Boom Bust & Echo 2000: Profiting from the Demographic Shift in the New Millennium (Paperback)

by David K. Foot (Author), Daniel Stoffman (Author), Brian Gable (Illustrator)

Editorial Reviews

Review
"If you want to foretell the future, don't consult a horoscope or a crystal ball. Just consider that we tend to do different things at different times of our lives and that one year from now we'll be one year older. Apply those principles to the whole population and we can explain two-thirds of everything, according to David Foot. Looking ahead to the first decade of the new millennium, he forecasts more movies catering to teens and twenty-somethings, good times for beer merchants and retailers of self-assembly furniture, and continuing recovery in the rental housing market. That's because the echo boomers, as Dr. Foot dubs the children of the baby boomers, are growing up. But investors and marketers beware. Canada's echo boomers born between 1980 and 1995 are only two-thirds as numerous as the baby boomers born between 1947 and 1966. In the United States, there are 79 billion boomers and 76 million echo kids." -- Michael Kane, Financial Post, April 2, 1999

Product Description
Demographics - the study of human populations - are a powerful, but often underused, method for understanding the past and predicting the future. In Boom, Bust & Echo 2000: Profiting from the Demographic Shift in the New Millennium, economist David Foot and journalist Daniel Stoffman take a look at the importance of demographics. They try to predict what baby boomers, "baby busters", the "echo generation", and other groups in the coming years can expect. This fully-revised edition of the highly successful Boom, Bust &Echo contains the most recent information on demographic trends in Canada and how they can affect your future.

Demographics play a critical role in the nation's economy and social life, and they affect every one of us as individuals. The more we understand demographic realities, the better prepared we will be to cope with them - and to turn them to our advantage.

In Canada, the aging of those born between 1947 and 1966 - the baby boom generation - has changed the economy, driven housing and other markets, and transformed social mores and lifestyles. As the boomers enter mid-life, as the "baby-busters" behind them come of age, and as the "echo generation," the children of the boomers, reaches maturity, how will the country change? Where will Canadians choose to live? What are the prospects for employment? Which investments will be favoured? What lies ahead for Canada's health care and education systems?

Everyone who plans for the future - whether it be for a large corporation, a retail store, a school system, a nonprofit enterprise, or for personal well-being - needs effective forecasting tools. Boom, Bust & Echo 2000 goes beyond the traditional methods of focus groups and opinion surveys to an analysis of statistical facts. Here is an original and indispensable work filled with arresting insights, provocative assertions, and practical answers.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 313 pages
• Publisher: MacFarlane Walter & Ross; Rev Sub edition (June 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1551990296
• ISBN-13: 978-1551990293
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 5.9 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,266,792 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Still ahead of it's time and will be until people catch up., July 12, 2000

By	Simon Bond (Bentleigh, Victoria Australia) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Boom Bust & Echo 2000 : Profiting from the Demographic Shift in the New Millennium (Paperback)

Having a bookshelf full of futuristic reading including Boomernomics, Next, Pig and the Python and the complete series by H S Dent and many books from Harvard press as well as every new economy magazine printed I found myself continuing to reach for Boom Bust and Echo as it has more backbone, the chapters contain more substance and historical data to back it up. I commend this book to be carried at all times with a copy to be kept by the bed.

5.0 out of 5 stars Know Your Audience: First and Foremost - How Old are They?, May 30, 2004

By	Daniel Prevost (Ottawa, ON Canada) - See all my reviews

`Know your audience' is the first rule of communicating, and an essential tenet of dealing with people is to know them, especially if you want to persuade, motivate, or get them involved.


This book provides a fascinating look at how demographics can shape attitudes, beliefs and, most important, actions. The authors maintain that: "Demography, the study of human populations, is the most powerful-and most underutilized-tool we have to understand the past and to foretell the future.


Demographics affect every one of us as individuals, far more than most of us have ever imagined. They also play a pivotal role in economic and social life."


Boom, Bust and Echo is a very unique and interesting book; it is well worth reading for the insights that it provides into the behavior of consumers or, as the authors claim, at least two-thirds of that behavior.

3 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Interesting read but methodologically unconvincing, December 12, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: Boom Bust & Echo 2000 : Profiting from the Demographic Shift in the New Millennium (Paperback)

The problem with this approach is the simple assumption that a commodity enjoys demand depending on what age group it appeals to, and what is the percentage of this group within a country's population overall.

That is exactly the main argument of the author: show me the population trends, birth rates, percentage of age groups, and I will tell you what's going to be in demand.

This assumption needs to be defended more thoroughly, however. Education is a good example. Although birth rates declined in the US for the last 20 years, more people get university education today compared to the past. Obviously, the economy of the 21st century demands that.

Grouth or decline rates of the population cannot be the only major independent variable predicting demand.