Who Will Mind Us?

It used to be that the gap between the generations was one just of language. One imagines that soon after language evolved, children’s talk began to deviate from the way their parents spoke, leaving parents perplexed. And children, by the same token, must, on occasion, have failed to comprehend what their parents were going on about. We accept that. But now, though, it seems that a resentful distrust smoulders between the generations, encouraged more by chatter than anything else.

What came first? Did we know we had a generation issue prior to being told by some pundit that we had one, or did the revelation come about as a result of our being groomed to see how things stand? 

Commentators have identified the Baby Boomer generation, comprised of those born in the years immediately following WW II as the signal generation of recent decades. These Boomers, were the offspring of those who had lived during the Great Depression that had had to scrimp and save, and who then had to go to fight and die in the war.  The Boomers were lucky. They were in the right place at the right time, reaching maturity just when the economies of the western world were beginning to deliver. Boomers found the ways and means to make it, and they did, manoeuvring themselves into an assured mastery of the universe. Outsiders could only stand and gape.

Now that Boomers are entering their seventh decades, they do not easily relinquish territory. Instead, they reinvent themselves as ‘Zoomers’, who remain every bit as acquisitive as in their initial incarnation.

But the children of the Boomer/Zoomer generation are not without their own ambition, reinforced by that 21^st century characteristic, “attitude”. Even the way they are designated, all sharp angles, speaks for itself: ‘Generation X,’ ‘Generation Y’, ‘Generation Z’. All bunched together, they are a formidable force demanding attention. However, they do have a soft centre consisting of the ‘Squeezed generation’ located in an in-between territory whose borders are defined by now-dependent parents and still-juvenile children. Where were this generation previously? They have always been there in plain sight, carrying on quietly with Grandpa and Grandma, Dad, and Junior, all living comfortably together in the same space where everyone’s needs were met. Modern life has disrupted this cosy arrangement, dispersing the generations into multiple households the care for which now defaults to the Squeezed Ones.

This rebalancing of the burden of care is becoming the norm in countries where life expectancy is surging upwards, men living into their late 70’s and women into their 80’s. Some of us should be grateful, I suppose, but the Squeezed Ones are certainly not the pleased ones. 

It is good though that the social state does carry some of the burden, using tax on the wages of the working young, in the so-called pay-as-you-go arrangement by which some maintenance is provided the elderly. I was surprised to learn about this arrangement recently because I had always thought that the little bits we pay as social security insurance went into a pool that the government invests for us for our retirement. That is not exactly the case.

In the end, bills have to be paid, wherever we are in the cycle. What is clear is that our little children are the most vulnerable. They have nothing, except their boundless potential. Therefore, our duty is clear. Protect and nurture them, so that in adulthood, they would be capable of looking after themselves. And us too.

Tell Fren Tru