US Baby Boomers

[barbaro]

Some of the topics here overlap with a couple of threads.

But in specific regard to US Baby Boomers, this huge segment of the US population influences are nation, of course. Our culture, health care system, and over-all employment situation. Some posters here are Baby Boomer. some poster here have parents that are Baby Boomers.

Boomers face stark choices in bleak economy

Prolonged economic collapse leaves little time to reinvent, recover, rebuild

It wasn’t supposed to happen this way.

Really? Who said so?

The Me Generation’s twilight years were supposed to be a bookend for the Golden Age of the American Dream they inherited after the country triumphed in World War II. For all but a few, that dream is fast slipping away, as a surge in layoffs and the collapse of the housing and financial markets leave them with few options and little time to recover and rebuild.

“I don’t think there’s any way around it: The baby boomers are going to be in bad shape,” said Dean Baker, an economist at the Center for Economic and Policy Research. “The only way that they're going to be able to come out OK is if they can work later in their lives. Even then it’s going to be tough because very often it’s going to be at considerably lower wages.”

The statistics are bleak.

The housing market collapse has wiped out some $3 trillion in home equity that once formed the bulk of most boomers' life savings. The incineration of another $11 trillion in stock market wealth has cut a wide swath through the individually managed accounts that have largely replaced the employer-managed pensions that supported their parents’ generation in retirement.
Some 3.8 million workers 45 or older were unemployed as of February — up from 2 million when the recession began 15 months ago, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Many are now burning through what remains of their savings and raiding retirement accounts to pay college tuition or to meet basic household expenses.
As the economy and stock market continue to spiral downward, some boomers who have fallen off the track they spent decades pursuing are angry and searching for clues as to where they went wrong. Those who followed the rules, climbed the ladder or just showed up at work every day for 30 years assumed they were assured of a solid middle-class life.

That’s what Bruce Hosking, 61, expected when he retired two years ago after 40 years as a photojournalist, the last 20 at the Tampa Tribune.

“Retirement to me never meant kicking back and playing golf or any of that nonsense,” he said. “Retirement meant doing what I want to do rather than someone else telling me what to do. I was looking forward to actually sitting back and enjoying the fruits of my labors. We were OK, but we weren’t going to be taking world cruises. And we’re not OK now. Like lots of people.”
Hosking says business is slowing at the commercial construction company where his wife has worked for 18 years as an office manager. He’s been producing videos to stay busy, but heavy losses in his retirement account have forced him to look for another source of income.

“My nightmare would be (that) I’d be at the end of the checkout line asking you, ‘Paper or plastic?’” he said. “This year is either going to make or break us. If the economy doesn’t turn around, we’re going to be with the rest of the people who face the possibility of starting to sell off our valuables to stay alive.”

Hosking is part of a wave of retired or part-time working boomers who thought they were free to enjoy deciding how to spend their remaining years. With retirement accounts shredded, many once-retired boomers are returning to the work force. Some may have to continue working as long as they are physically and mentally able.

“We rarely saw job seekers who were 68, 70, 72, and now we’re seeing them with some regularity,” said Bob Skladany, a career counselor and head of research at RetirementJobs.com, a site that caters to older workers. “They report that they cannot afford to live.”
As the economy gets uglier, Americans are adapting to the crisis. Here are their stories.

Millions of younger, still-employed boomers, who thought their retirement plans were on track, also may have to abandon the idea of ever retiring.

In past economic downturns, many 50-something workers faced a decision about accepting “early retirement,” complete with a financial package designed to tide them over to their next job or top off a retirement account. With corporate profits tanking, many employers have simply dispensed with the niceties of severance pay.

“They gave me no help. Nothing. Just ‘Have a nice day,” said Joanne, 51, who asked that we use only her first name. “It was a horrible way to treat people. It was unbelievable.”

Joanne said she suspected her job as a technology consultant was at risk when she was asked to train someone else to do the work who was “half my age, with half my qualifications. The clients will suffer, but that’s not my problem.”

Link & Entire: Boomers face stark choices in bleak economy - Reinventing America- msnbc.com

[Jet Gorgon]

Bladdy h*ll, Milkie, do posts like sound bites wouldya? If I want to read a ream of stuff I can check the linkie.

[barbaro]

Bladdy h*ll, Milkie, do posts like sound bites wouldya? If I want to read a ream of stuff I can check the linkie.

