tag:theconversation.com,2011:/fr/topics/baby-boomers-1834/articlesBaby boomers – The Conversation2024-02-28T13:12:01Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2229122024-02-28T13:12:01Z2024-02-28T13:12:01ZWill Britons work until they’re 71? Expert examines proposed pension age rise<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/574609/original/file-20240209-22-wo3zz4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=48%2C0%2C5385%2C3579&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The current pension age of 66 is set to rise to 67 by 2028.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/elderly-man-changing-light-bulbs-retired-2269968695">Andrew Angelov/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The retirement age will need to rise to 71 for UK workers in future, according to a recent <a href="https://ilcuk.org.uk/ageing-populations-forced-to-increase-state-pension-age-to-71-by-2050-to-maintain-dependency-ratio/">report</a> looking at the effect of increasing life expectancy and falling birthrates on the state pension. </p>
<p>The current pension age of 66 is set to <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/state-pension-age-review-2023-government-report/state-pension-age-review-2023#:%7E:text=The%20Pensions%20Act%202014%20brought,68%20between%202044%20and%202046.">rise</a> to 67 by 2028, and to 68 from 2044. But research by the International Longevity Centre (ILC), a thinktank focusing on ageing, says that doesn’t go far enough. </p>
<p>It suggests that anyone born after April 1970 may have to work until they are 71 years old in future. And there’s a possibility that the age limit may need to go even higher than that. The underpinning reason is the rising cost of pension provision because the number of pensioners and the value of payments are growing. </p>
<p>The government’s Office for Budget Responsibility <a href="https://obr.uk/forecasts-in-depth/tax-by-tax-spend-by-spend/welfare-spending-pensioner-benefits/#:%7E:text=Pensioner%20benefit%20spending%20in%202023,5.3%20per%20cent%20of%20GDP">estimates</a> the state pension will cost around £124 billion this financial year. The pension level is safeguarded by the <a href="https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/the-triple-lock-how-will-state-pensions-be-uprated-in-future/">triple lock</a>, which was first introduced in 2010. It means annual increases in payments are made in line with earnings growth, price inflation (currently 4%) or 2.5%, whichever is highest. </p>
<p>The Institute for Fiscal Studies has <a href="https://ifs.org.uk/publications/triple-lock-uncertainty-pension-incomes-and-public-finances">estimated</a> that continuing the triple lock will lead to an extra £45 billion of annual cost by 2050.</p>
<h2>It’s not just the UK</h2>
<p>The issue of rising pension costs isn’t merely a UK problem. Countries across Europe are currently grappling with the conundrum of how to look after their ageing populations in retirement. </p>
<p>Protests erupted across <a href="https://www.lemonde.fr/en/france/article/2023/06/06/in-france-a-14th-day-of-protest-to-derail-macron-s-pension-reform_6029218_7.html">France in 2023</a> in response to pension reforms which would increase the retirement age from 62 to 64. There have also been ongoing <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/idUSL8N12F3RN/">protests in Greece</a>, which has been struggling with pension reforms since 2010. </p>
<p>Pension age increases are also <a href="https://www.etk.fi/en/work-and-pensions-abroad/international-comparisons/retirement-ages/">planned</a> in numerous other countries such as Denmark, the Czech Republic, Spain and the Netherlands.</p>
<h2>How the state pension works</h2>
<p>Unlike company-sponsored pensions, which invest money in individual accounts for future payouts, the UK state pension operates on a different principle. Instead of accumulating a personal “pot” of money, the idea is that current workers essentially fund the pensions of retirees. So, the state pension is financed from national insurance contributions and general taxation.</p>
<p>For this model to sustain itself, each new retiree entering the “pensioner pool” needs to be matched by a new worker entering the “worker pool.” As long as this balance persists, and pension claim periods remain reasonable, the system maintains its solvency.</p>
<p>Less than five years after the introduction of the state pension in 1946, the <a href="https://hansard.parliament.uk/commons/1954-11-15/debates/ed3805b1-dbb6-4f54-970e-58a43094a094/Old-AgeAndRetirementPensioners">pressures on the system</a> were already beginning to show. And the central issues are the same now as they were then – we are living longer and having fewer children. </p>
<p>In 1951, the <a href="https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/birthsdeathsandmarriages/lifeexpectancies/articles/howhaslifeexpectancychangedovertime/2015-09-09">UK life expectancy</a> was 66 for men and 71 for women. By 2011, it had increased to 79 for men and almost 83 for women.</p>
<p>This means that a 66-year-old in 2024 will receive a pension for an average of nearly 16 years. But since <a href="https://www.statista.com/statistics/281416/birth-rate-in-the-united-kingdom-uk/">birth rates have fallen</a> from 15 per 1000 in 1951 to 10 per 1000 in 2021, those retirees aren’t being replaced with fresh workers.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/matching-state-pension-to-the-national-living-wage-would-help-pensioners-maintain-their-dignity-217473">Matching state pension to the national living wage would help pensioners maintain their dignity</a>
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<p><a href="https://www.ons.gov.uk/economy/nationalaccounts/uksectoraccounts/compendium/economicreview/april2019/longtermtrendsinukemployment1861to2018#:%7E:text=Image%20.csv%20.xls-,The%20highest%20employment%20rates%20recorded%20were%20in%20the%20years%201872,average%20employment%20rate%20was%2073%25.">In 1951</a>, the UK population was 50 million with an employment rate of 70.4%. There were 35.2 million workers who were supporting 4.5 million pensioners, or 7.8 workers for every pensioner. </p>
<p>Today, the UK’s population is more than 67 million, which includes 33.17 million <a href="https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/research-briefings/cbp-9366/">workers</a> and 12.8 million <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/dwp-benefits-statistics-august-2023/dwp-benefits-statistics-august-2023#:%7E:text=The%20main%20headline%20figures%20for,5.6%25%20to%201.6%20million%20claimants">pensioners</a>. This means that every pensioner is being “supported” by just 2.6 workers. </p>
<p>Both central planks of the state pension system appear to be broken. And, to further complicate matters, we are seeing increasing levels of people <a href="https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/how-is-health-affecting-economic-inactivity/">leaving the workforce</a> before they reach pension age, largely due to ill-health.</p>
<p>The state (in other words, the taxpayer) cannot afford the current pension provision for an ageing population for longer periods, let alone improve it. So, tough decisions have to be made, and soon. </p>
<h2>Generation X and millennials</h2>
<p>The implications of a rising retirement age won’t be felt by baby boomers like me. Generally speaking, we have benefited from jobs for life, free education, affordable housing and good company pensions. </p>
<p>The first cohort to shoulder the changes to the pension age will be generation X, born between 1965 and 1980. And they do not possess the wealth and assets of previous generations. </p>
<p>In fact, recent government <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/analysis-of-future-pension-incomes/analysis-of-future-pension-incomes">figures</a> show that a third of the UK’s 14 million gen Xers won’t have enough savings to comfortably cover their retirement. <a href="https://www.justgroupplc.co.uk/%7E/media/Files/J/Just-Retirement-Corp/news-doc/2023/majority-of-gen-x-worried-they-wont-save-enough-for-good-standard-of-living-in-retirement.pdf">More than half</a> are not confident about achieving a good standard of living in retirement.</p>
<p>This generation, sometimes described as the “<a href="https://www.pensionsage.com/pa/Gen-X-face-huge-pension-black-hole-with-two-thirds-not-saving-enough.php">forgotten generation</a>” by finance experts, stands at a disadvantage due to their lack of early access to defined benefit pensions, which were largely closed to new employees by the time they entered the workforce. They also missed out on the financial benefits of automatic enrolment in workplace pension schemes, which was introduced only after many members of this generation had already established their careers.</p>
<p>The situation doesn’t look any rosier for the millennials, who have <a href="https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/populationandmigration/populationestimates/articles/moreadultslivingwiththeirparents/2023-05-10">struggled</a> to get onto the housing ladder and are paying back student loans. <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/money/2023/sep/04/britons-cut-pension-contributions-hargreaves-lansdown-abrdn">Research</a> last year showed that almost a third of 18 to 34-year-olds had either stopped or cut back on pension contributions to save money. </p>
<p>Perhaps it comes as no surprise that more than two thirds of this age group <a href="https://www.pensionsage.com/pa/one-fifth-unsure-over-future-certainty-of-state-pension.php">don’t believe</a> the state pension will even exist when they enter retirement. </p>
<p>While the future of the state pension in its current form remains uncertain, one thing is clear – ignoring the problem is no longer an option.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/222912/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Chris Parry does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Increasing life expectancy and falling birthrates means many of us may have to keep working until beyond 71 years of age.Chris Parry, Principal Lecturer in Finance, Cardiff Metropolitan UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2215442024-02-14T17:07:42Z2024-02-14T17:07:42ZGeneration Z may not need mortgages, here’s why<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/575630/original/file-20240214-22-ieqy9q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=5%2C20%2C3493%2C2239&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption"></span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/es/image-photo/young-happy-lesbian-couple-hugging-laughing-1896484951">Ground Picture/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Ask many Millennials – the generation currently in their late 20s to early 40s – about the possibility of home ownership and they will probably laugh in your face. The idea of getting a mortgage with just their own income is often unthinkable, and those who do own property often have an uncommonly early inheritance to thank.</p>
<p>While housing crises rage across Europe, many members of Generation Z – those born after the year 2000 – may soon find that the shoe is on the other foot. By analysing mortgage trends and other data, my research has predicted a gradual shift away from long term mortgage commitments among this generation.</p>
<p>Inheritances will play a key part in this change. Slowing population growth, smaller families, and a concentration of property ownership in the ageing Baby Boomer generation (born between 1946 and 1964) mean that inheritance rates have been climbing year on year. </p>
<p>Generation Z therefore stands to benefit from Europe’s declining birth rate, one of the lowest in the world at <a href="https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/statistics-explained/index.php?title=Fertility_statistics">1.53 children per woman</a>. Put simply, there will be fewer young people to inherit houses, and more houses for them to inherit.</p>
<h2>Mortgages: an increasingly unattractive prospect</h2>
<p>Getting a mortgage is daunting at the best of times, as banks require savings, income, stable employment and a hefty deposit. If you meet these criteria, you are then locked into, on average, a 25-year commitment. </p>
<p>In a labour market characterised by <a href="https://feps-europe.eu/publication/605-living-with-uncertainty-the-social-implications-of-precarious-work/">temporary jobs and low, stagnating wages</a>, many people will struggle to ever sign a mortgage, let alone pay one off. The prospect of getting one is especially unappealing at a time when <a href="https://www.imf.org/en/Publications/WP/Issues/2023/03/24/European-Housing-Markets-at-a-Turning-Point-Risks-Household-and-Bank-Vulnerabilities-and-531349">rising mortgage rates are driving the cost of living up</a> in Europe and beyond. This panorama is already affecting <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/jackkelly/2023/09/29/gen-z-faces-financial-challenges-stress-anxiety-and-an-uncertain-future/">Generation Z’s attitude to long term milestones</a> such as buying a home.</p>
<p>The fact that <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/c585cc68-880c-44af-95e4-8be50676b095">fewer mortgages are being signed</a> across the continent is therefore unsurprising, especially given a <a href="https://www.ey.com/en_gl/news/2023/12/decade-low-european-mortgage-growth-forecast-this-year-and-next-as-high-borrowing-costs-and-a-weak-economy-drive-down-demand">steep rise in interest rates</a> and soaring property prices. This decline seems set to continue into the long term, for a number of reasons.</p>
<h2>Home ownership in Europe today</h2>
<p>In the European Union, the average age at which people first acquire property is 34. The average mortgage duration is 25 years, meaning payments are typically completed by the age of 59, just before retirement age (65 in most EU member states).</p>
<p>As of 2022, 69.1% of Europeans owned their home, but only <a href="https://www.ecb.europa.eu/pub/economic-bulletin/focus/2021/html/ecb.ebbox202101_05%7Ea872597edd.en.html">24.7% had mortgages</a>. This does <a href="https://www.statista.com/statistics/957803/homeowners-with-and-without-an-outstanding-mortgage-in-eu-28-per-country/">vary widely</a> across the continent, and there is little correlation between ownership rates and the number of active mortgages. </p>
<p>In some Northern European countries, the number of mortgages is actually rising. In the Netherlands, for example, <a href="https://www.dnb.nl/en/current-economic-issues/housing-market/hight-mortgage-debts-in-the-netherlands-risks-and-solutions/">61% of homeowners currently have a mortgage</a>.</p>
<p>In contrast, this percentage is far lower in countries like Italy, where only <a href="https://www.statista.com/statistics/957803/homeowners-with-and-without-an-outstanding-mortgage-in-eu-28-per-country/">14.6%</a> of homeowners have a mortgage. This disparity may be due to the more common use of liquid funds, or stronger, more longstanding traditions of inheriting property in certain countries.</p>
<h2>Spain: a case in point</h2>
<p>We can take Spain as an example of the changes that are already underway. It is above average in life expectancy and rates of home ownership (especially among older generations): the average Spaniard first purchases property at age 41, and receives an inheritance at 51. </p>
<p>The number of inheritances, however, is reaching new highs year on year. From 2021 to 2022 the number of homes inherited in Spain rose by <a href="https://www.ine.es/jaxiT3/Datos.htm?t=6154">3.7%</a>, with over 17,800 homes inherited per month within its borders. </p>
<p>With only a 10-year gap, on average, between signing a mortgage and receiving an inheritance, the average Spanish person may see little benefit in tying themselves to a variable, potentially volatile 25-year loan.</p>
<h2>Leaving the family home</h2>
<p>The ongoing surge in property inheritance shows no signs of slowing, and is big enough to potentially decrease the long-term demand for mortgages. However, the value of inheritances varies widely across different countries and wealth distributions, and it is difficult to make predictions for all of Europe. </p>
<p>There is also huge variation in factors such as <a href="https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/web/products-eurostat-news/w/ddn-20230904-1">the age of leaving the family home</a>. Southern Europe is generally higher in this regard, with adults typically staying with their parents until age 30.3 in Spain, 30.7 in Greece and 30 in Italy. </p>
<p>In Finland, on the other hand, people typically leave home at age 21.4, with similarly low figures across Scandinavia. France sees adults move out at 23.4, and Germany at 23.8. According to Eurostat data, many of these average ages showed long-term increases between 2012 and 2022.</p>
<p>However, higher youth independence does not directly correlate with more mortgage signings. <a href="https://www.ine.es/jaxiT3/Tabla.htm?t=3200&L=0">Spain’s staggering drop of 62.54%</a> in new mortgages from 2007 to 2023 is reflected in data from across Europe. From 2022 to 2023, <a href="https://www.nbb.be/fr">Belgium recorded a 33.8% decrease</a>, and between 2021 and 2022 <a href="https://www.banque-france.fr/fr/publications-et-statistiques/statistiques/panorama-des-prets-lhabitat-des-menages">France has witnessed an approximate decrease of 47.49%</a>. </p>
<p><a href="https://economic-research.bnpparibas.com/pdf/fr-FR/marche-immobilier-residentiel-zone-euro-epreuve-normalisation-monetaire-17/01/2024,49230">Annual data from the European Central Bank, released in November 2023,</a> also shows annual decreases of 61% in Slovakia, 57% in Austria, 40% in Luxembourg, and 23% in Estonia. Across Europe as a whole, the number of new housing loans dropped by 32% last year. </p>
<h2>Impacts on Generation Z</h2>
<p>Though they will face plenty of other problems, <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/335555065_Precarious_work_and_labour_regulation_in_the_EU_current_reality_and_perspectives">such as securing stable employment contracts</a>, housing might not be the primary concern for much of Generation Z in the future.</p>
<p>An ageing baby boomer population means that massive amounts of property are already being passed down among the wealthiest households: as far back as 2015, inheritances on average corresponded to <a href="https://www.oecd-ilibrary.org/sites/e2879a7d-en/index.html?itemId=/content/publication/e2879a7d-en#:%7E:text=Inheritance%20and%20estate%20taxes%20are,taxes%20on%20donors'%20overall%20estates.source">$196,247 per person in the wealthiest 20% of OECD countries</a>. This figure had already increased by 50% in less than a decade. </p>
<p>This will benefit Millennials to a certain extent, but with <a href="https://www.americansurveycenter.org/the-lonely-childhood-of-generation-z/">fewer siblings</a>, many wealthier members of Generation Z might not need to divide inheritances from parents who often own multiple properties. This outlook, coupled with the conditions for accessing a mortgage in an inhospitable job market, will raise a simple question for much of Generation Z: Why take on the risk, long term commitment and extra cost of a mortgage if I don’t have to?</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/221544/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Geoffrey Ditta no recibe salario, ni ejerce labores de consultoría, ni posee acciones, ni recibe financiación de ninguna compañía u organización que pueda obtener beneficio de este artículo, y ha declarado carecer de vínculos relevantes más allá del cargo académico citado.</span></em></p>Europe’s ageing population means that Generation Z stands to inherit huge amounts of property in the coming years, resulting in reduced demand for mortgages.Geoffrey Ditta, Geoffrey Ditta Ph.D. Profesor de Economía y Negocios Internacionales. Director del Máster Universitario en Internacionalización de Empresas. Facultad de Economía y Empresa, Universidad NebrijaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2208172024-01-17T13:36:23Z2024-01-17T13:36:23ZChef Bill Granger dies and leaves behind an inadvertent legacy – the avocado toast meme<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/569130/original/file-20240112-25-mrzqwn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=12%2C25%2C4268%2C2818&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Is it avocado toast or high interest rates that have prevented so many young people from buying homes?</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/avocado-butter-royalty-free-image/185328444?phrase=avocado+toast+illustration&searchscope=image%2Cfilm&adppopup=true">Josef Mohyla/E+ via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>On Christmas Day 2023, world-renowned Australian chef and restaurateur <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/food/2023/dec/27/bill-granger-renowned-australian-cook-dies-aged-54">Bill Granger died at 54</a>. </p>
<p>Granger owned and operated 19 restaurants across Australia, the U.K., Japan and South Korea. He authored 14 cookbooks, produced several TV shows and was awarded <a href="https://www.afr.com/life-and-luxury/food-and-wine/how-bill-granger-conquered-the-world-s-breakfast-tables-20230307-p5cq7g">the Medal of the Order of Australia</a>.</p>
<p>But his lasting legacy may be his role in making avocado toast <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/12/28/dining/bill-granger-dead.html">a Western culinary staple</a> – and, inadvertently, the viral meme that transformed the open sandwich into a symbol of generational tension.</p>
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<img alt="Man uses a spatula to flip pancakes in a frying pan." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/569577/original/file-20240116-17-asgem0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/569577/original/file-20240116-17-asgem0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=795&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/569577/original/file-20240116-17-asgem0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=795&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/569577/original/file-20240116-17-asgem0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=795&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/569577/original/file-20240116-17-asgem0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=999&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/569577/original/file-20240116-17-asgem0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=999&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/569577/original/file-20240116-17-asgem0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=999&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Bill Granger was renowned for adding a bougie twist to breakfast.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/australian-chef-bill-granger-cooks-pancakes-for-tasting-of-news-photo/72864230?adppopup=true">Yoshikazu Tsuno/AFP via Getty Images</a></span>
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<p>The practice of spreading avocado on bread has existed for centuries, particularly in Central and South America. Some speculate it dates as far back as the 1500s, <a href="https://tastecooking.com/really-invented-avocado-toast/">when the Spanish settlers brought Western breads to Mexico</a>. But a <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2016/05/06/how-the-internet-became-ridiculously-obsessed-with-avocado-toast/">2016 Washington Post article</a> pointed to Granger as the first person to put avocado toast on a menu, when he did so at his Sydney café, Bills, in 1993.</p>
<p>I love ordering the occasional avocado toast. But as a sociologist of the internet and social media, I’m most interested in the meme – its origins, how it became a point of contention and how it has ultimately muddied the waters of inequality. </p>
<h2>Avocado toast and the American dream</h2>
<p>On May 15, 2017, Australian real estate tycoon <a href="https://fortune.com/2023/09/13/australia-real-estate-ceo-tim-gurner-pain-in-economy-avocado-toast/">Tim Gurner</a> said <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2017/may/15/australian-millionaire-millennials-avocado-toast-house">in an interview</a>, “When I was trying to buy my first home, I wasn’t buying smashed avocado for $19 and four coffees at $4 each.”</p>
<p>Gurner’s comments implied that young people were not buying homes at the same rate as older generations due to their poor money management skills – unlike Gurner and his cohort, who understood the value of a buck and the importance of an honest day’s work. </p>
<p>No matter that minimal research revealed that Gurner’s nearly billion-dollar empire <a href="https://thiswastv.com/tim-gurner-parents/">began with financial assistance from his wealthy family</a>. The backlash on the internet was swift and searing, as Gurner became a stand-in for an entire out-of-touch generation who didn’t know how easy they had it.</p>
<p>Memes emphasized the fact that baby boomers, in general, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhe.2019.01.004">had an easier time becoming homeowners</a> compared to millennials, who largely came of age during the post-2008 economic downturn, which forced them to reckon with the crumbling remains of the American dream.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"910207147861983232"}"></div></p>
<h2>Generational tensions or class tensions?</h2>
<p>In their article “<a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/08969205211025724">A Sociological Analysis of ‘OK Boomer</a>,’” sociologists Jason Mueller and John McCollum describe how we’re in a period rife with confusions exacerbated by the internet. </p>
<p>They conclude that meme trends like “<a href="https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/ok-boomer">OK Boomer</a>” – a phrase that Gen Z popularized as an online retort to politicians and reporters who dismissed young people – reflect a world in which generational wars online coexist with class wars offline. The avocado toast meme works in a similar way.</p>
<p>In offline reality, <a href="https://www.nber.org/system/files/working_papers/w27123/w27123.pdf">there is some correlation between generations and wealth</a>. But generations are not what ultimately explain class inequality. </p>
<p>Instead, economic sociologists largely agree that a political emphasis on market “freedoms” and the concurrent paring back of programs that distribute resources have led to soaring economic inequality. These include laws that deregulated markets and privatized public spaces, as well as those that scaled back funding for health care, welfare, education and other government services. The policies first emerged under the umbrella of “<a href="https://www.annualreviews.org/doi/abs/10.1146/annurev-soc-090220-025543">The Washington Consensus</a>” in the late 20th century. </p>
<p>For example, the <a href="https://www.fcc.gov/general/telecommunications-act-1996">Telecommunications Act of 1996</a>, rather than treating emerging internet technology as a public good, <a href="https://ijoc.org/index.php/ijoc/article/view/14707">ensured the privatization of the internet</a>, paving the way for an online economy that profits off the attention and data of users.</p>
<p>Deregulation has created the conditions for today’s economic reality, in which many millennials and Gen Zers must work <a href="https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/REGE-08-2021-0153/full/html">precarious jobs in the gig economy</a>. They continue to struggle to buy homes and afford rent.</p>
<p>But importantly, many baby boomers face the same economic reality. Millions of them have been forced <a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/ajim.22694">to delay retirement</a>, particularly <a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/ajim.22694">if they’re from marginalized races and genders</a>. </p>
<p>In other words, the adverse impacts of class inequality leave no generation untouched.</p>
<h2>Illusions of separation</h2>
<p>So why does it feel like most baby boomers have it so easy?</p>
<p>Cultural theorist Mark Fisher, in his 2009 book “<a href="https://files.libcom.org/files/Capitalist%20Realism_%20Is%20There%20No%20Alternat%20-%20Mark%20Fisher.pdf">Capitalist Realism</a>,” describes this moment in history as one in which “hyperreality” prevails. </p>
<p>The term, coined by <a href="https://revistia.org/files/articles/ejis_v3_i3_17/Ryszard.pdf">French post-modernist Jean Baudrillard</a> in 1981, essentially describes a state in which simulations of reality appear more “real” than reality. </p>
<p>In his book “<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Simulacra-Simulation-Body-Theory-Materialism/dp/0472065211">Simulacra and Simulation</a>,” Baudrillard uses the example of Disneyland to describe hyperreality. Many people would rather pay to go to Disneyland – a park built to mimic imaginary places – <a href="https://www.discovermagazine.com/planet-earth/destination-science-the-natural-world-outside-disney-world">than travel to national parks</a>, where they can experience nature for free or on the cheap.</p>
<p>The virtual world of the internet – with its own sets of cultural norms, language and memes – is the epitome of hyperreality.</p>
<p>And in the hyperreal world of the internet, as Mueller and McCollum discuss in their article about the “OK Boomer” meme, generational tensions take form.</p>
<p>Memes like avocado toast construct a state of generational conflict in the online world that is real, quite simply, because it feels real.</p>
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<p>Algorithms have every incentive to stoke this conflict. </p>
<p>That’s because online generational conflicts, along with most social media battles, <a href="https://theconversation.com/hate-cancel-culture-blame-algorithms-129402">are immensely profitable</a>. In “<a href="https://www.upress.umn.edu/book-division/books/virality">Virality: Contagion Theory in the Age of Networks</a>,” sociologist Tony Sampson concludes that viral content usually elicits strong emotional reactions.</p>
<p>When users, old and young, are angry with one another, and express that anger in the language of memes, social media platforms like X, formerly known as Twitter, get more engagement and make more money.</p>
