This is not a minor segment of the population that can be contained to small, air conditioned condos and townhouses with golf course views in states like Florida or Arizona. These are not the folks you see by the shore who amble along on their oversized three-wheel bikes with the big baskets.  They are not the kindly folks who show up for the early bird dinners at the Red Lobster – a division of Darden Restaurants (DRI) - and leave with a few pieces of silverware to add to the mismatched collections they will wrap up as holiday gifts for their friends and relatives. 

These Baby Boomers are a force to be reckoned with, and we are all going to feel the pressure of living in a country dominated by out-of-control former hippies, motorcycle gang members, and insurance actuary thugs.

Former Insurance Actuary now living
off checks from his kids in Bali

Save money on sleep aids – Read
this book

There are approximately seventy-eight million Baby Boomers running free out there on the streets in their tricked out Winnebagos (WGO). They are usually defined as individuals born between 1943 and 1963. What exactly happened back during that magical twenty-year period to cause all these kids to appear?  Well, following World War II, the population grew at record levels. There must have been something in the water. But I suspect that it could have had something to do with those tunes Frank Sinatra made famous during this period. 

If you assume the United States population is around three-hundred million, that means about 26% of the people in this country are defined as Baby Boomers. Hold on; it gets scarier. Of course, that means we will look at the dollars and cents controlled by this huge and hopefully not-so-greedy group of people. 


That 26% of the population alone is pretty significant; but if you subtract out say the 25% of people who are below the age of 18 and the 13% that are over 65, assuming these people are not in their prime wage-earning and asset-accumulation years, you get around 186 million total current wage earners. That means these Baby Boomers could account for as much as 42% or more of high income/high asset holders. 

In a good horror movie there is always that glimpse of impending doom before the real danger takes its full form and starts trampling the Empire State Building – managed by CB Richard Ellis (CBG), or Sears (SHLD) Towers. Something like the guy with a hockey mask peeking out of an upstairs window of the day care center or when someone’s fluffy poodle goes missing down by the swamp.

That horror movie foreshadowing is actually happening right now all around us.

Take a look at the magazines on the newsstand and you will see a glimpse of things to come. Who is shooting us toothy smiles from those glossy covers?  Notice who is touring the Mercedes Benz or Cadillac – a division of General Motors (GM) - dealerships shopping for cars, while younger people make do with their aging, rusted Toyotas (TM) and Fords (F).  And the next time you are on an American (AMR), Delta (DAL), or United (UAUA) flight, wander into the first-class section and see who is filling those seats.

Newly retired Baby Boomers who counted on Social Security for all their retirement expenses

The new AARP uniform

All of a sudden AARP, the kindly American Association of Retired People, with its policy to let people join who are as young as 50 and are not actually retired, is up to a membership size of 40 million warm bodies. That would be like the National Rifle Association letting members join who were not gun-crazy rednecks.

If AARP was a state, it would have the largest population of all the states. Yes, even more people than California.  In fact, more people belong to AARP than the combined population of twenty-three of the United States put together. Someday soon there could be three political parties: Democratic, Republican, and AARPicanatic.  While those first two are shrinking in constituents, that third one is growing every day, whether they know it or not.

So if you are not in this Baby Boomer group, just remember who the “me” generation really was. Expect to be on the wrong end of lots of changes in the coming years.  Laws like: once kids leave the house for college or to see a movie, it is illegal for them to return home; or how children will be required to send money to their Baby Boomer parents so they can live comfortably on the island of Bali; and the best one of all is Baby Boomers will be exempt from paying any income taxes.