It's introducing a topic, and the article is about Baby boomer retirement. It's about furthering descussion. Anybody can post article or opinions or comments about health care, industries and job opportunities for Boomer, or even Boomer looking to relocate to foreign nations as expats as the cost-of-living and eroding of net worth and income streams has hit them like a ton of bricks.

[Texpat]

40 years as a PJ and 20 with the Tampa Trib?

Ever consider you should have saved more while you were working? Did you buy that pool? That Lexus? That $500K house? Did you pay it off or start scaling back payments and borrowing against it as you got close?

Did you dump all your savings into high-risk investments?
Did the prospect of 4% Certificates of Deposit make your eyes glaze over when compared to Emerging Market Funds yielding 26%?

"we’re going to be with the rest of the people who face the possibility of starting to sell off our valuables to stay alive.”

Why did you retire if you were one small disaster away from ruin?

Did you take notice of any ants storing food for the winter? Hope those valuables that you're going to have to sell off fetch ~25 percent of what you paid for them. Unlikely though. Fortunately as you sell off the junk, you won't need such a huge house.

Many are now burning through what remains of their savings and raiding retirement accounts to pay college tuition or to meet basic household expenses.

Central air on 24/7?
Pay someone to manicure the lawn?
Housekeeper on the weekend?
Dog grooming and obedience classes?
Car detailed regularly?
Impulse shopping at liberty?

Many think these are basic household expenses. Let 'em swing.

[Jet Gorgon]

^^Well, MM, make a more fully rounded opinion about it and then pick the salient points from the article. I'd rather read what you think and then look at the full linkie if I'm so aroused by your words of wisdom.

BBs are just another generation in thousands.

[Norton]

eroding of net worth and income streams has hit them like a ton of bricks.

Was born before the official "baby boomer generation" but a bit too young to claim being part of the "greatest generation".

Happy to let you know my income stream has not been effected at all.

Considerable decline in the power of other more personal streams however.

[blackgang]

Was born before the official "baby boomer generation" but a bit too young to claim being part of the "greatest generation". Happy to let you know my income stream has not been effected at all. Considerable decline in the power of other more personal streams however

That about says it for me too,
But with the different colors of your OPs it is damn tough for my old eyes with the cataracts still attached, so would be better in my estimation if you did listen to Jet this once.
As you can see by my AV pic, I did wear reading glasses, that pic was taken just 13 days before I went into detox and I was blind drunk when it was taken.

[Bugs]

Did you dump all your savings into high-risk investments?
Did the prospect of 4% Certificates of Deposit make your eyes glaze over when compared to Emerging Market Funds yielding 26%?

This is the crux of the problem for many that were near or already retired. They simply could not resist the temptation of risking their retirement funds in exchange for bigger returns.

Folks need to realize that the closer they get to retirement, and especially after they retire they need to have a more guaranteed return on what they have saved, and not risk it in the market. After a person retires they should have enough in fixed return investments to maintain the income flow they need to live, and if they have more saving then they can risk that bit in the market.

I have no sympathy for folks who are retired, or are near retirement and have lost money in the market recently.

[blackgang]

I invested in houses and lots.








Whore houses and lots of booze.

[barbaro]

RIP, blackgang. Miss ya.

Here is an article on Boomer demographics and some other comments (I find the interesting points of view at the top and bottom of the article).

I hope it's OK to post this article (Mods PM me if not.

As the Boomers Head for the Barn
Patrick J. Buchanan

When the April figures on unemployment were released May 4, they were more than disappointing. They were deeply disturbing.

While the unemployment rate had fallen from 8.2 percent to 8.1 percent, 342,000 workers had stopped looking for work. They had just dropped out of the labor market.

Only 63.6 percent of the U.S. working age population is now in the labor force, the lowest level since December 1981.

During the Reagan, Bush I and Clinton years, participation in the labor force rose steadily to a record 67 percent. The plunge since has been almost uninterrupted.

Here is a major cause of the economic malaise of the 21st century, a condition over which a president has little control. A shrinking share of our population is carrying an ever-expanding army of dependents.

If this were a result of American women going home to have kids, that would be, as it was after World War II, a manifestation of national vigor and health.

But that is not the case here.

The number of Americans of working age not in the labor force grew in April from 87,897,000 to 88,419,000 – by an astonishing 522,000. This is an immense army for the rest of society to carry.

Why are Americans dropping out?

Some have given up looking for jobs in towns they grew up in, because the jobs are gone and not coming back, and they don't want to leave. Some are rejecting the low-wage unskilled work being offered, because the alternative – unemployment checks and federal and state welfare – is not all that torturous.

