The Heavy Anchor

Baby Boomers... I'm afraid we've become a drag on society. Literally.

As we age and slide into retirement, we are like a cast iron anchor that is dragging along the ocean floor, slowing up our ship of state.

It's bad enough our age group is taking slings and arrows for what we've done in the past. For how we've steered the country when we had our hands on the wheel.

Some critics are calling us the worst generation in modern history. They point to the 2008 financial meltdown. The divisive presidencies of George W. Bush and Bill Clinton. The way our corporations have been managed.

In short, things are not good right now in the United States of America and some are laying the blame at our feet.

Whether that is true or not is a subjective matter of opinion.

But there seems to be little doubt the Baby Boom generation, by its sheer numbers, is exacting a heavy toll on society.

At the moment, we are clogging up the labor force. Not that we should necessarily be criticized for wanting to work, but the fact that 40 percent of Boomers over the age of 55 are still employed is a major factor on our economy. We are still sitting in jobs that younger and/or unemployed people want to have.

One factor is a lot of Boomers can't retire now due to their financial status. Part of that is our own fault. We have not saved our money well and many of our 401k plans are not what they should be, partly because we didn't handle our nation's economy with the long term in mind.

It also appears we won't be leaving much for the younger generations. In a recent survey by U.S. Trust, 49 percent of "Baby Boomer millionaires" said they don't plan to leave an inheritance for their kids. Part of the sentiment from those surveyed was "we've done enough for our children's generation." Seriously?

Our financial status is also having a negative effect on the stock markets. Analysts say we are the age group that is expected to invest most heavily in the markets. However, we are putting less money into the Dow Jones, Nasdaq and other entities. That is helping pull those institutions down.

We are also starting to drag down our nation's health care system. As our 78 million member generation ages, we are in more and more need of medical attention.

The health care industry has grown the past four years, according to Forbes magazine. It expanded 7 percent the past year, despite the overall economy growing hardly at all.

In the short term, that's good for people who work in the medical field. However, as Boomers start to develop cancer, Alzheimer's, Parkinson's and other diseases, we will be in danger of bankrupting the nation's health care system.

Social Security is another institution trying to hold up under the weight of our generation. The oldest of the Baby Boomers started to collect Social Security checks three years ago. Now, with the front of our generation turning 65 this year, more and more Boomers are grabbing their share of the pension pie.

We can argue that we paid into the system and should get our money. That is true. However, we might want to think of the rest of the nation before we start grabbing our "fair share."

The numbers simply don't add up. There are too many of us and not enough younger people paying into the system for Social Security to stay solvent.

My suggestion in my book, "10,000 Days," is for Baby Boomers to delay cashing in their Social Security checks. Wait until you're 70 or older. Perhaps, as a generation, we should insist of changing the program's formula and accept less money.

The one bright economic note might be the housing market. As Boomers get older and "downsize" their living accommodations, they are moving out of their single-family homes and purchasing condos and other smaller quarters. That is providing some turnover in the housing market.

So, Boomers... it appears we can help our nation by putting our homes on the markets, taking care of our health and delaying our Social Security checks.

It'd be nice if we did something for the country as a whole instead of thinking of only ourselves.

Boomers: Kennedy Calls, Is It Our Last Chance For Greatness?

It was 60 years ago this month that President John F. Kennedy delivered one of the most stirring inauguration speeches in our nation's history.

His line, "Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country," was just one of many eloquent calls in that speech for the United States to embark on a new frontier.

Now, six decades later, as Baby Boomers enter retirement age, we must ask themselves... Did we do what we set out to do for this country?

I'm afraid the answer at the point is a resounding no. In fact, our generation is on the verge of being a disappointing failure. Some pundits are even starting to call us "The Worst Generation."

To be certain, we started out quickly. In the 1960s and 1970s, we led the civil rights movement and the battle for women's equality. We blazed the environmental trail and revolutionized music. We stopped a war and ended the military draft. We even got the voting age reduced to 18.

No small accomplishments. That's for sure.

