Who are the Baby Boomers?

[CuppaJoe]

I have a little pet peeve about the years used to denote "Baby Boomers." I was born in 1946, my dad was released from the Army on the very day I was born, after having been drafted for WWII. I feel more a part of the wartime babies generation for other reasons also: 1) my HS class (of 1964) drew from a particular geographic area (no one was bussed, if you went to public school, you had no choice), class size was 147. The size of graduating classes jumped to over 200 starting in 1966 with those born in 1948. 2) I was required to stay in a dorm my freshman year (1964) at college because: they had finished building preparations to accommodate the baby boomers two years early and needed to fill the rooms. We students protested! and what do you know the requirement was lifted for those students starting in 1966 (born in '48!

Some time ago I saw an article saying the boomers should be defined as being born from 1948-64 but I wonder what happen to that opinion? Not PC?

Anyway, my point of bringing this up is that my recent efforts to liquid some stock funds for retirement are only the tip of the iceberg. It will be interesting to see what happens to the market when the babies of '48 start liquidating.

 

[windsurf]

Why would we liquidate stocks? We're going to live forever (or at least another 50 years). M-I-C-K-E-Y . . . M-O-U . . . .

 

[MasterBlaster]

From Wikipedia:

A baby boomer is a person born between 1946 and 1960 in the United States. Following World War II, the United States experienced an unusual spike in birth rates, a phenomenon commonly known as the baby boom.

Definition and dates

United States

There is some disagreement as to the exact beginning and end dates of the baby boom, but the range most commonly accepted is as starting in 1946 and ending in 1964.[2][3][4] The problem with this definition is that this period may be too long for a cultural generation, even though it covers a time of increased births. If the gross number of births were the indicator, births began to decline from the peak in 1957 (4,300,000), but fluctuated or did not decline by much more than 40,000 (1959-1960) to 60,000 (1962-1963) until a sharp decline from 1960 (4,027,490) to 1965 (3,760,358). This makes 1964 a good year to mark the end of the baby boom in the U.S.[5]
In his book Boomer Nation, Steve Gillon states that the baby boom began in 1946 and ends in 1960, but he breaks Baby Boomers into two groups: Boomers, born between 1945 and 1957; and Shadow Boomers born between 1958 and 1964.[6] Further, in Marketing to Leading-Edge Baby Boomers, author Brent Green defines Leading-Edge Boomers as those born between 1946 and 1955. This group is a self-defining generational cohort or unit because its members all reached their late teen years during the height of the Vietnam War era, the defining historical event of this coming-of-age period. Green describes the second half of the demographic baby boom, born from the mid-1950s through the mid-1960s as either Trailing-Edge Boomers or Generation Jones. [7] In some cases the term Shadow Boomer is incorrectly applied to the children of the Baby Boomers; this group is more accurately referred to as Echo Boomers.
William Strauss and Neil Howe, in their book Generations, include those conceived by soldiers on leave during the war, putting the generation's birth years at 1943 to 1960. Howe and Strauss argue that people born between 1961 and 1964 have political and cultural patterns very different from those born between 1955 and 1960 and fit into what those writers term the Thirteenth Generation or Generation X (also known as the Cold War generation) born between 1961 and 1981.[8] The definition of boomers as born from 1943-1960 has become more accepted as the influence of Strauss and Howe has grown. There are others who put the dates at 1946 to 1963, because of the number of significant "Gen-X" figures born in 1964. There were over 79 million babies born during that generation.
It can be argued that the defining event of early Baby Boomers was the Vietnam War and the protest over the draft which ended in 1973. Since anyone born after 1955 was not subject to the draft, this argues for a ten-year range of 1946 to 1955 as defining the baby boomers. This would fit the thirtysomething demographic covered by the TV show of the same name which aired from 1987-1991. This would mean that those born in the years 1956 to 1965 would be Generation X and in the late 1980s would have been called "twenty somethings".[citation needed] The cultural disaffinities of those born after 1957 (thereby missing the draft and being too young to be part of the 1960s) could be captured by the Gen X of Douglas Coupland in his book Generation X: Tales for an Accelerated Culture. The term "X" has itself been transformed to cover a later cohort.

 

[CuppaJoe]

Why would we liquidate stocks? We're going to live forever (or at least another 50 years). M-I-C-K-E-Y . . . M-O-U . . . .

"Fame, we're gonna live forever!...."

That's it, of course, the boomers aren't going to retire because they're immortal. No problema. Now I really disassociate myself from them. I shall retire!

 

[chinaco]

Census Bureau indicates people born from 1946 - 1964 are boomers.

Most things I have read use 1964 as the upper limit. But then again, I have not done an extensive study on the subject.

US Census Press Releases

 

[kumquat]

Census Bureau indicates people born from 1946 - 1964 are boomers.

Seems about right if WWII has anything to do with it. My parents were married just before dad went overseas in 1939. They produced 6 kids starting in 1946 and the last in 1962.

 

[wildcat]

The ones that may liquidate some equity holdings probably have a comfortable retirement ahead of them and have adjusted their allocation slowly over time as they aged.