<h2>Reframing avocado toast</h2>
<p>What Sampson finds, though, is that positive feelings also lead to virality.</p>
<p>So perhaps one way to honor Granger is to reclaim the avocado toast meme as an in-joke that nonmillionaires and nonbillionaires of all generations can relate to. </p>
<p>It’s about one billionaire’s absurd proposition that millennials eating a fleshy fruit on a piece of toast is preventing them from buying homes. It’s the billionaire divorced from the struggles of everyday people who’s out of touch – not an entire generation of boomers. </p>
<p>The avocado toast meme serves as a reminder that the hyperreal space of the internet distorts an offline reality in which generations share struggles, whether through housing insecurity or delayed retirements – a reality perpetuated by billionaires like Tim Gurner and the economic systems that serve their interests.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/220817/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Aarushi Bhandari does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Granger, who died in December 2023, is credited with making avocado toast fashionable. Little did he know that his lasting legacy would inspire a meme that symbolized generational tension.Aarushi Bhandari, Assistant Professor of Sociology, Davidson CollegeLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2199662023-12-21T21:54:53Z2023-12-21T21:54:53ZIt’s not just housing: the ‘bank of mum and dad’ is increasingly helping fund the lives of young Australians<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/566790/original/file-20231220-15-irhy2g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=35%2C8%2C5955%2C3979&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/child-congratulations-graduates-business-man-house-713443921">Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Much has been made of the increasing presence of the “bank of mum and dad” in the lives of Australians. </p>
<p>We know financial support from parents to adult children is increasingly used for entering the <a href="https://www.ahuri.edu.au/research/final-reports/395">housing market</a>. </p>
<p>But our new <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/14407833231210956">research</a> shows parents are also helping their young adult children in other ways, including with meeting everyday expenses. We’ve gained new insights into who is receiving support from parents and what it’s used for.</p>
<p>So what does this look like in practice, and what does it mean for intergenerational inequality in Australia?</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-housing-made-rich-australians-50-richer-leaving-renters-and-the-young-behind-and-how-to-fix-it-195189">How housing made rich Australians 50% richer, leaving renters and the young behind – and how to fix it</a>
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<h2>Parental financial support becoming commonplace</h2>
<p>We have surveyed a diverse group of young Australians for almost <a href="https://education.unimelb.edu.au/life-patterns">18 years</a>, since they were in year 12 in 2006. This has allowed us to follow the trajectory of a cohort of millennials as they have transitioned to adulthood. </p>
<p>One of the areas we ask about is their sources of financial support. This includes their own income, savings and investments, and government support, but also gifts, loans and other transfers from their family. </p>
<p>Our findings show that financial support from family – typically parents – has become important for this generation well into young adulthood. </p>
<p>This support from family was very common for our participants when they were in their late teens. Perhaps more surprisingly, for many this support continued into their 20s and, for a significant minority, into their late 20s and beyond. </p>
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<p>So is it only rich parents providing this assistance? Turns out, not really. Our results show young adults from diverse socioeconomic backgrounds get financial help. </p>
<p>Surprisingly, the educational level and occupation status of their parents did not predict whether our participants were receiving support. Parents with higher education and in managerial or professional careers are providing financial help. But so too are parents of more modest means, even if the amount of support they can provide clearly differs.</p>
<h2>It’s not just about houses</h2>
<p>Our participants are using this support to pay basic expenses. </p>
<p>One in five 32-year-olds in our study report struggling to pay for three or more basic expenses (we ask about food, rent or mortgage repayments, house bills and healthcare costs). These young adults are three times more likely than those not facing this struggle to report receiving financial support from their family. </p>
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<p>These gifts and loans are also used to support parenting, and to support those working part-time out of choice or necessity.</p>
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<p>Some of our participants working part-time in their late 20s and early 30s are not in such a precarious position. They are receiving parental support while they pursue graduate study in medicine or law, for example. </p>
<p>So while some are using support to meet day-to-day needs, we also see parents helping their children “get ahead”. </p>
<p>Financial support is also used to pursue extended education and manage a period of insecure and poorly paid employment on the way to more secure and well-paid careers in medicine, academia or journalism.</p>
<p>This intergenerational support has social ramifications that go beyond buying property. Our research suggests it also shapes education pathways, employment, parenting, and potentially general wellbeing. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-well-off-you-are-depends-on-who-you-are-comparing-the-lives-of-australias-millennials-gen-xers-and-baby-boomers-172064">How well off you are depends on who you are. Comparing the lives of Australia's Millennials, Gen-Xers and Baby Boomers</a>
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<h2>An outsized role for the bank of mum and dad</h2>
<p>Our results are an example of just how much life has changed in Australia. The growing challenges of cost of living and the effects of a booming housing market over many decades are changing the dynamics of inequality.</p>
<p>Most of the parents’ generation of the young people we have tracked are part of the Baby Boomer cohort. While there is substantial economic inequality within it, overall, this group benefited from the housing and other <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/1600910X.2022.2058718">asset</a> booms over recent decades. </p>
<p>Many parents are using this foundation to help their children well beyond their teenage years. Of course, wealthy parents might find it easier to provide this support but are not the only parents providing it. For less wealthy parents, this might potentially change their plans for their own future and retirement. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/friday-essay-how-policies-favouring-rich-older-people-make-young-australians-generation-f-d-199403">Friday essay: how policies favouring rich, older people make young Australians Generation F-d</a>
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<p>Previous research has highlighted that the bank of mum and dad is becoming crucial for <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/02673037.2020.1754347">buying</a> a house and that this might exacerbate and entrench <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/1600910X.2020.1752275">inequality</a> for future generations.</p>
<p>Our work suggests it goes beyond housing. Parents are helping combat financial insecurity for their young adult children across the board. Our data shows this widespread insecurity emerged before the current cost-of-living crisis, but current conditions are going to exacerbate it. </p>
<p>So we need to ask whether we want the bank of mum and dad to continue to play an ever-growing role in life chances in Australia. Based on our research, that change is already underway.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/219966/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Dan Woodman receives funding from the Australian Research Council. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Julia Cook receives funding from the Australian Research Council. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Quentin Maire does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointments.</span></em></p>It’s now common knowledge loans and gifts from family are a large part of breaking into the housing market. But how is parental financial support being used in other areas?Dan Woodman, TR Ashworth Professor in Sociology, The University of MelbourneJulia Cook, Senior Lecturer in Sociology, University of NewcastleQuentin Maire, Senior Research Fellow, The University of MelbourneLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2172892023-11-15T00:31:02Z2023-11-15T00:31:02ZGenerational tensions flare as Japan faces the economic reality of its ageing baby boomers<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/558994/original/file-20231113-25-ksgka6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>In 2024, the youngest of Japan’s baby boomers will turn 75. The boomers are called the “bunched” generation in Japan because they were born in a short spurt in the late 1940s, in the aftermath of the end of the second world war.</p>
<p>The sheer size of this cohort has made it a lightning rod for many of the thorny social and economic debates in Japan today. Japanese boomers are variously criticised for generational wealth disparity, national debt, and even the environmental crisis. </p>
<p>Historically, the boomers’ experience is very much the story of Japan’s postwar success. But were the boomers just lucky free-riders? And how have they shaped contemporary Japan?</p>
<h2>The children of war defeat</h2>
<p>Japan was under US-led occupation and struggling with a tattered economy when the boomers were born. Millions of soldiers and settlers had flooded back from the colonies and battlefields. As the Japanese began to rebuild their nation, they also enthusiastically procreated. From 1947 to 1949, Japan recorded around 2.7 million births annually, with a fertility rate exceeding 4.3. </p>
<p>Never again would Japan witness such stunning fertility. Apart from a short-lived uptick in the 1970s, annual births have been declining precipitously. </p>
<p>In 2020, Japan recorded its lowest number of annual births at 840,835 with a fertility rate of just 1.33. This is not the lowest in Asia, but it is well beneath the replacement rate of 2.1.</p>
<h2>The protest generation</h2>
<p>Japan’s boomers were both the engines and beneficiaries of the country’s economic miracle of the 1950s to 1970s, when GDP growth regularly hit the double digits. </p>
<p>In an age when most youth finished education in their teens, the boomers provided labor for Japan’s heavy, chemical, automotive, and electronics industries. Many migrated to cities like Tokyo, taking up jobs in small factories and retail stores. </p>
<p>The small percentage of boomers lucky enough to enter universities in the 1960s became the flagbearers of youth protest. They rallied against Japan’s subservience to America and its involvement in the Vietnam War. They demanded universities lower fees and give students a greater voice. </p>
<p>Beyond protest, they fashioned new cultures in music and art. Indeed, they were actors in the great theatre that was the “global 1960s”. </p>
<p>As student protest descended into violence in 1970s Japan, public opinion turned against the young boomers. A handful embraced <a href="https://www.npa.go.jp/archive/keibi/syouten/syouten271/english/0301.html">murderous left-wing terrorism</a>, but the majority chose the safety of corporate Japan.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/baby-boomers-be-nice-to-your-grandkids-they-may-save-australia-32629">Baby Boomers, be nice to your grandkids: they may save Australia</a>
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<h2>Boomers fashion Japan’s economic miracle</h2>
<p>In 1975, the youngest of Japan’s boomers were in their mid-20s. Japan was recovering from a massive hike in oil prices in 1973 and would face another petroleum shock in 1979. </p>
<p>It was the hardworking boomers who sustained Japan through these troubled economic times. In an age of rigidly defined gender roles, boomer men became Japan’s corporate and industrial warriors, while boomer women raised children and cared for elderly parents. Accordingly, they orchestrated Japan’s second – and last – postwar baby boom in the 1970s. </p>
<p>When Japan emerged as an economic superpower in the 1980s, it was the boomers who reaped the rewards. Although not all benefitted equally, Japanese baby boomers, now in their 30s, enjoyed relatively secure employment, a thriving economy, and superior standards of living. </p>
<p>At the same time, as the economy surged, the boomers faced financial pressures in housing and education. Some even <a href="https://doi.org/10.1515/cj-2016-0004">worked themselves to death</a> inside Japan’s pressure-cooker corporations. </p>
<p>Nonetheless, things were good for the boomers during Japan’s “bubble” economy of the 1980s. By the end of the decade, the youngest were in their 40s. As mid-career workers, they could both save and spend – something later generations would only dream of. </p>
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<h2>Intergenerational tensions in recessionary Japan</h2>
<p>Just as the boomers were moving into the middle echelons of society, Japan’s economic miracle ended abruptly. What followed from the 1990s onwards has been called Japan’s “lost decades”, an “ice age” of employment, and an era of youth uncertainty and despair. </p>
<p>The boomers, however, survived largely unscathed. Thanks to an employment system that protected senior workers, most (although not all) of the boomers retained their jobs while their children struggled to find even casual work. Many boomers also had savings to fall back on. </p>
<p>But in recessionary Japan, the now-ageing boomers raised thorny issues for the country. As a healthy, long-lived, and very large cohort, their approaching retirement in the 2000s threatened the viability of Japan’s already-strained pension and health schemes. Youth born in a post-bubble Japan are faced with carrying this burden. </p>
<p>Not surprisingly, intergenerational tensions have arisen. For the boomers, it is easy to label youth as lazy and lacking perseverance. For the young, boomers were simply lucky to be born in an era of growth. And, to make matters worse, now the young must support the boomers in retirement. </p>
<h2>Ageing boomers in the oldest society</h2>
<p>Given the electoral clout of the boomers, politicians are treading carefully around solutions involving redistribution from the old to the young. Ultimately, intergenerational blaming is not the solution. </p>
<p>Japan’s baby boomers were born into a nation rising, but they also helped to fashion that success. Youth can draw on the boomers’ journey from the ashes of defeat to stunning affluence. But the boomers must also recognise how their generation has contributed to the demographic and socioeconomic challenges facing Japan today. </p>
<p>As the world’s oldest society continues to age, intergenerational empathy from the boomers is now more important than ever.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/217289/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Simon Avenell does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Japan’s baby boomers rode the wave of the country’s postwar success. Now, as their society ages, they must now face their generational responsibility.Simon Avenell, Professor in Modern Japanese History, Australian National UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2115752023-08-15T15:56:34Z2023-08-15T15:56:34ZAdults: how a sex play about boomers v millennials brings both together<p>Kieran Hurley’s new play <a href="https://www.traverse.co.uk/whats-on/event/adults-festival-23">Adults</a> brilliantly illuminates an intergenerational clash that should leave <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/social-trends/2008/06/25/baby-boomers-the-gloomiest-generation/">boomers</a> (born between 1945 and 1964) and <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2019/01/17/where-millennials-end-and-generation-z-begins/">millennials</a> (born between 1981 and 1996) in the audience with a little more empathy for each other.</p>
<p>It all starts entertainingly when a strawberry milkshake bursts open in the face of Iain (Conleth Hill) just as he arrives early at the flat of thirtysomething Zara (Dani Heron). Zara is a sex worker who runs her business from home “collectively and ethically”.</p>
<p>Iain, in his 60s, married with two grown-up daughters, is completely out of his comfort zone and there to have sex with a young man: Zara’s business partner, Jay (Anders Hayward), who is running late.</p>
<p>As Iain wipes the pink goo from his face, Zara recognises him as her former teacher Mr Urquhart. And so Hurley sets up his character triangle. For the next 80 minutes, the audience has the pleasure of watching Zara, Iain and Jay argue with, blackmail, and eventually simply hold each other across the generational divide.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/society/2018/apr/29/millennials-struggling-is-it-fault-of-baby-boomers-intergenerational-fairness">spat</a> between boomers and millennials has been rumbling on for the last few years, pitting the former against their children’s/grandchildren’s generation who are viewed as whiny, lazy snowflakes with an overinflated sense of entitlement.</p>
<p>Conversely, millennials view boomers as the generation that took everything, ruined everything, and have left very little for those who came after. As journalist David Barnett has succinctly <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/millenials-generation-x-baby-boomers-a7570326.html">pointed out</a>:</p>
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<p>Boomers live in the past and have ransomed the future. Millennials fear the future and are ignorant of the past.</p>
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<h2>Envy, resentment, misunderstanding</h2>
<p>Disappointed expectations and repressed resentment bubble up during Zara’s and Iain’s initial confrontation, which plays out in her small one-bedroom flat while she matter-of-factly turns her living space into a brothel, replete with dildo collection (set and costume design: Anna Orton).</p>
<p>Zara, a literature graduate now earning money through sex work, begrudges the older generation their safe careers and settled lifestyles, and resents her teacher for instilling in her the bogus belief she could do anything with her life. Iain, meanwhile, feels trapped and envies the younger generation their seeming freedom, abandon and sexual confidence.</p>
<p>Both are deliberately ignoring the fact that the object of their envy is a fantasy. Iain is oblivious to the fact that the carefreeness of the younger generation (the young men he watches in his videos) is largely performed for a capitalist market that values only these qualities.</p>
<p>Zara’s resentment, meanwhile, doesn’t take into account that the apparent safety of her teacher’s generation came at the expense of not pursuing other, maybe more exciting or fulfilling alternatives.</p>
<p>Their debate treads the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/society/2018/apr/29/millennials-struggling-is-it-fault-of-baby-boomers-intergenerational-fairness">familiar territory</a> of millennial precarity versus boomer affluence, but is nonetheless supremely entertaining. Spontaneous applause rewards Zara’s viciously eloquent takedown of Iain’s cherished memories of reading his kids Thomas the Tank Engine, which, according to Zara, is simply “pseudo-imperialist nostalgic colonial nonsense … some big nostalgic cry-wank for a lost idea of Britain”. </p>
<p>However, once Jay arrives, with his infant daughter screaming in the pram, the stakes are raised considerably. While Zara berates him for bringing his daughter to work, he insists that she owes him money, thus revealing her talk of an ethical and “non-hierarchical business practice” as hypocritical.</p>
<p>Jay needs money to secure shared custody of his daughter. And when the little one finally goes to sleep, he puts all his expertise into performing the willing, lascivious little “twink” to seduce the inhibited Iain and earn his money.</p>
<h2>Comedy and tragedy</h2>
<p>Hayward and Hill (who played Varys, Master of the Whisperers, in Game of Thrones) excel in this seduction scene that alternates beautifully between moments of physical comedy and verbal exchanges that reveal profound sadness. Hill’s Iain, a sexually inexperienced older man who has never explored his desires, gradually develops into a tentative, then enthusiastic punter who enjoys roleplay – only to revert to the condescending, middle-class teacher who judges Jay for how he earns his money and is scathing about his parenting.</p>
<p>Hayward’s Jay writhes seductively on the floor, performs the invested listener and works his literal butt off, but draws the line at being insulted. When he vindictively posts a compromising picture of Iain on Facebook, the secrets that Iain and Zara have kept from their families are revealed.</p>
<p>Roxana Silbert’s confident direction lets the play text breathe and leaves room for her actors to insert some well-timed physical comedy – Hill sliding/falling off various bits of furniture hits the spot every time. </p>
<p>In the end, Iain, shocked but also relieved that he has nothing more to lose, comes clean to his wife in the face of his very public outing. The humbled Zara acknowledges in yet another reference to children’s literature, this time <a href="https://www.waterstones.com/book/the-lorax/dr-seuss/9780007455935">The Lorax by Dr Seuss</a>, that she just might be a “Once-ler” too – meaning to “accept that the world you’re passing on is in a worse state than when you inherited it”.</p>
<p>Before the lights go out, we see Jay, the overwhelmed millennial father, lying on the bed holding the sobbing Iain, while offstage the voice of his crying baby clamours for attention to the coming generation.</p>
<p>With Adults, Hurley, a millennial author himself, seems to appeal to his own generation to let go of their rage, be more understanding of their elders, and accept that, one day, they too will to be blamed for the future. Because as it turns out, confirms Iain: “Everyone always grows up thinking it’s the end of the world.”</p>
<p><em>Adults is showing until August 27 at the Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh</em></p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/536131/original/file-20230706-17-460x2d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/536131/original/file-20230706-17-460x2d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536131/original/file-20230706-17-460x2d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536131/original/file-20230706-17-460x2d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536131/original/file-20230706-17-460x2d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536131/original/file-20230706-17-460x2d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536131/original/file-20230706-17-460x2d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ann-Christine Simke is affiliated with the theatre company Stellar Quines. She is a member of the board for the company.</span></em></p>Kieran Hurley’s new play treads the familiar debate of millennial precarity versus boomer affluence with verve and insight.Ann-Christine Simke, Lecturer in Performance, University of the West of ScotlandLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2101542023-08-08T12:29:52Z2023-08-08T12:29:52ZOlder ‘sandwich generation’ Californians spent more time with parents and less with grandkids after paid family leave law took effect<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/541049/original/file-20230803-27-xpn12q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C4535%2C2841&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Nearly a dozen states have enacted these policies so far.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/woman-taking-care-of-old-woman-in-wheelchair-royalty-free-image/970176900?adppopup=true">Westend61 via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>The <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/topics/research-brief-83231">Research Brief</a> is a short take about interesting academic work.</em></p>
<h2>The big idea</h2>
<p>A California law that mandates paid family leave has led to adults in their 50s, 60s and 70s spending more time taking care of their parents and less time being their grandkids’ caregivers.</p>
<p>The law requires all employers to allow eligible workers to <a href="https://edd.ca.gov/en/disability/Am_I_Eligible_for_PFL_Benefits/">take up to six weeks of paid leave</a> to care for newborns, newly adopted children or seriously ill family members.</p>
<p>From 2006, two years after the law went into effect, to 2016, <a href="https://ca.db101.org/ca/situations/workandbenefits/rights/program2c.htm">this policy led to older adults’ spending 19 fewer hours</a> per year caring for their grandchildren, a 17% decrease. They spent 20 additional hours on average helping their own parents, a 50% increase. </p>
<p>The effect was most striking for people with newborn grandchildren and parents in need of help, but the law also benefited Californians with older grandchildren and those who don’t have parents requiring their assistance.</p>
<p><a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/08959420.2023.2226283">These findings</a> are from research I conducted with <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=yWNlAzcAAAAJ">Marcus Dillender</a>, a fellow economist. They suggest the law had effects through two channels. It enabled older adults to take paid leave to care for relatives with medical needs and it reduced the need for older adults to care for their grandchildren by granting paid parental leave to these children’s parents.</p>
<p>To assess how older adults spend their time, we analyzed data for people between the ages of 50 and 79 from the Health and Retirement Study, a <a href="https://hrs.isr.umich.edu/">longitudinal study of approximately 20,000 Americans</a>.</p>
<p>The survey asks respondents in that age group how much time they spend taking care of their grandchildren and helping their aging parents with basic personal activities like dressing, eating and bathing. We compared outcomes for people who lived in California with what happened to Americans in other states before and the law’s enactment.</p>
<p>We also looked into what happened for people who had different combinations of caregiving obligations – grandchildren less than 2 years old or older grandkids, or parents who need help or no parents requiring assistance.</p>
<h2>Why it matters</h2>
<p>The U.S. is the only wealthy country that <a href="https://www.oecd.org/els/soc/PF2_1_Parental_leave_systems.pdf">doesn’t require employers to provide paid family leave</a>. California was the first state to implement its own policies; <a href="https://www.ncsl.org/labor-and-employment/state-family-and-medical-leave-laws">10 others and the District of Columbia</a> have followed suit so far.</p>
<p>These policies can significantly affect older adults, who spend substantial time caring for their relatives.</p>
<p>Caregiving has become a more urgent policy issue because of the growing number of Americans who feel that they belong to a “<a href="https://www.michiganmedicine.org/health-lab/sandwich-generation-study-shows-challenges-caring-both-kids-and-aging-parents">sandwich generation</a>” of people who have to take care of their children or grandchildren and their parents at the same time. </p>
<h2>What other research is being done</h2>
<p>Other research has found that California’s paid family leave policy doubled the overall length of maternity leave by new mothers, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/pam.21676">increasing it from an average of three weeks to six weeks</a>. It also upped the likelihood that <a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/pam.22030">fathers take parental leave</a> following the birth or adoption of a child by 46% – although <a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/pam.21894">fathers take less leave on average than mothers</a>.</p>
<p>According to some of the many other studies conducted so far, California’s paid family leave law helped workers with caregiving responsibilities stay employed by allowing them to take time off with reduced financial risk and increased job continuity, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/workar/waab022">including for those ages 45 to 64 with a disabled spouse</a> and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/geront/gny105">middle-aged female caregivers</a>. The law has, in addition, reduced the share of elderly people using nursing homes by <a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/pam.22038">facilitating more informal care</a>.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/210154/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Joelle Abramowitz receives funding from the National Institute on Aging, the Social Security Administration and the National Science Foundation. </span></em></p>The law changed older adults’ caregiving behavior because their children became more able to take paid time off work to care for their own newborns.Joelle Abramowitz, Assistant Research Scientist at the Survey Research Center, University of MichiganLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2034662023-04-27T12:31:45Z2023-04-27T12:31:45ZWhy Kurt Vonnegut’s advice to college graduates still matters today<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/522654/original/file-20230424-2206-l2hfz2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=17%2C23%2C3631%2C2469&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A generation told not to trust anyone over 30 nevertheless adored Vonnegut.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/american-author-kurt-vonnegut-poses-while-at-home-on-the-news-photo/81810832?adppopup=true">Ulf Andersen/Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Kurt Vonnegut didn’t deliver the famous “Wear Sunscreen” graduation speech published in the <a href="https://www.chicagotribune.com/columns/chi-schmich-sunscreen-column-column.html">Chicago Tribune</a> that was often mistakenly attributed to the celebrated author. But he could have. </p>
