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Demographic Shifts in the United States

For more than 10 years after the birth of the Baby Boomers the United States experienced more than a  15% decrease in birth Rates

What this meant in gerontology was that in a “pay as you go” system like the Social Security system there were not going to be enough workers

·        Demographers called this the birth dirth which produced Generation X  (from Canadian author Douglas Coupland’s who described this generation as being excluded when they entered the workforce

·        When they graduated they found that the entry level positions had already been filled by their siblings and parents).

 

·        There were record level  of unemployment rates

·        (nearly 11% in late 1983) and low wages ( starting salaries compared with the depression of the 1930’s) eliminating their ability to participation in society. 

As one on the best educated groups in history the X generation looked at the economy and wondered how they would fit in. They became communicators who were extremely media centered.

• This group became the oldest segment of the population whose computer and internet habits led the way for what we now call the NET generation.

After 1976 there was again another birth explosion-- larger than the boomers.

Demographers call it the Echo Affect.

·        With an echo there is a lag period between the initial event and the witnessing of the echo and so it was with the birth of this generation.  

·        After the Boomers had aged some they started having children. In fact, Boomers in their 30’s and 40’s (and towards the end of the cycle 50’s) were becoming first-time parents.   Between 1977-1990- over 80 million babies were born.

·        We call them the Net Generation – and they cut their eye teen on the technology their siblings modeled for them. It seemed natural

Boom, Bust Echo