osenton - boomer destiny; leading the u.s. through the worst crisis since the great depression (2009)

BOOMER DESTINY:
LEADING THE U.S.
THROUGH THE
WORST CRISIS
SINCE THE GREAT
DEPRESSION
Tom Osenton
BOOMER DESTINY:
LEADING THE U.S.
THROUGH THE
WORST CRISIS
SINCE THE GREAT
DEPRESSION
Tom Osenton
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Osenton, Tom.
Boomer destiny : leading the U.S. through the worst crisis since the Great Depression /
To m Osenton.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-313-35604-9 (alk. paper)
1. Financial crises—United States. 2. United States—Economic conditions—21st century.
3. Baby boom generation—United States—Economic conditions. I. Title.
HB3722.O84 2009
330.973’092—dc22 2008045516
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data is available.
Copyright © 2009 by Tom Osenton
All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be
reproduced, by any process or technique, without the
express written consent of the publisher.

Library of Congress Catalog Card Number:
ISBN: 978–0–313–35604–9
ISSN: 2008045516
First published in 2009
Praeger Publishers, 88 Post Road West, Westport, CT 06881
An imprint of Greenwood Publishing Group, Inc.
www.praeger.com
Printed in the United States of America
The paper used in this book complies with the
Permanent Paper Standard issued by the National
Information Standards Organization (Z39.48–1984).
10 987654321
To Curran and Matt—my own Gen Xer
and Millennial—who inspire me to want
to make a difference every day.
Contents
Introduction vii
1. A Legacy Not Yet Written 1
2. Repeating Cycles in American History 21
3. The Gathering Storm 37
4. Boomer Spring: 1946 to 1964 57
5. Boomer Summer: 1965 to 1984 71
6. Boomer Autumn: 1985 to 2004 87
7. Boomer Winter: The Next American Crisis—2005 to 2024 107
8. The New New Deal 123
9. Rising to the Occasion 141
10. The Boomer Grid 161
11. Boomers’ Will 177
12. Boomer Legacy 189

Notes 193
Index 203
Introduction
Life grants nothing to us mortals without hard work.
—Horace
As I was finishing this book during the summer of 2008, I honestly felt as
though I was drafting an early-warning about a looming secular crisis some-
where out there on a three to six year timeline. Virtually all of the social and
economic components that I researched—the sub-prime mortgage
crisis, the oil shocks of 2005 and beyond, the Dow’s unsustainable ride to
14000, the further maturation of an already mature U.S. economy—sug-
gested that the underlying fundamentals of the patient’s health were
indeed NOT strong.
Like a comprehensive history and physical performed by the good folks
at the Mayo Clinic or Massachusetts General or Johns Hopkins, all the
symptoms were there foretelling a difficult stretch ahead. What surprised
and unnerved me most was the speed at which conditions metastasized.
Suddenly, instead of writing about a future crisis, I was writing about a
here-and-now crisis. That’s the bad news. The good news—if there is
any—may very well lay in the fact that if the crisis arrived faster, we may
pass through it faster. Like the cold and dark days of winter, the faster we
get through them, the faster we get on to the hopeful spring thaw.
Over the course of about a year while writing this book, I experienced at
least four power outages due to a variety of natural and unnatural reasons
that simply stopped me dead in my tracks. One particular severe thunder-
storm knocked out electrical power for two days in the neighborhood.
Although that might not sound like much of a hardship, the experience
reminded me just how dependent we are on electricity as a resource central
to our lives. After just four hours without power, I was essentially transported

