On Easter Sunday, I broke bread, among other things, with family at my brother in law's 50^th birthday party. Farmer Pete is, well, a retired farmer with a heart condition - I’m setting the scene here. From a social demographers perspective, there were five generations present to mark this special occasion; represented by the "Silent Generation", those born between 1926 and 1938, as well as constituents of the Baby Boomers and X, Y and Z generations, who are also referred to as the "digital natives" or the "iGen", so classified as a result of being born during the first decade of the 22^nd Century.

The X’s and Y’s all had iphones grafted to their hands and, ear phones welded to their ears - still setting the scene. A recent study published in the journal NeuroImage revealed that brain scans have shown that teenagers’ music choices are less to do with whether they like what they are hearing and more about the terror of failing to conform. Well, as Gomer Pyle would say - surprise, surprise, surprise - I’ve always known their music was rubbish anyway! In our youth, the fear or flight response is very strong and we learn to adapt to social norms to avoid being ridiculed or ostracised. Liking something that is not liked by your peers or, not liking something that is, is one of the easiest ways to commit social suicide in our formative years. So we learn at a very young age that in order to get on in the world, we have to become slaves to other people’s choices.

If we truly are drones in our youth, victims of conformity and easy prey for deep pocket marketeers, what becomes of us in middle age? Torschlusspanik, - that’s what. And yes, it’s a real word. It describes the fear of middle age with the sudden realisation that life has passed us by and the gate has shut. As baby boomers start to shuffle off en masse into retirement, and there are more than 4 million of us in Australia about to do just that, torschlusspanik may well be the cause of the world’s second great "depression". If the GFC didn’t get you then the torschlusspanik surely will. But fear not dear Boomers, salvation is nigh.

A recent report by Bank West, now owned by the Commonwealth Bank, has highlighted that more than $400 billion of real estate will change hands in Australia over the next 15 years, as the parents of baby boomers, and then the boomers themselves reach the end of days and pass their property to their children. It will be the biggest transfer of wealth in the Nation's history - I wonder if any of it will be spent wisely.

Regardless, apparently we are all soon going to have enough money to do whatever it was we’ve always dreamed of doing - now, if only I could remember what that was! There’s a business opportunity here, counselling retiring baby boomers about what it was they enjoyed in their youth. I know what it was - listening to music and conforming to others. Good, so when we all end up in the frighteningly submissive and docile world of the gated retirement community and still later on in the macabre world of the nursing home plot, we will all know the words to the boomer anthem - Born to be Wild - and if you don’t know them, watch the  video clip.

So, never mind the crockenbush because the torschlusspanik is coming to get you!

Gary Hatwell Executive Chairman