Obama and the Post-Baby Boomer World

Look at the tears of the cold-hearted Jessie Jackson.

We all know that Obama’s inauguration marks a new age of race relations in the US. I was even tempted to vote for him solely because of his skin color (this coming from a Caucasian). The political race card isn’t superficial: Imagine if every black person in the US felt just a bit more “welcome” here with a black president. Just think about the economic implications.

Obama’s presidency comes at a time when America’s demographics are changing. America is becoming less white. It’s no coincidence that our first black president was elected when he was: The baby boomers are moving on. The passing of the baby boomers, I suspect, will mark Obama’s presidency more than anything else in the US, even more than race relations. The baby boomers are the largest age cohort in the US. It’s not just that they’re more white. They’re also wealthier. And older.

In 1969, Nixon claimed that he appealed to a silent majority of constituents – hard-working older Americans who didn’t protest the war and who had real American values. That silent majority was in fact the baby boomer generation. And they’ve been skewing politics ever since. Young liberal protesters – some even the children of baby boomers – have been dumbfounded by them, ever since protesting the Vietnam War.

How sharper than a serpent's tooth it is
To have a thankless child (King Lear, Act I, Scene IV)

But you have to hand it to the baby boomers. They were born right after one of the scariest times in history, and America’s post-World War II growth in opulence is mostly attributable to them. In their time our economy has shifted even further from being based on physical labor to skills. This shift allows individuals to have longer careers. It gives women a larger role in the workplace. It puts a premium on education. Most of all, it puts a premium on experiential knowledge. Unlike previous generations, it allows the older to be wealthier. The baby boomers’ passing – both literally and figuratively – will be like the loss of a father or a mother to society.



The economic effects are just being realized, and barring any major changes in immigration policy, it will likely extend far beyond weighing down an inefficient health care system. Competent older workers are the most valuable people in our economy. Think about how their loss will have idiosyncratic effects in every industry in the economy.

I can’t help but suspect that the world will have a new feel to it. Maybe this is just because I’m in my mid-20’s and I’ll be experiencing that world in the fullest. But I suspect that the election of Obama is merely our first taste of the world after baby boomers. I suspect that there have been cultural shifts and movements that have been stifled because society has disproportionally more older people, who carry much more economic weight. I wonder whether our economic growth in previous decades was fueled by the disproportional size of the baby boomer generation. I wonder whether we’ll still be one of the wealthiest countries in the world. I suspect that the we’ll become even more technology and internet-oriented.

I think part of it might be a little like the shift from Microsoft to Apple. See, a few years ago my mom bought an iPod, and she still can’t figure it out, this following multiple lengthy lessons from myself. But that’s understandable, because iTunes originally made the most sense for people with large CD or digital music collections. Nonetheless, Apple has become one of the world's largest tech companies in spite of all the people like my mom who aren’t attracted to it. Just imagine what the world will look like when everyone can use an iPod.

Maybe we were all so amazed that we elected a black president that we didn’t catch onto this. But in retrospect it’s obvious: Barack Obama is the first president to be elected by primarily non baby-boomers. It’s not just that lots of young people supported him – young people have always leaned liberal – it’s that those people finally outweighed enough other people. Looming large is the question: what will the post-baby boomer world look like?.

-KJ

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Media (in order of appearance)

Photo: (1) Rev. Jesse Jackson in tears, 11/05/2008, by Andrew Mager; (2) Richard Nixon in the Oval Office, 1972; (3) BlackAppleLogo, 07/25/2008, Ken Fager; (4) Crowds on 18th Street - 2009 Presidential Inauguration, 01/20/2009, by Agnostic Preachers Kid; (5) Obama Poster Painted on Brick..., 05/03/2008, by Hattie Page.