back to 1860, lacking all of the modern conveniences that we take for
granted today. As dusk approached and my batteries ran out, I was unable
to use my laptop, my cell phone, my Kindle, or my iPod. I was unable to
call anyone, email anyone, text anyone, or use instant messaging (IM) to
contact anyone.
As the sun went down, I lit candles and realized that I couldn’t cook dinner
with my electric stove or microwave, and besides, almost everything in the
refrigerator was already ruined. No television, no movies, no music—just
candle light, books, pen and paper. All that was missing was the log cabin.
By Day 2, I started to realize just how much we rely on electricity, how
much we take it for granted, how angry we get when it goes out, and how
angry we get when we call the power company demanding to know exactly
when power will be restored. In my house, I couldn’t even make that call
because the telephone runs on electricity. And now I was beginning to
smell, because I couldn’t take a shower: the hot water heater ran on—yes—
electricity. Even driving downtown to get coffee and a bagel was not an
option because the stores didn’t have power either. Life as I knew it had
stopped—just as in the sci-fi cult classic The Day the Earth Stood Still when
a flying saucer lands in Washington, D.C., and neutralizes all electricity.
That scared me as a 10-year old, but it scares me even more now.
When the electricity finally came back on after more than 48 hours, the
first thing I did was take a shower. Then I cleaned out the refrigerator
before getting back to work on the computer, something that many of us
rely on every day for work and play.
What became clear to me during those 48 hours was that we live each
day incredibly close to the edge of a world that is very different from the
one in which we grew up. This is a world of shortages, not excesses; a world
of limited choices, not unlimited choices. A world of less, not more. In the
words of cartoonist Walt Kelly’s comic strip character Pogo: “We have seen
the enemy and he is us.” That comic strip ran almost 40 years ago and it’s

still true today. Now it is up to us to change that to help save the American
Dream—not for us, but for our children and grandchildren.
Why I Wrote This Book
My last book, The Death of Demand, explored the growth of the American
corporation over the second half of the twentieth century. Although some
looked at it as a doomsday book, others saw it for what it was—an aca-
viii Introduction
demic study of growth rates and the impact on a corporation’s initiatives
when growth rates begin to slow, as they have for all corporations that
were around just after WWII. It was a study of the advent of reengineer-
ing or cost-cutting—activities that didn’t even exist in the 1950s, 1960s,
and 1970s during which time America’s corporate infrastructure was built
up in large part because of the arrival of 76 million baby boomers. It was
a study of the deconstruction of the infrastructure of America’s blue chip
and blue hair corporations.
After reading William Strauss and Neil Howe’s groundbreaking work
Generations: The History of America’s Future, I realized that the economic
downturn for companies such as General Motors has not only been com-
ing for a long time, but is part of a repeating cycle of American history
that goes back to the very beginning. Suddenly, my last book made much
more sense. History tell us that America experiences a major crisis every
80 years, and with a mature economy that is made up of mature sectors,
mature industries, and mature corporations, it is rapidly approaching the
eightieth anniversary of the day that marked the beginning if the last
American crisis—Black Tuesday,October 29, 1929. The Revolutionary
War was followed 80 years later by the Civil War, itself followed 80 years
later by the Great Depression and World War II. Now as we approach
80 years since Black Tuesday and face an array of challenges never before
matched in American history, it becomes our responsibility to prepare
for the coming crisis of the new millennium. So the sociologically bent

Boomer Destiny was born as a natural extension to the economically bent
The Death of Demand.
The Baby Boom generation has yet to distinguish itself as more than just
the self-centered, materialistic consumers that they have come to be per-
ceived as. Yet like FDR’s Missionary Generation—the senior leaders of the
last American crisis—Boomers, led by Boomer President Obama, have a
chance to write an entirely new ending to the legacy they will leave over the
next 10 to 15 years as the senior leaders of the coming American crisis.
One last reason that I wrote this book - I care deeply about the world we
will be leaving to our children and grandchildren. It doesn’t look anything
like the world we entered, and the prospect of being the first generation in
American history to leave the country in worse shape than we found it
should frankly shame all of us into action. We have been called as a gener-
ation to save the American Dream—not for us but for our kids; and there
is no greater gift that we can possibly give them.
Introduction ix
A Few Words to Historians and Sociologists
I must express my sincere appreciation to the gurus of generations—the late
William Strauss and the very generous Neil Howe. It was upon their theses
that this book was built, and without them, this book never could have
been written.
Second, there are different schools of thought on the precise definition
of generations—many of which were coined by Strauss and Howe—and
the time span that identify each. Sociologists and historians, for example,
might define the Boomers as those born between 1943 and 1960, although
pop culture says the Boomers were born from 1946 to 1964.
Because the essence of this book does not turn on a generation’s precise
date of birth, I have taken the liberty to standardize the time-definition
of generations into neat 20-year spans. These 20-year spans also roughly
coincide with the duration of each of Straus and Howe’s social turnings.

