Baby Boomers Surviving In Hard Times Again!

iDemographers' defined the baby boom as a birth surge started in 1946, after the World War II and reached its peak in 1957 and continued until 1964 because of the postwar prosperity. Most people uses "generation" as their term but demographers precisely referred it as "cohort" (group of individuals experiencing a certain event within a specified time). This reveals that social changes interconnect with the life of every baby boomer.

There two groups of baby boomers. The babies born from 1946 to 1955 were called early boomers. Those who were born from 1956 to 1964 were called as late boomers. The last set of late boomers were born during the first tour of Beatles in America and the first early boomers was approximately 18 years that time. Baby boomers were noticeable because of their big populations. They crowded junior high, elementary schools, high schools, labor market, and colleges.

Studies show that the impacts brought about by the society where baby boomers grew up contributes a lot in reshaping the society. They never think like their parents. Because the population of these cohorts is unprecedented during the 20th century, their beliefs and behaviors are then predicted to dominate things.

But there is also a great discrepancy in terms of economic status between early boomers and late boomers. Compared to the energetic job market and emerging economy laid beneath the feet of early boomers, late boomers needs adjustment on economic shifts. It is due to the rapid growth of service sectors, jobs for middle class became less stable, changing locations of workers, and career market adjustments.

Most boomers considered economic security as an elusive thing. They are the people who were born after the era of civil rights. Conducted studies even reveals income differences according to ethnicity, race, and birthplace creating ethnic classes. It was because one third of the population of baby boomers Hispanic, African-American, or Asian besides the black and white Americans. Take for instance, the black boomer's generation are considered inferior than whites, although the generation of baby boomers were rated the best in terms of education.

It is a fact that the life of baby boomers was accompanied by postwar transformations changing the American society. The ideas about sexuality, gender, and family were altered profoundly. Likewise, parenthood changed, old age and retirement was redefined, and labor forces were transformed. Even in their old age, they seize opportunity to stay involved and active like staying in their work force to meet the responsibilities of supporting their children.

The changes in the society were never brought solely by stereotype baby boomers but also the conservative types like Seth Grossman. The stereotype boomers expressed themselves through street protests while the conservative boomers use other forms such as leaflets, student newspapers, and forums. Although their actions did not attract the attention of media but they achieved their success when they forced a referendum which resulted in the withdrawal of Duke students from the National Student Association.

Conservative boomers may not be a part of the projected boomer's image but they became a strong force in making their way silently. They are not even in the front page of the newspapers because they still attend their class while others were boycotting. Nevertheless, these conservative boomers have supported conservative politicians like George Wallace in 1968.  

One third of the populations of early boomers served during the Vietnam War. Other boomers made a name in different fields throughout history. Joyce Johnson was an African-American who belongs to the stereotype boomers her activist work in her graduate school. When she entered Duke School, she sought for advancement not only for herself but her entire race. She belongs in the Afro-American Society involved in the iconic events in the Duke campus during the 60s. Grossman and Johnson are baby boomers who contributed great change in their society.

Deep understanding about the baby boom generation is very important as they advanced on to their old age. It should be more of demographic curiosities because if demographic bulge move continuously on the system, then economic differences also persists. These baby boomers once do their best in shaping the society providing significant impacts on the lives of many people besides themselves.

Daniel Silver

Every individual is unique in his own way. This makes him different from anyone else. Even brothers and sisters differ a lot. But with every person's distinct characteristics, he should still be able achieve good relationship with other people.

Many generations have been in existence for years now. And each generation is identified with certain uniqueness from other generations. If you're a baby boomer, you probably know this by now.

What then is a baby boomer? Baby boomers are those born after the Second World War. It includes babies born from 1946 to 1964 during the time of prosperity after the war.

Baby Boomers are identified for their characteristics very much different from other generations. This maybe because they all grew up in a world that is generally dominated by the American Military. They lived in a world that offers new wonders like marvelous gadgets, household appliances. And during that time, very seldom can you find unemployed individuals. This means that almost all families enjoyed a prosperous life.

