Today 10,000 baby boomers turned 65.
Another 10,000 will cross that threshold tomorrow. This will keep happening every single day
between now and 2030.
No one knows what old age holds for anyone individually, but demographers and economists
say the gray tsunami may overwhelm our country. By the time every boomer is collecting
Social Security and Medicare, those two programs are projected to use up about half our
entire federal budget-- and the trust funds for both will be broke. That’s because the ratio of
taxpayers to retirees will have fallen to its lowest level ever, about 2 to 1. When Social Security
first went into effect, the ratio was 20 to 1.
But renegotiating the contract between the generations will be a tall order. Today young and
old in America don’t look alike, act alike or vote alike.
The BOOMERS were born in 1946 to 1964. They now total 76 million and are age 49 to 67. The
boomers biggest obsession isn’t sex, drugs or rock and roll – it’s having enough money for their
golden years.
The MILLENNIALS are our most diverse generation ever. They were born 1981 to ? and total
about 80 million. Their age range is 18 to 32. More than four in ten are nonwhites. Many are
the children of the great wave of Hispanics and Asians who flooded the country a half century
ago. Compared with their elders, millennials are political liberals, digital wizards, slow to marry
and have children, and they’re broke.
Economic insecurity binds these two massive generations. Many boomers haven’t saved
enough for retirement. They’re at risk of being the first generation in modern American
history to have a lower standard of living than their parents enjoyed. The two generations are
generally congenial and get along just fine. They often live interdependently. Hopefully, the
good vibrations will help with the hard political bargaining ahead. As Americans, we’re all in this
together. Social Security and Medicare must be brought into sync with the new demographics
of the 21st
century, and that means some combination of benefit cuts and tax increases.
Every generation will have to share in the pain.
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