For example, FDR’s Missionary Generation was born from 1865 to 1884
which coincides with the 20-year First Turning high of the Great Power
Cycle. Dwight Eisenhower’s Lost Generation was born roughly from
1885 to 1904 which coincides with the Second Turning awakening of the
Great Power Cycle. JFK’s GI Generation was born roughly from 1905 to
1924 which coincides with the Third Turning unraveling of the Great
Power cycle. And John McCain’s Silent Generation was born roughly
from 1925 to 1944, which coincides with the Fourth Turning crisis of the
Great Power cycle. Those were the four generations born during the
Great Power cycle. Boomer Barack Obama, on the other hand, was part
of a generation that was born at the beginning of a new cycle—during
the First Turning high of the Millennial cycle. The following are the nine
American generations that are widely discussed in this book, along with
their date of birth and the specific turning during which those births
occurred:
•Missionary Generation—born 1865 to 1884—High
•Lost Generation—born 1885 to 1904—Awakening
• GI Generation—born 1905 to 1924—Unraveling
•Silent Generation—born 1925 to 1945—Crisis
•Boomer Generation—born 1946 to 1964—High
•Gen X Generation—born 1965 to 1984—Awakening
•Millennial Generation—born 1985 to 2004—Unraveling
•New Silent Generation—born 2005 to 2024—Crisis
•New Boomer Generation—born 2025 to 2044—High
x Introduction
Please understand that I mean no disrespect of the nuances of the study of
sociology or history or of generations. But this standardization seemed like
the best method for me to tell my story.
One of the difficulties in writing a book about the U.S. government is that
you need to be equipped with a calculator that adds, subtracts, multiplies,

and divides in at least the tens of trillions. That’s 13 zeroes. A trillion looks
like this: $1,000,000,000,000. And after writing this book, I wondered if you
become desensitized to large numbers if you work for the U.S. government,
because now when I look at $1,000,000,000—one billion dollars—it doesn’t
look that huge anymore.
Lastly, I have offered up some suggestions in the latter part of the book
not as definitive solutions but more as thought starters for all Americans to
ponder as we seek to fix the great country that we all love. My objective is
to encourage us to look at old problems in new ways—for example, the
suggestion for a Boomer Resource Grid that I detail in Chapter 10. This is
simply an idea designed to demonstrate the potential power of a genera-
tion and how—with a little organization and creativity—the Boomer gen-
eration can make a huge impact on the world it leaves behind.
Boomer Destiny was written as an appeal—a manifesto—for the gener-
ations now alive in America. I hope you enjoy the book, and I would
welcome any questions or ideas that you might want to share. Just send me
an email at and I’ll gladly reply.
Acknowledgments
I first want to thank the amazing Miss Em. It would be impossible for me
to thank you enough, Emilie, for all you’ve done to make my life better.
Thank you also from the bottom of my heart for helping me think through
and shape the book that I wanted to write. Without your help, it never
would have gotten done. Thank you so much, Em, for all that you do.
My sincere thanks to John McCabe for his time and keen eye and writing
expertise at each step in the process. Thank you so much, John.
Enormous thanks to my editor Jeff Olson who has an incredible eye and
a great sense of the world in which we live. Jeff, thank you for helping me
to make this book better in every way.
Thank you to all my Millennial students who taught me much over the
last three years.

Finally, to the late Don Murray, who helped me so much in the early
stages of thinking through this book: nulla dies sine linea.
Introduction xi
Chapter 1
A Legacy Not
Yet Written
Life is a series of collisions with the future; it is not the sum of what we have been,
but what we yearn to be.
—Jose Ortega y Gasset
Winning the election was not nearly as difficult as the task that lay ahead
for the newly elected president of the United States. The laundry list of
challenges was daunting, exacerbated by the prior administration’s lack of
urgency and action. A flagging economy, unemployment, an uneven distri-
bution of wealth, the threat of bombings on Wall Street, immigration
concerns, millions living beyond their means, a crumbling infrastructure,
natural disasters, and weakening aggregate demand—all of it happening
on the heels of a decade of prosperity.
Although this may sound like the agenda for a newly elected Barack
Obama in 2009, these were the challenges of the day for a newly elected
Franklin Delano Roosevelt (FDR), as he stood on the steps of the U.S.
Capitol and was sworn in as the 36th president on March 4, 1933. He had
just turned 51 years old, and he already knew what he was getting himself
into. After all, he had been governor of the state of New York when the
stock market crashed in 1929; when the Depression picked up speed, his
state was particularly hard hit. The new chief executive was no stranger to
tough times; taking over the reigns from Herbert Hoover in mid-Depression
was no big deal for the optimistic FDR.
But sometimes it takes a little more than just a “rah-rah” attitude and a lit-
tle elbow grease to turn a nation around. Make no mistake about it—FDR’s

