Baby Boomers

While I am in complete agreement with Allen St. Pierre of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws as to the desirability of reducing penalties for marijuana possession, I take issue with his physics ("Advocates for legal marijuana take first steps," March 20). He states that "the fulcrum on all of this [liberalization of marijuana laws] rests on the baby boomers. " I would say, more accurately, that the baby boomers are the fulcrum. We remember, of course, that a fulcrum is a stationary pivot point upon which a lever rests, and against which it exerts force to create movement.

Susan Reimer 's recent column on Social Security Dilemma completely missed the mark ("Don't blame boomers for Social Security dilemma," April 22). Neither Baby Boomers nor the lack of new workers has anything to do with the current Social Security dilemma. The problem lies with Congress and the politicians in Washington. Social Security was originally set up in the 1930s as a "pay as you go" retirement system. Money was collected from workers and supposedly invested and saved for their retirement.

All baby boomers should get tested for hepatitis C, the virus that can lead to liver disease, cancer and death, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention . One in 30 boomers is infected and most don't know -- read about that in this Sun's story on hep C . In making the recommendation, CDC officials believe raising awareness and testing will avert more disease and deaths. It's now the fastest-rising cause of cancer-related deaths and a leading cause of liver transplants.)

When economic times are tough and the daily headlines remind us of our nation's deficit challenge, it's easy to use misinformation and anecdotes of abuse to demonize certain entitlement programs. Unfortunately, this has the unintended effect of stereotyping whole groups of people as lazy, unmotivated or, worse yet, committing intentional fraud. First, it was those living on the edge of poverty and relying on Medicaid for health care and other critical support services who took the hit. Now it's the Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI)

When Alan Shackelford's ankles would swell up, he brushed it off as another sign of getting older — only to find out it was a symptom of something much worse. The 59-year-old Windsor Mill man was shocked when his doctor recently diagnosed him with hepatitis C. Even more disturbing to the IT specialist at Johns Hopkins University was that he had probably been living with the disease for years. "I was completely freaked out that this had happened to me and I probably had this for 35 to 40 years," Shackelford said.

My husband and I have been stashing money in our 401(k)s since they were introduced in the 1980s, but, despite the miracle of compounding interest, he is still convinced we will be working at McDonald's - and eating our only meal of the day off of the steam table there - when we retire. Like most "pre-retirees," we have been paying more attention to our health (weight, diet and exercise), but my husband is still planning to go swimming in shark-infested waters wearing a steak around his neck as soon as he begins to feel knee or hip pain, because there is nothing he dreads more than a long, slow slide into decrepitude.

The road to 40 has been a dizzying ride for baby boomers.George McGovern to George Bush. Free love to monogamy. Non-materialism to yuppiedom. Drug taking to drug testing.Why such radical shifts? Growing up, mostly. As people age, they simply become more conservative. And since the baby-boom generation makes up a third of the population, the slightest shift in its collective values attracts an enormous amount of attention: When a huge number of people experiment with pot or buy BMWs, the nation takes notice.

It's no secret that Americans are in denial when it comes to aging. Sales of Botox are booming, tummy tucks and eyelid lifts are common, and anti-aging creams and gels are multibillion-dollar businesses. So it should come as no surprise that Americans find it difficult to grasp that our population as a whole is maturing, that the median age is slowly climbing upward. This has serious consequences for our economy and our culture, and it also bears on the immigration issue now being debated.

"Near-retirees," as those of us of a certain age are often called, are getting a lot of mixed messages. Fortune magazine reports that companies are hanging onto their baby boomers because they fear a brain drain - a loss of skills and institutional knowledge. In 1985, the magazine says, about 11 percent of people over 65 worked full- or part-time. This year, the figure is more than 18 percent. However, while unemployment among older workers is 6.2 percent, significantly below the national rate of 9.1 percent, it is double what it was three years ago. And the U.S. Government Accountability Office says that those 55 and older who lose their jobs wait an average of three times longer than they did in 2007 - from 11 to 31 weeks - before they find work.

MOST BABY boomers, no matter what their politics, once identified strongly with John F. Kennedy's dictate to "ask not what your country can do for you."Now that they have come into full power in the labor force, business, Congress and the presidency, it is ironic that their legacy could well be a federal government almost solely devoted to meeting their retirement needs, at the expense of other national priorities.This legacy is as firmly rooted in the Republican Congress' budget proposals as it is in the president's or current law.Under all, Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid expenditures would rise from about 40 percent of federal revenues today to almost 80 percent in 50 years.

