Have you stopped to notice that almost everyone around you is having babies? It is said that pregnancy is contagious. But would you believe that more babies were born in 2007 than any other year in United States history? Even the Baby Boomer Generation (1946-1964) couldn’t top that. The number of births per year during this period topped off at 4,245,402. Two years ago, over 4.3 million babies were birthed in the U.S.

The Baby Boom began in 1946, the year following World War II, when soldiers and their lovers celebrated their return home. It wasn’t until 1954, however, that the number of births per year surpassed four million for ten consecutive years. The number then dropped in the three millions until 2000. For the past nine years, we as a country have once again given birth to over four million children each year.  

So what exactly could this mean? We already know the effects the Baby Boomers have had and have now on the economy, the media, politics, and society. Social Security is disappearing now that the Boomers are collecting. There are just not enough people earning enough to cover the costs of their retirements. All of them, who grew up in the Industrial Age mindset--go to school, get a good job, invest everything into your IRA and mutual funds--are now trying to survive on pennies.

The college- and middle-aged people now are waking up to the lack of Social Security and pension plans they will be receiving when of age. We have now entered the Information Age, and those who refuse to wake up to this concept are destined to be enslaved to the depressed economy. Most teachers are still convincing and encouraging students to stick with the idea of depending on a company to provide for their final years of their lives, even as they watch the biggest companies in the country nearly go bankrupt.

So now the upcoming generation, although too young to predict just what effects they may have on this society, may help the economy cycle back up, just as the baby boom of the ‘60s did.  So long as the kids of today are taught the correct thinking of tomorrow. . .