“can-do” attitude helped serve as the glue to rally a nation. But it also took a
great deal of time, patience, resources, hard work, and luck, as well as the will-
ingness of multiple generations of Americans to adjust their expectations and
attitudes and to sacrifice selflessly by working together for the common good.
Standing there on that cold and overcast Saturday morning in 1933,
did FDR fully comprehend the enormity of the challenge that lay
ahead? More than 13 million Americans were out of work. Many of the
nation’s banks were closed. More than three years after the crash of
1929, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was still down more than 80
percent from pre-crash levels. A deepening depression would drag on
through his first two terms. As chief executive, he would live through
Pearl Harbor, D-Day, and the Battle of the Bulge yet would never per-
sonally experience U.S. victories on V-E or V-J Day. How could he have
known, while listening to Hail to the Chief for the very first time as pres-
ident, that, in just a little more than a decade, he would have conquered
the vast majority of the challenges that were before him only to die at
the age of 63?
This is FDR’s legacy as well as that of his peers of the Missionary
Generation—mostly born in the years immediately following the Civil
War. It was the destiny of the Missionary Generation to serve as the wise
senior advisors to the mid-lifers of General Eisenhower’s Lost Generation,
who, in turn, served as the managers of the young adults of Lieutenant
Kennedy’s GI Generation. These three generations of Americans worked
together to overcome the last prolonged crisis in American history. For 16
long years, through a deep depression and a world war, Americans pulled
together to overcome long odds and unimaginable suffering.
It was Albert Schweitzer who said, “One truth stands firm. All that
happens in world history rests on something spiritual. If the spiritual is
strong, it creates world history. If it is weak, it suffers world history.”
Something quite spiritual happened in the years following Black Tuesday

and the Wall Street Crash of 1929. Three different generations of Americans
teamed up to muscle through the most challenging times since the Civil
War. It was a bitter and painful time for America, but the country pre-
vailed. “If we had no winter, the spring would not be so pleasant,” wrote
seventeenth-century American poet Anne Bradstreet.“If we did not some-
times taste of adversity, prosperity would not be so welcome.”
Just about 80 years ago, America was served up a heaping helping of
adversity: a Wall Street crash that triggered the Depression, a 1937 reces-
sion that slowed the recovery, and then a four-year World War. Yet even
with 16 years of uncertainty and self-sacrifice, the United States eventually
made its way through a very long, very cold winter and onto a new and
prosperous spring of hope. And, when it did, it welcomed the arrival of an
entirely new generation of Americans. Baby boomers, or Boomers—the
largest generation in American history—ushered in a new seasonal cycle,
2 Boomer Destiny
and life in America was good. But, as with all seasonal cycles, spring doesn’t
last forever. And neither does summer or autumn.
Déjà Vu All Over Again
As the first decade of the twenty-first century draws to a close, the United
States finds itself in uncertain times once again, facing many of the same
challenges that FDR faced in the 1930s and 1940s. The economy is weak-
ening, with record budget deficits and skyrocketing national debt. The
working class is underpaid, underinsured (healthcare), underfunded
(retirement), and overextended (credit). Services such as public schools,
hospitals, and police and fire departments are all overstressed by budget
cuts and the legal and illegal inflow of immigrants. Add to the equation the
threat of domestic and international terrorism, as well as the ever-present
possibility of a natural disaster, and America today is arguably facing a
challenge that is at least equal to if not greater than the threat that existed
in the years leading up to the Great Depression (see Table 1.1).