However, something happened after President Richard Nixon resigned and Baby Boomers entered the work force and began raising families.

We turned inward. We became self-centered. We stopped thinking about what was good for society and focused on what was good for us. The zeal we engineered for worthy causes became passion for making money and looking out for ourselves.

We remain strident. Of that, there is no doubt. The righteous approach we had protesting the Vietnam War and fighting for equal rights has manifested itself into the divisive political debate that permeates our nation. No matter what side of the fence you're on, anyone who disagrees with you is someone worth hating.

The 16 years that our two Boomer presidents, Bill Clinton and George W. Bush, ruled the executive branch were an incredibly divisive decade and a half. Our country hasn't been this violently split since 1968.

We were at the helm when the worst financial crisis in 80 years hit our nation in 2008. Before that, we were spending money we didn't have and making profits by doing nothing more than shuffling papers between corporations.

We can't even see past the mirror when it comes to Social Security. There are 78 million of us. The oldest of our generation are turning 65 this year. There simply aren't enough younger working people to finance our retirement even if take our full share as soon as we're eligible.

For the sake of the nation, Baby Boomers should agree to smaller Social Security payments and take them at a later age, perhaps 70.

However, I see no evidence that is happening. Boomers have already eagerly starting cashing in when they turned 62. We are on course to crush Social Security as well as the Medicare system.

We are at a precipice, Boomers. If we continue down this path, we drag down the ravine a country we have already seriously steered off the proper course.

In my book, "10,000 Days," I laid out what I believe is a change of attitude and a route Baby Boomers can follow the next 30 years to redeem our generation and sail our ship of state into waters that are navigable for the generations behind us.

Alas, in the two years since that book was self-published, I see no sign of change. No groundswell to return to our activist roots. No hint we are changing our ways.

The hour is late, Baby Boomers, but we still have time. We can heed President Kennedy's call and see what we can do for our country.

Baby Boomers and Health Care

I am presenting a guest blog in this spot since it's been awhile since I've written anything.

This one is on a topic important to all of us aging Baby Boomers. What is going to happen with health care reform?

The blog is written by Barbara O'Brien, who has made a name for herself blogging about political and health care issues. You can learn more about her at barbaraobrien@maacenter.org

Will Congress Repeal Health Care Reform?

By Barbara O'Brien

As soon as Republicans knew they had won a majority of House seats in the midterm elections, GOP leaders vowed to repeal health care reform. Can they do this? And should they?

Frankly, chances that the health care reform bill could be repealed completely are remote, especially since such repeal would have to override President Obama's veto, and the Senate still has a Democratic majority.

House Republicans say they have some tricks up their sleeves, such as refusing to provide funds in the budget to implement health care reform. However, provisions of the law that will expand Medicaid and help subsidize private insurance won't kick in until 2014. Until then, there's not much the House can do to the budget to stop health care reform from going forward, short of defunding the entire Health and Human Services department.

Another "trick" might be to dismantle the bill piece by piece. One provision that many people want to remove is the individual mandate, which will require most Americans to obtain health insurance or pay a tax penalty. This provision also kicks in in 2014, and it's one that Baby Boomers in particular will want to fight to keep.

Here's why: Beginning in 2014, private insurance companies will no longer be able to refuse to insure someone because of a pre-existing condition. But without an individual mandate, there will be no incentive for younger and healthier people to purchase health insurance until the time comes when they need it. This means those left in the insurance "risk pool" will be older, and that drives up the cost of insurance.

By the time we reach 50, nearly all of us have "pre-existing conditions." Some of our conditions are common, and some are not -- mesothelioma, for example, is rarely diagnosed in patients younger than 50. And without Medicare or other good insurance, mesothelioma treatment would be financially devastating.

But without the individual mandate requiring that healthier people share in the cost of insuring all of us, the health insurance premium bills for people aged 50 to 65 will be ruinous. We can scrap health care reform entirely, of course, but keep in mind that if you lose your insurance before you reach Medicare age you may not be able to purchase insurance at all, at any price, if you have a pre-existing condition.