Aging Baby Boomers Get Brunt of Recession Effects?

I know it seems odd to say that one group may be devastated more than another in this temperamental economic climate where millions are out of work and looking for something, anything to pay the bills, or at least to pay half the bills in some cases. But it actually may be affecting one group the worst, the aging baby boomers, for several reasons that they have working against them. It’s a scary time right now for everyone, but particularly so for aging baby boomers who just can’t seem to find work.

Many of the baby boomer age, age 50-65 roughly, had great jobs when the financial crisis hit, and they have not been able to find jobs since then because a lot of companies, even though they say they don’t practice ageism, do. They see an older woman or man, and they just shut off. I had this happen to someone close to me recently who’s been looking for work for months, and although he was qualified probably more than anyone else who interviewed, he said he felt the interviewer “shut down” as soon as she saw him for the interview because he is over fifty and a man.

They also have another thing working against them. Many are facing no health insurance, and are at an age where they really need it and things start going wrong. Not to mention the immense stress that being out of work places on you, this incurs even more health problems often times and results in heart attacks and strokes from the increase in stress levels and subsequently blood pressure.

Baby boomers are also facing another daunting challenge in this hardest economic crisis in decades. Many of them lost a large chunk of their hard earned and invested nest eggs that has taken them decades to build in the loss of capital people experiences with the recession when the markets tumbled.

Not only that, but because they are having to go sometimes almost two years without finding a job, they are also having to use up their life savings, making the prospect of ever retiring a dim one. Sounds pretty hopeless I know, but it’s an unfortunate reality for many, and it needs to end if we are to ever have a great country that we once did. It’s time for our government to wake up and start giving people major incentives to spur the economy, more tax breaks, and maybe even incentives to buy american, which I think is a great idea.