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Don't Blame "Boomers" For Not Retiring
Submitted by Lance Roberts of STA Wealth Management,
Every month when the employment data is released there is an almost immediate debate that erupts over the Labor Force Participation Rate. Like any good boxing match, both sides take to their corners. Defenders argue the decline is primarily due to retiring "baby boomers" and demographic trends while opponents suggest that it is a sign that employment remains far weaker than headlines suggest.
As I discussed previously, recent employment increases, while encouraging have been little more than a function of population growth. As the population grows, incremental demand increases caused by that increase in population will create employment needs in areas most impacted by that population growth. This is why job formation has been primarily focused in retail, service and hospitality areas.
The Census Bureau and Bureau of Labor Statistics provide some fairly comprehensive data about employment that can help us understand the current state of labor force participation. Is it really just an issue of masses of baby boomers retiring? Or is it something potentially more structural in nature.
Let's start with the retirement of the boomer generation. Recent statistics show that the average American is woefully unprepared for retirement. On average, 40% of American families are NOT saving for retirement, and of those who are, it is primarily about one year's worth of income. Furthermore, important to this particular conversation, one-fourth of those at retirement age postponed retirement with only 18% being confident of having enough saved for retirement.
For the purposes of this analysis, I am going to exclude all of the "seasonal adjustments" that tend to be a focal point of many of the arguments and utilize a simple 12-month average to smooth the non-adjusted data.
With 24% of "baby boomers" postponing retirement, due to an inability to retire, it is not surprising that the employment level of individuals OVER the age of 65, as a percent of the working age population 16 and over, has risen sharply in recent years.
This should really come as no surprise as decreases in economic and personal income growth was offset by surges in household debt to sustain the standard of living. Notice that the surge in 65-year and older employment corresponds with the decline of prosperity in the chart below.
So, since we are now fairly certainly that a large number of individuals are working well into their retirement years due to financial reasons, what about employment participation for those of working age years 16-64. The chart below shows the 12-month average of employment as a percentage of those individuals of working age.
As opposed to the Labor Force Participation Rate that is widely discussed following each labor report, this chart shows that the participation rate of 16-64 year olds remained fairly stagnant between 1988 and 2008 ranging from 71-74%. This stagnation is very much due to the structural shift in employment makeup. However, while employment participation for 16-64 year olds declined sharply in 2008 due to the financial crisis, it has only mildly recovered over the last 5 years. It is here that the reality of job formation running at rates of population growth become clearly evident.
When the monthly employment data is released individuals that have given up looking for work are considered to no long be part of the labor force (Not In Labor Force or NILF). From 1977 through the turn of the century the 12-month average of the percentage of 16-64 year olds considered NILF, as a percentage of the total 16-64 aged population, had declined. However, since the bursting of the tech bubble and the financial crisis the number the percentage of individuals that dropped out of the labor force has grown sharply.
What seems to be missed by the majority of employment analysis, in my opinion, is whether the economic viability for the average American has improved? The fact the social benefits as a percentage of real disposable incomes has risen to an all-time record certainly suggests that it has not.
It would seem to me that this would be a much more salient question considering 70% of economic growth in the domestic economy is driven by consumption.
While the debate over the quantity of employment is sure to continue in the months ahead, the real issue should be quality. As I discussed recently in relation to the housing market:
"It is difficult to consider "buying" a home when full-time employment remains elusive. Full-time employment, which pays better wages and provides benefits, leads to increases in household formations and home ownership. A lack of full-time employment remains a major impediment to the recovery story."
The problem is that while the Fed has achieved a 6.3% unemployment rate it is clearly a hollow victory. This fact was not lost on Janet Yellen recently when she pulled Fed policy away from the employment mandate suggesting "much more work needed to be done." She is right. However, the problem is that Fed policy doesn't drive employment - employers drive employment which is only fostered through reduced regulations, taxes, and increased demand.
Bill Dunkelberg, NFIB Chief Economist, summed this up well when he stated recently:
"Small business confidence rising is always a good thing, but it’s tough to be excited by meager growth in an otherwise tepid economy. Washington remains in a state of policy paralysis. From the small business perspective there continues to be no progress on their top problems: cost of health insurance, uncertainty about economic conditions, energy costs, uncertainty about government actions, unreasonable regulation and red tape, and the tax code.”
Regardless of which side of the low labor force participation rate argument you stand on, it is hard to argue that it is simply a function of retiring "baby boomers." While political arguments are great for debate, it is the economics that ultimately drive employment. While the Fed has inflated asset prices to the satisfaction of Wall Street, as shown in the first table above, it has done little for the middle class. It is ultimately fiscal policy that will help business create employment, the problem is that businesses need less of it while government officials keep piling on more.
