Boomer America was Weird
Boomer America was Weird
Stable, conformist, uniform, planned. Seems like a fluke span of America to me.
I occasionally get upset at how accepting people are about the conclusion that America is a culture on the decline. There are multiple versions of this argument, but the most common one is the sort of baby-boomer tinted perspective that goes something like this:
The kids these days don’t have a credential/degree in a field that is 100% sure to be a stable job forever like they used to.
The kids these days don’t seem to have a plan like they used to.
The kids these days aren’t buying houses like they used to.
The kids these days don’t value being normal like they used to.
…
Some boomers think this is because the kids these days lack character. Some boomers think it’s because corporations are more evil than they used to be. Other boomers think it’s China’s fault. None of the boomers consider that…the above list might be true but not be a problem at all.
If you gathered up a representative member from each generation of America since its inception, maybe only the Puritan would be raise the same type of alarmism at my generation. The Boomer generation existed at a pretty unique time in history, and it’s worth taking a look at how their situation shaped the values that our society is conventionally evaluated against.
A lot of this weirdness in boomer-times came from distortions in the economy caused by WWII, when employers offered wacky and creative “benefits” plans to employees because they were not allowed to raise wages. Pensions and work-granted health insurance are essentially ways of getting around loopholes so that employers could pay illegally high wages to retain and attract the best talent.
Never before in history, and probably never again, will the idea of bundling retirement savings with your job (e.g. a pension) make sense.
Never before in history, and probably never again, will the idea of health insurance being tied to someone’s job make sense.
Little talked about, the baby boomer generation was pretty irresponsible with money. They saved far less than my generation does and became addicted to debt.
Millennials and Gen Z save a higher percentage of their income than their parents or grandparents did at their age. And, despite being farther from retirement and the average boomer not being prepared for retirement, boomers are saving less as a percentage of income than Millennials and Gen X’ers for retirement.
Whereas now we have the standard choice between a 15 and a 30 year mortgage, before midcentury mortgage options were 3, 5, or in exceptional cases 10 years. Mortgages were extended so that more people could afford to borrow more money and build more homes. Debt, debt, debt.
Before the mid 20th century, the concept of college debt didn’t exist. Not only was college cheaper, but there were few if any institutionalized ways to attain a loan for college.
The boomers invented credit card debt and the leveraged buy out. Same vibe.
In boomer days, centralization solved the worlds problems
The UN held together the post WWII world. Alliances created peace.
Some of the most innovative businesses were really just “centralizations of X”. Visa was “centralization of payment processing” and was started out of a partnership between large banks.
Civil rights issues were advanced by the centralizing more power into the federal government.
Mergers, consolidation, and investments in efficiency ruled the business world.
The economy became far more regulated and credentialized than it had ever before. The ethos of “standardized mass production” (think suburbs, identical cars, etc) was applied to jobs. This probably made sense, given that the old hyper-localized informal credentials were not going to scale yet the internet was not available to improve transparency and trustworthiness between strangers yet.
More effort was put into “planning” a career.
As if to fit into this “planning” mindset, jobs like accountants, dental assistants, nurses, stock brokers, etc all had to get more formal certifications approved by national boards.
More hierarchies in management were created.
Before the 1950’s, resume’s were pretty much just a personal note listing descriptions of a person. After the 1950’s, resume’s became the commodity and the science they are today.
There was established a “national association of X” for every interest group and industry imaginable. This trend is now in exponential decay…
World progress seemed to be made by collective, top-down decision-making. Systems and associations and rules were king.
Unions were a vehicle to improve salaries and conditions.
The government built incredible things (interstates, space program).
The best corporations were huge and national.
Our Soviet rivals were doing even more central planning and for a while it looked like it was working.
What the baby boomers did worked for them, and I’m not here to criticize their values or what they achieved. I am here to say though that my generation is realizing that what worked for the boomers is not going to work for us. We need to undo a lot of it. We need to undo pensions (getting people on 401k’s is way better), undo credentialism, (probably) undo unions, undo career planning, undo 30-year mortgages, and PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE undo health insurance as a job benefit.
For a while, this might look like we’re moving backwards, especially if we use the report card favored by the boomer team. We shouldn’t feel constrained to this report card.
What my generation is able to do better than the boomers ever could is
Live sustainably (financially, environmentally, health wise)
Connect with each other, especially with people different from us
Solve problems as they come up, with vigor and excitement
Innovate and think super creatively
I really do think these traits are more American than what the boomers had going for them. It’s an exciting time to be alive.