When the boomers exit the stage, then what?

“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.