OMG, I loved this book. But then, I like numbers, and not everyone does. For the non-data nerd, there is still a lot of interest here. For one thing, the writing. Paul Taylor's strong, often amusing, writing style (there were times when I guffawed, outright) is entertaining, engaging, and challenging from the get-go. This one looks at the four living generations (The Silents, Boomers, Gen-X and Millennials) in a personal, realistic way and uses data to say who they are, where they are, where they are going, and what conflicts or challenges are in their paths. While the tone is light, in general, the end-point, the future of Social Security, is deeply serious. Mr. Taylor makes clear that Social Security is simply not going exist if left unchanged, and it is likely to be left unchanged because no one willing to fix it can get elected. Some of it may challenge assumptions, such as the chapters on immigration and religion. Some of it is thought provoking, such as the chapter on race, and why we continue to insist on racial qualifiers in a society that is quickly moving beyond any of the descriptors we use. Absolutely no stone is left unturned. Time is given to explain the paradoxical responses people make in surveys, showing how question-phrasing has a huge role in outcome; Taylor even takes time to talk about what a "generation" is, where the idea came from, and leaves us with the intriguing idea that this, too, is an artificial construct. Given that I don't quite fit "my" generation, I appreciated his honesty and forthrightness in addressing many of the questions that people like me (who squeaked out slightly between the booms) seem to face. Maybe not everyone will enjoy this chart-heavy book, but it is information collected by the Pew Research Center, and you kind of got to love a group that is always investigating the often wide gap between our behaviors and our beliefs. In the end, it is the "story of us" and who doesn't like to read about themselves?
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