Certainly the United States has always had its share of challenges,
regardless of the era. But the current alignment of significant socioeco-
nomic challenges has never been greater or capable of adversely affecting
so many. These challenges may not result in a Depression, but the problems
that they create certainly will require the cooperation of several genera-
tions of Americans and more than just a few years to fix.
During the 1930s and 1940s, America slogged its way through a double-
barreled crisis that included financial disaster and a world war. Once
again, America finds itself in the same precarious position it experiences
every 80 years or so—on the brink of crisis. Increasing unemployment, a
pull-back in consumer spending, a costly war, a mature economy, weaken-
ing demand, and the slowest GDP growth since the 1930s all add up to an
inevitable period of pain and adjustment.
During the 1930s and 1940s, there was high awareness of and sensitivity to
the overconsumption of natural resources. Because most Americans did not
yet own an automobile, demand and consumption of gasoline were not
major issues. But by 2000, unbridled postwar commercial success brought the
United States to the edge of saturation. When there are 40 million more reg-
istered vehicles than licensed drivers in the United States, it is difficult to sell
cars—even with employee discounts. When the percentage of U.S. homeown-
ers is relatively flat for decades because of responsible lending standards, it
takes irresponsible lending standards to increase the universe of homeowners.
After pushing the edge of the envelope for more and more growth, the United
A Legacy Not Yet Written 3
States arrived at a very dangerous destination—one that negatively impacted
the economy as much as it did the environment.
During the 1930s and 1940s, immigration was a significant issue in the
United States. National origins quotas greatly restricted immigrants from
entering the United States and, in some cases, banned entire nationalities,
such as the Chinese, from entering at all. Legislation from the late 1920s

effectively ended the mass migration that had been common in the
nineteenth century. In the 1990s and 2000s, immigration is once again a
central issue, but this time the focus is on the growing number of immi-
grants living in the United States illegally—either by overstaying their orig-
inal legal entry or by crossing the border illegally.
The alignment of a host of once-a-century social and economic challenges
has been quietly forming over the last quarter century. And, even though
4 Boomer Destiny
TABLE 1.1. Constellation of Contraction
What was will be again. The times may change but the issues remain
the same
Issue 1930s and 1940s 1990s and 2000s
The Economy Depression Slowest GDP Growth
Since Depression
The Environment Over-Consumption of Global Warming
Natural Resources
WarWorld War II Iraq War (5 Years and
(3 Years 8 Months) Counting)
Trade Protectionism/ Trade Deficit
Collapse of Intl. Trade
Working Stagnant Stagnant
Class Wages
Federal Budget Deficits from Record Deficits
1931–1946 from 2003–2009
National Debt Increased 15-Fold Tripled from
from 1929 to 1945 1990 to 2007
Healthcare National Health 47 Million Without
Insurance Defeated Healthcare Coverage
Housing Lack of Affordable Sub-Prime Mortgage
Housing Bubble

Security Anarchists Bomb Terrorists Attacks of 9/11
Wall Street
Immigration National Origins 20 Million Undocumented
Quota Workers
Wildcards Dust Bowl, Drought, Great Hurricane Katrina,
Okeechobee Hurricane Fires, Floods
there has always been an ambitious agenda of issues facing the United States
at almost any point in its nearly 235-year history, there have certainly been
those rare moments when a unique convergence of challenges is so concur-
rently significant that it simply causes the dam to burst.
The last American crisis was filled with dramatic events, such as the rare
attack of the U.S. mainland, a Wall Street crash, and a long and painful war
that ended with the use of nuclear weapons. Now America again faces a
daunting list of challenges that are fundamentally not that much different
than those of 80 years ago. America prevailed in 1945 and lived to see
another spring—one of the greatest in U.S. history—and it will prevail
again. But now, as then, the United States must endure a winter season that
will challenge multiple generations and beg for truly inspirational new lead-
ership with the guts to make difficult decisions at the risk of popularity.
Gone however, are FDR’s Missionary Generation, Ike’s Lost Generation,
and most of JFK’s GI Generation—the triumvirate that helped the United
States through the last American crisis. Instead, a new line-up of genera-
tions has formed—one that has the aging Silent Generation (born
1925–1944) moving out of the role as senior leaders and into its senior
years. Moving into the role as senior leaders of American society over the
next 20 years will be the largest, most written-about, most marketed-to
generation of all time: the baby boomers.
The timing is such that Barack Obama’s Boomers are becoming senior
leaders of American society at the beginning of an American crisis—just
as Benjamin Franklin did as a member of the Awakening Generation