In the meantime, stop blaming "baby boomers" for not retiring - they simply can't afford to.
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Nobody can afford anything - Progress!
You must not have heard about the 125% LTV re-tire-ment plan. Just buy a $25 million house.
It's ok, everyone buy a GM and go look at all those clothes horses at Cannes this weekend.
No seriously: Boomers spent 50 years of growth and are now zero ROE for 2007 highs, ex-non core inflation, ex-consumption implies they will never retire. Which if we use the sliderule of Japan when another "exceptional" generation did not want to get off the top of the food chain, the succession & wealth transition effect plumbing backed up.
Now with the exception of fast money billionares, how many top 30 under 30 have made something totally disruptive. Now top 40 under 40. Still nothing ? Now top 50 under 50.
Starting to see the problem ?
Hint, it's not because there is a lack of ideas outside snapchat & facebook. Warped investment incentives, limited seed capital & warped investment gimmicks are preventing new labour from joining the workforce which in turn prevents new ideas & products from developing or being spun out into growth co's.
While I was anti-junk bond for a long time, starting to come around to the Milken/Drexel point of view that the only way to get rid of this debt burden is not to pretend the Fed can save the world, but to admit that 90% of AA+ is dog crap, and let it float at the real rate, which is C+
Carveouts and entitlement restructuring if not the key theme of the 2018, it should be. starting this election round.
Or whatever: did you see Kim and Kanye get a tax break for hosting their wedding and employing local TV crews ? Awesome.
Spoiled little whiners.
Whine if we retire, whine if we don't retire.
"Boomers spent 50 years of growth"
If that's true, YOU are to blame for the DEBT incurred over the last 6 years !
Are you accepting that blame......moron?
Ever hear of the U.S. Government?
It must be a NEW institution, not around for the last 45 years I've been working, huh?
I'll be 64 in a couple of months. If I were to quit working we would have to go live in the woods or under a bridge. I don't blame anyone for it. But it's true. We would not be able to make it if I quit working.
The problem for the last 225 years has been the ever-growing, over reaching,crime syndicate government.
The baby boomers were no more careless or short-sighted than any previous generation.
boogerbently "Boomers spent 50 years of growth"
If that's true, YOU are to blame for the DEBT incurred over the last 6 years !
Are you accepting that blame......moron?
---
I believe boomers were a part of the last 6 years, and are still a dominant voting block. Moron?
Yet, you delude yourself with the belief that Soc. Sec. will, or should, go away.
Debt slaves don't retire.
We need to eliminate the tax advantage capital enjoys in this country relative to lablr.
In the US, most "lablr" don't pay income taxes. Neither do the parasites. Tax advantages of capital... Hmmm, I need to check with my accountant about that one.
Oh, and company's don't pay taxes. They collect them for our overlords and pass the expense on to consumers.
long cat food then
Nah, I feed our cats canned tuna, sold for human consumption. Its actually cheaper than canned cat food?!?
So do I. We supplement dry food with a can split between 3 dogs and 4 cats to ensure they're getting something along the lines of real food.
Otherwise, obesity and diabetes becomes a problem as they starve nutritionally.
Cat food is fit for human consumption. It's the dog food that is rancid meat full of prions.
long cat as food then
In the article, I had a problem with this:
"It is ultimately fiscal policy that will help business create employment"
How sad is that?
It's dazed and confused.
Let's reword it:
"It is ultimately fiscal policy that will hinder business in creating employment"
Those are some pretty gorgeous chart formations though....mmm....yeah.....TfnA
Fuck that, I'm retiring at the age of 62.
"In the meantime, stop blaming "baby boomers" for not retiring - they simply can't afford to."
I will blame them all day. Who needs brand new cars every two years, two cruises a year, two extra vacations a year, a yacht, a motorcycle, four college educated children and no life savings? Oh thats right, I'm talking about you dumb baby boomers.
I will not only blame baby boomers for not retiring, I will blame them for a great many other things besides. Probably more destruction has been wrought by that generation than any other, which will only become apparent as their numbers and influence start to wane. In another 5 years or so, when the boomers no longer exert their wealth-creating and wealth-absorbing effect (probably about the same time Mick Jagger finally croaks), we'll see just what kind of world we're living in, and it will not be pretty.
5 yrs of is optimistic. They'll be around longer and take the country down with them.
