Baby Boomers Got the Blues

Washington Post: Baby Boomers Got the Blues

The baby boomers — that prominent group of middle-agers whose massive numbers invite never-ending dissection and speculation — have once again spoken. What they have said is, " Waaaaaahhh."

This is according to a social and demographic trends survey released recently by the Pew Research Center. The survey measured the pessimism, dissatisfaction and general curmudgeonliness of 2,413 adults in various generations.

The results validate any member of the Greatest Generation who ever looked at his or her offspring and sadly thought, "soft." Simply put, boomers are a bunch of . . . whiners. …

…A recent University of Chicago sociology study compared the results of happiness surveys going back more than 30 years and found that boomers have never been happy. In 2004, 28 percent of respondents born in 1950 considered themselves "very happy," compared with 40.2 percent of those born in 1935. Back in 1972, the figures for those same generations were 28.9 and 35.4….

…It's a cyclical downer that follows many generations born after times of crisis, says Neil Howe, an author who gained fame for his theories of recurrent generational behavior. It plagued the Transcendental generation, born on the heels of American independence, and the Missionary generation that arrived after the Civil War.

"People born in times of cultural renewal tend to take an overt attitude of pessimism," Howe says.

They see their pessimism as a tonic that will wake up the world, then they just end up drunk on disappointment. …

This article assigns those born 1946-1964 to the Baby Boom Generation, which is accurate from a fertility statistics viewpoint. It marks the years when we had emerged to the norm from a birth dearth to a point where we had descended to the norm from a fertility high. However, I think from a sociological standpoint, Neil Howe is right in assigning the years 1943-1960. These are the years closer to where the actual upturn (1943) and downturn (1960) began, thus also signaling that something had changed how we viewed having children and how they should be raised.

I also like Howe's definition because it places me at the very trailing end of Boomer nation. I prefer to be as close to the outside of it as possible. 🙂 Wait … does that mean I'm whining too?