Baby Boomers

The Star Tribune (2-3-2013), Sunday edition, published a pair of articles that seem inconsistent in message delivered. The article in the travel section boasts that baby boomers set the trends for travel as the travel industry caters to the needs and wants of America's wealthiest generation. Then the paper laments on Page 1 that the current recession is a killer for at least some boomers. What is right? Probably a little of both. My concern today pertains to the boomers that have been hurt by the recession. Some are disabled. Some have not saved enough for retirement. Some have inadequate savings with low yields. Some are supporting elderly parents and middle aged children that have moved home, down on their luck. Incomes are not keeping pace with inflation. The values of real estate have truly declined. What should be done? Should boomers receive more and earlier benefits from Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, where applicable? Absolutely not. We are the children and grandchildren of the great generation that went through the Great Depression and World War II. We can and will privately figure out a way to survive and perhaps thrive. We must be heroic men and women who demand that the buck stops here. We will do without, or with less. We will work until we are 70, 75 or later to help the coming generations. We demand that the government balance its books now (at the expense of entitlement and other programs) and pay off old debt so our grandchildren start with a clean financial slate. If grandma up the block is forced out of her home because she cannot pay the taxes, maybe we on the block take up a collection to pay her taxes, or offer her cheap rent, so she can rent a room in the basement with us so she has a place to go, and people to watch over her. America is the greatest country the world has ever seen, and financially struggling boomers will not and must not become wards of the sinking government ship as the only option out there.