WEBVTT - What's the deal with Baby Boomers? 0:00:01.200 --> 0:00:04.640 Welcome to Stuff you Should Know from how Stuff Works 0:00:04.680 --> 0:00:13.440 dot com. Hey, I'm welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark. 0:00:13.480 --> 0:00:16.880 There's Charles W. Chuck Bryant, and there's guest producer Noel 0:00:16.960 --> 0:00:19.520 over there. So this is stuff you should know. Yeah, 0:00:19.680 --> 0:00:21.360 Noel likely to sit in on this one and not 0:00:21.480 --> 0:00:25.000 just hit record and run screaming. Yeah, we were kind 0:00:25.040 --> 0:00:27.760 of surprised. Yeah, it's weird though. It's been so long 0:00:27.800 --> 0:00:30.760 since we had someone in here with it's been at 0:00:30.760 --> 0:00:34.199 the Ghosts the studio that time forgot. But we have 0:00:34.240 --> 0:00:38.199 to suck in our guts again. Sit up right, I 0:00:38.240 --> 0:00:41.440 have to lick my fingers in the straight my hair 0:00:41.800 --> 0:00:48.040 with them. Sure. So, Chuck, Yes, you are a gen 0:00:48.240 --> 0:00:51.360 x or did you know that? Yeah? Are you? Yeah? 0:00:51.640 --> 0:00:55.200 That was my next point? Sorry, I am too. Yeah, 0:00:55.800 --> 0:00:58.959 uh no, I think it's a millennial. Know what you were? 0:00:58.960 --> 0:01:03.440 You born? Knows a millennial? God knows what Jerry is 0:01:04.040 --> 0:01:11.080 no idea. Yeah, she's of her own time. Um so boy, 0:01:11.200 --> 0:01:13.080 none of us are. Jerry might be. I don't know 0:01:13.480 --> 0:01:18.679 our baby boomers now, Jerry, you know Jerry's a gen xer. Yeah. 0:01:18.720 --> 0:01:22.679 One thing that this inspired me to do was to 0:01:22.760 --> 0:01:27.200 do a show on generations period. I find it fascinating 0:01:27.240 --> 0:01:33.479 how people are grouped and also a little frustrated when. Um, 0:01:33.560 --> 0:01:35.679 once I got into the sub groups, it helped me, 0:01:36.360 --> 0:01:40.800 But when I looked at like, especially the Baby Boom generation, 0:01:40.920 --> 0:01:44.280 there's such a clear difference in the which we'll get 0:01:44.319 --> 0:01:47.400 to the early and the later part of that, it 0:01:47.480 --> 0:01:49.320 was just like, well, why why don't you just call 0:01:49.400 --> 0:01:53.480 them to different generations? Some people do well, some people do, 0:01:53.560 --> 0:01:55.520 but for the most part they don't. For the most part, 0:01:55.640 --> 0:01:58.200 people say, the baby boomers are people who are born 0:01:58.200 --> 0:02:03.400 from ninety nineteen exty four is the general definition of them. Yeah, 0:02:03.400 --> 0:02:05.800 it's just weird, Like my mom missed out on it 0:02:05.880 --> 0:02:08.160 just by a couple of years. But then my sister 0:02:08.280 --> 0:02:09.919 just missed out on it by a couple of years. 0:02:10.520 --> 0:02:12.720 So it just doesn't seem like, I know, they're not 0:02:12.760 --> 0:02:15.360 the same generation, but they it is not even close. 0:02:15.360 --> 0:02:17.280 It shouldn't be. No, it's not. And and again like 0:02:17.320 --> 0:02:19.519 so we'll we'll get into it a little bit more. 0:02:19.560 --> 0:02:22.120 But um, some people say that's just too wide of 0:02:22.120 --> 0:02:25.679 a swath. And more to the point, which this is 0:02:25.720 --> 0:02:30.680 the basis of generations, the life experience of those of 0:02:30.760 --> 0:02:34.160 the people on either end of that that twenty year 0:02:34.280 --> 0:02:38.359 or so spectrum are so we're so wildly different that, yeah, 0:02:38.440 --> 0:02:40.720 they don't. They can't be in the same generation. It 0:02:40.760 --> 0:02:42.920 just doesn't make sense because the point of a generation, 0:02:43.680 --> 0:02:46.520 um is that it is a group of people born 0:02:46.560 --> 0:02:50.040 around the same time who all shared some sort of 0:02:50.720 --> 0:02:54.839 major life experience, a collective life experience. Yeah, whether it's 0:02:54.960 --> 0:02:59.280 culture or ideologies. Yeah, usually an event though, like the 0:02:59.280 --> 0:03:04.040 assassination JFK's would go to for baby boomers that in 0:03:04.080 --> 0:03:06.880 the event was so enormous that it shaped their worldview 