The academic leadership, cultural, political and industrial classes are almost dominated by baby boomers. The most prominent individuals are George Bush and Bill Clinton. They are both baby boomers and they both illustrate a diverging range of attitudes and values.

The families of baby boomers have the largest household incomes in America. There are early boomers, as well as late boomers. This generation is identified mostly of the early boomers because the late boomers didn't experience the military draft. The late boomers however, were more identified of the different cultural factors that they were able to share.

These late boomers are also known as early generation X's. At present, they are now in the stage where they want to leave a mark in history. The baby boomer's birth is a part of history, and this may be the reason why they are idealists in their own right. Boomers are expected to have a big impact and influence over cultural and political matters. They often belong to the higher echelons of power; and these leaders exhibit decisiveness, vision, and they can withstand even the worst of every situation.

But the baby boomers are not only known for their positive character. They also have destructive tendencies like selfishness, arrogance, and ruthlessness that can result to a outright despotism or factional strife.

During a baby boomer's midlife, they often re-evaluate everything that has something to do with their personal life. Those having families focus on the triumph and failures of their kids because they only want what's best for them. Some boomers even go the extent of managing their children's lives.

Boomers are over-protective parents. They want to sanitize almost everything that their children can see, including television programs. This is in contrast to their early childhood when they themselves want to indulge in almost everything with fewer restrictions. Through their kids, they seek to bring improvements to the society.

Though baby boomers are known as the counter-cultural type and as hippies, they also have passions for social and personal improvement. But this is usually exhibited once they age out.

Baby boomers were greatly criticized as ageist and anti -youth. This is further evidenced by their catchphrase 'don't trust anyone over 30'. But not all baby boomers are like this, there are also those who abide by the social norms of the society during their time.

Boomer or not, they are all important individuals who can contribute a great deal to the world. People should not concentrate mainly on the generation that they are identified with; but they should make it a point to do all things that can contribute to the peace and prosperity of humankind.

Every person has his or her positive and negative characteristics. Nobody's perfect, and that is a true and proven fact. There are individuals who are known to be perfectionists but this doesn't mean that are perfect as a person. It's but natural to commit mistakes as a human being. The most important thing is to learn from the mistakes in the past; and is you want to improve yourself; you may do so but make sure that it is for the better.

Daniel Silver


 

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Younger generations in the United States do not show much interest in the political games of boomers although recently, they are not the largest population of voters.

There was even an incidence when Matthew Shephard, the mother and symbol of hate-crime against homosexuals in Chicago expressed her dismay in front of the Roosevelt University. She questioned the political activism of the present generation for not expressing themselves the way they did before. She even recalled the times when boomers confronted authority.

The problem was that boomers are approaching retirement and perhaps losing their agility to make the same protests again. The new generation is asking a different set of questions. Some suggested to get rid off the authority and stop asking questions like what the boomer radicals did during the 60's.

The point of the new generation is to know where the authority goes. They see that the voter driver's efforts are nonsense. Even if they keep on pursuing the slogans "Rock the Vote" and "Vote or Die"; still it lacks assessment on the federal government's credibility. New generations cannot get what the government wants to emphasize. They observed that in order to obtain good things from the government, one should exercise their right to vote.

But these young people display activeness in their own way. They even exceeded performances of the baby boomers in numerous campaign activities like displaying bumper stickers, signs, and buttons, attending rallies, and persuading others to vote.

A great Sociologist, Robert Nisbet distinguished the terms authority and power. Power is a force while authority can be forged on social bonds of churches, families, communities, and business. Despite the rage of baby boomers against authority, they have accumulated lots of power for their bureaucracy. It might be under Bush or Clinton, R or D. It took off before the new generation of unwieldy and impersonal youths.

The new generation knew what power meant. They didn't want the baby boomers to tell them where it is and how to seek it. They are disposed by cultural usurpations touching their personal lives to become contemptuous of power. Young Americans know divorce power, Eric Harris and Klebold's power, Jerry Springer's power, teen sex power, abortion power, and Osama bin Laden's power. These are not the types of power that they crave because they have already seen its consequences. What they seek is a confident, strong, gentle, and honor-bound authority.

