AARP Eye Center
Move Over Baby Boomers - Cuspers Are Here!
By Alejandra Owens, December 29, 2008 01:22 PM
There's a recent CNN opinion piece by Marian Salzman suggesting that a "newer" older generation is now taking the ranks:
As baby boomers lose their authority and appeal, generational power is shifting one notch down: to cuspers (born roughly 1954-1965), who arrived in style in 2008 with their first truly major figure, Barack Obama (born 1961). George W. Bush, born in 1946 at the start of the postwar baby boom for which his generation is named, will leave office with the lowest approval ratings since Richard Nixon was president. As Thomas Friedman has written, Bush epitomizes what's now seen as "The Greediest Generation." Who's to blame for the economy going into serious decline?
That's right, the author also suggests that baby boomers are the easy group to blame for the economic crisis, labeling them as "the generation that pursued pleasure, proclaimed 'I can have it all' and refused to grow old -- '50 is the new 30,' etc." How dare those boomers not play into the "old fogie" stereotype and - gasp - pursue pleasure!! Those shameless, greedy boomers, trying to have fun!
This is not to say that cuspers isn't a group to acknowledge and be interested in, I was actually excited to learn more about this generation. But I don't think that demonizing the boomer generation by equating them with an unpopular President and blaming them on the economic crisis is necessary to counterpoint.
This isn't a competition, it's a group of people - tens of millions of people - and simplifying them as "George Bush's generation" is patronizing and just plain silly.