Ephemeris of the Mind (Book Review) Boom, Bust & Echo: How to Profit from the Coming Demographic Shift
Time to read: 3 min read
Book Cover
Yet because demographic facts seem so obvious once they are pointed out, many people are inclined to resist them. Life, they say, can’t possibly be that simple. By refusing to accept the obvious, they make life more complicated and unpredictable than it has to be.
Review
In this book economist David K. Foot and journalist Daniel Stoffman entail the various demographic shifts in Canada, such as the aging of the Baby Boomers, and the implications of said shifts on everything from consumer habits to healthcare. The authors state that demographics drive almost everything within Canadian society, from real estate prices to prostitution. They provide various examples of how demographics affected things such as school enrollment in the past as well as the rise and decline of tennis as a pastime, and how the coming demographics will affect aspects of Canadian society in the future.
The language is very colloquial and the examples are very easy to understand. I did look into some of the authors’ predictions, and they’re not always accurate. For instance, the authors claim that a “significantly higher” percentage of Canadians will own leisure properties by the turn of the century; the author claims that, at the time of writing, there are 8% of Canadians who own leisure properties. A report by Stats Canada showed that only 7% of Canadians owned leisure properties in 1999. The book did have some interesting insights though. The takeaways for me are:
Baby Boomers (born from 1947 to 1966) are one of the most influential demographic groups in Canada. Although their influence will diminish as older boomers die off, and newer generations are born (or immigrate), policies that are important to boomers, such as healthcare, will still dominate public discourse.
Much of one’s success (or failure) can often be attributed to the time period when one is born, as the amount of resources and the number of people one has to share said resources with matter greatly to one’s success. This idea is later brought up in other books, such as Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell.
As people age, their consumer habits tend to age. Older demographics are often wealthier than their younger counterparts and they value service and quality over price. This has implications for services-based companies such as wealth advisory and car dealerships.
Older people tend to have less debt and save more than their younger counterparts. An older country will see its interest rate fall as more people will save than younger people who take out debt. This applies at a country level, countries with older populations such as Japan will see low interest rates.
Workers will have to embrace spiral or transitory career trajectories instead of the traditional trajectory of climbing the career ladder at one company. This is due to the fast nature of technology and the lack of positions atop the ladder. Companies should increase training expenses while flattening the organizations. People should aim to be generalists.
Conclusion
Some interesting ideas but also some ideas that are overly simplified.