By Al Duncan
The U.S. Census Bureau defines the “Baby Boomers” as anyone born in the U.S. between Jan. 1, 1946 and Dec. 31, 1964. According to the U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services, 77 million boomers.
The term Baby Boomer came about when thousands of young men came home from the service and started families after World War II ended in 1945. The result was a significant boom in the birthrate, with more than one million babies born in 1946 and continuing every year until 1964.
AARP states that starting Jan. 1, every single day 10,000 boomers will turn 65 for the next 19 years. That”s 26 percent or one in four of the American population, which makes them the largest population group in U.S. history. The average boomer”s lifespan is estimated at 83 years and four out of five envision working during their retirement years, while only 20 percent plan to stop work and fully retire.
According to Senior Living, an online source, in 1970, when the oldest of the boomers were in their early 20s, the total publicly held national debt was about $283 billion or about 28 percent of the gross domestic product. Today, as the oldest boomers approach 65, the federal debt is an estimated $14.3 trillion or 94.2 percent of the gross domestic product with the national debt increasing at around $4.7 billion a day, each American is burdened with a $45,409.42 steadily increasing debt obligation, of which the younger generations will be repaying for decades.
With the elderly living longer and the cost of health care mounting it”s going to be dreadfully expensive to manage 10,000 retiring boomers per day and this dilemma is compounded, because the majority hasn”t sufficiently saved for retirement and many lost equity in their homes during the recent financial crisis, while others were affected when the plummeting stock market devastated their 401k. In addition, company pension plans across America are under-funded and state and local governments are paying out more in Social Security benefits than they”re taking in.
Three out of four Americans claim Social Security benefits at the eligibility age of 62, and 35 percent of all Americans older than 65 depend entirely Social Security that according to the Congressional Budget Office, will pay out more in benefits than it receives in payroll taxes in 2010. With this avalanche of elderly boomers increasing by the day, the government is in a grave financial dilemma. That explains the insertion of the so-called death panels, which as President Obama accurately said was not in the health care bill, but, in my opinion, was instead in the stimulus package.
In 1950, 16 U.S. workers paid for each retiree”s Social Security benefit. In 2010, only 3.3 U.S. workers pay for each retiree”s Social Security benefit. This is a government Ponzi scheme that makes Bernie Madoff look like a piker; of course Madoff is in prison for life, while our politicians are allowed to continue this Social Security Ponzi scheme until it collapses on the heads of Americans.
It would be unfair to blame the boomers for Social Security”s insolvency, after all they paid into the system with a promise by the U.S. government that upon reaching a given age they”d be able to take advantage of those benefits. No, the blame falls fully on the government officials who have mismanaged the funds.
The 111th Congress has expanded the U.S. national debt more than the first 100 U.S. Congresses combined as 41 cents of every dollar Congress spends is borrowed. In the past three years the U.S. Congress has raised the federal debt ceiling six times, that”s $10,429.64 for each of the 308,745,538 Americans, according to the 2010 U.S. census count.
If you had $1 trillion, you could spend $1 million a day since Jesus Christ was born and you would still have money to spend. You would have to spend $1 every second for the 31,000 years to spend $1 trillion. And the U.S. government will accumulate over $2 trillion in debt in just 2011 alone.
Americans are quick to parrot phrases to protect the environment, but they are inexcusably indifferent to the perpetual debt-slavery that future generations are being obligated to repay. And the corporate media contributes to these offenses by treating bureaucrats as superstars, when in fact, those who have committed these crimes against the future generations of Americans should be sharing a cell with Bernie Madoff.
Al Duncan is a author, businessman and Record-Bee columnist. He can be contacted at alduncan@pacific.net.