Video: (1) Music video, 05/28/2008, Penguuinz, of the song "The Long Day is Over", by Norah Jones, from her 2002 album Come Away with Me. Sphere: Related Content

Top 15 of 2008

I thought about doing one of those year-end lists (like best CDs of the year) but I'm never very in touch with what's been released any given year. And furthermore half the time I find myself amazed by old things as if they were new (like a few years ago when I discovered Marvin Gayes' 1971 R&B classic, What's Goinig On). Society has a strong preference for the new, but sometimes old ideas can seem all the more relevant. So I decided to make a list of just top stuff in my life this year. Some are ideas and areas of study while others are new media and entertainment. Think of them as influencers in my life this year. In that sense, they're all things that proved to be novel to me in 2008 (that's why you won't find the sun rising) like little surprises or discoveries for the year. And in that sense as well I hope some of them you might find novel in your life.

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15. Dogs

Previously I never understood why people become so attached to them, though I never gave it much thought. But with new roommates I'm now living with a bunch of dogs and they’re a whole lot of fun like good buds. Dogs definitely make life just a bit richer.

14. The Washington Redskins

Being fully away from any form of school I’ve been able to get back into football. I enjoyed following the Skins throughout high school, but now that my mind’s a bit more matured I suddenly see there’s so much more to the game. This has become my new religion insofar as I set aside time each Sunday and think about it all week...and insofar as it’s not really a religion.

13. The Stock Market

Stock prices fluctuate in relation to demand for them not in relation to how good a company is. On a very intuitive level, this has never made sense to me, and it still doesn’t. But this year I’ve become intrigued with finding good intro books, reading about the market, researching companies, and even buying my first couple of shares. It’s essentially a mind-puzzle, a very tempered and controlled form of gambling. But boy is it intriguing. Sometimes I’ll just go to finance.google.com and watch the numbers change.

12. iTunes Genius

iTunes Genius is like an automated DJ who works with your digital music collection. You “play a song, click the Genius button, and iTunes creates a playlist of other songs from your library that go great together. Genius playlists help you discover songs in your library you never knew you had — and rediscover forgotten favorites.” Each song transition is tasteful and perhaps even artistic. It’s not perfect as it doesn’t recognize every song, and you can only use it for one song at a time. But its playlists really rival my own, some of which I've spent some time on. Even if you prefer to make your own mixes, you can use Genius to generate new ideas when you're stuck.
11. Motley Fool Caps

Motley Fool CAPS is an addictive stock market stimulator in which you vote on which stock picks will out- or under-perform the S&P. It’s as close as you’ll get to a true social networking community focusing on the stock market. And it’s taught me a good bit the market, both through making picks and reading others’ commentary. Tons of people use it and many stocks have thousands of predictions. For instance, Apple is currently the most frequently rated stock with 19,512 members for it and 1,593 members against it. TMF collects the data to generate all sorts of stats on players and stocks. It's only been around since 2006, and they're constantly tweaking it for the better. No one is even sure yet how it’ll turn out: Will it provide accurate real-world predictions? Will the highest rated stocks win out in the long run? In the meanwhile though who cares because it’s more fun than real investing.

10. Good cappuccinos

I’m not one to make elite aesthetic distinctions – they're often just puffs of ego and semantics. But this year a friend introduced me to a coffee shop that makes “real” cappuccinos and boy what a difference. Ones that look like this:

Cappuccinos are supposed to be thick and made with whole milk. The whole point in adding milk is so the dairy fat can bring out the flavor of the coffee. I'm hooked, and Starbucks' – who recently made skim milk their default for cappuccinos – now taste pretty empty to me.

9. metacritic.com

Metacritic.com combines critics' reviews on any given movie, music album, video game, or TV show. Each item gets a combined score across all critics, similar to rottentomatoes but with more media and a more user-friendly layout. I’ll often check it out before – and sometimes after – seeing or purchasing related media. The service is topnotch, since being bought by CBS, who've supplied it with more than adequate bandwidth, better quality control, and new features.

8. Coldplay’s album Viva la Vida

Like a revelation unfolded in sound. The collaboration between Coldplay and producer(/ambient maestro) Brian Eno worked perfectly. Coldplay and Eno are each intellectual aurally-aware introverts – sometimes to a fault – but here they build off each other quite well.