It cannot be denied that young voters are cynical concerning national politics largely different from apathy. The children born during the 80's named as Reagan's Children never invested their time on direct political procedures. They have changed the boomer's action to entrepreneurialism, community service, technology, and religion. They are after an authority which governs rather than an established government which has nothing to offer. Politics might also be the interest of the new generation, however in a very different perspective far from what their forefathers wanted them to inherit. They perceive that government as federal and big, centers on mobilizing the youth on their voting rights.

The person controlling the polls will gain larger percentage of the national power. But no one knows if the voting booths are sacredly held by baby boomers and beats the relationship authority prized by prospective young voters. It is possible that the obsession for power of the boomers generation will defeat the young American generation who hungers for authority.  This could happen since boomers defeated that authority already.

However, everybody never wanted a generational clash. The boomer retirees are just determined in living life to the fullest as an expense on their children's paid taxes. However, this provokes wars in the Congress related on government costs. Thus it confounds their capacity to serve, to invest, and to love. Younger statesmen said that it is the cost that matters not their responsibilities, paid taxes, and freedom. The boomers power-hungry declaration requires the new generation (committed on authority institutions and focused on internet economy) to vote, to join politics, and fight the gray-haired builders of a powerful government.

In such struggle, they have enlisted a constitutional language which starts on securing their liberty blessings to themselves and prosperity. The task of the new generation is to save those blessings in  threat more than ordering the people to vote.

Daniel Silver

The birthrate in the United States of America rose to almost 20% after the World War II (1946). It again increased to another 12% in 1947. Finally, it peaked up to 4.3 million babies in 1957. Therefore, from 1946 to 1964, there were 77 million babies born in America, they were called as "baby boomers". Today, boomers comprise 28% of the US populations since the birthrate returned to normal in 1965.

But the said numbers of babies are considered as a statistical anomaly in the birthrate of the United States according to some researchers. It is because some of the baby boomers have detached themselves in that generation and lives as if they were not born between the years 1946 to 1964.

Discriminations even happened considering baby boomers as different species. They were compared to the 1969 generation where they were marked as the holiest, most curious, and brightest of all generation in the human history.

As the years passed by, these opinions have greatly changed and the boomer's criticism reached a fevered pitch. The baby boomer's generation was dubbed as a self-absorbed generation. They defined themselves not through sacrifices as their parents had experienced but by indulgences. Other critics even wrote that throughout the American history, baby boomers were the most self-seeking, self-centered, self-indulgent, self-aggrandizing, and self-interested generation.

These views about the boomers have an underlying gravity, unifying principle, and hermeneutic understanding of the world. The reasons behind are natural survival, class struggles, relativism, and lack of knowledge. Boomers became a part of the culture. But their concerns lie more on dominant concerns and dominant passions.

The Boomer's Six Commandments was even established based from these worldviews. But these do not apply to all baby boomers because there is always an exception. There is no monolithic generation. It was shaped by circumstances wherein these circumstances are not uniformed like generations. Nevertheless, every generation must live according to commandments or rules.

1.    Thou shall be hip. According to some studies, the baby boomer's major problem is the refusal of growing up. Their adolescence periods were prolonged, taken in various forms such as physical fitness obsession, youth worship, and embarrassment on the natural aging process.  Others include their aspiration to stay in style, hip, and current. Boomers do not consider it as a mere trendiness but a tendency to being externalized and magnified. That is why even during their aging years, they try to maintain the fashion of their era insisting that those times were frozen on them.

2.    Accept culture changes to stay relevant.  The boomers foresee themselves as a force that can transform cultures. However, they did not succeed. Instead of becoming culture transformers, the culture itself transformed them. The boomers accepted the culture's promise of eternal relevance for their rendered services. The only problem was that this relevance can deliver them only popularity.