<p>Over his lifetime, he gave dozens of quirky commencement addresses. In those speeches, he made some preposterous claims. But they made people laugh and made them think. They were speeches the graduates remembered. </p>
<p>Having studied and <a href="https://books.google.com/books/about/Critical_Companion_to_Kurt_Vonnegut.html?id=G9l0LaJlcZkC">written about</a> Vonnegut for years, I wish he had been my commencement speaker. I graduated from Austin College, a small school in North Texas. I don’t even remember who gave my class’s graduation speech, much less a single word the speaker said. I suspect many others have had – and will have – similar experiences.</p>
<p>Young people, college students especially, loved Vonnegut. During the early and mid-1960s, he commanded an avid and devoted following on campuses before he had produced any bestsellers. Why was a middle-aged writer born in 1922 adored by a counterculture <a href="https://www.freedomarchives.org/Documents/Finder/FreedomArchives.DontTrustAnyoneOver30.article.pdf">told not to trust anyone over 30</a>? Why did he continue to appeal to younger generations until his death? </p>
<h2>Their parents’ generation</h2>
<p>Vonnegut, who died just before commencement season in 2007, was nearly 50 years old when his groundbreaking anti-war novel, “<a href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/184345/slaughterhouse-five-by-kurt-vonnegut/">Slaughterhouse-Five</a>,” was published in 1969.</p>
<p>A cultural touchstone, the novel changed the way Americans think and write about war. It helped usher in <a href="https://bpb-us-w2.wpmucdn.com/blogs.cofc.edu/dist/8/830/files/2017/02/Vonnegut-and-Postmodernism-15f9fyz.pdf">the postmodern style of literature</a> with its playful, fragmented form, its insistence that reality is not objective and that history is not monolithic, and its self-reflection on its own status as art. Like Andy Warhol’s soup cans, “Slaughterhouse-Five,” with its jokes, drawings, risqué limericks and flying saucers, <a href="https://www.bloomsbury.com/us/kurt-vonnegut-and-the-american-novel-9781441130341/">blurs the line between high and low culture</a>.</p>
<p>Cited as one of the top novels of the 20th century, “Slaughterhouse-Five” has been transformed into film, theatrical plays, <a href="https://www.openculture.com/2020/02/the-graphic-novel-adaptation-of-kurt-vonneguts-slaughterhouse-five.html">a graphic novel</a> and visual art. It has inspired rock bands and musical interpretations. Vonnegut’s recurring refrain, “So it goes,” used 106 times in the novel, has entered the popular lexicon. The book has been <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2011/08/the-neverending-campaign-to-ban-slaughterhouse-five/243525/">banned, burned and censored</a>.</p>
<p>In many ways, though, Vonnegut had more in common with the parents of the college students he addressed than with the students themselves. Father to six children – three of his own and three nephews who joined the family after his sister Alice and her husband died – Vonnegut had studied biochemistry at Cornell and had worked in corporate public relations. He continued to believe all his life in the civic virtues he learned as a student at Shortridge High School in Indianapolis. </p>
<p>He had the credibility of a World War II veteran, a member of what journalist Tom Brokaw would later call the “<a href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/18729/the-greatest-generation-by-tom-brokaw/">Greatest Generation</a>.” Captured by the Germans during the Battle of the Bulge, <a href="https://www.nationalww2museum.org/war/articles/kurt-vonnegut-slaughterhouse-five">he was sent to Dresden as a prisoner of war</a>. There he was starved, beaten and put to work as a slave laborer. He survived the Allied firebombing of the city in February 1945 and was forced to help excavate hundreds of bodies of men, women and children who had been burned alive, suffocated and crushed to death.</p>
<h2>Fool or philosopher?</h2>
<p>If Vonnegut was, like the students’ fathers, a family man and a veteran, perhaps he also embodied the dad that students in 1969 dreamed their own fathers could be: funny, artistic, anti-establishment and anti-war.</p>
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<img alt="Man in striped suit holding cigarette." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/523036/original/file-20230426-402-ciipbs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/523036/original/file-20230426-402-ciipbs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=769&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/523036/original/file-20230426-402-ciipbs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=769&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/523036/original/file-20230426-402-ciipbs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=769&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/523036/original/file-20230426-402-ciipbs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=966&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/523036/original/file-20230426-402-ciipbs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=966&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/523036/original/file-20230426-402-ciipbs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=966&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Kurt Vonnegut at Bennington College in 1970.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://crossettlibrary.dspacedirect.org/bitstream/handle/11209/16874/1970June19Kurt_Vonnegut1.jpg?sequence=1&isAllowed=y">Bennington College Archive</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
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<p>Vonnegut had the look – sad, kind eyes under that mop of uncontrollable hair, the full droopy mustache. <a href="https://crossettlibrary.dspacedirect.org/bitstream/handle/11209/16874/1970June19Kurt_Vonnegut1.jpg?sequence=1&isAllowed=y">A photo taken</a> just before he delivered a commencement address at Bennington College in 1970 shows him wearing a loud striped jacket, reading glasses tucked neatly in its pocket, with a cigarette dangling at his fingertips.</p>
<p>Looking like a cross between Albert Einstein and a carnival huckster, Vonnegut had his contradictions on full display. </p>
<p>Was he a clown or a wise man? A fool or a philosopher?</p>
<p>The literary establishment did not quite know what to make of Vonnegut, either. A writer frequently dismissed by critics for his flying saucers and space aliens, for the simplicity of his prose, for pandering to what <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/1976/10/03/archives/slapstick-slapstick.html">one reviewer called</a> the “minimally intelligent young,” <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/1969/03/31/books/vonnegut-slaughterhouse.html">he was also praised</a> for his inventiveness, for his lively and playful language, for the depth of feeling behind the zaniness, and for advocating decency and kindness in a chaotic world. </p>
<h2>A forceful defense of art</h2>
<p>As the U.S. was fighting what most college students believed was an unjust and imperialist war in Vietnam, Vonnegut’s message struck home. He used his own experience in World War II to destroy any notion of a good war. </p>
<p>“For all the sublimity of the cause for which we fought, we surely created a Belsen of our own,” <a href="https://www.npr.org/2008/06/03/89276309/excerpt-armageddon-in-retrospect">he lamented</a>, referencing the Nazi concentration camp.</p>
<p>The military-industrial complex, <a href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/184353/wampeters-foma-and-granfalloons-by-kurt-vonnegut/">he told the graduates at Bennington</a>, treats people and their children and their cities like garbage. Instead, Americans should spend money on hospitals and housing and schools and Ferris wheels rather than on war machinery.</p>
<p>In the same speech, Vonnegut playfully urged young people to defy their professors and fancy educations by clinging to superstition and untruth, especially what he considered the most ridiculous lie of all – “that humanity is at the center of the universe, the fulfiller or the frustrater of the grandest dreams of God Almighty.” </p>
<p>Vonnegut conceded that the military was probably right about the “contemptibility of man in the vastness of the universe.” Still, he denied that contemptibility and begged students to deny it as well by creating art. Art puts human beings at the center of the universe, whether they belong there or not, allowing people to imagine and create a saner, kinder, more just world than the one we really live in.</p>
<p>The generations, <a href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/240511/if-this-isnt-nice-what-is-even-more-expanded-third-edition-by-kurt-vonnegut-edited-and-introduced-by-dan-wakefield/">he told students at the State University of New York at Fredonia</a>, are not that far apart and do not want that much from each other. Older people want credit for having survived so long – and often imaginatively – under difficult conditions. Younger people want to be acknowledged and respected. He urged each group not to be so “intolerably stingy” about giving the other credit.</p>
<p>A strain of sorrow and pessimism underlies all of Vonnegut’s fiction, as well as his graduation speeches. He witnessed the worst that human beings could do to one another, and he made no secret about his fears for the future of a planet suffering from environmental degradation and a widening divide between the rich and the poor. </p>
<p>If Vonnegut were alive and giving commencement speeches today, he would be speaking to college students whose parents and even grandparents he may have addressed in the past. Today’s graduates have lived through <a href="https://www.apa.org/news/press/releases/stress/2021/one-year-pandemic-stress-youth">the COVID-19 pandemic</a> and are drowning in social media. They face <a href="https://www.marketplace.org/2022/08/17/money-and-millennials-the-cost-of-living-in-2022-vs-1972/">high housing costs and financial instability</a> and are more <a href="https://www.voanews.com/a/student-union_gen-z-studies-show-higher-rates-depression/6174520.html">depressed</a> and <a href="https://www.ualberta.ca/folio/2020/01/millennials-and-gen-z-are-more-anxious-than-previous-generations-heres-why.html">anxious</a> than previous generations.</p>
<p>I’m sure he would give these students the advice he gave so often over the years: to focus, in the midst of chaos, on what makes life worth living, to recognize the joyful moments – maybe by listening to music or drinking a glass of lemonade in the shade – and saying out loud, <a href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/240511/if-this-isnt-nice-what-is-even-more-expanded-third-edition-by-kurt-vonnegut-edited-and-introduced-by-dan-wakefield/">as his Uncle Alex taught him</a>, “If this isn’t nice, what is?”</p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">Kurt Vonnegut delivers a lecture at Case Western University in 2004, three years before his death.</span></figcaption>
</figure><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/203466/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Susan Farrell is a founding member of the Kurt Vonnegut Society, which works to promote the scholarly study of Kurt Vonnegut, his life, and works.</span></em></p>A strain of sorrow and pessimism underlies all of Vonnegut’s fiction, as well as his graduation speeches. But he also insisted that young people cherish those fleeting moments of joy.Susan Farrell, Professor of English, College of CharlestonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2014442023-03-13T12:25:52Z2023-03-13T12:25:52ZVinyl record sales keep spinning and spinning – with no end in sight<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/514711/original/file-20230310-457-ux6tfh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=27%2C18%2C6011%2C3992&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">There are far easier ways to consume music than buying records, which takes time, money and effort.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/massapequa-park-n-y-a-person-looks-through-a-selection-of-news-photo/1346015617?phrase=vinyl record store long island&adppopup=true">Alejandra Villa Loraca/Newsday via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Over the past decade, vinyl records have made a major comeback. People purchased US$1.2 billion of records in 2022, a 20% jump from the previous year. </p>
<p>Not only did sales rise, but they also surpassed CD sales for the first time since 1988, according to <a href="https://www.riaa.com/2022-year-end-music-industry-revenue-report-riaa/">a new report</a> from the Recording Industry Association of America.</p>
<p>Who saw that coming?</p>
<p>I certainly didn’t. In the mid-1990s, I sold off my family’s very large collection of records over my wife’s protests. I convinced her we needed the space, even if the buyer was picking up the whole stash for a song. </p>
<p>Back then, of course, there were far fewer options for listening to music – it was years before <a href="https://pitchfork.com/features/lists-and-guides/9986-the-year-in-streaming-2016/">on-demand streaming</a> and <a href="https://www.shockwave-sound.com/blog/music-on-the-move-a-short-history-of-mobile-listening/">smartphones</a>.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.bu.edu/questrom/profile/jay-zagorsky/">I now teach at a business school</a> and <a href="http://businessmacroeconomics.com/">follow the economy’s</a> latest trends. Sales of records have been increasing since 2007, and the data shows the vinyl record industry’s rebound still has not peaked. Last year, the music industry sold 41.3 million albums, more than in any year since 1988.</p>
<p><iframe id="qVcyg" class="tc-infographic-datawrapper" src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/qVcyg/1/" height="400px" width="100%" style="border: none" frameborder="0"></iframe></p>
<p>This resurgence is just one chapter in a broader story about the growing popularity of older technologies. Not only are <a href="http://www.the-standard.org/life/vinyl-records-making-a-comeback-after-30-years-of-being-behind-cds/article_9108143e-3bdd-11ea-be0d-97edd557218b.html">LP records coming back</a>, but so are <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2018/09/24/sales-are-booming-manhattan-typewriter-store-mostly-thanks-young-people-tom-hanks/">manual typewriters</a>, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2022/12/24/board-game-popularity/">board games</a> and <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-are-so-many-gen-z-ers-drawn-to-old-digital-cameras-198854">digital cameras from the late 1990s and early 2000s</a>.</p>
<p>There are many <a href="https://blog.technavio.com/blog/reasons-behind-upsurge-vinyl-record-sales">theories about why records</a> are <a href="https://www.readersdigest.co.uk/culture/music/why-is-vinyl-making-a-comeback">making a comeback</a>. </p>
<p>Most of them miss the point about their appeal. </p>
<h2>Why records and not CDs?</h2>
<p>One suggestion is that sales have been spurred by <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p057l522">baby boomers</a>, many of whom <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2020/11/09/the-pace-of-boomer-retirements-has-accelerated-in-the-past-year/">are now entering retirement</a> and are eager to tap into the nostalgia of their youth.</p>
<p>Data shows this theory is not true. </p>
<p>First, the <a href="https://www.billboard.com/charts/vinyl-albums">top-selling vinyl albums right now are current artists</a>, not classic bands. As of this writing, <a href="https://illustrationchronicles.com/jamie-hewlett-gorillaz-and-the-enduring-evolution-of-pop">Gorillaz, a band formed in the late 1990s</a>, was at the top of the vinyl charts. </p>
<p>Second, <a href="https://www.riaa.com/reports/2021-u-s-consumer-music-profile-musicwatch-inc/">data from the recording industry</a> shows the most likely person to buy a LP record is in Gen Z – people born from 1997 to 2012.</p>
<p>Another theory is that records are cheap. While that might have been true in the past, today’s vinyl records command a premium. “Cracker Island,” the Gorillaz album that is currently topping the vinyl sales charts, <a href="https://usstore.gorillaz.com/products/cracker-island-standard-vinyl">lists for almost $22</a> – twice the cost of the CD. Plus, subscribing to an online service like Spotify for 15 bucks a month gives you access to millions of tracks. </p>
<p>A third explanation for the resurgence is that <a href="https://www.sciencefocus.com/science/does-vinyl-really-sound-better/">people claim records have better sound quality</a> than digital audio files. Records are analog recordings that capture the entire sound wave. Digital files are sampled at periodic intervals, which means only part of the sound wave is captured.</p>
<p>In addition to sampling, many <a href="https://www.soundonsound.com/techniques/what-data-compression-does-your-music">streaming services and most stored audio files compress the sound</a> information of a recording. <a href="https://cs.stanford.edu/people/eroberts/courses/soco/projects/data-compression/lossy/mp3/concept.htm">Compression allows people</a> to put more songs on their phones and listen to streaming services without using up much bandwidth. However, <a href="https://electronics.sony.com/hi-res-audio-mp3-cd-sound-quality-comparison">compression eliminates some sounds</a>.</p>
<p>While LP records are not sampled or compressed, they do <a href="https://www.perfectvinylforever.com/faq">develop snap, crackle and popping sounds</a> after being played multiple times. Records also skip, which is something that doesn’t happen with digital music.</p>
<p>If you’re really going for quality, CDs are usually a superior digital format because <a href="https://www.gearpatrol.com/tech/audio/a731474/reasons-to-buy-cds/">the audio data is not compressed</a> and has much better fidelity than records. </p>
<p>Yet even though CDs are higher quality, <a href="https://www.riaa.com/u-s-sales-database/">CDs sales have been steadily falling</a> since their peak in 2000.</p>
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<h2>The ultimate status symbol</h2>
<p>In my view, the most likely reason for the resurgence of records was identified by an economist over a century ago. </p>
<p>In the late 1890s, <a href="https://www.econlib.org/library/Enc/bios/Veblen.html">Thorstein Veblen</a> looked at spending in society and wrote an influential book called “<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Theory_of_the_Leisure_Class">The Theory of the Leisure Class</a>.”</p>
<p>In it, he explained that people often buy items as a way to gain and convey status. One of Veblen’s key ideas is that not everything in life is purchased because it is easy, fun or high quality.</p>
<p>Sometimes harder, more time-consuming or exotic items offer more status.</p>
<p>A cake is a great example. Say you offer to bring a cake to a party. You can buy a bakery-made cake that will look perfect and take only a few minutes to purchase. Or you could bake one at home. Even if it’s delicious, it won’t look as nice and will take hours to make. </p>
<p>But if your friends are like mine, they’ll gush over the homemade cake and not mention the perfect store-bought one.</p>
<p>Buying and playing vinyl records is becoming a status symbol. </p>
<p>Today, playing music is effortless. Just shout your request at a smart speaker, like Siri or Alexa, or touch an app on your smartphone.</p>
<p>Playing a record on a turntable takes time and effort. Building your collection requires thoughtful deliberation and money. A record storage cube alongside an accompanying record player also makes for some nice living room decor.</p>
<p>And now I – the uncool professor that I am – find myself bemoaning the loss of all of those albums I sold years ago.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/201444/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jay L. Zagorsky does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Their popularity can’t be explained by the nostalgia of baby boomers or superior sound quality. So what’s going on?Jay L. Zagorsky, Clinical Associate Professor, Boston UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1980752023-02-17T13:24:41Z2023-02-17T13:24:41ZTurning 50? Here are 4 things you can do to improve your health and well-being<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/508743/original/file-20230207-27-jzu8l0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C31%2C5184%2C3406&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Turning 50 can be the time of your life – but it also means adapting to new challenges.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/mature-retired-couple-stop-for-rest-and-hot-drink-royalty-free-image/1387313039?phrase=50%20year%20old&adppopup=true">monkeybusinessimages/iStock via Getty Images Plus</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>When the ball dropped on New Year’s Eve to mark the beginning of 2023, I came to grips with the fact that I would turn 50 years old this year. </p>
<p>Entering a new decade is often a time to pause and reflect on our lives, <a href="https://theconversation.com/midlife-isnt-a-crisis-but-sleep-stress-and-happiness-feel-a-little-different-after-35-or-whenever-middle-age-actually-begins-173131">particularly when reaching middle age</a>. For 50-year-old American men, the average remaining life expectancy <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/vsrr/vsrr023.pdf">is 28 more years; for women, it’s 32</a>. </p>
<p>As a <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=87v4Nk4AAAAJ&hl=en">public health professor</a> who is an expert in health promotion, I started to think about things one could do around this milestone birthday to improve the chances of living a healthy life for decades to come. </p>
<p>After reviewing the literature on healthy aging, I identified four things in particular that take on greater importance when you turn 50 – and that go beyond general health advice that’s beneficial at any age, like <a href="https://theconversation.com/kick-up-your-heels-ballroom-dancing-offers-benefits-to-the-aging-brain-and-could-help-stave-off-dementia-194969">staying active</a>, <a href="https://theconversation.com/ultra-processed-foods-like-cookies-chips-frozen-meals-and-fast-food-may-contribute-to-cognitive-decline-196560">eating well</a> and <a href="https://theconversation.com/better-sleep-for-kids-starts-with-better-sleep-for-parents-especially-after-holiday-disruptions-to-routines-196110">getting enough sleep</a>. </p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">A TV reporter gets a colonoscopy.</span></figcaption>
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<h2>Get a colonoscopy</h2>
<p>Urging everyone to get a colonoscopy is certainly not the most fun piece of advice, but it’s one of the most important. The American Cancer Society estimates that there will be more than 105,000 new cases of colon cancer, more than 45,000 new cases of rectal cancer and <a href="https://www.cancer.org/cancer/colon-rectal-cancer/about/key-statistics.html">over 50,000 deaths from colorectal cancer in 2023 alone</a>.</p>
<p>This makes colorectal cancer the <a href="https://seer.cancer.gov/statfacts/html/common.html#">second leading cause of cancer-related deaths</a> for men and women. </p>
<p>The good news is that the <a href="https://www.cancer.org/cancer/colon-rectal-cancer/detection-diagnosis-staging/survival-rates.html">survival rate is high</a> if the cancer is detected early, before it spreads to other parts of the body. The survival rate drops precipitously if cancer is found in the later stages. </p>
<p>A <a href="https://www.niddk.nih.gov/health-information/diagnostic-tests/colonoscopy">colonoscopy</a> is a routine inpatient procedure that uses a <a href="https://theconversation.com/colonoscopy-is-still-the-most-recommended-screening-for-colorectal-cancer-despite-conflicting-headlines-and-flawed-interpretations-of-a-new-study-192374">scope to examine the rectum and colon</a> and that requires sedation or anesthesia.</p>
<p>In addition to detecting cancerous or potentially malignant polyps, your doctor can also detect swollen tissue and ulcers. These may indicate potential problems and increase the need for more frequent monitoring. </p>
<p>For people at low risk of colorectal cancer, there are <a href="https://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/colon-cancer-screening-decisions-whats-the-best-option-and-when-202206152762">less invasive tests</a> that can be done at home, <a href="https://www.healthline.com/health/cologuard">such as Cologuard</a>. This involves collecting and mailing a sample of poop to a lab. These options should be discussed with your doctor to figure out which screening is best for you. </p>
<p>In 2021 the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force, a national panel of experts, changed its recommendation for beginning colorectal cancer screening <a href="https://doi.org/10.1001/jama.2021.6238">from age 50 to 45</a> for people at low risk. As a result, <a href="https://www.cancer.org/cancer/colon-rectal-cancer/detection-diagnosis-staging/screening-coverage-laws.html">insurance companies are required</a> to cover the cost of screening for anyone age 45 or older. </p>
<p>People at high risk <a href="https://www.uspreventiveservicestaskforce.org/uspstf/recommendation/colorectal-cancer-screening">should get screened even earlier</a>. <a href="https://www.cancer.org/cancer/colon-rectal-cancer/detection-diagnosis-staging/acs-recommendations.html">High risk</a> is defined as a family history of colorectal cancer or a diagnosis of <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/ibd/what-is-IBD.htm">inflammatory bowel disease</a>. Colorectal cancer can occur in younger people too; for example, the “Black Panther” star, actor Chadwick Boseman, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/28/movies/chadwick-boseman-dead.html">died of colon cancer at the age of 43</a> in 2020. </p>
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<span class="caption">Actor Chadwick Boseman at the 2016 NAACP Image Awards in Pasadena, Calif. Boseman died of colon cancer in 2020 at age 43.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/actor-chadwick-boseman-poses-in-the-press-room-at-the-47th-news-photo/508687706?phrase=chadwick%20boseman&adppopup=true">Jason LaVeris/Film Magic via Getty Images</a></span>
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<h2>Get the shingles vaccine</h2>
<p>For many people who grew up in the 1970s and 1980s, getting chickenpox was a rite of passage. I had a particularly severe case around my 10th birthday. </p>
<p>Once you have chickenpox, <a href="https://theconversation.com/chickenpox-and-shingles-virus-lying-dormant-in-your-neurons-can-reactivate-and-increase-your-risk-of-stroke-new-research-identified-a-potential-culprit-194627">the virus lies dormant</a> in your body for the rest of your life. And it <a href="https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/shingles/symptoms-causes/syc-20353054">can reemerge as shingles</a>. </p>
<p>While shingles are not usually life-threatening, they cause a rash and can be extremely painful. Getting shingles also <a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/infdis/jiac405">greatly increases one’s risk of having a stroke</a> over the following year.</p>
<p>The good news is that the shingles vaccine is highly effective. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends that <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/vpd/shingles/public/shingrix/index.html">adults 50 and older get the two-shot regimen</a>, two to six months apart, which is 97% effective at preventing shingles. </p>
<h2>Bump up retirement savings, look for discounts</h2>
<p>Retirement might seem like a long way off, but the <a href="https://news.gallup.com/poll/394943/retiring-planning-retire-later.aspx">average retirement age</a> in the United States in 2022 was 61. The same study found that on average people thought they were going to retire at age 66. </p>
<p>For anyone born after 1960, full retirement benefits <a href="https://www.ssa.gov/benefits/retirement/planner/agereduction.html">don’t kick in until age 67</a>, leaving a six-year gap between that and the average retirement age. </p>
<p>Retiring earlier than you had planned can occur for many reasons, but involuntary ones, like job loss, injury or illness, can be a financial strain. The general rule is that you need about <a href="https://www.aarp.org/retirement/planning-for-retirement/info-2020/how-much-money-do-you-need-to-retire.html">80% of your pre-retirement income</a> to be financially comfortable in retirement. This consists of all sources of income, including Social Security benefits, pensions and investments. </p>
<p>If you are behind where you should be in savings, the Internal Revenue Service allows you <a href="https://www.irs.gov/retirement-plans/plan-participant-employee/retirement-topics-catch-up-contributions">to make catch-up contributions</a> starting the year you turn 50. Employees who are 50 or older with a 401(k), 403(b) or 457(b) can contribute an extra US$7,500 a year. This money grows tax-free and helps provide an extra cushion when you retire. At age 50, an extra $1,000 per year can also be contributed for <a href="https://www.irs.gov/retirement-plans/plan-participant-employee/retirement-topics-ira-contribution-limits">individual retirement accounts and Roth IRA accounts</a>.</p>
<p>Another way to save: Many hotels, restaurants and retail outlets offer senior discounts starting at age 50. </p>
