Boom goes the generation
In 2011, America’s postwar babies begin a rite of passage into retirement. The party has just begun.
LaVon Klauer reads to children at the day care in her Asbury, Iowa, home. Klauer is among the wave of baby boomers who turn 65 this year.
When LaVon Hirsch Klauer, of Asbury, Iowa, was born in 1946, echoes of World War II could still be heard reverberating around Europe. Less than a year earlier, Adolf Hitler still walked the earth, and the Nuremberg Trials were steaming ahead earnestly, the world looking for clues on how we should feel about the Nazis. American soldiers by the thousands were arriving back home, soldiers trying to forget the war they’d just experienced, soldiers who wanted to start families and move on with their lives. And so it was that the first so-called “baby boomers” were born in homes and hospitals around the U.S.
Baby boomers in the U.S. will be turning 65 every day for the next 19 years, at an approximate rate of 10,000 per day. Estimates are that there are around 78 million baby boomers and, according to the Pew Research Center, 13 percent of Americans are older than 65 right now, and that more than 18 percent of the population will be older than 65 by the year 2030.
Here they come
Here is a by-the-numbers look at America’s aging baby boomers:
- 78.2 million Americans born between 1946 and 1964, the so-called “baby boomers.”
- 21 million The projected number of disabled older adults in 2040, more than double the amount from a decade ago.
- 9.1 million Estimated number of baby boomers who are black.
- 14,797 Per person health-care spending (in dollars) for adults age 65 and older. By comparison, spending per child is only $2,650.
- 10,000 Approximate number of baby boomers who will reach the age of 65 daily for the next 19 years.
- 1957 The biggest year of the baby boom, when 4.3 million were born.
- 200% Percent increase in Americans age 65 and older from 1900 to 2008. (4.1 to 12.8 percent).
- 77.4% Percentage of adults age 65 and older who have completed high school. Only 28 percent of this age group had completed high school in 1970.
- 55% Percentage of the U.S. population of working age (20 to 64) in 2030. The percentage was 60 percent in 2010.
- 40% Percent who have the health and financial security they expected.
- Sources: AARP, the Urban Institute, U.S. Census Bureau, U.S. Administration on Aging, the National Center on Health Statistics
This year Klauer will be among the first boomers turning 65, an age once considered the age at which one tosses a line into a slow-moving stream, breaks out a deck of cards, plays a few hands and fades into the sunset. Some of that is still happening, but it’s happening to a soundtrack no one anticipated, one that includes the Beatles, Rolling Stones and the Doobie Brothers.
“I’m turning 65 this year, and I’m proud of it,” Klauer says enthusiastically, like she had just won some sort of age-related lottery. “I can’t wait to get Medicare!”
And more often than not boomers are still working, though perhaps not in the jobs they held for decades, but still working the 9-to-5 hustle.
A 1964 graduate of Dubuque Senior High School, Klauer attended the old Dubuque Academy of Beauty and, unlike the song from the musical “Grease” she was not a beauty school dropout. In fact she was so good she became an instructor at the school.
Klauer continues to work and has been in child care for the past 37 years. Sitting on a couch surrounded by children, and over the sound of “A Crazy Little Thing Called Love” emanating from a miniature plastic guitar, Klauer remains enthusiastic about her life and the little people who inhabit her comfortable home every day.
“I love the children,” she says, laughing heartily. “They keep me young.”
Sitting pretzel-like in a chair next to a collection of Willow Tree figurines, 4-year-old Ava Sauser turns the pages of a book, identifying kinds of animals out loud. The rest, 4-year-old Wyatt Simons, 3-year-old Nick Hingtgen, 3-year-old Becca Bergfeld and 1-year-old Addison Hingtgen, gather around a Lego table, because Addison wants to “make a castle!”
In early December 2010, the Pew Center undertook a “satisfaction” survey, something Mick Jagger claimed over and over again he couldn’t get back in 1965. These days it seems that most boomers, a full 80 percent, say they are dissatisfied with the way things are going in the country today. And while they may not be optimistic about the country they feel pretty good about themselves. While half the population claims to feel younger than their actual age, 61 percent of boomers feel younger.
Klauer is not at all dissatisfied with how her life has turned out, but she says it could have been better.
“The first 20 years of my married life were wonderful,” she said, becoming quieter as she spoke. “My husband died at age 45 of cancer. I had four kids at the time. The youngest was 7. The oldest was 17. So I had four kids to raise, by myself. It’s not the way I wanted my life to turn out, but we’re fine. It was rough but we all made it. My kids are wonderful and, as I said, I’m happy to be 65.”
The study also indicated that boomers are more liberal than those older than 65 and more conservative than those younger than 46.
And if every person turning 65 decides to sign up for Medicare, there will almost certainly be a strain on the health profession. It is estimated that boomers will consume many more health services than their parents.
Klauer is an ardent supporter of Medicare, and anything that can help those who cannot help themselves, however she is not entirely happy with the road the U.S. has chosen to take.
“I think the country could do a little better. I do vote, and I do know that these days I would never want to be a politician, because you can’t please everybody, and while the U.S. is a great help to a lot of countries, I’d like to see us concentrate more on helping people in our own country,” she said. Belying the notion that baby boomers are self-absorbed and narcissistic, Klauer is self-aware and altruistic.
“I’d like it if everybody in this country could lead a nice life,” she said, sighing, knowing that even the government cannot begin to accomplish such a thing.
Klauer makes no pretense about being emblematic of her generation, at least not the social activists who wanted to change the world. She is circumspect.
“I think just being the person I am has helped. I took care of my parents as they got older, and I love taking care of kids. I care for people.”
And little LaVon Hirsch, born in 1946? Is that small girl still out there, still hopeful, still anticipating a glorious tomorrow? Absolutely. Her inner child is never far away. One can sense it in her infectious laugh, a thing with a life of its own, the sort of laugh that grabs others by the collar and demands they join in.
She doesn’t spend her days analyzing the personality of her generation, wondering where things went awry, taking credit for the things that worked out. She happily leaves that to others: historians, philosophers, pundits, a few poets with too much time on their hands maybe.
Hers is a more pragmatic, no-nonsense approach. She still has a full life to lead. Remember, she’s the one turning 65 and proud of it. And besides, there are small children in her child care, the 65-year-olds of tomorrow.
