Legacy of the Babyboomers?

Today I was reading an essay by Geoff McKay featured in the New Zealand Society of Genealogists Journal, May/June issue 1995.  This essay won the best essay competition for students of the Massey University's course in family history.

Geoff discussed the four main changes to Pakeha New Zealand families during the past century.

• Changes in the numbers of the sexes.
• Changes in the numbers of young in society.
• Decline in fertility (except for after WW2 - the baby-boomers).
• Female participation in the labour force.

Couples, are spending longer together without children and this period may be more than half their married lives. The bulk of the baby-boomers are retiring now or will be soon, many of them in average to good health. What comes next?

It may well be that this group is well placed to extend, conserve, research and document the past 200 years of New Zealand history and that if they do so, it could be the biggest contribution to history that any group of the population ever makes.