“Look on my works…and despair.”
– Percy Bysshe Shelley, “Ozymandias”
As the boomers begin to leave the stage, holding onto their wallets with sweaty palms and wondering where it all went wrong, it’s time to take a summary look at their works.
First of all, let’s remember that the boomers lifted all boats. Soaring incomes and profligate spending combined to achieve easy credit for all. Savings accounts disappeared. In their place, credit card applications and home-equity loans filled every mailbox, and the percentage of households with $100,000 incomes rose steadily (reaching a record 21% by 2007).
Since 2007, we’ve been following the boomers down the other side of the mountain. In that time, only one age group (65+) has not been in decline, and they are not known for being big spenders. Moreover, the peak earning years for the boomers are over or ending. The housing bubble has burst, with catastrophic results, and easy credit is long, long gone.
Worse, the boomers have left the stage empty. Today’s biggest spenders, Generation X (aged 35-44 today), have almost no discretionary income; their spending is a result of much bigger mortgages (almost 27% higher than our departing boomers). The next generation, the millennials, is in even worse shape. They are currently at all-time highs for unemployment, partially because of competition from the seniors who can’t afford to stop working. Ironically, with almost a third of the millenials moving back home, more and more boomers will have to keep working to support their kids.
So, as we look upon the “works” of this generation and compare it to the previous generations that pushed America forward, we have to ask: What is their legacy? What lasting values have they produced? What legacies of culture, politics, family, environmentalism, civics, religion, finance and education are they leaving behind?
Well, as Ozymandias might suggest, just take a look around and survey their works – and then decide.
Mike Baumayr, Chapter Two Communications
Mature marketing expertise from one of America’s “oldest” authorities on boomers, retirement, aging, longevity, and inter-generational marketing.
October 20, 2009 at 12:21 am
When I was younger I thought that health insurance was a legitimate business. Then came the focus on wealth over health, on profits over people, and loathsome, inhumane innovations like “pre-existing “ conditions and a lack of preventive care.
Today, despite a 483 % increase in profits since 2000 (and our president is worried about them?), the insurance business has placed most Americans on the outermost boundaries of financial security; realistically, many of us are only one serious illness away from poverty.
Which is why 65 is such a good number. At 65, medical worries for the senior population are replaced by Medicare, and peace of mind. Unfortunately, the number of adults under 65 who don’t have insurance is rising every year (in 2008, 1.5 million Americans under 65 became uninsured). Right now, this represents about 20% of the mature market — and will likely get much worse, much faster, in 2010.
Why? Two reasons. First, more companies will continue to either reduce or eliminate their medical coverage for employees. Second, as millions of workers become unemployed, they (and their families) will lose their group coverage.
So 2010 may not be too pretty for the 65-and-under crowd. And don’t look to insurance executives for help; they don’t really have hearts, as we’ve seen, they have shareholders. And Congress, as we know, doesn’t vote with their conscience, they vote with their lobbyists.
Nevertheless, just when it seems like everybody has got our number, just remember: we’ve got a number too. And that number is 65.
Mike Baumayr, Chapter Two Communications
Mature marketing expertise from one of America’s “oldest” authorities on boomers, retirement, aging, longevity, and inter-generational marketing.
October 20, 2009 at 12:08 am
