Boomers Vs. Millennials : Who Had It Better?

“Only 24% of Baby Boomers are confident they will have enough savings to last throughout retirement, down from 36% in 2012.” (Frankel) This is the reason more Baby Boomers are working longer before retiring. At the same time the Millennials were growing up through the recession, acquired student loan debt and were entering a very competitive job market. Robin Lewis captured this reality through this quote. “This is a generation that is bigger than the boomers in population, but their wallets are smaller, and they are more into the style of life than the stuff of life.” This backs up a study conducted by Bank of America Merrill Lynch that shows “A whopping 82% of millennials are investing in a retirement savings account and 75% of the baby boom generation does so.” (Abrams) The main reason for this pattern is the Millennials are investing in retirement accounts at work many of which have matching programs and Baby Boomers are skitish of the market and losing more of thier retirement.

Baby boomers grew up in a generation that had high hopes for the future of their country. More people mean’t more education, higher levels of income and thus more buying and spending than any previous generations in history. It was in itself, a generational movement of people who believed they were

There are currently six living generations in the United States, each with different characteristics, beliefs, and values. The things that define each generation’s culture are derived from their history, upbringing, and the lifestyle of their time. Our generation was born between 1980 and 2000. We are called Millennials. More specifically, we grew up in the South, which typically lends itself to being more conservative and religious. These characteristics, along with our instant gratification attitude, define who we are, what we believe, and how we view other generations. For example, we might have differing views with the Silent Generation. Some Millennials may feel the Silent Generation’s social, religious, and economic conservatism is outdated.

Companies need new strategies to utilize the strengths of each employee. Once boomers do retire there will be a large void in the workforce since there is so many of them. This will create another change in business culture because younger people will be needed to fill those spots.

Generation Xers are often referred to as the Baby Bust generation. They were born 1965- 1976, now many Gen Xers find themselves having large amounts of responsibility. Having to take care of the now retiring Baby Boomer generation and the still young Millennia Generation. At this point they have all reached middle age and most are at the height of their professional careers. Gen Xers are the least represented generation, they are often looked over in regards to marketing and statistics. They are the demographic bridge between the more conservative Baby Boomers

North Americans born between 1945 and 1963 are all referred to as the Baby Boomers. During this time period or 75 million babies were born in the U.S alone. After WWII the birth rate in North America was on the rise. Growing Families created growing and expanding markets for new housing, automobiles as well as many other products such as toys, food and of course the wonderous television. Baby Boomers were the first generation in history to be raised in front of the television. The drastic increase in population completely changed the social and economic make-up of North America within a span of about eighteen years. But in the late seventies things began to change. Generation X accounts for those born between 1964 and 1981, these

A generation can be defined as the period, cohort or age of a group of people. Age is seen as the age that the persons were when particular transitions or events in life take place. Period can be defined as the overall experience of a person’s lifetime. Lastly, cohort can be seen as the overall grouping of people who have shared events during their formative years that more than likely contribute to like-minded behavior throughout the duration of their lives. There are currently four generations in United States society: Silent Generation, Baby Boomers, Generation X and The Millennials. The silent generation was born between the years of 1930 and 1945. Significant events during this time period include but are not limited to World War II and the Great Depression. The baby boomer generation was born between the years of 1946 and 1964. Significant events for this generation include the substantial growth of the middle class as well as economic prosperity. Generation X is born in the time period of 1965-1979, this generation was brought together by the big energy issue as well as the Vietnam War. Lastly the final generation that is currently in the workforce are the Millennials. This generation was born between the years 1980 and 2001, this group is brought together by the 9/11 terrorist attacks as well as the internet

Arlie Russel Hochschild adheres to a variety of assertions in his article, “Gen Fill in the Blank” concerning what he thinks a generation means. It was proposed that generations are solely branded by the pivotal impact they undergo as a cohort during historical events; hence, sharing a common response to those events. Hochschild furthers this idea by introducing generational identity and how that’s defined by the conceptions that society invokes upon a generation. Furthermore, he includes that an important factor making up modern day’s generation is the external burden of American Individualism; this universal pressure has robbed us of our ability to care and resulted in a profound deficiency of “cultural expression”.

Currently, there are five main generations. Traditionalists are the oldest generation, being born between 1900 and 1945. They only constitute 5% of the current workforce, as most have retired (Wiedmer 2015, 51). The baby boomers are the oldest and largest generation currently in the workforce (Wong et al. 2008, 878). This generation was born following World War II between 1945 and 1964, with approximately 76 million individuals (Wiedmer 2015, 52). Generation X was born from 1965 to 1981 and is also known as the baby busters because their birth rates are vastly lower than the baby boomers (Wiedmer 2015, 53). Generation Y, or the millennials, was born between 1982 and 1995 and grew up in a very different time compared to their predecessors, with

It is no surprise that our world and the people in it constantly change as time passes by. With new lifestyles, morals, technology, and many other changes, looking back on other generations and how the people lived might seem unusual. Two generations now that are living at the same time are the Baby Boomers and the Millennials. The Baby Boomers are people born from 1946 to 1964 in the post-World War II period. The Millennials are individuals born from 1977 to 2000. These dates are just approximate time periods of these generations because there are no precise years for these generations. The way these generations

They deplore the fact that a post-secondary education is no longer an automatic ticket to the perks of a middle class lifestyle. They also demonstrate distaste for institutions and labels, and feel that freedom of expression and liberation of self is fundamental for positive change. On that token, one of the most controversial topics of comparison between the Baby Boomers and the Millennials is that of work ethic. Boomers are often thought of as being hard-working and industrious. They often tie much of their self-worth directly to their professional achievements. They are often competitive which drives them to take on a host of professional responsibilities. This keeps them motivated and self-assured. Millennials have a tendency to want to start at the top, side-stepping the entry level positions and the upper rings of corporate ladder that Boomers dedicated decades of their time to

As the generation of babies born after World War II are known as the baby boomers, my generation will likely still be referred to as the millennials. This is due to many of us being born around the turn of the millennium. However, my generation was also the first to have modern technology interrogated into our academics, vehicles, and all other aspects of our personal lives.

Over the years of going through grade school I have seen different generations change and they way people go about things including myself. One of the things I have seen change that is huge is technology. After reading the Beliot list for college students in the class of 2018 I came across a couple of interesting points. The point that I do agree with is that I found was “celebrities selfies are cooler than autographs” and “Press pound” on the phone is now translated as “hit hashtag.” Seeing these points on the Beliot list I do agree with the things they say because most of these relate to our generation and how different things were back

The Millennial Generation, born between 1977 and 2000, are the children of Baby Boomers. Mark Bauerlein says, “The 18-year-old

According to recent research, Millennials (75.5 million) have edged out the Baby Boomers (74.9 million), who are retiring, as the fastest growing group in the United States, with Generation X lagging behind (66 million) (Fry, 2016). By the year 2020, Millennials will account for half of the workforce and their impact on the economic is contingent upon how the economy is doing at that time (Shin, 2015). The Education Testing Service found although Millennials are receiving more education than any other generational group, they may lose their competitive edge against international peers (Twaronite, 2015).