In 1984 I published a book called Baby Boom 2. The ebook is available here for a dollar.
In the book, I showed that there was a baby boom after the Civil War. While the Civil War was very short, the non-immigrant population jumped 48% from before the war until afterwards. The non-immigrant population from before WWII to afterwards jumped 47%.
As I show in the book, each baby-boom created entire new industries including food, clothes, music, retail and a wide range of technological developments.
The thirty year period of economic growth after the first and second baby-booms reached maturity were significant.
Growth from 1895 to 1925 was great. The growth from 1975 to 2005 was similarly great. Both periods saw extraordinary expansion of technology. In one era it was telephones, electricity and automobiles. In the second baby boom era it was computers, international trade and cell phones.
I can't help suspecting that baby booms generate extraordinary economic growth. They create a population with cohesion and optimism. Two vital elements for starting new businesses and subsequently new industries.
I know personally that my role in helping hundreds of World War II baby boomers to create businesses was possible because of their peer group coherence and incomparable optimism.
I don't see much of that outside of San Francisco, today. Most people are completing college, which the leading edge baby boomers rejected, and beginning adult life with significant loan burdens. Certainly I don't see the level of optimism that I saw from 1965 to 1985.
Could our current malaise simply be the absence of powerful new businesses and technology that come from a baby-boom?
In the book, I showed that there was a baby boom after the Civil War. While the Civil War was very short, the non-immigrant population jumped 48% from before the war until afterwards. The non-immigrant population from before WWII to afterwards jumped 47%.
The thirty year period of economic growth after the first and second baby-booms reached maturity were significant.
Growth from 1895 to 1925 was great. The growth from 1975 to 2005 was similarly great. Both periods saw extraordinary expansion of technology. In one era it was telephones, electricity and automobiles. In the second baby boom era it was computers, international trade and cell phones.
I can't help suspecting that baby booms generate extraordinary economic growth. They create a population with cohesion and optimism. Two vital elements for starting new businesses and subsequently new industries.
I know personally that my role in helping hundreds of World War II baby boomers to create businesses was possible because of their peer group coherence and incomparable optimism.
I don't see much of that outside of San Francisco, today. Most people are completing college, which the leading edge baby boomers rejected, and beginning adult life with significant loan burdens. Certainly I don't see the level of optimism that I saw from 1965 to 1985.
Could our current malaise simply be the absence of powerful new businesses and technology that come from a baby-boom?