Good evening. I’m Craig Peters and tonight I’ll be speaking on, “Generation Jones.”
My group was mistakenly lumped in with Boomers because of their mutually high birth rates. The original mistaken Boomer Generation definition has become widely discredited, with many top experts now embracing Generation Jones as a distinct generation. These experts underline the importance of distinguishing between the post-WWII demographic boom in babies versus the cultural generations born during that time. Jonesers were born between the mid-1950s and mid-1960s, with the exact birth years varying from nation to nation. In the U.S. and most Western countries, the birth years most often used for GenJones are 1954-1965. Extensive research has shown dramatic differences between the collective personality traits of Boomers versus Jonesers.
Social Commentator Jonathan Pontell coined the term “Generation Jones”. Some of its connotations:
It embodies the idea of a large anonymous generation
It was this generation—as teens in the 1970’s—which nationally popularized the slang term “jonesin’” (meaning a craving or yearning)… which has turned out to be a core personality trait of this generation of huge expectations left unfulfilled
Between the personality extremes of the Boomers’ idealism and the Xers’ cynicism lies the more balanced mainstream “Jones” quality
This generation is responsible for popularizing the sense of irony which gives the “Jones” name its generic cool
The “keeping up with the Joneses” connotation reflects a collective competitiveness resulting from the very populous GenJones birth years
If you recognize this screen shot from “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer,” depicting some of the inhabitants of the Island of Misfit Toys, hoping that Santa Claus will pick them up some Christmas Eve and deliver them to loving homes, you, my friends, are a card-carrying member of Generation Jones.
David Yamada wrote an article entitled, “How will Generation Jones make its mark?” on September 7, 2013. The picture in the previous slide is from that article. Yamada was having a meal with his old friend from high school whom he hadn’t seen in decades. Facebook put them back in touch. Yamada didn’t mention the name of his friend, but did state that his friend has a ton of important work experience in both the private and public sectors, and he’s at a point in his life where he’s considering how to bring this accumulated wisdom to bear upon some of our larger challenges in creating a vibrant, socially responsible economy. Yamada wondered if his friend might be part of a creative solution to those challenges.
As I mentioned previously, the name “Generation Jones” has several connotations, including a large anonymous generation, a “keeping up with the Joneses” competitiveness and the slang word “jones” or “jonesing”, meaning a yearning or craving. It is said that Jonesers were given huge expectations as children in the 1960s, and then confronted with a different reality as they came of age in the 1970s and 1980s, leaving them with a certain unrequited, “jonesing” quality.
Looking to the future, it's likely Generation Jones will face a very different retirement scenario that even now is creating new challenges for advisors. As a generation full of unfulfilled dreams reaches that reflective stage of midlife, emotions are beginning to influence decisions and often wreak havoc on the best financial plans. If we assume that Jonesers will be working longer than current retirees-due to the well-documented lack of savings, decline of employer pensions, etc., what will that mean for those who previously anticipated a normal retirement age and envision their retirement as time to fulfill those youthful dreams?
A Different Perspective
To understand the argument that the baby boomers really are two separate and distinct generations, you have to look beyond the demographics to examine the psychographics. During their impressionable adolescent years, first-half boomers' views of the world were shaped by the flourishing prosperity of the 1950s. That idealistic optimism was put to the test during the often violent '60s and early '70s.
By contrast, the Jonesers were just kids at the time. (Full disclosure time: I'm in this group.) We watched as the idealistic optimism of our formative years gave way to a cynical pessimism. We became disillusioned over politics (via Watergate, the Cold War and the Iran Hostage Crisis,); the economy (via stagflation, gas lines and a flat stock market); and even our home lives (via rising divorce rates and the emergence of HIV and Aids.) While older boomers developed a tremendous expectation and grand desire to change the world, we Jonesers inherited a world that was tired of change.
In conclusion, there’s no shortage of good works and noble deeds that need doing. We’re in our 50s and late 40s. Realistically speaking, we have about a 20 year window to continue or begin creating the heart of our personal and collective legacies. In other words, we can’t afford to feed a lot of angst about the world and our places in it. It’s game time, and we need to realize that.
