The Canberra Times, 19 September 1970. (Front page photo)
There we are, Oz and me at the second Moratorium to stop the Vietnam war. Must have been around the time I first heard the term “baby boomer” a term I found a bit puzzling. What on earth are babies doing booming, I wondered….
We’ve always been a centre of attention, we baby boomers, setting trends and styles, affluent, spoiled, fighting the Vietnam war, going to Woodstock …. And now, it seems wrecking the economy. From today’s South China Morning Post, front page story:
The greying of the city's population will begin in earnest next year when 93,000 baby boomers turn 60, prompting debate on the need for a comprehensive population policy that reviews Hong Kong's retirement age, pension arrangements and immigration guidelines.
The government has warned that an ageing population might drain the city's resources.
Financial Secretary John Tsang Chun-wah said in his budget that "an ageing population will lower our standard of living and undermine economic vitality and competitiveness". Spending on social security for the elderly would increase by more than 140 per cent to HK$31.8 billion in 2033.
He said the city must be prepared.
The latest projections by the Census and Statistics Department show the number of people aged between 60 and 64, when many retire, will jump by 40,000 next year, the biggest increase ever. [huh?? I thought it was 93,000 turning 60 next year? I’ll have to add that to the list of things “I don’t get”]
BTW: the definition of “baby boomer”? Some dispute, but generally those born between 1946 and 1964. We’re described at one point as “the pig in the python”, the demographic bulge which remodeled society as it passed through it. Leading to the inevitable outcome that we’re now being shat out by the python, nothing but a pile of python turds on the carpet of society. Oh dear….
From wikipedia:
Baby boomers are associated with a rejection or redefinition of traditional values….
In Europe and North America boomers are widely associated with privilege, as many grew up in a time of affluence….
As a group, they were the healthiest, and wealthiest generation to that time, and amongst the first to grow up genuinely expecting the world to improve with time….
One of the unique features of Boomers was that they tended to think of themselves as a special generation, very different from those that had come before….
We were also known as the Woodstock generation, of which we recently had the fortieth birthday, and which I noted here .
