). Another example of an enduring cohort effect is described by Glen Elder in his book Children of the Great Controversy 11 Aging Boomers 431 Depression (1974), where he finds that early childhood experience of financial hardship shaped lifelong attitudes toward money and savings. Are there special characteristics of Boomers as a cohort? We can point to several. Distinctive characteristics of the Boomer cohort are, first and foremost, sheer size. Because of higher fertility rates during the years in which they were born, the Boomer cohort is simply much larger than the cohorts that came immediately before it (the Silent Generation and the G.I. generation) or the generation coming immediately after it (the so-called Generation X). Boomers make up around a quarter of the entire U.S. population. These larger numbers, moving as a group from childhood through old age, have had consequences. First, more attention has been paid to the Boomer generation as they crowded schools, became a target for marketers, were eligible to vote, and so on. Another fact about Boomers is that they have, on average, higher levels of educational attainment than earlier generations. Boomers were the first generation in American history where more than half achieved some level of higher education. A third fact about Boomers is that in their childhood, in the 1950s and 1960s, they experienced an extended period of postwar affluence and economic prosperity. The Boomers’ childhood experiences were different from the childhood experiences of their parents, many of whom were touched by the Depression. It was also different from Generation X, whose childhood was marked by the economic turbulence of the 1970s. Finally, the 1960s and 1970s were a time of dramatic social upheaval, including Vietnam War protests and campaigns for civil rights, feminism, and environmental advocacy. As a result, some commentators, such as Leonard Steinhorn, have praised the Boomers as “the Greater Generation” because of this push for rights and tolerance, sometimes contrasted All of the individuals in this picture are living during the same historical period, and thus they have shared experiences from period effects. Yet, they each have unique experiences because they represent different cohorts, as well as ethnic backgrounds. 432 AGING with the World War II Generation that came to prominence during the more conservative 1950s. Yet not all the Boomers were protesting against the War in Vietnam. On the contrary, many of them were fighting in that War or were opposed to the protesters. Those born from 1960 to 1964 were often too young to be influenced by that War at all. Although Boomers have many shared experiences due to period effects, they are also a huge part of the total population, and there is enormous diversity within the cohort. The heterogeneity of Boomers makes is helpful to suggest further segmentation of this large group. For example, commentators often make a distinction between “leading edge Boomers” (those born between 1946 and 1954) and “late Boomers” (born between 1955 and 1964). This later group has been called “Generation Jones.” For leading edge Boomers, some memorable events were the assassination of President John F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King, as well as the Vietnam War. By contrast, for late Boomers, memorable events were Watergate and the oil embargoes of the 1970s. Leading edge Boomers are often char- acterized as optimistic and experimental, whereas “Generation Jones” is viewed as more distrustful. We can apply the Age-Period-Cohort model to thinking about Boomers as they age. A good example might be attitudes toward real estate. Leading edge Boomers were children during a time of postwar prosperity, and, later in adulthood, they witnessed a long-term appreciation in the value of home ownership. But in 2008, there was a dramatic drop in home prices, brought on by subprime mortgage problems. How will Boomers approaching retirement view the sale of a home? Finally, along with age, period, and cohort effects, we need always to remember the pow- erful impact of social class, ethnicity, and gender. This is a topic we have emphasized ear- lier in this book, and these ideas need to be kept in mind as we think about the different segments of the huge Boomer generation. The principle of cumulative advantage and disadvantage can be used to explain variations in life course experiences among members of the Baby Boom cohort. Boomers will carry into old age distinctive differences due to class, ethnicity, and gender that sustain inequalities in later life.
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