0:03:06.960 --> 0:03:09.840 for the rest of their lives, Like ours would be 0:03:09.880 --> 0:03:15.880 the where's the beef commercials? Right exactly? Uh, well, we 0:03:15.919 --> 0:03:19.240 do share that though, Oh no, I'm I was dead serious, 0:03:19.440 --> 0:03:22.480 You're not. Well, I don't know if that's the identifying 0:03:23.120 --> 0:03:27.840 for well, for millennials, um, especially older millennials, it would 0:03:27.840 --> 0:03:32.239 be like nine eleven would be for ours. Maybe Challenger, 0:03:33.400 --> 0:03:35.720 the Challenger explosion is the one I always go to. 0:03:35.880 --> 0:03:38.119 Does it always have to be a disaster, No, it's 0:03:38.160 --> 0:03:42.320 just gotta be an enormous event that enough people are 0:03:42.360 --> 0:03:46.000 aware of and impacted by that it shapes who they are. 0:03:46.480 --> 0:03:48.760 So it's almost like a group of people, all about 0:03:48.760 --> 0:03:52.440 the same age, all being touched in relatively the same 0:03:52.480 --> 0:03:54.880 way at the same time, so that their world view 0:03:54.960 --> 0:03:59.600 is changed forever by that event. So where's the beef. Yeah, Okay, 0:04:00.120 --> 0:04:05.120 that we agree. Uh So the reason, um, there were 0:04:05.160 --> 0:04:07.760 a lot of Well, the deal with the baby boomers is, 0:04:07.800 --> 0:04:10.560 as you'll see, is that there are a lot of them, 0:04:10.600 --> 0:04:15.320 and birth rates rose quite a bit in n and 0:04:15.520 --> 0:04:18.719 stayed that way for about twenty years. And it's interesting 0:04:18.760 --> 0:04:22.080 when you look at the reasons. Um, the most obvious 0:04:22.120 --> 0:04:24.360 thing you can point to is just say, like, yeah, 0:04:24.560 --> 0:04:26.920 dudes came home after the war and had a lot 0:04:26.920 --> 0:04:31.159 of sex. Pretty much that has something to do with it. 0:04:31.200 --> 0:04:33.719 But this article points out something I never considered, which 0:04:33.800 --> 0:04:38.960 was sort of a convergence of of that and then 0:04:39.160 --> 0:04:40.800 not just wanting to have a lot of sex after 0:04:40.800 --> 0:04:44.040 the war, but the promise of like prosperity to come 0:04:44.200 --> 0:04:47.159 after the war and like things are gonna be great, 0:04:47.279 --> 0:04:50.680 so let's like go all in on the family. But 0:04:50.800 --> 0:04:54.800 that converging with the uh a bit of an older 0:04:54.839 --> 0:04:58.359 generation of parents post depression that may have waited to 0:04:58.400 --> 0:05:01.599 have kids for very race reasons, and that kind of 0:05:01.680 --> 0:05:04.919 all happening at the same time. Yeah, younger families having kids, 0:05:04.960 --> 0:05:08.560 not postponing the older generation that had postponed having the kids, 0:05:08.560 --> 0:05:12.279 all at the same time. Huge, huge population increases. From 0:05:12.600 --> 0:05:18.040 nineteen uh, nineteen fifty to nineteen eighty, the American population 0:05:18.080 --> 0:05:22.039 increased by fifty that's not From nineteen forty six to 0:05:22.160 --> 0:05:25.520 nineteen forty five, the number of babies born year over 0:05:25.640 --> 0:05:29.400 year increased by that's that's a lot. Yeah. So in 0:05:29.480 --> 0:05:33.200 nineteen six millions, I think about an average of four 0:05:33.400 --> 0:05:37.479 four million and change babies started being born every year, 0:05:37.920 --> 0:05:41.640 and it kept going and going until I think nineteen 0:05:41.680 --> 0:05:46.000 fifty seven, when it plateaued and stayed high for a while, 0:05:46.440 --> 0:05:49.960 and then it dipped again starting in nineteen sixty four 0:05:50.120 --> 0:05:57.760 sixty five, which coincided with the widespread availability of the pill. Uh. 0:05:57.839 --> 0:06:00.240 One reason I think the baby boom generation is so 0:06:01.400 --> 0:06:06.120 interesting and endlessly talked about and studied is because it 0:06:06.279 --> 0:06:10.800 just there. The the shift, the ideological shift that they 0:06:11.120 --> 0:06:15.480 were presiding over is it was was just massive. This 0:06:15.560 --> 0:06:18.360 article kind of sums it up nicely, like they created 0:06:18.360 --> 0:06:21.360 the youth movement of the sixties when they're in their twenties. 