The Old School Generation: What Can We Learn from the Traditionalists?
There are currently four generations we classify people in the workforce today:
- The traditionalists: Born 1922-1945.
- Baby boomers: Born 1945-1960.
- Generation X: Born 1960-1980.
- Millennials: 1980-2000.
Due to certain events and culture, each generation shaped the people in it. Each generation has both good and bad characteristics. This entry focuses on the traditionalists.
The traditionalists had major events that influenced their lives such as the Great Depression and two World Wars. Due to their circumstances, these here are some of the qualities of the traditionalists:
- frugality
- Saving up to buy something
- Avoiding Credit at all costs
- Loyalty
- Hard work
I’m not saying everyone that was born between 1922 and 1945 had those qualities. And I’m not saying that anyone who’s not born between those dates don’t possess those qualities either.
Generally, the Traditionalists show those qualities. And there are a lot of things we can learn from them.
The values were probably shaped by the Great Depression. I can only imagine what it was like to live during those times. Because of the hardships they went through, I’m not surprised qualities such as frugality, saving, and avoiding debt were some of the features of the traditionalists.
When I had to live off of $7500/year, I probably went through a similar ordeal just in a smaller scale. That’s the time when I learned how to save, learn the value of money, and work hard.
Also, frugality, hard work, saving/investing, etc. are popular topics of many financial blogs of today. Also, the climate of today’s American economic status isn’t so hot due to all the sub-prime mortgage issues and stories of how people are living well above their means. So it looks like we should go back to our old roots and take some of the great values of the traditionalists.
Stumble it!
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This is true. I remember my grandparents having the simliar qualities. Although they were a bit too paranoid and horded a lot of stuff.