[quote=poorgradstudent]The Baby Boomers really are a ticking time bomb. Can we send them all to Canada and Mexico?[/quote]
Surprising to most (but not to me), many “boomers” have been fit and athletic all their lives and have never smoked.
Previous generations of Americans (WWII and Greatest Gen) became incapacitated MUCH younger and did not live as long as boomers will due to:
-disease while young (which we now have vaccinations for);
-smoking and all other forms of tobacco use;
-drank MUCH more hard liquor;
-had high-cholesterol diets throughout their lives due to cultural practices;
-didn’t go to the gym or work out;
-didn’t have access to doctors/dentists;
-died in childbirth
etc.
Just go into any nursing home or board and care facility during mealtime and see what they’re feeding their patrons. I would not consider it a “healthy” diet but it is all they will eat.
In addition, most of the women of these generations were/are a drain on society since they didn’t have 40 quarters of SS contributions deposited on their own behalf because they didn’t work enough or work at all. Many were/are paid HUGE SS checks because they are collecting the SS benefit of a deceased spouse or former spouse.
In contrast, the majority of boomer women worked FT at least 40 quarters (10 years) and fed into the SS “system” and most worked MUCH more than that. I’ll try to find some links discussing this, but I’ve read that boomer women worked more years over their lives than Gen X women did. One reason is likely due to the fact that boomer women would lose their jobs if they didn’t return to work at 6 weeks post-partum (10 wks for cesarean birth), that is, until the passage of the FLMA in 1993.
I don’t think boomers will be such a “drain” on entitlements. Unlike previous generations (who boomers supported during their prime working years) they actually “earned” their own SS benefits. I don’t think Medicare is going to be around much longer, at least not in the form it is today.
I agree with livinincali that withholding expensive medical treatment for terminal cancer patients who cannot pay for it is good option. It doesn’t even work for patients who CAN pay for it and for that reason, I’m against aggressive cancer treatment for all but the most curable patients or those who are offering themselves for a clinical study (regardless of outcome, to help curable pts down the road). I also think there is a lot of waste in the Medicare/Tricare durable equipment racket. For example, I know several sr citizens (incl relatives) who have very expensive motorized chairs they never use. The list goes on.
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What would members of Gen X/Y think if they contribute all their lives to SS and then find out at the 11th hr (age 65) that their benefits will be drastically reduced or eliminated?
Boomers, in general, worked hard all their lives in much lesser circumstances than younger workers of today and many are still working. They *deserve* to retire.