0:06:22.000 --> 0:06:25.360 It was that culture excess of the seventies, and then 0:06:25.400 --> 0:06:28.080 in the eighties they became the yuppies. And now they're 0:06:28.880 --> 0:06:33.599 entering retirement or in retirement and running the world. And 0:06:33.640 --> 0:06:39.080 then and and and then, as you'll see, a lot 0:06:39.160 --> 0:06:45.520 of them are rebuffing the excess of hey, let's make 0:06:45.560 --> 0:06:49.119 and spend tons of money, and like concentrating on giving back, 0:06:49.640 --> 0:06:53.240 which was originally inspired by like the Kennedy administration volunteerism. 0:06:53.440 --> 0:06:56.039 Yeah that that asked not what your country can do 0:06:56.160 --> 0:07:01.000 for you? Yeah, that whole thing, right, But it's interesting 0:07:01.000 --> 0:07:04.080 this one lady, the first moment, I'm sorry, the first 0:07:04.240 --> 0:07:08.799 boomer born just after midnight in New Jersey. Uh, Kathleen 0:07:08.839 --> 0:07:13.840 Casey Kirschling is widely regarded as the first baby boomer. Yes, 0:07:13.840 --> 0:07:17.240 she's born in January first nine. Yeah, and as you'll 0:07:17.280 --> 0:07:20.280 see if you look at her life, she really is 0:07:20.400 --> 0:07:23.640 like a symbol. And of course, you know that's kind 0:07:23.640 --> 0:07:25.440 of the problem with generations, as you lumped them all 0:07:25.480 --> 0:07:27.920 in as this, and of course it varies from person 0:07:27.960 --> 0:07:32.120 to person. Well that's one criticism of even studying generations 0:07:32.120 --> 0:07:36.600 in the first place. Yeah. Yeah, but she was married 0:07:36.880 --> 0:07:42.360 for a time, got divorced, um has a self made pension, 0:07:43.080 --> 0:07:45.240 that she accrued over the years, like I'm gonna take 0:07:45.240 --> 0:07:48.760 care of my own, you know, retirement, doing appearances as 0:07:48.840 --> 0:07:51.800 the world's first baby boomer. She missed out if she 0:07:51.840 --> 0:07:55.080 didn't last be uh, and then like had a career, 0:07:55.360 --> 0:07:57.880 it's successful careers, I think, like a corporate trainer. Then 0:07:57.880 --> 0:08:00.880 in the early nineties left corporate America and became a 0:08:00.920 --> 0:08:04.280 high school teacher for like fifteen or twenty years. She Yeah, 0:08:04.320 --> 0:08:06.280 she basically read a book on how to be a 0:08:06.400 --> 0:08:09.480 typical baby boom It's interesting. And now like splits time 0:08:09.520 --> 0:08:14.480 between Maryland and Florida and his concentrated on volunteerism in 0:08:14.480 --> 0:08:17.080 her retirement. That's really neat. Yeah, it's like she's kind 0:08:17.080 --> 0:08:20.200 of the prototypical boomer of if you want to buy 0:08:20.240 --> 0:08:24.520 into that thing. Yeah, traditional into non traditional family structure, 0:08:24.640 --> 0:08:29.320 family life, right, career, took care of her her own retirement, 0:08:29.720 --> 0:08:32.880 and then during retirement chose not to actually just retire, 0:08:33.280 --> 0:08:37.079 but to stay active and engaged. That is it's pretty 0:08:37.080 --> 0:08:41.920 typical boomerism. Yeah. Uh. Should we hit people over the 0:08:41.920 --> 0:08:43.840 head with some of these stats? Yeah, I mean they 0:08:43.880 --> 0:08:48.000 were pretty interesting, like I guess just because they came 0:08:48.080 --> 0:08:51.800 at a really interesting time in America's history, Like the 0:08:51.880 --> 0:08:54.719 Boomers started to be born at the same time as 0:08:54.760 --> 0:09:01.200 the suburbs. The consumerism, American consumerism all really started with 0:09:01.240 --> 0:09:05.040 the Baby Booms generation. They felt really good about spending 0:09:05.040 --> 0:09:08.760 money on themselves. They were the first children targeted by advertisers. 