Download or read book Birth and Fortune written by Richard A. Easterlin and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 1987-04-15 with total page 240 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this influential work, Richard A. Easterlin shows how the size of a generation—the number of persons born in a particular year—directly and indirectly affects the personal welfare of its members, the make-up and breakdown of the family, and the general well being of the economy. "[Easterlin] has made clear, I think unambiguously, that the baby-boom generation is economically underprivileged merely because of its size. And in showing this, he demonstrates that population size can be as restrictive as a factor as sex, race, or class on equality of opportunity in the U.S."—Jeffrey Madrick, Business Week