3.    Honor thy individuality. America is the civilization known for radical individualism. The novel expression that is acquainted only with egotism sapping public life virtues and later on destroy and attack others. Boomers lived during the peak of the women's rights, civil rights, anti-war movements, and reproductive rights.

4.    Thou shall forget history. Boomers always declare themselves as the first generation to experience new milestones in their lives which include childbirth, adolescents, parenthood, marriage, and middle age. They know history, however they just question its importance to them.

5.    Thou shall feel guilty if you sell out. Boomers manifest their guilt interestingly. They maintain the defiance attitude along with their youth convictions as they abandoned convictions themselves. At heart, boomers remain as revolutionaries while they live the protestant, middle class, white-bread American dream.

6.    Thou shall question authority. There was a serious problem that rises on the part of most boomers. Their motto was to trust no one over thirty. Their rebellion towards authority is a skeptical approach to the pastoral authority, polity, and doctrinal standards of the church. Boomers have rejected this authority in two ways. They either denied the Bible's authority right away or relativize the Bible's authority like a Protestant Evangelicalism.

Although these boomers' rules create issues and controversy, it influenced and altered the way on how American thinks. And even it was predicted that all boomers will be gone, still many baby boomer's followers are still there.

Daniel Silver

The baby boomer generation plays a significant part in almost every aspect of today's America. They made an impact to every age cluster they get to belong. Baby boomers have the diverse potentials that uplifted their group in history.

Fast statistics show that the fifty plus age group of baby boomers are earning roughly two trillion dollars, in control of more than seven trillion dollars of wealth and own 77% of financial assets in United States. That is not all, baby boomers also grip 50% of the discretionary powers in both government and private organizations.

Baby boomers are interesting subjects to tackle-their power to do, their immense abilities and their emotions. And since the baby boomer generation is now ranging at the age of 42 to 60 years old, they are facing the issues of retirement. It is fascinating to discover how baby boomers envision their old age, their retirement plans and the thought of being empty nesters.

Empty nesting is the period in parents' lives when their children start moving out to live their own lives. Sadly, aging parents are left by themselves, reviving the scenarios when they were just starting out a family as well. The difference is that they have consumed the energy and youth they used to be abundant of. While the baby boomers have a range of emotions toward empty nesting, they are most likely to play the brand name for them-the independent generation.

Furthermore in the poll conducted for baby boomers, the following are some key points which were uncovered:

Considering the statistics of birth of baby boomers, the name of their generation was derived from the explosion of birth right after the World War II. At the span of the baby boomer years, roughly seventy-six million Americans were delivered to the earth. Currently, the population of baby boomers occupies twenty-eight percent of the whole populace in United States.

Specifically by the year 1957, an estimated 4.3 million of babies were born in America. The number has outstood any other year before it.

On the issue of retirement, baby boomers view this stage on its brighter side. Accordingly, most of the baby boomers plan to pursue a career after their previous career. Being involved in sole proprietorship or any self employed business is the popular choice. Seventy-five percent envision their retirement as the chance to devote leisure time with their children and grandchildren. This will result to more domesticated adults. However, of this poll, seventy-four percent feel freer upon retirement while fifty-seven percent claimed that they will only be freer when they become empty nesters.

More than half of the baby boomers are confident that they will have enough money for leisure when they already retire. This means that less than half of them are not certain if they will live a comfortable life after retirement. These statistics greatly affects the issue on the empty nesting emotions.

When questioned about parenting, 71% of the baby boomers responded positively. For these baby boomers, parenting was a challenging task that marked many wonderful experiences for them. That is why when the empty nesting stage comes, baby boomers are more emotionally prepared. This is illustrated in the positive feedback of the 58% baby boomers who are readying for the time when their kids had to leave their territory for good. In parallel, a surprising twenty-six percent feel like they would be closer to their better halves when their kids are gone.

The older the baby boomers are, the more emotionally stable they become. Most of the oldies in this generation have been ready to clear the nest. While the large percentage states a neutral emotion, baby boomers are more likely appreciative of freedom that they will soon be enjoying.

