They are used to keeping their homes, managing their money and tending to emergencies by themselves. Virtually all baby-boom women have worked outside the home for at least part of their lives, and many will have their own pension incomes. Americans are notorious for addressing problems only when they become national crises. Even in the next decade, we will see policy discussion that will set the stage for those dramatic events. The ideas that will become a part of the national debate in 2010 are forming today.
Businesses can also help to defuse the demographic imperative.
Private firms that produce and distribute services and goods to enhance independence longer into old age will find growing markets and the competition they generate will make these products available at a decreasing cost. This will primarily benefit the smaller generation following the boomers. And because the baby boom came later in many Third World countries than in the U.S., overseas markets will provide expanded opportunities for assistive devices long after the American baby-boom generation is gone. Those who wring their hands in despair for the calamity that will eventually befall the baby boom in old age should relax a bit. Despite their competitive struggle for education, jobs and housing, boomers have always had political clout.