NEWSWIRE: 4/23/18
- A small but growing number of colleges are allowing students to share a dorm room with their pet. For the generation that grew up with the mindset that “pets are family,” Millennials want to share the college experience with Fluffy and Fido—and college administrators are giving it a shot. (The Washington Post)
- NH: Let's be clear: This new pet influx is in addition to the pets that colleges have already begun to allow in recent years for physically and emotionally disabled students. Most students seem OK with this trend. It parallels a similar welcome now extended by airlines that allow pets on board (via a liberal definition of "emotional service animal"). Most airline travelers seem OK with that as well. Hey, that duck in the aisle is really cute! Here we're looking at a strong social tailwind powering our bullish call on the pet care industry (See: "Pet Care: The Four-Legged Bull Market.") To be sure, there will be plenty of adjustment pains along the way. Responding to a rapid rise in traveler complaints about animals in the next seat, airlines are seeking federal approval of more restrictive guidelines. Many students and their parents may also eventually complain about having to subsidize vet care and separate laundry facilities for yet another "special" youth category. But don't call this a backlash. Nonhuman "family" members are here to stay.
- Emerging economies like Brazil are getting old before they get rich, a historical anomaly. Many of today’s emerging third-world economies will have to face the problems of a gray society (including expensive medical care and an overburdened pension system) without a first-world economic backstop. (The Wall Street Journal)
- NH: I may bear some responsibility for coining the phrase "countries that grow old before we get rich": Pete Peterson and I coined it in Gray Dawn, a book about global aging we wrote back in 2000. The basic idea is that, thus far, the second great demographic transformation (lower fertility, leading to rising old-age dependency ratios) has mainly transformed high-income societies in Japan, North America, and Europe. In the next couple of decades, however, it will rapidly transform developing societies which are nowhere near as affluent. Some of these rapidly aging societies (like China) have only meager pay-as-you-go safety nets for retirees. Here the challenge will be adequacy. Some others--and Brazil is number one on this list--have set up absurdly generous pay-as-you-go plans. And here the challenge will be affordability. Ominously, Brazilian President Michel Temer's effort to reform this system late last year appears to have failed. With Brazilian politics upended by corruption scandals (former Presidents Lula da Silva and Dilma Rousseff, who both basically ducked the issue, are heading for prison), the prospects for reform anytime soon do not look great. Most global market analysts are bullish about Brazil's economic prospects following a crushing implosion over the last several years. Yes, the cyclical macro outlook is favorable. But at some point, Brazil needs to get its political act together and deal with a looming burden on its longer-term future.
- Author and early-wave Boomer Patricia Hampl tries to make peace with old age. Like many Boomer workaholics, Hampl’s great struggle is accepting the idleness that comes with age: “[N]ow the Boomers are approaching the other side. Not death necessarily… We’re reaching the other side of striving.” (The New York Times)
- NH: For the G.I. Generation, retirement was about guiltlessly enjoying "harvest years" after lifetime of collective achievement. For the Silent Generation, it was about making "bucket lists" (title of a revealing movie starring Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman) filled with all the experiences you still haven't had. For Boomers--and this essay is a good example--it is about achieving a higher zen-like wisdom "on the other side of striving." Throw away your lists. "The to-do list that runs most lives through middle age turns out, in this latter stage of existence, to have only one task: to waste life in order to find it. Who said that? Or something like that. Jesus? Buddha? Bob Dylan? Somebody who knew what’s what."