0:09:08.840 --> 0:09:12.599 When we're the advertising of kids that started with the boomers. Um. 0:09:12.640 --> 0:09:17.760 Everything changed around that time. Um and and in part 0:09:17.840 --> 0:09:20.480 because of the Baby Boomers. So they're probably the most 0:09:20.480 --> 0:09:25.000 studied generation in American history. Yeah. So there are more 0:09:25.080 --> 0:09:28.600 California Boomers than any other state. I think Utah has 0:09:28.640 --> 0:09:32.000 the fewest amount of boomers, but they still had like 0:09:32.000 --> 0:09:36.000 twenty three percent of their their population was Baby boomers. Yeah, 0:09:36.040 --> 0:09:39.600 but they're the only one that was under right. Uh 0:09:39.640 --> 0:09:43.200 what else? Twelve point six percent the Boomers never got married, 0:09:43.240 --> 0:09:46.440 which is uh from their parents generation only three point 0:09:46.480 --> 0:09:49.160 nine percent never got married. So that's a pretty big 0:09:49.160 --> 0:09:52.599 increase shunning nuptials. I wonder what it is now. I 0:09:52.640 --> 0:09:56.839 couldn't find it. I don't know, it's just increasing. I'm 0:09:56.880 --> 0:09:59.679 sure what people getting, oh, choosing not to get married 0:10:00.440 --> 0:10:04.160 right or or living a non traditional or maybe it's 0:10:04.200 --> 0:10:07.720 traditional now even like we're just together, we're just not 0:10:07.800 --> 0:10:13.080 married partnerships. Um what else? I mean we could read 0:10:13.120 --> 0:10:15.520 out stats all day, but that's boring. I thought you'd 0:10:15.520 --> 0:10:19.760 love doing that. Okay, well, there were there were two 0:10:19.760 --> 0:10:22.040 things that really stood out to me, though they go 0:10:22.160 --> 0:10:25.880 hand in hand. Baby boomers expected their adult children to 0:10:25.960 --> 0:10:29.920 move back in with them, and then thirty percent expect 0:10:29.920 --> 0:10:32.320 their parents to move in with them, and for some 0:10:32.400 --> 0:10:36.319 of those people that overlaps. One of the curious positions 0:10:36.360 --> 0:10:40.000 that some boomers find themselves in is caring for adult 0:10:40.080 --> 0:10:44.280 children and um aged parents at the same time, under 0:10:44.320 --> 0:10:47.520 the same roof. Yeah, and I posted something a while 0:10:47.559 --> 0:10:51.839 ago on stuff you Should Knows Facebook page and um, 0:10:52.000 --> 0:10:54.720 something about kids moving back in and people like, what 0:10:54.760 --> 0:10:57.040 a bunch of losers, And then so many people from 0:10:57.040 --> 0:10:59.840 all over the world. We're like, you know, America's like 0:10:59.840 --> 0:11:04.040 the only country that feels that way, like that family 0:11:04.160 --> 0:11:07.280 should leave at a certain age and not come back. 0:11:07.920 --> 0:11:09.640 And they're like, all over the world people are like, 0:11:09.679 --> 0:11:11.839 you know, we think it's a great thing. Family is huge, 0:11:12.440 --> 0:11:16.240 and we welcome family to live with each other and 0:11:16.440 --> 0:11:19.520 you know, into their twenties or thirties if they want to. Bizarre, 0:11:19.559 --> 0:11:21.720 we help each other, rely on each other, Yeah, weird 0:11:21.840 --> 0:11:24.440 because I mean, I guess the rest of the world 0:11:24.440 --> 0:11:27.679 doesn't know we In America, when you turn eighteen, they 0:11:27.679 --> 0:11:30.600 have a c U in hell party where you leave 0:11:30.760 --> 0:11:33.040 and um, you're not allowed to come back into the 0:11:33.080 --> 0:11:36.880 house until you well, until your parents are dead. What 0:11:36.960 --> 0:11:39.280 we call it a hit the bricks party. All you 0:11:39.400 --> 0:11:43.160 were Baptist family. That's right. Now that we're making stuff up, 0:11:43.160 --> 0:11:45.360 do you think we should take a break. Yeah, let's uh, 0:11:45.480 --> 0:11:48.000 let's do some real research and come back into this again. 0:12:20.400 --> 0:12:23.679 All right, chuck. So the baby boomers were until very 0:12:23.760 --> 0:12:28.040 very recently the biggest generation that population wise to ever, 0:12:28.320 --> 0:12:32.120 um ever hit America. And they hit America bite, they 0:12:32.200 --> 0:12:35.760 hit a like brick of bricks. Yeah. But millennials are 0:12:35.800 --> 0:12:41.160 they're taking over now, right, Yeah, Millennials just surpassed um 0:12:41.200 --> 0:12:45.359 the boomers in number from what I understand, Yes, millennials 0:12:45.880 --> 0:12:48.880 as of two thousand and fifteen. Of course that number 0:12:48.880 --> 0:12:53.120 has grown now U seventy four million, just edging out 0:12:53.160 --> 0:12:56.240 seventy four point nine million Baby Boomers. But here's the thing. 