If you are of the Baby Boomer generation are you to blame for the Social Security and health care problems? I am seeing in the news more and more how the Boomer's are beginning to be used as the scape goat for the nations problems. The trends are starting to show that the shear number of Baby Boomers will effect the economy and jobs in this country for the next 30 years. In many ways they will be blamed for the future economic woes of this country.
The boomer's are getting blamed that, as they age, they will be using more than their share of medical resources. They will be the generation that will enjoy the best of the medical benefits this country has to offer. They will be living longer than any generation has ever in this country. Their longevity will cause Medicare to become insoluble.
Social Security is teetering on bankruptcy more and more every year. Guess who will be blamed for pushing it over the edge. Boomer's, with their state of the art medical care will have extended life spans that will allow them to receive benefits much longer than the system was built to sustain. The X and Y generations will have to foot the bill for their longer lives. Not only that the X and Y's will have to be paying more in to support their eventual retirement. They are not going to like that.
Enjoying a longer life span comes with a need to work longer. The bulk of Boomer's are ill equipped for retirement. You will see retirees keeping their jobs longer, not passing their businesses on to their children because they need money to live. Boomer's will be seen everywhere. We will have a gray army of workers bagging groceries, doing office work and working in McDonald's. The X and Y's are not going to like the Boomer's taking jobs, they may need or want.
The first Boomer's are the children of the "Greatest Generation", the generation that saw the end of World War 2 and the greatest rise in the economy this country has ever known. Their progeny will rewrite the book on retirement, aging and end of life issues for future generations. The first Boomer's are turning 65 this year, with 76 million of them, it's just beginning
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Actually the government is to blame for concocting these unsustainable programs to buy votes from the baby boomers. But there's no one home there when it comes to accountability and financial management.
ReplyDeleteI don't know what is scarier... the fact that baby boomers are supposedly going to use up Social Security and Medicare, or that fact that my generation (30+) and younger seem so ill prepared to support themselves if these social programs were to go away.
ReplyDeleteThere has to be a move to a national retirement account that you put your own money in. No more pensions, Social Security or anything. Like Chile has, where you have an account your whole life. From youth to old age where there is a mandatory investment. It's yours like a 401k, portable and no one can take it from you.
ReplyDeleteSooner or later the younger generations are going to wake up to realize just how bad the government has hosed them over with their shady financing schemes for all these entitlements and unbelievable generation pensions. The only way to fix the problem is to get the government out of the retirement business and move all funds to individual retirement accounts that the government cannot raid to finance its own spending problems.
ReplyDeleteI am that first wave...65 years old this year. Although I paid into Social Security all of my life, and I am now drawing out my SS, I hate how the system works. There is no way my children will ever get a penny of what they are paying in. No, it isn't my fault. But, like any Ponzi scheme, it is destined to collapse. Would I be ready to make sacrifices today in order to help the younger generations? Yes, IF (and that is a huge IF), there was a sustainable way to make that happen. I like what Grouch says about moving all retirement to the IRAs. But it won't happen until we see total collapse of SS. When "W" Bush tried a modified approach to that a few years ago he was attacked from every direction until his proposal was swept under the carpet.
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