80 million echo boomers coming of age

[Herman Munster]

Whoever wins getting them interested in politics and active is good for the future.

Old article but good information.

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/10/01/60minutes/main646890.shtml

The largest generation of young people since the '60s is beginning to come of age. They're called "echo boomers" because they're the genetic offspring and demographic echo of their parents, the baby boomers.

Born between 1982 and 1995, there are nearly 80 million of them, and they're already having a huge impact on entire segments of the economy. And as the population ages, they will be become the next dominant generation of Americans.

The oldest are barely out of college, and the youngest are still in grade school.

And whether you call them "echo boomers," "Generation Y" or "millennials," they already make up nearly a third of the U.S. population, and already spend $170 billion a year of their own and their parents' money.

[aquart]

1. These the ones who can't take criticism?

[harmonicon]

3. as someone born in the 70s, am I now old enough to tell these punks to get off my lawn?

New generation my foot. Back in my day - the 90's - generations only went up to X. Oh, but that wasn't good enough for these snot-nosed bastards. They had to come along with things like the alphabet and teh internets.

[aquart]

4. I loved the Sixty Minutes piece on them.

We've done horrible things to them in the name of self-esteem and happy childhoods. Sixty Minutes thought they were full of arrogance and self-confidence. Maybe the kids of the upper middle. I've seen the other ones. Who knew the praise was empty. That they had never done anything worthy of a prize, yet they got them. It made them feel nothing was worth anything. Especially themselves. I once asked one of them about a movie I hadn't seen. She wouldn't tell me. Whyever not? "Because," she said. "I might get it wrong."

Children are competitive. They strive naturally. We crafted a system without competition because somebody might feel hurt or left out. Now they don't know how to work, how to take criticism, how to use a fork. We screwed them.

[Zorra]

2. If that's true, "echo boomers" will be the staple food of the freeper diet

when the depression hits.

That article paints them as a generation of fat little cows grazing in the pasture, never suspecting they are soon going to end up as a Whopper Jr until they are loaded on the truck.