Labor Shortage 8
(August 27, 2007)
Much of what passes for generational change is really related to the
demographics of the Labor Shortage. Where the baby boom represented a
fantastic level of population growth, the Gen Y - Millennial boomlet is
just replacement bodies for the boomers.
That little difference is extremely
significant. Where the baby boom was a good deal larger than its
predecessor generation (The Silent Types), the Gen Y boomlet is
virtually a one for one replacement. The economy had to grow to
accommodate boomers and boomer women.
The economy has to stay the same size to
accommodate the Gen Y cohort. So, where Boomers faced hierarchical
institutions caused by their numbers, the new group sees shallow
organizations with limited hierarchy.
In the old system, it was always (for
100,000 years) the case that there were more young people than old
people. The baby boom was the biggest case of this. Lots of eager baby
boomers competed for every job opening.
Today, there's more or less one worker
for each job. There are the same number of old people as young people.
Cooperation is vastly more important than individual competition.
From here, it looks like the flat world
is a function of demographics, not technology.
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