Our Unripened Younger Consciences

A new study shows that Millennials (that's young people to you and me, kids) are giving up on green:

Based on two longstanding national surveys of high school seniors and college freshmen, [San Diego State University's Jean] Twenge and her colleagues found a decline, over the last four decades, in young people's trust in others, their interest in government and the time they said they spent thinking about social problems.

Steepest of all was a steady decline in concern about the environment, and taking personal action to save it.

Researchers found that, when surveyed decades ago, about a third of young baby boomers said it was important to become personally involved in programs to clean up the environment. In comparison, only about a quarter of young Gen Xers - and 21 percent of Millennials - said the same.

Meanwhile, 15 percent of Millennials said they had made no effort to help the environment, compared with 8 percent of young Gen Xers and 5 percent of young baby boomers.

Woodstock On The Block

The most fateful debate in a generation about the role of the federal government is officially underway, writes Richard W. Stevenson -- and it's all about the expectations of those of us of a certain age:

The aging of the baby boom generation and the costs of maintaining Medicare and Social Security have put the two pillars of the social welfare system on the table for re-examination. The growing weight of the national debt has given urgency to the question of whether the government has become too big and expensive.

The tepid nature of the current economic recovery, following big stimulus packages, has provided an opening to challenge the effectiveness of Keynesianism as the default policy option for government. And the revived energy of grass-roots conservatives has given electoral clout to the movement’s intellectual and constitutional arguments.

Dreams And Nightmares

The baby boomers, before Sept. 15: "You don't turn your dreams over to the authorities at age 60," said Dennis Hopper in this age-defying ad for Ameriprise Financial (no longer on the air, as far as I can see). "See, the thing about dreams is, they don't retire":



The baby boomers, after Sept. 15: Don't retire, indeed. Bruce Hosking, 61, who retired two years ago as a photographer for the Tampa Tribune:

“My nightmare would be (that) I’d be at the end of the checkout line asking you, ‘Paper or plastic?’” he said. “This year is either going to make or break us. If the economy doesn’t turn around, we’re going to be with the rest of the people who face the possibility of starting to sell off our valuables to stay alive.”

We Are Stardust, We Are Boring

The New York Times unveils a new column dedicated to baby boomers, and Michelle Cottle unloads:

[W]ith every self-pitying, self-justifying line of the column, [Michael] Winerip serves only to confirm all those whiny, entitled, narcissistic stereotypes he seeks to dispel.

I realize how hard it must be for boomers to confront the reality that they no longer occupy the demographic sweet spot that makes advertisers and TV execs hang on their every word--or to accept the fact that all the Botox, Viagra, and Rogaine in the planet will not halt their steady march into the category of "senior." But do they really need their own weekly column in the paper of record detailing how very, very difficult and disappointing it is to no longer be the center of the universe? Can't they just vent their frustrations on individual Facebook pages like all the hip kids do?