<p>You can find reliable and up-to-date discounts by joining the <a href="https://www.aarp.org/membership/benefits/all-offers-a-z/?intcmp=GLOBAL-HDR-LNK-CLK-BENEFITS-UXDIA">AARP</a>. This nonprofit organization advocates for people ages 50 and older. Membership is under $20 per year and provides hundreds of discounts. </p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">The challenges of turning 50.</span></figcaption>
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<h2>Get your paperwork in order</h2>
<p>While people in their 50s and beyond often still have their best decades ahead of them, it is vital to prepare for the unexpected – at any age. The <a href="https://www.statista.com/statistics/241572/death-rate-by-age-and-sex-in-the-us/">mortality rate for people ages 55 to 64 is double that</a> of those age 45 to 54. </p>
<p>This is an excellent time to decide how you want your affairs to be handled. According to the National Institute on Aging, this includes your <a href="https://www.nia.nih.gov/health/getting-your-affairs-order">will, living will and a durable power of attorney</a>. </p>
<p>A will describes how you would like your financial assets distributed after your death. However, <a href="https://theconversation.com/68-of-americans-do-not-have-a-will-137686">most Americans don’t have a will</a>. There are several <a href="https://theconversation.com/online-tools-put-will-writing-in-reach-for-most-people-but-theyre-not-the-end-of-the-line-for-producing-a-legally-binding-document-173569">online tools for wills</a> and <a href="https://theconversation.com/want-to-do-more-for-your-favorite-charity-consider-a-planned-gift-138241">bequests</a> that can make this process easier. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/consumer-health/in-depth/living-wills/art-20046303">Living wills</a> indicate the type of care you want or don’t want if you are unable to communicate your preferences. The <a href="https://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/consumer-health/in-depth/living-wills/art-20046303">durable power of attorney</a> is a document that allows someone you appoint to make health care decisions for you if you cannot. This is different from a general power of attorney, which ends if you can no longer make decisions on your own.</p>
<p>These may seem like a time-consuming list of things to do, but breaking them down into separate tasks makes it more manageable. So far, I have bumped up my retirement savings and scheduled my colonoscopy – even though I’m five years late on that one, based on the new recommendations. </p>
<p>I will get the rest done by the end of the year – and if you’re turning 50 or just planning ahead, I hope you do too. Admittedly, not all of it is fun, but everything on this checklist will add security to your years, and perhaps years to your life.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/198075/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jay Maddock does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Middle age means staying a step ahead on both the medical and financial fronts.Jay Maddock, Professor of Public Health, Texas A&M UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1881972022-09-16T12:17:16Z2022-09-16T12:17:16ZThese high school ‘classics’ have been taught for generations – could they be on their way out?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/484952/original/file-20220915-25735-8jjzi8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=17%2C34%2C5734%2C3794&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">High school students have studied many of the same books for generations. Is it time for a change?</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/william-shakespeare-royalty-free-image/168625734?adppopup=true">Andrew_Howe via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>If you went to high school in the United States anytime since the 1960s, you were likely assigned some of the following books: Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet,” “Julius Caesar” and “Macbeth”; John Steinbeck’s “Of Mice and Men”; F. Scott Fitzgerald’s “The Great Gatsby”; Harper Lee’s “To Kill a Mockingbird”; and William Golding’s “The Lord of the Flies.”</p>
<p>For many former students, these books and other so-called “classics” represent high school English. But despite the efforts of reformers, both <a href="https://eric.ed.gov/?q=multicultural+canon&id=ED371401">past</a> and <a href="https://disrupttexts.org/">present</a>, the most frequently assigned titles have never represented America’s diverse student body.</p>
<p>Why did these books become classics in the U.S.? How have they withstood challenges to their status? And will they continue to dominate high school reading lists? Or will they be replaced by a different set of books that will become classics for students in the 21st century?</p>
<h2>The high school canon</h2>
<p>The set of books that is taught again and again, broadly across the country, is referred to by literature scholars and English teachers as “the canon.” </p>
<p>The high school canon has been shaped by many factors. Shakespeare’s plays, especially “Macbeth” and “Julius Caesar,” have been taught consistently <a href="http://www.jstor.org/stable/1488191">since the beginning of the 20th century</a>, when the curriculum was determined by college entrance requirements. Others, like “To Kill a Mockingbird,” winner of the 1961 Pulitzer Prize for fiction, were ushered into the classroom by current events – in the case of Lee’s book, <a href="https://time.com/3928162/mockingbird-civil-rights-movement/">the civil rights movement</a>. Some books just seem especially suited for classroom teaching: “Of Mice and Men” has a straightforward plot, easily identifiable themes and is under 100 pages long.</p>
<p>Titles become “traditional” when they are passed down through generations. As the education historian Jonna Perrillo observes, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/made-by-history/2022/09/12/todays-book-bans-might-be-more-dangerous-than-those-past/">parents tend to approve</a> of having their children study the same books that they once did.</p>
<p>The last period of significant change to the canon was during the 1960s and 1970s, when the largest generation of the 20th century, the baby boomers, went to high school. For instance, in 1963, <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/810053">a survey of 800 students</a> at Evanston Township High School in Illinois revealed that “To Kill a Mockingbird,” first published in 1960, was by far the “most enjoyed book,” followed by two books that had been published in the 1950s, J.D. Salinger’s “The Catcher in the Rye” and Golding’s “The Lord of the Flies.” None of these books were yet traditional, yet they became so for the next generation.</p>
<p>A comparison of national surveys conducted in 1963 and 1988 shows how several books that were introduced to the classroom when the boomers were students had become classics when boomers were teachers.</p>
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<p>During the 1960s and 1970s, teachers even reframed “Romeo and Juliet” as a contemporary work. Lesson plans from the era referred to its adaptations into “<a href="http://www.jstor.org/stable/811316">West Side Story</a>” – a musical that <a href="https://www.westsidestory.com/1957-broadway">initially came out in 1957</a> – and Franco Zefferelli’s <a href="https://eric.ed.gov/?q=zeffirelli+romeo&id=ED026386">risqué 1968 film version</a> of Shakespeare’s story of star-crossed lovers. It became the perfect hook for ninth graders in a study of Shakespeare that would conclude in 12th grade with “Macbeth.”</p>
<h2>Efforts to diversify</h2>
<p>English education professor <a href="https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED309453">Arthur Applebee observed in 1989</a> that, since the 1960s, “leaders in the profession of English teaching have tried to broaden the curriculum to include more selections by women and minority authors.” But in the late 1980s, according to his findings, the high school “top ten” still included only one book by a woman – Lee’s “To Kill a Mockingbird” – and none by minority authors.</p>
<p>At that time, a <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/1991/09/23/opinion/the-mosaic-and-the-melting-pot.html">raging debate</a> was underway about whether America was a “melting pot” in which many cultures became one, or a colorful “mosaic” in which many cultures coexisted. Proponents of the latter view argued for a multicultural canon, but they were ultimately unable to establish one. A 2011 survey of Southern schools by Joyce Stallworth and Louel C. Gibbons, published in “English Leadership Quarterly,” found that the five most frequently taught books were all traditional selections: “The Great Gatsby,” “Romeo and Juliet,” Homer’s “The Odyssey,” Arthur Miller’s “The Crucible” and “To Kill a Mockingbird.”</p>
<p>One explanation for this persistence is that the canon is not simply a list: It takes form as stacks of copies on shelves in the storage area known as the “book room.” Changes to the inventory require time, money and effort. Depending on the district, replacing a classic <a href="https://ncte.org/statement/material-selection-ela/">might require approval by the school board</a>. And it would create more work for teachers who are already maxed out. </p>
<p>“Too many teachers, probably myself included, teach from the traditional canon,” a teacher told Stallworth and Gibbons. “We are overworked and underpaid and struggle to find the time to develop quality lessons for new books.” </p>
<h2>The end of an era?</h2>
<p>Esau McCauley, the author of “Reading While Black,” describes the list of classics by white authors as the “<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/09/07/opinion/what-should-high-schoolers-read.html?searchResultPosition=1">pre-integration canon</a>.” At least two factors suggest that its dominance over the curriculum is coming to an end.</p>
<p>First, the battles over which books should be taught have become more intense than ever. On the one hand, progressives like the teachers of the growing <a href="https://disrupttexts.org/">#DisruptTexts movement</a> call for the inclusion of books by <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/article/what-is-bipoc.html">Black, Native American and other authors of color</a> - and they question the status of the classics. On the other hand, conservatives have challenged or successfully banned the teaching of many new books that deal with gender and sexuality or race.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/484967/original/file-20220915-6106-4kq0zl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Toni Morrison wears her hair in gray locks under a cream-colored hat." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/484967/original/file-20220915-6106-4kq0zl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/484967/original/file-20220915-6106-4kq0zl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/484967/original/file-20220915-6106-4kq0zl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/484967/original/file-20220915-6106-4kq0zl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/484967/original/file-20220915-6106-4kq0zl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/484967/original/file-20220915-6106-4kq0zl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/484967/original/file-20220915-6106-4kq0zl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Conservatives have sought to ban books written by Toni Morrison.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/toni-morrison-american-writer-novelist-editor-italy-news-photo/1129511612?adppopup=true">Leonardo Cendamo via Getty Images</a></span>
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<p>PEN America, a nonprofit organization that fights for free expression for writers, reports “<a href="https://pen.org/banned-in-the-usa/">a profound increase</a>” in book bans. The outcome might be a literature curriculum that more resembles the political divisions in this country. Much more than in the past, students in conservative and progressive districts might read very different books.</p>
<p>Second, English Language Arts education itself is changing. State standards, such as those <a href="http://www.nysed.gov/common/nysed/files/912elastandardsglance.pdf">adopted by New York in 2017</a>, no longer make the teaching of literature the primary focus of English class. Instead, there is a new emphasis on “<a href="http://www.nysed.gov/curriculum-instruction/teaching-learning-information-literacy">information literacy</a>.” And while preceding generations of teachers voiced concerns about the distractions of <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/42832830">radio</a> and then <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/42799566">television</a>, books may have an even smaller share of students’ attention in <a href="https://countercurrents.org/2021/04/impact-of-social-media-on-our-attention-span-and-its-drastic-aftermath/">the age of cellphones, the internet, social media and online gaming</a>.</p>
<p>“We no longer live in a print-dominant, text-only world,” the National Council of Teachers of English proclaims in <a href="https://ncte.org/statement/media_education/">a 2022 position statement</a>. The group calls for English teachers to put less emphasis on books in order to train students to use and analyze a variety of media. Accordingly, students across the country may not only have fewer books in common, but they also may be reading fewer books altogether.</p>
<h2>Why teach literature?</h2>
<p>Over generations, English teachers have voiced many reasons to teach books, and the canon in particular: to instill a <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/816405">common culture</a>, foster <a href="https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED027289">citizenship</a>, build <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/820324">empathy</a> and cultivate <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/4128931">lifelong readers</a>. These goals have little to do with the skills emphasized by contemporary academic standards. But if literature is going to continue to be an important part of American education, it is important to talk not only about what books to teach, but the reasons why.</p>
<p><em>This story has been updated to correct the year that “West Side Story” appeared as a musical.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/188197/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Andrew Newman has received funding from John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation.</span></em></p>An English professor takes a critical look at why today’s students are assigned the same books that were assigned decades ago – and why American school curricula are so difficult to change.Andrew Newman, Professor and Chair, Stony Brook University (The State University of New York)Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1877362022-08-02T12:57:52Z2022-08-02T12:57:52ZWhy food insecurity among Gen Z is so much higher than for other age groups<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/476195/original/file-20220727-14-nkxvg5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=121%2C56%2C4995%2C2926&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">About 30% of Gen Z adults needed help from a food bank or other charity to get enough food in 2022. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/FoodBanksUtah/71a3a68e5d4f4c85869e41ca301802ed/photo?Query=food%20bank&mediaType=photo&sortBy=arrivaldatetime:desc&dateRange=Anytime&totalCount=2982&currentItemNo=35">AP Photo/Rick Bowmer</a></span></figcaption></figure><figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/476532/original/file-20220728-20112-skb7td.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/476532/original/file-20220728-20112-skb7td.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=255&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/476532/original/file-20220728-20112-skb7td.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=255&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/476532/original/file-20220728-20112-skb7td.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=255&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/476532/original/file-20220728-20112-skb7td.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=321&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/476532/original/file-20220728-20112-skb7td.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=321&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/476532/original/file-20220728-20112-skb7td.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=321&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="attribution"><a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
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<p>Adult members of Generation Z are experiencing food insecurity at <a href="https://ag.purdue.edu/cfdas/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/Report_06-2022.pdf">over twice the rate of the average American</a>, according to our latest consumer food survey. In fact, about 1 in 3 Americans born from 1996-2004 have had trouble affording enough food in 2022.</p>
<p>That compares with fewer than 1 in 5 millennials and members of Generation X, and fewer than 1 in 10 baby boomers. </p>
<p>We run the <a href="https://ag.purdue.edu/cfdas/about/our-team/">Center for Food Demand Analysis and Sustainability</a> at Purdue University, and every month, through our Consumer Food Insights survey, we query over 1,200 Americans with the goal of tracking national food security as well as many other behaviors, attitudes and preferences related to food. </p>
<p>Food insecurity means <a href="https://www.ers.usda.gov/topics/food-nutrition-assistance/food-security-in-the-u-s/definitions-of-food-security/">having a lack of money or other resources for food</a>. And when food insecurity surges, it can take a long time for affected populations to recover. After the Great Recession that ran from 2007 to 2009, <a href="https://www.usda.gov/media/blog/2019/10/03/food-insecurity-us-households-2018-down-2017-continuing-trend-and-returning">food insecurity increased by 34%</a>. It took a decade for food insecurity to drop to its pre-recession levels.</p>
<p><iframe id="AzPLk" class="tc-infographic-datawrapper" src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/AzPLk/3/" height="400px" width="100%" style="border: none" frameborder="0"></iframe></p>
<p>With COVID-19, food insecurity increased again, particularly among the most vulnerable groups in society, <a href="https://www.doi.org/10.1002/aepp.13099">such as seniors</a> and <a href="https://www.doi.org/10.1002/aepp.13069">households with children</a>. </p>
<p>But it also increased for members of Gen Z, who were the <a href="https://www.bls.gov/news.release/archives/empsit_01082021.htm#:%7E:text=HOUSEHOLD%20DATA%0ATable%20A%2D10.%20Selected%20unemployment%20indicators%2C%20seasonally%20adjusted">most likely to face unemployment</a> due to the pandemic. And for those attending college, the pandemic reduced essential food services on campus and <a href="https://hechingerreport.org/more-students-are-dropping-out-of-college-during-covid-and-it-could-get-worse/">increased the number of students dropping out of school</a>.</p>
<p>Now, with <a href="https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/CPIAUCSL">inflation soaring at the fastest pace in 40 years</a>, those who lost jobs during the pandemic and college students with fixed incomes must stretch their limited resources even further at the grocery store.</p>
<p>We have found that education, income and race are three of the biggest factors driving food insecurity among America’s youngest generation. Members of Gen Z without a college degree or who make less than the <a href="https://aspe.hhs.gov/topics/poverty-economic-mobility/poverty-guidelines/prior-hhs-poverty-guidelines-federal-register-references/2021-poverty-guidelines">federal poverty line</a> have a much higher risk of being food insecure – over three times the risk of other Gen Z households. The rate of food insecurity among Gen Z Black and Hispanic households is almost double that of white and Asian households. </p>
<p>Other research shows that factors like marriage and owning your own home <a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/aepp/ppt024">typically improve food security</a>. Since young people typically aren’t married or own a home, Gen Z by and large isn’t benefiting from these factors.</p>
<p>Additionally, full-time college students are generally <a href="https://www.fns.usda.gov/snap/students">not eligible for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program</a>, formerly known as food stamps. Although student eligibility has been expanded during the ongoing COVID-19 public health emergency, the paperwork required to apply <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/puar.13497">can potentially discourage young people</a> who have much less experience navigating the government bureaucracy. </p>
<p>Our survey also shows a significant portion of Gen Z – 30% – has relied on free groceries from a pantry, church or other charity.</p>
<p>Prices for food consumed at home are currently jumping at over 12% a year. That’s the <a href="https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/CUSR0000SAF11#">fastest pace since 1979</a>. Our survey data only reflects some of these recent price gains, so it’s unclear yet how much this will affect food insecurity. But what is clear is that Gen Z Americans, like other vulnerable groups, need more support to ensure they can access an affordable diet.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/187736/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>About a third of American adults in Generation Z lack the money or resources needed for reliable access to nutritious food.Sam Polzin, Food and Agriculture Survey Scientist, Purdue UniversityAhmad Zia Wahdat, Postdoctoral Research Associate, Agricultural Economics, Purdue UniversityJayson Lusk, Professor of Agricultural Economics, Purdue UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1838932022-05-30T15:12:44Z2022-05-30T15:12:44ZMore long-term care beds in Ontario won’t help without well-paid, well-trained staff<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/465394/original/file-20220525-18-6c6gst.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C5138%2C3671&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A resident chats with workers at Orchard Villa Long-Term Care in Pickering, Ont., in June 2020.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Frank Gunn</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Days away from the Ontario election, with health care a <a href="https://www.cp24.com/news/healthcare-number-one-issue-for-ontario-voters-new-poll-suggests-1.5888145">top issue</a>, what are the three major parties’ proposals for fixing Ontario’s chronic long-term care problems?</p>
<p>The governing Conservatives are planning <a href="https://toronto.ctvnews.ca/ontario-plans-to-spend-933m-on-increasing-improving-long-term-care-spaces-1.5353011?cache=ipijopopjosws%3FclipId%3D89531">to open 30,000 more beds and upgrade existing facilities</a>. </p>
<p><a href="https://ontarioliberal.ca/elder-care-plan/">The Liberals</a> plan to end for-profit long-term care and increase the proportion of at-home care, increasing spending by 10 per cent annually. </p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.ontariondp.ca/platform">New Democrats</a> would add long-term care spaces, help seniors live at home longer and upgrade the pay of the personal support workers who provide most of the physical care in nursing homes and home-care settings.</p>
<p>I wouldn’t believe any of their promises.</p>
<p>Their plans gloss over what is really going on — we haven’t been training nearly enough health-care workers necessary to care for our elderly. The promised new beds and money for services require people to actually work at long-term care facilities and provide care, which we don’t have.</p>
<p>Let’s not blame the politicians completely though. All of this was predicted years ago, yet it took a pandemic for many of us to wake up to the reality. Our elder-care system is in trouble and Ontario’s <a href="https://www12.statcan.gc.ca/census-recensement/2021/as-sa/98-200-X/2021003/98-200-X2021003-eng.cfm">fastest growing demographic</a> faces a grim future. Many of us may shortly find ourselves or our loved ones without care.</p>
<h2>COVID-19 devastation</h2>
<p>We were all saddened, often angered, by what we saw happening in Ontario’s long-term care homes in the early months of the pandemic. COVID-19 swept into facilities filled with vulnerable residents but severely lacking in well-trained, adequately paid, experienced professional care workers. </p>
<p>The results were tragic — <a href="https://covid19-sciencetable.ca/sciencebrief/covid-19-and-ontarios-long-term-care-homes-2/">many COVID-19 deaths in Ontario</a> <a href="https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0262807">occurred in long-term care homes</a> while many more residents were sickened, forced into quarantine and separated from their families.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A sea of ornamental poppies in front of a long-term care home" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/465392/original/file-20220525-16-38henl.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/465392/original/file-20220525-16-38henl.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/465392/original/file-20220525-16-38henl.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/465392/original/file-20220525-16-38henl.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/465392/original/file-20220525-16-38henl.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/465392/original/file-20220525-16-38henl.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/465392/original/file-20220525-16-38henl.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">A sea of ornamental poppies in front of the Main Street Terrace long-term care home in Toronto in November 2020. The home experienced a COVID-19 outbreak among residents and staff.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Frank Gunn</span></span>
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<p>The pandemic exposed problems that had long festered. Many of them boiled down to not having enough staff, or staff who weren’t trained sufficiently and who lacked experience. That’s because there is simply not enough money being spent on people to look after us as we age.</p>
<p>Many of us, at some point, will cease to be able to live independently. <a href="https://aspe.hhs.gov/reports/what-lifetime-risk-needing-receiving-long-term-services-supports-0">Research suggests we’ll likely need care in a residential home</a> or, if fortunate, in our own home. Many of us will be dependent on others at some point … but who will we depend on?</p>
<p>Long-term care is, at its root, straightforward. Vulnerable people, many of them older, need skilled, trustworthy caregivers to help them move around, bathe and dress.</p>
<p>While technology and automation have made many other sectors much more efficient, their use is <a href="https://www.mcmasteroptimalaging.org/blog/detail/blog/2021/08/11/harnessing-the-potential-of-technology-to-strengthen-the-long-term-care-sector-(part-1)">naturally limited</a> in long-term care or home-based care, since almost all the work is one-to-one skilled personal care. Health care, consequently, requires paying people to help other people.</p>
<h2>The backbone of elder care</h2>
<p>Whether care happens at home or in a facility, most care is provided by personal support workers, who are the unregulated backbone of elder care. Their jobs are stressful and laborious, and they don’t get <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/home-care-workers-poorly-paid-shortage-gender-race-issue-1.5953597">paid enough</a>. As a result, there is <a href="https://www.ontario.ca/page/long-term-care-staffing-study">high staff turnover</a>, which makes it difficult to develop an experienced, professional and committed workforce. </p>
<p>Important care is also provided by nurses, therapists, physicians and others who are also not incentivized to care for our elders.</p>
<p>More beds will not help unless those beds come with real staff. This has been made plain during the pandemic, when anecdotal reports circulate that much of the COVID-19 emergency care funds were returned because <a href="https://toronto.ctvnews.ca/ontario-long-term-care-homes-see-staff-absences-of-20-to-30-per-cent-amid-outbreaks-1.5730144">there wasn’t enough staff available</a> to pay to expand care.</p>
<p>The number of personal care workers, nurses and others <a href="https://www.oecd.org/publications/who-cares-attracting-and-retaining-elderly-care-workers-92c0ef68-en.htm">has declined per capita in Canada, and is well below comparable countries</a>. </p>
<p>It’s no surprise that burnout among care workers is at <a href="https://covid19-sciencetable.ca/sciencebrief/burnout-in-hospital-based-healthcare-workers-during-covid-19/">an all-time high</a>, and many are working reduced hours or leaving health care altogether. It’s also no surprise that as society ages, so do care workers, <a href="https://www.conferenceboard.ca/e-library/abstract.aspx?did=11445">compounding the issue</a>.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1527622123002404864"}"></div></p>
<p>What Ontario most needs is far more people caring for our elders and other vulnerable populations, and for those caregivers to be better trained and better paid.</p>
<p>So when political candidates talk about their long-term care proposals, let’s remember there isn’t much point unless we train and adequately compensate enough workers to care for our loved ones.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/183893/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Andrew Costa receives funding from: Canadian Institutes for Health Research, Public Health Agency of Canada, Health Canada, Retirement Homes Regulatory Authority. I do not accept private funding, gifts, or fees.
