What are us baby boomers in for ? your opinions please !

by caliber 26 Replies latest jw friends

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  Razziel

  I think the baby boomers will have it better than the next few generations that age after them. Economic growth at it's core is based on population growth (# of consumers), which in turn drives job growth and a skilled labor force. With the retirement of the boomers from the workforce, we are left with a contraction in both general workforce population, and in those with highly specialized skills in the US for the immediate future.

  This is already a problem in many specialized engineering and technical industries. There are many unfilled job openings because there are no qualified candidates, and the liability is too high to hire those who are not qualified through either many years experience or PhD level education. I know many engineers (not managers, just regular senior design engineers) who are still working in their 70's and 80's, not because they have to, but because no one is qualified to take their place, so companies are offering generous compensation to work them well past retirement age.

  The demand for highly specialized skills will increase and drive wages for those jobs higher (which we will probably fill with educated foreigners), while the majority of the unskilled domestic workforce will have to compete for a decreasing number of service and retail oriented jobs due to the contraction in consumer demand.

  US economic growth has been helped by emerging global markets, but the double-digit growth rate of many of those economies (i.e. china & india) has cooled off in the past few years and will approach a more sustainable and terminal growth rate in the coming years. This will be partially offset as other Asian and African countries come out of third world conditions, but they just don't have the population (i.e. consumers) that China and India did.

  This may eventually correct itself without some form of global turmoil, but probably not before a couple of decades of stagnant or slightly declining economic growth.

  I personally think we're headed down the same road as the Roman Empire. The middle class was fleeced until it eventually fragmented. The financial divide between the Patricians and the Plebs became so great, that the Patricians could basically subsidize the existence of the Plebs, i.e. a welfare state.

  Call me crazy, but though the players and technology has changed, I think we just repeat history.
• 

  BizzyBee

  >>I personally think we're headed down the same road as the Roman Empire. The middle class was fleeced until it eventually fragmented. The financial divide between the Patricians and the Plebs became so great, that the >>Patricians could basically subsidize the existence of the Plebs, i.e. a welfare state.

  >>Call me crazy, but though the players and technology has changed, I think we just repeat history.

  I agree. Much could be said about why, but to confine it to the future of baby boomers -

  if you have invested intelligently (whatever that means), the next 20 - 30 years can be very enjoyable. The downside is having a ringside seat to the demise of the US middle class - a generation removed, but which may include your children and grandchildren. I expect to financially help the subsequent Bee generations, even while we (the Baby Boomer generation) still enjoy the perks of retirement - travel, leisure, and freedom from financial worry. I don't think the implosion - the reckoning - will occur until long after I'm gone. We (the Bees) are putting into place now, safeguards that will protect the grandchildren as best we can. Not everyone has that luxury. And it may well not be enough.
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  botchtowersociety

  What are us baby boomers in for ? your opinions please !

  An astonishingly pleasant surprise. But it follows a collapse. The world will be changed. The solutions of the past will no longer work. New ones will be crafted in the midst of a crisis. The old ones, from a past crisis, will be discarded as no longer workable in a changed world. The boomers, born between the crises resolved pastly by their ancestors and futurely by their descendants, will live long enough to see it all.
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  Razziel

  if you have invested intelligently (whatever that means)

  The first investment book I read about a decade ago, was coincidentally, called The Intelligent Investor, by Benjamin Graham, published in 1949. I recommend it for anyone who wants to learn about investing. That was followed by his (and David Dodd's) book Security Analysis, published even earlier, which teaches among other things how to read a company balance sheet and income statement. That was followed by some of Peter Lynch's investment books, which reinforces with documented examples many of the key points found in Graham's Intelligent Investor.
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  exwhyzee

  You rarely hear anyone talking about the future with a gleeming forecast. When one looks too far into the future it is always fraught with worry and unknown danger. When they used to beleive that the earth was flat, they feared that if you sailed too close to it's edge you would fall off and be eaten by sea monsters. They could have just as easily beleived that magic fairies would be there at the edge of the world to grant you three wishes, but it was far more realistic and accurate to believe in scary sea monsters instead.

  I expect the future will be the same as it has been for every other generation that went before us. There will be the same basic problems only with a new moderen twist and there will be new solutions or ways of coping as there always has been. There will be losses and gains. ie : We now have the advantages of highspeed information today but we've lost a lot of privacy and we sometimes know too much too soon yet we'd never go back to how it used to be.

  There will be those who face the future with the same grace and dignity as they always have and there will be those who whine kick,scream, worry and complain no matter what anyone does for them or how well things are going.
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  Razziel

  The ebbs and flows of society within history are longer than a few years or even a single generation. The general trend for civilization in recorded history is up. But within that trend there are peaks and valleys that may span up to several generations. There are periods of peace and stability that have lasted for hundreds of years (like the Pax Romana). Then there are entire centuries plagued by wars, famine, and plague.

  We have lived in relative stability since WW2. Perhaps that will go on. Perhaps that will not. But it's been less than 70 years since WW2. The period of stability and prosperity that we've experienced since then is still short compared to similar periods in history, but it's long enough for us to forget many of the lessons we've learned.

  A fundamental mistake every generation makes in youth is to say "we are different", "we are special". Maybe we are. But history shows that when something rocks the boat, "civilization" can degenerate very quickly into base survival instincts, which are not pretty.

  Humanity is perpetually marching towards something better, but I think it's a mistake to take comfort too deeply in the facades of comfort and stability we build for ourselves. Fundamentally, we are still animals, and it takes less than most people imagine for that part of our lineage to reassert itself.
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  Aussie Oz

  We baby boomers have no idea, and neither does anybody else frankly. It is all speculation.

  It does not matter either.

  What matters is the attitude we face each day with. That is the only thing we can control and the only thing that will help us deal with whatever the future brings.

  Oz
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  darthfader

  Aussie Oz, Great advice! I find that once I get my attitude in check, I make better personal AND financial decisions.

  Cheers Mate!
• 

  slimboyfat

  What are us baby boomers in for ? your opinions please !

  An astonishingly pleasant surprise. But it follows a collapse. The world will be changed. The solutions of the past will no longer work. New ones will be crafted in the midst of a crisis. The old ones, from a past crisis, will be discarded as no longer workable in a changed world. The boomers, born between the crises resolved pastly by their ancestors and futurely by their descendants, will live long enough to see it all.

  Where's this coming from? Are we talking about communist revolution?
• 

  panhandlegirl

  Humanity is perpetually marching towards something better, but I think it's a mistake to take comfort too deeply in the facades of comfort and stability we build for ourselves. Fundamentally, we are still animals, and it takes less than most people imagine for that part of our lineage to reassert itself.

  Razziel, you are so right. I was recently a passenger on a plane that had machanical problems. We never left the gate but were in the plane between 1-2 hours when they finally told us they were going to get another plane. It did not take long for people to get irritated and ansy. This is just a minor example. Thank goodness we were not on the tarmac!