Baby Boomers and the Mental Recession

by Brad Peck

It was reported yesterday in the Washington Times that former Texas Senator Phil Gramm, acting as John McCain's top economic adviser said he:

expects Mr. McCain to inherit a sluggish economy if he wins the presidency, weighed down above all by the conviction of many Americans that economic conditions are the worst in two or three decades and that America is in decline.

"You've heard of mental depression; this is a mental recession," he said, noting that growth has held up at about 1 percent despite all the publicity over losing jobs to India, China, illegal immigration, housing and credit problems and record oil prices. "We may have a recession; we haven't had one yet."

"We have sort of become a nation of whiners," he said. "You just hear this constant whining, complaining about a loss of competitiveness, America in decline" despite a major export boom that is the primary reason that growth continues in the economy, he said.

"We've never been more dominant; we've never had more natural advantages than we have today," he said. "We have benefited greatly" from the globalization of the economy in the last 30 years.

Mr. Gramm said the constant drubbing of the media on the economy's problems is one reason people have lost confidence." (h/t Mike Allen)

While I agree with Gramm that on many issues a disconnect between pessimistic perception and reality exists, I do not solely blame the media. Gramm added that "misery sells newspapers", but if demand drives supply lets look at who is demanding misery, which today's article "Baby Boomers Got the Blues - Viewing Life Through Morose-Colored Glasses" makes quite clear.

The baby boomers -- that prominent group of middle-agers whose massive numbers invite never-ending dissection and speculation -- have once again spoken. What they have said is, "Waaaaaahhh."

This is according to a social and demographic trends survey released recently by the Pew Research Center. The survey measured the pessimism, dissatisfaction and general curmudgeonliness of 2,413 adults in various generations.

The results validate any member of the Greatest Generation who ever looked at his or her offspring and sadly thought, "soft." Simply put, boomers are a bunch of . . . whiners.
...
A recent University of Chicago sociology study compared the results of happiness surveys going back more than 30 years and found that boomers have never been happy. In 2004, 28 percent of respondents born in 1950 considered themselves "very happy," compared with 40.2 percent of those born in 1935. Back in 1972, the figures for those same generations were 28.9 and 35.4.

A whole lifetime of whining.
...
Perpetually restless, utterly mysterious and so very multitudinous -- 76 million -- that the rest of us are doomed to study them, analyze them, wave shiny objects around for them. We write scores of books about them, with titles like "Age Power" and "Boomer Consumer: Ten New Rules for Marketing to America's Largest, Wealthiest and Most Influential Group."

It's all part of the frantic tap dance of figuring out how to raise boomers' tender and flagging happiness, when what we want to say is, BUCK UP ALREADY.

And if you can't buck up, Christopher Buckley had another suggested solution which he presented last year in Boomsday.

*Note: All rants against boomers exclude family, friends, members of the Chamber, friends of the Chamber, and anyone else who has any influence on my general livelihood, there are simply to many of you to anger en masse.