through the crisis of the American Revolution, as Abraham Lincoln did as
a member of the Transcendental Generation through the crisis of the Civil
War,
1
and as FDR did as a member of the Missionary Generation through
the last American crisis—the Great Depression and World War II. Those
are big shoes to fill and big issues to conquer. Besides being the largest and
most conspicuously consuming generation of all time, who are the
Boomers? Are they up to the task of leading the country through the next
American crisis?
Boomer Bio
We have heard the basic statistics a thousand times: 76 million Boomers
were born during an 18-year period from 1946 to 1964—the largest
generation in American history (although the Millennial generation, born
from 1985 to 2004, came quite close in size). But no generation comes close
to the prolific output of American women on an annual basis: in 1957—the
A Legacy Not Yet Written 5
peak birthing year for Boomers—4.3 million Boomers were born during a
time when the U.S. population was only 150 million. Now, more than
50 years later, it is still the case that U.S. women have never birthed 4.3 mil-
lion babies in one year—even with a total population at more than 300
million, more than twice that of the late 1950s.
2
Boomers were the first generation in history to gain notoriety as children
because of the sheer size of the generation. Historically, it has taken time
and experience for a generation to make its mark. The GI Generation—the
generation that Tom Brokaw calls the Greatest Generation—made its mark
as the rising adults who fought and died during World War II. This was the
generation of young people who, returned to the United States after so
much time and suffering, and started to turn out “victory babies” in record

numbers.
In the 18 years prior to 1946, the number of live births in the United
States averaged 2,687,000 per year. In the 18 years following World
War II, that average jumped to 4,215,000 births per year, or an addi-
tional 1,500,000 babies per year until 1964. That amounts to an incre-
mental 27 million Americans added to the U.S. population from 1946 to
1964,
3
or nearly one-half the size of all of Generation X, born from 1965
to 1984.
So the Boomer Generation was first known for its size. Second, it was
known for the economic opportunity that its size created. And, later in life,
when Boomers joined the labor force, no other generation could spend like
the Boomers—quite possibly as a means of self-remuneration as the self-
centered, narcissistic generation that happily traded quality of life hours for
standard of living hours—in building what they deemed a “better” life.
Constellation of Expansion
In the years immediately following World War II, a unique alignment of
conditions and events provided a recipe for dynamic economic growth in
the United States. First, three generations of Americans who had sacrificed
so much for so long—through a depression and a world war—could
finally get on with their lives. At last, FDR’s generation had done its part in
managing Eisenhower’s generation, which, in turn, pulled the strings of the
obedient grunts from JFK’s generation. These generational cohorts were
spent, and, when their pent-up demand was finally unleashed after the war,
it didn’t take much to spark a new wave of expansion in the United
States—the first since the Roaring Twenties.
6 Boomer Destiny
Second, the birth of more than 76 million Boomer babies created new
demands for basic food, clothing, and shelter. Birthed alongside the Boomers

was the American Dream—with the help of the GI Bill, which provided low-
interest loans to cover college tuition, new homes, and new cars.
Third, with the war effort behind them, Americans turned their
innovative juices to the development of dozens of new household goods
and appliances—all designed to make life a little easier for the postwar
American family.
The arrival of Boomers created the single largest demographic segment
in history—a real boon for marketers such as David Ogilvy (Ogilvy &
Mather) and Bill Bernbach (Doyle Dane & Bernbach), who opened their
ad shops in 1948 and 1949, respectively, and made Boomers the most
marketed-to generation in history. And that pursuit of trillions in discre-
tionary dollars from this massive balloon of consumers continues today, as
the Boomers march through time toward retirement. From manufacturers
of medications for erectile dysfunction and osteoporosis to retirement
community developers and cruise line operators, Boomers still represent
an enormous opportunity for marketers.
As soon as GIs returned stateside in late 1945, maternity wards across
the United States started to swell. The country was euphoric. A photo of an
unidentified sailor kissing an unidentified girl in the middle of Times
Square captured the spirit of the times on the cover of LIFE Magazine.Even
pregnant moms got into the act by painting the message “Kilroy was here”
on their bursting bellies as they were wheeled into the delivery room. The
boys were home—and with them came a recipe for explosive growth that
had been bottled up in Europe or the South Pacific for nearly a generation.
The 1950s and 1960s ushered in more new consumer product categories
than any other time in U.S. history. The parade of images and pitches were
all designed to take advantage of the sudden upsurge in demand. For whiter
teeth, there was Pepsodent toothpaste (“You’ll wonder where the yellow
went”). For a cleaner feeling, there was Dial soap (“People who like people
like Dial”). You could fill up your new Chevy at your local Texaco station

