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Baby boomers not all alike
Sun News/ Myrtlebeachonline ^ | 7/11/04 | Jeffrey Zaslow

Posted on 07/12/2004 9:38:33 AM PDT by qam1

1946, 1964 classes don't always agree........

There's a great distance between Barry Manilow and Barry Bonds.

Manilow, the singer, was born in 1946, the first year of the postwar baby boom. About 76 million births later, Bonds, the baseball slugger, became one of America's last boomers. That was in 1964, when demographers say the boom ended.

Typically, those born within that period are lumped together as the "baby boom generation," as if their values, beliefs and habits are unified. In fact, as the "late-wave boomers" turn 40 this year, it's clear that the classes of 1946 and 1964 are often very different, at times resulting in alienation and even finger-pointing.

John Dieffenbach, a 40-year-old attorney in Pleasantville, N.Y., says many of the oldest boomers are "a self-aggrandizing" bunch who treat him like an auxiliary member of their generation. "I'm part of their club but don't get the benefits." He doesn't get the "benefit" of nostalgia - being able to say he recalls when Kennedy was shot or the Beatles arrived in America. And people his age might not receive full Social Security benefits when they retire because the oldest boomers may strain the system.

The oldest boomers came of age at a time of affordable housing, easier acceptance to colleges and better job markets. The youngest boomers struggled through deeper recessions, crowded workplaces and, now, outsourced jobs.

Younger boomers also worry that in the next decade or so, their 401(k) values will fall as retired older boomers cash out of stocks.

"I share very little culturally with a 58-year-old," Dieffenbach says. In 1986, when the media declared "Boomer Generation Turns 40," he was just 22. In 1996, when newspaper articles celebrated "Boomers Turn 50" - counting the candles on their cakes (400,000 a day) and the cash spent on their birthday presents ($1 billion that year) - Dieffenbach was just 32.

"I'm waiting for the 'Baby Boomers are Dead' stories," he says, only half-jokingly.

This month, a new book, "Kill Your Idols," features essays in which rock critics who are young boomers and Generation Xers tear down allegedly classic boomer albums such as "Tommy" by The Who, released in 1969, and "Pet Sounds" by the Beach Boys, out in 1966.

"I grew up with the notion that I missed out on the greatest party ever because I wasn't at Woodstock," says the book's co-editor, Jim DeRogatis, born in 1964. "Well, I've seen the movie, and it's a stone-cold bore."

In his essay, DeRogatis slices up The Beatles' "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band." He mocks one of the 1967 album's songs, "Fixing a Hole," which he says embodies the myopia and self-centeredness of older boomers: "It really doesn't matter/If I'm wrong I'm right/Where I belong I'm right."

The song reminds DeRogatis of two boomers born in 1946: Bill Clinton and George W. Bush. In his autobiography, "Clinton takes 957 pages to say he really didn't do anything wrong," DeRogatis says, while President Bush "still won't say he was wrong" about Iraq's alleged weapons of mass destruction.

Dennis Peterson and his daughter, Dee Ann Haibeck, are boomer bookends, born Jan. 1, 1946, and Oct. 28, 1964. Peterson of Bellevue, Wash., says people from his era "opened the door for a lot of discussions America hadn't been having" - about such divisive matters as race, women's rights, the Vietnam War. He says those of his daughter's era "didn't have the testosterone to get involved in social issues. I don't think they had our sense of responsibility."

Haibeck feels some of her dad's hippie contemporaries "changed our culture for the worse" by making society too liberal.

Dieffenbach has a suspicion about why he and others born in the early 1960s are counted in the boomer generation. As the oldest boomers continue to lobby for power and their legacy, they think there's strength in numbers, he says. "They're just using us to increase their volume.'


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Extended News
KEYWORDS: aginghippies; babyboomers; generationjones
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To: glock rocks
okay.

Reagan won most of the demos by margins and a won majority of the popular vote.

Clinton won two demos specifically by margins, with a minority of the popular vote.

Also both Senior groups represent slightly different era's being 8 years apart.
341 posted on 07/12/2004 5:21:00 PM PDT by CyberCowboy777 (Veritas vos liberabit)
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To: CyberCowboy777
If my generation causes damage to the culture then I accept blame on the generation.

Why is that so difficult to do for you boomers?

