Baby Boomers

As the retirement age for baby boomers approaches, there are vast changes that society and the individual boomer must expect and plan for. The boomers decision to continue to work will not only affect their home life but will create a stress on the financial state of the country’s economy and the current labor market. With the delicate state of the economy, it is in the best interest of everyone to take the necessary steps to avoid anything from disrupting it.
Demographers define the baby boom as a birth surge started in 1946 after World War II and reached its peak in 1957. It continued until 1964 because of postwar prosperity (Schaie & Willis, 2002). There two groups of baby boomers. The babies born from 1946 to 1955 were called early boomers. Those who were born from 1956 to 1964 were called as late boomers.
We are just about to see the initial effects of the first wave of baby-boomers retiring. The manner in which this will affect the economy is extremely hard to predict, especially in the U.S. where the systems of health care and social security are based on intergenerational exchanges--the current workforce provides the funding for preceding generation (Schaie & Willis, 2002). The strain of a greater number of retiring and aging citizens on an economic system that is unprepared with safety-nets could be catastrophic for the working class generations who are coming up behind them and are going to have to somehow keep the economy propped up on increasingly shaky legs.
Adding to the difficulties of the economy, the ratio of retirees to workers; the ratio of the number of people ages 65 and over to the number of ages 20 to 64 will increase from 20% to 41%. With the smaller pool of younger workers, the U.S. will face a labor shortage of up to 10 million workers by 2050 (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 2005).
With that being said, what can be done to avoid such devastation? If boomers remain vigorous and healthy as they age, they could make...