The news that every day this year, 10,000 baby boomers will turn 65 is a clarion call.
The message? Boomers are officially old; take care of us.
Gov. John Hickenlooper, the burden falls especially heavily on your shoulders. Boomers make up about a third of Colorado’s population. In Denver, sometimes called the nation’s boomer capital, 35.6 percent of the population is over 45.
What plans are in the pipeline to make our golden years a little more golden than they’ve been in the past decade, when our home equity evaporated, our median household incomes fell by $4,000, and those of us over 55 found we were first to get pink slips and last to get hired?
We may not the Greatest Generation, but we are the Biggest Generation — in numbers as well as in girth, indebtedness and appetite for red meat and Coach bags. But I don’t want to get into a discussion of character. My generation was dealt a certain hand and we did our best. History will be the judge, so no sense gassing about it now.
The point is, don’t underestimate our strength. Everyone knows old people vote; it’s one of the few things we have to look forward to besides the Daily Deal landing in our inbox. Plus, we geriatrics know how to organize, thanks to our grandkids, who taught us social networking and are eagerly standing by to refresh our memories every time we forget how.
In the meantime, I recommend The Economist’s recent report on Japan — aging faster than any country — and how it plans to provide senior care. (Ignore that ridiculous letter to the editor suggesting Japanese children be given the vote to counterbalance the powerful senior lobby sucking the system dry with entitlements.)
The “Me Generation’s” expectations are high. So, governor, don’t think you can dangle Colorado’s measly little senior homestead exemption in front of our noses and think we’ll bite. Weak tea, baby. We’re not called the “pig” in the python for nothing.
A few ideas to prime the pump:
• State-sponsored meals — in nice, upscale restaurants, not the nacho counter at 7-Eleven. We boomers like to eat out. According to the Census, boomers spend $425 billion annually in restaurants ($4,000 per household, $330 monthly). That tops cars, electronics, education, gambling, booze or charity. Governor, you know people in the restaurant business. Pull some strings.
• Close-in parking. Sure, the handicapped should get the spots closest to the door, but after that, a third of the spaces should be reserved for those of us over 55. Call it payback for all the unheated YMCA swimming pools and P.E. classes we endured, all the bicycling and walking we had to do while our parents socialized over highballs and smokes instead of shuttling us to school in climate-controlled minivans, as today’s more devoted parents do.
• State-subsidized medical marijuana. Everyone complains we oldies can’t see. Often, the cause is glaucoma, and marijuana can help lessen its effects. Boomers didn’t discover pot, but we certainly democratized it. So how about some props in the form of free fatties monthly?
• Waivers on airport TSA screenings. Ever heard of a terrorist in Depends? I rest my case.
Lastly, we haven’t been the greatest savers (we “live for today”), and many of us face financial disaster. Economist James Quinn paints this picture: “Based on calculations made by the Federal Reserve, at least 50 percent of Boomers will not have a happy retirement . . . . They will try to subsist in poverty, dependent upon Social Security and part-time Wal-Mart jobs until they die penniless. The top 30 percent will retire to lives of luxury and leisure. The middle 40 percent will muddle through with Social Security payments being the only thing keeping them from an old age in poverty.”
So how about those free gift cards to Shanahan’s?
Mary Winter (mwinte@aol.com) of Denver, a former Rocky Mountain News writer, works for . She writes for the op-ed page twice a month.
