Firsties

Number 1 back there - the current generational constellation - got some short shrift. There’s not a lot we can say about it right now, unless you want to suggest that we are NOT in the Crisis because Millennials and/or Xers and/or Boomers are, somehow, not in the right  place. And the only way to do that is to redraw the lines between them significantly - not a small undertaking, with no guarantee that it’s any better than what Strauss & Howe themselves put together.

Still, it’s not useless info. We can use it as support for the Crisis starting 5-8 years ago (vs. 12). We can propose our starting point as more likely 2008 (oldest Millennial 27) or 2005 (oldest Millennial 24). We can look forward to the likely peak and end not only in terms of “22 years, roughly” but “when the youngest Xers turn 45” (that’s 2026). We could look into how many Xers are still having children (the oldest of us are over 50, but the youngest are early 30s) as evidence for whether we REALLY are in midlife. The Boom that names the Boomers was an early boost to the size of the cohort, which could mean that a larger proportion of them are already into elder hood, and does that make them more influential now or later?

Then again, I’m unlikely to find newspaper articles that talk about this, so maybe there really isn’t much to do with it. I’ll be aware, though.