CHINA - Largest Baby Boom Generation in the World

"The unprecedented aging crisis that's about to hit China" PBS NewsHour 8/1/2016

COMMENT:  I can see the obvious solution for the Communist Party leaders, increase the retirement age.  This temporarily cures both problems.

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SUMMARY:  China has the largest Baby Boom generation in the world.  But now just years away from a mass retirement, that country is headed toward a severe workforce crisis and retirement cost cash crunch.  Due to the country's one-child policy from 1978 until 2015, the younger generation poised to take over is relatively small.  What's the solution?  Judy Woodruff reports in conjunction with the Atlantic.

JUDY WOODRUFF (NewsHour):  In Southeast Asia, tensions continue to simmer as China claims sovereignty over the South China Sea, a busy international trade route.

The United States and China have both beefed up their naval presence there, leading to fears of a military confrontation.  This is just one example of China flexing its military muscle in recent months, and it coincides with a slowdown in the nation's economy.

Writing in “The Atlantic” magazine, journalist Howard French sees a connection between the two, pointing out that, as China's population ages, the country faces a huge demographic problem that will affect all aspects of its economic and military aspirations.

HOWARD FRENCH, The Atlantic:  China has its own Baby Boom generation.  And China's baby boom generation, because of the size of China itself, is the world's largest baby boom generation.

JUDY WOODRUFF:  Howard French, a former Shanghai bureau chief for The New York Times, has written extensively about China, and he's photographed its people.

HOWARD FRENCH:  This baby boom generation in China will start to hit retirement age in the very next few years, let's say by the end of this decade.

And, at that moment, extraordinary numbers of Chinese people will exit the work force, and the Chinese work force, which has already begun to shrink, will shrink in a vastly accelerated way.  And so China's going to face huge retirement costs and Social Security costs, health care costs, related to this immense aging of the population.

JUDY WOODRUFF:  What are the implications for China as a country and for the Chinese economy?

HOWARD FRENCH:  China will have the biggest aging crisis that the world has ever seen over the next generation, and this happens at a time when Chinese ambitions, geopolitically speaking, are expanding.

And at some point, these two phenomena will collide, and very tough decisions will have to be made about guns vs. canes.  In other words, how much can we afford to invest in our geopolitical ambitions, vs. how much must we invest in terms of supporting our population?

MILLENNIALS - Student Debt to Retirement

"Between student debt and part-time work, what Millennials should do now to save for retirement" PBS Newshour 3/17/2015

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SUMMARY:  As Baby Boomers approach retirement, the Millennial generation is getting its foothold in the workforce, and facing financial challenges making it hard to save for later years.  Judy Woodruff talks to Jen Mishory of Young Invincibles and David John of AARP about the different factors that have shaped each generation’s saving habits and how young Americans can meet their retirement goals.

JUDY WOODRUFF (NewsHour):  This year, millennials, the group roughly 18 to 34 years old, will overtake baby boomers as the largest living generation in the country.  And even at the dawn of their careers, it turns out they are more worried about retirement than previous generations.  And perhaps they should be.

Here to help fill in the picture, Jen Mishory. She is executive director of Young Invincibles.  It’s a research and advocacy group for young adults.  And David John, he’s a senior policy adviser with AARP.  He also works on retirement issues at the Brookings Institution.

And we welcome both of you to the NewsHour.

DAVID JOHN, AARP:  Thank you.

JEN MISHORY, Young Invincibles:  Thanks so much for having us.

JUDY WOODRUFF:  So we know today the average retirement age for men is 64.  For women, it’s 62.  And we also know that studies are showing that most millennials expect to retire, they say, by age 65, but they plan to keep on working while they’re in retirement.

Jen Mishory, how much are they thinking about retirement, this generation?

JEN MISHORY:  Yes, absolutely.

Young people are thinking about retirement today.  When young people, for example, have access to a retirement account, they are actually saving at relatively consistent rates.  The problem is we’re actually not seeing young people accessing things like retirement accounts at the same rate.

So only about half of workers have access to that kind of traditional retirement account.  Young people, 25 percent of young people are part-time workers, so you’re seeing just fewer and fewer young workers having access to those kinds of mechanisms to actually save and at the same time struggling with things like student debt, struggling coming out of this recession.

So we’re looking at a problem also around wealth accumulation.

RETIREMENT - Senior Commuities Associated With Colleges

"Why more seniors are going back to college — to retire" PBS NewsHour 5/14/2014

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JUDY WOODRUFF (NewsHour):  ..... Many Americans have strong and nostalgic ties to their colleges and universities.  Some of those institutions are reviving those relationships by developing retirement communities for former students and others.

NewsHour special correspondent Spencer Michels reports on one such development, and its residents.  It’s part of our Taking Care series.

SPENCER MICHELS (NewsHour):  Have you been stung?

RAY GOLDWIRE, Resident, Oak Hammock:  Many times.

SPENCER MICHELS:  Oh, really?

RAY GOLDWIRE:  Yes, and the thing about getting stung, you really sort of get immune to it after a while.

SPENCER MICHELS:  Ten years ago, when he was 69, Ray Goldwire and his wife, Ann, moved into a new retirement home in Gainesville, Florida, north of Orlando, and a few years later he began a new hobby: beekeeping.

RAY GOLDWIRE:  It’s entirely different from anything I have ever done before, just like I started singing in the chorus this year, because I have never sung before.

SPENCER MICHELS:  The Goldwires chose a place to live that they hoped would keep them stimulated in their retirement years.  They live with about 400 other residents at Oak Hammock.  It’s affiliated with, and close to, the University of Florida Ray Goldwire’s alma mater.

And it’s a far cry from their first try at retirement living.

BABY BOOMERS - Learn From 'Golden Girls' TV Show

"Taking cues from ‘Golden Girls,’ more single baby boomers are building a future together" PBS NewsHour 4/16/2014

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GWEN IFILL (NewsHour):  It’s not uncommon for young adults to live with roommates in order to offset the high cost of housing.  But with one out of every three baby boomers now single and approaching retirement, some of them are returning to the communal living of their youth to ease the burdens of their golden years.

Special correspondent Spencer Michels reports for our Taking Care series.

WOMAN:  I thought maybe we would use the plastic ones for them.

SPENCER MICHELS (NewsHour):  Karen Bush and Louise Machinist like to plan together, everything from dinner parties to the breakdown of chores at their new condo in Sarasota, Florida, to projects at the shown they share with Jean McQuillin in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

WOMAN:  I will be hope April 4. And I will probably be there most of that upcoming week, so if there are things that I need to do…

SPENCER MICHELS:  The longtime friends now in their 60s have been coordinating their lives like this for the past 10 years.  Before that, like a growing number of female baby boomers, all three were divorced, living alone and unsatisfied with the size of their savings accounts as they neared retirement.

WOMAN:  Let’s tell the real story.  She cooks.  I do the dishes.

SPENCER MICHELS:  Combining resources, they decided, would make life cheaper, easier, and more fun.  Their relationship was easy to describe from the start.

HEALTH INSURANCE EXCHANGES - What Can Older Americans Expect? (Series Part 6)

"What Kinds of Changes Can Older Americans Expect Under Health Reform?" PBS Newshour 9/26/2013

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SUMMARY:  How does the Affordable Care Act alter Medicare or other insurance coverage for older Americans?  Mary Agnes Carey of Kaiser Health News joins Ray Suarez to answer some of your most frequently asked questions.

AMERICA - "Old" People Driving

"In 'Old People Driving,' Handing Over the Keys Means the End of the Road"
PBS Newshour 8/25/2011


Old People Driving film page.