6

The Still Quiet Silent Generation

THE BIGGEST STORY about the Silent Generation is its size, or lack thereof. Born 1925–1944, its members were several million smaller by birth than the G.I. Generation, and their numbers did not really experience much of any increase due to immigration. While native-born G.I. Generation numbers were bolstered by about 14 million immigrants, immigration into the ranks of the Silent Generation was muted by stricter immigration laws, the Great Depression, and then World War II. In fact, legal immigration only added about 3 million people to the U.S. population during the Silent Generation birth years, and the majority of these immigrants likely provided the most boost to the ranks of the G.I. Generation. Immigration into the United States remained somewhat muted during the Baby Boom birth years but did add a few million to the Silent Generation ranks. Overall, though, the Silent Generation has always remained diminutive when compared to the preceding G.I. Generation and, more significantly, to the successor Baby Boomer generation.

Similar to Generation X (as you will see in Chapter 8), the story of the Silent Generation revolves more around the generations that preceded and followed it than it does the actual generation itself. With regard to the former, members of the Silent Generation are essentially clones of the G.I. Generation. The only difference between them is critical mass, or lack thereof, based in large part on limited Silent Generation immigration. The Silents were about 34 percent smaller. That is a significant difference. From a marketing standpoint, a 34 percent difference in the size of a market is huge. A 34 percent increase in the size of your market will produce astronomical sales and big profits. A 34 percent decrease will put you out of business.

Now, if you have been reading carefully, at this point you should be saying something along the lines of, Wait a minute here . . . and then question why the Silent Generation did not put the United States out of business.

I have not researched this anomaly in any depth but believe it to be largely a matter of lucky timing, a belief shared by others. Demographer and historian Neil Howe (who is believed to have coined the term Millennials for Generation Y) said that the Silent Generation’s “age location has been very good to them—and given them a lifetime ride on the up-escalator coming off the American High.” Demographer Richard Easterlin refers to the Silents as the “Lucky” and “Fortunate” generation because of their great timing. In short, the Silents came of age as World War II ended, and benefited from a new American economy forged by the war and perhaps too bulked up on steroids to notice that the Silents’ numbers were deficient. The size of the G.I. Generation may have shielded the economy from the population deficiency, and, interestingly, the Silents ended up having babies at a younger age than any other generation in American history.¹

The vast majority of the Silent Generation was too young to fight in WWII, so no hero stories there. They looked like the G.I. Generation, wore the same clothes, liked the same music, and drove the same cars. They were culturally the same as the G.I. Generation, just a smaller group living in the shadow of the huge gallant generation it followed. It is interesting to note that the Silent Generation sided almost completely with the G.I. Generation when the great cultural divide occurred in the 1960s and the Baby Boomers set out to change the world with peace, love, and free clinics.

The difference in the size of the Silent Generation and the Baby Boomers is overwhelming. The Silent Generation is only about two-thirds the size of the Boomers. In marketing this was a bonanza. Sales of everything increased, and all the marketing geniuses took the credit. If your market size increases by one-third, you will sell more. So guess what? As the Silent Generation aged through the time continuum and was followed by a generation almost 50 percent larger, what do you think happened? The larger generation, the Baby Boomers, consumed a lot more. Ford sold more cars. Chevrolet sold more cars. Levis sold more jeans. Honda sold more motorcycles. Advertising and marketing fanned the flame and life was good. And no one really understood why—no one, it seemed, ever bothered to count who the people were who might be responsible for the economic good times . . . or bad.

Demographers in the 1980s and 1990s promised an overwhelming graying of America starting in the year 2000, but it didn’t happen. Were they wrong? No, they were just twenty years too early. Go figure. The diminutive Silent Generation has proved to be a real problem for industries that geared up for the graying of America. Funeral homes and assisted living facilities have gone begging these past fifteen years, but I am positive that this is starting to change.

Today, the youngest members of the Silent Generation are currently 73, and still have a lot of life in them. The oldest members, at age 92, are fading fast. Similar to the remaining members of the G.I. Generation, the elder half of the Silent Generation represents a declining market, and a market that has few needs.

The younger half of the Silent Generation, those about 73–81 years old, still represent a declining market when compared to the G.I. Generation, but on the whole should carry a bigger population than their older Silent Generation predecessors because they were part of an expanding population—a small precursor to the massive population expansion wrought by the Baby Boomers. The years 1933 to 1936 marked the smallest U.S. birth years for the entire 20th century, with annual numbers several hundred thousand smaller on average than the thirty or so years preceding. Coincidently, these years are also marked by having among the lowest levels of incoming legal immigrants, with only between 23,000 and 36,000 arriving in each of these years.

Following the last of what were four record low birth years, with about 2.3 million births in 1936, the number of births started going up in 1937, which recorded about 70,000 births more than the previous year, and then went up by another 75,000 in 1938. There was a bit of a drop—30,000—in 1939, but then in 1940 the number of births jumped by almost 100,000, and then another 150,000 in 1941, and then 300,000 in 1942. The year 1943 served as a mini-peak with another 100,000 increase, but annual births then dropped by about 180,000 over the next two years. Perhaps it was just a brief pause before the Baby Boom liftoff.

I am a Baby Boomer. I have a brother eleven years my senior who is a Silent, and he is anything but silent. Brother Chuck is not done by a long shot. He is very conservative and takes a traditional stance. He has strong political opinions and is not afraid to write a letter or even call his representatives when he wants action. He and his wife, Adele, have over 200 country stamps each in their passports. They both love to travel, especially if they can explore a new country. Chuck is not ready to be elderly and neither is Adele. They still decorate, remodel, and buy furniture, food, and new cars. My brother bought a new 2015 high-performance Mustang last year. I wait patiently for his hand-me-downs. He is not done.

My colleague has old Silent Generation family friends approaching their 80s who are just now buying a winter home in a chichi city in Florida. This couple had the means to buy such a home back when they retired in their 60s, and then again while they were in their 70s, but it’s only now, as they hit 80, that they are starting to find the long New England winters “unbearable.”

Are we starting to see “80 is the new 60”?

Are my brother Chuck and his lovely wife, Adele, anomalies? Are my colleague’s old family friends? Maybe. But I think we have a new market brewing here. With modern medicine, quality nutrition, and, yes, exercise, we are living longer—much longer. I almost believe it is a personal decision. My brother and his wife have decided to live longer, richer, fuller lives that will extend well past their 70s into their 80s and 90s. I believe this will be a continuing trend established by determined Silents. It is, however, only the beginning because right on the Silent Generation’s heels is the largest generation ever to retire, the Baby Boomers.

Will the Boomers live long lives, similar to what seems to be happening with members of the Silent Generation who are apparently on the crest of a wave of expanding life expectancy?

Let’s see. . . .