With some, the work incentive was never implanted. With others, the option of moving back in with the parents is not all that terrible.

America, it seems, is becoming less like the country we grew up in, in its attitudes about work and idleness, and more like Europe.

Whatever its causes, this social and economic torpor that seems beyond the capacity of presidents to correct or cure is a dark cloud over the hopes of Barack Obama for a second term.

And yet another ominous cloud, no longer on the far horizon, is now directly above: the impending departure from the labor force of 70 million baby boomers in the next two decades.

According to the Statistical Abstract of the United States, from Jan. 1, 1930, to Dec. 31, 1935, there were 13 million births in the U.S. From January 1940 through December 1945, there were 16 million.

This was the Silent Generation, born in Depression and war. It never produced a president, and never will, unless Ron Paul catches fire pretty quickly. The Greatest Generation gave us six presidents, starting with JFK and ending with Bush I. Our three most recent presidents – Bill Clinton, Bush II, Barack Obama – are all baby boomers

And here we come to the heart of our next economic crisis.

If one adds up all the children born between Jan. 1, 1946 and Jan. 1, 1965, the era of the great American baby boom, the total comes to 77 million babies born in the United States.

Why is this so significant now?

Because this year, 2012, the first wave of baby boomers, all those born in 1946, like Clinton and George W. Bush, will reach 66, and eligibility for full Social Security and Medicare benefits. The boomers, en masse, will start moving off payrolls onto pension rolls.

Let us assume the 77 million boomers are down to 72 million. This means that over the next 20 years, boomers will be retiring and reaching eligibility for Social Security and Medicare at a rate of 3.6 million a year, or 300,000 a month, or 10,000 every day.

Three hundred thousand a month leaving the labor force may help to explain its shrinkage. And as the boomers are the best-paid, best-educated generation we produced, the loss of their collective skills, abilities and tax contributions will be as heavy a blow to the nation as the funding of their Medicare and Social Security will be a burden to the taxpayers they leave behind in the labor force.

Since Roe v. Wade, abortions have carried off 53 million of the generations that were to replace the boomers. While those 53 million lost have been partially replaced by 40 million immigrants, legal and illegal, our recent immigrants have not exhibited the same income- or tax-producing capacity as boomers.

In 1965, LBJ announced his plan to convert our ordinary society into a Great Society. Since then, trillions have been spent.

The fruits of that immense investment? The illegitimacy rate, dropout rate, crime rate and incarceration rate have set new records, as the test scores of high school students have plummeted to new lows.

Our labor force is shrinking, the number of dependent U.S. adults is growing, our social programs are failing, and our best educated and most productive generation is retiring.

To borrow from Merle Haggard, "Are the good times really over for good?"

Silver Bear Cafe

Sadly to say: yes, the good times are indeed over, for good.

I've been spewing and babbling about the Baby Boomer demographics for years. Nobody really care nor paid attention - but alas - people are writing about these demographic number and discussing them now.

As usual, it's too late. Ignore future problems in the USA. The elephant in the room and more prominently - nobody really pays attentiong because people are myopic in America and can only look ahead about 12 months in advance.

[Minnie Maugham]

^ I just copied BG's post to say the same thing: RIP. Gosh, I miss that boy.
Ya, baby boomers and their parents, too. Sheesh, my folks go to the docs 2-3 times a wk on the govt's teat. I go once a year for my physical coz my doc's nurse demands it of me. OK, guess that's why I pay $64 a month for FREE healthcare (dental NOT included).

[barbaro]

OK, guess that's why I pay $64 a month for FREE healthcare (dental NOT included).

May I ask what program you're covered under? Thanks.

[Minnie Maugham]

^ Sure. BC Medical Services Plan. I have no choice whether I want this or not: this govt healthcare plan is MANDATORY. Surf the net to see how bad the services are. And it's so amusing that govt union workers, including the nurses union, get FREE Blue Cross coverage (coz the govt service is so crappy). As I noted before, the only reason I do OK, is coz I have a long-time family doc. Try getting a fam doc here as a newbie. 555555555

Oh, addendum, my folks (in their late 80s) live in Alberta where the mandatory healthcare is FREE. Bladdy oil-rich Conservative province.

MSP - Premiums

[Mr Earl]

Sadly to say: yes, the good times are indeed over, for good..

Not necessarily, how's your Spanish?
The Latin American community is poised to be the next important demographic for the next few decades. By 2050 Spanish will the the predominant language in North America. Tacos are good!
Yep good old BG, I miss him too.