 

[farmerEd]

Sometimes I'm a boomer, sometimes I not...born in 1964..depends on who is defining it. Generally speaking I don't identify myself as a boomer not matter what the census bureau says.

 

[rocketdog]

What stock's will the boomers liquidate? I thought the boomers weren't saving anything towards their retirements

 

[GoodSense]

I know three guys born in the last couple of months of 1946, and they are all baby boomers by definition because they were conceived after their fathers returned from the war. So maybe the definition should start sometime in the summer-fall of 1946.

But what's wrong with being on the front of things? Sounds like you've already benefited quite a bit from not being a "real" boomer.

 

[unclemick]

Hmmm - screw the baby boomers - 1943 - coffee house's , beatniks, folk music:

And then and then - college girls, beer and Beach Boys. No hippies in 1964 - fringies was the moniker.

Now my little sister - 1948 - different story. I mean she even liked the Beattle's instead of Buddy Holly and Ricky Nelson.

Go figure!

heh heh heh - vacation was great, New Orleans is still there, a little banged up in some places still but still there. $3/pound for large scrimp in Slidell Seafood.

 

[CuppaJoe]

- 1943 -...
Now my little sister - 1948 - different story. I mean she even liked the Beattle's instead of Buddy Holly and Ricky Nelson.

Blasphemy!

 

[lazygood4nothinbum]

i only learned in the last year or two that i was part of the baby boomers. born in 1957, i always thought the baby boomers were much older than me. but then, with my peter pan complex, i think everyone is older than me.

 

[haha]

i only learned in the last year or two that i was part of the baby boomers. born in 1957, i always thought the baby boomers were much older than me.

I believe not only was 1957 a baby boom year, it was the absolute peak year for US births. Trailed off fairly steeply after '57.

Also 1957 was getting close to the last birth cohort that could grow up without even hearing of herpes or HIV, let alone catching one of them.

Ha

 

[MasterBlaster]

Ha:

It's close but I believe that the peak year was 1963. Eyeballing this chart anyway the drop off occured after 63'


< Number of births in the United States, 1934 to present >

 

[W2R]

Also 1957 was getting close to the last birth cohort that could grow up without even hearing of herpes or HIV, let alone catching one of them.

Is herpes a recent development, like HIV? For some reason, I thought it had been around since the sixties or before. Guess I learned something.

 

[Moemg]

[Is herpes a recent development, like HIV? For some reason, I thought it had been around since the sixties or before. Guess I learned something.[/quote]

It's been around since the sixties but it did not really start increasing until the late 70's according to the CDC .

 

[W2R]

[Is herpes a recent development, like HIV? For some reason, I thought it had been around since the sixties or before. Guess I learned something.

It's been around since the sixties but it did not really start increasing until the late 70's according to the CDC .[/quote]

Interesting! Thanks. I didn't know that.

 

[haha]

[Is herpes a recent development, like HIV? For some reason, I thought it had been around since the sixties or before. Guess I learned something.

It's been around since the sixties but it did not really start increasing until the late 70's according to the CDC .

The first time I ever heard of herpes was about 69 or 70. A girl was telling me how much her thingy stung during sex. (not sex with me I might add!)

I suggested she head over to the Free Clinic, they diagnosed herpes and she had never head of it before- although she was living hippie lifestyle in Venice Beach. I knew people who traded around gonorrhea like partners in a square dance, but none of them ever got herpes.

There is a great movie directed by Whit Stillman called Last Days of Disco. It is set in the early 80s, and features the lives of a bunch of socialite 20 somethings in NYC. One of the girls picks up herpes, and it stuns them all.

The movie was made much later- I think 1998, and it was odd to see herpes treated as such a big deal.

This is likely not everyone's type of movie, but those who like it really like it- used DVD copies start at $134 on Amazon.

Ha

 

[Moemg]

I just put The Last days Of disco on my Blockbuster list .

 

[al_bundy]

Ha:

It's close but I believe that the peak year was 1963. Eyeballing this chart anyway the drop off occured after 63'


< Number of births in the United States, 1934 to present >

going to look at this closer

i've had a theory that most recessions can be correlated to an increase in births because it causes people to stop spending on disposable stuff for a while. and that housing bubbles lag an increase in marriages by a few years. people get married, buy a home, buy junk for the home, causes demand for all kinds of things and commodities

 

[lazygood4nothinbum]

I believe not only was 1957 a baby boom year, it was the absolute peak year for US births. Trailed off fairly steeply after '57.

Also 1957 was getting close to the last birth cohort that could grow up without even hearing of herpes or HIV, let alone catching one of them.

Ha

no doubt about it ha. i've been lucky in so many ways and i don't take that for granted one bit. my older brother was last year of draft lottery. then by the time of the gulf war i was too old for the army to want me.

the sexual revolution predated me but then i was able to explore my own body & desires before aids & even herpes became such issues. i just popped out of mom's womb and slid safely home. i've had it made and i know it.

 

[Helena]

I just turned 55 so I am right smack in the middle
of the baby boom generation... two weeks after
my 55th birthday, I retired. I have no debt...
my home and car are paid off... and I have a
fun part time job... and no stocks.

Life is good.