Commentary: Dire Forecasts for Boomers Overstated

Julie Kosterlitz and Marilyn Werber Serafini, staff correspondents at National Journal, have opined in an article is based on a recent item in that magazine that "the graying of America may not be the fiscal disaster that the deficit hawks project. The nation may age a good deal more gracefully than advertised, thanks to American ingenuity, adaptability and an increasingly hardy group of elderly." With respect to working life, they say that baby boomers are likely to work longer than preceding cohorts and that a decades-long trend toward earlier exit from the workforce appears to have ended.

Already, some private and government programs are encouraging this trend. The Civic Ventures think tank, which hopes to inspire a movement for paid and unpaid "second careers" in social action, is planning to offer five $100,000 awards in June to people over 60 who devise new ways to tackle social problems. The seniors' group AARP is collaborating with about two dozen companies to connect Americans over 50 with jobs. IBM recently started encouraging senior workers to become math and science teachers, offering them tuition and stipends while they student teach or mentor students online.

Source: "Hold off on the boom-and-doom talk" Los Angeles Times (Janauary 16, 2006)