Geronto-More is not a misspelling of a famous American Indian warrior, but it is a creative term meant to represent the fact that more and more Americans are living longer and causing a tremendous increase in the interest of Gerontology. Longevity centers will become the new communes of the 21st century.
Between 2010 and 2030 there will be more healthier, wealthier and wiser senior citizens in America than there have ever been in the history of our country. The writings on the geriatric wall may have very well been mistaken for graffiti. Longevity has become major concern and probably one of the leading issues of interest of our social Goliath (The Baby Boomer Generation).
Within a half of a decade after the passage of the Social Security Act in 1935, only 14 scholars in the U.S. chose Gerontology as the subject of their doctoral dissertations. In the 40 years between 1935 and 1975, only 337 academics pursued the subject of human aging in America. However, within recent years there are more than 2,000 studies being made of aging, making gerontology one of the fastest growing areas of study in academics. Longevity centers are sprouting up like wild mushrooms, creating a booming business in our economy. In the past 75 years life expectancy has risen by 30 years, launching a major impact on the future of senior welfare. In recent years the rise in longevity has transformed the use-to-be small group of old people receiving support from a large pool of young workers into a huge mass of long-lived retirees who are being supported by a steadily shrinking population of young workers. If you retired in 1935, there were more than 40 workers contributing to your pension; by 1950 there were 17. If you retired in 1990, the support ratio fell drastically to 3.4 to one. According to Richard Rahn, Chief economist of the U.S. chamber of commerce, when the crest of the boomers reaches retirement in 2020, the support ratio will be a scant 1.78 to one. If the Social Security system continues as is, each working couple will in addition to supporting themselves and their family, will have to supply the entire social security income for one retired person throughout their working lives. When President Roosevelt designed the social security system, it was based upon a life expectancy stabilizing at 63 years of age. With this chronological design factor the average beneficiary wasn’t expected to live but a few years after the age of 65. Early death after retirement would assure the social security system not only of a stable financial foundation, but a sizable surplus for future miscellaneous monies. Longevity was never a conceivable factor in the design of the social security system for the future. So like a pig through a python, the boomers are getting ready to take their massive generation through the social security system. Can the social security system handle constipation? You be the judge!
Approximately one third of all Americans (76 million) were born between 1946 and 1964. This tribe, eight digits strong in its number, known as The Baby Boomer generation, has been moving through our social system like a pig through a python. This generational mass has dominated American culture for more than four decades. At each stage of their lives the needs and desires of the Baby Boomers have become the dominant concerns of American business and popular culture. The diaper industry bore a sunshine grin when the Baby Boomers made their social debut, and the diaper business prospered enormously. Baby clothing demands forced Singer to make more sewing machines, supporting the rise in clothing factories. When their crawls turned into steps, the shoe business took off like a rocket. In the forties the baby food industry was producing a little less than 300 million jars of baby food annually. By 1953 boomers were swallowing 1.5 billion jars of strained meals a year. Injuries, colds, flu viruses, fevers and other child related illnesses created a massive pediatric medical establishment. When the boomer quake struck the school system in the mid and late 1950’s, schools had to go into double sessions to accommodate the rush. More elementary schools were built in 1957 than in any other year in the history of our education system. The textbook, desk and school furniture industry got their share of the pie. As the boomers became teenagers, the bulge in the school system moved up through the grades. Between 1950 and 1975 the high school population doubled. This trend caused more high schools to be built in America in 1967 than in any year before or since. As teenagers, boomers became the leading consumers, buying up unprecedented quantities of merchandise and fast foods. In 1964 alone, teenagers spent more than $12 billion, and their parents spent another $13 billion on them. The boomers fast food appetites made multimillionaires out of the founders of McDonalds, Kentucky Fried Chicken and Jack in the Box. These franchise chains enjoyed a year after year 20 percent in annual growth. When boomers arrived at the door steps of colleges and universities, the student population rose from 3.2 million in 1965 to nine million in 1975, creating the opening of 743 new colleges. When marijuana popularized the cultural scene, the U.S. tobacco company's profits from zigzag roll-your-own cigarette papers, rose by 25 percent every year for 10 consecutive years. The Gap, a store that catered their jeans and clothing toward boomers was founded in 1969 on an investment of only $60,000. Its sales were $600,000 in the first year, and within seven years it had grown to a 165-store chain with $99 million in sales.
Advanced education delivered a massive dose of enlightenment, causing a heightened awareness of the conditions of national and international affairs. The Vietnam War and social unrest sparked protest and rebellion on campuses all across the nation. Rebellion from youth was no new social disturbance. It was common to all generations in their late teens and early twenties. But when 76 million youth are rebelling at the same time it’'s a revolution. This moment in American history gave trend watchers a warning, a future forecast and a dynamic lesson on what to expect when the boomers arrive at their prime of power (political, social and economical dominance). Out of the seventeen or so generations that make up the history of America, from the Puritans down to the so-called X and Y generations, the boomers are the most superior of all generations in number, wealth, education, technology and in cultural and political influence. Unfortunately they are the most narcissistic of all the generations. This selfish and ruthless characteristic nature is about to trigger an inter generational crisis that will force an overwhelming burden of economic stress upon the so-called X and Y generations.
