Baby
Boomers Defined
Most of us have heard of
baby boomers. Many of us are baby
boomers. Few of us have a grasp of the
impact baby boomers have on American Culture.
Buckle up your seatbelts, here come the details.
Following World War II, the United
States experienced a greatly elevated birth rate, adding on average 4.24
million new babies to the population every year between 1946 and 1964.
This generation of
"baby boomers" was the result of a strong postwar economy, in which
Americans felt confident they would be able to support a larger number of
children. Boomers also influenced the economy as a core marketing demographic
for products tied to their age group, from toys to records.
Constituting as much as 40%
of the American population today, baby boomers have exerted a strong pull-on
American culture at large, particularly during the social movements of the
1960s.
Like many industrialized
Western nations, in the early twentieth century the United States was
experiencing a gradual decline in its birthrate. As more Americans moved off
the farm and into the city, having a large family slowly transformed from a
good labor investment to a poor
economic choice.
Consequently, during the Great Depression, the American birthrate fell to its lowest
point yet, to just 18.4 live births per thousand population.
World War II, however, had a
profound effect on the American birth rate, which skyrocketed in a stunning and
unexpected reversal of the prewar decline. A combination of factors produced
this baby boom: soldiers returning home from the war were weary of adventure
and wished to settle down into family life with their sweethearts, and GI Bill
benefits promised the decent pay, access to good jobs, and affordable housing
that made raising a family possible. After more than fifteen years of economic
uncertainty, things were finally looking up in the United States, and everyone
was determined to make the most of it.
Babies, babies, and
more babies
World War II had vast
repercussions not only on world politics but also on the American family.
Couples rushed to wed and conceive children before soldiers shipped out--in
part due to the romance and urgency of wartime, in part due to the extra pay
soldiers received if they had families to support. The spike in marriages was even larger after
the war, as returning soldiers tied the knot. 2.2 million couples married in
1946, a new record that would stand until the 1970s.
With this record number of
unions came a record number of babies. The first stirrings of the baby boom
became evident as early as 1942, when the historically low birth rates of the
Great Depression began to turn around with the birth of "furlough
babies" (babies occasioned by a military person being granted a leave of
absence.) during World War II. It wasn't until nine
months after the war's end, however, that the boom began in earnest: before
demobilization only about 200,000 babies were born in the United States per
month, but by the end of 1946 that figure had increased to nearly 350,000
babies. 20% more babies were born in 1946 (23.3/1000) than in 1945 (26.5). By
1947, the number of live births per thousand population jumped to 26.6.
But the baby boom wasn't
just a quick spike in births after the end of World War II. The elevated
American fertility rate continued for another 18 years. On average, 4.24
million babies were born per year between 1946 and 1964, when birth rates
finally began to decline again. In 1964, the 76.4 million babies born during
the baby boom generation constituted a whopping 40% of the US population, which
was then about 192 million.
Postwar domesticity
and its economic benefits
Why did the birth rate rise
so suddenly and remain elevated for so long? Both men and women had access to
relatively reliable forms of birth control, so for the most part couples were
making a conscious decision to have more children. The World War II generation,
in fact, was the most marriage- and family-oriented in US history: 96.4% of
women and 94.1% of men in this cohort got married, and at a younger age than
their forebears. They also had more children, sooner after marriage and spaced
closer together, than earlier generations.
Historians and demographers
have pointed out several possible reasons for this increased devotion to
domesticity and child-rearing after the war, from government propaganda
extolling the virtues of apple-pie American life during the war to a yearning
for the security offered by "normal" family life during an era when
fear of the atomic bomb pervaded society. One thing is certain: these high
fertility rates closely correlate with a period of unprecedented economic
prosperity, as well as optimism that the prosperity would last. After years of
barely getting by during the Great Depression and enduring shortages and
rationing during the war, Americans finally could afford to have a lot of
children, so they did.
The baby boom was not only a
result of the healthy economy but also a major contributor to it. An enormous
generation of babies became an enormous generation of children, teenagers,
young adults, adults, and (more recently) seniors. As the baby boomers aged,
manufacturers and advertisers targeted this gigantic demographic. As babies,
the boomers
invigorated the market for
toys, candy, and washing machines. As children, their proliferation drove the
construction of new schools and suburbs. As teenagers, they dominated the
popular culture of the 1950s and 1960s, buying clothing and records.
As adults, they gave birth
to an "echo boom" generation of children, a smaller but still
significant generation of kids born between 1976 and 2001. A period of marked increase in the birth
rate resulting from children born in a previous baby boom themselves becoming
parents; specifically, that between the late 1970s and early 1990s, when
children of the post-Second World War baby boom became parents.
.
Significance of the
baby boom
The generation born in the
twenty years following World War II has been a defining force in the twentieth
and twenty-first centuries. Coming of age in the 1960s and 1970s, they were on
the forefront of social change in those decades, including the later stages of
the Civil Rights Movement, the protests of the Vietnam War, and the second wave
of the feminist movement. It might even be said that those movements gained
momentum because of the sheer size of the baby boomer generation, whose shared
concerns and life experiences as an age cohort exerted an influence on American
culture proportional to their numbers.
The unusual size of the baby
boomer generation has not had universally positive effects. Like a "pig in
a python," as many demographers have characterized the group, the boomer
generation has stretched and transformed American society as its members have
moved through life. Today, the baby boomers still number about 76 million, as
immigrants of approximately the same age have made up for American-born boomers
who emigrated or passed away.
As they age, the ratio of
retired Americans compared to working Americans will increase significantly,
placing considerable strain on Social Security, hospitals, and other government
agencies designed to ai
the elderly. The Census
Bureau estimates that by 2030 one in five Americans will be over the age of 65.
Furthermore, as the US birth rate is currently at an all-time low of just 12.5
live births per thousand population, by 2056 Americans aged 65 or older will
outnumber those under the age of 18. What
effect this aging population will have on US society remains to be seen.
There is no question that
the baby boom generation has had an amazing impact on American culture and will
continue to do so. The implications of
the baby boomers now moving into retirement in droves creates real social and
economic challenges for the healthcare industry. As stated earlier no one on earth has any idea
how will it be possible to pay for Social Security and Medicare as the baby
boom generation retires.
Jan Ricks Jennings
Senior Consultant
Senior Management
Services, LLC
JanJenningsBlog@Blogspot.com
724.733.0509 Office
412.913.0636 Cell
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