Yup. Boomers really took over in '92 politically for the first time and just look at what the two parties combined have past and implemented the past 20+ years. There are a few positives including welfare reform in '97 but on the whole these bastards have spent like drunkards, greatly expanded retirement benefits (MMA Act of 2003 which remains the most expensive piece of legislation since Medicare in '65) implemented tax policy which didn't remotely pay for expenditures, 'financialized the economy,' cut investment in infrastructure as a % of GDP in a massive way at the federal level, and fought 2 massive and extended wars for the first time in American history without raising taxes or war bonds to fund them.
Actually, we should be praised in keeping this economy going although we did it through the use of debt and the sense that we couldn't take it with us.
As an alternative, would you have preferred our generation to have lived Woodstock rather than outgrow it?
You did live Woodstock and never outgrew it. That's the whole damn point.
We sold ourselves out to our corporate-fascist state so that sniveling little snots could complain about us once we got old. Please take your cellphones and shove them up your fucking ass.
You definitely sold yourselves out.
I don't use a cellphone--never have. I'm not on Facebook either.
As I said below, I've been taking care of my boomer mother since I was 19. I was also busy shuffling my boomer father in and out of hospitals and rehab centers for his alcoholism, until he decided to leave and live the life of a homeless man. I paid off the debt, helped my sister to get married, moved my mother out of the ghetto, and finally convinced her to give up the drinking, the drugs, and the sleazy boyfriends.
So save your opprobrium for yourself. It was not my fault you sold out. The boomers had plenty of opportunity to make the country a better place and instead they wasted it all. Your righteous indignation will ring hollow from now until the end of time.
And before you go blaming the younger generation for their faults, just remember whose job it was supposed to be to raise them and teach them.
Gotta appreciate how well the divide and conquer tactics serve the powers that be. I raised my kids very well, and none of the still clinging to their middle class identity relatives, friends and neighbors suffered the kinds of problems your family has. And we are all disappointed that our kids are having such a hard time finding living wage jobs. Many of us had children to give meaning to our lives, and thinking that they will struggle for survival after we die makes the whole thing feel hollow.
Sorry you were raised by people who weren't fit to be parents, but your experiences are not like the majority of those who call themselves middle class.
Spooz,
I did not mean to imply that my experiences are universal, nor that I am some kind of hero. I went pretty far down the wrong track myself in my youth; considering the environment I was in, it was almost inevitable. When I realized my family needed to change, I had to grow up real quick and make momentous decisions I was not quite prepared to make. In consequence I have develpoed a personality that is unwilling to suffer fools gladly. Please accept my peace offering, for what it's worth.
that which doesn't kill you. . . cliche'd but often true.
however, tarring whole age groups with the same brush is just lazy/ignorant, and feeds the system that has everyone pressed under elite thumbs.
I for one appreciated your telling a more honest tale of parental slacking - both of them - rather than going with the whining lies that it's the "single parenting" wot killed this Great Nation. . .
taking personal responsibility is a strength.
And we are also happy with the troubles we have. Why are we happy with troubles? Because we know that these troubles make us more patient. And this patience is proof that we are strong. And this proof gives us hope. And this hope will never disappoint us. We know this because God has poured out his love to fill our hearts through the Holy Spirit he gave us.
WTG Goosey, I applaud the road you took.
Immature is the word. I'm related to a 60 yr old 'child', a clueless child who thinks the sun rises and sets in Obama's...
The boomers sucked, voted, and smoked all the money out of this country and gave it to China and the oligarchs. Their legacy is one of debt and delinquency. Look at the children they left behind. Look at the government they left behind. Look at the debt they left behind. The next generations are even worse. I'm not even 30 years old. I'm disgusted at the world I was born into. The boomers quite possibly lived during the height of prosperity, totally oblivious to the fact that it was completely charged on the credit card and unsustainable. And after they're all dead, we'll be left to pick up the pieces. We need to be honest about the problem: the boomers lived well so that we couldn't.
Enjoy the neverending depression.
EDIT: Here's an idea, motherfuckers, instead of downvoting you respond and tell me where I'm wrong? My insurance that I don't even use costs a fuckton of money just to pay for your old dying ass. You should be paying for that too, but no, you kick it to us. I won't ever get back any of the money I put into the socialist ponzi systems you are enjoying the benefits of. My generation gets paid nothing because your unions sucked it all dry. Tell me where I'm wrong. Or can you not?
They were born at the most prosperous time. The TV completely brainwashed them or, at least, 90% of the ones I'm related to. Then, to cap it off, Nixon removed the Gold standard. This allowed wave after wave of debt to be created. TV then encouraged them to constantly go into more debt. When the ME generation dies, their debt will (is) be papered over with inflation.
Hey Slave ... do you know what 'Sense of Entitlement' means? Just because you're Slave doesn't mean that you need to think like one.
