Boomers Last Bounce

There’s every indication that the 30 something generation will not have the opportunities, the prosperity, or the unstoppable confidence and optimism that the Boomers enjoyed. As they cross the threshold of 60, they may reluctantly downshift a notch, but they haven’t stopped their epic levels of consumption. It’s just shifted to consumption of health care, retirement homes and experiences that attempt to recapture their youth. Many are eagerly inventing third or fourth careers for their senior years as they bounce back from the setbacks of this recession. It’s hard to imagine a generation that pushed the envelope of change harder than the Boomers. They were the movers and shakers that changed the landscape of America – for better and for worse.

A few of the values that emerged with the Boomers were that:

Bigger is Better

We deserve……

Forever Young

These three ideas were entirely foreign to the World War 2 generation whose expectations were, by in large, modest and manageable. It’s as the Boomers began to exert their economic muscle that things started to radically change. ‘Bigger is Better’, was applied to homes, cars, food, entertainment, religion and pretty much everything. The average size of a home trebled, meals were super sized, waistlines doubled, huge vans and Hummers were required to stock our oversized homes from gigantic warehouses. What used to be known as greed and gluttony became “living the good life” and everyone wanted it.

This goes hand in hand with “We deserve…” The concept of entitlement grew up with the Boomers. Proud to be an American because we’re the best and we deserve the best. It sounds arrogant and it is, but I’ve heard it from both right wing and left wing, fundamentalists and atheists alike. To be American is to deserve what the rest of the world craves. For years now, Asian nations have served up cheap products to the American consumer while manufacturing jobs in this country were disappearing because they couldn’t compete. But, we demanded cheap goods and we got them – never counting the cost.

Americans also consume more energy and natural resources per capita than any other developed country in the world – by far. Salaries grew disproportionate to labor and we were happy to buy our dreams on credit. So different from the previous generation who were accustomed to hard work and saving. It was almost like the World War 2 era climbed the ladder and the Boomers got on the slide and slid onto easy street – never suspecting there was an end to the ride. But any serious review of the degradation of our planet’s resources and the dwindling supply of easy energy reveals that the next generation will have greatly reduce this mania of consumption.

Does this woman look 60?

‘Forever Young’ has become a mandate and an expectation among the  Boomers. They propelled one fitness fad after another with a fierce determination not to be seen as ‘old’. Most women and a large percentage of men dye their hair, take supplements promising to preserve health, are obsessed with the best diet and exercise plan and head to the surgeon to correct unseemly droops or sags. Boomers dress younger than their parents and act younger than their parents, so it’s common to hear that 60 is the new 40 – and many Boomers are proving it. In the wake of this devastating recession, many boomers are choosing not to retire, but to merely regroup. But the longer the Boomers hog the stage, the harder it is for the next generation to get hold of the reins. If this economy is to recover, it will take some serious rethinking of the presumptions of the Boomers.

Bigger isn’t better and more families are being forced to down size radically to preserve what’s most important. We don’t deserve more than anyone else living on this planet by some cosmically ordained virtue. We are all God’s children and the privileges guaranteed by our constitution to Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness, are ones that all nations aspire towards. Forever young is simply delusional thinking and at some point, we all have to face the realities of aging and passing on our inheritance to our children. But what will that inheritance be?  For many Boomers, wealth was acquired at any cost but, in the end, money can’t buy you love and one lesson from the 60’s that it pays to remember is that Love is all there is….

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