Baby Boomers shaped our Past. Watch how they shape our Future-

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the lives of boomers it is obvious: more schools built for the extra students from kindergarten to college, more jobs needed for them, more retirement security including housing, etc.

While it is going to be rough getting through the retirement years, especially for the workers paying into the system there are some things that are already being done to alleviate the problem.

Here in Minnesota we have developed a very good home health program coupled with homemaker services, mass transit programs and assisted living programs, etc. to keep all but the very critical people out of expensive nursing home care and in their own homes.

It is obvious from your stats that we will need a universal single payer health care program to deal with health issues.

One thing that cannot be seen in those stats is that many boomers who are disabled are already part of the Social Security recipients and due to AIDS, cancer and other illnesses many will never collect the Social Security they paid into because they died too young.

Brother dead at 42; cousin dead at 53; best friend dead at 35, etc. etc. None of them ever collected a cent of all that they paid in for all of the years they worked. :(

And there will be many more too, as many people born during this era were exposed to massive amounts of toxic crap (like DDT, etc.).

I'm not optimistic that anyone from this generation will live to be extremely old. Too many have died already that should not have died because of what I believe to be causes related to toxicity and diets loaded with junk foods.

:kick:

I agree. It is tough to think about, but I know a few that ended up in the same situation. And I agree with what you said part of the culprit very well may be. It's saddening sometimes, to think about the future

wrote a book called "Great Expectations" about the baby boom generation. He compared that generation to a "pig in a python" to describe how the great mass of boomers would work its way through its lifespan. I should reread my copy.

I cannot in good conscience expect anyone not of this generation to address the issues we are now facing with any level of confidence.

Of course, it was the Boomers, so why should anyone expect this generation to be willing to fix what they broke.

After all, the Boomers have told us all along that "the children are our future", which is a shameful euphemism for "don't hold us (Boomers) accountable. We'll pass our disaster onto successive generations."


Here's a couple of more stats to add to the list:

1. Suicide among baby boomers has run ahead of the national rate at every stage of their lives... (Experts} warn that despite many advances in understanding and responding to suicide risk factors among Americans of all ages, the nation’s youth-oriented culture, lingering stigmas toward mental illness and the medical system itself leave aging boomers in greater danger. A Scripps analysis of the causes of death among boomers in 2003 found that 11,667 took their own lives, representing 37 percent of all suicides in the United States that year. By contrast, there were 3,988 suicides among 15- to 24-year olds that year, and 5,248 among people 65 and older.

http://www.gosanangelo.com/news/2007/jan/30/suicide/



2. Since 1988, the homicide-suicide rate among couples 55 and older in Florida has increased about tenfold...Cohen has found that the typical homicide-suicide case involves a depressed, controlling husband who shoots his ill wife. "These are acts of depression and desperation," she says.

http://www.medicinenet.com/script/main/art.asp?articlekey=50782

http://eldercare.uniontrib.com/news/marsha/marsha_suicide.cfm


I hope enough of you Boomers stick around to help clean up the mess.


Post Script I: I'm a decendent of Boomers and if you'd like to read my book about Accepting and Living with Bipolar Disorder, I'll gladly leave you a link to Amazon.com so that you may purchase a copy... Oh, and where is that elusive Single-Payer Health Care System you trumpet???? Would have saved me from filing for bankruptcy 7 years ago. (I just chuckle when I hear Boomers toot their own horns. You sound as delusional as the Boomer-in-Chief.)

Post Script II: I'm back on my feet and have been working in finance for a Fortune 500 company for more than 5 years in addition to volunteering at a nearby hospital facilitating support groups for the mentally ill. Prior to that, I hadn't been gainfully employed until the age of 35.

I hate getting blamed for all the world's ills.

...the next generation will feel much worse about being born in the 21st century than you feel about being born in 1946.