Lowering the boom on the baby boomers

Philadelphia Inquirer, The, April, 2007 by Karen Heller Inquirer Columnist

Appearances to the contrary, Americans have less mobility, economically and physically, plus more stress, worse health, and way too many Doritos.

Everything we thought was good is actually going quite poorly for us.

In Christopher Buckley's latest satire, Boomsday , the aptly named blogger Cassandra Devine, 30, suggests that members of the baby boom, upon reaching retirement age, generously off themselves to resuscitate the moribund Social Security system.

It's suicide as a form of payback, and government paycheck, for Generations X,Y, and W (for Whatever) who love the boomers so.

Of course, Buckley's book is fiction, foremost in the assumption that the baby boomers will ever retire.

It's quite possible that AARP, as an acronym, will become a cruel joke. All those granny farms, ringing the exurbs like so many elastic-waist pants, will have significant vacancies while many middle agers, enjoying the blessings ...