I hold the position of Schlegel Chair at McMaster University, which was established by a gift by the Schlegel family - who own and operate Schlegel Villages; a chain of long-term care and retirement homes. Schlegel Chair endowment was a charitable donation to McMaster. I was appointed to Chair by institution and have no obligation to the donor. </span></em></p>When political candidates talk about their long-term care proposals, let’s remember there isn’t much point unless we recruit and adequately compensate enough workers to care for our loved ones.Andrew Costa, Associate Professor | Schlegel Chair in Clinical Epidemiology & Aging, McMaster UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1770212022-03-03T13:26:55Z2022-03-03T13:26:55ZSkateboarding’s spiritual side – skaters find meaning in falls and breaking the monotony of urban life<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/449605/original/file-20220302-17-1flduab.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=115%2C23%2C5002%2C3337&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A skateboarder attempts a jump.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/young-men-skateboarding-in-urban-environment-royalty-free-image/542722993?adppopup=true"> MoMo Productions/Collections Stone via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Over the last decade the numbers of those identifying as “Spiritual But Not Religious,” or SBNR, have continued to increase. In 2017, <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/">Pew Research Center</a> found that <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2017/09/06/more-americans-now-say-theyre-spiritual-but-not-religious/">a quarter of Americans</a> identified as SBNR. </p>
<p>Sociologist <a href="https://sociology.unc.edu/wade-clark-roof/">Wade Roof Clark</a> argues that the current trend started with the Baby Boomer generation, which began more broadly exploring <a href="https://press.princeton.edu/books/paperback/9780691089966/spiritual-marketplace">spiritual options</a> in the 1960s and ‘70s.</p>
<p>Those identifying as spiritual tend to adopt different forms of spirituality <a href="https://www.prri.org/press-release/new-survey-one-five-americans-spiritual-not-religious/">while embracing some elements of religion or rejecting religion altogether</a>. Many scholars believe this to be an attempt by individuals <a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199931002.001.0001">to resist religious authority</a>. As individuals explore different spiritual resources, they may blend forms of practices like yoga or meditation while also taking on everyday life experiences as part of a spiritual journey.</p>
<p>In 2020, along with a research colleague, I began looking at everyday practices that might be considered spiritual. </p>
<p>Building upon other research projects noting the <a href="https://www.bloomsbury.com/us/understanding-sport-as-a-religious-phenomenon-9781472514059/">similarities between sports and religion</a> in society today, we interviewed skaters at skate parks to see how they understood skateboarding. </p>
<p>After conducting our research, we concluded that there are spiritual elements to skateboarding for some within the skateboarding community. </p>
<h2>Dealing with a harsh urban environment</h2>
<p>For our research, we began hanging out at three local skate parks as a way of establishing trust with the skaters. My research colleague is a skater, and she educated me on specific tricks, the skating culture and the slang. Noting those who tended to be regulars, we began to conduct interviews, asking the skaters about style, tricks and, ultimately, what skateboarding means to them. Because of the pandemic, we pivoted to asking skaters to complete an online, open-ended survey. We were able to garner seven interviews and 24 survey responses. None of our respondents identified with any religious tradition.</p>
<p>The skaters we interviewed often acknowledged that through skateboarding, they were able to give meaning to their local spaces, which tended to lack natural fauna. Accepting one’s <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/17430437.2017.1390567">environment of concrete sidewalks, stairs and parking lots</a> can lead to a spiritual practice of imagination. </p>
<p>Where many people see the banal aspects of urban geographies, skateboarders can see opportunities for exploration, as we found. One skater explained, “I don’t see skateboarding as a sport, but a way to navigate and manipulate an urban environment in ways you see fit.”</p>
<h2>Failure as spiritual</h2>
<p>Skateboarding can be dangerous and lead to multiple types of <a href="https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamapediatrics/fullarticle/2786458?casa_token=BRPxKUqylbkAAAAA:sdHYqxIhBLykjjjhIygebf0M68Cod2vC-S6t7kAEGODlQPRp6tkvbFPj9pKXkr4IEMDVPTPk_A">physical injuries</a>. A quick scan of <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dVRs2uwFyw0">skating videos</a> on YouTube will demonstrate how often skaters fail to land tricks or even injure themselves skating.</p>
<p>After we analyzed our interview data, which is being published in a forthcoming journal, we began to understand failing as a spiritual exercise. Whereas many religious objectives include working toward perfection, spiritual practices often embrace <a href="https://www.google.com/books/edition/The_Spirituality_of_Imperfection/5B5dgtFUuJAC?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=spirituality+imperfection&pg=PR7&printsec=frontcover">the imperfect</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Male skateboarder falling off of railing in skate park ." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/449611/original/file-20220302-30463-tgwlgf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/449611/original/file-20220302-30463-tgwlgf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/449611/original/file-20220302-30463-tgwlgf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/449611/original/file-20220302-30463-tgwlgf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/449611/original/file-20220302-30463-tgwlgf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/449611/original/file-20220302-30463-tgwlgf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/449611/original/file-20220302-30463-tgwlgf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Accepting failures is part of the practice.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/skateboarder-falling-off-of-railing-in-skate-park-royalty-free-image/516750419?adppopup=true">Thomas Barwick/Collection DigitalVision via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p><a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psychsport.2019.101603">Scholars have argued</a> that religion and spirituality enhance athletic performance by creating mechanisms to cope with <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/1612197X.2021.1891123">performance failure and injury</a>. Yet, other studies indicate some concepts of <a href="https://trace.tennessee.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1019&context=jcskls">religious perfectionism</a> actually interfere with athletic performance. </p>
<p>What we learned is that the dangerous elements of skateboarding separate the exercise compared to sports that are deemed safer. Certainly there are risks involved in <a href="https://injuryfacts.nsc.org/home-and-community/safety-topics/sports-and-recreational-injuries/">many team sports</a>, but skateboarders understand those risks differently. In skaters’ minds, the dangerous elements of skateboarding separate it over and against safer sports. They understand the risks as something crucial and valuable to be accepted.</p>
<p>“You don’t always want to land stuff, you know?” explained a skater, “And that’s how you know you’re alive because you almost died kind of thing.” In fact, failing and falling (known as slamming) is integral in skating practices, a spiritual rite of passage. “Falling is easily half the battle, if not more. That’s the rite of passage to being a ‘skateboarder.’ It’s not your friend. It hardly likes you. And it will put you in your place real quick.” </p>
<p>Furthermore, the rite of passage of slamming proves a skater’s authenticity into the skating community. “You’ve got to be willing to pay for your time in blood, or else you’re just a culture vulture,” is how one skater described this rite. </p>
<h2>Skateboarding as a spiritual cure</h2>
<p>The more we spoke with skateboarders, the more we realized that skating is a spiritual exercise, possibly a kind of <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/15327086211004879?casa_token=knV6jnk4cZUAAAAA%3AGsdhcv4fTuwm6pA4StcX1bWbEbc8ndtkdSaiLNYsgO0JYyNRTXUy1jqMWOEs4a07YkFEXI6tI6X-&">remedy against boredom in modern life</a>. Past studies have shown that skateboarding provides <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s10902-009-9140-y">moments of autonomy and freedom</a>. </p>
<p>Skateboarding was almost like a spiritual tool to re-imagine the monotony of life in urban geographies. Landing a kick flip or grinding down a handrail yields an exuberance and an outlet. One skater explained, “Skateboarding gave me independence, confidence and a way to express myself and my artistic traits.” </p>
<p>Another skater told us as he sat on his skateboard and the sun set: “You have to be willing and dedicated so much for something that actually has no value to anyone except yourself. Falling teaches you that sometimes in life shit’s not easy. There are so many obstacles along the way, but you need to figure them out, learn, adapt and continue to move forward and obtain the goal you’ve been wanting to accomplish.”</p>
<p>Others described the ways in which skateboarding is a meditative practice. When we asked another skater to simply describe what skateboarding is, he offered: “Infinity, and it represents openness. It’s a lifestyle for inventor minds. Skateboarding is falling down and getting back up. Inventing. Playing for the sake of playing. Toying around. That is why I do it and what I feel from my participation is similar to meditation, like a lulled-out, relaxed state – the very act of riding the board changes the way you move through life.”</p>
<p>Although skateboarding and skateboarders generally are stereotyped as vulgar <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2004/01/25/nyregion/skaters-want-a-better-image.html">trespassers who damage property</a>, skateboarding itself seems to be a way for some individuals to cope with the conditions of the contemporary world. </p>
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<p>We’re not the only researchers to find correlations between skateboarding and religion and spirituality. Sociologist <a href="https://www.pauljamesoconnor.com/">Paul O'Connor</a> <a href="https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-030-24857-4">discovered religious elements</a> in skateboarding, like iconography of certain popular skaters and pilgrimage spaces marked as sacred in the skating world. He even describes skating as a “DIY (Do It Yourself) religion.”</p>
<p>Spiritual practices don’t always mean supernatural. Instead, spirituality is often about examining the everyday and asking how meaningful exercises can be developed to cultivate the individual into a better person.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/177021/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Terry Shoemaker does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The ‘Spiritual But Not Religious’ are embracing different forms of spirituality – skateboarding may be one of them.Terry Shoemaker, Lecturer in Religious Studies, Arizona State UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1671382021-09-03T10:21:54Z2021-09-03T10:21:54ZBoomers vs millennials? Free yourself from the phoney generation wars<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/418870/original/file-20210901-23-1w0c1m4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=77%2C38%2C4203%2C1944&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">There are real differences between generations – but none of them relate to avocado toast.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Generational thinking is a big idea that’s been horribly corrupted and devalued by endless myths and stereotypes. These clichés have fuelled fake battles between “snowflake” millennials and “selfish” baby boomers, with younger generations facing a “war on woke” and older generations accused of “stealing” the future from the young. </p>
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<p><em>You can listen to more articles from The Conversation, narrated by Noa, <a href="https://theconversation.com/uk/topics/audio-narrated-99682">here</a>.</em></p>
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<p>As I argue in my book, <a href="https://atlantic-books.co.uk/book/generations/">Generations</a>, this is a real shame. A more careful understanding of what’s really different between generations is one of the best tools we have to understand change – and predict the future.</p>
<p>Some of the great names in sociology and philosophy saw understanding generational change as central to understanding society overall. <a href="http://dhspriory.org/kenny/PhilTexts/Comte/Philosophy2.pdf">Auguste Comte</a>, for example, identified the generation as a key factor in “the basic speed of human development”. </p>
<p>He argued that “we should not hide the fact that our social progress rests essentially upon death; which is to say that the successive steps of humanity necessarily require a continuous renovation … from one generation to the next”. We humans get set in our ways once we’re past our formative years, and we need the constant injection of new participants to keep society moving forward. </p>
<p>Understanding whether, and how, generations are different is vital to understanding society. The balance between generations is constantly shifting, as older cohorts die out and are replaced by new entrants. If younger generations truly do have different attitudes or behaviours to older generations, this will reshape society, and we can, to some extent, predict how it will develop if we can identify those differences.</p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/418949/original/file-20210901-17-n03tna.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/418949/original/file-20210901-17-n03tna.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=337&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/418949/original/file-20210901-17-n03tna.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=337&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/418949/original/file-20210901-17-n03tna.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=337&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/418949/original/file-20210901-17-n03tna.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/418949/original/file-20210901-17-n03tna.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/418949/original/file-20210901-17-n03tna.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The changing generational balance of the UK.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>But in place of this big thinking, today we get clickbait headlines and bad research on millennials “<a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/millennials-hate-napkins-2016-3?r=US&IR=T">killing the napkin industry</a>” or on how baby boomers have “<a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2019/06/boomers-are-blame-aging-america/592336/">ruined everything</a>”. We’ve fallen a long way.</p>
<h2>Myth busting</h2>
<p>To see the true value of generational thinking, we need to identify and discard the many myths. For example, as I outline in the book, gen Z and millennials are not lazy at work or disloyal to their employers. They’re also no more materialistic than previous generations of young: a focus on being rich is something we tend to grow out of.</p>
<p>Old people are not uncaring or unwilling to act on climate change: in fact, they are more likely than young people to boycott products for social purpose reasons.</p>
<p>And our current generation of young are not a particularly unusual group of “culture warriors”. Young people are always at the leading edge of change in cultural norms, around race, immigration, sexuality and gender equality. The issues have changed, but the gap between young and old is not greater now than in the past.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, there are real, and vitally important, generational differences hidden in this mess. To see them, we need to separate the three effects that explain all change in societies. Some patterns are simple “lifecycle effects”, where attitudes and behaviours are to do with our age, not which generation we are born into. Some are “period effects” – where everyone is affected, such as in a war, economic crisis or a pandemic. </p>
<p>And finally, there are “cohort effects”, which is where a new generation is different from others at the same age, and they stay different. It’s impossible to entirely separate these distinct forces, but we can often get some way towards it – and when we do, we can predict the future in a much more meaningful way. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Two young people holding a tiny paper house." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/418905/original/file-20210901-15-pom937.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/418905/original/file-20210901-15-pom937.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=370&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/418905/original/file-20210901-15-pom937.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=370&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/418905/original/file-20210901-15-pom937.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=370&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/418905/original/file-20210901-15-pom937.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=465&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/418905/original/file-20210901-15-pom937.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=465&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/418905/original/file-20210901-15-pom937.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=465&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Millennial home ownership in practice.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>There are many real generational differences, in vitally important areas of life. For example, the probability of you owning your own home is hugely affected by when you were born. Millennials are around half as likely to be a homeowner than generations born only a couple of decades earlier. </p>
<p>There is also a real cohort effect in experience of mental health disorders, particularly among recent generations of young women. Our relationship with alcohol and likelihood of smoking is also tied to our cohort, with huge generational declines in very regular drinking and smoking. Each of these point to different futures, from increased strain on mental health services to declining alcohol sales. </p>
<p>But lifecycle and period effects are vitally important too. For example, there is truth in the idea that we grow more conservative as we age. One analysis suggests that this ageing effect is worth around <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0261379413000875">0.35% to the Conservatives each year</a>, which may not sound like a lot, but is very valuable over the course of a political lifetime.</p>
<p>And, of course, the pandemic provides a very powerful example of how period effects can dramatically change things for us all.</p>
<h2>Reaching beyond the avocado</h2>
<p>When there is such richness in the realities, why are there so many myths? It’s partly down to bad marketing and workplace research – that is, people jumping on the generation bandwagon to get media coverage for their products or to sell consultancy to businesses on how to engage young employees. </p>
<p>This has become its own mini-industry. In 2015, US companies spent up to US$70 million (£51 million) on this sort of “advice” <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/helping-bosses-decode-millennialsfor-20-000-an-hour-1463505666">according to the Wall Street Journal</a>, with some experts making as much as US$20,000 an hour. Over 400 LinkedIn users now describe themselves solely as a “millennial expert” or “millennial consultant”.</p>
<p>Campaigners and politicians also play to these imagined differences. Our increasing focus on “<a href="https://www.kcl.ac.uk/policy-institute/assets/culture-wars-in-the-uk.pdf">culture wars</a>” often involves picking out particular incidents in universities, such as the <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-manchester-45717841">banning of clapping</a> at events or the <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-oxfordshire-57409743">removal of a portrait of the Queen</a> to exaggerate how culturally different young people today are. </p>
<p>Maybe less obviously, politicians such as former US President Barack Obama repeatedly lionise coming generations as more focused on equality, when the evidence shows they’re often not that different. These assertions are not only wrong, but create false expectations and divides.</p>
<p>Some have had enough, calling on the Pew Research Center in the US, which has been a champion of generational groups, to <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/07/07/generation-labels-mean-nothing-retire-them/&data=04%257C01%257C">stop conducting this type of analysis</a>. I think that misses the point: it’s how it’s applied rather than the idea of generations that’s wrong.</p>
<p>We should defend the big idea and call out the myths, not abandon the field to the “millennial consultants”.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/167138/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Bobby Duffy receives funding from the ESRC, Horizon 2020, British Academy, Barrow Cadbury Trust and the Cabinet Office.</span></em></p>Tropes around woke warriors and their heartless parents get us nowhere.Bobby Duffy, Professor of Public Policy and Director of the Policy Institute, King's College LondonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1624942021-07-06T12:09:24Z2021-07-06T12:09:24ZExpanding opportunities for women and economic uncertainty are both factors in declining US fertility rates<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/409512/original/file-20210702-25-1cs12vf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C6470%2C4291&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Women have many more work and educational choices than previous generations, which affect their decisions about having children.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/millennial-latina-bicycle-commuting-locking-her-royalty-free-image/1092350028">Justin Lewis/DigitalVision via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The decline in population growth in the U.S. <a href="https://www.census.gov/newsroom/press-kits/2021/2020-census-apportionment-counts.html">from 2010 to 2020</a> is part of a broader national trend linked to falling birth rates, but also <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-dip-in-the-us-birthrate-isnt-a-crisis-but-the-fall-in-immigration-may-be-161169">immigration changes</a> and other factors. In May of 2021 the scope of that change became clear, with a <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-us-birth-rate-keeps-declining-4-questions-answered-128962">record low</a> of <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/vsrr/vsrr012-508.pdf">55.8 births per 1,000 women of childbearing age</a> in 2020, a <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/vsrr/vsrr012-508.pdf">4% drop</a> from 2019. <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/22/world/global-population-shrinking.html">Other countries</a> are <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-drop-in-the-us-birthrate-isnt-a-crisis-161169">facing similar slowdowns</a> in population growth.</p>
<p>This shift has been underway in the U.S. for many years. </p>
<p>In the early 1900s, my grandfather grew up in a family with nine children in rural Iowa. They all worked hard to maintain the farm and support the family. Some of the children left the farm to attend college, start families and find work elsewhere. My father grew up in a city and worked as an adult to support his family as the sole income earner. </p>
<p>The next generation, the baby boomers, was raised during a period of economic expansion that accompanied an uptick in fertility – the average number of children born to a woman in her reproductive years. Post-boomer generations have had fewer children, contributing to a <a href="https://www.macrotrends.net/countries/USA/united-states/birth-rate">50% decline in U.S. birth rates between 1950 and 2021</a>, from 25 births per 1,000 people to 12.</p>
<p>Economic opportunities, social norms and changing gender roles – especially expanding education and employment options for many women – help to explain why fertility has slowed in the late 20th and early 21st centuries. That change has repercussions for trends in workforce numbers, employment, health care, housing and education.</p>
<p><iframe id="kwtuf" class="tc-infographic-datawrapper" src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/kwtuf/2/" height="400px" width="100%" style="border: none" frameborder="0"></iframe></p>
<h2>Explaining the decline in fertility</h2>
<p>Each generation experiences unique circumstances that affect fertility. The overall trend in declining birth rates, however, is largely due to women’s changing roles, employment shifts and advances in reproductive health. </p>
<p>After World War II, the U.S. saw rapid change in gender roles with the expansion of women’s education and entry into the labor force. Starting with the baby boom period from 1946 to 1964, many middle- and upper-class women had increased opportunities to get an education beyond high school, which had typically been the end of women’s formal education.</p>
<p>In 1950, only <a href="https://www.statista.com/statistics/184272/educational-attainment-of-college-diploma-or-higher-by-gender/">5.2% of women</a> had completed four years of college or more. By 2020, this proportion rose to 38.3%. </p>
<p>In comparison, 7.3% of men completed at least four years of college in 1950 and 36.7% in 2020 – a smaller increase than for women.</p>
<p>Increases in college education and rising employment among women tend to delay motherhood. Women with higher educational levels, especially unmarried women, tend to <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/06/16/us/declining-birthrate-motherhood.html">put off childbearing until their early 30s</a>.</p>
<p>In addition, medical advancements and <a href="https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/fda-approves-the-pill">federal regulators’ approval of the birth control pill in the 1960s</a> expanded reproductive freedom for women. </p>
<p>This situation contributed to women’s becoming mothers later in their lives. For example, the median age for first-time mothers among women who were born in 1960 was 22.7 years, compared with <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/databriefs/db68.pdf">20.8 years for women born in 1935</a>. </p>
<p>Moreover, the teen birth rate was a record low in 2019, with 16.7 births per 1,000 girls and women ages 15 to 19. Birth rates remain higher, however, among Latina and Black teens than teens who are white or Asian. In contrast, the share of women ages 40 to 44 years who have ever had children increased from <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2021/05/07/with-a-potential-baby-bust-on-the-horizon-key-facts-about-fertility-in-the-u-s-before-the-pandemic/">82% in 2008 to 85% in 2018</a>. Foreign-born women tend to have higher birth rates than U.S.-born women.</p>
<p>Geographic location also reveals important <a href="https://www.thebalance.com/birth-rate-by-state-4684536">differences in the U.S. birth rate</a>. Women in New England have fewer children, partly because of higher levels of education. In contrast, women in the South and Great Plains have among the highest birth rates in the U.S. </p>
<p><iframe id="lEqSa" class="tc-infographic-datawrapper" src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/lEqSa/1/" height="400px" width="100%" style="border: none" frameborder="0"></iframe></p>
<p>Finally, economic uncertainty affects fertility trends. Economists estimate that a family will spend on average <a href="https://www.usda.gov/media/blog/2017/01/13/cost-raising-child">$233,610 per child</a> before they are 18 years old. Financial upheaval during the Great Recession from 2007 to 2009 also contributed to declining birth rates, while the COVID-19 pandemic saw a <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2021/05/07/with-a-potential-baby-bust-on-the-horizon-key-facts-about-fertility-in-the-u-s-before-the-pandemic/">4% decline in fertility rates in 2020</a>, the lowest since 1979.</p>
<h2>A look at the future</h2>
<p>Fewer babies and young people and a growing older population will undoubtedly affect future generations. </p>
<p>Several developed countries in Europe have also experienced declining fertility rates, with widespread social and economic impacts. In Italy, for instance, rapid drops in fertility have led to <a href="https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/in-italy-rising-anxiety-over-falling-birth-rates">closing hospitals and schools</a>. In 2019, the average Italian family had 1.2 children, part of a declining trend since the 1960s, when it was more common for families to have four children. As a result, Italy’s percentage of seniors is <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2021/06/05/asia/japan-birth-rate-2020-intl-hnk/index.html">second only to Japan</a>, with <a href="https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/in-italy-rising-anxiety-over-falling-birth-rates">growing concern for future labor supplies</a>.</p>
<p>In the U.S., lower fertility rates translate to fewer working-age people and possible labor shortages in many sectors of the economy. According to the <a href="https://www.census.gov/newsroom/press-releases/2020/65-older-population-grows.html">U.S. Census Bureau</a>, the percentage of people age 65 and older has been growing, increasing by one-third since 2010.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/409157/original/file-20210630-21128-k6vbne.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C3949%2C2955&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A woman looks at a newborn baby in her arms" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/409157/original/file-20210630-21128-k6vbne.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C3949%2C2955&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/409157/original/file-20210630-21128-k6vbne.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/409157/original/file-20210630-21128-k6vbne.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/409157/original/file-20210630-21128-k6vbne.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/409157/original/file-20210630-21128-k6vbne.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/409157/original/file-20210630-21128-k6vbne.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/409157/original/file-20210630-21128-k6vbne.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">New babies are one part of a healthy society and economy.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/new-mother-looks-lovingly-at-her-newborn-child-royalty-free-image/867572546">Diana Haronis, Moment via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Many economists and social scientists recommend a restructuring of work to <a href="https://news.yahoo.com/truth-behind-americas-labor-shortage-122500617.html">support and retain the shrinking number of workers</a>. These recommendations include more flexible work conditions, access to quality and affordable child care, immigration reform and job security. Several of these measures would provide much-needed support for parents and particularly women in the workforce.</p>
<p>Second, living spaces and residential housing may also have to accommodate this growing elderly population with arrangements that include assisted living, retirement communities and ways for people to age in place. These housing changes would help women in particular, who live longer than men. </p>
