Hi all,

      it amuses me the way that the so-called "baby boomers" keep
getting younger. I saw in the paper today that they were 37-57 years
old! (b. 1946-66). How silly is that? A 37 yo baby boomer who wasn't
even born in the 60's!

 Firstly, there was no post-war baby boom in Australia. Of course
there was an increase in the birthrate, but it was swamped by
immigration. There is no visible bump in the population demographic.
You can see the bump after WWI, you can see the dip during WWII, but
immigration swamps the increase after. In fact (despite the general
belief) there is no surge in people over 50, caused by the post-war
baby boom because there was no baby boom. That's the first thing to
get straight. The increase in the aged population is down to improved
medicine and nothing else.

 If anything, immigration (mostly adult) has caused a boom in the
aged over 65 (b. 1938 and earlier).

 In deciding how to define a 20-year "generation" the most important
thing is the economic and social conditions that exist when the
"generation" begins to form its opinions, work, marriage, and such.
Obviously, much of that flows from a major event like WWII, but not
just birth. In Australia, immigration had a larger effect, and the
attitudes of the older wartime generation (two wars, btw) towards
education, opportunity, home ownership etc formed baby-boom views.

 To me, the "baby boomers" were born 1938-58. The great period of
change in Australia began in the late fifties ('57, say), was complete
in the late 60's ('69, say) and ended in the late 70's ('77). By then,
inflation had control, the economy was stagnant, interest rates were
15%, Whitlam and Vietnam had come and gone, and drugs were no longer
fun - it was a new era.

 Which puts the "baby boomer" age at 45-65 and GenX 25-45.

 As a great philosopher once said: "You know it makes sense."
   

Regards,
Bob

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