There are a bazillion ads running with older folks lambasting the "cuts to medicare"

[SoCalDem]

Are they running where you are too?

One just reminded us all that there are "50 million seniors"..

That's 1/6 of the population.

So, by extrapolation, in about 15 years, most of this current crop of seniors will be gone. I know that it's a conveyor belt and as some drop off one end, more enter at the other, but still 1/6 of the population (Boomers) departing WILL be felt.

WE are the reason why republicans are so desperately trying to finish off the New Deal. Younger-than-Boomers have matured in a time where media convinced them that they would never have SS anyway, and that changing jobs every year is "normal", and that buying a house/car with nothing down is okay, and that medical care is not important, so once the glut of "New Deal" leftovers and their offspring are gone, it's clear sailing..

The GOP & their media pals have been muddying the waters for 35 years now, and they only really need to hang on for a few more years, and their coup will be complete.


If you look cynically at polls the media loves to report on, you'll notice that almost any poll reported seems to have that "dirty 30" (actually ranging from 23 or so to 33 sometimes) that is always and forever against anything that makes life better for the common-man....ans yet slowly but surely, they seem to always command 75% of the attention to their pet issues.

I will probably be long-gone when it happens, but perhaps once we truly become a Hispanic nation things will start to change. It's gonna be an interesting century..

[ClaireF]

1. Boomers are currently

ages 47-65. You won't be getting rid of most of them in 15 years.

[SoCalDem]

4. the 65+ers who comprise the 1/6 will exit within 15 (probably)

Not ALL are Boomers (I included the others in my OP), but we Boomers are NOT immortal, and we will surely leave. With deferred health care for so many of us who were outsourced/downsized/whatever, our lifespans will probably not be what was expected for far too many of us..

The largest segment of Boomer-dom probably fell between 1945-55, with the stragglers coming along before "the pill" took hold in the early 60's (and those Moms were done).. :)

[damntexdem]

10. Here's the thing, by 2037 (the SS Trust Fund zero year), the youngest boomers will be in their 70s.

So yes, the Boomer phenomenon will finally be playing out in another quarter century.

But the aging of the population will likely continue; and babies WERE born post 1964.

In fact, there was an echo-boom (peaking in 1990) when the children of us boomers started being born. So there will still be people growing old in increasing numbers in 2037. They just won't be boomers.

And if the population growth had dropped to zero after 1965, with the pill, there wouldn't be any younger people around to compete with, rather support, older people in the 2030s anyway.

But there will be. Unless ... Now, true, global warming could do away with most of the population by the middle of this century; but that is a different dynamic.

This is of interest:
http://www.census.gov/population/www/pop-profile/natproj.html
http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/hestat/births2010/births2010.htm


Not from Census Bureau or other feds, but interesting:
http://geography.about.com/od/populationgeography/a/babyboom.htm

[theophilus]

7. Unless "you" try really hard. Maybe that's what this is about???? n/t

[pscot]

2. That's a lot of people to have pissed off at you

if you're hoping to be re-elected.

[Fearless]

3. They're running in MA and NH and have been for about a week.

[SoCalDem]

5. We're getting about 3-4 in every show... n/t

[Fearless]

6. Maybe 1-2 here. n/t

[Lugnut]

9. They're on every day here in NE PA. n/t

[damntexdem]

8. No, in 15 years there will be more of us seniors.

There are two factors in this:
1. Baby Boomers, with the oldest of us just turning 65; and this is a flood that will continue for almost 20 years (Baby Boomers are those born between 1946-1964, all years of extremely-high births); and
2. the aging of the population, with each birth cohort living longer on average -- so that even with relatively-smaller post-1964 birth cohorts, the average members will live longer.

Not only the U.S., but the entire world is aging -- almost all countries (and those that are not have some of the worst social/health situations). And 'young' countries are aging much faster than we have.

So, no -- unless climate change really kills us off, there will be more, not fewer, seniors for decades to come.

(Hey, I'm a professor of gerontology, so I ought to know.)

[madrchsod]

11. no one is talking about the millions of people who do`t pay in to the fund

those are the millions who do not work or the ones who work for far less than those who are retiring today. if we had our manufacturing base we had in the 50`s through the late 70`s we would`t have this discussion. the 30 some years of de-industrialization has robbed the future of social security and medicare.

[bigwillq]

12. I haven't seen any ads (nt)

[CleanGreenFuture]

13. Running here in DFW.