It’s Their Fault

The Boomers’ carelessness with oil is well documented, and now one of the silent generation is speaking up about it: oil man and college football booster T. Boone Pickens. In what he says will be the biggest special issue campaign ever, Pickens will be promoting his wind-energy plan throughout the campaign. (Who will it help? For one… Pickens himself: he has major investments in wind energy. But that may not be fair, because he does have enough money already. Otherwise, Pickens is a known conservative booster who was the wallet behind the Swift Boat ads, and he endorsed Rudy Giuliani.)

Pickens is one of the many elder statesmen of the business world. Daniel Gross writes about the septuagenarian-business-titan trend in Newsweek and credits the Boomers…

As they’ve moved through life, the baby boomers have altered societal attitudes on everything from smoking marijuana to Botox. As boomers coast into their golden years, it’s likely the acceptance of older workers at every rung of the corporate ladder will grow. In the 1960s, the boomers’ mantra was: don’t trust anyone over 30. In the 2010s, it’ll probably be: don’t trust anyone under 70.

That may have a ring of truth, but Pickens isn’t a Boomer. This, from earlier in the article, sounds like a Boomer:

As one executive recruiter told me, boards frequently look askance at older candidates because “somebody in their mid-60s isn’t going to take an 18-hour-a-day job.”

So maybe lazy Boomers are leaving the leadership doors open to those above and below them. The current election, and Pickens’ crusade, certainly attests to it.