Can it be true? Is it so? According to The New York Times and various other media sources, Baby Boomers are being displaced by an even larger demographic—millennials born in the brief 1990-91 blip. Yep. They’ve surpassed us in the race to be the biggest, baddest, and most influential group of people to hit the economic market since, well, baby boomers.

This sub-genre known as Peak Millennials (PMs) faces many of the same issues and challenges baby boomers faced but with less successful outcomes. We/they hit schools, colleges, universities, the workplace and job market, the housing market, and the romance market in numbers exceeding previous averages and expectations. Who’da thunk it could happen again? The obstacles and challenges look shockingly familiar to baby boomers, but PMs seem unable to adjust and don’t have our background of coping skills.

As someone who went down those challenging roads more than half a century ago, I naturally have some observations and suggestions on how to navigate life’s challenges. I think some of the current difficulties experienced by Peak Millennials are a result of inflated expectations. I realize I will take a lot of criticism for this but our expectations and benchmarks were considerably lower than the current generation.

Here are some of my observations about the differences:

1. Baby boomers (BBs) entered the workforce at an earlier age. There wasn’t the level of pressure on us to go to university or college (with the accompanying crushing debt) that exists today. Not every young person is university material and boomers understood the value of learning a trade or leveraging our typing skills learned in high school to secure a job as a secretary. I realize a career as a secretary no longer exists but entry-level positions are often a springboard to promotion and growth within a company, as demonstrated by Peggy Olsen’s upward trajectory in Mad Men. There are monumental shortages in skilled trades. Apprentices today have the advantage of being paid during training, have solid benefit plans, and have the flexibility to work anywhere, without being restricted to overpopulated, expensive cities. The stigma surrounding trade work must be eliminated as these jobs are highly valued, marketable, and portable.

   

2. Moving back in with our parents was not an option for boomers. The Greatest Generation grew up during The Great Depression and World War II so they had little sympathy for us when the going got tough. We were forced to get creative, put on our big-girl pants and sort out our problems ourselves. Which brings me to the next item.
3. Boomers settled for a much lower standard of living when we left home. We packed two girls into a bachelor apartment, three into a one-bedroom, or we subsisted in a rented room or bedsit. None of us could afford a car so finding accommodation on a bus or subway route was critical and we walked whenever we could to save the cost of transit tokens. Parents were not willing to bail us out or provide a cushion financially
4. Getting married did not automatically guarantee the right to own a home, especially one almost as well-equipped as what our parents owned. It required living in a cheap apartment for a few years while we saved a down payment and that first home usually had linoleum floors, formica countertops, no air conditioning, and required commuting from a remote suburb. And . . . the interest rate on the mortgage for such luxury when we finally did scrape together a minimum down payment was eighteen percent.

   

I am not without sympathy for the Peak Millennials. After all, their overheads are higher than what we endured. Cell phone expenses, sunny vacations, streaming subscriptions, car expenses, and rents in air-conditioned high-rises add to their financial burdens. PMs do not have the advantage of baby boomers whose parents stressed frugality and going without a few of life’s luxuries to work toward the greater good.

Where’s The Beef?

Now that the Peak Millennials are in their thirties, when can we expect some of the historic output baby boomers became famous for? No music since the sixties compares to the sweet harmonies of The Beach Boys, The Everly Brothers, The Righteous Brothers, or Simon and Garfunkel. No synthesized, computer-enhanced music can compare to the raw sexuality of Elvis and The Stones, or the pure creativity of The Beatles and all those wonderful British invasion groups.

Taylor Swift and Beyoncé aside (while being a credit to their gender and generation, they can’t do it all on their own), where is their contribution to memorable music? Where are the Bob Dylans? Where are the young politicians who genuinely care about taking care of their fellow citizens instead of just themselves? Why aren’t they voting these old white guys out of office and replacing them with new blood, new ideas, and new priorities? The younger generations now have the numbers to make a positive, progressive difference.

Are Peak Millennials going to be able to put an end to useless wars like boomers did to the Vietnam War? Are they going to break down fashion, racial, gender, and social barriers like we did? Sadly, they seem to be quietly accepting the dismantling of Roe vs Wade, book-banning in certain American states, and a return to letting the right-wing politicians wreak havoc on freedoms in our society. Are they going to use their demographic muscle to force change? ,

Every generation has its challenges and they’re all different. We boomers had our challenges just as Gen X, Y, Z, and Millennials do. The difference seems to be in the outcome. Instead of moving society forward with their expensive educations, and seemingly endless financial support from parents and grandparents, why are PMs not using their might and muscle to move social justice ahead instead of backward?

We didn’t have all the answers back in the sixties and seventies, but we didn’t whine about our difficulties, because no one cared or gave us a safe place to land. We soldiered on and somehow managed to overcome the burdens of 18% mortgage rates, lower standards of living, and less-than-ideal working lives. Life will never be easy. I hope the younger generations figure out how to fix this sad old world. We need them and we’re counting on them.