0:12:56.280 --> 0:13:01.600 Millennials are still being born. Boomers are dying. Yeah, the boomers. Actually, 0:13:01.760 --> 0:13:05.120 here's here's something that I just thought was amazingly interesting. 0:13:05.480 --> 0:13:09.640 The Baby Boomers peaked fairly recently as far as their 0:13:09.720 --> 0:13:15.040 numbers go. They peaked in at seventy eight point eight million, right, 0:13:15.559 --> 0:13:19.200 and our generation is going to peak next year. So 0:13:19.240 --> 0:13:22.439 if all the signs and symptoms that you personally are dying, 0:13:22.960 --> 0:13:26.520 and I'm dying more and enough, our whole generation is 0:13:26.520 --> 0:13:31.040 now dying. We're going to decline after next year. Yeah, 0:13:31.160 --> 0:13:33.920 I think more and more about that. But our generation 0:13:34.000 --> 0:13:36.720 peaking in two thous No about me dying, I know 0:13:36.800 --> 0:13:38.640 what you like, I never thought I would be that 0:13:38.679 --> 0:13:42.240 guy that um you know that just sort of like 0:13:43.840 --> 0:13:46.319 that whole Woody Allen obsessed with your own death things? 0:13:46.320 --> 0:13:49.960 Are you obsessed? No, but it's healthy to think about 0:13:50.000 --> 0:13:53.880 the fact that you're gonna die. Some some people believe, 0:13:54.200 --> 0:13:59.360 including me, that accepting, genuinely accepting your own death is 0:14:00.200 --> 0:14:05.280 the key to living fully. Yeah, I agree. I think 0:14:05.320 --> 0:14:09.040 that's the struggle. Yeah, you know, yeah, I mean you 0:14:09.040 --> 0:14:12.200 can throw that on a T shirt. But no, I 0:14:12.240 --> 0:14:15.640 know sometimes I'm like, I wonder if if it just 0:14:15.679 --> 0:14:17.640 hasn't fully sunk in yet and one day down the 0:14:17.720 --> 0:14:23.040 road and be like, I'm gonna die. I think, uh, 0:14:23.240 --> 0:14:25.400 this has come more and more for me in the 0:14:25.440 --> 0:14:28.000 past five years. So I'll check back in with you 0:14:28.040 --> 0:14:32.720 in five years. If I'm alive, I'd be bad. I'd 0:14:32.760 --> 0:14:37.360 be really sad. Um. Yeah, it'd be sad for at 0:14:37.440 --> 0:14:40.520 least three people that I know, and you're one of them. Um. 0:14:40.600 --> 0:14:44.640 So I was talking earlier about the Boomers that age 0:14:44.720 --> 0:14:47.400 range is too big and it needs to be split up, 0:14:47.440 --> 0:14:51.480 and turns out it has been. Uh generally, if you 0:14:51.480 --> 0:14:54.600 look at nine to fifty four, people refer to that 0:14:55.000 --> 0:14:58.000 as the leading edge of the Boomers, and fifty five 0:14:58.040 --> 0:15:02.640 and sixty four as shadow Boomers or Generation Jones. Yeah. 0:15:02.720 --> 0:15:05.040 Did you look into that? Yeah, I mean did. The 0:15:05.120 --> 0:15:07.000 name was the first thing I was like, well, where 0:15:07.000 --> 0:15:09.120 did that come from? And apparently there's a few different 0:15:09.120 --> 0:15:15.320 things either, like, uh, they were Jones ng for prosperity 0:15:15.400 --> 0:15:19.240 of like days to come, more so than the leading edge. Yeah. 0:15:19.240 --> 0:15:23.120 They had just as high expectations, if if not higher 0:15:23.160 --> 0:15:28.440 than the first the first batch, but fewer resources available 0:15:28.440 --> 0:15:31.440 to them. Yeah, it's a weird name. So they apparently 0:15:31.640 --> 0:15:34.840 were considered to be more cynical, more bitter, yeah than 0:15:35.040 --> 0:15:39.480 the first batch of baby boomers. And then um, also 0:15:39.640 --> 0:15:43.200 their life experiences again like we're we're talking about earlier 0:15:43.280 --> 0:15:47.960 so different that um that there, it's just a different generation. 