(“You can trust your car to the man who wears the star”). Those pesky
insects spoiling your weekend get Raid insecticide (“Kills bugs dead”). If
you had a hankering for green beans, there was Green Giant vegetables (“In
the valley of the Jolly Ho Ho Ho Green Giant”). When you had too much
of those green beans, well, then there’s Alka-Seltzer antacid (“Plop plop, fizz
fizz, oh what a relief it is”). When you’ve failed at scrubbing out stains in
your shirts, it’s time for Wisk detergent (“Ring around the collar”).
A Legacy Not Yet Written 7
Literally hundreds of new products and new product categories that
never existed before were introduced during the Boomer birth years. And,
if spreading the word about a new product was a problem, it wasn’t a
problem for long in postwar America. The arrival of network television in
1949 provided the final piece of the puzzle that helped create a remarkable
growth anomaly over the second half of the twentieth century. The great-
est mass marketing tool of all time provided marketers with instantaneous
access to millions of hungry Americans with a powerful appetite for
consumption. For the first time ever, local television stations across the
country aligned with one of the three New York-based television networks
in order to transmit a common signal to millions of households across the
nation.
This unique combination of events and conditions helped hundreds of
companies—such as Procter & Gamble, General Foods, and Kellogg—
successfully pitch their products to millions of American families, right in
the comfort of their own living rooms. As a result, an American economy
that had been idling for more than 20 years finally gained momentum,
thanks in large part to the arrival of the Boomers (see Fig. 1.1).
“The times, they were a changin’” and the U.S. economy was just one
measure of that change. Real Gross Domestic Product (GDP) grew by
more than two-and-a-half times over the course of the 20 years immedi-
ately following World War II (1946–1966): from $1.5 trillion in 1946 to

close to $3.9 trillion in 1966.
4
The postwar expansion was on, and for
growth the sky was the limit.
Raised by Mom . . . and Dr. Spock
Boomers largely grew up in one-income households—with mom at home
and dad at work—characterized by American author Philip Wylie as The
8 Boomer Destiny
+
Pent-
up
demand
4 Million
GIs return
home —
unleashes years
of pent-up
demand
New
demand
76 Million
baby-boomers
create
immediate new
demand
New
products
Dozens
of new
products/new

product
categories
Network
television
Most
powerful
mass-marketing
tool in
history
Greatest
period
of GDP
growth in
U.S. history
+
+=
FIGURE 1.1. Constellation of Expansion
Conditions for growth were ideal from 1946–1964.
Sons and Daughters of Mom in his 1971 book of the same title. Predominantly
engaged in the full-time career of raising children and making a home,
many Boomer moms were guided by the philosophies of pediatrician
Benjamin Spock.
Dr. Spock’s 1946 book The Common Sense Book of Baby and Child Care
was timed perfectly with the very beginning of the baby boom and was an
attempt to counterbalance many of the rigid traditions of conventional
pediatrics of years gone by. Dr. Spock’s essential appeal to new mothers—
and there were record numbers of them—was more like advice from an
old friend rather than a definitive rulebook on appropriate child-rearing.
“Trust yourself,” said Spock, whose book was second only to the Bible
in sales. “You know more than you think you do.”

5
The controversial
Spock was viewed by many GI dads as too liberal. But GI moms had a dif-
ferent take on the theories of the good doctor. GI dads looked at Spock as
soft on discipline, which helped create a “good cop, bad cop” scenario in
many Boomer households. When mom was forced to, however, she could
use the threat of dad to keep Boomers in line until dinner time: “Just wait
until your father comes home” was a common refrain in the 1950s, 1960s,
and 1970s. It was this dynamic that helped shape an entire generation of
independent thinkers who often questioned authority—seeing in their
fathers, as well as their mothers, what they didn’t want to become when
they grew up.
Spock’s philosophy emphasized the individual and the need for flexibility
in raising children. This liberal and tolerant focus on self-actualization
encouraged mothers not to worry too much about spoiling the child.
Labeled by many of his critics as “the father of permissiveness,” Spock later
reflected that his original intent was to emphasize mutual respect between
mother and child, not just one-way respect from mother to child. In the 1998
edition of Baby Care, Spock addressed the issue, saying that the parents may
have misinterpreted the original intent of his message: “Parents began to be
afraid to impose upon the child in any way,” explained Spock.
6
By 1998, the youngest Boomers were already approaching the age of 35, so,
if mom had misinterpreted Spock’s intent, it was way too late to do anything
about it. The die had been cast on the most indulged generation in American
history. The extent of Benjamin Spock’s role in that indulgence will forever be
debated—but what can’t be debated is this: in the span of just one generation,
parenting habits and behaviors radically changed and resulted in the hard-
wiring of a new generation of American children who would behave like no
other in history.