If you think you got such a raw deal being born into the US and it's crappy society ... you could always move to Nigeria
I was born poor and didn't even know it until I got to High School, but what I did know was that I could go whatever by brains, personality, and ingenuity could take me ... there was no limit. I worked very hard for a very long time and succeeded in putting away a chunk of change.
Each generation is responsible for the next and I will leave all of my children a legacy of a free college education, thrift and hard work ... and oh, money too.
I am afraid that unless you rethink your approach to life you may leave a legacy of bitterness, resentment, and entitlement to yours.
You might want to reread my post instead of reading into it. I'm not entitled to a fucking thing, and I don't want to be. What I don't like is being born a debt slave. To deny the part the boomers played in that is to deny history.
I like the analogy of yeast in a vat full of sugar. The boomers are the yeast, the vat is postwar America up to the 70s, and the sugar is oil (or it's proxy, US dollars as world reserve currency).
In both cases, all the rest is a fait accompli.
I didn't do all that and is why I'm able to retire at 62 :P
'While the Fed has inflated asset prices to the satisfaction of Wall Street, as shown in the first table above, it has done little for the middle class.' It has also kicked the lower class square in the nuts, though it is impolite to bring these externalities up without first plowing the good doctor with her favorite aperitif ~ plasma des enfants, tiers-monde.
It's not so much "can't afford" as "don't dare".
Don't know where prices are going. Don't know when SSN will be cut. Don't know when Medicare will be rationed and you'll need gold to bribe someone for care. Don't know when QE will crash the economy and bread goes to a million dollars a loaf. Don't know when Vietnam will attach China or Korea will attack Japan or Iran will attack Israel or an unidentified nuke goes off in NYC.
Also - a lot of boomers are reaching age 65 in pretty danged good physical shape, and have all their lives held jobs that don't involve any heavy lifting anyway, so why stop now? Likely to live another twenty years, may need more money from now to pay the nurses then.
I wouldn't worry too much about hyperinflation occuring. If such a scenario occurs, the fed would force the TBTF banks to start buying back those toxic MBS and other treasury items to suck up the liquidity as fast as possible.
Hyperinflation would destroy the country. That's something the deep state doesn't want to occur. However, such an event would make all of the outstanding debt impossible to pay as deflation would be rampant. Housing prices would plummet, taxes will fall, etc etc. I wouldn't be surprised at that point if the government decides to eliminate social security and other welfare programs to avoid the nightmare of defaulting.
In (hyper)inflation prices don't plummet.
And the "deep state" already f'd up bigtime in 2008, next time the fire.
HI is caused by foreigners abandoning a currency. Bankers wouldn't have too much control. Petro Dollar status is the key.
I mostly blame the Boomers for their undue sense of entitlement (being the offspring of the "greatest generation") the boomers bought into American exceptionalism and still believe that we are #1 and not only capable of being the world police, but that we have the moral authority to do so. The Boomers are the worst generation, and being worse than Gen X and the brainwashed drugged up youth today, really means something.
Where did they get the sense of entitlement from? Spoon-fed to them daily by the "greatest generation."
The only generation spoonfed is the latest couple Maybe if you Youngsters get the hell off your little electronic games and sitting from the boob tube and maybe it would do something. A bunch of crybabies
Thanks for the down arrow at least your not playing a video game
Yes it was the FDR administration(s) that really got the ball rolling. At best, apologists can say the following generation was simply too cosmically incompetent, stupid, ignorant, inept, credulous, and last but not least naive to halt and then reverse and then eliminate the (progression of) the debt, welfare state, warfare state, MIC, surveillance state, etc., etc., etc., which isn't much better of a generational legacy than the (most obvious) alternative - the whole thing proceded according to a plan, with malice aforethought. In reality it was probably a mix of, say, 80% negligence (80% willful, 20% accidental) and 20% (criminal) intent. Which is plenty to establish culpability, for me.
[Victims of their own chance success, such a sad, sad story... /sarc]
"I mostly blame the Boomers for their undue sense of entitlement"
Oh, that's really rich. Expecting to receive something for paying in most of your working life is "entitlement" whereas just showing up and expecting free "bling" is not?
Young people by definition are fuck-ups, but today's crop take it to a whole new level. Frankly, I'd feel sorry for them if they weren't covered in tatoos and piercings, yapping on their cells 24/7 to their myriad "friends" who swarm the malls and fast food joints of the nation. A modern day Cargo Cult if ever there was one.
Of course I may be overstating things, but then who doesn't these days?
So now it's my responsibility to bail out your Ponzi scheme?
