this post was submitted on 12 Jan 2024
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A boomer retirement bomb is about to blow up America's economy (www.businessinsider.com)
submitted 10 months ago by MicroWave@lemmy.world to c/news@lemmy.world
182 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

The great baby-boomer retirement wave is upon us. According to Census Bureau data, 44% of boomers are at retirement age and millions more are soon to join them. By 2030, the largest generation to enter retirement will all be older than 65.

The general assumption is that boomers will have a comfortable retirement. Coasting on their accumulated wealth from three decades as America's dominant economic force, boomers will sail off into their golden years to sip on margaritas on cruises and luxuriate in their well-appointed homes. After all, Federal Reserve data shows that while the 56 million Americans over 65 make up just 17% of the population, they hold more than half of America's wealth — $96.4 trillion.

But there's a flaw in the narrative of a sunny boomer retirement: A lot of older Americans are not set up for their later years. Yes, many members of the generation are loaded, but many more are not. Like every age cohort, there's significant wealth inequality among retirees — and it's gotten worse in the past decade. Despite holding more than half of the nation's wealth, many boomers don't have enough money to cover the costs of long-term care, and 43% of 55- to 64-year-olds had no retirement savings at all in 2022. That year, 30% of people over 65 were economically insecure, meaning they made less than $27,180 for a single person. And since younger boomers are less financially prepared for retirement than their older boomer siblings, the problem is bound to get worse.

As boomers continue to age out of the workforce, it's going to put strain on the healthcare system, government programs, and the economy. That means more young people are going to be financially responsible for their parents, more government spending will be allocated to older folks, and economic growth could slow.

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[–] Maggoty@lemmy.world 99 points 10 months ago (2 children)

No it isn't. That wave should have already hit. The 2010's called and they want their news item back. The real story is why aren't they retiring?

(Because they don't have a retirement)

[–] neptune@dmv.social 29 points 10 months ago (2 children)

I think boomers that have high paying and powerful jobs are working longer than ever because they want to. The other side of the boomer wealth inequality, yes, those ones have to.

[–] FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 29 points 10 months ago (1 children)

In fact, every time I have seen a thread on the topic of boomers working past retirement because they can't afford to retire on Lemmy so far, someone chimes in about how they're in their late 60s and love their job as a [something rarely unpleasant], so they want to keep working.

As if that's the same as someone in their 70s working the fryer at Burger King.

[–] Psychodelic@lemmy.world 4 points 10 months ago (1 children)

I mean, anyone got some data to reference to look at so we can clear the air?

[–] whoisearth@lemmy.ca 18 points 10 months ago (3 children)

I'm 46. When I was in high school we were told "pursue teaching or healthcare because everyone doing it now will be retired".

I didn't pursue either thank god because

  1. They didn't retire
  2. When they did or openings came up they were replaced by low wage immigrants that were willing to get paid less to do the same job with a worse title.
[–] captain_aggravated@sh.itjust.works 10 points 10 months ago

I went into aviation. I've heard that "all the pilots that joined the airlines after 'Nam are gonna retire en masse any minute now and we'll never find enough pilots" lie for 20 years now, and the next mouth I hear that lie come out of is going to rapidly break into small, wet pieces.

[–] Cuttlefish1111@lemmy.world 5 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Don’t you need verified degrees and licenses to do those jobs? I would imagine immigrants picking oranges, never seen one bedside at a hospital or in a child’s school.

[–] whoisearth@lemmy.ca 4 points 10 months ago

Using healthcare in Canada they are often African or Filipino and they aren't hired as nurses because nurses are expensive. We have all new titles at cheaper wages for them.

[–] EssentialCoffee@midwest.social 2 points 10 months ago

What teachers do you know aren't retiring once they qualify for their full pension?

Most folks in that profession are in the GTFO stage.

[–] buddascrayon@lemmy.world 20 points 10 months ago

I think the point is that we are coming up on the moment when those retirees who didn't retire in the 2010's, because they had no money to retire with and can't live on the joke salary of what social security has become, are all about to be forced by nature and an employment structure that's is hungry for younger talent to actually retire. And we have no infrastructure to handle that.