Baby boomers a 'wasteful generation': ageing summit
Posted 11 hours 10 minutes ago
A two-day summit on the ageing population in New South Wales has been told reform is needed to deal with the huge number of older people expected by the year 2030.
NSW Premier Morris Iemma told the summit that in a decade's time there will be more people over the age of 65 than under 14.
Population forecaster Phil Ruthven also addressed the summit, saying the baby boomer generation has been wasteful.
"Probably only about one third of baby boomers have saved or invested enough to retire on a comfortable income," he said.
"The other two thirds are going to be dependent on some of welfare, pensions and certainly health care services."
Boomer Dream Homes
Tuesday, October 30, 2007
Microsoft, Miami Offer Seniors Free Computer Training, Customized PCs
Microsoft, Miami Offer Seniors Free Computer Training, Customized PCs
New technology packages from Microsoft, tailored to seniors, complement training at neighborhood senior centers in Miami.
October 29, 2007: 12:00 PM EST
MIAMI, Oct. 29 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Microsoft Corp. and the City of Miami -- both leaders in digital inclusion -- today announced eSeniors, a public-private partnership that will provide free computer training and the opportunity to purchase customized technology packages to Miami seniors at learning hubs located in neighborhood senior centers throughout the city.
(Logo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20000822/MSFTLOGO)
"eSeniors aims to provide Miami seniors with technology tools and training that can empower them to improve their quality of life, simplify many everyday tasks, access community and government services more easily, and participate fully in our increasingly digital society," said Miami Mayor Manny Diaz.
The eSeniors program is part of ELEVATE Miami, a broad initiative designed to enable all Miami residents to participate and compete in the digital economy. For eSeniors, the City of Miami is providing free training and computer access at senior centers, using recycled computers equipped with the Windows XP operating system, the Microsoft Office system and Microsoft Encarta. In June 2007, Mayor Diaz received the prestigious City Livability Award from the U.S. Conference of Mayors in recognition of ELEVATE Miami's comprehensive and innovative approach to the reduction of poverty, which includes digital inclusion as one of its four cornerstones.
"As personal computers and the Internet become increasingly important in our society, many seniors are being left out, not because of too little interest but because of too little access and too few opportunities to learn the necessary skills," said Rob Sinclair, director of the Accessibility Business Unit at Microsoft. "Miami is providing a model for other cities to follow by making it easy for seniors to get the tools and training they need to gain full membership in today's digital lifestyle."
New Senior PC Technology Packages Available Online
As part of the eSeniors initiative, Microsoft is releasing several technology packages tailored to the needs and interests of seniors. The new technology packages are available to seniors who want to purchase a computer of their own, or to adult children who may want to buy a computer for their parents.
People can choose either a desktop or notebook HP computer running Windows Vista and Microsoft productivity software geared toward seniors. In addition, the senior PC packages come with a color printer and software applications designed to help seniors manage their household tasks, keep track of their prescriptions, and sharpen memory with games. Seniors can also choose a larger keyboard or trackball mouse for easier typing and mouse pointing. One package, available only in a desktop model, includes the Spanish-language version of Windows Vista.
All the technology packages can be purchased online at http://www.microsoft.com/enable/aging/seniorpc.aspx. To make the technology packages more affordable, any Miami senior who completes the city's training program will receive a voucher to help offset the cost of purchasing a computer for his or her home.
Microsoft and City of Miami Partnership Empowers Seniors
For Microsoft and Miami, the new eSeniors program is an extension of longstanding commitments to digital inclusion and service to seniors, and their shared belief that technology can serve as an equalizer for people of all ages, removing workplace barriers and increasing employment opportunities while reducing social isolation.
"Gaining new technology skills and access to accessible technology will give many seniors a wider range of social and economic opportunities, enabling them to change careers, work part-time, stay employed longer, and expand their ability to contribute to their communities through volunteering," said Lori Parham, Florida state director for AARP. "By bringing seniors into the digital age, Microsoft and Miami are empowering them with more choices about how they live their lives."
In addition to being part of ELEVATE Miami, eSeniors is an extension of the successful eParks program that began in 2004 and now offers technology training and computer access to children, their parents and other Miami residents at 27 city parks. To reach seniors more effectively, the city decided to set up similar learning hubs in senior centers, starting with two centers to establish the model, and expanding to 10 senior centers by early 2008.
"Mayor Diaz and the Miami city commissioners have shown tremendous vision in reaching beyond traditional strategies to find creative ways to help the people of Miami participate in the digital age," Sinclair said. "Microsoft is proud to partner with the City of Miami on providing seniors with new opportunities, and we look forward to working on similar initiatives with other U.S. cities."