0:15:48.120 --> 0:15:51.280 Everybody's just being stubborn and wants Baby Boomers to be 0:15:51.320 --> 0:15:54.480 this twenty year generation rather than ten. Well, yeah, but 0:15:54.520 --> 0:15:56.680 you were talking about the the life events or whatever, 0:15:56.800 --> 0:16:01.400 the binding life events. Uh. These two writers, Howard Schumann 0:16:01.400 --> 0:16:04.120 and Jacqueline Scott in the mid eighties kind of did 0:16:04.120 --> 0:16:06.560 a little bit of research on what they feel like. 0:16:06.640 --> 0:16:09.680 Is that what people feel like is they're defining thing 0:16:09.840 --> 0:16:13.040 from their generation, and it is sharply divided. When you 0:16:13.040 --> 0:16:19.080 have the leading edge, you've got obviously uh JFK, Robert Kennedy, 0:16:19.160 --> 0:16:23.640 Martin Luther King, a lot of assassinations, the moonwalk, uh, 0:16:24.240 --> 0:16:27.360 Vietnam War, civil rights movement, and then the more cynical 0:16:28.160 --> 0:16:32.440 um shadow Boomers or or Jones is uh, you're talking 0:16:32.520 --> 0:16:35.760 Nixon and Watergate, the Cold War, the oil and bargo. 0:16:36.440 --> 0:16:39.560 It sort of makes sense. It's definitely too like those 0:16:39.600 --> 0:16:44.560 are two pretty starkly different sets of events. They yeah, 0:16:44.640 --> 0:16:47.200 they are. It's like almost a different world that happened, 0:16:47.200 --> 0:16:51.840 that took places along that change along that divide America 0:16:52.760 --> 0:16:57.200 switch gears in large party. And you asked earlier, if 0:16:57.200 --> 0:16:59.920 it always has to be a disaster. Yeah, I mean 0:17:00.040 --> 0:17:04.560 all of these basically are pretty glom and gloomy. I 0:17:04.560 --> 0:17:06.840 think the disaster unites though. That's probably a big thing 0:17:07.080 --> 0:17:09.760 that But also I think it leads to a loss 0:17:09.800 --> 0:17:13.120 of innocence, which happens in a personal level as well. Right, 0:17:13.160 --> 0:17:15.360 And that's kind of when you grow up, is when 0:17:15.359 --> 0:17:19.000 you realize, oh my god, everything isn't totally stable and 0:17:19.280 --> 0:17:21.720 my parents can't solve every problem in the world, and 0:17:22.200 --> 0:17:25.679 there's like real strife and hardship and injustice and and 0:17:25.680 --> 0:17:30.080 and bleakness. And when you realize that, suddenly say something 0:17:30.119 --> 0:17:33.840 like that this president you idolize being assassinated. It can 0:17:33.880 --> 0:17:39.280 it can have a real solidifying effect on your your life, 0:17:39.320 --> 0:17:42.680 your outlook. Yeah. First you mentioned the challenger for us, 0:17:43.840 --> 0:17:47.080 and I'm in no way like downgrading that, but for 0:17:47.160 --> 0:17:49.800 me personally, and it might have just been the way 0:17:49.840 --> 0:17:54.560 I received the news even it wasn't like, uh, I 0:17:54.560 --> 0:17:58.400 don't feel like it like was the big defining thing. Okay, 0:17:58.600 --> 0:18:00.480 it was obviously a big deal, But did you see 0:18:00.480 --> 0:18:02.720 it happen? No, I don't think I saw it happen live, 0:18:02.760 --> 0:18:07.760 which probably is a big factor. Um, but like Reagan 0:18:07.880 --> 0:18:10.879 being assassinated is rings more in my head, at least 0:18:10.920 --> 0:18:13.520 as a memory. I'm not saying it affected me as 0:18:13.640 --> 0:18:16.240 much personally, but like when I think back, like what 0:18:16.320 --> 0:18:18.919 big thing in the childhood happened on an international stage, 0:18:19.440 --> 0:18:21.560 Like I like remember where I was when Reagan was 0:18:21.560 --> 0:18:24.400 shot And I don't remember the Challenger as much, which 0:18:24.400 --> 0:18:26.680 is weird because it was later. Yeah, I was only 0:18:26.720 --> 0:18:29.120 like five when Reagan was shot. I don't have any 0:18:29.160 --> 0:18:32.159 memory of it whatsoever. Right, you didn't care. I didn't know. 0:18:32.200 --> 0:18:34.160 I was like, yeah, I didn't know it was going. 