For seventy-four percent of baby boomers, they have proven to be good role models for their children. And forty percent of the aging baby boomers foresee that there will come a time when their children would still cling to them. Since baby boomers are characterized by being independent, only twenty-eight percent view their old age like their children would be charged for the rent.

Indeed, baby boomers play significant roles in the society. It is their age that introduces the value of optimism and self sufficiency.
Dan Silver

After the World War II (1945), the women and servicemen of Australia returned home. Their life that was interrupted for almost 6 years of conflicts during the war was resumed. The population revolution then started after nine months where childbirth rates surged more than 4 millions Australians.

These people born from 1946 to 1961 are called baby boomers. During this period, there was also an increased migration of Europeans to Australia. These forces are combined thus it changed Australia in the mid of the twentieth century.

The 1950's were considered the new arrival age. A new market was represented by baby boomers. Their needs were met quickly because of the wartime technology advances combined with innovative economic optimism.

The first audio recording was released in the early 50's known as Long Playing recorded using vinyl discs. In 1955, Rock Around the Clock by Bill Haley was released in the market. The younger generation have known rock and roll and accepted it as a new and unique music.

Australian bands started to play new music. Johnny O'Keefe and Cole Joye were the top artists at that time. T-shirts and blue jeans became the fashion of teenagers mimicking movie stars in America like Marlon Brando and James Dean. Comic books rise to popularity as the youth's literature. Hula-hoops twirling became the favorite pastime of children. The word juvenile delinquent was first read on newspapers describing baby boomers. However, most baby boomers in this era represented a big change to the older generation.

The 1960's are marked as the coming age. After eighteen years of existence, baby boomers were hooked on the music of "The Beatles". In 1964, this pop group from UK toured around Australia selling out frequent mobbing and shows. Young people controlled the culture. Rock and Roll became the music's mainstream although 'square' parents don't like it.

Australian bands also hit the music wave. The first Australian band "The Seekers" released their recording reaching sales of one million copies. The controversy made by Jean Shrimpton shocked Australia when she came to watch the Melbourne Cup wearing a mini-skirt. Since then, wearing mini-skirts became the most popular fashion.

Baby boomers also brought great changes in politics. In 1963, Charles Perkins, an aboriginal activist led protestors throughout New South Wales to expose the Aboriginal Australians discrimination. They were restricted to enter pubs, public schools, and cinemas in rural places. The National Liberal government was forced to make a referendum changing the constitution in favor of the Aboriginal people.

The people power in 1970 shut down Melbourne metropolitan because of succeeding moratorium marches in opposition of the Vietnam War. This was followed by the popularity of alternative lifestyle and hippy culture.

The 1970's were the age of power. The adult population of Australia from 1962-1972 increased by approximately three million when the baby boomers reached the voting age. The Australian conservative form of government was challenged by the baby boomers radical ideas for many years. Gough Whitlam, leader of a charismatic labor became a candidate for Prime Minister. He authored the "It's Time" slogan having policies that will obtain the votes of baby boomers. It includes free education on a university, laws on anti-discrimination for Aborigines, and withdrawing Australian soldiers from Vietnam. He declared that the solution to juvenile crimes, vandalism and drugs is not moralizing or repression but rather the creative energies of the youth in a concerned and creative energy.

The 1980's onwards were marked as the period of ageing boomers. Radical streak were tamed by baby boomers to settle down in enjoying comfort and wealth as they reach middle age. Many boomers are represented in the bracket of people with higher income. "Generation Me" was the name given to them. Mark Davis, an Australian journalist states that baby boomers continuously dominate the Australian culture. Other groups had the difficulty of initiating change because baby boomers comprise the highest percentage in the entire population of Australia. They prevent new younger cultures to thrive in the conservative values and classic rocks.

Baby boomers economically represent bigger future challenges. As they get older, they will continue to distort the non-working population of Australia like they have increased the working population from 1960 to 1970 putting higher strain on hospitals, pensions, and aged care.

