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.)
However, it is by no means certain
that the boomers' current bleak mood is a function of their current stage of
life. When it comes to quality-of-life assessments, data suggest the boomers
generally have been downbeat, compared with other age groups, for the past two
decades -- starting back when some were still in their twenties. So their current
sour ratings may be related to getting older, but they also may be related to
the attitudes and expectations about life they formed when they were young.
The Pew survey was conducted by telephone
from January 24 through February 19, 2008 among a randomly selected nationally
representative sample of 2,413 adults. Baby boomers are defined as adults ages
43-62 at the time the survey was taken.
On a question that asked respondents
to rate their present life on a scale of zero to 10, boomers, on average, give
their lives a rating of 6.2. In contrast, adults older than boomers (those who
are ages 63 and above) give their lives an average rating of 6.7. Adults younger
than boomers (those who are ages 18 to 41) give their lives an average rating
of 6.5.
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