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On the Way Out with the G.I. Generation

OUR OLDEST GENERATION, the G.I. Generation, also known as the Greatest Generation, is sadly on the way out. And I’m fairly certain you can figure out the implications of their fast-dwindling numbers. But can you remember what those numbers are?

That’s right, 2.3 million as of 2014 and dropping fast. The youngest ones right now are 93 years old, and there’s just not that much of any market for people that age. But can you name three businesses that should still maintain interest in this generation?

That’s right, healthcare, assisted living, and death care. And while numerically small, the last members of this generation are prime customers of these three businesses. And going forward, these businesses should be keeping count of who is left in the Silent Generation, and, much more important, keeping an eye on those oncoming Boomers, even though they are purportedly refusing to age.

Born between 1905 and 1924, the G.I. Generation became a large generation comprising about 56 million native borns and an immigrant contingent of about 14 million. This big, noble generation lived well below their means. They fought and nearly half a million died in World War II, thus their “G.I.” moniker, as G.I. means Government Issue. They left a record $7 trillion–$10 trillion to their Baby Boomer kids, who squandered it on starter castles and SUVs and lost the rest in the stock market. The members of the G.I. Generation were crippled by bigotry and lost their connection to their Baby Boomer kids in the 1960s, 1970s, and early 1980s.

In fact, there has probably never been such a distinct generational disconnect between two generations as there was between the G.I. Generation and their Baby Boomer kids. They were from different planets. It was a battle of right wing and left wing with the G.I. Generation serving as the right-wing establishment and Baby Boomers emerging as hippie, left-wing revolutionaries.

I am a leading-edge Boomer. In the late 1960s and early 1970s we believed that there just might be a revolution in the United States. That probability faded as we aged, got married, had kids, and bought homes. It soon became very clear that our parents were not so far off the wall after all.

The G.I. Generation was a huge market that drove housing and the economy for more than three decades starting in the 1940s. The younger generation following right behind them was the Silent Generation born 1925 to 1944. The vast majority of them did not fight in WWII because they were too young. The Silent Generation lived in the shadow of the G.I. Generation. The Silent Generation was just that, diminutive and quiet because of their 50 percent or so smaller critical mass as compared to the G.I. Generation.

This is an important concept. When a small generation follows big generations, some very predictable things take place, especially in commerce. Can you name what would perhaps be the most important predictable thing with regard to commerce?

If the first thought that came into your head was “sales declines,” then you get a gold star, and we will see samples of such declines in the coming chapters.

I was born on Long Island, New York. It is a real island about 150 miles long and about 50 miles wide at its widest point. I call it a “real” island because if the East River that divides Long Island from Manhattan Island were really a river, then Long Island would really be a peninsula, not an island at all. But because the East River is really not a river but just a tidal cut into the Long Island Sound from the Upper New York Bay, it is legitimately an island. So there.

The G.I. Generation developed Long Island. As first- and second-generation immigrants advanced socioeconomically, they moved east onto the island, away from Manhattan, Brooklyn, and Queens and into the wilderness of Nassau and Suffolk Counties. The famed Hamptons are in Suffolk County and so is Montauk Point at the very end of the island. Yes, the mansions of the Hamptons are famous, but the real G.I. Generation housing story is found in Levittown.

Abraham Levitt and his sons were demographic visionaries. In 1945, up to 16 million G.I.s were returning home from the Pacific, from Europe, and from military installations around the country. These 16 million young men and women were very ready to get married, start families, and set up households. There was only one problem. Because of the war, there was a shortage of building materials so housing came up about 5 million units short of what the G.I. Generation needed.

What an opportunity! The Levitts owned former potato farms in Nassau County, Long Island, and mass-produced 2,000 rental homes on the former farmlands in 1947. The homes were immediately rented and the demand was not yet met. So they built an additional 4,000 rental houses using non-union labor and their own precut lumber and nails from their own factory. In 1949 the Levitts began building the famous 800-square-foot Levittown ranch-style home for sale. The house sold for $7,990, and if you could put $90 down and make payments of $58 a month, you were golden. The Levitts went on to build a total of 17,447 homes. The last house was sold in 1951. Despite the fears of critics who railed that the houses would fall apart, they are still there today. The Levitts hold the U.S. record for having the most houses ever built by a single builder. At the height of their production, the Levitt builders could produce thirty houses a day. On July 3, 1950, Abraham Levitt was honored by being on the cover of Time magazine.

In business it is one thing to meet an existing demand and it is another to anticipate a demand. Being able to anticipate a demand sets you apart and probably makes you a lot richer. As the G.I. Generation aged through the time continuum, it was a market to be reckoned with. Just think about the markets that the huge G.I. Generation influenced and expanded along its way through time: entertainment, apparel, transportation, housing, food, pharmaceuticals, education, legal, healthcare, insurance, military recruitment, home and garden, and much more.

I have heard success defined as the collision of preparation and opportunity. If you understand shifting demography, you can prepare for what’s next. The opportunities to serve the G.I. Generation are past. There aren’t too many products or services you can market to people in their 90s. Maybe someday.

It is a pretty simple concept, don’t you think? Big populations/ generations increase and influence the size of markets. Now think of the inverse that can be created by generations with smaller populations, which is exactly what happened as the Silent Generation followed the G.I. Generation.

Sales decreased and people scratched their heads in bewilderment, because no one apparently bothered to count the customer base or consider how it might change as the generations aged through time.