<p>Third, health services such as insurance, medical care and employment will have to adjust to these demographic shifts as more resources are needed to support an older population.</p>
<p>Finally, declining fertility rates are a growing concern for educators and policymakers. The so-called “<a href="https://www.chronicle.com/article/the-demographic-cliff-5-findings-from-new-projections-of-high-school-graduates">demographic cliff</a>” will inevitably lead to school closings and consolidation, and declining student recruitment and enrollment in the U.S. One projection is that there will be <a href="https://www.chronicle.com/article/the-demographic-cliff-5-findings-from-new-projections-of-high-school-graduates">10% fewer college students in 2054</a> than today.</p>
<p>The overall decline in fertility rates has far-reaching effects on society and future generations. In the early 1900s, college education and a career were not options for women like my great-grandmother. Advances in reproductive health and women’s expanding access to education and employment have produced a demographic shift with implications for work, housing, health care and education.</p>
<p>[<em>The Conversation’s Politics + Society editors pick need-to-know stories.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters/politics-weekly-74/?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=politics-need-to-know">Sign up for Politics Weekly</a>._]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/162494/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ann M. Oberhauser does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Economic opportunities, social norms and expanding education and employment options for many women help explain why U.S. fertility has slowed in the late 20th and early 21st centuries.Ann M. Oberhauser, Professor of Sociology, Iowa State UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1568292021-04-26T19:05:32Z2021-04-26T19:05:32ZTrans youth are coming out and living in their gender much earlier than older generations<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/393139/original/file-20210401-13-6khgpw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C5000%2C3323&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Trans baby boomers typically began living in their affirmed gender around age 50. For millennials, it's age 22.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/protesters-listen-to-speeches-and-express-their-emotion-in-news-photo/1228859593?adppopup=true">John Lamparski/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>There are a few common <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssresearch.2018.04.006">identity milestones</a> that transgender, or trans, people experience across their lives. </p>
<p>One is starting to feel different than the sex assigned to them at birth. Another is identifying with a trans identity – for instance, as a trans man or <a href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/genderqueer">genderqueer person</a>, meaning they don’t identify with a binary gender such as a woman or a man. There also is the experience of living in line with this identity, which can include disclosing it to others, and changes to a person’s name, pronouns and appearance. And then there’s accessing gender-affirming medical care like puberty blockers, hormones or surgeries.</p>
<p>These milestones can happen at any age in a person’s life, despite stereotypes that trans people must have always known they were trans. Some people may not go through all the milestones. And although these are common milestones, they are not exhaustive, and no singular narrative captures all trans people’s experiences.</p>
<p>As an <a href="https://psychology.msu.edu/directory/puckett-jae.html">assistant professor of psychology</a> at Michigan State University and director of <a href="https://www.trans-ilience.com/">Trans-ilience</a>, a community-engaged research team, I study how stigma and oppression influence mental health, as well as ways of being resilient in the face of such challenges. </p>
<p>Recognizing that <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/15538605.2012.648583">there is no “one way” to be trans</a>, I surveyed 695 trans individuals aged 16 to 70. My collaborators <a href="https://hhd.psu.edu/contact/samantha-tornello">Samantha Tornello</a>, <a href="https://www.mss.northwestern.edu/faculty/profile.html?xid=21899">Brian Mustanski</a> and <a href="https://www.mss.northwestern.edu/faculty/profile.html?xid=24419">Michael Newcomb</a> and I explored how common identity milestones for transgender people may relate to mental health, and how generations experience these milestones differently. Our <a href="https://doi.org/10.1037/sgd0000391">peer-reviewed study</a> was published in early 2021. </p>
<h2>Baby boomers to Gen Z</h2>
<p>Our research showed that Generation Z, born from 1997 to 2012, and millennials, born from 1981 to 1996, are more diverse in their gender identities than older generations. This is particularly true when it comes to identifying as <a href="https://www.refinery29.com/en-us/lgbtq-definitions-gender-sexuality-terms">genderqueer, nonbinary and agender</a>. For example, 24.5% of Gen Z participants identified as nonbinary, whereas only 7.4% of boomers identified this way. </p>
<p>The Generation X participants, born from 1965 to 1980, and baby boomers, born from 1946 to 1964, were more likely to identify as trans women compared with younger participants. And overall, trans women reported later ages of starting to live in their affirmed gender and receiving gender-affirming medical care relative to the other gender groups. Trans women were, on average, around 31 when living in their affirmed gender all of the time; other gender groups ranged from 21 to 25 years old.</p>
<p><iframe id="BOPHR" class="tc-infographic-datawrapper" src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/BOPHR/4/" height="400px" width="100%" style="border: none" frameborder="0"></iframe></p>
<p>We found little difference between the generations in when they recognized that their gender felt different than their sex assigned at birth. On average, this happened around age 11, with the youngest age reported for this milestone being 2 years old. </p>
<p>However, the boomers reported reaching the other major milestones later than younger groups. For example, boomers were, on average, around age 50 when they were living in their affirmed gender all the time. In contrast, Gen X was 34, millennials were 22 and Gen Z was 17. </p>
<p>Gen Z and millennials also reported much shorter gaps between reaching milestones. For instance, the boomers group reported an average 24-year delay between starting to identify as trans and living in their affirmed gender. There was just a two- and three-year gap for Gen Z and millennials, respectively. </p>
<p>Notably, there can be many challenges to coming out and living in an affirmed gender that should also be taken into account. These barriers include living with a family that is not supportive, being concerned about violent attacks and not having access to appropriate medical care. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/393145/original/file-20210401-15-1ay1ocx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Protester holds rainbow flag during demonstration in Times Square in New York City" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/393145/original/file-20210401-15-1ay1ocx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/393145/original/file-20210401-15-1ay1ocx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/393145/original/file-20210401-15-1ay1ocx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/393145/original/file-20210401-15-1ay1ocx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/393145/original/file-20210401-15-1ay1ocx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/393145/original/file-20210401-15-1ay1ocx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/393145/original/file-20210401-15-1ay1ocx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Gen Z and millennials are more likely to identify as genderqueer, nonbinary or agender than older generations.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/protester-holds-a-rainbow-flag-in-support-of-trans-gender-news-photo/1228859341?adppopup=true">John Lamparski/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Mental health advantages</h2>
<p>As trans people affirm their genders, our study found there are clear benefits to their mental health. </p>
<p>Regardless of the age at which milestones were experienced, respondents who reported living in an affirmed gender and accessing trans-related medical care also reported less internalized stigma, anxiety and depression, and what researchers call gender nonaffirmation – such as being misgendered, which includes others using the wrong pronouns for the individual or having their gender disrespected by others. </p>
<p>Reaching these milestones is also associated with higher levels of appearance congruence, meaning that a person’s appearance represents their gender identity. This, too, is associated with lower levels of <a href="https://doi.org/10.1037/sgd0000391">depression and anxiety</a>.</p>
<p>Given these findings, supporting trans people in affirming their gender identity can benefit their mental health and well-being. This can mean addressing <a href="https://www.facebook.com/parentsupportpsp">family</a>, <a href="https://transequality.org/issues/youth-students">school</a> and <a href="https://www.lgbtmap.org/equality-maps/">legal realms</a> so that trans people are respected and supported.</p>
<p>Despite the benefits of affirming one’s gender, the younger generations reported greater stressors – such as internalized stigma or invalidation of their gender – and symptoms of depression and anxiety compared with older generations.</p>
<p>[<em>Deep knowledge, daily.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters/the-daily-3?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=deepknowledge">Sign up for The Conversation’s newsletter</a>.]</p>
<p>In other words, it appears younger trans people are facing greater mental health challenges and exposure to stressors, even while they are coming out and affirming their genders at younger ages. </p>
<p>It may be that trans people develop resilience and resistance strategies as they age that help them navigate oppression while improving health and well-being.</p>
<h2>Ongoing violence and discrimination</h2>
<p>It’s difficult for trans people to come out and affirm their gender identity in a society where they – <a href="https://www.ustranssurvey.org/reports#POC">especially trans people of color</a> – are <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.avb.2009.01.006">targets of violence</a> and <a href="https://www.hrc.org/resources/an-epidemic-of-violence-fatal-violence-against-transgender-and-gender-non-conforming-people-in-the-u-s-in-2020">murder</a>, their <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N-lhWEVByZo">histories are erased</a> and their <a href="https://apnews.com/article/arkansas-lawmakers-enact-transgender-youth-treatment-ban-dce1d5ca9450b255caabc18f547f7b9b">rights are under attack</a>. </p>
<p>In light of my team’s findings, supporting and validating trans people is a meaningful way to <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaac.2016.10.016">reduce the health disparities</a> in this marginalized community.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/156829/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jae A. Puckett received funding from the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health under Award Number F32DA038557 to support this research. </span></em></p>The survey also found that trans people who live in their affirmed gender report experiencing less stigma, anxiety and depression.Jae A. Puckett, Assistant Professor of Psychology, Michigan State UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1559742021-02-25T15:08:50Z2021-02-25T15:08:50ZApple’s new emojis are more ammunition for the online generation wars<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/386448/original/file-20210225-23-1hng3vt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=29%2C1%2C968%2C597&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://blog.emojipedia.org/first-look-217-new-emojis-in-ios-14-5/">Jeremy Burge/Emojipedia</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>When I saw the news that Apple would be releasing <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2021/feb/17/vaccine-syringe-and-flaming-heart-iphone-reveals-more-than-200-new-emojis">217 new emojis</a> into the world, I did what I always do: I asked my undergraduates what it meant to them. “We barely use them any more,” they scoffed. To them, many emojis are like overenthusiastic dance moves at weddings: reserved for awkward millennials. “And they use them all wrong anyway,” my cohort from generation Z added earnestly.</p>
<p>My work focuses on how people use technology, and I’ve been following the rise of the emoji for a decade. With <a href="https://emojipedia.org/apple/">3,353 characters</a> available and 5 billion sent each day, emojis are now a significant language system. </p>
<p>When the emoji database is updated, it usually reflects the needs of the time. This latest update, for instance, features a new vaccine syringe and more same-sex couples.</p>
<p>But if my undergraduates are anything to go by, emojis are also a generational battleground. Like <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/middle-part-skinny-jeans-tiktok-b1804294.html">skinny jeans and side partings</a>, the “<a href="https://blog.emojipedia.org/is-the-laughing-crying-emoji-cancelled-heres-what-we-know/">laughing crying emoji</a>”, better known as 😂, fell into disrepute among the young in 2020 – just five years after being picked as the <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20151201223617/http://blog.oxforddictionaries.com/2015/11/word-of-the-year-2015-emoji/">Oxford Dictionaries’ 2015 Word of the Year</a>. For gen Z TikTok users, clueless millennials are responsible for rendering many emojis utterly unusable – to the point that some in gen Z barely use emojis at all.</p>
<p>Research can help explain these spats over emojis. Because their meaning is interpreted by users, not dictated from above, emojis have a rich history of creative use and coded messaging. Apple’s 217 new emojis will be subjected to the same process of creative interpretation: accepted, rejected or repurposed by different generations based on pop culture currents and digital trends. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Two emojis of a syringe - one dripping with blood, one with clear liquid" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/386237/original/file-20210224-21-9kk7gp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/386237/original/file-20210224-21-9kk7gp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=360&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/386237/original/file-20210224-21-9kk7gp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=360&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/386237/original/file-20210224-21-9kk7gp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=360&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/386237/original/file-20210224-21-9kk7gp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=452&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/386237/original/file-20210224-21-9kk7gp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=452&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/386237/original/file-20210224-21-9kk7gp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=452&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Previously, the syringe emoji suggested blood extraction. The new, updated emoji looks more like a vaccine.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://blog.emojipedia.org/vaccine-emoji-comes-to-life/">Apple/Emojipedia</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Face the facts</h2>
<p>When emojis were first designed by Shigetaka Kurita in 1999, they were intended specifically for the Japanese market. But just over a decade later, the <a href="https://home.unicode.org/">Unicode Consortium</a>, sometimes described as “the UN for tech”, unveiled these icons to the whole world. </p>
<p>In 2011, <a href="https://instagram-engineering.com/emojineering-part-1-machine-learning-for-emoji-trendsmachine-learning-for-emoji-trends-7f5f9cb979ad">Instagram</a> tracked the uptake of emojis through user messages, watching how 🙂 eclipsed :-) in just a few years. Old-style smileys, using punctuation marks, now look as outdated as Shakespearean English on our LED screens: a sign of fogeyness in baby boomers (people born between 1946 and 1964) or an ironic throwback for the hipsters of gen Z.</p>
<p>The Unicode Consortium now meets each year to consider new types of emoji, including emojis that support inclusivity. In 2015, a new range of skin colours was added to existing emojis. In 2021, the Apple operating system update will include mixed-race and same-sex couples, as well as men and women with beards.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1361983113849667591"}"></div></p>
<h2>Bitter boomers?</h2>
<p>Not everyone has been thrilled by the rise of the emoji. In 2018, a Daily Mail headline lamented that “<a href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5628765/Emoji-ruining-English-language.html">Emojis are ruining the English language</a>”, citing research by Google in which 94% of those surveyed felt that English was deteriorating, in part because of emoji use. </p>
<p>But such criticisms, which are sometimes <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/jun/17/why-i-hate-emojis">levelled by boomers</a>, tend to misinterpret emojis, which are after all informal and conversational, not formal and oratory. <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/10862960802695131">Studies have found</a> no evidence that emojis have reduced overall literacy.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/emoji-arent-ruining-language-theyre-a-natural-substitute-for-gesture-118689">Emoji aren't ruining language: they’re a natural substitute for gesture 🔥🔥🔥</a>
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<p>On the contrary, it appears that emojis actually <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/9781118771952.ch13">enhance</a> our communicative capabilities, including in language acquisition. <a href="https://www.languageatinternet.org/articles/2019/gawne">Studies</a> have shown how emojis are an effective substitute for gestures in non-verbal communication, bringing a new dimension to text. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/17470919.2013.873737?journalCode=psns20#.VLadY2TF871">A 2013 study</a>, meanwhile, suggested that emojis connect to the area of the brain associated with recognising facial expressions, making a 😀 as nourishing as a human smile. Given these findings, it’s likely that those who reject emojis actually impoverish their language capabilities.</p>
<h2>Creative criticism</h2>
<p>The conflict between gen Z and millennials, meanwhile, emerges from confused meanings. Although the Unicode Consortium has a definition for each icon, including the 217 Apple are due to release, out in the wild they often take on new meanings. Many emojis have more than one meaning: a literal meaning, and a suggested one, for instance. Subversive, rebellious meanings are often created by the young: today’s gen Z.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://emojipedia.org/eggplant/">aubergine</a> 🍆 is a classic example of how an innocent vegetable has had its meaning creatively repurposed by young people. The <a href="https://thetab.com/uk/2021/02/11/brain-emoji-tiktok-194766">brain</a> 🧠 is an emerging example of the innocent-turned-dirty emoji canon, which already boasts a <a href="https://www.dailydot.com/irl/sexting-emoji/">large corpus</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Three emojis, one blowing out air, one with spiral eyes, one in clouds" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/386426/original/file-20210225-19-11u6vz0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/386426/original/file-20210225-19-11u6vz0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=239&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/386426/original/file-20210225-19-11u6vz0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=239&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/386426/original/file-20210225-19-11u6vz0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=239&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/386426/original/file-20210225-19-11u6vz0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=300&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/386426/original/file-20210225-19-11u6vz0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=300&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/386426/original/file-20210225-19-11u6vz0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=300&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">These three emojis will also hit iPhones with Apple’s latest update. Their meaning is yet to be decided.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://blog.emojipedia.org/first-look-217-new-emojis-in-ios-14-5/">Emojipedia/Apple</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>And it doesn’t stop there. With gen Z now <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/julianvigo/2019/08/31/generation-z-and-new-technologys-effect-on-culture/">at the helm of digital culture</a>, the emoji encyclopedia is developing new ironic and sarcastic <a href="https://edition.cnn.com/2021/02/14/tech/crying-laughing-emoji-gen-z/index.html">double meanings</a>. It’s no wonder that millennials can’t keep up, and keep provoking outrage from younger people who consider themselves to be highly emoji-literate.</p>
<p>Emojis remain powerful means of emotional and creative expression, even if some in gen Z claim they’ve been made redundant by misuse. This new batch of 217 emojis will be adopted across generations and communities, with each staking their claim to different meanings and combinations. The stage is set for a new round of intergenerational mockery.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/155974/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Mark Brill does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Millennials’ favourite 😂 is the latest casualty of gen z’s emoji snobbery.Mark Brill, Senior Lecturer, School of Games, Film and Animation, Birmingham City UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1529402021-01-29T13:29:37Z2021-01-29T13:29:37ZHow age diversity in a presidential Cabinet could affect policies and programs<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/380668/original/file-20210126-15-1o8uq53.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C5%2C3536%2C2338&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">President Biden, 78, is America's oldest president. His nominee for secretary of transportation, Pete Buttigieg, is half his age.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/photos/biden-buttigieg?family=editorial&numberofpeople=two&phrase=biden%20buttigieg&sort=best#license">Justin Sullivan/Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>President Joe Biden’s Cabinet and top appointees will likely be the most diverse in U.S. history. He says they were purposely chosen to “<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/21/us/biden-cabinet-diversity-gender-race.html">look like America</a>.”</p>
<p>As a <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=3nelzqkAAAAJ&hl=e">scholar of how age is viewed in society</a>, I study age as a major demographic grouping. With regard to President Biden’s Cabinet choices, my question is how diverse these appointments are in terms of age, and whether this matters. </p>
<h2>Uniting boomers and zoomers</h2>
<p>At 78, Joe Biden is the oldest American president. Vice President Kamala Harris is 22 years younger. Most U.S. presidents and vice presidents are closer in age. Mike Pence, for example, is 13 years younger than Donald Trump. </p>
<p>However, there are a few exceptions from recent history. President George H.W. Bush was 23 years older than Vice President Dan Quayle. The other notable exception is the 19-year age difference between President Barack Obama and Vice President Biden. That close working relationship may <a href="https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2011.00043">in part explain</a> Biden’s comfort with choosing a running mate and top advisers who are much younger. </p>
<p>As for other Cabinet members, no nominee is as old as the president. Those currently being vetted or already on the job range in age from 39 to 75, with an average age of 56. </p>
<p>Having so many advisers of different ages should – theoretically – bring perspectives from different age groups and better represent constituents of different ages. </p>
<p>For example, <a href="https://longtermcare.acl.gov/the-basics/who-pays-for-long-term-care.html">funding for long-term care</a> is an issue that affects all generations, although it’s typically associated with seniors. </p>
<p>According to research from AARP and the National Alliance for Caregiving, over <a href="https://www.aarp.org/ppi/info-2020/caregiving-in-the-united-states.html">50 million adults</a> in the U.S. provide unpaid care to an adult or child with special needs. Because of shrinking family sizes and the fact that <a href="https://theconversation.com/video-how-will-society-change-as-the-us-population-ages-146903">more seniors</a> are living into their 80s and beyond, middle-aged adults and older are increasingly being called on to care for older relatives. Younger parents, meanwhile, may want to increase long-term care supports for children with special needs.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/381212/original/file-20210128-19-ruy00b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Health care worker holds arms of elderly man and woman" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/381212/original/file-20210128-19-ruy00b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/381212/original/file-20210128-19-ruy00b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/381212/original/file-20210128-19-ruy00b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/381212/original/file-20210128-19-ruy00b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/381212/original/file-20210128-19-ruy00b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/381212/original/file-20210128-19-ruy00b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/381212/original/file-20210128-19-ruy00b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A hospital worker takes her elderly parents to receive the COVID-19 vaccine.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/maria-saravia-center-an-environmental-services-worker-at-news-photo/1230785829">Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Another example is the debate over <a href="https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/22152601/biden-student-loan-debt-cancellation">student loans</a>. Forgiving college debt might not be a personal priority for older people, but an educated workforce <a href="https://scottpeters.house.gov/media-center/press-releases/reps-peters-and-davis-reintroduce-bipartisan-bill-to-address-rising">unburdened by debt</a> helps drive the economy. With the ratio of working-age to nonworking-age adults <a href="https://www.census.gov/library/stories/2020/06/working-age-population-not-keeping-pace-with-growth-in-older-americans.html">declining rapidly</a>, an increase in worker productivity associated with a more skilled workforce can generate the tax revenues to support Social Security and other government benefits for retirees.</p>
<p>And then, of course, there’s the environment. Younger people are <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/science/2016/10/04/the-politics-of-climate/">more likely to see climate change</a> as an urgent issue, while older adults might downplay environmental concerns in favor of economic productivity. Having both perspectives can balance a strong economy with a livable environment for future generations.</p>
<h2>Generational politics</h2>
<p>There’s a popular view that different generations have <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s12115-019-00437-7">distinct political identities</a>. According to this theory, major social and political events <a href="http://www.stat.columbia.edu/%7Egelman/research/unpublished/cohort_voting_20140605.pdf">shape generations of voters</a>.</p>
<p>For example, <a href="https://www.lexico.com/en/definition/silent_generation">the silent generation</a>, born between 1928 and 1945, experienced the Great Depression and slow recovery. They consistently hold the most <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/politics/2018/03/01/the-generation-gap-in-american-politics/">conservative political ideology</a>. </p>
<p>But political leanings also <a href="https://review.chicagobooth.edu/economics/2020/article/there-are-two-americas-and-age-divider">change over one’s life span</a>. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.census.gov/library/stories/2019/12/by-2030-all-baby-boomers-will-be-age-65-or-older.html#:%7E:text=Baby%20boomers%20have%20changed%20the,estimated%20at%20about%2073%20million.">Baby boomers</a>, who came of age during the tumultuous cultural revolution of the 1960s, by and large rejected traditional values in their youth. They were known for their <a href="https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/story/2019-11-05/column-you-ok-boomer-not-really">antiwar slogans and social justice demands</a>. However, many have grown <a href="https://news.gallup.com/poll/181325/baby-boomers-likely-identify-conservative.aspx">more politically conservative</a> over time. </p>
<p>Born after 1996, members of <a href="https://www.pewsocialtrends.org/essay/on-the-cusp-of-adulthood-and-facing-an-uncertain-future-what-we-know-about-gen-z-so-far/">Gen Z</a> are more ethnically diverse than previous generations, more progressive and more supportive of government programs to address societal problems.</p>
<p>[<em>Get our most insightful politics and election stories.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters/politics-weekly-74/?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=politics-most">Sign up for The Conversation’s Politics Weekly</a>.]</p>
<p>Age-based political theories are based on aggregate behaviors. They do not predict the political persuasions of an individual voter or political leader. After all, Sen. Bernie Sanders, at 79, is one of America’s <a href="https://www.govtrack.us/congress/members/report-cards/2019/senate/ideology">most progressive senators</a>. </p>
<p>Age is especially less likely to determine political allegiance among <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/2020/09/23/the-changing-racial-and-ethnic-composition-of-the-u-s-electorate/">racial and ethnic minorities</a>. These groups tend to vote more Democratic regardless of age.</p>
<p>In looking at this issue more carefully, average age and age diversity of Cabinet nominees are likely to influence policy directions. But other considerations – such as long-term political party identification, individual beliefs about the role of government and demographic factors such as race and ethnicity – also will come into play.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/152940/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Marcia G. Ory does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Millennials and boomers advising Biden can look for common ground on climate change, student loan debt and other key issues.Marcia G. Ory, Regents and Distinguished Professor of Environmental and Occupational Health, Texas A&M UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1518272021-01-13T18:35:29Z2021-01-13T18:35:29ZLGBTQ+ Canadian baby boomers in need of safer housing in senior years<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/377624/original/file-20210107-15-mh44sa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=665%2C51%2C3574%2C2698&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Vulnerable Canadians, particularly those who are older LGBTQ+, face challenges finding safe and adequate housing. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Globally, the COVID-19 pandemic has shown us the importance of having safe and adequate housing. Having a safe home is not only a <a href="https://www.chrc-ccdp.gc.ca/eng/content/statement-fundamental-human-right-chrc-welcomes-national-housing-strategy-legislation">fundamental human right</a>, it is also a <a href="https://www.healthaffairs.org/do/10.1377/hpb20180313.396577/full/">key determinant of health</a>. Yet when it comes to vulnerable older Canadians, there are a number of alarming policy gaps in existing efforts to address their unique housing needs and concerns. </p>
