Baby Boomer Backlash
February 20th, 2009
From Penelope Trunk – Brazen Careerist – post titled “5 emerging trends from the recession” [click thru for full article]
2. An increasing backlash against baby boomers.
Newsflash: The baby boomers got us into this mess. They borrowed against future generations. They mishandled SEC regulations. They ignored the environment. They set up a social security system that is going to break as soon as they’re done taking from it. And they took the best education this country had to offer, and then depleted the education system for the next generation.
Obama is the first Gen-X president. And, to the surprise of all the baby boomers who have been trash-talking Gen-X forever, it’s Gen-X that will bail this country out of the mess the baby boomers got us into.
In the meantime, Generation X is the first generation in the US ever that will earn less than their parents. And Generation Y has an incredible amount of debt due to baby boomers pushing up college costs and housing costs while real wages went down.
The under-45’s are stunned by the selfishness of the baby boomer era.
UPDATE — Check out the comments for some information on Obama being a part of the Generation Jones –
UPDATE DUECE — And Penelope has responded to TrendObserver with [THIS LINK] which clarifies my confusion by suggesting I’m actually Gen Y (I scored 20 points)…
February 20th, 2009 at 9:39 am
Demographically, Obama is a Baby Boomer. Perhaps psychographically, he’s an X’er.
February 20th, 2009 at 10:07 am
Penelope is usually so ahead of the curve that I’m genuinely shocked to see her say that Obama is an Xer. That’s so clearly not what current thinking is among experts.
As many nationally influential voices have repeatedly noted, Obama–born 1961–is part of Generation Jones, born 1954-1965, between the Boomers and Generation X. Google Generation Jones, and you’ll see it’s gotten a ton of media attention, and many top commentators from many top publications and networks (Washington Post, Time magazine, NBC, Newsweek, ABC, etc.) specifically use this term to describe Obama.
Virtually no prominent voices have said that Obama is an Xer. The writer she links to–John Avalon–is one of the only writers anywhere who has said that Obama is an Xer, and Avalon is an obscure writer who isn’t even remotely a prominent voice. A long list of prominent voices has said Obama is part of GenJones, including : David Brooks (New York Times), Karen Tumulty (Time Magazine), Clarence Page (Chicago Tribune), Jonathan Alter (Newsweek), Roland Martin (CNN), Michael Steele (Chairman, RNC), Chris Van Hollen (Chairman, DCCC), Stuart Rothenberg (Roll Call), Juan Williams (Fox News Channel), Howard Wolfson (Political Advisor), Mel Martinez (U.S. Senator [R-Florida]), Carl Leubsdorf (Dallas Morning News), and Peter Fenn (MSNBC) and many more top journalists, generations experts and political and social pundits.
Polling offers yet more evidence. Several polls have confirmed that those born between the mid-1950s and mid-1960s clearly identify with GenJones over its surrounding generations. One particularly interesting poll a few months ago had a nationally representative sample of 500 people all born in 1961–the same birth year as Obama. They overwhelmingly chose GenJones over GenX or the Baby Boom Generation as the generation which they felt they fit into.
Excellent op-ed on Obama as the first Generation Jones President in USA TODAY a couple of weeks ago:
http://www.usatoday.com/printedition/news/20090127/column27_st.art.htm
And here is a video with over 20 top pundits talking about Obama as a GenJoneser, with many specifically saying that he is obviously not an Xer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Ta_Du5K0jk&feature=related
The Associated Press’ annual trend report chose The Rise of Generation Jones as the #1 trend of 2009, specifically because of Jonesers Obama, Geitner, Summers, etc. taking over leadership of the U.S. CNN and several other major media outlets have also listed Generation Jones as among 2009’s top trends. So when you’re doing a piece on “5 emerging trends”, I hope Penelope and those who reprint her columns correct this; nothing worse to be talking about trends, and be so behind the curve.
February 20th, 2009 at 12:02 pm
TrendObserver – Thank you for this very insightful comment. I don’t claim to be be a trend watcher but I did repost a piece about “emerging trends” so it is important to me to take your advice and “correct” this post to clarify that Obama is from Generation Jones.
That said I think I am generally very well informed and I too had never heard of Generation Jones. I’m intrigued by it though because I guess I always wonder where people on the cusp between generations fall. I personally am closer to Gen X than Gen Y but I’m near both and feel I have traits of both. Most of the time this isn’t a concern (I mean how often do you think about yourself in terms of your generation?) but there are times when it causes me mixed feelings.
Anyhow, thanks again for this information and for reading my blog.
February 20th, 2009 at 12:31 pm
Right. So would it be cheaper if I just die now?
Leslie (49)
February 20th, 2009 at 12:41 pm
Please don’t Leslie, Ohioana and Ohio need you too much
Anyhow, sounds like you are also Jonesing…
Also, really, 49? I surely wouldn’t have guessed that. You’ve obviously made many good choices in life.
April 14th, 2009 at 7:24 pm
Great site, Good info