Are you asking us to assume guilt for what a group did? I know I've observed many a freeper boomer rail about the cultural nonsense that led to many of our current problems. That doesn't mean we participated in it by happening to be born in that generation.

The problem on threads like this is some can't discuss specifics without then castigating a whole group of innocents.

342 posted on 07/12/2004 5:23:55 PM PDT by cyncooper ("We will fear no evil...And we will prevail")
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To: glock rocks

She can have mine! I'll either die first or get my husband's.........LOL.

You're officially OFF the hook!


343 posted on 07/12/2004 5:24:43 PM PDT by Howlin (John Kerry & John Edwards: Political Malpractice)
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To: Mo1

Exactly


344 posted on 07/12/2004 5:24:47 PM PDT by cyncooper ("We will fear no evil...And we will prevail")
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To: CyberCowboy777
Who here is willing to accept responsibility for their generation?

LOL!

Why should someONE "accept responsibility for their generation".

Absurd.

345 posted on 07/12/2004 5:26:53 PM PDT by cyncooper ("We will fear no evil...And we will prevail")
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To: Gingersnap

The sexual revolution has gone out of orbit.


346 posted on 07/12/2004 5:28:48 PM PDT by Old Professer (Interests in common are commonly abused.)
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To: wtc911; nmh
1970 Voting Rights Act was the lowering of the voting age to 18.

In 1964 only the first year of the considered "boom" (1946) was old enough to vote.

76 million people born between 1946 and 1964 and I know the Birth rates peaked at the year 1957. Not knowing the number for 1946 we could divide the number by the 18 years of the boom to get 4.2 million Baby Boomer votes in 1964.

LBJ won the Pop. Vote: 42,825,463 (60.6%).

The Boomer did not have enough votes to swing the election one way or another, even if you included another 4.2M for 1945.

347 posted on 07/12/2004 5:33:41 PM PDT by CyberCowboy777 (Veritas vos liberabit)
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To: cyncooper
Are you stating that a generation cannot be responsible for an impact on the society?

My generation will be responsible for an impact on the society, that does not mean I am personally responsible.

348 posted on 07/12/2004 5:36:40 PM PDT by CyberCowboy777 (Veritas vos liberabit)
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To: Warren_Piece
Discussing TRENDS does not equate expressing anger. Don't take it so personal!

LOL!

I'm sorry, but by your above-it-all approach sounds so silly.

Carry on.

349 posted on 07/12/2004 5:44:02 PM PDT by cyncooper ("We will fear no evil...And we will prevail")
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To: Miss Marple
I don't like to see generational warfare fomented here. It is counterproductive

It's bizarre. It is better to discuss phenomenon such as certain cultural movements and events and determine the decade or era that they occurred and the preceding events that may have set the stage and the fallout of same.

But those who deny that nobody is being attacked are misguided (if not deliberately fomenting discord).

350 posted on 07/12/2004 5:48:44 PM PDT by cyncooper ("We will fear no evil...And we will prevail")
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To: Warren_Piece
And I like the way Howe and Strauss divided the 'X' generation into 'Atari' and 'Nintendo' X-ers. I turn 40 next month, and certainly have very little in common with early boomers; however, the same could be said of my my tatooed and pierced brethren in the Nintendo wave of the 13th gen.

I can accept that explaination, I would be a member of the "Atari X'ers." I just turned 38 last week on the 8th so yeah, I do see that division there. For the most part, i feel I have very little in common with the later X'ers too.
351 posted on 07/12/2004 5:54:24 PM PDT by Nowhere Man ("Laws are the spider webs through which the big bugs fly past and the little ones get caught.")
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To: Brad's Gramma
Who you calling "Kid"? I'm a grandmother and a baby boomer and I don't think the "Greatest Generation" is a sacred cow no matter how many blue hairs they have.

Futhermore, my children are Gen-Xers, and it's their generation that's fighting the war on terror, and maybe it's high time we started cutting these "Kids" some slack.

They don't have the same future to look forward to, that the "greatest generation" had. So if anyone is falling down on the job, perhaps it's due to a self-congratulatory and self-aggrandizing generation that bailed-out when the check came due while they were busy patting themselves on the back.

352 posted on 07/12/2004 5:55:41 PM PDT by GVnana
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To: CyberCowboy777
Are you stating that a generation cannot be responsible for an impact on the society?