<p>Canada’s first <a href="https://www.placetocallhome.ca/">National Housing Strategy</a>, released in 2017, promises to address disparities in housing, particularly in relation to housing affordability and homelessness. The strategy is aimed at addressing key housing disparities among vulnerable populations across Canada.</p>
<p>However, the strategy lacks a direct focus where we have yet to see improvements for many vulnerable Canadians, specifically older LGBTQ+ populations. This issue is of significance to Canadians given the 10-year, $55-billion investment associated with the National Housing Strategy.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Cartoon image depicting five outstretched arms reaching upward. Above them is a hand dangling a set of keys attached to a small house." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/377625/original/file-20210107-16-nh04yq.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/377625/original/file-20210107-16-nh04yq.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/377625/original/file-20210107-16-nh04yq.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/377625/original/file-20210107-16-nh04yq.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/377625/original/file-20210107-16-nh04yq.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/377625/original/file-20210107-16-nh04yq.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/377625/original/file-20210107-16-nh04yq.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Despite significant investment, Canada’s National Housing Strategy has not addressed challenges faced by LGBTQ+ Canadians.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>As part of a <a href="https://www.dal.ca/dept/maceachen-institute/lgbtq2s-housing.html">national housing project</a>, our team collected data from a variety of sources, including an online survey and focus groups with older LGBTQ+ Canadians and housing providers, as well as a scoping review of existing housing policies and programs. We found three key policy and programming issues that require greater attention under the National Housing Strategy.</p>
<ol>
<li><p>The lack of population-level data on LGBTQ+ Canadians, including their health and housing needs.</p></li>
<li><p>The need for meaningful engagement with older LGBTQ+ Canadians in relation to housing policies and programs.</p></li>
<li><p>The failure to regulate and enforce existing human rights legislation in relation to the right to housing.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>It is important to remember that the baby boomer generation of LGBTQ+ Canadians (those born between 1946 and 1964) are the same generation that had to <a href="https://www.ourcommons.ca/Content/Committee/421/HESA/Brief/BR10449325/br-external/WilsonKimberley-e.pdf">fight for their basic human rights and freedoms</a>. Despite recent advances to human rights protections for LGBTQ+ Canadians, many are now experiencing challenges in meeting their housing and health needs in old age. The reasons for this stem, in part, from a long history of <a href="https://www.canada.ca/en/canadian-heritage/services/rights-lgbti-persons.html">discrimination, harassment and violence</a> against LGBTQ+ Canadians simply because of their sexual orientation and/or gender identity.</p>
<p>In addition, many older LGBTQ+ Canadians do not have children or partners to assist with housing-related issues whether offering financial support toward the cost of housing or with moving into a senior housing unit or into a long-term care facility. Many older LGBTQ+ Canadians may not have strong ties with family due to being rejected for their sexual orientation and/or gender identity. Many older LGBTQ+ Canadians continue to fear being mistreated if their sexual orientation and/or gender identity becomes known to their landlord, <a href="https://www.cmhc-schl.gc.ca/en/housing-observer-online/2019-housing-observer/lgbtq2s-housing-needs-challenges">despite changes in human rights protections</a>.</p>
<h2>Lack of data</h2>
<p>Our project found that national data are not being systematically collected in a way that includes older LGBTQ+ Canadians. Overall, there are significant gaps in the <a href="https://cdn.dal.ca/content/dam/dalhousie/pdf/dept/maceachen-institute/Briefing%20Note%20-%20LGBTQ2S%20Housing%20data%20-%20FINAL.pdf">types and quality of data collected</a> on older LGBTQ+ Canadians, including their housing experiences, housing needs and housing concerns. </p>
<p>Given this, our team recommends that existing national data collection processes such as census data, among others, include more questions related to the specific housing and health needs of older LGBTQ+ populations. Such data will be vital in informing the development of housing policies and programs that consider the needs of these populations going forward.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="An elderly couple at a Pride parade seen from behind are wearing hats with the colours of the rainbow flag." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/377437/original/file-20210106-19-anrwjt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/377437/original/file-20210106-19-anrwjt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=420&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/377437/original/file-20210106-19-anrwjt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=420&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/377437/original/file-20210106-19-anrwjt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=420&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/377437/original/file-20210106-19-anrwjt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=528&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/377437/original/file-20210106-19-anrwjt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=528&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/377437/original/file-20210106-19-anrwjt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=528&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Many older LGBTQ+ Canadians face challenges finding safe housing.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>As we heard from those who participated in our housing project, it is critical that they are included in discussions about housing policies and programs with government decision-makers at the national, provincial and municipal levels. As it stands, <a href="https://cdn.dal.ca/content/dam/dalhousie/pdf/dept/maceachen-institute/Briefing%20Note%20-%20LGBTQ2S%20Housing%20Engagement%20-%20FINAL.pdf">the voices of older LGBTQ+ Canadians are absent</a> from these discussions, including from the National Housing Strategy.</p>
<h2>Regulation and enforcement</h2>
<p>Our participants spoke about the issue of existing human rights legislation not being regulated or enforced in housing contexts. This led to concerns about how safe and accepting some housing environments were. Others feared having to “<a href="https://cdn.dal.ca/content/dam/dalhousie/pdf/dept/maceachen-institute/Briefing%20Note%20-%20LGBTQ2S%20Housing%20Regulation%20-%20FINAL.pdf">go back into the closet</a>” to prevent harassment or violence from housing providers or other residents.</p>
<p>As we have seen throughout the current pandemic, <a href="https://theconversation.com/10-ways-to-provide-adequate-housing-in-the-covid-19-era-149678">where we live has important implications for our health and well-being</a>. The failure of our current housing policies and programs to consider the needs of older populations, including older LGBTQ+ Canadians, highlights the social, economic and other disparities that affect health outcomes. Canada has more work to do to truly advance housing both as a determinant of health and as a basic human right.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/151827/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jacqueline Gahagan receives funding from SSHRC. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ren Thomas receives funding from SSHRC.</span></em></p>Despite greater human rights protections, LGBTQ+ people in Canada still face challenges and discrimination when it comes to housing.Jacquie Gahagan, Full Professor, Faculty of Health, Dalhousie UniversityRen Thomas, Assistant Professor, School of Planning, Dalhousie UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1436042020-07-30T19:58:00Z2020-07-30T19:58:00ZForget a capital gains tax – what New Zealand needs is a tax on inherited wealth<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/350314/original/file-20200730-13-4ugeoq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=20%2C30%2C6679%2C4396&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">www.shutterstock.com</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The world’s wealthiest people will transfer US$15.4 trillion in assets to their heirs in the next decade, according to a recent <a href="https://www.wealthx.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/Wealth-X_Family-Wealth-Transfer-Report_2019.pdf">report</a>. </p>
<p>Published by specialist data analysts Wealth-X, the report focused on the richest 0.1% (those with net assets worth over US$5 million), but it’s a similar story for the more modestly wealthy baby boomers. </p>
<p>With New Zealand’s average national <a href="https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/117903021/house-prices-shoot-ahead-again-as-majority-of-kiwis-say-ownership-unachievable">house price</a> now over $700,000, the heirs of home-owning boomers (as well as people born before 1945 whose significant wealth is often overlooked) will receive a currently untaxed bonanza. </p>
<p>Ignoring this unprecedented transfer of wealth from people who no longer need it to people who haven’t earned it would be absurd. But equitable tax policy must first overcome political timidity and rhetoric. </p>
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Read more:
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</p>
<hr>
<p>As New Zealand’s election approaches, forward-thinking politicians should take heart from Sinn Féin winning a majority in the 2019 Irish election on the promise of making the country’s tax system <a href="https://www.sinnfein.ie/a-fair-tax-system">radically more equitable</a>. </p>
<p>While a capital gains tax (CGT) is <a href="https://www.beehive.govt.nz/release/government-will-not-implement-capital-gains-tax">off the table</a> for now, tax arrangements are never set in stone and voters can be open to change.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1118343240762019840"}"></div></p>
<h2>Taxing inheritance is nothing new</h2>
<p>New Zealand first taxed inter-generational capital transfers in 1866. However, the rate of estate duty was reduced to zero in 1993 and gift duty was scrapped in 2011. <a href="https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2439053">According</a> to tax law specialist Michael Littlewood:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>These taxes for many years enjoyed broad political support. Indeed, it was widely regarded as obvious that a significant part – perhaps as much as 50% or so – of every large estate ought to go to the state. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>Taxing a person’s wealth when they no longer need it, provided a reasonable exemption is made to support dependants, has been usual since Roman times. In the modern era, inter-generational wealth was seen as eminently taxable, too. Indeed, progressive tax rates were applied to estate taxes before they were first used for income taxes. </p>
<p>In 1979 Australia became the first developed country to abolish estate duty (at both state and federal levels). As analysts Sam Reinhardt and Lee Steel <a href="https://treasury.gov.au/publication/economic-roundup-winter-2006/a-brief-history-of-australias-tax-system">pointed out</a>, support for estate taxes had declined despite “various tax review committees recommending refinements to improve the equity, efficiency and simplicity of the tax”. </p>
<h2>Politics gets in the way</h2>
<p>In New Zealand, Te Herenga Waka—Victoria University’s 2010 <a href="https://www.wgtn.ac.nz/sacl/centres-and-institutes/cagtr/pdf/tax-report-website.pdf">tax working group</a> didn’t consider reintroducing an estate tax or retaining the gift duty then in force. It argued that reforms in the late 1980s had “improved the efficiency and equity of the tax system”. </p>
<p>Certainly, stamp duty is an unlamented tax – although many jurisdictions try to use it to cool overheated housing markets. But it’s not clear why the working group considered estate taxes inefficient or inequitable. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/new-zealands-proposed-capital-gains-tax-could-nudge-taxpayers-to-invest-in-art-instead-of-property-112765">New Zealand’s proposed capital gains tax could nudge taxpayers to invest in art instead of property</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Unfortunately, the <a href="https://taxworkinggroup.govt.nz/resources/terms-reference-tax-working-group">terms of reference</a> of the next tax working group, established by the Labour-led government after the 2017 election, specifically excluded an inheritance tax. While there were good theoretical reasons for such a tax, group member Geof Nightingale <a href="https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/106050956/inheritance-tax-good-economics-and-the-politics-may-be-better-than-they-seem">said</a>, it “breaks down at the politics”: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>Inheritance taxes are intensely disliked, so if you haven’t got one it’s very hard to put one in.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The arguments against estate taxes are well rehearsed – usually accompanied by emotive references to “death taxes”. But, in the long term, the current ideological opposition to taxing inter-generational wealth transfers may prove to be an anomaly. </p>
<p>One simple reason for reviving the debate about such a tax is demographic: baby boomers, the wealthiest generation that has ever lived, will increasingly start dying during the 2020s. </p>
<p>Tax policymakers cannot ignore the opportunity – arguably the moral imperative – of taxing and redistributing those transfers. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1277055371455066112"}"></div></p>
<h2>Millennials and Gen X will be the winners</h2>
<p>There remain three challenges to achieving a fairer tax based on inter-generational wealth. </p>
<p>First, the application of tax needs to shift from the deceased to the living. In other words, we need to focus on the recipient of the wealth transfer. Ireland’s <a href="https://www.revenue.ie/en/tax-professionals/tdm/capital-acquisitions-tax/cat-collector-general-district-guidelines.pdf">capital acquisitions tax</a> (CAT) applies a flat rate of 33% to accumulated gifts and inheritances over the relevant threshold. </p>
<p>Unlike a CGT, which can be perceived as penalising business owners, a CAT targets unearned windfalls from an accident of birth. This should make a CAT more politically acceptable than a CGT. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/if-you-want-a-fair-inheritance-tax-make-it-a-tax-on-income-33654">If you want a fair inheritance tax, make it a tax on income</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Second, the younger generations most critical of baby boomers’ “unfair” acquisition of wealth (Gen X and millennials) must accept that taxing this unprecedented transfer of wealth will promote both inter- and intra-generational fairness. </p>
<p>If we don’t tax and redistribute these transfers, wealth inequalities will be exacerbated and entrenched among future generations. </p>
<p>And finally, arguments in favour of a more equitable system have to overcome the rhetoric of “death taxes”. As far back as the 1960s, Canada’s Royal Commission on Taxation did this by popularising the idea that “<a href="https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/royal-commission-on-taxation">a buck is a buck</a>”, no matter how it is earned. </p>
<p>In other words, if you have the money you can pay tax, whether that money comes from labour, investment or inheritance.</p>
<p>So far, only the Greens are proposing any <a href="https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/300044327/the-crucial-feature-of-the-greens-wealth-tax-that-would-exempt-most-family-homes">tax on wealth</a> as part of their election policy offering. But with the generational clock ticking, it’s maybe time for New Zealand to think about getting a CAT.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/143604/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jonathan Barrett does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>As the adult children of baby boomers start inheriting their parents’ wealth, it’s time we looked seriously at taxing this unearned income.Jonathan Barrett, Lecturer, Te Herenga Waka — Victoria University of WellingtonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1359532020-05-10T20:02:56Z2020-05-10T20:02:56ZRetire the retirement village – the wall and what’s behind it is so 2020<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/333282/original/file-20200507-49546-1yxtvft.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C107%2C3195%2C2335&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.longevitybydesign.co/#thepitches">Jemima Rosevear</a>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Retirement villages – walled, gated and separate seniors’ enclaves – have had their day. The word “retirement” is redundant and engagement between people of all ages is high. That’s how participants in the <a href="https://www.longevitybydesign.co">Longevity By Design Challenge</a> envisage life in Australia in 2050. </p>
<p>Their challenge was to identify ways to prepare and adapt Australian cities to capitalise on older Australians <a href="https://theconversation.com/were-not-just-living-for-longer-were-staying-healthier-for-longer-too-118588">living longer, healthier and more productive lives</a>. Their vision, outlined in this article, offers a positive contrast to much of the commentary on “ageing Australia”.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/were-not-just-living-for-longer-were-staying-healthier-for-longer-too-118588">We're not just living for longer – we're staying healthier for longer, too</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>We have been repeatedly warned about a looming “crisis” when by 2050 <a href="https://www.aihw.gov.au/reports/older-people/older-australia-at-a-glance/contents/demographics-of-older-australians/australia-s-changing-age-and-gender-profile">one in four Australians will be 65 or older</a>. They have been portrayed as dependent non-contributors, unable to take care of themselves. This scenario of doom is based on underlying assumptions that everyone over 65 wants to, can or should stop any kind of productive contribution to Australia. </p>
<p>What if these assumptions are wrong?</p>
<h2>The longevity bonus</h2>
<p>Australians’ average life expectancy is <a href="https://www.superguide.com.au/boost-your-superannuation/latest-data-find-out-how-long-you-can-expect-to-live">well into our 80s</a>. That represents a 30-year longevity “bonus” since the Age Pension was <a href="https://www.ncoa.gov.au/report/appendix-volume-1/9-1-age-pension">introduced in 1909 when average life expectancy was 55</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/333292/original/file-20200507-49569-vxx41h.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/333292/original/file-20200507-49569-vxx41h.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/333292/original/file-20200507-49569-vxx41h.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=256&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/333292/original/file-20200507-49569-vxx41h.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=256&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/333292/original/file-20200507-49569-vxx41h.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=256&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/333292/original/file-20200507-49569-vxx41h.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=322&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/333292/original/file-20200507-49569-vxx41h.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=322&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/333292/original/file-20200507-49569-vxx41h.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=322&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Increases in the average life expectancy of Australian men and women since 1890.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/Previousproducts/3302.0.55.001Feature%20Article12014-2016?opendocument&tabname=Summary&prodno=3302.0.55.001&issue=2014-2016&num=&view=">Australian Bureau of Statistics</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/retiring-at-70-was-an-idea-well-ahead-of-its-time-102704">Retiring at 70 was an idea well ahead of its time</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Now, older people are healthier, working for longer – whether paid, volunteering, flexible, part-time, full-time or launching start-ups – or are in learning programs. By 2030 all of the baby boomers will have turned 65. At this time Generation X will start their contribution to the expanding older cohort. </p>
<p>Australian society will be better positioned to navigate this future if we make the most of the significant opportunities baby boomers present. They are living much longer, want to remain productive and engaged throughout their adult lives, and have a valuable cache of knowledge and skills.</p>
<p>One way to support economic and social participation is to reconsider the factors – physical, regulatory and financial – that determine how our buildings, suburbs and streets are organised. </p>
<p>Conventional urban development models rely on short-term development finance. It delivers suburban cities of individual houses with a need for private transportation. For many households (not just seniors) distance and lack of mobility are barriers to participation, resulting in <a href="https://theconversation.com/this-is-how-to-create-social-hubs-that-make-20-minute-neighbourhoods-work-87092">isolation and loneliness</a>.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/1-million-rides-and-counting-on-demand-services-bring-public-transport-to-the-suburbs-132355">1 million rides and counting: on-demand services bring public transport to the suburbs</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Making the most of life after 65</h2>
<p>The Longevity by Design Challenge brought new perspectives to preparing and adapting Australian cities to capitalise on the “longevity” phenomenon over coming decades. The challenge asked: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>How do we best leverage the extra 30 years of life and unleash the social and economic potential of people 65+ to contribute to Australia’s prosperity?</p>
</blockquote>
<p>In February 2020, 121 professionals (of all ages) from 60 built environment design and senior living organisations, along with several older people, took part in the challenge. They explored how baby boomers will change the landscape of living, learning, working and playing. Sixteen cross-disciplinary creative teams <a href="https://www.longevitybydesign.co/#thepitches">considered what longevity could look like in this new environment</a> in which buildings and neighbourhoods are remade. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/333294/original/file-20200507-49556-14vesdl.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/333294/original/file-20200507-49556-14vesdl.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/333294/original/file-20200507-49556-14vesdl.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=406&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/333294/original/file-20200507-49556-14vesdl.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=406&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/333294/original/file-20200507-49556-14vesdl.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=406&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/333294/original/file-20200507-49556-14vesdl.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=510&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/333294/original/file-20200507-49556-14vesdl.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=510&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/333294/original/file-20200507-49556-14vesdl.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=510&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Multi-generational, cross-disciplinary teams at work on the Longevity by Design Challenge.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">The University of Queensland</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Good design begins with people. Together the participants concluded that designing for older people is actually “inclusive design”. Everyone wants the same things for a good life: autonomy and choice, purpose, family and friends, good health and financial security.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/from-8-to-80-designing-adaptive-spaces-for-an-ageing-population-29730">From 8 to 80: designing adaptive spaces for an ageing population</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Teams were presented with one of three locations representing typical middle and outer suburbs. They were challenged to transform buildings and neighbourhoods to make the most of longevity opportunities. </p>
<p>The teams used principles of social and physical connectedness with the aim of increasing choices and improving circumstances for people at all stages of life. Key design priorities were “mix” – of places, uses, people and generations – and “heart”, which placed people at the centre of the narrative. </p>
<p>Suggested approaches included:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>building <a href="https://theconversation.com/city-by-city-analysis-shows-our-capitals-arent-liveable-for-many-residents-85676">walkable neighbourhoods</a> that reduce distances between homes and services</p></li>
<li><p>converting typical house blocks to “super blocks” where multiple generations can live</p></li>
</ul>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/333295/original/file-20200507-49565-1l8wk0z.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/333295/original/file-20200507-49565-1l8wk0z.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/333295/original/file-20200507-49565-1l8wk0z.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=238&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/333295/original/file-20200507-49565-1l8wk0z.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=238&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/333295/original/file-20200507-49565-1l8wk0z.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=238&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/333295/original/file-20200507-49565-1l8wk0z.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=299&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/333295/original/file-20200507-49565-1l8wk0z.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=299&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/333295/original/file-20200507-49565-1l8wk0z.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=299&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Superblocks created by converting three houses into five multi-generational residences.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Architectus with Feros Care, Aspire 4 Life, S Wyeth and M Denver</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<ul>
<li>adopting finance development models using long-term capital, rather than short-term debt, for greater financial and community returns. </li>
</ul>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/333297/original/file-20200507-49579-ax3k5c.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/333297/original/file-20200507-49579-ax3k5c.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/333297/original/file-20200507-49579-ax3k5c.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=227&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/333297/original/file-20200507-49579-ax3k5c.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=227&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/333297/original/file-20200507-49579-ax3k5c.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=227&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/333297/original/file-20200507-49579-ax3k5c.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=285&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/333297/original/file-20200507-49579-ax3k5c.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=285&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/333297/original/file-20200507-49579-ax3k5c.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=285&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Longevity Urban CommunitY concept (LUCY) of the sort that might evolve using long-term equity. Clusters of multi-residential buildings with a mix of commercial and community uses at ground level form a network of pedestrian streets, parks and plazas. Housing design blends individual needs for privacy, and collective needs for community.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Deicke Richards, Vee Design, Pradella Property Ventures, N Whichelow, Condev Construction and Bolton Clarke. Images: Peter Richards, Deicke Richards</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Neighbourhoods could be retrofitted over 30 years. This would require changes to local government planning codes and innovations by the finance sector.</p>
<p>Other teams designed interconnected environments using links between natural, built and technological assets. They designed spaces to enable people over 65 to continue to make creative and productive contributions. </p>
<p>By creating inclusive infrastructure, such as closely connected living and learning “micro-neighbourhoods”, people of all ages remain the “heart” of the economic, social and cultural life of communities. A mobility “ecosystem”, including automated buses and electric ride sharing, could connect specialist knowledge and skill centres to local hubs.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/333300/original/file-20200507-49542-rgfkdy.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/333300/original/file-20200507-49542-rgfkdy.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/333300/original/file-20200507-49542-rgfkdy.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=408&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/333300/original/file-20200507-49542-rgfkdy.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=408&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/333300/original/file-20200507-49542-rgfkdy.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=408&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/333300/original/file-20200507-49542-rgfkdy.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=512&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/333300/original/file-20200507-49542-rgfkdy.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=512&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/333300/original/file-20200507-49542-rgfkdy.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=512&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Tek Trak embraces autonomous and electric vehicle technology to radically alter the way.