0:18:34.280 --> 0:18:37.040 Five year old didn't care. I guess not. You're playing 0:18:37.080 --> 0:18:40.280 with your g I Joe's that's right. But as the 0:18:40.359 --> 0:18:45.959 article points out, one thing that united all boomers was TV. Yeah. Okay, 0:18:46.000 --> 0:18:49.080 so if we're talking about how and we shouldn't we 0:18:49.119 --> 0:18:52.399 should give credence or um props. I guess to the 0:18:52.400 --> 0:18:54.920 guy who came up with the concept of generations. It 0:18:55.040 --> 0:18:58.399 was a sociologist named Carl Mannheim, and he wrote The 0:18:58.440 --> 0:19:04.840 Problem of Generations UM back in and basically said this 0:19:04.880 --> 0:19:07.600 is a thing. Now I'm called my Mannheim good night, 0:19:08.280 --> 0:19:11.560 And in it he says like I was saying before 0:19:11.680 --> 0:19:15.639 that the generation is is held together by the shared 0:19:15.720 --> 0:19:19.679 experience that they all go through together. Um, and up 0:19:19.760 --> 0:19:22.919 until television, I mean, you had radio, you had newspaper, 0:19:23.240 --> 0:19:25.720 you had a guy on horseback running around from town 0:19:25.760 --> 0:19:28.800 to town shouting news or whatever. But when with the 0:19:28.840 --> 0:19:32.000 invention of television, like now you have this really powerful 0:19:32.080 --> 0:19:35.560 way for people to share the same thing at the 0:19:35.600 --> 0:19:38.560 same time because they were getting the news in exactly 0:19:38.560 --> 0:19:42.520 the same way through television, where a generation really could 0:19:42.600 --> 0:19:46.440 be solidified and defined into an actual group that had 0:19:46.480 --> 0:19:49.880 a lot in common because of this event. Well yeah, 0:19:50.040 --> 0:19:53.680 not just news, but just culturally, like the first generation 0:19:53.760 --> 0:19:57.600 that sat around and watched TV shows, yeah, yeah, uh 0:19:57.640 --> 0:20:01.040 together like that. In music were like the two biggest 0:20:01.080 --> 0:20:04.119 things culturally. I mean you can I mean obviously you 0:20:04.119 --> 0:20:07.600 can talk about the Frisbees and hula hoops and Barbie 0:20:07.640 --> 0:20:11.040 dolls and stuff like that, but um, TV and music, 0:20:11.400 --> 0:20:13.960 like the birth of rock and roll in the birth 0:20:14.000 --> 0:20:18.120 of television are like the two hugest things for sure. Elvis, 0:20:18.160 --> 0:20:21.639 the Beatles, those were very much in the wheelhouse of 0:20:21.680 --> 0:20:25.720 the boomers. Yeah, so you've got those things, You've got 0:20:25.720 --> 0:20:27.959 the what they were, Like you were saying, you've got 0:20:28.000 --> 0:20:31.320 the fact that they can be shared easily by a 0:20:31.440 --> 0:20:33.920 number of far flung people all over the country of 0:20:34.000 --> 0:20:37.560 the same age. You got yourself a generation, buddy. Yeah. 0:20:37.600 --> 0:20:40.359 And then the final little piece there is the skepticism 0:20:40.400 --> 0:20:44.080 of that generation I think was a really big um 0:20:44.359 --> 0:20:49.480 uniting factor. Like Boomers were the people who said, don't 0:20:49.480 --> 0:20:52.920 trust anyone over thirty and the whole Nixon Watergate, the 0:20:53.000 --> 0:20:56.040 Vietnam War being played out every night on TV. It 0:20:56.119 --> 0:21:00.800 was like that led to like political revolution in this country. 0:21:00.920 --> 0:21:03.560 I think because of that skepticism. Yeah, but it's interesting. 0:21:03.920 --> 0:21:08.600 Rather than saying, like their generations of parents before them, well, 0:21:08.760 --> 0:21:11.240 this is just the way they things are, I can't 0:21:11.280 --> 0:21:14.879 do much about that. Um, this generation was among the 0:21:14.880 --> 0:21:18.760 first to say, no, we re reject this way of 0:21:18.800 --> 0:21:22.800 looking at things, and we seek to rebuild these institutions 0:21:22.800 --> 0:21:25.320 in a way that more reflect how we think the 0:21:25.320 --> 0:21:28.920 world should work. That's hug. That was a huge hallmark 0:21:29.000 --> 0:21:31.719 of the baby boomer generation. Yeah, it's weird though when 0:21:31.760 --> 0:21:35.240 you look at all this stuff, like they were the 0:21:35.280 --> 0:21:37.240 most selfless in a lot of ways, but also the 0:21:37.240 --> 0:21:39.560 most selfish generation in a lot of ways. Oh yeah. 0:21:39.680 --> 0:21:42.200 At the whole time, the whole eighties yuppy thing. Yeah, 0:21:42.200 --> 0:21:45.800 the me generation and the consumerism like was hand in 0:21:45.840 --> 0:21:49.320 hand with the birth of feminism, or maybe not birth, 