By Chuck Underwood, Founder/Principal, The Generational Imperative, Inc.

The Biggest News Story Of 2016 is the one the news media have completely missed:  the TRUE, GENUINE “WHY” behind the twin phenomena of Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders.

Here’s what the news media still haven’t covered but the field of Generational Study now documents.

The rage by America’s “Bottom 85 Percent” that explains Trump and Sanders has LITTLE to do with their anger at government.

Instead, the rage that has delivered America its new president (and a longshot Democratic contender who turned out to be not-so-longshot) is targeted at three specific groups:

(1) corporate executives;

(2) corporate raiders; and,

(3) corporate board directors who, over the past two decades, have stripped The Bottom Percents of control of their lives and hurled them into unending job and income uncertainty and instability:

CEOs have received massive bonuses and raises from their Board directors in part because they laid off U.S. employees and thus cut costs, meaning greater returns for their beloved shareholders.

Corporate Raiders have bought in to companies, forced the CEOs to either merge with another company and slash jobs or send U.S. jobs overseas only so they could make more - and more - money, with no regard for what they’re doing to their American brothers and sisters who are kicked into the streets with resumés in their hands.

Board Directors have spinelessly stood for NOTHING except protecting their title as a “board director!” and keeping that average director salary of $253,000 coming in, in exchange for their average of 5 hours of work per week and serving as obsequious yes-men and yes-women to their puppetmaster shareholders.  So those cowardly directors have willingly paid massive corporate fines when their CEOs have gone criminal but have constantly REFUSED TO FIRE THE CEO.  And if you’re the CEO at Wells Fargo, which was just caught cheating millions of customers and fired more than 5,000 employees, you as the CEO do NOT get fired by your directors and, in fact, receive a $134,000,000 check for “retiring”.

The three American generations that currently dominate the U.S. workforce are Baby Boomers (age in 2017 is 53 to 71), Gen X’ers (age 36 to 52), and Millennials (age 18 to 35).  Their Bottom Percents’ rage, their loss of control of their lives, their disempowerment at the hands of their bosses, and their authentic desperation explain The Biggest News Story Of 2016:  The Rage was directed much less towards Congress or the White House (even as incompetent as they are perceived) and instead at corporate executives, corporate raiders, and corporate board directors.

And not a single news organization has presented this story with the scope and front-page, above-the-fold urgency that The Biggest News Story Of 2016 deserves.  What a damning indictment of the industry that is supposed to serve a watchdog function….

[author]About the Author:  Chuck Underwood is one of the half-dozen people who pioneered and then popularized the field of generational study and, with it, generational business strategies.  Nearly thirty years of research.  And many of his original principles are now a permanent part of this field. He is the founder/principal of Ohio-based generational consulting firm The Generational Imperative, Inc. His 2016 book is the most comprehensive presentation of generational business and personal-life dynamics ever published and is entitled: America’s Generations In The Workplace, Marketplace, And Living Room.  In addition, Mr. Underwood is the host of the PBS television mini-series America’s Generations With Chuck Underwood, the first such series in the history of national television. [/author]