we get around.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Elevation Architecture, Urban Strategies and Milanovic Neale</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Making inclusive neighbourhoods happen</h2>
<p>While autonomous vehicle technology might provide more equal access to mobility and transportation, the designers warned that transforming conventional settings of houses and cars to walkable neighbourhoods and autonomous vehicles will be gradual. It depends on two things: </p>
<ol>
<li><p>urban planning that ensures everyone has good access to safer transport alternatives rather than traffic-centric layouts</p></li>
<li><p>long-term equity financed by “future-focused” lenders. </p></li>
</ol>
<p>In this model, lenders are less focused on short-term returns. Instead, they have a greater focus on quality design as a catalyst for more development. In a virtuous circle, attractive development that places people close to community activities and businesses generates greater “footfall”. That in turn creates more business opportunities that make financially viable communities. </p>
<p>The Longevity by Design Challenge identified a range of opportunities to create a vibrant “longevity” economy by including people of all ages. Small, incremental and affordable changes towards resilient and age-friendly communities can transform perceived burdens into real assets. </p>
<p>Planning communities to embrace, not exclude, people over 65 has all kinds of benefits for Australia.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/135953/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Rosemary Kennedy received funding from DMA Engineers and Queensland University of Technology. The University of Queensland and Redland City Council provided in-kind support. She is a Fellow of the Australian Institute of Architects.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Laurie Buys receives funding from the Australian Research Council and several private and not-for-profit senior living organisations.</span></em></p>Instead of isolating and excluding older Australians, communities that are designed to embrace the growing numbers of Australians over 65 will have all kinds of benefits for Australia.Rosemary Kennedy, Adjunct Associate Professor of Architecture and Urban Design, Queensland University of TechnologyLaurie Buys, Professor, Director of Healthy Ageing Initiative, The University of QueenslandLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1305192020-04-20T12:26:27Z2020-04-20T12:26:27ZReplacing workers has many costs<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/315558/original/file-20200214-10980-1mb1zta.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Replacing an employee means taking time and resources to train someone new.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/human-resource-manager-explaining-work-dynamics-766701082">djrandco/Shutterstock.com</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The labor market is changing rapidly with the onset of the coronavirus pandemic. </p>
<p>Many organizations are <a href="https://www.dailycamera.com/2020/04/14/boulder-furloughing-737-city-employees-beginning-april-20/">laying off</a> <a href="https://www.ibtimes.com/coronavirus-layoffs-trump-organization-cuts-1500-employees-pandemic-hurts-presidents-2952985">almost all</a> <a href="https://news.yahoo.com/daily-crunch-amazon-fires-two-173214935.html">of their workers</a>, while others are considering which workers to lay off, <a href="https://www.thedailybeast.com/covid-19-testing-firm-quest-diagnostics-is-furloughing-employees">which to</a> <a href="https://abcnews.go.com/Entertainment/wireStory/disney-world-furloughing-43000-workers-due-virus-70103647">furlough</a> and which to keep. Alternatively, some are <a href="https://news.yahoo.com/former-cdc-director-says-coronavirus-140000179.html">expanding their labor forces</a>.</p>
<p>When <a href="https://abcnews.go.com/Health/wireStory/nyc-mayor-urges-caution-reopening-virus-stalled-economy-70161298">the economy starts to open up</a> again, employers will need to consider rehiring or replacing workers, or hiring workers with a different mix of skills. The cost of replacing an employee is high for employers, and being out of work is harmful for workers, who may be replaced with artificial intelligence or contractors and risk losing their skills.</p>
<p>I’m an <a href="https://www1.villanova.edu/villanova/business/facultyresearch/facultydepartment/biodetail.html?mail=cheryl.carleton@villanova.edu">expert in labor economics</a>, and my work <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Mary_Kelly18">with a colleague</a> investigates the increase in people engaging in alternative work arrangements such as contract or gig work, along with the implications such jobs have <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s11293-019-09628-3">for all workers’ well-being</a>.</p>
<p>There is no denying that the U.S. was experiencing <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/articles/job-market-continues-crush-expectations-2020/">a tight labor market</a> and a low rate of unemployment before the coronavirus pandemic took hold. For some fields, particularly health care and services deemed essential by local governments, the labor market continues to be tight.</p>
<p>A sudden massive loss of demand for their goods and services is forcing companies to make quick decisions, and some employers may underestimate the cost to replace good employees. Knowing these costs may encourage them to keep more of their workers on the payroll.</p>
<h2>Where are the costs?</h2>
<p>There are costs involved in losing a worker and replacing them, such as completing paperwork when they leave, advertising the open position, reviewing resumes, interviewing candidates and training the new worker.</p>
<p>Once a new worker is hired, others must also spend time training them, and it will take some time for the new worker to achieve the same level of productivity as the worker who left.</p>
<p>Another cost is the loss in <a href="https://www.investopedia.com/terms/s/socialcapital.asp">social capital</a>. Social capital is the relationships between individuals at work that take time to build and add to the productivity of the firm.</p>
<p>The Society for Human Resource Management <a href="https://www.shrm.org/hr-today/news/all-things-work/pages/to-have-and-to-hold.aspx">found that departures cost about one-third of a worker’s annual earnings</a>. </p>
<p><a href="https://wwww.americanprogress.org/issues/economy/reports/2012/11/16/44464/there-are-significant-business-costs-to-replacing-employees/">The Center for American Progress</a> drilled in deeper. They found the costs of replacing workers who earn less than US$30,000 per year to be 16% of annual salary, or $3,200 for an individual earning $20,000 per year.</p>
<p>For those earning $30,000 to $50,000 per year, it is estimated to cost about 20% of annual salary, or $8,000 for an individual earning $40,000. For highly educated executive positions, replacement costs are estimated to be 213% of annual salary – $213,000 for a CEO earning $100,000 per year.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.americanprogress.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/CostofTurnover.pdf">The much higher cost for replacing CEOs</a> is partly due to the fact that they require higher levels of education, greater training, and firms may lose clients and institutional knowledge with such turnovers.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/327014/original/file-20200409-187559-bjch1k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/327014/original/file-20200409-187559-bjch1k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/327014/original/file-20200409-187559-bjch1k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/327014/original/file-20200409-187559-bjch1k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/327014/original/file-20200409-187559-bjch1k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/327014/original/file-20200409-187559-bjch1k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/327014/original/file-20200409-187559-bjch1k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">By mid-April, more than 10% of employees in the U.S. had lost their jobs.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/Virus-Outbreak-Unemployment/8f21d0b7f1714cf4a4e714db4496eac7/5/0">AP Photo/Rick Bowmer</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Employee alternatives</h2>
<p>This high cost of losing and replacing workers has important implications for organizations, consumers and workers, especially now with <a href="https://www.brookings.edu/blog/up-front/2020/04/15/the-unemployment-impacts-of-covid-19-lessons-from-the-great-recession/">an estimated 15 million unemployed</a>.</p>
<p>For those workers where the costs to replace them are high, firms will try to accommodate them. Strategies may include maintaining pay, increasing benefits and retraining. These actions are also costly, so firms will <a href="https://www.shrm.org/resourcesandtools/hr-topics/benefits/pages/alter-benefits-attract-retain.aspx">weigh them against the cost</a> of simply <a href="https://www.inproma.com/blog/2018/11/01/what-is-the-real-cost-of-hiring-a-new-employee-vs-retaining-current-staff/">hiring new workers</a>.</p>
<p>This means businesses face high costs to replace workers in the future, and high costs to retain current workers, leading to higher costs for consumers who buy the firms’ goods and services.</p>
<p>While the above consequences might sound great for workers that organizations choose to keep, these are not the only ways in which firms can respond.</p>
<p>The high cost of replacing workers, along with the increased uncertainty about the economy may cause businesses to use <a href="https://www.mckinsey.com/featured-insights/future-of-work/jobs-lost-jobs-gained-what-the-future-of-work-will-mean-for-jobs-skills-and-wages">more automation and robots</a>. Though such switches may entail a significant upfront cost, once they are made the firms then have more control over their production processes. </p>
<p>Another alternative for firms is to hire fewer permanent employees and turn instead <a href="https://www.nber.org/papers/w22667">to contract workers</a>. With contract workers, employers are not responsible for benefits, and they can more simply increase or decrease the number of workers as needed.</p>
<p>While this may increase employment for some workers, it will decrease it for others and it has serious implications for the availability of health and pension benefits as well as unemployment benefits, as the current crisis has revealed. </p>
<p>Businesses might also consider limiting the scope of what some workers do to limit the cost of replacing them. If the scope of a worker’s job is limited, then fewer areas will be impacted by the individual leaving, and the costs to train a replacement will be lower. For workers, however, it means fewer opportunities to gain experience.</p>
<p>For example, instead of training workers on several or all parts of the production process, the business may limit them to one specific aspect. It will then be less costly for the firm to replace them and the worker will have less experience to add to their resume. This also means less bargaining power for employees.</p>
<h2>Some win, but others lose</h2>
<p>The high cost of losing and then hiring new workers along with increased restrictions on hiring nonresidents might mean higher wages and increased benefits for some workers.</p>
<p>However, the high degree of uncertainty in the current labor market, along with the potential increase in <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2020/02/04/gig-economy-grows-15percent-over-past-decade-adp-report.html">contract workers</a> and <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-results-automation/u-s-companies-facing-worker-shortage-race-to-automate-idUSKBN1X11T9">automation</a> means that some workers will not realize these potential gains, and all of us as consumers will most likely end up paying higher prices for the goods and services we buy.</p>
<p>[<em>Get the best of The Conversation, every weekend.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters/weekly-highlights-61?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=weeklybest">Sign up for our weekly newsletter</a>.]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/130519/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Cheryl Carleton does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>As more and more Americans are laid off, employers have to consider the cost of letting their staff go.Cheryl Carleton, Assistant Professor of Economics, Villanova UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1345802020-03-26T11:10:25Z2020-03-26T11:10:25ZCoronavirus: why lockdown may cost young lives over time<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/323223/original/file-20200326-133040-4hdlwu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/flying-colors-against-cheerful-fans-photographing-1041429991">vectorfusionart/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>COVID-19 will <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/news/coronavirus-covid-19-scientific-evidence-supporting-the-uk-government-response">cause a lot of deaths</a> if we don’t curb the spread of infection successfully by <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/mar/24/uk-coronavirus-lockdown-rules-what-you-can-and-cannot-do">lockdowns and other recently announced measures</a>. The pandemic is anticipated to disproportionately impact older people in the “baby boomer” generation – those aged between 55 and 74. In terms of fatalities, individuals over 70 years old are at the greatest risk, alongside those with underlying health conditions.</p>
<p>But what about the young? Some in the millennial and generation Z groups have bluntly described the pandemic as a “<a href="https://www.ft.com/content/6a880416-66fa-11ea-800d-da70cff6e4d3?fbclid=IwAR0fT6_f6CRNY8RtVZ1adcV1hibDGy7NNthft4TPKSngSbbfKPjAmfDtwFo">boomer removal</a>” on some social media channels. There have also been cases of young people ignoring social distancing rules and <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/mar/18/fears-lockdown-parties-will-increase-global-spread-of-coronavirus">throwing wild parties</a>, both in Europe and North America – creating an escalating conflict between generations.</p>
<p>This may be partly fuelled by long, simmering resentment among the young of perceived widespread <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/society/2018/apr/29/millennials-struggling-is-it-fault-of-baby-boomers-intergenerational-fairness">boomer entitlements</a>, such as easier access to property ownership, secure pensions and affluent retirement. Their neglect of climate change impacts is another trigger. </p>
<p>But there are other legitimate reasons for concern. In the long run, we may see death rates among young as well as old people go up as a consequence of long periods of lockdown and isolation – something we must mitigate against.</p>
<h2>Economy and death rates</h2>
<p>It is extremely difficult to estimate the net impact on death rates from the COVID-19 crisis. We know that lockdown measures will save thousands of lives. This isn’t just in terms of reducing infection, but also due to improved air quality and a reduction in traffic accidents. But we also know that the pandemic will have a <a href="https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2020/03/coronavirus-covid-19-cost-economy-2020-un-trade-economics-pandemic/">severe impact on the economy</a> over a <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-52000219">number of years</a>. This is also likely to cost lives. </p>
<p>Past downturns and crises have led to increasing unemployment but also growing mental health problems and <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0277953615301350">spikes in suicide rates</a> in many countries. In the UK, 6,507 people killed themselves in 2018 – that’s nearly twice the number of deaths seen in Spain from the coronavirus. And research estimates that the 2007 economic crisis in Europe and North America <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-27796628">led to more than 10,000 extra suicides</a>.</p>
<p>What’s more, in the early stages of the COVID-19 crisis, before the UK government offered financial help to support employees, many firms conveniently made people redundant and activated rapid plant or outlet closures. A number of studies have shown that substantial job displacement in other contexts <a href="https://academic.oup.com/qje/article-abstract/124/3/1265/1905153?redirectedFrom=fulltext">significantly increased mortality rates</a> over time, possibly through stress and income shocks.</p>
<p>Generally, the young have been more resilient to these problems, <a href="https://psycnet.apa.org/record/2015-23321-001?doi=1">enjoying greater success in reemployment</a> following job loss. They are also better placed to <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13676261.2016.1166192">migrate to places</a> with stronger economies. At the moment, though, poor economic prospects are becoming globally widespread – most likely for some time to come. And research has shown that poverty kills, with poor people <a href="https://www.imperial.ac.uk/news/189149/poorest-dying-nearly-years-younger-than/">dying nearly ten years earlier</a> than rich people in the UK.</p>
<h2>Current mitigation</h2>
<p>The UK government has already increased and redirected resources to the National Health Service (NHS) and civil emergency authorities. It has also put forward a substantial <a href="https://www.cityam.com/government-launches-330bn-coronavirus-business-loan-scheme/">business</a> and <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-51982005">labour market</a> rescue and mitigation package. </p>
<p>While these measures will go some way to sustain business continuity and income for company employees, they are not yet comprehensive in coverage. At the time of writing, the package excludes many young adults, including those who work as freelancers, are self-employed or in “gig” economic sectors. More of the young also rent their accommodation, or live where they work (such as nannies).</p>
<p>And if lockdown measures including closed shops and restaurants remain active for several months, this will cost the economy. Despite the Bank of England lowering interest base rates to 0.1%, their lowest ever level, this is unlikely to cause an uplift or acceleration in investment plans anytime soon. </p>
<p>While the government’s package of measures <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-51935467">comprise some 15% of current UK GDP</a>, this may well turn out not to be enough. It will need to inject huge additional sums into the NHS and other direct expenditures for managing the virus.</p>
<p>Inevitably, the crisis will <a href="https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2020/03/covid-19-economic-crisis-recession-economists/">cause the economy to further contract</a> and the scale of the dip in economic activity could be unprecedented in peacetime – decimating the quality of life and labour market prospects of the young in particular. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/323224/original/file-20200326-132965-1ffmv7u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/323224/original/file-20200326-132965-1ffmv7u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=480&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/323224/original/file-20200326-132965-1ffmv7u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=480&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/323224/original/file-20200326-132965-1ffmv7u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=480&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/323224/original/file-20200326-132965-1ffmv7u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=604&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/323224/original/file-20200326-132965-1ffmv7u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=604&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/323224/original/file-20200326-132965-1ffmv7u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=604&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Poverty kills.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Matthew Woitunski</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Despite this, Boris Johnson, the UK prime minister, has boldly suggested the country will be able to “<a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-51966721">turn the tide</a>” of the crisis in three months. It is not entirely clear if he means peak infection or the end of the crisis, but this view seems unduly rosy. The Spanish flu pandemic (1918-1920) <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/44446153?seq=1">featured three peaks</a>, so getting to the other side quicker may simply lead to the upside of a second peak a bit faster. </p>
<h2>Living with threat</h2>
<p>Young people are <a href="https://www.ucl.ac.uk/ioe/news/2019/feb/depression-rise-among-young-people-antisocial-behaviour-down-new-research-shows">already struggling with depression</a>. There is now a new dread to add to the list of existing crises – climate change, Brexit, housing and pensions. That’s another zoonotic virus pandemic. The economy will have to develop resilience to that, and it will come with a considerable price tag.</p>
<p>What’s more, for those identified as “key workers”, this is a time of very high job stress. Will younger key workers get burnt out? The risk is that they may consider complete career, lifestyle and location changes going forward. If so, without incentives to stay put, it would further degrade the UK’s resilience to a similar crisis. </p>
<p>It is reasonable to ask what the likely scale of these negative consequences will be across the generations after the crisis. Is there anything we could do now to help flatten the expected spikes in unemployment, poverty, mental health problems and suicide in the aftermath of this crisis?</p>
<p>We think that access to retraining and education without the associated burden of debt will be important. The government should also consider writing off existing education debts and create measures supporting geographical relocation within the UK and across borders. This would provide a basis for enabling freedom – socially and geographically. </p>
<p>The government should obviously do whatever it can to protect as many lives as possible. But it is important that the challenge of COVID-19 isn’t framed simply in terms of lives at risk from the virus versus the economy. Prolonged periods of unemployment, the stress of job fragility and poverty can also claim lives. Timely thought and action is needed to reduce that risk too.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/134580/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>We must put in measures to protect the young as well as the old.Alan Collins, Professor of Economics and Public Policy, Nottingham Trent UniversityAdam Cox, Principal Lecturer, University of PortsmouthLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1321612020-03-10T21:45:05Z2020-03-10T21:45:05ZBaby boomers, Gen X, Millennials and Gen Z labels: Necessary or nonsense?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/318136/original/file-20200302-18308-1d4b5cm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=24%2C115%2C2691%2C1339&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Britain's Royal Family, covering generations born before the Second World War and those born well after 2000, attend the 2017 Trooping of the Colour. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">AP/Kirsty Wigglesworth</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The race is already on to <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/family/archive/2020/02/generation-after-gen-z-named-alpha/606862/">label the next generation</a>. The news regularly talks about <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/28/us/gen-z-in-their-words.html"><em>millennials</em> and <em>Generation Z</em></a> and <a href="https://www.theglobeandmail.com/business/careers/leadership/article-how-different-generations-like-to-be-mentored/">the many ways that they create consternation</a> for older folks, who are labelled as <em>baby boomers</em> and <em>Generation X</em>. </p>
<p>Generational labels are an inescapable fixture of contemporary life. These terms have become a shorthand to evoke comparisons between young and old. Even government sources like <a href="https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/pub/11-626-x/11-626-x2019006-eng.htm">Statistics Canada</a> and the <a href="https://www.bls.gov/opub/mlr/2018/article/fun-facts-about-millennials.htm">U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics</a> use generational labels to present economic data. </p>
<p>But are they useful? The answer is complex and depends largely on the approach that researchers take.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1145002933047529472"}"></div></p>
<h2>Where did today’s generational labels come from?</h2>
<p>Generational theory traces back to German sociologist Karl Mannheim and Spanish philosopher José Ortega y Gasset, both of whom wrote about generations in the 1920s and 1930s. They argued that generations allow us to identify and connect with others who share the same journey through history. </p>
<p>Younger and older people react differently to the events of the day depending on where we are in our own life course when they occur. The events of 9/11, for example, had a different impact on older people with a lot of life experience behind them, than on teenagers, who had to live out their formative years in the post-9/11 era. </p>
<p>Today’s generational labels emerged in the post-war era when a spike in western birth rates created the demographic tsunami known as the “baby boom.” By the late 1960s when baby boomers were in their late-teens and early 20s, cultural anthropologist <a href="https://books.google.ca/books/about/Culture_and_commitment.html?id=sLa2AAAAIAAJ&redir_esc=y">Margaret Mead</a> described the “generation gap” between the youth culture and the established culture of the day. Two decades later, Canadian novelist Douglas Coupland captured the malaise of the post-boomer generation in <a href="https://books.google.ca/books/about/Generation_X.html?id=WRdH_LnSsQ0C"><em>Generation X: Tales for an Accelerated Culture</em></a>. </p>
<p><a href="https://doi.org/10.1177%2F153660069301400207">Authors William Strauss and Neil Howe</a> coined the term <em>millennials</em> to refer to the generation born from the 1980s onward. By the late 1990s, generations and generational labels were firmly embedded in the popular culture: Generation X, Y, Z and so on.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/IfYjGxI6AJ8?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">The fascinating evolution of all seven living generations, compared and contrasted through their unique perspectives over the course of 125 years in America.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Business books appeared that sought to characterize the various generational groups in terms of the purchasing preferences, use of technology, media consumption and work demands.</p>
<p>This view says each generational group is a fairly homogeneous group of people who share commonalities based on their formative experiences and differ from other generational groups in meaningful ways. Baby boomers are reduced to a caricature of <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/how-baby-boomers-became-the-most-selfish-generation-2016-11">self-centred</a> <a href="https://www.awardstaffing.com/understanding-baby-boomers-gen-x-ers-and-millennials-in-the-workforce/">workaholics</a>; Generation Xers are labeled as “<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/solitairetownsend/2020/01/07/ok-slacker-can-gen-x-save-the-world/#5716ee67399c">slackers</a>”; millennials are <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/think/opinion/issue-millennials-isn-t-narcissism-our-depressing-culture-mass-consumption-ncna839331">materialistic</a> and <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/15/science/narcissism-teenagers.html">narcissistic</a>; and Generation Z is viewed as <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2015/09/the-coddling-of-the-american-mind/399356/">fragile and hyper-sensitive</a>. </p>
<p>These narratives are compelling in their simplicity. They reduce the bewildering complexity of social change into an easy-to-apply typology. Merely knowing someone’s year of birth seemingly gives you all you need to know to judge a person’s character, life goals, values and purchasing intentions. But how accurate are these characterizations? </p>
<h2>What researchers say about generations</h2>
<p>In the early 2000s, researchers started asking whether generational differences actually existed by comparing generational groups on a variety of factors, including personality, attitudes, values and behaviours. In a <a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/job.1913">2014 critical review</a>, Lisa Kuron and I concluded that the evidence was inconclusive. Sure, there were observable differences on some factors, some of the time, but the observed differences were often small and were not consistently replicable. </p>
<p>The problem is, generations are really hard to measure.</p>
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<p>It’s usually unclear what year separates the end of one generation and beginning of another. And it’s practically impossible to disentangle the effects of aging, birth cohort (the imprint of history on your life course) and varied societal conditions at the time of the study. </p>
<p>Second, and probably more importantly, there is philosophical debate about what generations are and how we should view them. Some researchers believe that your year of birth specifies your generation, which affects your personality, attitudes and behaviour. Others view generations as a more complex social phenomenon that shapes and reflects your identity, both as an individual and as a member of society.</p>
<h2>Use of labels is not universal</h2>
<p>Our research <a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/workar/waw024">found that people use generational labels</a> as they discuss lives at work and beyond, but the use of labels is not universal. Some people do not identify with any generational group and others are unsure. We also found that younger people are less likely to identify with a label, even though they are aware of the label that is typically applied to people their age. </p>
<p>In <a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/workar/waw009">another study</a>, we found that people perceived differences among generational groups, identified numerous tensions related to those differences and were able to name strategies to manage them. Our research suggests that generational labels are meaningful to people as a way of making sense of their place in a rapidly changing world. </p>
<p>As awareness of generational labels has become stronger in mainstream culture, people’s reactions to those labels has become more complex. </p>
<p>The term “millennial” was intended as an optimistic label for the children of a new era, but quickly devolved into an epithet. Similarly, while “baby boomer” originally denoted nothing more than a demographic categorization, the emergence of the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/29/style/ok-boomer.html">“OK Boomer!” hashtag</a> suggests that it has become a pejorative used to signify views that are out of touch with progressive values. </p>
<p>Generational labels do not explain the bulk of differences among individuals. However, they are meaningful to people. They simultaneously shape and reflect our perceptions about the roles of younger and older people in our society. So, when you use a generational label, consider what that says about you.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/132161/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sean Lyons receives funding from The Social Sciences and Humanities Council of Canada.</span></em></p>Millennials, Gen X, Baby Boomers. These generational labels are popular because of what they mean to us, even if it’s not always useful.Sean Lyons, Professor, Leadership and Management, University of GuelphLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.