Daniel Silver

As people grow old, they become more and more prone to diseases or illness. At the point they reach old age, they will suffer from arthritis, and heart related conditions. Because of this, everyone should have some form of security in order to live a worry-free life. Although it may not prevent diseases from affecting you, this form of health security will ensure you that you will never worry about medical-related bills, such as hospitalization, and medicine.

This form of health security is called health insurance. Depending on the type of health insurance you purchase, it will cover just about anything. It will cover hospitalization bills, the doctor's professional fee, medicine, and anything related to health care.

You have to remember that health insurance will not actually ensure that you will not acquire diseases or illness, what it does is assist you financially in order to help you recover from illnesses. Today, there are a lot of health insurance policies that insurance companies are now selling to people. Some covers only limited amount of health care, and some health insurance that is more expensive covers just about anything related to health care.

Today, baby boomers are getting more and more concerned about their financial and health security. So, why is it that baby boomers are getting more and more worried about their health security? And, who are the baby boomers?

First of all, you need to know who the baby boomers are. Baby boomers are people who were born between the post World War II in 1946 and before the Vietnam War in 1964. People who were born on this era were called baby boomers. They were called baby boomers because of the significant increase in the birth rate during this era.

The baby boomer generation population is one of the largest populations in the United States. In fact, the baby boomers generation is comprised of around 20% of the United States population. Obviously, that is considered quite a lot.

Baby boomers came of age during the time where civil rights protests were constantly in the streets and where most of them were drafted to fight in the Vietnam War. Baby boomers are people who had a very large influence in politics and its influence is continually showing today and perhaps will go on in the future.

Baby boomers grew up in the time where the country was dominated by the American Military Might where the communists and socialists were the enemy. Because of the atmosphere they grew up in, baby boomers are well-aware about the different government structures and are also very aware of their civil rights. Besides, they should be aware because they were the ones who fought for it.

Back to health insurance, baby boomers are getting more and more concerned about this subject because today, they are currently in their late 40s and early 60's. Obviously, aging is closely associated with diseases and illnesses. Because of the high population level of the baby boomer generation, they are concerned that when the time comes that they will need the assistance of health insurance, they think that because of the high population of baby boomers in today's society, health insurance companies will be unable to provide enough financial assistance.

If you worked in private companies, there may be issues concerned about company health insurance. You may be covered by health insurance even when you are retired. However, in the event of bankruptcy, the court will cancel the entire employer's obligation on paying for the insurance. Although it may not include pensions, you have to expect that in case bankruptcy is filed by your former company, your health insurance policy will not be covered anymore by the company. You will be the one who will pay for it.

If you worked for the government, you may still be able to get free health insurance provided by the government as a benefit for their former employees.

Today, the government is now adjusting the national budget to provide for aging and retiring baby boomers. However, there is another growing concern facing baby boomers. Health insurance policies are now expensive for aging people. Low cost health insurance may not be sufficient for your health needs.

However, pressures from the government are now providing several options for baby boomers who are applying for health insurance. So, if you are part of the baby boomer generation, you can expect that in the near future, all your problems facing health insurance will be solved with low cost comprehensive health insurance and also low cost health care provided by hospitals and doctors for senior citizens.

Daniel Silver
www.danslearningcenter.com

That question will be on a lot of peoples minds.  If you have a job or career that is satisfing and profitable retirement may the last thing on your mind.  However if in these great ression times we are going through again, pulling out tall that social security money that we have been putting away, may be a sound decision.  Who knows just maybe the banks may need our money more than we do and will try of go for that money too.  But we all know that the banks are surely going to make taht money available to us, so we can buy that car or house.  They have promised that they will pay all of us back in the future.  I wonder just how credit worthy these banks and financial instutions really are?  I ssure hope our treasury secretay make them jump throughat lest as many hoops as they ahve made us don all thes years.

Dan Silver
anewliving2

How to figure your retirement.  The social security website has a calculator that you should use.  Be sure to read all the information there.  There are several surprises that can sneak in and disrupt your time of ease.  Especially focus on the limit of income and hours per month you allowed to work without sacrificing your social security checks. 
running your own business could be a real difficulty.