Retirement will no longer mean leaving the work force and making room for young employees. Retirement will mean drawing benefits from one company while the retiree takes his wisdom, knowledge, and maturity and labor skills to a lesser paying job. The added incomes of retirement benefits and social security payments will make the senior citizen a more financially secure employee with minimum wages than the younger employee. This situation makes the senior citizen a more desirable employee in the mind of the minimum wage employer. Boomers will not relinquish their positions of political power at the age of 65 as their parents before them. With a 30-year addition to life expectancy, they will hold the rein of power well into their 70’s and early 80’s. Boomers did not leave behind a mass population of rising youths as their parents did. In fact they are having lesser children in later years than any other generation in history, with 20 percent of the boomer population declining to have any children whatsoever. The Population Reference Bureau, a nonprofit demographic study group in Washington, D.C., predicted that by 2025 Americans over the age of 65 will out number teenagers by more than two to one. As a result of the decline in the birth rate there are more adults than teenagers for the first time in decades. This dynamic shift in teen-adult ratio spells political might in favor of policies that satisfy the vested interest of the adult boomer generation. Inter generational strife will spark when the health care and social security systems impose an unfair burden on the following generations, wedging them further into poverty. Over thirty percent of the annual federal budget now goes to expenditures on people over the age of 65. When the boomers arrive in the senior citizen class in their Goliath form, all hell will break loose on the federal budget, tightening the noose around the wallets of young tax payers.
The inter generational crisis will continue its turbulence as the Goliath tribe heavily tilts the ratio scale of labor time to leisure time. According to the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company, by the year 1900 people spent 24 percent of all the hours of their lives working. During the past century the amount of time we spend has dropped almost half. Recently the average American works less than 14 percent of the hours he or she lives. During this period the average workweek dropped from 70 to 37 hours. Weekends and evenings became private property – time off. Vacation became common up to four weeks with paid time off. Holidays multiplied and attached themselves to weekends. For the typical full time worker, the year’s 365 days came to include 104 weekend days, 10 sick days and 10 days of vacation, adding up to 135 days outside of work. Leisure, once a rare commodity enjoyed only by the affluent elite, has become commonplace in American society. This commodity is not only well affordable by the average boomer, but it is a sought after commodity that will be heavily favored over hard labor in the coming new millennium. After a third of the American population decides they would rather fish, bowl, golf, travel or play bingo rather than labor strenuously, the work force will be pressured to create equilibrium by any means necessary, in order to maintain the drive of the economy. Will the needs of the economy and the shortage of X and Y generations labor force and productivity promote and justify the employment of robotic science? You be the judge! Count your blessings young America; you just might be presently enjoying the last period of calm before the storm. This inter generation storm brought on by the Goliath Tribe (The Baby Boomers), is not a prediction of surmise, but a calculated inevitability.
Young America, tomorrow belongs to you. Therefore, you owe it to yourselves and your love ones to be (children), to take charge of your future now. Start preparing, get informed, obtain the proper tools (skills), qualify yourselves (education) and be in demand (intelligent productive citizen).
The Internet has invaded your culture as a technological dictator. The way in which you live is being altered at an alarming speed, all without your consent and definitely without your concerns. Telecommunications have created a global community where time and distance are no longer long-term obstacles of trade or communication. In other words your global neighbor is no longer three months away by ship. Now its your hand on the mouse, point the cursor, select, click - click, enter and affirm, and you can buy, trade, sell or communicate from one end of the globe to the other before a round trip can be made to the bathroom. Industry and agriculture are being shifted to their most economical locations geographically in order to make room for the Information Age to transform and dominate the way we do business in American society. The engine of wealth is so technologically orientated that lack of a technological education most likely means a one-way ticket to poverty and all of its side effects for youth. Technology is forcing the middle class of our society to diminish, enforcing an ultimatum of "Get rich or Get lost." Computer literacy is not only mandatory it is a major factor in determining which club you belong in – The Have Club or The Have-Not Club. Minimum wage won't pay your ticket into the future with an enjoyable lifestyle. The cost of living has no sympathy for $6.75 an hour. A standard of living for a single young adult entering society is already at $25,000 a year. Add a cost of living increase of 8 to 12 percent annually and you can easily calculate what it will take for you to earn a standard of living when it is your turn to step foot out into this cruel and cold blooded asphalt jungle we call society.
Assuming you have a few more years at home before you make the big leap into independency, take this advice seriously and dear at heart. Form a respectable and devoted partnership with your parent or parents, a relationship that recognize them as your investors. Start respecting their initial investments – food, clothing and shelter, and all the other nice things they do for you that cost them a considerable amount of time, love and money. Take the responsibility of your side of the partnership by doing the things at home that your parents do not have the time to do (chores). This expression should get a definite response from your parent(s), forming a positive attitude from them toward you. A positive attitude in expression toward you should result in greater freedom of expression. Get your parent’s undivided attention and make them aware of your desire to study and learn technology. Now convince your parent(s) to invest in a home computer, printer and Internet services, all of which can be arranged for a cost of $80 to $100 a month in payments. Keeping in mind that you are a partner, make plans to support the payments by contributing your allowance or getting a part-time job. Choose a field of technology and investigate the availability of its knowledge on software or on the Internet. Research for companies in your area that operates within your field of desired technology. Select a particular company. Write a letter to the company's management department and address it to "To Whom It May Concern." Ask for a tour of the company's operation and a possible interview with a technician. In your letter, place emphasis on the fact that you are working on a school project involving ambition and a future vocation. In the event that your visit to a company is successful, build a rapport with the technician and seek his or her consultation on your approach to becoming a technician yourself.
If however, this scenario exceeds your computer skills, start from scratch by learning the basics of the computer, such as typing and word processing. With dedication and determination, along with a commitment toward obtaining a technological education, your computer skills should advance rapidly.
Because your investors (parent or parents) are taking care of your survival needs, the affordability of time to pursue your technological education might be your greatest opportunity. Parents can be one of your best assets toward a very bright and rewarding future. Therefore, it is extremely important to invest quality love, time and support in both of your relationships as partners and as parent-child.