Columns

“Boomer” may refer to a place in North Carolina, an adult male kangaroo , several sports personalities, and numerous fictional creations. A baby boomer is someone born during the period of increased birth rates and economic prosperity in many nations following World War II. 

Landon Jones, who coined the term baby boomer in his book, Great Expectations: America and the Baby Boom Generation, defined the span of the baby-boom generation as extending from 1946 to 1964, when annual births declined below 4,000,000. The United States Census Bureau likewise considers a baby boomer someone born during the demographic 1946-1964 birth boom.  

"Other generations see baby boomers as self-absorbed, but hardworking and generous," reports Sharon Jayson. (Asbury Park Press, via Nov. 24, 2010 USA Today.) Characteristics of the generation vary by region, depending on social and economic conditions. The baby boomer term is sometimes also used in a cultural context, generally marked by an increased use and familiarity with communications, media and digital technologies. In most parts of the world its upbringing was marked by an increase in a neoliberal approach to politics and economics. 

Generation next, net generation, or echo boomers describes the demographic cohort following generation X. Generation Y is also known as the millennial generation. As there are no precise dates for the millennial generation, commentators have used birth dates ranging from the mid-1970s to the early 2000s. Members of this generation are called echo boomers, due to the significant increase in birth rates between 1982 and 1995, and because most of them are children of baby boomers.  

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Baby boomers have been in the spotlight for a long time, but now, as the oldest wave of boomers approaches 65, attention once again focuses on the first me generation. Baby boomers are reaching their peak earning years. Many have become empty nesters. The oldest have begun to position themselves for retirement. 26% of the U.S. population, they cluster in scenic places where they have often vacationed – such as coastal Washington and Oregon. 

Forbes labeled baby boomers “the greediest generation.” But when big-spending boomers turned 55, marketeers were less interested in their opinion of new products. Their counsel had been valued by major marketing research firms that crunch consumer preference data. After that 55th birthday, the e-mails asking them to respond to surveys stopped.  

Advertising Age (Nov. 11, 2010) contends that boomers who are their parents’ caregivers use social media the most. A common thread running through all definitions is a blending of web-based technologies and social interaction for creation of value. A key component of successful social media marketing is social authority. It is developed when an individual or organization establishes itself as expert in their given field or area, thereby becoming an influencer . Social media become effective through this process of building social authority—brands, consortiums, consultants, logos, opinions, reviews, specialists, etc. 

In the United States, first-wave baby boomers will become eligible for full Social Security and Medicare benefits next year, initiating a two-decade cost spiral in which government benefit spending is projected to double as a share of G.D.P. (gross domestic product). USA Today refers to a senior boom beginning amid economic bust . 

The U.S. debt reduction commission's initial proposal gives those free-spending baby boomers a virtual pass on financial sacrifice. The co-chairs of the National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform have largely given baby boomers—the generation that created the current fiscal mess—a pass on fixing the problem. "The more you protect the Baby Boomers, the more the relative hit has to fall on younger generations," responds Maya MacGuineas, fiscal policy program director at the centrist New America Foundation in Washington. Boomers may end up shouldering more of the burden to pass a sustainable government to future generations.  

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By 2005, all middle-aged people were baby boomers. They appear to be driving a dramatic rise in suicide rates among middle-aged people. (Public Health Reports) The suicide rate for the U.S. population overall has been declining for decades, and persons aged 40-59, in particular, have long had a moderate suicide rate. The baby boomers have broken that pattern. By 2000, most people aged 40 to 59 were baby boomers, and the suicide rate started climbing steadily for these middle-age ranges. From 1999 to 2005 there were significant increases of more than 2 percent per year for men, and more than 3 percent per year for women. The post-1999 increase has been particularly dramatic for those who are unmarried and those without a college degree.  

According to a new poll, baby boomers are the unhappiest age group when it comes to their sex life, although they think they've learned just about all there is to know on the subject.  

FTD is a term used to describe several little-known disorders that progressively damage the parts of the brain in charge of personality, decision-making and language. Also known as frontotemporal lobar degeneration or Pick's disease, FTD is often confused with Alzheimer's disease. Alzheimer's destroys memory; FTD changes behavior. An easygoing person becomes aggressive; a fun-loving and outgoing person is suddenly passive and withdrawn. But the most alarming difference between FTD and Alzheimer's is the age at which it strikes. Alzheimer's is primarily a disease of the aged. FTD tends to occur between ages 40 and 65 — hence the nickname “baby boomer dementia.” 