City of Miami
Elevate Miami is a program that prepares all residents of Miami for a leadership position in the global economy, creating unparalleled areas of opportunity by establishing public and private partnerships which facilitate access to affordable technology, including mobile and low-cost internet access, and therefore enhancing the quality of life for all Miamians. ELEVATE MIAMI seeks to reach this goal through a multi-faceted approach that incorporates the following: eParks -- equips 27 City of Miami parks with 264 computers and offers open lab hours available to all residents; eSenior Centers -- equips senior centers with computers and offers computer literacy training to the elderly (currently available in 2 senior centers with 142 seniors attending training); Education Compact -- creates a Curriculum for all sixth graders which integrates technology and life experiences. If students meet the expectations of the program, they will earn a computer.
About Unlimited Potential
Microsoft Unlimited Potential expands and accelerates Microsoft's commitment to facilitate sustained social and economic opportunity for the more than 5 billion people living in every country around the world who do not today benefit from technology. More information about Unlimited Potential is available at http://www.microsoft.com/unlimitedpotential.
About Microsoft
Founded in 1975, Microsoft is the worldwide leader in software, services and solutions that help people and businesses realize their full potential.
For more information about Microsoft and Miami computer access programs for seniors, please visit:
http://www.microsoft.com/enable/aging
http://www.microsoft.com/industry/government/digitalinclusion.mspx
http://www.elevatemiami.com
New technology packages from Microsoft, tailored to seniors, complement training at neighborhood senior centers in Miami.
October 29, 2007: 12:00 PM EST
MIAMI, Oct. 29 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Microsoft Corp. and the City of Miami -- both leaders in digital inclusion -- today announced eSeniors, a public-private partnership that will provide free computer training and the opportunity to purchase customized technology packages to Miami seniors at learning hubs located in neighborhood senior centers throughout the city.
(Logo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20000822/MSFTLOGO)
"eSeniors aims to provide Miami seniors with technology tools and training that can empower them to improve their quality of life, simplify many everyday tasks, access community and government services more easily, and participate fully in our increasingly digital society," said Miami Mayor Manny Diaz.
The eSeniors program is part of ELEVATE Miami, a broad initiative designed to enable all Miami residents to participate and compete in the digital economy. For eSeniors, the City of Miami is providing free training and computer access at senior centers, using recycled computers equipped with the Windows XP operating system, the Microsoft Office system and Microsoft Encarta. In June 2007, Mayor Diaz received the prestigious City Livability Award from the U.S. Conference of Mayors in recognition of ELEVATE Miami's comprehensive and innovative approach to the reduction of poverty, which includes digital inclusion as one of its four cornerstones.
"As personal computers and the Internet become increasingly important in our society, many seniors are being left out, not because of too little interest but because of too little access and too few opportunities to learn the necessary skills," said Rob Sinclair, director of the Accessibility Business Unit at Microsoft. "Miami is providing a model for other cities to follow by making it easy for seniors to get the tools and training they need to gain full membership in today's digital lifestyle."
New Senior PC Technology Packages Available Online
As part of the eSeniors initiative, Microsoft is releasing several technology packages tailored to the needs and interests of seniors. The new technology packages are available to seniors who want to purchase a computer of their own, or to adult children who may want to buy a computer for their parents.
People can choose either a desktop or notebook HP computer running Windows Vista and Microsoft productivity software geared toward seniors. In addition, the senior PC packages come with a color printer and software applications designed to help seniors manage their household tasks, keep track of their prescriptions, and sharpen memory with games. Seniors can also choose a larger keyboard or trackball mouse for easier typing and mouse pointing. One package, available only in a desktop model, includes the Spanish-language version of Windows Vista.
All the technology packages can be purchased online at http://www.microsoft.com/enable/aging/seniorpc.aspx. To make the technology packages more affordable, any Miami senior who completes the city's training program will receive a voucher to help offset the cost of purchasing a computer for his or her home.
Microsoft and City of Miami Partnership Empowers Seniors
For Microsoft and Miami, the new eSeniors program is an extension of longstanding commitments to digital inclusion and service to seniors, and their shared belief that technology can serve as an equalizer for people of all ages, removing workplace barriers and increasing employment opportunities while reducing social isolation.
"Gaining new technology skills and access to accessible technology will give many seniors a wider range of social and economic opportunities, enabling them to change careers, work part-time, stay employed longer, and expand their ability to contribute to their communities through volunteering," said Lori Parham, Florida state director for AARP. "By bringing seniors into the digital age, Microsoft and Miami are empowering them with more choices about how they live their lives."
