What’s going on here?

Some are calling it a ‘war of the generations’

And it’s true…if you believe the media

The war against the young

Margaret Wente, Globe & Mail, February 2, 2012

War of the generations

Training, October 10 , 2011

War of the generations

Alan Mattich, Wall Street Journal, March 22, 2012

The war between the generations

Mary Ann Sieghart, The Independent, February 7, 2011

Voter generation gap pits old against young

Reuters, October 9, 2008

Will the deficit battle pit old

against young?

Mark Miller, Retirement Revisited, November 22, 2011

Are Baby Boomers the greediest generation?

Janet Novack, Forbes, November 12, 2010

The boomers agree: the lazy millennialswant to be jobless

Maria Bustillos, The Awl, July 8, 2010

Millennialsgeneration Y-so-lazy?

Alliance for an Idiot-Free America, February 12, 2012

The war against the young

Walter Russell Mea, Via Meadia, September 16, 2011

OK, OK.You get it.

But is it, in fact, true?

A new book argues that it’s time to

take a second look.

So let’s try to move from rhetoric…

…to reality.

Yes, there certainly are some competing interests.

FACT: More and more boomers are

not retiring at 65.Reason? They can’t afford to.

FACT: Only 20% of boomers have

savings of $250,000 or more.Almost a third have less than $100,000.

FACT: The percentage of people 55+

who are still workingis the highest it’s been

in 50 years.

FACT: Youth unemployment is sky high.

Just under 14% in Canada.Almost 16% in the USA.

Over 30% in parts of Europe!

FACT: The millennials are seriously in debt.

Outstanding student loans in the USA approach $1 trillion.

That’s more than all the credit card debt

in the country!

FACT: Boomers and seniors dominate

the ballot box. They account for almost 60%

of all votes cast in federal elections.

So much for the “youth vote.”

Add everything together, and you might argue that, yes, there really is a ‘war of the generations.’

The boomers and seniors have the numbers and the political clout.

They are not stepping out of the way.In a tough economy, they are

crowding out the millennials –crowding them out of the job marketand out of the political arena where public spending decision are made.

So why isn’t this a ‘war’?

For one simple reason…

The Boomers and seniors are rescuing the millennials…

even as they are competing with them.

FACT: 6 out of 10 Canadian boomers and

seniors are providing significant financial help

to adult children or grandchildren.

FACT: A survey in the USA found that

80% of boomer womenare paying more bills for adult children

than their parents paid for them.

FACT: The number of adult children

living at homeis the highest it’s been in

over 50 years.

FACT: When the boomers were 25-29, only 12% of them lived at home.

For the millennials today, it’s 30%.

FACT: There’s been a sharp increase

in the number of multi-generational households.

“Grandfamilies” could be an important new trend in home design.

FACT: The boomers reinvented aging.

Now they’re reinventing parenting.

This is just one of the huge implications of the apparent

‘war of the generations’.

www.davidcravit.com