[barbaro]

Sadly to say: yes, the good times are indeed over, for good..

Not necessarily, how's your Spanish?

I'm studying Spanish right now, Earl. But I certainly do not want to use it in my own country. Yes, the Mexican demographics are exploding. I'll be dead by then, but many parts of the US will be like Mexico and Latin America. And the problem down there will be in the USA.

The Latin American community is poised to be the next important demographic for the next few decades. By 2050 Spanish will the the predominant language in North America. Tacos are good!

As corrupt as the w.a.s.p.s. have been and are, I do not want Mexican style government or economics.

Yep good old BG, I miss him too.

Me too. Let's remember BG.

[sabang]

According to Wiki, Baby boomers were born in the years 1946 to 1964. So that includes me, although I am (blessedly), childless- unlike most baby boomers. The next demographic is Generation X, born between 1965 and 1981. Between these two, I guess you could say we own the reins of society- those younger are babies in the scheme of things, those older gerontocrats. But the aging Baby boomers are still the lynchpin-
Baby Boomers control over 80% of personal financial assets and more than 50% of discretionary spending power. They are responsible for more than half of all consumer spending, buy 77% of all prescription drugs, 61% of OTC medication and 80% of all leisure travel.
Baby boomer - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

So, what of us? I put it to you that, collectively, we are a failure. Born the most lucky generation in world history, born to relative affluence and a society that afforded us a decent education and good opportunities, what have we actually done with these considerable privileges? Wasted them, thats what. Worse still, we have robbed the next generation of those same privileges we were gifted- we didn't only fritter away our money and societal wealth, but theirs too. And 'we' are not interested in paying back our debts, much easier to rob the next generation of the same gifts we received free, much easier to worry about hanging on to our own wealth and hedonism than bother about broader society, and the considerable debt we owe it. Patriotism? Piffle. That's a shill job kids, don't believe a disengenous word of it.

'We' are collectively spoilt, selfish, hedonistic Brats, child robbers, and bad debtors. Take a bow. Baby boomers, with their utter self absorption and selfishness impresseth not me. The likely response, from those bothered to respond? I'm alright, jack. Yeh, right.

[Boon Mee]

So, what of us? I put it to you that, collectively, we are a failure.

Speak for yourself.

Not all of us frittered our money away on 'toys' - the latest 4-wheeler, bigger boats etc but instead, invested for the Golden Years. The ones that are whining are those who took out second/third mortgages to pay for their hedonistic lifestyle but I'll bet they are the minority.

[thailazer]

Did you dump all your savings into high-risk investments?
Did the prospect of 4% Certificates of Deposit make your eyes glaze over when compared to Emerging Market Funds yielding 26%?

This is the crux of the problem for many that were near or already retired. They simply could not resist the temptation of risking their retirement funds in exchange for bigger returns.

Folks need to realize that the closer they get to retirement, and especially after they retire they need to have a more guaranteed return on what they have saved, and not risk it in the market. After a person retires they should have enough in fixed return investments to maintain the income flow they need to live, and if they have more saving then they can risk that bit in the market.

I have no sympathy for folks who are retired, or are near retirement and have lost money in the market recently.

About ten years ago I got a funny feeling about the state of the world and started moving investments to more stable instruments. I knew several very smart folks that worked with me and were also wanting to retire but they stayed in stocks. Well, those folks are still working and I've been enjoying retirement for 7 years. The folks I knew weren't greedy, they were very intelligent, but just were not active in thinking about the future. Procrastination can be very expensive and painful if you are looking to retire.

[sabang]

Speak for yourself.

Nope- I'm speaking for and about the Baby boomer generation. p.s- I too am alright, jack.

My prime criticism is not really the toys 'We' frittered on, rather the legacy of debt and downgrade of essential public services such as education that we are leaving the next generation. Don't you reckon that is a pretty abysmal performance, from probably the luckiest generation in world history?

[Boon Mee]

Speak for yourself.

Nope- I'm speaking for and about the Baby boomer generation. p.s- I too am alright, jack.

My prime criticism is not really the toys 'We' frittered on, rather the legacy of debt and downgrade of essential public services such as education that we are leaving the next generation. Don't you reckon that is a pretty abysmal performance, from probably the luckiest generation in world history?

It goes in cycles and there's nothing specific you could have done or changed to alter events that are basically out of our control.

Recall when I sold a home in Orange Co, CA some years back a lot of Generation X were complaining they were forced out of the housing market and blaming the Boomers. Then the Dot Com thing came along and they made millions.

