Birth Quake
Subtitle: The Baby Boom and Its Aftershocks (Population and Development Series)
Publisher: University Of Chicago Press
Published: May 15, 2002
Language: eng
Format: Hardcover
Number of pages: 314
ISBN-13: 9780226500836
Subjects: Economic theory & philosophy; Population & demography; Business & Economics; Sociology; Business/Economics; Demography; Social Science / Demography; Economics - General; 1945-; 20th century; Economic conditions; History; Overpopulation; Population; United States
First sentence: Birth quake: a totally unexpected, earth-shattering, and ground-breaking event experienced not just in the United States, but in virtually the entire Western industrialized world during the 1950s and 1960s, as birth rates erupted and the number of babies born annually in many countries nearly doubled within just a few years.
Description: Between 1965 and 1985, the Western world and the United States in particular experienced a staggering amount of social and economic change. This book argues that the common thread underlying all these changes was the post-World War II baby boom - in particular, the passage of the baby boomers into young adulthood. The author focuses on the pervasive effects of changes in 'relative cohort size', the ratio of young to middle-aged adults, as masses of young people tried to achieve the standard of living to which they had become accustomed in their parents' homes despite dramatic reductions in their earning potential relative to that of their parents.