- Pigzbe is a family-friendly digital wallet and interactive app that allows children to earn “tokens” and learn about market volatility. Billed as a next-generation piggy bank, Pigzbe offers kids an early taste of the booms and busts of cryptocurrency ownership. (Motherboard)
- According to analysts at Bernstein, 18- to 28-year-olds today are just two-thirds as likely to ride motorcycles as Xers were at the same age. While the analysts say that student-loan debt is depressing motorcycle ownership, a much bigger factor is Millennial risk aversion. (Bernstein Research)
- NH: What kind of motorcycle would appeal to Millennials? Maybe something like a Vespa--friendly, sociable, brightly painted. And maybe something less like a Harley--that is to say, a black-colored, ear-deafening, angry-looking death machine. Back when Boomers were young, riders under age 30 accounted for the vast majority of motorcycle fatalities. Now that Boomers are becoming seniors, the fatality rate for riders over age 50 are higher than any other age group. The Boomer death wish is aging with them. God speed. The following statistics are from DOT's Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS).
- Walmart’s new deal with Postmates, a delivery service, will enable the company to deliver groceries to 40% of Americans. Grocery delivery has turned into a white-hot market—but it’s still unclear which company, Walmart or Amazon, has a leg up. (MediaPost)
- Author Tiffany Kenyon argues that America is moving from a “me-oriented” society toward a “we-oriented” one. From professional networks to co-working spaces to online hobby groups, there are more ways than ever for today’s socially inclined young adults to make new connections and stay in touch with old ones. (Newgeography.com)
- NH: So goes the turnings of the Saeculum. Back in the 1970s, youth complained incessantly about institutions "forcing" them into communities they didn't want to join. In "The 'Me' Decade and the Third Great Awakening," Tom Wolfe wrote about a "me generation" of young people that prized individualism about all other life goals. Today, we are entering a reverse mood. Americans of all ages are looking for more community, for less anonymity, for a greater sense of social place. And it is the Millennial Generation, as this author rightly points out, that is leading the way--in how they live, work, eat, and recreate.
- New research shows that U.K. Millennials are willing to spend less money on a night out than their parents. While Millennials' lower salaries, high rents, and heavy student-debt burdens certainly restrict their spending, this generation’s risk aversion and penchant for achievement also leaves them working hard and playing less. (Pro Plus)
- Some Millennial newlyweds are eschewing honeymoons in favor of “many-moons” comprised of several shorter trips. For many Millennials, the desire to get ahead at work trumps the desire for a lone, weeks-long getaway that may get old after a few days anyway. (Fox)
- NH: The term "honeymoon" is surprisingly old (going back to the 1500s) and has literal echos in many other languages (lune de miel in French, luna de miel in Spanish, mah-e asai in Persian, and so on). Everywhere, the term refers to a fundamental and much-celebrated rite of passage in which young people get to know each other as man and wife for the first time and also introduce themselves as such to the rest of society. This no longer makes sense in an era when most Millennials are already couples long before they get married. So, inevitably, the honeymoon is becoming a more personal and casual event--a "work moon" or "many moons"--for couples whose relationship status is ancient history.
- Four in ten Millennials say they intend to leave their full-time employer to work as a freelancer within the next five years, compared to 23% of Xers and 13% of Boomers. While Millennials do crave the security of traditional full-time employment, the rising popularity of the gig economy evidently has convinced many that freelancing is a safe bet. (MetLife)
DID YOU KNOW?
Cheaters Never Win. Cheating to win a game is nothing new. But increasingly, parents today are cheating to lose. Ryan O’Connor admits to throwing games of Go Fish with his two young daughters by asking for cards he knows they don’t have. During family matches of Candy Land, Matthew Stanizzi discreetly places the best cards at the top of the deck for his 3-year-old daughter to find. What’s going on? Quite simply, parents want to spare their children’s feelings, as well as avoid the tedium of an extra-long game. According to Ethan Markowitz, whose son loves Chutes and Ladders, winning carries a punishment: “All we do is spin, move, spin, move until my son performs his victory dance or, if I am unlucky enough to actually win the game, he demands a rematch.” Markowitz even resorted to taping a new “ladder” to the board in order to shorten games. While some parents abhor “purposeful losing” and believe that it stunts kids’ ability to cope with disappointment, plenty, like Jennifer Hogan Jones, do it for “self-preservation.”