Funny, I didn't think that when I was supporting YOUR grandfather/father. Fuck all you bunch of tattooed, limp wristed whiners.
1. I don't have tattoos or any other body modifications.
2. I'm not the one whining about how I'm owed something. I certainly don't expect to ever see a dime from the Ponzi. Hell, I'll be doing good just to keep entitled old farts like you from voting for people who will take my land, steal my gold, rape my women, and shoot my dog. So far, it's not going well.
3. What you did or didn't do on behalf of my forefathers is irrelevant: If you were stupid enough to believe the politicians for whom you voted, that's your own damn fault. You should have been responsible enough to keep them in line. Now we can't help you: My generation has nothing left to take.
4. My right wrist is not nearly as limp as my left...
@RoadHazard
The above comment is as worthless as the entire boomer generation's contributions to the US. Thank you for summing that up for us.
I have a charts for the "Tylers" consideration..http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/36/Federal_Debt_Held_by_... observe public debt from the 70's onward (Boomers comming of voting age and ultimately "Reagonomic's".
The worthless pile of bull above probably thinks Reagan was a conservative. He was a liberal, sorry all Neocons since Reagan. Fox News is not conservative either, nor is the "Grass Roots" Tea Party being steam rolled by the Koch's and Adelsons of the world.
Democracy has been subverted by a consolidated media that happened during the Boomers watch. You were too busy feeling good about yourselves, for no damn good reason. The only media left is AP and Reuters and both are run by British Intelligence.
2016 Hillary will likely beat Neocon Rand Paul, but it doesn't matter because we all lost a long time ago.
Don't forget to thank a boomer for corporate fascism and their "new worlder" hero's.
"You were too busy feeling good about yourselves, for no damn good reason."
Most of the boomers I knew were too busy trying to avoid the draft to worry about feeling good. You felt good if you came back alive in one piece.
Of course the women were busy feeling good because that's when the pill showed up, so there's that.
@ebear
Go back and reflect on the contributions of the boomer generation and get back to me. You are in denial and that denial is the prevailing characteristic of your generation. Every negative aspect you could mention about our contemporary Distopia happened on your watch. You were too busy squandering the potential your parents left for you to think about the future you left for us.
I was a kid when cheap Japanese and Taiwanese imports started flooding the country. I remember the old timers who were born before, and fought during, WW2 declaring it would ruin the nation. Luckily, they're dead now and won't see have to see it come to pass.
"You are in denial"
Not at all. I just like poking people with a stick - especially self-righteous people. It's easy and it's fun!
"Of course I may be overstating things..."
(that was what they call a "clue")
People need to understand that the boomers are not monolithic. Its a 18 year spana and the boomers at the tail end (im one of them) is n't the same as the boomers who were born before 1960. Im just a screwed as anytone else and I was raised and embrace the frugal nature of my parents who were children during WWII. While the older boomers squandered the ruits of the WWII those of us in our early 50's reject their hedonistic and self serving narcissism.
dude, aren't you GenX?
you skipped the queue.
happy now?
You sure he's not "Generation Jones?" Can't believe I'm asking THAT. Ugh, buying into the media memes.
Disenfranchised, homeless, unemployed middle class boomers headed to DC to hold them accountable for their oaths of office:
http://bit.ly/QN2u3Z
TPTB really need the generational hatred thing to accomplish their final goal - the total destruction of the concept of family.
Please, for all our sakes, don't be their willing tool and allow them to reach their goal.
I've been looking after my boomer mother since I was 19, thank you very much. And I will be for the rest of her life.
I will never abandon my family, but in my case familiarity with the boomers' lifelong habit of poor decision making has certainly bred contempt.
"lifelong habit of poor decision making"
Guuuuuh, hey, man, it's, like, a way of life, maaaan.
I think most Boomers will be in for a big surprise when the SHTF.
My parents are both retired and completely uninterested in current affairs, they think watching the hack reporting of NBC Nightly News is more than enough. After much nagging, I finally got my mother to invest in some silver a couple weeks ago. She's still skeptical, but will soon forget she even bought it.
I advised my aunt to buy some physical last week and she looked at me like I was nuts. I don't like her much anyway, there will be a little bit of schadenfreude when she loses most of her assets. Her husband isn't much better, he's a patriotic Republican and proud retiree of the VA and busy dealing with his third bout of cancer. He's also completely aware that it was probably caused by his dropping of Agent Orange in Vietnam since he gets a monthly check from the Agent Orange Settlement Fund. His two children suffer from birth defects.
This is all completely anecdotal, but I'm fed up with dealing with my Boomer relatives. If the rest of the Boomers are anything like the ones I know, there's going to be a lot of dead weight.