I think events that occur and those that participate in them and those that try to counteract them impact society.

It is best to discuss the specific events and decades in a historical context rather than berate a whole group based on their age.

353 posted on 07/12/2004 5:56:01 PM PDT by cyncooper ("We will fear no evil...And we will prevail")
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To: GVgirl; Brad's Gramma
They don't have the same future to look forward to, that the "greatest generation" had.

Absolutely correct. They have potential ten-fold over the blue haired crowd. They'll pee it away at their own peril. Perhaps a few of them listened to someone who'd been around, someone with character, someone in whom they had trust.

Perhaps not.

354 posted on 07/12/2004 6:09:31 PM PDT by glock rocks (I want to be herd !!)
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To: Glenn
Ping list for the >discussion excoriation of the politics and social aspects that directly effects Gen-Reagan/Generation-X (Those born from 1965-1981) including of all the spending previous generations (i.e. The Baby Boomers) are doing that Gen-X and Y will end up paying for.

So we are suppose to happily pay for all your goodies and not complain at all? Gee I wonder why people say Baby Boomers are selfish.

Stop whining, X'er. It's getting you nowhere but bitter. When you reach my tax bracket, you might have a clue.

I'm not bitter, As  Forbes calls us “ the most entrepreneurial generation in American history.” and we are the ones who ushered in the Information Age so despite what you Baby Boomers like to believe my Generation already has a good legacy, As for your generation, well the baby boomers have already secured their place as the most selfish and worst generation in American history. 100 years from now when you and I are both gone and Gen Z+4 is still paying off the debt you ran up do you really think history is going to look kindly on the baby boomers?

355 posted on 07/12/2004 6:18:21 PM PDT by qam1 (Tommy Thompson is a Fat-tubby, Fascist)
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To: CyberCowboy777; All

I wonder if you could find any demographic info on the people born from 1946 - 1964 and how many kids the people had during these years. What I'm trying to find out is if there were more kids born to the front end boomers as opposed to the end ones, or is it just about equal?

For instance, did the people born in 1946-1956 have more kids later on than the ones from 1956 - 1964? It's just something I've been wondering about. If you know where to find such info, I thank you in advance.


356 posted on 07/12/2004 6:23:57 PM PDT by vikingchick
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To: vikingchick
This may help

I believe the later Boomers who gave birth to Gen-Ys had more kids than early Boomers. The Peak Birth years of Gen-Y are the late 1980's which was probably the end of child bearing for the Hippy early Boomers.

357 posted on 07/12/2004 6:36:42 PM PDT by qam1 (Tommy Thompson is a Fat-tubby, Fascist)
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To: qam1
"we are the ones who ushered in the Information Age"


Lets see, Alan Turing did his work in the 30's, stored program computers and the transistor were invented in the 40's, and the IC and the basics of computer science were invented in the 50's. The 60's saw large scale transistorization, the fundamental theory of packet switching, and the invention of hypertext, the 70's the invention of the microprocessor and arpanet,and the 80's the Internet and the widespread availability of personal computers. In the 90's it all came together and GenXers started writing web pages. Ergo, GenXers singlehandedly ushered in the Information Age. NOT.

Given the number of dot-com companies that collapsed, I think all they should really take credit for is the invention of "vaporware" and the worlds largest reservoir of hubris.
358 posted on 07/12/2004 6:56:23 PM PDT by beef ("Blessed are the geeks, for they shall inherit the earth.")
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To: CyberCowboy777
1970 Voting Rights Act was the lowering of the voting age to 18. In 1964 only the first year of the considered "boom" (1946) was old enough to vote.

______________________________________________________

Um, a little basic math (very basic)....1946 plus 21 = 1967. With us so far?

In 1964 absolutely no boomers were 21, the legal voting age at the time. The first election year when any boomers were old enough to vote (21) was 1968 and then it was only those born before November 1947, not very many no matter how you look at it.

359 posted on 07/12/2004 7:11:23 PM PDT by wtc911 (moderate islam is the swamp where evil festers)
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To: beef
In the 90's it all came together.......

Fueled by boomer capital.

360 posted on 07/12/2004 7:15:22 PM PDT by wtc911 (moderate islam is the swamp where evil festers)
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