While I am in complete agreement with Allen St. Pierre of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws as to the desirability of reducing penalties for marijuana possession, I take issue with his physics ("Advocates for legal marijuana take first steps," March 20). He states that "the fulcrum on all of this [liberalization of marijuana laws] rests on the baby boomers. " I would say, more accurately, that the baby boomers are the fulcrum. We remember, of course, that a fulcrum is a stationary pivot point upon which a lever rests, and against which it exerts force to create movement.

After a 36-year career with the Postal Service, Yverne "Pat" Moore says she's living the life she started planning two decades ago, filled with church and community service, grandchildren and a trip to the other side of the world. The recently retired Ellicott City woman is part of a wave of workers who are leaving federal employment as baby boomers age out of the workforce and managers offer buyouts to help reduce spending. Those who have waited for the economy to stabilize are also now exiting.

Aging baby boomers are increasingly turning to testosterone prescriptions in a bid to stay healthy and boost their vitality. But the therapy has some health risks for men. Recently, scientists at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health have been exploring how stem cells can be used to regenerate testosterone in aging men, without their having to resort to testosterone injections. "We're trying to understand whether you can prevent [diminishing testosterone], whether you can reverse that," said Dr. Barry Zirkin, a Hopkins researchers who has co-developed a new way to activate stem cells in the testes that, in turn, form the cells that produce testosterone.

All baby boomers should get tested for hepatitis C, the virus that can lead to liver disease, cancer and death, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention . One in 30 boomers is infected and most don't know -- read about that in this Sun's story on hep C . In making the recommendation, CDC officials believe raising awareness and testing will avert more disease and deaths. It's now the fastest-rising cause of cancer-related deaths and a leading cause of liver transplants.)

I know we have become a nation of such short attention spans and long-term addiction to instant gratification that asking viewers to spend even an hour with a documentary that could change the way they see the world is probably a fool's errand. But this fool is asking -- no begging -- you to see "Hard Times: Lost on Long Island," an HBO documentary premiering at 9 Monday night and repeating throughout the month on HBO and HBO2. I have not seen anything on-air, online or in print that so deftly nails one of the most important and least reported stories of our economic and political lives in this presidential election year.

When Alan Shackelford's ankles would swell up, he brushed it off as another sign of getting older — only to find out it was a symptom of something much worse. The 59-year-old Windsor Mill man was shocked when his doctor recently diagnosed him with hepatitis C. Even more disturbing to the IT specialist at Johns Hopkins University was that he had probably been living with the disease for years. "I was completely freaked out that this had happened to me and I probably had this for 35 to 40 years," Shackelford said.

BABY BOOMERS often complain that they must work harder than their parents did to stay in the middle class. They're right about the long hours -- Americans are working more than at any time since World War II.Today, 20.9 percent of the labor force works more than 49 hours a week, according to the U.S. Labor Department. In 1973, only 15.9 percent of workers logged such long weeks. About 10 million Americans, or 8.7 percent of the work force, clock more than 60 hours a week nowadays.Harried employees resent their long hours and wistfully recall that their fathers were able to support families on 40-hour weeks.

I know we have become a nation of such short attention spans and long-term addiction to instant gratification that asking viewers to spend even an hour with a documentary that could change the way they see the world is probably a fool's errand. But this fool is asking -- no begging -- you to see "Hard Times: Lost on Long Island," an HBO documentary premiering at 9 Monday night and repeating throughout the month on HBO and HBO2. I have not seen anything on-air, online or in print that so deftly nails one of the most important and least reported stories of our economic and political lives in this presidential election year.

The Sun states that the "primary reason the terms of the 1983 compromise [on Social Security] no longer work is demographic - the population is aging and people are living longer" ("Social Security can be fixed," April 26). Actually, even way back in 1983, people understood about demographics. The agreement reached then took full account of aging baby boomers. What it did not anticipate is that a higher and higher proportion of national income would flow to the highest income categories.

During the 1960s, baby boomers were a part of social revolution. Almost a half-century later, they're a part of another social revolution, but this time it's social media, as older generations are turning to sites like Facebook and Twitter in record numbers. More than 800 million people worldwide use Facebook, its founder Mark Zuckerburg announced in September, and nearly half of all Americans have accounts. According to data collected by iStrategyLabs, a social media marketing firm, at the beginning of 2011 there were 15.5 million Facebook users in the United States over the age of 55. That's an increase of nearly 60 percent in just one year, up from 9.7 million users over the age of 55 in 2010.