Sometimes, those who blame the Boomers forget...

[malthaussen]

16. But whose idea was that?

When the Boom began, marketing experts (all of previous generations) were excited by the possibility of the huge new consumer market. The Boomers were targetted from before birth to become a consumer market. Now, who created this, the marketing experts or the consumers? Obviously, a little of both, but when all of your most trusted adult role-models are telling you that happiness consists in "dying with the most toys," is it the malleable young mind that is at fault, or the cynical manipulators who are trying to add to their bottom lines? Sure, the parents of the Boomers were targetted, too -- after the war, when they were supposedly adults and capable of critical thinking. Post-war prosperity lead the US to really believe it was possible to have both guns and butter -- but that was not the idea of a bunch of Barbie-owning toddlers, but of the "Best and Brightest" of the WWII generation. The result was an enormous blank check that was left to the limitless future to pay off. Alas, that future is now here -- and it is not as limitless as we were led to believe. Even now, y'know, the big complaint is that people aren't able to "get ahead," by which is meant have the two cars and a picket fence dream fostered by the post-war mentality. IMO, this is missing the point, which is that people aren't even surviving, let alone "getting ahead."

-- Mal