Boom, Bust, and Echo

1. Boom, Bust, and Echo

2. Population Pyramid http://www12.statcan.ca/english/census01/products/analytic/companion/age/cda01pymd.cfm • What seems to happen to the pyramid by the late 1940s? • Can you account for the shape of the pyramid in 2001? • Does it look like a pyramid anymore? • What shape do you think the population pyramid might resemble in 25 years? In 50 years?

3. The Baby Boom • In 1945, Canadians celebrated the end of World War II. Thousands of soldiers returned home. The women who had taken the soldiers’ places in factories and offices gave up, or were forced to give up, their jobs in order to return to traditional careers. • Two years later, many Canadians had something else to celebrate. Babies. Hundreds of thousands of them.

4. The Baby Boom • In Canada, the Baby Boom would last nearly twenty years. • One third of all Canadians living today were born between1947 to 1966. They are known as the Boomers, the children of the Baby Boom. • Almost immediately Canadian society changed. • Families moved into newly created suburbs on the outskirts of cities. • There was a boom in housing and shopping malls. • New schools were built as enrolment increased by nearly 50%.

5. Baby Boomers • As they grew up, Baby Boomers experienced it all. In the 1950s, their sheer numbers forced the building of hundreds of new schools across Canada. They were the rebellious, college-educated dissenters from the 1960s and 1970s, promoting civil rights and protesting the Vietnam War.

6. Baby Boomers • As the years passed, they redefined adulthood and old age. They even challenged gender roles. Where their mothers had walked away from their brief stints in the wartime workforce, the daughters of the Baby Boom chose careers over family, having few children and having them later in life. They also became known as the generation that would never grow old. They were intent on remaining fit and healthy. Today the sheer numbers of Baby Boomers who are aging are forcing Canada to rethink the way it deals with its senior citizens and changing the country’s attitudes towards retirement.

7. Generation X • Within the Baby Boom, other subgroups have been identified by demographers. • These include yuppies (young urban professionals), dinks (double income, no kids) and most interestingly, a group known as Generation X. • Generation X includes all children born at the tail end of the Baby Boom, in the years between 1960 and 1966.

8. http://archives.cbc.ca/society/youth/clips/6684/ • Novelist Douglas Copeland popularized the term “Generation X” to describe this group of late Baby Boomers who didn’t really feel like Baby Boomers. He argued that they felt no real connection to the Baby Boom culture and at the same time felt overwhelmed by the huge numbers of Boomers. They also lacked many of the opportunities afforded to the earlier Baby Boomers. Jobs weren’t as plentiful and some things really were beyond their reach.

9. Read Article • David Foot is an acknowledged expert in the demography of the Baby Boom and subsequent generations, and the effect that these demographic developments have on the economy, on society, and on the individual. • Take a look at the final quote from Mr. Foot in the Globe and Mail article. What do you think are some of the major effects on individuals who were born during the Baby Boom? What about those born into Generation X?

10. http://archives.cbc.ca/society/youth/topics/1209-6689/ • Why is Generation X known as the Lost Generation?

11. Questions • http://archives.cbc.ca/society/youth/topics/1209-6690/ • What are some of the problems facing Generation Xers?

12. Generation Y • And last, at least for now… Generation Y • The children of Generation y were born between the late 1970s and the early 1990s. Many of these children are the children of Baby Boomers and are known as the echo boom. • What defines Generation Y? They are sometimes known as the MTV generation. Personal computers and the Internet became more widespread during their youth. They’ve witnessed the rise in popularity of video games and MPS, Hip-Hop and Indie bands. They’ve struggled with childhood obesity and they are the most medicated generation in history. • http://archives.cbc.ca/society/youth/topics/1209-6691/

13. How do the members of Generation Y differ from the members of the Baby Boom and Generation X? • What about today? The oldest Baby Boomers will soon be in their sixties. Generation Xers are in their forties. The population as a whole is aging, retiring and things are changing. The same group of babies whose arrival brought on the onset of suburban life and a boom in new school building are now having a similar effect on health care and retirement planning.