In addition to being part of ELEVATE Miami, eSeniors is an extension of the successful eParks program that began in 2004 and now offers technology training and computer access to children, their parents and other Miami residents at 27 city parks. To reach seniors more effectively, the city decided to set up similar learning hubs in senior centers, starting with two centers to establish the model, and expanding to 10 senior centers by early 2008.
"Mayor Diaz and the Miami city commissioners have shown tremendous vision in reaching beyond traditional strategies to find creative ways to help the people of Miami participate in the digital age," Sinclair said. "Microsoft is proud to partner with the City of Miami on providing seniors with new opportunities, and we look forward to working on similar initiatives with other U.S. cities."
City of Miami
Elevate Miami is a program that prepares all residents of Miami for a leadership position in the global economy, creating unparalleled areas of opportunity by establishing public and private partnerships which facilitate access to affordable technology, including mobile and low-cost internet access, and therefore enhancing the quality of life for all Miamians. ELEVATE MIAMI seeks to reach this goal through a multi-faceted approach that incorporates the following: eParks -- equips 27 City of Miami parks with 264 computers and offers open lab hours available to all residents; eSenior Centers -- equips senior centers with computers and offers computer literacy training to the elderly (currently available in 2 senior centers with 142 seniors attending training); Education Compact -- creates a Curriculum for all sixth graders which integrates technology and life experiences. If students meet the expectations of the program, they will earn a computer.
About Unlimited Potential
Microsoft Unlimited Potential expands and accelerates Microsoft's commitment to facilitate sustained social and economic opportunity for the more than 5 billion people living in every country around the world who do not today benefit from technology. More information about Unlimited Potential is available at http://www.microsoft.com/unlimitedpotential.
About Microsoft
Founded in 1975, Microsoft is the worldwide leader in software, services and solutions that help people and businesses realize their full potential.
For more information about Microsoft and Miami computer access programs for seniors, please visit:
http://www.microsoft.com/enable/aging
http://www.microsoft.com/industry/government/digitalinclusion.mspx
http://www.elevatemiami.com
Baby boomers face their biggest challenge
Baby boomers face their biggest challenge
By MARY SANCHEZ
The panic strikes during the most mundane parts of my daily routine.
Dial mother’s house, the same number she has had for more than 40 years. And the phone rings ... and rings and rings. Has she fallen?
On the weekly grocery store trip, I feel the adrenaline for the 30 seconds I leave her alone at the curb so she doesn’t have to walk the uneven pavement of the parking lot. I rush to pull the car around — quickly, before some creep spies her as an easy target for a purse snatching.
Both of my parents reached this stage of life, when children are still children but become guardians for the simple reason that we can walk fast, turn quickly and lift the things that need to be lifted.
Father is gone five years now. Mother is bravely carrying on as her mobility wanes. “Frail” is the first word that usually comes out when friends inquire about my mother. Thankfully, it is usually followed by “witty” and “pretty spry for 87 years old.”
I thought of my mother when I heard the news that the first baby boomer has applied for Social Security benefits. For almost 62 years Kathleen Casey-Kirschling has had the distinction of being the nation’s oldest baby boomer. Now she’s retiring to a home in Maryland with her husband, who is also turning 62 next year.
What brought mother to mind was the realization that we do not as a nation grasp what this demographic shift will mean. Not financially, not legislatively, not emotionally. The baby boom generation of 80 million will soon enough be edging toward death. Who will care for them, and how?
By next year, 365 more boomers will join Casey-Kirschling every hour, turning 62 and becoming eligible to tap into Social Security.
The commissioner of Social Security is fond of referring to this new turn for the boomers as “America’s silver tsunami.” Tsunami, of course, never portends to anything positive.
In 10 more years, the pool of funds that is Social Security will be upended — meaning that more will be going out than will be coming in.
Medicare currently covers about 44 million people. By 2030, the number will be 79 million.
Technically, I’m a baby boomer as well, but barely. I arrived at the end of the birthing boom that lasted from 1946 to 1964. And so I expect to feel the effects of how society shifts as my elder boomers continue to age.
Few people want to discuss, much less fully plan for, their own demise quite as honestly as baby boomers need to right now. We’d all like to think that we will “grow old gracefully,” be able to look back on a “purpose-driven life” and a bookshelf full of other soothing clichés about aging.
Yet how many realize what the end is really like these days? We lurch toward death, suffering a fall, a stroke, a heart attack — and then recover. But often not to the same level of health as before, until the next medical incident and a little more physical strength is sapped. Dying really is a process.
