2) After the baby-boomers, here is the sandiwich generation

Post baby-boom society future is rich on riddles and doubts. However, there is a certitude: new generations will find themselves choosing between a family desire and the needing of permanent work. They should give up family for a precarious job. We talked about it with Fred Pearce, author of “People earthquake. Mass Migration, Ageing Nations and the Coming population crash”.

In these days, everybody talks about the so-called baby boomers, since 2011 is the first year when a part of this generation will retire. Yet, the general feeling is that, although they reached the pensionable age, the power is still in their hands, especially in the Old Continent. Do not you think that this represents an actual element of conservation, a curb on the need to introduce important reforms and changes in the most part of the European countries?

Yes, it could.  not all old people are conservative (!) but many are.  And they won’t want to give up their power and money to a younger generation. But they have to realise that there are not enough young people to support them and their pensions and lifestyles so well.  They have to work longer and contribute more. This is a big tension in society now, I think.

As far as the post-baby boom society is concerned, we only know that new generations will not have the same advantages and certainties (such a s a permanent job) as their parents. Could you tell us at least three additional aspects that will characterise the European society and, in particular, the new generations in the next years?

European societies are going to have many more migrants even than now.  We will need them to do the jobs that we do not have the people for (because our indigenous populations will be shrinking and an increasing proportion will be old.)

There will be increasing efforts to persuade women to have more children in europe.  But these will only be successful if governments, employers and partners (especially in southern and eastern europe where the fertility rates right now are the lowest) make it easier for women to combine careers and raising children.

Despite this my guess is that more and more women will choose not to have families, and the traditional family unit as a base of society will continue to break down.

Since you are one of the world’s foremost experts on the baby boom generation, could you tell us at least one mistake that baby-boomers should have avoided in order to guarantee a better future for their children?

We baby boomers trashed the planet.  We didn’t care.  we didn’t think.  We were the generation to pioneered the throw-away consumer society.  Now we talk green, but before we die we have to act green too.

See Also:

1) Baby boomers, those young old people