This doesn't have anything to do with what generation you were born in. Some people are just gullible. At 56, I have water purification equipment, solar panels and batteries in place, lots of 12 volt light and coolers, stored meds and trade goods like tobacco and alchohol.
The next economic downturn breaks the majority of the hydrocarbon energy distribution system, permanently. There will still be oil and gas, but not in enough quantities to continue our current level of industrial activity. When that system breaks, so do world's interdependent web of supply chains. Without cheap transportation fuel, you can kiss that scale of industrial trade good bye too.
Why do you think central banks will do *anything* to keep economic activity above the threshold needed to keep the oil companies afloat? They're only somewhat delusional. They know what's going to happen if we have a serious, worldwide, prolonged depression.
Ian,
Words spoken are truth. What most don't understand is that when the "downturn breaks the majority of the hydrocarbon energy distibution system", they don't correlate that with the breakdown of farming as our agribusiness will no longer be able to afford $20 diesel to run those big industrial machines. While the tech is good to have, water comes first, then food. Store rice, pasta, beans and bullion cubes to flavor as basics. Anything else eill help to break the monotony. Carbs is what gives you the strength to farm an "Liberty garden", and to fight off the mean two legged dogs that will flood from the cities. The elete wants to see us fight amongst ourselves, so they can skate as they always have done. Military surplus boxes with a rubber seal and locks every three inchess will keep rice/pasta for fifteen years in an uncooled garage. Speaking from personal experience, Y2K being the
incentive to explore that concept.
Finally, our Middle Class is an aberration in history. Our Bill of Rights and the Constitution, gave rise to the middle class in our country which represented Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. In the past, it was always the serfs and the nobility. I can see that we are reverting to the mean. Keep family strong, turn off the boob tube, and don't foget to nourish the spirit. Remember, "On a long enough timeline, the survival rate drops to zero". That is why truth reigns supreme.
Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities: for we know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit Itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. And He That searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit, because He maketh intercession for the saints according to the will of God. And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to His purpose.Romans Chapter 8, 26-28
You can't blame them entirely. There are 2 things that DC has done to them. Most don't even know it. 1)The removal of the gold standard, allowing tons of debt to be created. 2)No Fault Divorces. Nearly every Boomer is either in debt and/or divorced. They have been played like a fiddle.
Generations do exhibit different tendencies, but I'm more interested in what you say about family. Before Social Security, families were often multigenerational and people expected children to look after their aged parents. Liberi parentes aut alant aut vinciantur. That puts the children, when they reach adulthood, in the productive, income-earning role, and it also takes the pain out of retirement planning beyond having children and passing your savings on to them to manage and grow. A multigenerational home also spends less on housing and other expenses that efficiency of scale can palliate, and it benefits from having more adults available to oversee and raise the children (no child care expenses). There's economic sense in an extended family living together; I wonder why our current values so radically oppose the idea and favor instead small, independent atomic families that live more wastefully.
"people expected children to look after their aged parents"
The Irish perfected this.
Also, "people" expected the elderly to remain as productive as possible until their death (unless they were aristocratic, in which case being productive was a sin in general, of course). Namely, in the role of child rearing and education, and performing domestic chores.
" I wonder why our current values so radically oppose the idea and favor instead small, independent atomic families that live more wastefully."
You answered your own question. More households = more consumption = more debt. The knock-on social benefits such as latch-key kids being raised by the state and the elderly being largely or entirely unproductive and alienated from society, fear not, have been successfully exploited and monetized too.
whoa, careful now.
next you'll be pointing out the whole sociology gender role theory.
culture is a construct, and we know who benefits.
Medicare for old folks. Moving expense tax deductions for working folks. WIC and Medicaid for single moms/children. DC has worked over time to bust up the family.
"In the meantime, stop blaming "baby boomers" for not retiring - they simply can't afford to."
I know there's a proper term for this kind of "... so shut up and stop asking questions" conclusion, but I'll just call it blatantly dishonest. As we all know, in a capitalist democracy, people have zero responsbility, both theoretically and practically, now and always, for the what happens in their society, particularly the actions of their government. In fact, nobody has any responsibility for anything, ever, period, just ask FDR, Jon Corzine and everyone who took out an ARM or a NINJA loan.
Anyway, yeah, if your generation's been in charge for more than a few years, unfortunately, yeah, it kinda has some responsibility for its own fate, sorry. It's not exactly no sympathy for fools, it's no sympathy for people hoisted by their own Ponzi scheme petard (after hoisting everyone else, including the unborn). But nah let's continue to pretend the world is boolean and all causes are direct and final, so you're either 100% responsible, or 0%.
