What makes the boomers the boomers

Boomers shouldn't leave those decisions to others; they should make them themselves. It's also wise to look into long-term care insurance and other alternatives to paying for care in advanced old age. This is especially useful for younger boomers, for whom it will be less expensive. United States Census Bureau. Federal Reserve Board. Open Market Operations. Internal Revenue Service. Social Security Administration. Ratio of Covered Workers to Beneficiaries. Accessed May 10, Social Security. Student Loans.

Your Privacy Rights. To change or withdraw your consent choices for Investopedia. At any time, you can update your settings through the "EU Privacy" link at the bottom of any page. These choices will be signaled globally to our partners and will not affect browsing data. We and our partners process data to: Actively scan device characteristics for identification.

I Accept Show Purposes. Your Money. Personal Finance. Your Practice. Popular Courses. Economy Economics. Table of Contents Expand. What Is a Baby Boomer? Understanding a Baby Boomer. Boomers' Retirement Is Different. A Retirement Fund Shortage? Prep for Retirement as a Boomer. Key Takeaways "Baby boomer" refers to a member of the demographically large generation born between the end of WWII and the mids. Because of their high numbers and the relative prosperity of the U. Today, baby boomers are reaching retirement age and face some key challenges, including funding their retirements.

The term "baby boomer" is derived from the boom in births that took place after the return of soldiers from WWII. Article Sources. Investopedia requires writers to use primary sources to support their work.

These include white papers, government data, original reporting, and interviews with industry experts. We also reference original research from other reputable publishers where appropriate. You can learn more about the standards we follow in producing accurate, unbiased content in our editorial policy.

Compare Accounts. The offers that appear in this table are from partnerships from which Investopedia receives compensation. This compensation may impact how and where listings appear. Investopedia does not include all offers available in the marketplace. Related Terms Baby Boomer Age Wave Theory Definition The baby boomer age wave theory says that the markets and consumer spending would decline once the baby-boom generation surpassed age Generation Gap: What You Should Know A generation gap is the differences in actions, beliefs, and tastes of members of younger generations versus older ones.

Boomer Effect Baby Boomer Factor Definition The boomer effect refers to the influence that the generational cluster born between and has on the economy and most markets. Generation X Gen X Generation X was born between the mids and the earlys, after baby boomers and before millennials. I hope people of all ages will greet digitization with open arms and optimism, but obviously not without a healthy dose of skepticism.

Networking is at the heart of the digital world and could contribute to a better level of understanding between young and old. And it would help us learn much more from older people and vice versa. The subsequent drop in birth rate as a result of the rise of the contraceptive pill among the baby boomers is exacerbating demographic change. This has resulted in a shortage of specialists and labor in all areas of the economy.

We young entrepreneurs and managers in particular are suffering from this as employers. Moreover, our country's pension plans are a huge disappointment for our generation and an attack on intergenerational justice, particularly in view of demographic changes.

The question of billions of funding for the "maternal pension" that's been proposed in Germany remains open. What can be done to increase employment rates and to mitigate the consequences of demographic change, as well as the pensions package? We need to look at options for flexible retirement. The statutory retirement age should be done away with. And working time law needs to be fundamentally reformed. We've inherited a lot of problems to do with CO2 in the atmosphere.

Climate change today presents us with a task — and how we manage this task will directly determine the opportunities available for future generations. That's why I'm fully committed to limiting climate change as much as possible. We will only succeed with a market-based climate policy in which politicians set clear targets for reducing emissions.

Other bans and regulations are unnecessary and provide false incentives. If we succeed in building a global emissions trading scheme with ambitious goals, which is as broad as possible for all economic sectors, I'm convinced we can limit global warming to an acceptable level. We have much to thank the previous generations for: no generation has grown up as carefree and with as many possibilities as ours.

However, it's come at a price: we've been left with a society that revolves around profit rather than sustainability, where material prosperity counts more than individual happiness.

My professional field, science, is set up for the short term: there are many temporary contracts, focusing on trendy topics. But this profit-focused society has left its mark everywhere. The environment is riddled with pesticides, exhaust gases, plastics, and much more.

People are stressed and it seems they would sooner pop pills than demand the time to live more healthily. Hardly anyone stops to breathe. We, all generations together, can define new goals and break out of this established cycle, that's exploiting human and environmental resources. Instead of sitting passively in front of the television and getting worked up about company bosses, we should all be taking responsibility and consuming both more sustainably and consciously. And we should be asking ourselves from time to time what actually makes us truly happy.