Your timing has to be accurate or at least not too far off the mark.

[Cold Pizza]

Any comments on this?

Baby boomers ruined America, according to this Generation X author

By Jillian Berman
Published: Mar 12, 2017

New book argues their ‘sociopathic’ tendencies are to blame for climate change, and that’s just for starters

Millennials have a reputation for being entitled, self-absorbed and lazy, but a new book argues that their parents are actually a bigger danger to society.

In “A Generation of Sociopaths: How the Boomers Betrayed America,” Bruce Cannon Gibney traces many of our nation’s most pressing issues, including climate change and the rising cost of education, back to baby boomers’ idiosyncrasies and enormous political power. Raised in an era of seemingly unending economic prosperity with relatively permissive parents, and the first generation to grow up with a television, baby boomers developed an appetite for consumption and a lack of empathy for future generations that has resulted in unfortunate policy decisions, argues Gibney, who is in his early 40s. (That makes him Generation X.)

“These things conditioned the boomers into some pretty unhelpful behaviors and the behaviors as a whole seem sociopathic,” he said.

The book comes as Americans of all ages are sorting through a new political reality, which Gibney argues that boomers delivered to us through years of grooming candidates to focus on their political priorities such as, preferential tax treatment and entitlement programs, and then voting for them in overwhelming numbers. Though these circumstances are new, making the argument that a generation -- particularly boomers -- are to blame for society’s ills is part of a storied tradition, said Jennifer Deal, the senior research scientist at the Center for Creative Leadership, a leadership development organization with campuses in San Diego, Colorado, North Carolina and Latin America.


“There are a lot of people who like to blame the baby boomers for stuff and this has been going on for as far as I can tell since the late 60s,” Deal said.

Indeed, a 1969 article in Fortune magazine warned that the group of then-20-somethings taking over the workplace were prone to job-hopping and having their egos bruised. If that sounds familiar, it’s probably because it is. There’s no shortage of articles describing millennials similarly. Both are indicative of a natural human tendency to want to explain the world and other people through the lens of group mentalities, said Deal.


“Everybody can think of someone older or someone younger who has done something annoying,” she said. “Everybody likes a good scapegoat.”

Still, Gibney, a venture capitalist, argues there is something inherently different about the boomers from the generations that preceded them and those that followed: a sense of entitlement that comes from growing up in a time of economic prosperity.

Before the baby boomers came around, the so-called Greatest Generation came of age in a time of war and depression and learned firsthand the benefits of social solidarity and so they continued to invest in society throughout their lives, Gibney said. Younger Generation X and the millennials have suffered through the dot-com crash, great recession and other economic woes. “I don’t think that people much under 40 believe that prosperity is automatic anymore,” Gibney said.

It makes sense that these experiences might produce some generational conflict, said Heidi Hartmann, an economist and president of the Institute for Women’s Policy Research, a Washington, D.C.-based think tank. Millennials, now the largest generation, came of age in a weak labor market with high levels of student debt and have waited for the boomers to give up their tight grip on their jobs to make room.

“When a big generation graduates from high school and college into a soft labor market, they’re obviously going to start looking at how the other generations are doing,” Hartmann said.

Millennials’ concerns about a lack of good jobs and high levels of student debt are real, Hartmann said, but she doesn’t blame the boomers and their focus on keeping their entitlement programs secure. Instead, it’s an outsize focus on other priorities, like defense, she said. “If you cut the benefits for the boomers, you’re not helping their children at all because then those children are going to have to support those boomers,” she said.

Gibney sees it differently. He points to a general election where both candidates were hesitant to discuss entitlement reform or tax increases as one of the reasons why climate change, high levels of student debt and a last minute, backstop approach to infrastructure may continue indefinitely.

“My assertion isn’t that all boomers are sociopaths, but that a sufficiently large percentage of them behave in ways that appear to be sociopathic and because they’re such a large generation … any personality defects could easily translate into political dysfunction. I think that is what happened.”

Baby boomers ruined America, according to this Generation X author - MarketWatch

[Norton]

Everybody likes a good scapegoat

Yep. Don't blame me. I'm of the Silent Generation. Just sitting back quietly watching the madness.

[rickschoppers]

Everyone loves to point fingers. I am a Boomer and am living a pretty good life here in Thailand. Many of my friends in the US are pretty well off as well, while others are not. The bell curve still exists, so let Generation X go Fvck themselves and land somewhere in the same curve.