A Legacy Not Yet Written 9
Wanting for Nothing
If there ever was a period in recent American history when mothers had
the time and the luxury of practicing a more patient and liberal means
of child-rearing, it was during the 20 years following World War II.
Those born during an economic expansion were simply parented differ-
ently than those born when times were tough. Parents of children born
during good times rarely worried about basic needs; instead, they were
more focused on ensuring that their children received a great education,
as well as helping them adapt socially. But children born during an eco-
nomic contraction often had to fend for themselves for very basic needs.
During the Great Depression, thousands of young people wrote directly
to the First Lady—Eleanor Roosevelt—telling their personal stories of
desperation and asking for money, clothing, and even bicycles so that
they could more easily get back and forth to work. A 16-year-old Mass-
achusetts girl sent an appeal for some money to help make payments on
the family’s refrigerator:
Nov. 30, 1937
Springfield, Mass
Dear Mrs. Roosevelt,
I am a girl sixteen years old. Last May I beg [sic] my father to buy an electric
refrigerator for mother on Mother’s day. We had talked about buying one
with her. She thought it was not a very wise thing to do, because we could not
afford to pay cash. I wanted it so very bad [sic] that my father bought it. He
agreed to pay monthly payments of seven dollars and twenty two cents. What
mother had said proved to be right. For two weeks after we bought the
refrigerator I took sick with a serious kidney ailment which confined me to
my bed from May twenty until Nov. twenty-second. I am just recovering
from a delicate operation. I came home from the hospital Nov. eighth and
my father was layed [sic] off after working for the railroad fifteen years. Many

a girl of my age is hoping that on Christmas morn they will find a wrist
watch, a handbag, or even a fur coat. But my one and only wish is to have
father and mother spend a happy Christmas. Mrs. Roosevelt I am asking of
you a favor which can make this wish come true. I am asking you to keep up
our payments until my father gets back to work as a Christmas gift to me.
Though father worked part time for quite a while we never lost anything for
the lack of payments. If the refrigerator was taken away from us father and
mother would think it a disgrace.
10 Boomer Destiny
I close hoping with all my heart that my letter will be considered. Mrs.
Roosevelt you may rest assure [sic] that I have learnt [sic] my lesson.
I am respectfully yours
J.B.
Springfield, Mass
7
The childhood of most Boomers bore little resemblance to J.B.’s. Boomers
may have been the first generation of Americans who did not wake up each
morning painfully aware of how little they actually had. Boomers grew up in
a fully equipped house, with all of the now-standard appliances—washers,
dryers, telephones, televisions, toasters, record players, and a car in the
garage. They were the first generation in American history to wake up early
every Saturday morning to watch cartoons, while eating sugary cereals in a
safe and secure environment of plenty. For Boomers, Leave It to Beaver was
more than a popular television show—it was truly art imitating life.
On the other hand, many of the parents of Boomers—and certainly
the grandparents of Boomers—grew up at a time and in conditions that
required great sacrifice. The most basic needs, such as food, clothing,
shelter, and safety, were, in many cases, completely lacking. Other
human needs, such as love, a sense of belonging, the building of self-
esteem, and the desire to lead a fulfilling life, were mostly left unad-

dressed for families such as those that lived in makeshift tents in New
Yo rk’s Central Park around 1930—the most southern area of the park
that became known as Hooverville in mock homage to the incumbent
president at the time.
Boomers grew up in an environment bursting with opportunities that
their parents never had, which helped them gain confidence early on about
their feelings and choices. And, as Boomer children grew into the young
adults on college campuses across the country, they were not shy about
making their voices heard.
Anti-Establishment Boom
Boomers were the rising adults of a society in turmoil during the 1960s and
the 1970s, and their self-confidence pushed back against the many injustices
of the times. Boomers were quick to rally behind the disenfranchised—most
notably African Americans during the 1960s in the American South where
civil rights were egregiously violated. Boomers also took up the fight against
A Legacy Not Yet Written 11