the Baby Boom
Generation evolution continues....
The baby boomer years are defined by those born between the post war year of 1946 and the year 1964. Just as this group defined the youth culture of the mid 1960's and onward, they will soon create a dramatic shift to a large population of senior citizens as they reach retirement age beginning in 2011. The baby boomer years span a period in which the world had come out of a massive war and a time of economic depression that had plagued the United States for many years before the war. With World War II ended and the main workforce returned home, the United States entered a period of prosperity, peace and optimism.
The baby boom which began in 1946 was a product of that optimism and sense of safety and financial security.
While the war in Korea interrupted the peace for a few years in the early fifties, it did not have the same impact as WWII and the prosperity and birthrate continued to remain high until after 1964. Families were often able to buy homes through the excellent rates and low down payments through the VHA and more homeowners than ever were raising families. Many also took advantage of the GI Bill to access higher education and enter better paid occupations.
The range of baby boomer years has been roughly divided into two parts. The earlier born group were those born from the beginning of the boom year through 1953 while the second group, also called “the Jones Generation” were born between 1954 and the end of the era. The so-called Jones Generation took its name from the writer who is believed to have come up with the baby boomer name, Landon Jones. A major difference in the two sections is that the first group of boomers were the majority of those who fought in Vietnam while the Jones Generation were mostly too young to be drafted or enlist.
Major social changes affected most of the baby boomers in their childhood and coming of age years. The civil rights movement became very strong and was ultimately effective in securing voting rights for African-Americans as well as the integration of public schools and facilities. The movement for equal rights for women also gained strength although the attempt to insert an equal rights amendment into the Constitution failed to pass. Baby boomers also saw the right to vote extended to eighteen year old citizens.
On the political front, the baby boomer years also saw the election of the first Roman Catholic president. The witnessed the “space race” with the Soviet Union as part of the Cold War of the democratic nations versus the communist nations. Three significant assassinations also occurred, those of President John F. Kennedy, of his brother and presidential candidate Robert Kennedy, and of civil rights leader Martin Luther King. The unprecedented activism against the war in Vietnam was also part of the baby boomer years.
As of 2011, baby boomers will begin to turn 65 and enter retirement age, being relabelled as “golden boomers.” As the baby boomers once accounted for 40% of the population being under the age of twenty in 1965, this influx of aging baby boomers will result in the number of senior citizens in the American population doubling over the next two decades.