We hear a lot about Boomers and Millennials, but not a lot about the other generations because they are less of them. A lot less. Boomers get their namesake from the never to be repeated baby boom after World War two. Millennials are typically the children of this generation.
The concept of indexing humans based on when they were born isn’t anything new, the sometimes banal labelling exercise has existed for many decades, but recently it’s become much more prevalent when attributing blame for various grievances.
So I thought I’d spend a morning covering the different generations and make some unpopular generalisations about them. Without tooting anyone’s horn, can we all agree that our family environment can fuck a person up massively.
The Silents (1928-1945) These people were born between a decade after the First World War and sometime during the second. It’s highly likely that as children growing up during this period they were affected by the grief of missing or dead family members and having experienced food shortages. They had direct contact with serious problems like death and starvation. Yet everyone agrees they almost never complained about anything.
Boomers (1946-1964) Born during the period immediately after World War II (hence the term Baby Boomer), Boomers are said to be the first generation to have a childhood mostly free of worry. It’s possible this has contributed to their optimism and innovating ways. Boomers are the wealthiest generation to have ever existed and presided over the single biggest increase in housing values. They are also the least generous preferring to spend their wealth on hedonistic pursuits like cruise ships.
GenX (1965-1980) Born during a period of free love and arguably the best music, it’s often said GenXers experienced somewhat inadequate parenting due to their working parents and high divorce rates. GenXers are often described as slackers and cynical. A considerably smaller generation than the previous they have somewhat benefitted from intergenerational wealth transfer and economic growth.
Millennials (1981-1996) Sometimes referred to as Echo Boomers because they are typically the children of the Boomer generation. Millennials grew up with the emerging Internet and relatively slow economic growth. Millennials are having fewer children than any other generation and have been linked to some of the hedonistic spending of their parents’ generation. Millennials are highly active on social media and have sophisticated strategies for venting their discomfort much to the annoyance of the previous two.
GenZ (1997-2012) Often referred to as Zoomers. Zoomers have grown up with easy access to portable digital devices, are less likely to be religious or spiritual, are more sceptical than their parents (typically GenXers) and are more likely to be diagnosed with intellectual disabilities and psychiatric disorders. They are considerably less sexually active, less creative and drink less alcohol.
Gen Alpha (2010s-2025) Born during a time of falling birth rates, the first generation to be educated with technology dominating the education space. In western countries (at least) this is the smallest generation. With high screen (computer) times some issues from the previous generation have been exacerbated. Generation alpha by the time they are adults will have to support the largest ever population of ageing people.
So what are the main themes that we’re hearing today?
Inequality.
I’m not going to pretend that I have undertaken academic-grade peer-reviewed research into inequality, or even comment on why it has become a hot topic with (strangely) the upper middle class.
What I can tell you is; by and large, things are better than they were 200 or more years ago, and vastly the same as they were yesterday. However, priorities and views change, the very rich have become richer. This is to be expected with a growth in population, GDP and Population are very much related. https://www.investopedia.com/terms/p/per-capita-gdp.asp .
I think it’s safe to say the quality and capability of healthcare has improved, but like any industry inundated with bureaucracy and risk, the costs have increased.
Access to information has improved greatly with further development of digital information sources and accessibility. There has been a great deal of awareness around domestic violence and women’s rights. The way in which governments conduct themselves, including immigration policies, military actions, elections all have improved through transparency afforded by social media platforms.
Access to credit and or funding via digital platforms has opened up investment to people and organisations who would not have been able to previously. Pollution in most Western democracies is at an all-time low. Social movements such as those drawing attention to animal cruelty and race issues have managed to get a great deal of attention.
But in every democracy, as people’s priorities change, government budgetary spending is redirected. Add to the mix the unpleasant fact there will always be people who want more than they need, people who get envious, and people who spend more they have.
Housing affordability.
I don’t subscribe to comparisons between ‘wages and average home values’ from yesteryear, although it’s popular with some lazy analysts and journalists. My issue arises from the fact it completely ignores the difference in markets, lifestyles, professions and priorities over the decades. It’s qualitative or quantitative, its just a false equivalence.
For instance, on our farm are two houses. One from the 1880s and one built in 2021. I could talk at length about the differences between each, and the priorities of the people who built them. However, the important difference is the modern home had to meet many more government regulations and market requirements. You know… Overhead.
As populations are drown toward major cities the cost of housing has sensibly increased due to nothing other than supply and demand. Some analysts have suggested that increasing bureaucratic process has made it less attractive for developers to build new houses. I would suggest a general lack of professionalism is to blame. Most construction firms that go bust do so from poor project planning and financial management in my experience. Here in Queensland we have a great deal of land ‘locked up’ from development due to a somewhat arbitrary Urban Footprint zoning regulations. The original idea was to protect farming land from sprawling housing developments. In reality most of these areas are not actively farmed due to economic unviability, yet completely accessible to miners or builders of wind and solar farms.
Cost of living.
In line with people’s priorities and market trends, demand fluctuates. The price of goods and services will go up and down with the whims of the market. When I was old enough to buy my first car, there were not many as many options. The purchase price back then did not guarantee any savings on the operation of the vehicle and the market favoured presentation foremost. Today you can purchase a 10 year old Japanese car that will, if you look after it, last another ten years. That is provided you don’t subscribe to status anxiety, the very driver for so many good cars being on the market. People in Australia won’t even keep their mobile phone handsets for more than one or two years before upgrading them. This is regardless of the fact that there have been no significant breakthroughs in technology built into new handsets in over a decade. There is an innate fear that they will be seen as less worthy simply because of the age of their accessory.
In Australia at least you can get free healthcare, or pay a modest amount for private health insurance (less than a car loan per month). Yet there is a lot of complacency with HealthCare, Aged Care and Disability Services in Australia. A quick look at the US equivalents’ accessibility for low income users should quell that. We have it pretty good, but it will get more expensive with our largest generation moving into aged care, and fewer people to pay taxes.
An area that has become much cheaper is entertainment. With the exception of live performances, streaming media services now allow exceptional value for money. It’s true to say some artists less income from their work compared to the good old days (for recording artists 1950-1990). Digital reproduction and distribution has fundamentally lowered the costs and controllability of the intellectual capital.
In Australia at least the fierce competition in the grocery and consumer products market and globalisation of the food supply chain has brought prices down relatively speaking. It’s also true to say Australia has a duopoly of supermarket chains, although I don’t think there is any evidence of collusion. The big pain points for households today is energy (specifically electricity) most home owners will have swapped out energy bills (OpEx) for solar panels (CapEx). Many now looking at further upgrades including house batteries, all with frightening short lifespans in order to pay for their capital investment. This could be put down to the fund managers and investors moving to renewable sources which have a higher cost for consumers. Renewable energy retailers know the majority of people do not know how to calculate TCO (Total cost of ownership). In that respect they are shockingly bad. But as long as Australians continue to ‘virtue signal’ to each other about their concern for minorities or their level of devotion to the new climate religion, expect higher prices.