I can easily see us going through our equivalent of the Lost Decade. We’re doing pretty much everything Japan did to get into this mess. It was described as a “Loser’s Paradise” where the Japanese government continued to bail out all these companies who were crumbling to the point where they couldn’t recover and all they could do was ask for more bailouts. Hell, some of the companies we bailed out are already asking for more taxpayer money. We’re bailed companies out before, but not to this degree. 

I belong to the Millennial generation (1989) although my cynicism would fit far better in Generation X. I actually considered voting for Obama, although I ultimately changed my mind. He’s even worse than I expected, which rarely happens. I expected more spending and bailouts, but not this attempt to completely transform the country into a Europe-like nation. 

Course, what actually disturbs is Libya. He didn’t ask for congressional authorization; he didn’t even consult them. His party is giving him a mess, which is not entirely unexpected, and so is most of the media, which I think is a disgrace. They aren’t doing their jobs; Obama is their darling. I didn’t like Bush that much, either, but I think he is even worse. I don’t remember a single president in my lifetime that I’ve actually liked. 

What we will cut to a great degree is the military, since that doesn’t raise as much anger as the others do. It will also be a mistake that we end up regretting down the line. In other to have anything resembling a balanced budget, we’re going to have to make big cuts on everything. Looking at the budget right now, we’d have to raise taxes 50 percent to break even and that’s assuming a freeze on spending, which under the current administration, i highly doubt it’ll happen. I’d be willing to pay higher taxes IF they use the extra money to reduce the deficit instead of more programs, but that won’t happen. 

Therefore, I think if this is a 4th turning, it’s only begun. we’ve fought the war on terror very much as a third turning war; we haven’t united in purpose the way we should, which makes me think that either this is a repeat of the Civil War hiccup, or the worst of the crisis has yet to happen; I’m inclined to think the latter.

The next 10 years will only be better if Americans start waking up and banding together. That means supporting local business that support the local tax base. Local farmers so that we know what’s in our food supply. Local manufacturers (when available) who have safe, regulated products (no lead paint for the toddlers) made by our family, friends and neighbors. Local owned BANKS who invest and loan money to their citizens. It’s time to rebuild our country!

Looking back at all the research I've completed, over the last 13 years, I've still not found anyone who comes close to predicting how society will behave, the way S&H's theory has.

If I can't predict the future, in some way, I cannot make a living. This is true in many industries. After the first reading of the 4th T, it was so obvious how many applications their book had in the business world. It's a marketing directors dream. There's a blueprint for how to market to any of the generations alive and those who are just being born. If you're in the music, or the publishing, or fashion industry, predicting the future is vital. May I recommend S&H's work? You need not look anywhere else. It's all right there, in their work. I'd purchase Generations, The Fourth Turning, and Millennials Go College. Everything you need to predict the coming trends are in those books.

After reading, indexing, dissecting, writing about, and pretty much able to recite S&H's work, I have every confidence that I've found what I was looking for 13 years ago, and that is, a guide to predicting the future of society and its trends.

Thanks much,
Jim Goulding

The reason why the Baby Boom generation are such unsuccessful leaders is because they are the first American generation (Outside of the generation that fought for the Confederacy) to fight a losing war. I think losing the Vietnam War has a deep negative psychological effect on the generation that they will never recover from. The so called previous “prophet” generations witnessed or participated in wars where America was victorious. This gave the liberals of those generations confidence and gave them the belief that government could be used as a tool to help people and expand individual rights. I think the lack of a confident liberal faction is the big difference that the Baby Boom generation has with the other previous “Prophet” generations. In previous prophetic generations, men like Jefferson, Lincoln and FDR had enough confidence not to back down on their liberal ideals. Without a confident liberal faction, there can be no civic realignment.

I and most of friends have also viewed this health care debate as a smoke screen with which Obama was seeking to evade economic issues … that is, until the loss in Massachusetts. His subsequent “enthusiasm” over the Volcker Rule and populist “fat cat” rhetoric came off as more than a bit hollow. A lot of us voted for Obama, myself included, but I must say, almost every single one of us has become highly disillusioned since then.

Unfortunately, I believe more and more people of all generations are coming to the realization that there is no silver bullet out of this. The silver bullet was to have read Neil Howe's highly prescient book on entitlement spending, and not load our $14 trillion finance-heavy economy up with an estimated $160 trillion of debt, when you dot your i's and cross your t's. We pulled forward a lot of demand, the Boomers spent a lot of it, and there is no way we will be able to continue this leveraging cycle on a going forward basis. Running the printing press has held this off in 2009, but that will not last. Why should I be optimistic about the next 10 years again?