To answer the question "what happens when the baby boomers retire" in the present tense is a bit difficult given the circumstances or our economy at the moment .

Millions of people are unemployed with no guarantee that they will be getting their jobs back in the near future or ever.

Combine that with the headlines that scream at us on a daily basis that Social Security and Medicare will be bankrupted in the very near future leaving millions without their Social Security "benefits" and having to pay for a defunct health care system that was poorly run by the government from the very beginning and now no longer exists as Medicare.

Would you, if you were a "baby boomer" consider retiring ? Absolutly not. "Boomers" will continue to work and pay into these systems until they are allowed to retire and the "crunch" that everyone is anticipated when they retire is averted for the time being.

That could change however if the "boomers" had been wise enough to realize that they could not live out their retired years on what Social Security would pay them and they all invested money into a private bank account ( not stocks). If all did this for many years they could retire when they wanted to and the next generation, our offspring would step in and fill the void left behind by the retirees.

We have a huge pool of young people who have gone to college and are ready to enter the business world. Many will follow in their father and mother's footsteps, others will not but will choose their own course in life. This has been the way America has been successful in passing the torch of liberty onwards.

Once our economic situation has steadied and the idea of increasing globalization has died down to a dull roar, Americans can once again look forward to retiring while almost young enough to enjoy it and hand the keys of success to their children.

There is no need to panic - we don't have to rush thousands of immigrants into the country to fill the spots that our retiring baby boomers leave behind - we have the next generation to fill the empty spaces so relax and concentrste on making our world better now so that our children can take up where we leave off. That's our way - the American way , let's make it happen.

The news we hear now makes it seem that we may never recover . Americans however are known to be strong and when times get tough, the tough get going.

We can turn this around and have a better world for all of us - we just have to make it happen. We wil.

Learn more about this author, Megan O'Brian.
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