0:21:49.359 --> 0:21:52.920 but at least rebirth of feminism and uh, the civil 0:21:53.000 --> 0:21:56.040 rights movement. Like it's really interesting that all those things 0:21:56.080 --> 0:21:59.160 like we're wrapped up in this one generation. Well similarly though, too, 0:21:59.200 --> 0:22:02.920 they were also very political and then a political depending 0:22:02.960 --> 0:22:05.399 on the decade. You know, like they were members of 0:22:06.200 --> 0:22:09.760 organized student groups in the late sixties, and then by 0:22:09.840 --> 0:22:12.520 you know, a decade later, they were all like doing 0:22:12.560 --> 0:22:15.040 coke and turning their back on politics while they were 0:22:15.280 --> 0:22:17.800 like disco dancing. You know, you're like, hey, money, that's 0:22:17.800 --> 0:22:19.520 actually kind of cool if you have it right. Yeah, 0:22:19.600 --> 0:22:22.240 it's it's it was like it was. They've gone through 0:22:22.359 --> 0:22:26.600 huge ships and and sociologists have run after them, studying 0:22:26.640 --> 0:22:31.640 them the whole time. Yeah, politically, it's sort of hard 0:22:31.680 --> 0:22:36.320 to lump the baby boomer generation politically because and I 0:22:36.359 --> 0:22:40.280 think this could probably said of most generations, but they're 0:22:40.280 --> 0:22:43.160 really hard to pin down. So this is an old survey, 0:22:43.200 --> 0:22:46.040 but in two thousand four, a RP didn't one that 0:22:46.800 --> 0:22:49.960 um found out that baby boomers supported abortion rights and 0:22:49.960 --> 0:22:54.920 gun control stem cell research, but they also uh supported 0:22:54.920 --> 0:23:00.080 the death penalty and being more conservative, uh fiscally and 0:23:01.560 --> 0:23:04.600 like sort of all over like all over the map politically. 0:23:04.840 --> 0:23:07.240 What's what's funny is I saw like there's a sexual 0:23:07.640 --> 0:23:10.320 sentence in this article. It's very difficult to pin boomers 0:23:10.359 --> 0:23:13.320 down as being either liberal or conservative. I went huh 0:23:13.440 --> 0:23:17.240 and tights into Google found immediately two fourteen gallop poll 0:23:17.280 --> 0:23:24.480 has said no percent conservative liberally of of baby boomers. 0:23:25.040 --> 0:23:31.680 Interesting self reported on a pole. So that's uh total. Yeah, 0:23:31.720 --> 0:23:34.600 so the other don't learn't The other rest were like 0:23:34.680 --> 0:23:37.200 if if you can remember the sixties, you weren't there. 0:23:38.040 --> 0:23:40.960 And the the polster was like a sero, I didn't 0:23:40.960 --> 0:23:46.879 ask you about the sixties. That's funny. Um. And we 0:23:46.920 --> 0:23:50.040 talked a little bit about consumerism. But that was also 0:23:50.080 --> 0:23:53.840 a really big uniting factor was this was the first 0:23:53.840 --> 0:23:58.720 generation that really went all in on saying it's okay 0:23:58.760 --> 0:24:01.480 to spend money on yourself. You don't have to feel 0:24:01.520 --> 0:24:05.920 bad about it. Uh. You know those previous generations were 0:24:06.119 --> 0:24:08.919 of the depression era, right, you know, you don't just 0:24:09.000 --> 0:24:11.359 do things like that. Don't throw that safety pin away. 0:24:11.400 --> 0:24:14.359 You can fix that. It's not And he saved as 0:24:14.400 --> 0:24:17.320 a penny earned, whereas the boomers were like a penny 0:24:17.359 --> 0:24:19.639 saved is when you could be spending on something cool. 0:24:21.600 --> 0:24:25.320 What's interesting is that it's it's come back again, like 0:24:25.359 --> 0:24:27.600 that level of thrifty nous. We're in the we're in 0:24:27.640 --> 0:24:31.400 the midst of right now. You think I didn't live 0:24:31.440 --> 0:24:36.680 through the depression, true, but I yeah, compared to even 0:24:36.800 --> 0:24:42.080 ten fifteen years ago, pre prerecession mentality, Uh, what we're 0:24:42.119 --> 0:24:46.359 in right now is definitely thrifty or interesting. Um yeah, 0:24:46.520 --> 0:24:50.359 and um yeah, same thing though great depression, great recession 0:24:51.000 --> 0:24:54.440 has a tendency to bring out the thrifty nous and people. Um. 0:24:54.640 --> 0:24:57.440