Local & International News: 

Councilmember Jesse Arreguin shared with me a November 17^th Berkeley Police Community Crime Alert regarding the “recent rash of robberies in Area 1.” There are at least four senior housing projects and three centers serving senior citizens within this general locale. Be alert. Do not hesitate to report suspicious persons and crimes to the Police (510) 981-5900. Cell phones: use 981-5911 for Berkeley Police. Land lines (“regular” phones:) report emergencies at 911. If you live in an apartment house, do not open the building’s front door or your apartment door to strangers! If you are a senior citizen who suspects that someone may have entered your premises and you have been burglarized, do not hesitate to report this to the Police at once.  

I am haunted by a query I overheard this Thanksgiving Day week – a list of places where a free meal might be available. Several are listed in the “BIN” (Berkeley Information Network, a project of the Berkeley Public Library.) Here are a few (Consult the BIN for details): 

All Souls Episcopal Parish. 2200 Cedar St. 

Berkeley Women’s Resource Center. 2140 Dwight Way 

Beth El Temple. 1301 Oxford St. 

College Avenue Presbyterian Church. 5951 College Ave. 

Trinity United Methodist Church. 2362 Bancroft Way. 

First Presbyterian Church. 2407 Dana. 

Food Not Bombs. 3124 Shattuck. 

McGee Av. Baptist Church. 1640 Stuart St. 

Newman Hall Loaves and Fishes. 2700 Dwight Way. 

South Berkeley Community Church. 1802 Fairview 

St Mark’s Episcopal Church. 2300 Bancroft Way 

St Mary Magdalen Church. 2005 Berryman St. 

St. Paul AME Church. 2024 Ashby Av. 

University Lutheran Chapel. 2425 College AV. 

Effective January 2011, Emeryville Senior Center will require participants to pay an annual membership fee of $10.00, recommended by the Emeryville Commission on Aging and approved by the City Council, with additional fees for trips, Friday Club and some special events. Scholarships provided by the Emeryville Senior Center Advisory Council are available to seniors who require financial assistance (individual income under $851.00, couple under $1141.00.) Questions? Call Recreation Supervisor Brad Helfenberger at (510) 596-3779. Here’s hoping that no other senior centers utilize Emeryville’s measure to justify similar practice! Surely Berkeley’s Commission on Aging and City Council would not endorse comparable action… 

The North Berkeley Senior Center Advisory Council’s October 2010 Minutes refer to $15.00 scholarships towards the $30.00 tuition charged by the Berkeley Adult School for “as many classes as people want to take.” Details were difficult to come by. The Advisory Council president emphasized that they are “for low income” persons, and he urged anyone interested or with questions to contact deputy Center director Faye Combs. The Center’s phone # is (510) 981-5190; Combs’ # is 981-5202. 

Senior centers rely on senior volunteers, especially to teach and lead classes and to be a welcoming accessible presence at the front desk, where the greetings and informational function is so important. The North Berkeley Senior Center volunteer’s desk has been encased within an (expensive) office-type barricade that isolates her/him from the public. It would seem that these funds would have been better expended in numerous other ways. 

88% of Americans say Social Security is more important than ever as a result of today's economic crisis. Nearly half of current Social Security beneficiaries polled said that they would not be able to afford the basics (food, clothing and shelter) without Social Security. Social Security does not contribute to the deficit. 

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has issued new rules for Medicare- and Medicaid-participating hospitals that protect patients’ right to choose their own visitors during a hospital stay. New requirements empower patients to designate their own visitors, including a same-sex domestic partner.  

CMS has also proposed a rule for the 2012 plan year that includes changes to Part C, which covers Medicare private insurance plans also known as Medicare Advantage plans, and Part D, which covers the Medicare prescription drug benefit. The rule covers a broad spectrum of policies for both Part C and Part D, including codifying provisions of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), such as the prescription drug coverage gap (doughnut hole) phase-out.  

Women are 70 percent of the 1.3 billion people living in poverty worldwide. The U.N. Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) was signed by President Jimmy Carter in 1979. 185 countries have ratified CEDAW. The United States is the only industrialized country that has yet to ratify. The other countries that have refused to ratify CEDAW are Iran, Nauru, Palau, Somalia, Sudan, and Tonga.  

Helen Rippier Wheeler can be reached at pen136@dslextreme.com 

No email attachments; use “Senior Power” for subject. 

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