This report on the attitudes and lives of the American middle class combines results of a new Pew Research Center national public opinion survey with the center’s analysis of relevant economic and demographic trend data from the Census Bureau. Among its key findings:

Fewer Americans now than at any time in the past half century believe they’re moving forward in life.

Americans feel stuck in their tracks. A majority of survey respondents say that in the past five years, they either haven’t moved forward in life (25%) or have fallen backwards (31%). This is the most downbeat short-term assessment of personal progress in nearly half a century of polling by the Pew Research Center and the Gallup organization.

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They are worried about money, do not believe they are better off than their parents and job competition.

America’s baby boomers are in a collective funk. Members of the large generation born from 1946 to 1964 are more downbeat about their lives than are adults who are younger or older, according to a new Pew Research Center Social and Demographic Trends survey.

Not only do boomers give their overall quality of life a lower rating than adults in other generations, they also are more likely to worry that their incomes won’t keep up with inflation — this despite the fact that boomers enjoy the highest incomes of any age group.

More so than those in other generations, boomers believe it is harder to get ahead now than it was 10 years ago. And they are less apt than others to say their standard of living exceeds the one their parents had when their parents were the age they are now.

These gloomy assessments come from a generation that always has been identified with youth (witness the resilience of their label: “baby boomers”) but that’s now well into — and even beyond — middle age. (Boomers turn 44 to 62 this year.)

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“I’ve bought my last Ford car. It makes me damn mad that they’re closing a plant in the U.S. and opening one in Mexico that will do the same work. Of course the product made at the Mexican plant will be shipped here to the U.S.

Why doesn’t Ford sell all of it product made at that plant to the Mexicans and leave the U.S. alone! My next car will one from a manufacturer that is MAKING jobs for Americans and not for Mexicans and other foreigners. I wonder how many illegal immigrants work for Ford in the United States?”

Reminds me of a post on Social Venture Labs:

The reason I make this point is that I wonder if the small business here in The States is gaining some traction because Americans are taking a moment to pause after the industrial boom of the 50s and ask: “How can that item I’m looking to buy really cost $4.95?”

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So, it makes you think – $4.95 doesn’t really even cover the cost of the shelf space, indicating volume on this unit is pretty high. Throw in concepts of quality into the mix: Americans’ need for the “new” and acceptance for planned obsolesce, or the German desire for lifelong quality and you begin to see the complexity of the marketplace, not to mention the wrench that cultural impact has on production.

If I’m not paying for this item, than who is?

• when the Peace Corps becomes the main alterntative to employment, the economy is in dire straits
• most people in their 50s do not look at such an opportunity as a successful end to their career – or even a viable alternative

When someone is laid off, they go through all the phases of grief over their career: denial, anger, etc. They want a new chance, a new opportunity – and often they want it to look just like their last one.

While I don’t necissarily agree that opting into the Peace Corps is a sign of failure for a person over 50, on the contrary (I think it’s a gutsy move), I do understand that notion that “past behavior is an excellent predictor of future choices.”

Look at their home page:

They get points for:

• no longer have articles about sex in your 60s, managing your mutual fund or sending photos to your grandkids

They fail at providing adequate tools to this demographic that will help them stay on top of:

• job search tactics (like joining linked in, on-offline networking, community groups)
• job re training (listing all free or low cost online courses through top universities
• tips on downsizing their conspicuous consumption (reduce storage units, dealing with wills, trimming finances, budgeting

These guys are HUGE, what holds them back from creating some real social change? They have such an opportunity here: to be the organization that helps the Boomer generation leave their dying mark on the American culture –> that they matter, that older generations have a place and can make a contribution to society.

America is “Tomorrowland.” Our marketing, our consumption is all about the promise of tomorrow. Our current economics are forcing us to look at today. This population segment is completely underutilized in today’s economy simply because of how they “show up” (their attitude, their lingo, their learning approach). But they have so much to give, so much experience, so much history that would be invaluable to our young, innovative thinking.

I just came across this article in the Washington Post and was irked by several things:

“My kids are both moved out, but we’re still providing 50 percent of their financial responsibility for them, just sending money,” said Kim Gillingham, 45, who lives in Glencoe, Pa., with her husband, Randy. The couple, married 26 years, have a 23-year-old daughter and a 20-year-old son.

I would put this financial allocation in the “incapable of tough love” category. I realize it dates me to suggest a phrase like “kids today” but the twenty somethings I’m coming across lately (and even some 30-somethings) still get money from their parents. Excuse me?

When I was 12 and asked for a phone, my Dad said, “If we make it too nice for you, you may never leave.”

When I was twenty, I didn’t have a protien in my fridge unless I got a bonus, or had a date. I didn’t live beyond my means, I paid for things in cash, I didn’t buy new clothes for longer periods. I felt my income. This is part of breaking away and making it on your own. You need to feel your income.

More than half — 55 percent — said that they either “expect to live comfortably” in retirement or will be able to “meet expenses with a little left over,” the study found.

More than half? That’s not so big a number….that means the other half doesn’t feel that way. After financing their kids through their 20s and taking care of their parents in old age, how do you think they will afford their own retirement? Through ethnicity in, and the African American quadrant has $.66 on the dollar to look forward to stretching. Thankfully, I’m not alone in this opinion as this post mentions:

I wouldn’t have guessed that over half of the respondents would have an elderly parent living with them, particularly since only 71% have a living parent. That doesn’t exactly conjure up the image of carefree retirees living it up on their Social Security checks from the government (average monthly benefit = $955).

The average Boomer is assuming responsibility for their kids for too long, and their aging parents, which suggests to me that their head is in the sand about their own economic future and their kids will inherit the problem – just like they did.

Over the years, several themes have piqued my attention and lately I feel that are all coming at me like knives in a circus act: boomer’s conspicuous consumption à white collar layoff  à current state of economy  à  concentration with the bottom line  à trickledown economics  à  the burden the Boomers’ children will have to shoulder.

Here are a few themes I will continue to hone, but would like to explore in this blog:

·         Our consumptive choices have created a brutal market whose forces are creating a Mao-like environment, where white collar and blue collar working side by side, with the same opportunities available to them

·         The idea of “professional Alzheimer’s” of the working white collar now in service jobs; they wake up each day and have to remember where they are, the life they lost and the life they have now

o   What affects does this have on their mental / physical state

·         Family value DNA has been recalibrated

o   Kids are stepping in (eastern values at play, or necessity?)

§  on the other side of the globe the Chinese are leaving their family units (ie, not taking care of their parents), deciding not to have children, and are in search of conspicuous consumption (and in their early 30s, starting to buy into luxury apartments for their retirements)

o   parents have lost the ability to “parent” and are in need of serious counseling but are not seeking services

-          The mental/physical state of the whitecollar workers:

• ashamed
• not well versed on seeking services
• ill equipped to deal with service work
• not as adaptable as service workers (latch on to one type of work and stick to it)
• not as open to job retraining
• nostalgic about a life they had; hanging on to past life –the self storage epidemic; hanging on to past life –waiting for their kids to deal with it so they don’t have to