Living in the 21st century, teaching 19th-century style: this is what seems to be at the core of our schooling. I've tried myself to fend this off with learning methods that combine critical thinking and communication with creativity and teamwork, as well as the use of digital media.

My students shouldn't just be learning content and facts; they should be learning how to obtain new facts, how to share work effectively and efficiently, and how best to absorb and apply what they've learned. In this way, they develop openness, a willingness to learn, and also a certain degree of independence.

The teacher becomes more of a companion for learning and a moderator. My school is open to digital media and supports me in my creative work. I almost always use QR codes or get foreign-language authors, into the classroom via Skype. Yet, due to a lack of technical support, training, time, and security, few teachers can organize something like this on their own initiative.

On my page "Toller Unterricht" I publish lots of my ideas as well as tried and tested lesson plans, with materials included. Politicians have made promises to digitize schools. In addition to the lack of qualifications teachers have, there also seems to be a lack of equipment. I'm glad my school has some projectors and smartboards I can use for my lessons, but some don't even have Internet access.

Data protection is currently being taken to ridiculous extremes: new data protection regulation makes the use of private computers difficult, so some are being advised to use paper and pen.

This won't work within the frame of a digitization strategy for Germany in Therefore, comprehensive reform is needed. Only then can we equip all our students with the skills to prepare them for life and learning in the 21st century. The older generation has paid far too little attention to sustainable development. Sustainable development means empowering children to form their own opinions and encouraging them to act sustainably.

Sustainable development means the current generation is developing, not compromising the next generation, but actively considering it. Children haven't been sensitized to this at all. I think there's a very different tone in schools now. I get the sense that kids are becoming less and less respectful.

Manners are disappearing and, unfortunately, you rarely see a boy holding the door open for a girl. It's as if parents think schools are responsible for bringing children up. Some children are only interested in who has the latest, highest-end mobile.

The children who do not have a say in this are outside the picture — and I think that the generation above us is responsible for instilling different values. We've not inherited generational conflicts; we've inherited a toxic political style from the generation before us, which has dealt little with political change or shaping the future and has been more focused on how everything can remain as is. One only has to look at how Merkel's government dealt with a climate crisis and how it's always been ignored and fought against by one commission or another.

This political style has disappointed our generation and rightly so: it's clear to young people that a little isn't enough to answer the hard questions. For example, how can we still find well-paid and permanent jobs in 20 years' time in spite of digitalization?

As an activist for a united Europe, I'm always reminded of how much of the older ranks of conservative politicians fear change. While young people are almost unanimous in their commitment to a united Europe, the older generation is still resistant to it, although though the United States of Europe has been on the agenda of previous German political figures such as Franz Josef Strauss himself.

While old politicians are practicing against the left by remaining on the right, today's young people are already focusing more on the spirit of the European Parliament, namely by looking for solutions. In the 21st century, it is no longer about just having ideas, but about collaborating for a shared future. For example, the campaign FreeInterrail — a free Interrail ticket for all Europeans as soon as they turn 18 — was devised by the youth for the youth.

Ideas like these will secure our peace and cohesion in the long term. This post originally appeared on Business Insider Deutschland and has been translated from German.

For you. World globe An icon of the world globe, indicating different international options. Get the Insider App. Click here to learn more. I think there were a number of unusual influences, some of which won't be repeated, and some of which may have mutated over the years.

I think the major factor is that the boomers grew up in a time of uninterrupted prosperity. And so they simply took it for granted.

They assumed the economy would just grow three percent a year forever and that wages would go up every year and that there would always be a good job for everyone who wanted it. This was a fantasy and the result of a spoiled generation assuming things would be easy and that no sacrifices would have to be made in order to preserve prosperity for future generations.

They were born into great fortune and had a blast while they were on top. But what have they left behind? This is a generation that is dominated by feelings, not by facts.

The irony is that boomers criticize millennials for being snowflakes, for being too driven by feelings. But the boomers are the first big feelings generation.

And you can see this in their policies. Take this whole fantasy about trickle-down economics. The evidence is overwhelming. The experiment is over. I'll give you something abstract and something concrete. On a concrete level, their policies of under-investment and debt accumulation have made it very hard to deal with our most serious challenges going forward. In an impossible place. We'll have fewer and fewer resources to deal with these issues. And I actually think that over the next years, absent some major technological innovation like de-carbonization, which is speculative at this point, these actions will actually just kill people.

And of course there are many issues with voting rights. We need people in office with a different outlook, who see the world differently. I guess the big question is, can we recover from this?

Can we pay the bill the boomers left us? After or so, it will get really hard to do anything meaningful. In fact, I think the choices might become so difficult that even fairly good people will get wrapped up in short-term self-interest.