7. Improv acting classes

A few months ago I capriciously decided to give improv acting classes a try, as inspired through this article at CNN. It's taught me some unique life lessons, which I wrote about previously, but moreso it’s just a great release.

6. Slumdog Millionaire

The world is getting more connected, and we could only go on for so long before some artsy director pondered "why not make an American version of a Bollywood film?", and Slumdog Millionaire is the glorified result. An intense journey through the deepest reaches of poverty and fantasy, it’s the sort of film that could only have been released – or made money – this decade. Americans are truly getting smarter with each passing generation. Movies like Slumdog Millionaire or the Dark Knight are too complex and edgy to have been widely accepted a couple of decades ago. I loved them. We’re demanding more from pop-culture Mecca’s like Hollywood, and they’re giving us the goods. For more see Steven Johnson’s book Everything Bad Is Good for You: How Today's Popular Culture Is Actually Making Us Smarter. Check out Slumdog's soundtrack as well.

5. iTunes audio-books

I enjoy music and my iPod gives me freedom to listen to it anywhere. But I’ve recently begun digging iTunes’ audio-books as much as its music. At first I thought that I’d rather just listen to my favorite tunes everywhere and get into a groove. But audio-books have slipped into my daily iPod use with surprising ease. Just be sure to pick ones that aren’t too complex to listen to on the go. For example, an audio version of Newton’s Principia Mathematica won't work.

4. New Balance motion control sneakers

A few months ago I decided to give these shoes a go. They're called motion control shoes, because they have extra support around the arch in order to force your foot into correct pronation. They’ve completely corrected my posture, solved a running injury that I’ve had for years, and allowed me to run again. Who would’ve thought? The New Balance store by me has exceptional customer service as well, far exceeding similar high-end running shoe stores that I tried.

"Graphite Rollbar® is a boomeranging positioned piece of graphite in the midsole which maximizes rearfoot stability. Rollbar can be combined with a TPU medial and/or lateral post for motion control."

3. Economics

Economics suddenly intrigues me to no end. I don’t know what it is, but this topic seems to pervade everything. This year I’ve spent some time trying to finding the right books to teach myself about economics, and so far my picks have exceeded my expectations. Among the top is Thomas Sowell’s Basic Economics.

2. Sleep

This year I’ve reached new plateaus in how good my sleep feels. Wrote Vladimir Nabokov, “Sleep is a rose the Persians say.” (For more see a previous post).

1. Robert Pirsig's Zen & the art of Motorcycle Maintenance

I've returned to this book for the first time since a teen and it hits the spot like a popsicle on a hot day. I first read it a decade ago but it seems so much more relevant now. You can feel yourself learning with each page. And I even see how its lessons – which I’d forgotten explicitly came from the book – left their mark on my thinking since I was teenager, such as: the importance of analysis, both regarding its benefits and limits; the notion of honest work; quality and gumption; the limits of ego, opinion, and rigid-thinking. Other lessons are particularly relevant to my life now: the notion of moving laterally in life instead of forward; that roadblocks in life or in the mind are equally or more important than success; the severe limits of the empirical sciences. His discussion on lateral movement is exactly what I find so fascinating about free markets and alternative uses of scarce resources. But the book's reach extends far beyond.

-KJ
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Media (in order of appearance):

Photo: (1) Jason Taylor, 08/16/2008, jf; (2) iTunes Genius logo; (3) CAPPUCCINO, 07/22/2007, by kina3; (4) Movie poster from the 2008 film Slumdog Millionaire, fair use rationale to provide commentary on film; (5) 365/365: Audiobooks, 01/09/2008, by David D Muir; (6) New Balance motion control technology; (7) Cover from Pirsig's Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance.

Video: (1) Music video from caleismachinegun of the song "Lost" by Coldplay from the 2008 album Viva La Vida. Sphere: Related Content