The elderly population in the United States is growing in number as people live longer and as the baby-boom generation reaches old age, and yet this older generation may have a more precarious existence than has been true in recent decades for that population. There has been much rightful concern about the elderly in America in an era in which the extended family no longer holds sway so that the elderly are more often completely on their own. Another concern has been related to the so-called entitlements in the federal budget--Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, and welfare--and the impact a reduction, either by design or because the system is not secure, will have on the elderly. A recent article on the subject of how the younger generations are not preparing for old age shows how much of a problem this can be and how a new attitude is required to create a more secure future.
Richman (1995) describes an economic problem in the making, a problem related to a coming demographic shift, to the economic habits of a generation, and to the political realities of the current political environment and the likely outcome of the political battles now taking place. Those Americans presently in or approaching their 30s and 40s are part of the group known as the baby-boomers, a name given to those born in the years immediately after World War II as the population increased with the return of servicemen from the war. The result was deemed a baby-boom, a bumper crop of new Americans constituting the largest generation in history. This generation has now reached an age where many are thinking about what to do in their retirement years and are considering their finances and whether those finances will be sufficient to carry them through their retirement years. These Americans are part of the current system of Social Security and Medicare and have become concerned by reports that these programs are approaching a point of bankruptcy which w...