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Part 4: American Solutions; Boomers, A Special Interest and We Don’t Know It

by John on 07/11/2016

babyboomersThis is part 4 of 4 on American Solutions: Baby Boomers like me are more of the problem than the solution.  And it will only get worse if we don’t think and act.

Let’s talk about the biggest special interest of all. The baby boomers.

I can easily talk about this because I am one of them.

Here’s the underlying fact that nobody pays attention to: Medicare recipients have only paid in 1/3 of what they will use in medical bills in their lifetime.

Who pays the other 2/3? Taxpayers; younger taxpayers who have less job and income opportunity thanks to our aging society and technology that is eliminating jobs.

I try to explain this to seniors who seem to think they deserve their Medicare because they paid into it for the last 30 or 40 years.

Granted, they have paid it. But they failed to keep tabs on lawmakers who gave them false information over the last 30 years.

So, Boomers can now just stand there and say, “It’s not my fault.”  When I said that to my father, I was in a lot of trouble.

So how should baby boomers react to this without denying the inevitable math?  With common sense and knowledge.

The first solution is to get or remain healthy. That means prevention; exercise; eat right; reduce stress; get lots of sleep; take Vitamin D.  If you do that, you can hold off on taking Medicare until you are 70 years old.

If we increase the eligibility age, then we will be saving a lot of money while reducing federal debt.  Hopefully, we will be creating healthier people too.

The other thing that needs to be done is we need to raise the salary limit on contributions to Medicare. Everyone pays on all of their salary/income.

Does this require sacrifice from baby boomers and retirees? Yes. Big sacrifice from the group of people called The Me Generation.

But we baby boomers should also require sacrifice from any other sectors.

Notice no politicians are suggesting these solutions.  Why?  The answer is simple. Baby boomers vote.

Until baby boomers acknowledge that we are a big part of the problem, then politicians will not address this.

Looking ahead as we Baby Boomers lose our lead in population, the youngsters of today might not be as kind and gentle to us.  Maybe Sarah Palin was right about “death panels.”

Instead, thanks to our media/entertainment culture, we choose a president based on who we would like to talk to at a barbecue.

We also choose a candidate based on our personal fears and needs and not on creating a better nation.

This is actually pretty simple stuff – if we all pitch in and think alike.

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