When exactly did US voters have a choice between anything other than Giant Douche and Turd Sandwich? As if the vast army of disenfranchised voters has any choice at all.
well, the "US" voters could wake up and stop voting.
and then, as that awakening took hold, the possibility of fewer people subscribing to the "US way of life" which is now being held responsible for the shitstorm incoming, might have been intellectually questioning the systems, and even more "US" ex-voters might have seen some real changes. . .
instead of embracing their Brand: Consumer styled-lives, and buying even bigger Trucks to glue their bumper-sticker motto on:
He Who Dies With The Most Toys WINS !!!
but yeah, it is what it is, and will reap what's been sown.
the retirement meme is going the way of the dodo.
work till you drop bitchez.
and by the way, better start taking care of your frame
downsize your life, house, cars, and expectations. don't be a debt slave....
Its easy to ignore the effects of the credit boom and just blame generations for problems I guess.
My relatives, from the Depression, wouldn't take on debt. They advised everyone to do the same. That didn't stop the ME generation from taking on a huge debt load.
Hey, we boomers can retire, BUT we know that SSN is going to run out of money AND our health is going to fade, SO we are going to continue to make money as long as someone is stupid enough to keep paying us.
What else are we going to do? Clip coupons, watch soaps and drive around the trailer court in our golf carts bitching about this and that? Forget that, I'll keep getting paid until they kick me out, and then I'll find something else to do.
That's what death panels are for. Problem solved.
Good for you, my dad retired at 62 and hasn't done anything worthwhile in the past 9 years. His brain has pretty much turned to mush.
What's a madder wit mush ... been there ... still there
Maybe 65 is too young to retire for some?
Remember when the retirement age was set at 65, many people were simply worn out from a lifetime of hard physical labor. How many age 65 and older have done as much physical labor as the gernerations before them?
If their life expectancy is 85, maybe they should work until 70 or later?
My dentist just retired at 75. I doubt he had any worries about affording retirement, he just loved his work and only hung it up when it got to be a burden.
I wish there were more more people like him around.
Except that, with unemployment being so high for young adults , if everybody worked longer there would be even less jobs available for those entering the workforce.
Why can't they afford to retire?
Because their track record is "long-suckered":
http://patrick.net/forum/?p=1230886
And "The Public Be Suckered" is STILL kept unseen!
Viva la Stupidite!
People are retarded? Same as it ever was. The entire country thinks it's possible to get something for nothing. Young people want free everything. Houses for homeless people, somehow raise wages without causing inflation or unemployment, subsidized green energy, etc. Old people want free healthcare, free pensions, and a larger military. Spending more on the military than every other country in the world combined is not enough, apparently. It doesn't help that our "experts" are completely fucking retarded. See: Krugman. He said it would not cause harm to the economy if the treasury minted a 1 trillion dollar coin to monetize the debt instead of borrowing money through the fed. We have idiots leading morons.
I'm part of Generation Y and I'm about 90% certain my generation will have exactly the same crisis baby boomers are facing right now. The government will have a bunch of empty promises, people will save nothing, lots of people won't even bother to pay all of their debts before retiring.
Oh well...I retired over two years ago at age 54....life is awesome living here in the tropics...
I did that ... lived in Hawaii for two years ... got bored, moved to where the action was (and no income tax) Las Vegas ... then the grandchildren came and moved back to California ... I want to be bored again
Ultimately savings drive employment and retirement. All good things come from savings. We are a country with no savings. I place blame in only one place and that's the entity that can devalue savings through low interest rates and inflation (defined as expansion). These demons have built a world of debt ridden, financially and morally bankrupt people.
A lifetime of SS contributions only affords a person 10+/- years of SS payments - just run the numbers, now add in Medicaid. There’s a problem.
Means test and euthanize the blue hairs.
You first.
retire for what? they dont have the money!!! I work for the city of chicago and everybody thats been there for any length of time takes care of so many people that they cannot afford to move out of the way for me to move up in seniorty.
What is retirement?
Sleeping in...
40 years in the trenches and I'm beat, Dr. says I'm gonna live another 30 yrs, my blood pressure is better than his, WTF, ain't got that much $$$
Looking forward to the Gold Bitchez
Retirement is against my religion. Too many drop dead after they quit working.
I retired in 2011 at 58 years of age.
I never went to restaurants, movies, and had 3 vehicles in that time.
I brown-bagged my lunch. (OK, I was a NYC construction worker, I could do it).
I bought and paid for three single family homes in Bergen County, NJ. (07648).
I've never even been a passenger in a Corvette or a 911, and I don't feel like I missed much.