It’s an expensive process as well, but the costs are not as apparent as they should be. According to AARP, 34 million people, usually women, provide an average 21 hours of uncompensated care a week to an elderly relative — a lot of them while still trying to work full-time. This has had an effect on productivity in the workplace and family finances.
Equally concerning is the fact that the average caregiver is a 46-year-old working woman. Often she will find it necessary to cut back on her own work to care for a relative, eroding her wages, benefits and the money she can offer her family. The danger is that, over the long term, people in this situation limit their ability to save for their own retirements.
With the vast demographic shift upon us, will this burden be too much to bear?
Baby boomers like to tout the impact they’ve had on every aspect of life — how they have changed the nation, often for the better, by ushering in new forms of equality, reforming education and even revolutionizing attitudes about aging (“40 is the new 30!”).
Soon the boomers will face their own mortality. Like my mother, everyone who reaches their “golden years” deserves to live them in dignity. But for that to happen, boomers need to begin seriously considering how they will live out their last years and, yes, how they will die.
It will be their greatest challenge yet.
By MARY SANCHEZ
The panic strikes during the most mundane parts of my daily routine.
Dial mother’s house, the same number she has had for more than 40 years. And the phone rings ... and rings and rings. Has she fallen?
On the weekly grocery store trip, I feel the adrenaline for the 30 seconds I leave her alone at the curb so she doesn’t have to walk the uneven pavement of the parking lot. I rush to pull the car around — quickly, before some creep spies her as an easy target for a purse snatching.
Both of my parents reached this stage of life, when children are still children but become guardians for the simple reason that we can walk fast, turn quickly and lift the things that need to be lifted.
Father is gone five years now. Mother is bravely carrying on as her mobility wanes. “Frail” is the first word that usually comes out when friends inquire about my mother. Thankfully, it is usually followed by “witty” and “pretty spry for 87 years old.”
I thought of my mother when I heard the news that the first baby boomer has applied for Social Security benefits. For almost 62 years Kathleen Casey-Kirschling has had the distinction of being the nation’s oldest baby boomer. Now she’s retiring to a home in Maryland with her husband, who is also turning 62 next year.
What brought mother to mind was the realization that we do not as a nation grasp what this demographic shift will mean. Not financially, not legislatively, not emotionally. The baby boom generation of 80 million will soon enough be edging toward death. Who will care for them, and how?
By next year, 365 more boomers will join Casey-Kirschling every hour, turning 62 and becoming eligible to tap into Social Security.
The commissioner of Social Security is fond of referring to this new turn for the boomers as “America’s silver tsunami.” Tsunami, of course, never portends to anything positive.
In 10 more years, the pool of funds that is Social Security will be upended — meaning that more will be going out than will be coming in.
Medicare currently covers about 44 million people. By 2030, the number will be 79 million.
Technically, I’m a baby boomer as well, but barely. I arrived at the end of the birthing boom that lasted from 1946 to 1964. And so I expect to feel the effects of how society shifts as my elder boomers continue to age.
Few people want to discuss, much less fully plan for, their own demise quite as honestly as baby boomers need to right now. We’d all like to think that we will “grow old gracefully,” be able to look back on a “purpose-driven life” and a bookshelf full of other soothing clichés about aging.
Yet how many realize what the end is really like these days? We lurch toward death, suffering a fall, a stroke, a heart attack — and then recover. But often not to the same level of health as before, until the next medical incident and a little more physical strength is sapped. Dying really is a process.
It’s an expensive process as well, but the costs are not as apparent as they should be. According to AARP, 34 million people, usually women, provide an average 21 hours of uncompensated care a week to an elderly relative — a lot of them while still trying to work full-time. This has had an effect on productivity in the workplace and family finances.
Equally concerning is the fact that the average caregiver is a 46-year-old working woman. Often she will find it necessary to cut back on her own work to care for a relative, eroding her wages, benefits and the money she can offer her family. The danger is that, over the long term, people in this situation limit their ability to save for their own retirements.
With the vast demographic shift upon us, will this burden be too much to bear?
Baby boomers like to tout the impact they’ve had on every aspect of life — how they have changed the nation, often for the better, by ushering in new forms of equality, reforming education and even revolutionizing attitudes about aging (“40 is the new 30!”).
Soon the boomers will face their own mortality. Like my mother, everyone who reaches their “golden years” deserves to live them in dignity. But for that to happen, boomers need to begin seriously considering how they will live out their last years and, yes, how they will die.
It will be their greatest challenge yet.
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