I did learn along the way that three things hold their value for a long time, those are Jeep Wranglers, quality guns, and Harley Davidson motorcycles.
I know plenty of people who live beyond their means, and I'm quiet about their position.
Between my pension, Social Security next February, rental income, and about a million and a quarter in cash, (not counting the silver I started buying in 1989 at less than $5.00), I figure I can live comfortably till I check out.
If TSHTF, I belong to a like-minded community of Iron-Curtain escapees who know how to survive hardship and deprivation, and we will maintain.
I gave up a lot to get where I am, but I am satisfied with my position.
You aren't retired, you're managing your interests. Hats off to you. Now go buy some more rental homes.
They also tend to be better employees, with attention spans longer than a rabbit or a millenial. They also don't have their heads up their phone.
You live your entire life with a fair return on savings....
then Bernanke and Yellen, both protected by generous pensions and cost of living
adjustments, REMOVE the fair return on savings, and push for inflation.
Criminal theft, a divergence from the financial history of this country upon which people
planned and relied.
This should be the most important story of our generation, but alas, the Boomers are too busy working to survive and payoff their debts
You can't explain it to them, anyway. It's interesting when people say that schools are 'dumbing down' kids. From the Boomers I'm related to, the schools were better at it in 60's, 70's and 80's, before the internet came along. I only have one Boomer relative whom I can talk to about these things. He attended a private Christian school because his mother wasn't about to make him to ride a school bus across town, when forced busing began. All the others were public school attendees and thought BHO was the 2nd coming of Christ.
After reading all the posts for this topic, I feel that a legacy of debt is not our biggest problem ... bitterness, resentment and envy seem a much more problematic
What effect is the resentment having on society that is worse than generational debt and enslavement to a vampiric paradigm? What effect is this "envy" having that is worse than the greatest reversal of Liberty in US history?
Are you serious, or is your shame kicking in your cognitive dissonance? If you guys had just a pinch of remorse, you would stop voting the same fucking way, and let the younger generations have a go at fixing these epic failures.
The attitude problems that burn your ass are manifest as a result of your refusal to stop dishing the nightmare. Forgiveness comes with repentance, get over it.
Wall Street killed defined contribution pensions for the vast majority of people. Wall Street thought is would be better and easier to steal from people's IRAs and 401ks.
Now people wonder why us old folks won't retire ... unless we work for the goobermint.
Boomers don't deserve the 'Breaking the family up' vibe they get. That was the 'Silent Generation and Greatest Generation' who quickly adopted no-fault divorce laws after CA first passed it in '69 and the divorce rate exploded in the 70s.
Any social conservative or conservative for the matter who tells you the family unit was destroyed by welfare is full of cr@p entirely. It was due to a profound legal change (no-fault divorce laws almost universally adopted in the US in the early 70s) and technological change including the widespread adoption of birth control.
It IS the boomers fault for the great lack of jobs today.
If a boomer doesn't have his pension/savings in check by 65 its because they fucked up. The boomer parents understood this. Now of course you could bring up the argument that the boomers parent generation didn't live as long as boomers are going to, but boomers parents parents didn't live as long as boomers parents either. Each generation having their own retire by x age for the next workers. Ontop of all these boomers that fucked up their retirement savings, social security is due to go broke not long after the boomers finally kick the bucket. (social security going broke is in part due to so many boomers fucking up. social security had to increase pay out at a greater rate recently in order to handle all the boomers that completely fucked up their retirement savings.) And lastly, those graduating college/university today are expected to live a life shorter than that of boomers due to the amount of crap Boomers subjected their young to.
So lets add everything up: Boomers fucked up their savings, didn't retire on schedule, takes jobs away from younger generations. + Social Security going broke inside a few years, no retirement assistance for younger generations who can't find jobs because boomers fucked up. + By the time younger generations get promoted from waiters to the job inside their bachelor degree, they have even less time than that Boomers should have taken to build up their retirement savings. = This generation fucked because of Boomers. Less jobs, less assistance, less time to build retirement savings. My generation will work to the day they die because Boomers fucked everything up. How did such a admirable generation produce the set of idiots that are the boomers?
Usually I don't like to identify myself as a full time trader because I'm not contributing. It is not as if I didn't try to find an appropriate job in my bachelor's field, it is just that I couldn't find one. When considering the Boomer's retirement savings problem, I'm actually a little happy that I am a full time trader because I know that a good share of the profit I make is being taken from those idiot Boomers trying to rebuild their retirement savings. So go ahead you idiot Boomers, take my jobs - I'll take your retirement savings instead. I'll keep you working to the day you die for the amount you fucked up the job economy.